Hi Bookworms. How was your week? Did you have a New Year’s to remember? I hope you received some books for Christmas. I received a couple books off my list from Santa. And now it’s time to read, read, read, right? It’s sort of good weather for it as we’ve had several days of heavy fog here, which combined with cold temps makes hoar frost appear on the trees and bushes. It has an interesting snow-frost effect, which I tried to capture in the pictures.
Meanwhile, it’s that time of year again to take a deep dive into my reading from 2025 and see what I liked. As usual, it was difficult to decide which books made my favorites list. I chose 12 novels (not all from 2025) and 10 nonfiction books since I only read 10 of those, uh-oh. I can always make some adjustments to my reading this year based on my stats … like reading more nonfiction or male authors or diverse ones or translated ones … which would make my numbers even out more.
Though I don’t have big plans to change my reading in 2026. I like mixing new releases with backlist books and faster popular reads with more challenging ones. I like reading literary and contemporary fiction best and historical fiction too, but I’m a bit all over the place as well picking up whatever interests me. And I think my reading might be freer this coming year since I’ve decided to take a break from reviewing for Publishers Weekly. I’ve done that the past five years and it was a good gig but not always easy reading for both here and there. It was time-consuming, so now with the break I’ll have a bit more freedom perhaps with my reading and reviewing here, yay. So we’ll see how it goes.
And now without further ado here are my stats and favorite books of 2025.
Stats: 63 Books completed
33 Audiobooks
30 Print Books
50 Female Authors
13 Male Authors
53 Fiction
10 Nonfiction
48 White Authors
15 Non-White Authors
20 Debut novels
8 Memoirs
3 Translated novels
28 American authors
12 British authors
5 Canadian authors
4 Australian authors
2 Italian authors
2 Irish authors
2 Japanese authors
1 Dutch author
1 French author
1 German author
1 Hungarian author
1 Nigerian author
1 South African author
1 South Korean author
1 Ecuadorian author
Favorite Novels Completed in 2025:
1) Flesh by David Szalay (2025) — The 2025 Booker Prize winner was my last read of the year and proved to make a strong impact … about a man’s life that returns full circle.
2) Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (2025) — This slim novel on the Booker longlist was atmospheric set along the Irish Sea and a winner for me. I gave it 5 stars.
3) The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (2024) — This post-WWII novel won the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction and blew the lid off the early part of my reading year.
4) The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (2012) — Book 2 in the Neapolitan series is a modern classic that kept me glued to the two friends’ lives from ages 16 to 23.
5) Audition by Katie Kitamura (2025) — A bit odd and mysterious, this Booker shortlist novel unfolds like a puzzle. And where Kitamura goes, I continue to follow.
6) Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad (2024) — An actress in London travels to Israel and gets involved in a Palestinian production of Hamlet … and much ensues that hooked me.
7) Fifteen Wild Decembers by Karen Powell (2023) — The Bronte sisters lives unfold in this biographical tale from Emily’s perspective that immersed me completely.
8) Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell (2025) — A scary unsettling tale of an Irish woman trying to escape with her children an abusive situation … had me gripped till the end.
9) Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (2025) an intense love triangle in the English countryside set in 1968 and the past that had me twisted till the end.
10) Trust Her by Flynn Berry (2025) — A squirm-worthy sequel about two Irish sisters trying to get out of being caught up with the IRA — was riveting stuff.
11) The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (2023) — The real life midwife Martha Ballard’s story from 1789 Maine captured me thoroughly as she gets caught up in a murder trial.
12) The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025) — The surprise hit of the year moved me in the ways I came to see what writing meant to the elderly retired protagonist.
Honorable Mentions: The Scrapbook by Heather Clark; A Family Matter by Claire Lynch; Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid; Tilt by Emma Pattee; The Death of Us by Abigail Dean; The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali; A Far-Flung Life by M.L. Stedman; Rabbit Moon by Jennifer Haigh; Heartwood by Amity Gaige; Heart the Lover by Lily King; Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy.
Favorite Nonfiction Completed in 2025
1) A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst (2025) — an eye-opening survival tale of a couple lost at sea in the early 1970s.
2) Memorial Days: A Memoir by Geraldine Brooks (2025) — A moving and raw true story about the sudden loss of the author’s husband in the immediate days and years after.
3) The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne (2024) — An actor looks back at his life … and the trial over his sister’s murder comes on strong near the end.
