I read 44 books in 2025: 31 novels, 13 non-fiction, 15 audiobooks. Find some of my thoughts below; favorites are marked with a ⭐️. And please share some of your favorites from 2025 in the comments!
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Fiction
🎧 The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Phoebe has hit rock bottom and decides to splurge on herself one last time. The only problem is she’s chosen the same fancy hotel as a bride hosting a week-long wedding extravaganza. Neither woman planned for the other, but they find their lives unavoidably intertwined at huge turning points. I enjoyed the audio version of this story, finding it both funny and tender at turns. (tw: suicidal ideation)
🎧 The Guest List by Lucy Foley
The bride, the groom, the best man, the bridesmaid…everyone has a story to tell and a past to hide at this wedding off the coast of Ireland. A wonderful mystery, this was a great audiobook listen with a full cast.
🎧 Fire Exit by Morgan Talty
Charles has been able to watch his daughter, Elizabeth, grow up, but only from his house across the river—Elizabeth has no idea he is her dad. As Charles grapples with whether-or-not to tell Elizabeth the secret he’s carried for her entire life, he also cares for his ailing mother, who suffers from dementia and depression. As he faces the uncertainty of the future, Charles also revisits his past. Is telling the secret really best for everyone? Is that even for him to decide? Fans of The Berry Pickers might like this one.
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris WhitakerTrue to the title of this newsletter, I am late to the party on this one, which blew up last year after being picked as a Read with Jenna book. I found it lived up to the hype; I loved this dark, decades-spanning novel. In the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, best friends Saint and Patch have their world rocked by an abduction. Fueled by vengeance, love, fear, and hope, everyone affected must find their own way to deal with the trauma for years to come. This is the first book in a while that kept me reading way past my bedtime. Readers of mystery, suspense, literary fiction, and historical fiction can all find something to love about this story.
The God of the Woods by Liz MooreI didn’t mean to read back-to-back stories about kids who go missing, but I followed up All the Colors of the Dark with The God of the Woods, and wow, I think this one was even better. Barbara VanLaar goes missing from her cabin at Camp Emerson, and things feel eerily familiar to the time another child was lost in the area a decade earlier. Two mysteries intertwine as the suspense builds, and we discover the woods are full of many secrets. I loved so much about this book, from the multi-POV, multi-timeline structure to the dreamy cover.
The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. Schmidt
After losing his parents in an accident, everything is upside down for Hercules Beal: his brother is in charge of him now and they’re trying to keep the family nursery afloat (not to mention all that comes with being a seventh grader going through a growth spurt). On top of everything, Hercules has to go to a new school, and his homeroom teacher, Lt. Col. Hupfer, is a former Marine who means business. It’s Lt. Col. Hupfer who tasks Hercules Beal with completing the twelve labors of Hercules the Myth, and as he attempts this feat, he learns lessons about love, loss, friendship, and what we can accomplish when we work together. My library marked this one “Tween,” and I think it’d be great for advanced/mature middle grade readers and up.
Writers & Lovers by Lily King
I loved this book about Casey, a writer grieving the loss of her mother. Casey has been writing her novel for a while and working as a waitress to (barely) make ends meet. Her finances are in shambles, her love life is confusing, and memories of her mother constantly bubble to the surface without warning. Lily King manages to capture true sadness and even despair while still infusing the story with hope.⭐️ The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Chicago, 1985: Yale Tishman has a loving partner, a job with a promising project on the horizon, and a dynamic group of friends—but soon it seems like all of his friends are dying. / Paris, 2015: Fiona, a friend of Yale’s, is in Paris to find her missing daughter. The reader moves between these two time periods to read a captivating story about love, friendship, trauma, and the stories we carry with us. The Great Believers was a finalist for the Pulitzer and the National Book Award, and it is a beautiful tribute to the real Boystown community.
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
The latest in the Hunger Games series, this prequel tells the story of Haymitch Abernathy, victor of the Quarter Quell that took place 25 years before he mentored Katniss and Peeta. I’m a big fan of the series, and I couldn’t not read this one. Sandwiched between the first prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and the original Hunger Games trilogy, this book aims to make connections in ways that seemed strained at times. It was also hard for me not to picture Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, even though he was a teen in the book. I found myself doing the math on characters’ ages and finding it didn’t always add up (again, the casting of the movies was definitely affecting my ability to accept the reality of the book). It’s hard for Hunger Games not to feel repetitive, and there were parts that felt unoriginal. I still think it’s a must-read for anyone invested in the Hunger Games canon, but it is probably my least favorite, least memorable, and, I think, strays too far from the Haymitch we met in the original novels.
