2025 in books

this year i read 42 books, which is fewer than last year but in line with the last five or so years of reading.  9 of those books meet some sort of diversity standard (as in, the main character or author is not white) - not a terribly impressive number and one i hope to change for next year.  and 23 of those books (more than half) were from the library. 

a goal of mine in 2026 is to read more books that i own - ones i want to read but keep putting on the back burner as something new and exciting comes out.  let 2026 be the year that i whittle down my stash!

my favorite books of 2025:

nonfiction:

• eve, by cat bohannon
• prairie fires: the american dreams of laura ingalls wilder, by caroline fraser
• travels with charley in search of america, by john steinbeck
• everything is tuberculosis, by john green

fiction:

• lonesome dove, by larry mcmurtry
• wild dark shore, by charlotte mcconaghy
• the slip, by lucas schaefer

december: 42

i only read one book in december...which isn't entirely true, because i read 400 pages of war and peace as well, but i am still 1,000 pages away from finishing that.  i only *finished* one book in december:

the slip, by lucas schaefer (this is a book by a college classmate of mine and it was so fucking good.  how is this a debut novel?  how do i know someone who wrote a book this good?  there's a non-typical sex scene but otherwise i recommend this to everyone, with the caveat that there are a lot of characters to keep straight.  but there are so interesting and the mystery is so good and i read the last 75 pages on super speed claire mode so i could find out what happened.  loved it!)

november: 39, 40 & 41

black woods blue sky, by eowyn ivey (this was an odd book, creepy and mysterious, that i think i really enjoyed.  great to read in the winter, as it's set in alaska...if you're up for a little mysticism, i would highly recommend this!  but i don't think i can give it a wholehearted recommendation for everyone.)

little town on the prairie, by laura ingalls wilder (book 7 of 9!  i don't think i'd ever read this one...the blackface scene, which i knew was coming, was interesting to encounter.  as with all the little house books, we take the bad alongside the nostalgia...)

lightbreakers, by aja gabel (this was a book of the month club pick that i don't imagine i would have picked up without that recommendation.  a main character had a child die at age 3...he joins a time travel experimental project with the promise that he can go back and relive moments with his kid.  can he change the past?  we find out the answer to that in the book.  again, hard to know who to recommend this to: i can't imagine i would recommend it to anyone with young kids.  i'm glad i read it - it's well written - but it's in my free little library right now ready for someone out there to grab it.)

october: 35, 36, 37 & 38

the river is waiting, by wally lamb (there are a few wally lamb books that i LOVED and had a big impact on me, but some of his newer books haven't made the same impression on me.  this was a tough read (father goes to jail for accidentally killing his child - you find that out in the first chapter) and didn't ever reach a super uplifting place.  lamb is a great writer, but this was a tough one.)

how to be perfect, by michael shur (this is a tour through philosophy and different takes on how to live a good life.  i listened to this audiobook, which was a great listen (and had some celeb appearances) and enjoyed this book - and learned a bunch! - though i'm not sure i have retained much of what i learned...)

everything is tuberculosis, by john green (i loved this book, the nonfiction telling of what tuberculosis is and its history as a disease, interspersed with the contemporary story of a boy in sierra leone who is fighting TB. there is so much here about public health and what we prioritize or don't as a society.  i was really moved by this book and would highly recommend it!)

slow dance, by rainbow rowell (i like rowell as an author and this was in line with other books of hers that i've read - relatively light but well written.  i can't imagine this will stick with me long term, but i enjoyed reading it!)

september: 33 & 34

september's reading!

so far gone, by jess walter (i really liked this book, the second i've read by this author.  it's got cool character development where the first part focuses on one character, we get introduced a few others and one of them becomes the focus of the second part, etc.  the story is continuous but we see it play out through different character's perspectives.  it feels au courant, with the 2016 election the backdrop for a falling out of characters that propels the plot, but it's not so mired in that as to be depressing.  i'd definitely recommend this one!)

all the way to the river, by elizabeth gilbert (i read this because a friend invited me to see her speak in pittsburgh; having read it, this is one of those books that i'm not sure who to recommend it to.  the author falls in love with her best friend who is dying of cancer.  the book is about the friend/lover's decline and death.  but it's also a really interesting take on friendship and addiction and it's beautifully written...but the whole time i thought, there's no way this book would have gotten published had the author not already been super famous.  but i read it quickly and was definitely interested...this one needs the right audience, for sure.)

