How is it December already? The year is not quite over yet, but I’ve already been taking stock of the year—and reading year—gone by, thinking about what worked, what didn’t, and what I want for 2026.
Every year, going back more than a decade now, I gather my “favorite” books at year’s end. My favorites aren’t necessarily the “best” books I read, by something akin to critical standards, but those that delivered a memorable, enjoyable reading experience—for me, personally, subjectively. I want to be up front about my biases here: I appreciate craft, I like discussion starters, I’m intrigued when an author can pull off something unique, and I’m especially drawn to books with emotional resonance. I’m also inclined to value a book that meets the moment in a personal way: when I read the right book at the right time, it’s likely to end up here. On the flip side, I read many very good books this year that might have deserved a place on a “best of” list, but not on my list of personal favorites.
I was surprised to see that most of my favorite print books are new for 2025, as this isn’t representative of my 2025 reading life as a whole: I read a ton of backlist this year! If you’re a fan of older books, you may be relieved to hear that many of my favorite audiobooks are older releases.
I’ll publish those favorite audiobooks of 2025 in the coming days. (UPDATE: favorite 2025 audiobooks are right here!) As in years past, the only thing differentiating today’s list of favorite print books from the coming list of audiobooks is the format; there’s no hierarchy between the two lists. (Is sharing two separate lists a sneaky way of squeezing in more favorites? Definitely YES!)
And, just like in recent years, I get to share more favorites in our upcoming Team’s Best Books of the Year event for MMD Book Clubbers and WSIRN patreon members on January 8, and we’ll start the new year over on What Should I Read Next? with our Anne’s Best Books of 2025 episode on January 6. I enjoy talking favorites on audio because I get to share a longer list with more nuance, and I get an extra few weeks—2025 isn’t over yet!
I hope you enjoy perusing my roundup, and I would love to hear your favorite books of the year in the comments section.
Favorite books of 2025
All books featured here were chosen because I loooove them. If you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. More info here.
Audition
It seems readers either love or hate this open-ended story; I loved it, though it's more cerebral than most of the books that make my favorites list year in and year out. In this carefully constructed and compulsively readable experience, Kitamura presents two competing narratives, both from the first person perspective of a talented aging actress who fears her best days are behind her. Then mid-novel, something shifts—along with everything the reader thought they understood about the characters’ relationships. This isn't for everyone, but as someone who's into family dramas, voice-y narratives, and quietly tense novels, I thought this experimental outing was a nerdy good time. More info →
Run for the Hills
Wilson deftly combines the heavy and the light in this found family story of four scattered half-siblings who meet for the first time and then pile into an old PT Cruiser to go find the father who abandoned them long ago. Wilson’s stories often feel larger than life, yet the emotional heart feels real and relatable. Quirky, warm, and bighearted, with a multigenerational cast and road trip hijinks galore. I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s no spoiler to say I found this coast-to-coast adventure and 2025 MMD Minimalist Summer Reading Guide pick. to be an utter delight. Since I read it in print first, I elected to share it here instead of with my companion favorite audiobooks post, but I also thoroughly enjoyed this on audio as read by Marin Ireland. More info →
These Heathens
My first Mia McKenzie read was so distinctive and fun! Small-town teenager Doris was Mrs. Lucas’s star student before family demands compelled her to drop out. When she finds herself in the family way, she persuades Mrs. Lucas to take her to Atlanta for an abortion, where the two mingle with celebrities she’s seen in Ebony, civil rights leaders like Coretta Scott King, and Mrs. Lucas’s queer Black friends. Their behavior is shocking—her mama certainly wouldn’t approve—except they treat Doris with marked kindness and seem to have good hearts and common sense. Cheering Doris on through her life-changing weekend was one of my favorite reading experiences this year. This was a 2025 Minimalist Summer Reading Guide pick. More info →
The Bright Years
This debut portraying love and redemption over four generations of a Texas family captured me from the opening scene, when twenty-something Lillian is reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in the library and is interrupted by Ryan, the man who becomes the love of her life. They are perfect for one another. But Lillian soon learns that the more you love someone, the more they can break your heart. Her new husband desperately wants them to have a baby, not knowing she already has a son. And she knows Ryan is a child of addiction, but never dreams he will soon be swallowed by it himself. Devastating and beautiful: get your Kleenex ready. More info →