4) The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance That Won the War by Giles Milton (2024) — An incredible look at how three very dissimilar leaders came together and won WWII.
5) H Is for Hawk: A Memoir by Helen Macdonald (2015) — A moving story about how the taming of a wild goshawk helped the grieving author after the loss of her father.
6) Owner of a Lonely Heart: A Memoir by Beth Nguyen (2023) — An eye-opening and moving account of a Vietnam refugee’s story growing up in Michigan.
7) The Last Secret Agent: My Life as a Spy Behind Nazi Lines by Pippa LaTour (2025) — Pippa’s scary mission that parachuted her into France during WWII was an eye-opener.
8) A Country Year: Living the Questions by Sue Hubbell (1986) — The informative chronicles of a beekeeper in the Ozarks in the 1980s – gave me much to think about.
9) Shepherd’s Sight: A Farming Life by Barbara McLean (2024) — I learned much as well from the story of a sheep farmer’s life in Canada of over 50 years.
10) The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession (2023) — A crazy true story of how a couple went on an art stealing rampage in Europe from 1995 to 2001.
My 2025 Reading in Categories (in no particular order)
Translated Lit
Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Cespedes (1952)
Swallows by Natsuo Kirino (2025)
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (2023)
Debut Novels
The Leavers by Lisa Ko (2017)
Good Girl by Aria Aber (2025)
The Boy From the Sea by Garrett Carr (2025)
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (2024)
The Riveter by Jack Wang (2025)
Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham (2024)
The Scrapbook by Heather Clark (2025)
A Family Matter by Claire Lynch (2025)
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston (2024)
Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell (2025)
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (2025)
The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight (2025)
Tilt by Emma Pattee (2025)
The Infamous Gilberts by Angela Tomaski (2025)
Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (2024)
Early Sobrieties by Michael Deagler (2025)
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025)
The Fact Checker by Austin Kelley (2025)
I am Agatha by Nancy Foley (2025)
Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa (2025)
Historical Fiction
Fifteen Wild Decembers by Karen Powell (2023)
Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin (2023)
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (2024)
Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom (2023)
The Riveter by Jack Wang (2025)
Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad (2023)
We Do Not Part by Han Kang (2025)
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (2023)
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2025)
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali (2025)
Memoirs and Biographies
Owner of a Lonely Heart by Beth Nguyen (2023)
The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne (2024)
The Last Secret Agent: My Life as a Spy Behind Nazi Lines by Pippa LaTour (2025)
A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst (2025)
H Is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald (2014)
Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks (2025)
A Country Year: Living the Questions by Sue Hubbell (1986)
Shepherd’s Sight: A Farming Life by Barbara McLean (2024)
Crime / Mystery / Action Tales
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware (2016)
Beartooth by Callan Wink (2025)
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (2025)
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston (2024)
Trust Her by Flynn Berry (2024)
So Far Gone by Jess Walter (2025)
Heartwood by Amity Gaige (2025)
Tilt by Emma Pattee
The Death of Us by Abigail Dean (2025)
Culpability by Bruce Holsinger (2025)
Family / Friends / Relationship / Community Sagas
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
The Boy From the Sea by Garrett Carr (2025)
Good Material by Dolly Alderton (2023)
A Family Matter by Claire Lynch (2025)
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood (2023)
Where the Forest Meets the River by Shannon Bowring (2024)
Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell (2025)
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (2025)
Wreck by Catherine Newman (2025)
Audition by Katie Kitamura (2025)
The Infamous Gilberts by Angela Tomaski (2025)
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025)
More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen (2026)
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2025)
A Far-Flung Life by M.L. Stedman (2026)
Heart the Lover by Lily King (2025)
Coming of Age Tales
Good Girl by Aria Aber (2025)
Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham (2024)
The Scrapbook by Heather Clark (2025)
The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight (2025)
Rabbit Moon by Jennifer Haigh (2025)
Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (2024)
Early Sobrieties by Michael Deagler (2025)
The Fact Checker by Austin Kelley (2025)
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (2025)
Flesh by David Szalay
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (2012)
History
The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance That Won the War by Giles Milton (2024)
Short Stories
Something to Look Forward to: Stories by Fannie Flagg (2025)
True Crime
The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and Dangerous Obsession (2023)
So there you have it. I finished a lot more debut novels (20!) than I realized I was picking up. Did you have any of these on your favorites list? What trends did you notice in your reading? And do you plan to make any changes to your reading in 2026? Wishing you all a great year ahead.