august: 30, 31, & 32

now we move to august's reading!

calypso, by david sedaris (this was a re-read, but i love david sedaris's books so much that i could probably re-read all of them and be joyful.  they're amazing both as audiobooks and traditional reads!)

in the heart of the sea, by nathaniel philbrick (i tore through this audiobook about the whaleship essex's sinking at the hands (fins?) of a whale in 1820.  an incredibly well told story, great narrative nonfiction - i learned a lot and had a lot to report out to arron along the way.  highly recommend!)

a court of mist and fury, by sarah j. maas (this is the second book in the series of five...but the last one that i will be reading.  i liked but didn't love this series and the books are long and my reading list is also long and i don't think i'll derive enough joy out of continuing to read them.  glad i got a glimpse into the world of romantasy, but this book was just okay for me. hot take!)

july: 26, 27, 28 & 29

oh boy - terribly behind on logging my reading!  here we go to catch back up...in july i read:

wild dark shore, by charlotte mcconaghy (loved this book - this is the third book by this author that i've read, and while all are stand alone books with separate characters and plots and settings, they have this in common: an admiration of the natural world and a strong female protagonist.  and they're gorgeously written!  if you don't know this author you should.)

supercommunicators, by charles duhigg (i read this as a little professional development over the summer.  i folded some pages back and made some notes but ultimately this was not life changing.)

brave new worlds, by salman khan (another professional development read - this was pretty interesting in terms of talking about AI and education and so i'm glad i read it...but it was also an unabashed advertisement for khan academy and sal khan's other ventures and that got pretty distasteful by the end.  i don't think this is a necessary read in book form - these ideas are ones you can grab onto from shorter articles.)

the names, by florence knapp (i liked this book - three parallel stories of the same woman taking the same baby to record his name - and picking three different names.  does she pick the name her husband wants, she wants, or her older daughter wants?  we see her make different choices from here and the life of the new baby change based on what name he's given.  i liked the premise a lot and was eager to see how the storylines would play out.  this would be a great read to take on a vacation with you!)

june: 22, 23, 24 & 25

a tale for the time being, by ruth ozeki (this was a great premise - a diary washes ashore on the west coast of canada, written by a teenager in japan.  we go back and forth between the life of the woman who finds it and the diary entries as we try to unravel the mystery of who the author is and how the diary got across the ocean.  there's some dark undertones that emerge - suicide, bullying, sex work - and ultimately i was glad the book was over.  it's well written and was interesting to read, but it isn't one that i will be rushing out to recommend.)

the long winter, by laura ingalls wilder (book 6 in the little house series, taking us through a real winter in dakota territory when it started blizzarding in october and didn't end until april.  i was startled as an adult to realize how close the ingalls family came to starving to death, and i don't actually remember reading this one as a child.  this was a quick read, and i'm glad to be continuing through this series.  3 more books to go!)

my friends, by fredrik backman (oh, this one disappointed me.  i loved a man called ove and a few others and was eagerly anticipating this book's release.  while a lot of what i like about backman was still there, this book was sadder than the others and there is a lot of foreshadowing of bad things to come later in the book.  I DO NOT NEED THIS ANXIETY IN MY LIFE.  it didn't make me want to keep reading.  so yes, i liked the characters and i was moved by the story, but it felt emotionally manipulative and i wasn't in the mood for that right now.)

travels with charley in search of america, by john steinbeck (this had been on my to be read list for a long time and i understood (correctly) the premise that Steinbeck drives around the country in a truck with his dog and documents it.  but whomever told me that this was the premise really undersold it.  it's September 1960.  Steinbeck is 58 and he's going to die at 66 (thanks, wikipedia).  the JFK-eisenhower election is upon us, and by the time Steinbeck finishes with the trip JFK will have won.  so yes, he does travel around the country and tell us about the people he meets and the places he sees, but it's so much deeper than that.  he talks with people about the election and muses on his own beliefs about which is the better candidate.  the threat of the atomic bomb is present in many chapters - it's clear he's ruminating on that.  He goes to new orleans where ruby bridges is desegregating an elementary school and he watches her walk into school one day while people spew hate at her.  he muses on masculinity.  he muses on the soul of his dog.  it's really beautifully written and there is SO MUCH TO UNPACK.  i loved it and would highly recommend it to you.)