How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir
Political writer Jong-Fast calls this deeply personal memoir “the story of the worst year of my life.” As she recounts, it was never easy being bestselling writer Erica Jong’s daughter. But in her 40s, Jong-Fast hit a terrible trifecta: her mother was diagnosed with dementia, her stepfather with Parkinson’s, and her husband with pancreatic cancer. As she sees her mother slipping away, Jong-Fast is compelled to make sense of their relationship, which has always been difficult: her mother was alcoholic, narcissistic, and utterly unavailable to her daughter. This is sad, yes, yet I was transfixed by Jong-Fast’s persistence in grappling with her dysfunctional family dynamics and their ongoing impacts. The through line of fame and its dangers was also fascinating—I've found myself talking about this book and the issues it raised frequently since I read it. More info →
Heft
I picked up this 2012 release because I've come to love Liz Moore's work and am toying with the idea of becoming a completist. It's been on my TBR list for many years, yet the uncomfortable descriptions of one protagonist's fatness almost led me to put down the book in the opening pages. (I appreciated this interview with Moore, in which she puts words to her own discomfort at how these descriptions were written, and what she would do differently were she to write this book today.) I'm glad I stuck with it, because I was quickly swept up in the story of three lonely and struggling characters who seem to have nothing in common, but who are brought together by fate and circumstance to maybe, hopefully become a family to one another. The title of the book refers to many things: addiction, compulsive behaviors, the burdens we carry, and the near-impossible weight of the burdens placed on us by our parents. But who might help us deal with these hardships, and carry these burdens? That is the question Heft seeks to answer. More info →
The Lack of Light: A Novel of Georgia
In this sweeping platonic love story from the author of The Eighth Life (one of my 2021 favorite reads), four female friends first meet as grade schoolers in a Tblisi apartment courtyard in the late 1980s. In alternating timelines, we see how these women’s lives tangle with and are impacted by their home city and its political upheaval, invasions and civil war, and violence of organized crime over the course of twenty years. This was a hard read—both challenging to me as a reader and utterly heartbreaking—but my time on this 736-page Georgian novel was well spent. Translated from the original German by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin. More info →
Cover Story
I inhaled this enemies-to-lovers workplace romance just out in October in the U.S.; it managed to be emotionally aware without feeling so very therapy-heavy as have so many books I've read lately. Bel and Connor work together in a Manchester newsroom. She’s an investigative journalist and podcaster; he’s the intern who quit his fancy finance job in the City and is now in search of work that might be of actual value to the world, unlike his old gig. Bel's been given a tip on a huge story, but the stakes are sky high. She needs ironclad proof before she can run anything ... and in her attempts to go undercover to get the evidence she needs, she gets herself into a jam and spontaneously involves Connor in her scheme—as her fake boyfriend. Whether they're alone or pretending to be involved in public, these two are super cute together and so funny. I loved spending time with them on the page, even as they navigated their tricky investigation and their respective terrible—and, for Bel, downright dangerous) exes. I loved the Manchester setting and my one regret was that I couldn't listen to the audiobook—I had such curiosity about the accents and wish I could have heard them performed. Maybe on a re-read? (Open door.) More info →
The Everlasting
I was emotionally hooked on this story even before the opening line, thanks to the perfect epigraph from a Rilke poem. This is the unlikely love story of two people who never should have met. Una Everlasting was a medieval lady knight, legendary warrior, and patron saint of the nation of Dominion. Owen Mallory is a tweedy scholar obsessed with Una’s legend. But then Dominion’s new chancellor sends Owen back in time to meet Una and write her definitive tale, so that the story may inspire the beleaguered nation. When he first meets her, he’s in awe and can barely believe she’s real. But then he falls in love with her—with disastrous consequences for them both. I don’t want to say too much—but I was completely entranced by this emotional, epic, and achingly intimate love story that unfolds across time and whose outcome will determine the fate of a nation. I’ve loved Harrow’s work in the past, but this is my new favorite by a mile. This is the place where I get to share my favorites, but I have to say—if you loved The Frozen River and are on the hunt for something with a similar feel, take a close look at this one: SFF may be the last place you'd think to look but for me it hit those history, mystery, and especially married-love-story notes. More info →