Have a great year in 2026.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Thanks Mae, you too! Happy reading as well.
Flesh sure sounds good.
Hi Lydia, thanks for stopping by here. Yes Flesh was sort of different but it kept me reading. The author has an interesting dialogue focused writing style so it’s not a dense thing. Wishing you a happy New Year and a great year in reading.
That is an impressive list for 2025 and I’m sure 2026 will be equally (if not more) impressive! A belated happy New Year.
Thanks Dorothy. Fingers crossed that 2026 is a great reading year … I think it will be as we could all use a bit of escape these days. I hope to surpass 2025 in books, ha ha. Happy New Year to you too!
I’m impressed! You took copious notes on categories. Loved all our buddy reads and I see some books I still want to get to such as Nesting, A Far Flung Life, The Last Secret Agent and Wandering Souls to name a few.
Looking forward to the Bowring book and many more. Wish Buckeye would get here! This is a great post and I will bookmark it for reference.
Hi Tina, ha all these lists and categories took a while to compile this past week, but I didn’t take notes about what kind of book while reading. Anyways this post might be a bit too much or long for others, but I guess it helps me to think back on what I read.
Those four novels are good ones you mention …. I think you should get to Nesting …. as it’s intense … and you want to shake these characters at some points. I think Bowring’s will be good too. Chat with you later.
That is amazing.. so many great reads. While I haven’t read any of these I do already have many of them on my TBR.
Hi Hena, thanks. I tried to get to some good ones this year …. or books I heard others talking about. Some of these had much food for thought 🙂
Wishing you a happy year and good reading!
Congratulations on reading 63 books in 2025 and I want to read so many on your list. I have narrowed it down to 4:
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Audition by Katie Kitamura
Fifteen Wild Decembers by Karen Powell
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
They all look very promising.
Hi Kathy, thanks. I remember that we both read similar amounts per year. You read that many books too – I think if not more. The 4 books you mention are good ones! Maybe especially Seascraper and Fifteen Wild Decembers. They captured me. And I’d like to read more from Ben Wood & Karen Powell. Great writers! Both British. We have so much to read this year, Ha. But it should be fun, not stressful. I like meandering. Happy reading.
Nice picture of the frost there! You read widely and varied last year. We read a few in common, though not always liked them in equal measure. Your keeping of detailed stats makes for interesting reading. I wish you an equally successful (or better than the last) reading year ahead!
Hi Carmen, thanks. We’ve had frost on the trees for quite a while — almost a week — how unusual to look at. I’m glad if this post is not too overwhelming to look over. It’s probably too much but it helps me a bit to think back on whatever I read. We did have a few books that overlapped in our reading…. and I was glad for your Booker reads and thoughts about them on GR. Flesh and Seascraper at the very end of December were good ones for me and improved my reading for the year I think. I still have Kiran Desai to read sometime and Buckeye. (I did not get them for Christmas!). I hope you have a great reading year too!
Thanks. The post is not too much at all. It helps to see all the reading dissected into nice little boxes. I used to do some of it, but now I just opt for #books read and “best of” lists. Too bad you didn’t get Sonia and Sunny. I think Buckeye had been discounted on Amazon this week (last week); I hope you can get it on sale if you check. Maybe it’s still going. I still have a few more reading from the Booker; thankfully the longer ones are behind me.
Good to know Carmen. I’m glad it’s not too much. We are book nerds right? So glad you told me about the Buckeye discount — I saw it was $2.50 on kindle on the US Amazon site and $2.99 on the Canadian site. That’s quite good! I ended up getting a copy but now it will have to wait a bit till I’m ready for it. Thx for letting me know! Keep reading.
Thanks for sharing your year summary, and your favourites
I hope 2026 is a great reading year.
Thanks Shelleyrae. Compiling this summary was a bit exhausting but good to have for my records, lol. Wishing you a great reading year ahead too … and thanks again for sending the Christmas card through the mail …. that was such an excellent and cheery idea … to do. Cheers.
Great stats and lists! I have The Art Thief and Trust Here on my list to read this month.
Those photographs are stunning. What a beautiful winter wonderland.
Thanks Helen. All that hoar frost did feel like a winter wonderland.
