Reading looked different for me this year than it usually does. Since I wasn’t near my usual library for much of the year, physical books were harder to get. I wasn’t in New Orleans for most of the year, so I didn’t spend as much time with my book club as I have in the past couple of years, and I didn’t have a gym membership for half the year, which is a place where I usually do a ton of reading or listening to audiobooks. I wasn’t driving much this year either—another place where I’m typically listening to audiobooks. And I spent 4.5 months traveling, during most of which I read very little. This year I also wasn’t actively thinking about reading goals or trying to read more than I was. For most of the year, I just couldn’t be bothered.
As a result of all of this, I read significantly less this year than I typically do. But I made up for the quantity with quality. So many of the books I read this year were standouts.
I read 52 books this year. 40 were fiction, 10 were nonfiction, and a couple were books of poetry. 10 were Advanced Readers Copies I got early through NetGalley. Here were my favorites.
A quick disclaimer about this list:
The links I’m providing below are for Bookshop.org. This is a website I love because their mission is to support local bookstores. “But can’t I buy books cheaper on Amazon,” you ask? Quite possibly. But local bookstores support authors and publishers, so I want to support them. Because I’m an affiliate of Bookshop.org, I will earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you use my links to make a purchase. But of course, you can buy them anywhere, including in person at your own local bookstore.
Special shoutout to the bookstores where I’ve spent the most time this year: Blue Cypress Books in New Orleans (where I’ve spent so much time that it feels like my home), Octavia Books in New Orleans (which finished an incredible expansion over the past couple of year), Garden District Books in New Orleans (which has a brand new bar and will let you bring your dog inside), Ox Lot Books in Covington, Louisiana, (a newer bookstore that I think is doing a spectacular job), and De Stiil Books in Montreal (my favorite bookstore in Montreal which I braved heat, rain, and snow to walk to an obsessive number of times).
And shoutout to Book of the Month, where I got many of these books and which continues to delight me every month, and to NetGalley which sometimes sends me early eBooks and brings me as much joy as Christmas morning.
Also, special shoutout to our libraries, which never get enough credit. More than half of what I read comes from the New Orleans Public Library, and Montreal was so generous as to give me a temporary library card during my stay there. If you aren’t using the Libby app to borrow kindle and audio books through your own library, you’re missing out on one of the best inventions of our lifetime.
The 15 Best Books I Read in 2025
(In alphabetical order by author)
Nina’s in her 30s and feeling like everyone she knows has partnered off. She’s growing apart from friends, her ex-boyfriend is getting married, everyone’s moving to the suburbs, and her dad’s losing his memories to dementia. Just when it feels like time’s moving forward without her, she meets Max—the charismatic guy who tells her he’s going to marry her on their first date. When Max suddenly ghosts her, she starts examining her circumstances and relationships to make sense of how she found herself here.
How did no one tell me about Dolly Alderton before this year? How did you people let me miss this? This is a novel full of content that should be depressing, but Alderton has a remarkable gift for mixing wit and humor with brutal honesty. It’s as hilarious as it is sentimental and as sarcastic as it is moving. I suspect that every person in their 30s, regardless of relationship status, can relate to this.
Anna moved to London for possibility. She wanted to escape her hometown of grief and dead ends in the US, and the London she imagined from years of reading Austen novels would be the perfect place to start over. However, the reality of her life in London as a graduate student turns out to be something different—living paycheck-to-paycheck, stress, and the constant threat of having it all ripped away.
But then Anna meets a new tutoring client who changes everything. The Wilders fly Anna to Saint-Tropez to tutor their teenage daughter, and suddenly Anna finds herself in a world of glamour, parties, and confident and beautiful people who can’t quite figure out if she’s one of them or an imposter. As Anna tries to answer this for herself, she has to weigh the consequences and costs of living a life that isn’t really hers.
All That Life Can Afford is an unflinching, sharply observed, and fiercely intelligent examination of class, privilege, loyalty, and connection. Everett pulled me into this vivid world so thoroughly that I didn’t want to leave. This is one of those rare and special books that feels deeply personal to me, for reasons it’s hard to articulate. Of all the books I love on this list, it’s this one I know I’ll be rereading over and over. I can’t wait to see what Everett does next.
When John Green released The Anthropocene Reviewed (his first nonfiction book) in 2021, it felt like the first book he’d written just for himself in 15 years. I am absolutely delighted that this book feels exactly the same.
After befriending a young tuberculosis patient at a hospital in Sierra Leone, Green became an advocate for access to tuberculosis treatment. His passion for the cause grew and grew and finally resulted in this book—part personal essay, part-history of how this disease shaped our world, and part social commentary on the impact of our choices.
This isn’t quite a book about tuberculosis (except that, you know, EVERYTHING is about tuberculosis), or rather, it’s not a book I’d classify as a scientific or medical book. Instead, it’s a book for everyone. For people who are curious about the world, about personal stories, about history and the way it relates to you, about travel, literature, and about the unseen ways we affect one another.
John Green has always been an important writer, and I think this is one of the most important things he’s ever created.