Mercy
“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” A daughter’s late-night question to her father sets this story in motion, and quickly takes us back to the gritty East Side of 1970s NYC and the night Eddie would regret for the rest of his life. The implications of that night ripple through the rest of the novel, which unfolds as a series of interconnected short stories laden with themes of abandonment, betrayal, and mercy. In rotating points of view, Silber takes us into the minds of a half dozen people directly or tangentially connected to Eddie’s biggest regret, exploring how both our decisions and pure coincidence entwine our fates with others. I inhaled this in an afternoon; it was one of several titles I read on a very enjoyable Silber kick this summer. More info →
Crooks
This crime novel was outside my usual wheelhouse and I'm glad I took a chance on it! If you’re a Mercurio, crime is in your blood. In 1961, patriarch Ray and matriarch Lillian fell in love in Vegas—at the scene of a crime. They marry and have five children who they bring up in the family business. Across fifty years, in Oklahoma City, Vegas, Hollywood, and even Moscow, we see how each child is shaped by their criminal upbringing and then comes to struggle against it. Don’t get me wrong: this noir-ish literary suspense is plenty gruesome in parts—but it reads as unexpectedly lighthearted and tender, with ample moments of welcome humor, and I was surprised by how hard I was rooting for these characters by the end. More info →
Heart the Lover
This late September 2025 release is both follow-up and prequel to King's 2020 novel Writers and Lovers: here we see Casey, during her college years, first discovering she wants to be a writer, and then again many years after the events of Writers and Lovers, so we can see where life has taken her. The first line in this first-person narrative is, "You knew I'd write a book about you someday;" the "you" is her first love. The tone is reflective and compassionate as Casey—having received jolting news that sends her mind barreling back to events from decades before—reflects on old friendships and a formative romantic relationship, past decisions that altered the course of her life, and the potential to both give and receive forgiveness. This felt wistful and wise as Casey examines the issues that matter most to her, and incidentally, to me—partnership, parenting, calling. Bonus: so many books are referenced in these pages; I loved that it inspired me to read so much under-the-radar literature. More info →
What were your favorite books of 2025?
P.S. Grab yourself a copy of the My Reading Life book journal to track your favorite books in the year to come. Plus my favorite books of 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016.
100 comments
Oh Heft was so good. And you may have me convinced to read the everlasting. My best books : olive kitteredge, heartwood by amity Gaige, Long Island by colm Toibin, Stone Yard Devotional, and the wedding people and the other side of now for lighter but fun stuff. Not for the faint of heart (at all) but brilliant writing and I won’t forget it : rejection by Tony Thulathimutte (many CW)
I really liked Heartwood and just picked up Stone Yard Devotional yesterday!
Heartwood – sooo good. Also loved The Correspondent
I just finished Stone Yard Devotional on audio (after reading about it in MMD comments). Sounds like you had a wonderful reading year.
I had a hard year for favorites this year!!! Thankful I had a few! I loved Heartwood so much too!!! I am usually not one for “thriller” type books, but this was so perfect! Just enough suspense and angst! I also really enjoyed, James, by Percival Everett; The Art Thief by Michael Finkel; The Correspondent; The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison! Hoping to have more Best Ofs in 2026!
The audio version of Cover Story was so good!!! Perfect match.
I’m not a bit surprised, but nevertheless delighted to hear the audio was great!
I also read Heft after reading that Liz Moore Lit Hub interview, and it has also made my favorites list this year. I found it so lovely. Arthur Opp and Kel Kellerman are two characters I’ll never forget. (Also Junior Baby Love goes down as one of the most memorable character names ever.)
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Just finished The Correspondent. Brilliant! Told in epistolary form, both letters and emails.
Am recommending Kate and Frida, also letters between a Seattle bookstore employee and a reader in Paris. Obviously reminded me of 84 Charing Cross.
Both of the above talk about reading. Ah books! To reread and new discoveries.
I also enjoyed both of these so much!