The Art Thief … made me mad by the end! I enjoyed Trust Her quite a bit. I hope you like it. Have a great week.
Susan, as always, beautiful pictures! Such lovely snow – but better at your house and not at mine – ha! I have read one each of your favorites in fiction and non-fiction. The Art Thief for book group discussion a couple of months ago. Good discussion. And The Story Of A New Name. Read that one back in 2018 or so. Another book group read the first of that Neopolitan series for discussion and then I read the two following because the story was quite absorbing. Hope your reading is great this year, easy, lots of fun, without pressure. 🙂
Thanks Kay. The frost finally melted off the trees today. So the magical look is gone. Good to know you read these two books. The Art Thief made me quite mad by the end, but I put it on my list anyways (since I only read 10 nonfiction, lol). The Ferrante book is so detailed and their lives quite up & down … that it held me. I will eventually get to novel #3 & #4 in the series. And I think my reading will be fun this year. And I hope yours is too!
Love your round up and stats! I wish I’d thought to take note of debut novels, but will add that to my tracking this year. I see several of my favorites on your list (The Safekeep, The Story of a New Name, and The Correspondent) and several more on my tbr. I started Seascraper earlier today and it’s really beautiful! You and Tina have me reconsidering Flesh. Beautiful photos… looks like the view here at my parents house.
Hi JoAnn, thanks, my year-end roundup & favorites took a while to figure out, lol. I’m glad we liked those three books you mention. All excellent. And I hope you dig Seascraper. A bit of a pun there, lol. I was surprised how quick the style of Flesh is …. it’s mostly dialogue so the novel zooms by. The men & women don’t always come off looking too good but it shows both sides of human nature and felt fairly real. See what you think if you get to it. I fear our snow will all melt by our next weekend. Looks warm ahead. Enjoy your week.
Brrr. Those photos are pretty, but it sure looks cold. I remember walking on a bike trail with our dog and seeing the hoar frost on the trees. It really gives off a magical feeling, doesn’t it?
I bought myself 3 books for Christmas and another 3 with a gift card. I may post about those in a few weeks. Too many other posts in the queue! We’ve had a lot of rain, so I’ve been spending my days reading and exercising. The sun came out today, so it was nice to get outside for a long walk.
I enjoyed reading through your 2025 stats. I’m impressed that you listened to more books than you read in print. It’s always the opposite for me. I read two of your books that made my Top Reads & Honorable Mentions lists – The Correspondent and The Frozen River. Oh, also Tilt and A Far-flung Life. From your nonfiction, I loved Memorial Days. I’m looking forward to reading more from your list (such as Flash, The Safekeep, Seascraper, and Nesting). I’m still curious about A Marriage at Sea… I didn’t read quite as many debuts as you (only 6). What amazed me is how many new-to-me authors I read. 21! That seems like a lot, but it’s not half of what I read, so maybe not. I’ll bet you’re relieved to not have the PW gig anymore. More time to read what you want when you want!
Hi Lesley, It looks like the hoar frost has melted this morning. And the snow could melt away this week & by next weekend. Argh not what we want.
Sounds like you got a good amount of new books over the holidays! And reading & exercising sounds good to me.
I think reading for PW in a way made me turn to audios more in my personal time so that’s why it seems I listened to more. But I think this new year might be different. I am relieved to be “free” as PW for five years was a lot. I’m glad we had a lot of overlaps in our reading. You told me about Tilt. I hope we continue to read widely. Check out Nesting — a bit intense but pretty good for a debut.
Have a great start to the year!
Congratulations on getting your lists posted and on a great year of reading! H Is for Hawk and The Story of a New Name are the only ones on your favorites lists that I’ve read, but there are many that are on my TBR!
I used to review for Library Journal, but I got to be very bad at keeping up with them and all the other review books I got from NetGalley and LibraryThing, and almosst never got my reviews written and posted in a timely way, except for the LJ ones, which weren’t always the ones I most wanted to read, so I stopped requesting review books altogether.
Hi Laurie, thanks for stopping by here & the congrats. Interesting to hear which of these you’ve read and that you reviewed for Library Journal. So you understand how it is juggling between the two. It is hard to read for both in a timely way. I’ll feel more free this year just to read from my own piles. I will check out your blog. Appreciate your words. & Happy New Year & reading!