Such Good People by Amy Blumenfeld
Best friends Rudy and April have been inseparable since they met on the playground as kids. Then, a night out in Manhattan changes everything: A man is dead, April is kicked out of school, and Rudy ends up in prison. Nearly Fifteen years later, April is living with her husband and three children in Chicago, and Rudy is let out on parole. As more of their stories—then and now—unfold, one wonders: What makes someone a good person? And who gets to decide? Will April’s and Rudy’s friendship survive his incarceration, or will it be another casualty of that fateful night when they were young? There were a few stylistic/POV-related choices I didn’t love, but overall I liked this quick read that shed a light on injustice. (I received an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review of this novel, which released on July 8, 2025.)
Melissa by Alex Gino
I initially picked up this book because of the title. 😉 It tells the story of a girl named Melissa who everyone else knows as a boy named George. What Melissa wants most is to be Charlotte in her school’s production of Charlotte’s Web, but she isn’t allowed to audition for a girl’s part. When Melissa imagines herself as Charlotte, she sees herself as she truly is. Maybe, if given the chance, this role would give her a way to let others in and truly see her, too. This was in the juvenile fiction section of our local library, and I think it’s most appropriate for ages 10+. If you have thought about having conversations with your child about gender identity but don’t know how to start, here is a book to read and discuss together.⭐️ James by Percival Everett
James is a Pulitzer winner that chronicles the enslaved Jim’s trip down the Mississippi River with Huck Finn. This retelling of an American classic centers Jim and his humanity, intelligence, and experience. I love how Everett uses the characters’ language to highlight and interrogate power. This reimagining might be especially appealing to fans of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead but should be required reading for all.
🎧 The Frozen River by Ariel Lawson
Set in Hallowell, Maine the late 1700s, The Frozen River tells the fictionalized story of Martha Ballard, a midwife whose diaries inspired the novel. Martha is used to being summoned at all hours, but when she is asked to determine the cause of death for a local man found frozen in the ice one winter, she finds herself and her diary entries at the center of mystery and scandal for which she was not prepared. In her fight for justice, Martha risks her own reputation, her family’s security, and her relationships in the community, and proves to be a hero worth rooting for. ⭐️ 🎧 The Women by Kristin Hannah
This story centers on Frances McGrath, a nurse who serves in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. As she seeks healing in the midst of the horrors of war, Frances finds hope, friendship, and love—but can she sustain them even after incredible loss, even when the country she served seems to have turned against her? This book has been everywhere, but if you’re late to the party (ahem) like me, then I recommend bumping this one up your list. It’s a longer listen (another fabulous audiobook performance by Julia Whelan!), but a great historical fiction read.
🎧 Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
I listened to the audiobook version of this one, narrated by Elle Fanning. After an affair with her English professor, Margo finds herself pregnant. With a new baby, no job, and an uncertain housing situation, Margo decides to start an OnlyFans account and see what happens. Complicated relationships with her mother, father, and the baby’s father threaten Margo’s online success and financial future, and Margo must find a way forward by trusting her own instincts. Modern and a little silly at times, this one was a good listen. If you like watching book-to-screen adaptations, check this one out before the television series comes out on Apple+ next year.
Memory Piece by Lisa Ko
Jackie, Giselle, and Ellen become friends in the 1980s, and Memory Piece tells the story of how their friendship changes, along with the world around them, across six decades. As the women navigate their lifelong friendships, they also face uncertainty in a place that is not what they expected, and must decide what their role is in shaping the future by documenting the past and present. For fans of Jennifer Egan who can handle the emotional double whammy of nostalgia and a sometimes-eerily-too-prescient dystopian society.
🎧 Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Set in the 1980s, Atmosphere tells the story of Joan, an astronomer trying to make it to space as a new recruit for NASA. As she looks ahead to the challenge and adventure of going to space one day, Joan finds her own challenges and adventures right here on Earth. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books have been hit or miss for me, but I loved this audiobook, narrated by the great Julia Whelan with Kristen DiMercurio.
Maggie; Or a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie YeeSpeaking of double whammies, Maggie is the name of the woman having an affair with the narrator’s husband. It is also the name she’s given her tumor. A quirky story about grief and reclaiming power over our own stories that is full of heart and humor.