I still have miles to go in my 2025 reading year, but wanted to mention a title that immediately came to mind because I see the e-Book is on sale at the moment. The title is These Summer Storms by Sarah McLean. It’s perfect for readers who enjoy stories about uber-wealthy behaving badly, estrangement and family drama. There’s also a delicious romance, witty banter and an atmospheric setting. Highly recommend!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Heart the Lover was definitely one of my favorites. I just read it in November, and I’m still feeling that happy glow after you finish a good book. I haven’t had a chance yet to look back and see what my other favorites were, but I’m reading The Hallmarked Man now, the latest Cormoran Srike. What a brilliant author she is!
Just thought of another recent favorite, Anita Shreve’s last book, The Stars Are Fire.
Ahh, I know that happy glow well! So glad you got to (and GET to) experience it!
Can Heart the Lover be read before Friends and Lovers? Or will it spoil things/be confusing?
A big component of Writers and Lovers is which man will Casey choose. If you read Heart the Lover first, you will know which man she chose.
Absolutely agree on Run for the Hills. It sent me on a quest to read other Kevin Wilson books and they did not disappoint – especially Nothing to See Here. My top book for the year, though, is probably Jess Walter’s So Far Gone. That one lingered long after the last page.
So Far Gone is definitely an honorable mention for me—I’m so glad you enjoyed it and that it stuck with you.
I loved Nothing to See Here too! Kevin Wilson does not disappoint!
As a fan of The Great British Bakeoff, I thoroughly enjoyed Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford. This dual timeline book had me gasping at her poor choices, and cheering her on through her many adventures.
So glad you enjoyed it!
* Becoming the Pastor’s Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s Path to Ministry
– Beth Allison Barr
* Awake: A Memoir
– Jen Hatmaker
* My Beloved: A Mitford Novel
– Jan Karon
* Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret
– Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor
My Beloved!!!! I had a lovely weekend with that one recently.
I am so glad I read your list. I had no idea there was a new Mitford novel out!
I have loved this series since the first book, and have them all (or thought I did). I am going to fix that in short order!
I think I’m the only one who wasn’t all that fond of Run for the Hills. It had its moments, but overall, just okay for me.
Titles I did really enjoy this year:
The Jackal’s Mistress
The Correspondent
Martyr!
How the Light Gets In
Sandwich
The Editor
The Ministry of Time
Atmosphere
A lot of these are books I read about on this blog, so thanks to Anne and other contributors for feeding my TBR!
It’s never just you! And thank you for sharing what DID work for you!
I agree about Run for the Hills. My favorite this year are:
Things that break us Lisa Felton’s
Heart the lover Lily King
The Elements by John Boyne
In an instant Suzanne Redfearn
Buckeye Patrick Ryan
The Last Assignment Erika Robuck
There are rivers in the sky Eli Shafak
*Theo of Golden Allen Levi
My Friends Fred Backman
These Precious days Ann Patchett
This is how it always is-Laurie Frankel
The Correspondent Virginia Evans
These Heathens- Mia McKenzie
River is waiting Wally Lamb
Last Days of Night Graham Moore
I WANT TO PRINT THIS LIST! Just the titles, but I can’t figure it out… I want to take with me to purchase them all!
Copy/paste just the titles into a document or save to notes app? Bring phone with you with this page bookmarked to refer to list? Write them down?
Screenshot the book covers and scroll through your photos at the bookstore. 😉
Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton. Gorgeous writing.
Hello, Anne
My favourite book of the year is
“The Cranes Fly South” by Liza Riszén. It is the story of old age , facing death and the loss of a dearest loved one. I was halfway through and then read the rest in two hours, lying in my bed. At the end, my tears trickled gently on to my pillow, it was so touching, gentle and loving.
Lucinda
The Cranes Fly South was so, so good! I cried too.
Same! If you’ve done any caregiving, it is so relatable! I think it would pair well with Being Mortal
I need to look into this one! I’m so glad it delivered a memorable reading experience.
Oh my gosh this was so real, achingly human and beautiful in its treatment of old age and death.
I have recommended this book to so many people!
Yes, When the Cranes Fly South was exceptional, one of my top 5.
I’m so happy to see The Everlasting on this list! It was my favorite book of the year. I felt like there was so much promotion for it before it was released and then nothing, which shocked me because of how amazing it is! In addition to the beautiful love story, there were so many great lines about the stories countries and people tell themselves and the lengths people will go to make sure the narrative suits them.