Happy New Year! It looks like you had a great reading year in 2025. Wishing you more good books for 2026!
Thanks Joy. I appreciate it. It was a pretty good reading year … despite everything else going on. I hope you have a good year too in 2026. Keep reading.
This is beyond impressive! Lots of good titles here to add to my own reading. (I already have “The Correspondent” on order.) I love book lists — monthly, as it goes or annual and so this is my kind of post! (I’m trying to get my year-end up in the next week or two!)
Thanks for your visits and comments. Happy new week!
Hi Jeanie, thanks. I tried to get some good reads in 2025 despite everything, lol. I think you’ll like The Correspondent. And I’ll look for your year-end post. I think 2026 is going to be a better year for us … with life in general … and maybe reading too. Have a great start.
So fun to see all the books you read last year. And your favorites! I love that you broke it into fiction and nonfiction. Several of these are now on my TBR list for this year. 😀 Happy reading in 2026!
Hi Lark, thanks. It was sort of fun to compile my lists in this post but it took a while. Still I always seem to learn something from doing it. Glad you like how it’s broken up. Hopefully I’ll read a bit more nonfiction this coming year. Wishing you great reading as well.
Happy new year, Susan! I still need to get to “Frozen River”, but very much enjoyed “The Correspondent”. Other favourites this year include: “I think We’ve Been Here Before” (S. Krause), “The Weather Diviner”, (E. Murphy), “The Names” (F.Knapp), and “Wreck” (Newman). My favourite non-fiction of the year was “Women Who Woke Up the Law, very much a Canadian perspective on cases that have advanced women’s rights.
Happy reading 🙂
Jillann
Hi Jillann, thanks! Happy New Year to you as well. I’m so glad you stopped by and left me some titles to read. I know the Names novel and I read Wreck, but the Krause and Murphy books are new to me. I will check them out at the library. Very glad to hear of these & the nonfiction book. I will add to my TBR. Wishing you a great year ahead & much happy reading. Keep in touch. Cheers.
Congratulations on your reading. Your snow ❄️ photos are beautiful.
Thanks Linda, appreciate it. Glad you stopped by. It looked like a winter wonderland for about a week but now it’s gone. We need more snow soon! Happy New Year to you and happy reading.
What beautiful winter pictures: I love them! You’ve had so many good reads this year; it’s a good sign when there are that many “honourable mentions” or “runners-up” or what-not, eh? The book on your list that I really want to read this year is The Safekeep. But I’m also intrigued by the Fannie Flagg short stories!
Hi Marcie, good to hear from you — and thanks, we had some good snow photo ops recently, lol. I agree many honorable mentions and it was hard to choose a bit which favorites to put. The Safekeep was quite good — I hope you like it — it’s a bit explosive in a way you don’t expect. I recall it being fairly short. See what you think. Much going on in it subtly … with its post-war setting.
Hope you have a great year! Happy reading.
Your stats are impressive. Especially the variety of international authors.
I have two books on your list of top reads in 2025, that I hope to read in 2026: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans and Audition by Katie Kitamura. Fifteen Wild Decembers sound very interesting, I will look into that.
I hope the books you read in 2026 will be as enjoyable as 2025.
Thanks Tracy. I tried to get to a few that were up for awards. I’m glad you have a couple of these. See what you think. And I think Fifteen Wild Decembers would appeal to you as well, especially if you have any interest in the Bronte family.
I think this is going to be a good year for my reads … if the news doesn’t get too in the way. I hope it’s a good reading year for you as well!
Happy New Year, Susan! We had a busy, but fun one. Love those frost tree pictures! Very wintery. I meant to get to Broken Country, but you know how it goes.
Hi Rachel, thanks. And good to hear yours went well. We had winter for a while now we’re going to wind these days. I think you will like the audio of Broken Country … while you’re doing a puzzle. It’s a doozy. I might have to revisit it to recall the particulars. Have a great week.
There are several books on your list of favorite fiction reads that I need to add to my list to look for in 2026. Thank you for sharing your favorites, and thank you for your thoughts on the books you read. Your thoughts are always carefully stated. I appreciate that.
Hi Deb, I missed seeing your comment back then. Thanks for leaving it. Sometimes it’s hard choosing favorites for the year. I’m glad if my lists of books were helpful to you … as your lists were to me as well. There’s always quite a few from other’s lists that I’ve missed and that I need to add too. Cheers!