Everyone in Eden, Kentucky, knows to avoid the Starling House—the once-home of the mysterious author and illustrator E. Starling who wrote a disturbing children’s book and then disappeared. But Opal has always been drawn to the book. And when she meets the man who now lives in Starling House and agrees to clean the home for him, she begins to feel drawn to the house, too. But there are sinister forces at play, and Opal finds herself in more danger than she ever could have imagined.
On the surface, this is a simple haunted house story. But the character Harrow painted in Opal drew me right in. This is a modern Southern Gothic with complex characters I was fiercely invested in. It was an absolutely delightful fall read.
Birdie lives alone with her young daughter, Emaleen, in small-town Alaska. And while she isn’t exactly thriving, she’s getting by as a single mom. Life consists mostly of days waiting tables at the lodge and nights drinking too much in the local bar. But then Arthur comes along.
Arthur Nielson has long been a mystery to the people in town. He lives alone in a remote cabin across the mountains, and he only comes into town when the seasons change. Though he’s a man of very few words, Birdie falls for him. Despite others’ warnings, she decides she and Emaleen will move into his isolated cabin. At first, the cabin and surrounding nature seem idyllic, but Birdie and Emaleen gradually come to realize that Arthur isn’t who they thought he was, and they may be in terrible danger.
Eowyn Ivey seamlessly weaves bleak and visceral elements into a story that expands into magical realism and wonder. It’s a dark, and captivating fairy tale that feels more and more believable. I’ve never read a book like this, and it got better with every page. Be warned that it’s both spellbinding and not for the faint of heart. I can’t stop thinking about it.
I meant to read this book for 20 years, and I can’t believe it took me this long.
A young woman finds a mysterious book of her father’s and a collection of old letters with it. As she begins to investigate what they mean, she starts a long journey of unraveling her father’s secret past, the fate of her mother, and uncovering more and more about a dark force that’s threatened society for centuries.
The plot of this novel is so winding that it’s difficult to summarize. It’s a story within a story within centuries of stories. A legend traced through history and brought to life. A travelogue and a love story and historical fiction and dark academia. Simply put, it’s a modern re-imaging of the story of Dracula, but with an unbelievable amount of research mixed in so that it’s hard to separate mysterious fact from fiction.
This book is LONG. Dare I say too long. The plot tangles itself so much that it gets hard to follow. Sometimes you aren’t sure which storyline you’re in or where you are, neither geographically nor in time. And I’m fine with all of it! This is a book you read for the atmosphere, for the obsession the author has with literature and Eastern Europe, and for the love letter she’s written to scholarship as a whole. She set out to write an epic saga, and I think she did.
Like The Historian, this is another fiercely intelligent, long, winding novel about scholarship and the shaping of history. But this one takes quite a different tone and stance.
In the early 1800s, Robin is brought from his home in China to London by a Professor who sought him out because of his gift with languages. His family perished in the cholera epidemic, and Professor Lovell offers him a future that he can’t turn down. As a teenager, he’s enrolled in Oxford’s Royal Institute of Translation, also known as Babel—the prestigious and mysterious translation center that Professor Lovell has been preparing him for. Babel is responsible for more than just translations—it’s also responsible for producing the magic that powers all of London, and therefore, much of the world.
As Robin and his cohort progress through their studies, they learn that the power they’re being trained to wield which seemed so tantalizing at first, has far darker implications. There is a secret society working to prevent Babel’s power from growing, and Robin must decide which side of history he wants to stand on.
This is both a fantasy story and an incredibly researched history. It’s about an Empire’s quest for colonization, injustice, racism, found-family, betrayal, revolution, and the cost for standing up for the justice you believe in. I kept assuming I knew what was coming next, and I never did.
When Freya is suddenly unable to pay her rent, she heads home to live in the house her estranged parents left to her. She returns as a last resort, thinking there’s nothing left for her in her hometown. What she finds is her 15-year-old niece who’s been secretly living in the house. As they begin working together on restoring it, she also reconnects with people from her past and reflecting on why she left.
This is a story about broken families, redemption, forgiveness, and how we define home. I loved Larkin’s first novel, The People We Keep, and I loved this one just as much.
Dominic and his three children are the last remaining inhabitants of a remote island where they take care of the world’s largest seed bank. The other researchers who used to live there fled as sea levels rose, but Dominic’s family wouldn’t leave the seeds. During a terrible storm, a strange woman washes ashore.
As the woman, Rowan, recovers, she tries to explain how she ended up on the island, but Dominic can tell she isn’t telling the entire truth. When Rowan discovers a freshly dug grave on the island, she knows he’s not telling her the truth either. This is story about trust, love, and how we determine what matters most.
Every Charlotte McConaghy novel is an intoxicating and devastating force that will leave you gutted for days. I tried to read this slowly to savor it, but of course I stayed up until 2:00am many nights in a row, reading like I was starving for it. When you’re reading a Charlotte McConaghy novel, few things feel more important.
To be clear, this is not a feel-good story. You should not read this just because you see it on a lot of people’s best-of lists, lest you be emotionally destroyed. You need to be prepared to be mesmerized and devastated. I am not exaggerating when I say that I think she’s one of the best writers alive today. I think this was the best book I read this year.