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
My top 10 (not in ranked order yet!) All 4 and 5 star reads for me this year!
Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
What Happened to the McCrays by Tracey Lange
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson
A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst
Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
A Woman of Independent Means by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majamdar
What a wonderful assortment!
Disappointed that you used the “stock” summary of Heart the Lover which reveals her name. A large part of the story is that we don’t know her actual given name until literally the last page of the book. Excellent, nostalgic read for me!
I don’t know what the stock summary says, but I do think how King plays with names and identity in these two related books is so interesting. (I believe her given name appears just a handful of times in W&L and not at all in HTL.) I’m glad you enjoyed this, and I’m curious about that “nostalgia” piece you mentioned.
Run for the Hills, How to Lose Your Mother, and These Heathens are on my list too. I really appreciated the structure of Mercy although it didn’t end up a favorite. I also loved Bug Hollow by Michelle Huneven (and her backlist title Search), Fun at Parties by Jamie Harrow, The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O’Neill, Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks, The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett, and Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy.
This feels like (yet another) nudge for me toward Memorial Days! Sounds like you had a great reading year.
Interestingly, a lot of my favourite books this year were nonfiction:
Fire Weather by John Vaillant
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
Valley of the Birdtail by Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson
Two novels, both older, stood out:
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
I love a good nonfiction-heavy list! Sounds like a wonderful reading year.
Thanks for the NF recommendations! I really enjoyed Everything is Tuberculosis on audio. I added both of your other favorites to my TBR!
My 2025 reading isn’t over yet, but my favorite fiction reads so far have been:
The Unseen World – by Liz Moore
Parable of the Sower – by Octavia Butler
The Cazalet Chronicles – by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Plainsong – by Kent Haruf
The Shell Seekers – by Rosamund Pilcher
The Most Fun We Ever Had – by Claire Lombardo
I also read The Unseen World this year and thought it was fabulous. Next year I need to read Heft and Long Bright River. Thank you Anne for putting Liz Moore on my radar. She’s been a fantastic edition to my bookshelves.
Plainsong ❤️
I loved Plainsong, too, and all the other books written by Kent Haruf.
My favorite reading experiences of 2025:
My current holiday reread of LITTLE WOMEN
A reread of THE GREAT GATSBY
A reread of A PLACE FOR US by Fatima Mirza
Elena Knows translated from the Spanish by Claudia Pinero
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
The Colony translated from the Swedish by Annika Norlin
Kitchen Hymns, poems by Padraig O’Tuama
Real Americans by Rachel Khong
The Strange Case of Jane O by Karen Thompson Walker
White Houses by Amy Bloom
We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly (children’s novel)
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Oh my gosh, A Place for Us is one of my all time favorite books! Thanks for the other suggestions.
On Tyranny! I believe everyone is this country should read that book.
I would love to see the list of authors for which you are a “completist”. Mine include Lisa Genova, Fredrik Bachman, Tana French and Jan Harper. I read about 100 books a year since I retired.
Marsha, we have a whole series coming along this line in 2026!
Marsha, I am inspired. I retired last January and only hit about 36 books. I’m hoping getting settled into a retirement routine helps me up my number!
Me too on the 100 books. I look forward to a new Tana French!
The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham absolutely held my interest for the entire 13+ hours. I had kind of stopped following Hilderbrand, but this seemed different enough from what I’ve been reading to give it a try. It’s set in a private boarding school but it didn’t read like YA to me. Thanks to the fall reading list for making me aware of this one.
PS
(Heart the Lover is on my shelf just mocking me until I pick it up. Maybe this weekend.)
Theo of Golden is a new “top10” of all time for me. It’s a lovely, quiet, uplifting book that I found at the perfect moment where a lovely, quiet, uplifting book what just what I needed.
“The Correspondent” was definitely a favorite, as was “The Caretaker” by Ron Rash, author of “Serena.” (I liked The Caretaker better.) Also thoroughly enjoyed a re-read of C.S. Lewis’s “Surprised by Joy.” I might have missed it, but has anyone here mentioned “Theo of Golden” by Allen Levy? Self published but just heard it was picked up by Simon and Schuster. My favorite last year and I can’t get it out of my mind.
Allen Levi, not Levy
My favorite reads this year were:
1. I See You Called in Dead by John Kenney
2. Agent for the Stars by John Scalzi
3. Buckeye by Patrick Ryan (also his short stories in The Dream Life of Astronauts)
4. Crooks by Lou Berney
I discovered a new favorite author, Susan Straight. Loved both her memoir, In A Country of Women, and her 2025 novel, Sacrament. Straight married into a family and community whose ancestors have been there over 1,000 years. Others came from Mexico and settled in the 1770s, before it became the state of California or part of the U.S. Some are people of color who migrated from New Orleans. Characters in her novels are inspired by her own story, with a strong sense of place. Other 2025 favorites:
The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen -nonfiction
Playground by Richard Powers – fiction
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid – fiction
Joyride by Susan Orlean – memoir
Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen DuVal – nonfiction
Where the Language Lives by Janet Yoder – nonfiction
To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage – fiction
Replaceable You by Mary Roach – nonfiction
Loved the Notebook!
Heart the Lover is one of my favorite books of the year as well. I wanted to immediately start it again when I finished. Alas, it was a Libby book so I did the right thing and returned it so others could enjoy it. Lily King is an extraordinary writer.
Other favorites this year are Wild Dark Shore and The Correspondent.
The Correspondent by Virginia Evens
Heart the Lover by Lily King
Pictures of You by Emma Grey
Joan is Okay by Weike Wang
What Comes Next and How to Like It, a memoir by Abigail Thomas
My Friends by Fredrik Backman, Babel by R.F. Kuang, The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall by Helena Merriman, Horse by Geraldine Brooks, The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer, Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton, The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore.
I loved Babel!!
My top books this year include Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, James by Percival Everett and The Postcard by Anne Berest.
Theo of Golden was my favorite book this year!
My favorites this year are The Correspondent, Cranes Fly South, Wild Dark Shore, Broken Country, Penitence, Culpability, Kingmaker, Life&Death&Giants, How to Read a Book, Slanting Into the Sea, Time of the Child, The Small and the Mighty. It’s been a good year
Oops how could i forget Heart the Lover. This was an especially emotional book for me.
Always hard to narrow down. I’m a heavy fantasy reader, but here are a few all over the place: Garlic and Sapphires (Reichl), Defy the Night Series (Kemmerer), The Eight (Neville), Jane Austen’s Bookshelf (Romney), Remarkably Bright Creatures (audio), The Correspondent (Evans), Remnant Chronicles (Pearson)
The first book I read in 2025 was How to Read a Book by Monica Wood. It was such a good book and I’ve been recommending it to everyone since then! It’s still one of my 2025 favorite.
That is such a good book!
I loved Life and Death and Giants by Ron Rindo, The Jackal’s Mistress by Chris Bohjalalian, So Far Gone by Jess Walter, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put by Annie B Jones, One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter and The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto by Elizabeth Hyman.
Two of my favourites this year were The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths and Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson. And can I recommend a Christmas book? I loved Happy Bloody Christmas by Jo Middleton. I laughed out loud!
Loved:
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi and Mrs Quinn’s Rise to Fame by Melanie Crawley
My favorite of the year was Mademoiselle Eiffel (Aimie Runyan). I read nearly 70 books this year and most were disappointing. As a side note, the amount of ads and pops on your blog posts is distracting to the point of a turn-off.
Kim, I’m surprised you’re getting a distracting number of them—we have our settings dialed down to far below the recommended number of ads our network would like us to be displaying. Ads are the tradeoff for a free site, because it is costly to maintain and we cannot maintain do so without that income, but my hope is that we can do so without meaningfully compromising the reading experience.
Thanks for addressing it – it seems to be the worst on mobile phone. A desktop is better.
I don’t have time right now to look back at the titles I’ve read this year, but I really want to comment. So, just off the top of my head, my favorites of 2025 are The Road to Tender Hearts (Annie Hartnett), Awake (Jen Hatmaker), Be Ready When the Luck Happens (Ina Garten), and Heartwood (Amity Gaige). I’ve had a good reading year!