When a summer camp counselor discovers that one of the young girls from her cabin is missing from her bunk, it sets off a chain of events that changes everything for the characters. The missing girl, Barbara, is the daughter of the wealthy family who own the summer camp. It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that her older brother disappeared from the same camp 14 years ago.
The story is told from a web of characters’ perspectives as the search for Barabara ensues. It’s a completely gripping story full of mystery, suspense, and secrets. I stayed up reading this until my eyes felt like sandpaper, and I wish desperately I could read it again for the first time.
Brothers Peter and Ivan struggle to connect after the death of their father. 30-something Peter is a successful lawyer who’s juggling his relationships with his first love (now ex) and the college girl crashing at his house. Ivan is a socially awkward, 22-year-old competitive chess player trying to navigate a new relationship with an older woman.
In true Sally Rooney fashion, this isn’t a book you read for the plot. Instead, it’s a character study of these brothers, exploring grief, loyalty, love, and hope. Sally Rooney has a way of peeling back the layers of people’s minds to reveal so much honesty that you end up feeling exposed yourself.
Every story in Curtis Sittenfeld’s collection gripped me harder than the one before it. With her consistent humor, intelligence, and honesty, she creates characters so believable that I feel I’ve met every one of them. Many of these stories focus on middle-aged female characters, their relationships, their regrets, and their complex inner lives. She has the remarkable ability to bring the small nuances of day-to-day life into such sharp focus that you feel you’re living in the story with the characters. In the final story of the collection, the main character of her first novel, Prep (one of my top 10 favorite books of all time), goes back to boarding school for her 30th reunion. This was a story I’ve NEEDED for the past 20 years. Absolutely vital information that we never imagined she’d gift us with.
Sittenfeld’s distinctive style never disappoints, and her short stories pack just as much depth as her novels. I typically prefer novels to short fiction, but I absolutely loved this book. No one does it better than she does.
It’s their last year of high school, and all that Dan and Tamma want to do is spend their days climbing in the desert. For Dan, the gifted intellectual, there’s pressure to go to college and make something of himself. For Tamma, the reckless burnout from a broken family, no one expects she’ll amount to anything. But the two best friends have a dream of their own—becoming professional climbers who live a life of freedom.
Reality derails their plans and pulls them away from one another. Over the span of the year, the two of them have to acknowledge their differences, learn what their priorities really are, and consider the role they play in each other’s futures.
When I read Gabriel Tallent’s debut, My Absolute Darling, 8 years ago, it nearly tore me apart. The pressure placed on a sophomore novel after a debut as remarkable as that one was surely huge, and I tried to temper my expectations. There was no need—this book was no-less a masterpiece than his first one. Tallent has the ability to drop readers into a world they may know nothing about (in this case, the world of bouldering/rock-climbing) and make them care deeply. This is a story as gut-wrenching as it is hopeful and as joyful as it is devastating. I can’t remember the last time I read a more beautiful depiction of friendship. All the trigger warnings—this is not for the faint of heart—but I will read every word he ever writes.
**This one will be published on January 20th.
Zoe, daughter of an MIT professor, hopes to be a star student at Harvard. She meets Jack, her intellectual match, in organic chemistry class, and the two of them form an unspoken competition that turns into a friendship. When they begin working together for a prestigious professor’s lab, they stumble upon a scientific discovery that will change their lives forever—an anti-aging drug.
Zoe and Jack drop out of school, gather investors, and embark on the world of forming a startup. As the media attention and pressure grows, Zoe and Jack encounter obstacles that threaten their company and their relationship with each other.
People like to compare this book to the wildly popular Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and aside from the obvious surface-level similarities (college students who we follow on the journey of starting a business), I think these are two entirely different stories that shouldn’t be pitted against each other. Always beware of reviews that try to tell you any book is “the next insert-name-of-global-sensation.” Whether intentional or not, these kind of reviews nearly always serve to diminish one of the works they’re comparing.
Zoe and Jack were relatable, infuriating, and endearing, and I adored them both. Taylor pulled the rug out from under me and left me stunned and devastated. This is an emotional ride that leaves you aching.
In 1975 in a small Missouri town, teenage girls start disappearing. But one girl finds an unlikely hero in her classmate, Patch, who jumps in to fight the kidnapper before he can take her. Patch is taken captive instead, and his best friend, Saint, is determined not to give up until she finds him.
The story that follows spans nearly three decades, examining the aftermath of the crime and the lasting effects it had on everyone in the town. In this story, the past isn’t really past but rather a never-ending present that continues to shape the characters years later.
I couldn’t put this book down. It’s part mystery, part thriller, part love story, but never what you expect. It deserves every bit of hype it’s received, and it’s one of my favorite things I’ve read this year.
A special bonus book:
Last year for Christmas, my sister and I got my dad a Storyworth subscription. Every week, he received an emailed prompt to reply to with questions about his life and childhood. And then a couple days before Christmas, they mailed it to him in book form. It’s the most special thing to buy a parent or grandparent, and I can’t recommend it enough.
**See more of my favorite books of the past several years here!