I’ve had a wonderful reading year! The Bright Years is among my favorites, along with The Correspondent, Theo of Golden, The Ghostwriter, and Demon Copperhead, but I think my most enjoyable reading experience has been the audiobook series, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower. I’m currently on Volume 5, so have three more to finish the series. I have enjoyed these so much and have laughed and shed a few tears over Emma’s adventures and trials. I’m also currently reading The Everlasting, which is amazing. Happy Reading!
I loved the Correspondent, Theo of Golden, The Names, and Frozen River among others.
Loved The Correspondent by Virginia Evans! Sybil has revitalized my writing notes and letters by mail!
I love this! It’s sad that we rely on emails and texts so heavily these days that letters and notes are a rare thing.
I also loved The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, and so glad to see so many loved it as well, along with The Cranes Fly South, Broken Country, The Frozen People, The Tell by Amy Giffin, The Everlasting, yes, I finally enjoyed it, but from the mid to the last of the book I was more engaged with the plot. Just finished, Nobody’s Girl, by Virginia Giaffre, which is a hard read, but very relevant to our times, and just finished The Knight and The Moth, by Rachael Gillig, book 1, and I have HeartWood on my Hold.
Hey, my Favorite Book of 2025 was THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans, and I noticed by tallying up reader responses, that (at the time I counted) there were 33 lists sent in by readers, and 16 included The Correspondent! I think that has to top them all, for repeated mentions! And today when I looked, I see 3 more mentions! On the sad side, I was sorry to see today that the Goodreads Votes did not agree!
My other favorites this year, in no particular order are:
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
Defending Jacob by William Landay
One True Thing by Anna Quindlen
Brood by Jackie Polzin
Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
The Connollys of County Down by Tracey Lange
Heartwood by Amity Gage
and A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.
Colored Television – Danzy Senna
The Most Fun We Ever Had – Claire Lombardo
Tilt, Emma Pattee
the most recent Elizabeth Strout books
Maine Characters – Hannah Orenstein
Beartown – Fredrick Backman
One for the Blackbird and One for the Crow – Olivia Hawker
So Far Gone – Jess Walter
I also really got into Michael Connelly’s Bosch novels, and Ann Cleeves, British mystery writer.
So many good ideas!!!
My faves this year were:
Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young (I really like her and am likeley to become a completist)
Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten
A Sea of Unspoken Things by Adrienne Young
Famous Last Words by Jillian McAllister (total pageturner)
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (absolutely loved this book!)
How to write a book by Monica Wood
The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens (new author discovery for me. I read some more of his this year and enjoyed them but this one was my favorite)
Speak to me of Home by Jeanine Cummins
Atmostphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
From reading this list from eveyone, I am adding to my TBR, Theo of Golden, Heartwood and When the Cranes Fly South.
I agree about Run for the Hills. It was just OK to me. 🙂
I didn’t know there was a new Mary Roach book! Thank you! She is one of my NF favorites.
My favorite book for 2005 is “Theo of Golden” by Allen Levi. Honorable mentions, Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall, Where the Rivers Merge by Mary Alice Monroe, the Seven Sister Series by Lucinda Riley.
My favorite books this year:
Horror Movie, Paul Tremblay
The Quiet Tenant, Clemence Michallon
Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins
The Winter People, Jennifer McMahon
(I have since read everything by her!)
Shift, Hugh Howley
(it’s the second in a trilogy… I don’t think I’ve ever like the second book the best)
Play Nice, Rachel Harrison
The Unraveling of Julia, Lisa Scottoline
I’ve had a wonderful reading year! Favorites at least at this point:
I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon
The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young
The Frozen River, also Ariel Lawhon
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Broken Country by Claire Leslie Hall (read this in one day)
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
I’ve read a lot with eyes and ears this year. My two five- star faves: We Shall Not All Sleep (Tony Woodlief), the only novel I read twice– it was that good, and The Correspondent (Virginia Evans). Runners up: Heartwood (Amity Gaige), and In This House of Brede (Rumor Godden), which hit me so much harder this time around than it did when I first read it 30 years ago.
I was unfamiliar with Heft prior to this post, but it sounded intriguing and was available right away at my library. Oh, what a delightful and wonderful surprise! I just loved it and found the characters so memorable. I only wish there was a sequel to know what comes next! I liked God of the Woods, but I enjoyed Heft even more. Thank you!! Other recent winners for me include Wild, Dark Shore and Isola. 🌟
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