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
Beth’s quiet life with her husband, Frank, is upended when her first love, Gabriel, shows up with his son. Beth finds herself dragged back into a past she had tried to bury, and the tension around Gabriel’s return has deadly consequences. A story about grief and impossible choices with a little mystery sprinkled in.
If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You by Leigh Stein
Gothic novels are not my go-to genre, but I appreciated what Stein was attempting with this one, which the story of social media influencers living together in a hype house in L.A. Reading might prompt one to ask what’s scarier: a creepy, crumbling house; being terrorized by an algorithm; or the irrelevance that comes with age?
The Sparrow by Mary Doria RussellJesuit priest Emilio Sandoz has returned from a mission to uncover intelligent life across the universe, but he is not well, and he is all alone. As the events of the mission unfold, a story comes to light about why and how we cling to faith when God feels far away. Imaginative and philosophical, but intense and difficult to read at times.
The Names by Florence Knapp
I’ve been told that when my aunt went to the hospital to meet me after I was born, she asked my parents about “Baby Hillary.” They had to tell her that although that was my intended name, they’d decided I didn’t look like a Hillary when I was born, and went with Melissa instead. This decision—what to name a child—underpins the premise of The Names by Florence Knapp, which uses alternating chapters to develop three alternative timelines based on the name a mother chooses for her son.⭐️ 🎧 The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
An epistolary novel about connection; one of my favorites of 2025. Moving and memorable. I loved the audiobook version.⭐️ 🎧 Heart the Lover by Lily King
A stirring story about young love. Full of nostalgia; it sent me full-steam into my own past. Even better than Writers & Lovers.
It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han
I read this because my 11-year-old wants to read the series, and I needed to do a mom preview. I told her “not yet” on this one. Are you fans of this series? Did you watch the new TV adaptation earlier this year?
Audition by Katie Kitamura
This one wasn’t my cup of tea, but I finished it. For anyone who can handle ambiguity and likes experimental form. Well-written, just not for me.
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
In a not-too-distant future, a mysterious woman turns up on Shearwater Island, where the Salt family are the only inhabitants. A moody, tension-filled story about love, trust, and how to move forward when the path is unclear.⭐️ The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie HartnettA book for anyone and everyone: a cross-country roadtrip with a cast of flawed, lovable characters with a quirky, narrative voice that just works.
Junction of Earth and Sky by Susan ButtenwieserI received a copy of this literary historical fiction novel from Mom Egg Review in exchange for an honest book review, which you can read here.⭐️ Wreck by Catherine Newman
The humor, the characterization (if you don’t see yourself in these characters, you will recognize people you know, truly)…Newman’s ability to bring together things like buy nothing facebook groups, suspicious rashes, and visits to the smoothie shop in a way that gets me spinning about existential questions is what keeps bringing me back to these tiny books that crack my heart right open.
Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout
Non-Fiction
To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul by Tracy K. SmithI love memoirs by poets, and this is no exception. I appreciated her urging the reader to truly consider what it means to be freed or free, and what we might do with our position and privilege.
🎧 From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keough
Before she died in 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter, Riley Keough, to help her write her memoir. This is the result of Riley making good on that promise. From driving golf carts at Graceland to marrying Michael Jackson, Lisa Marie’s life had a lot of adventure. It also held a lot of pain. Through her mother’s tapes and her own reflections, Riley excavates some of those painful memories, sharing them with tenderness and balancing them with joy and light.
🎧 Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz
Lenz starred in the TV series One Tree Hill back in the day, and it turns out her rise to fame coincided with her increased involvement in a high demand group (i.e., a cult). Lenz describes how she met and grew to trust the group members, eventually marrying the leader’s son, all while pursuing and maintaining a career in acting. Even for those who have never heard of Lenz or One Tree Hill, this is a really interesting read; it made me think a lot about the beliefs we hold, why we hold them, and how tricky it can be to truly build trust in today’s world. Lenz’s audiobook narration was captivating, and the story was well written. The only thing I didn’t like is the subtitle: I think the story is much more about life in a cult than life on a cult TV show.
No Less Strange or Wonderful: Essays in Curiosity by A. Kendra Greene
Tin House puts out a lot of great books, and this one is no exception. It’s a collection of essays of varying length and covering a very wide variety of topics (giraffe hand puppets, a ballooning convention, a crippling storm in Texas). I loved following the author down little rabbit trails fueled by curiosity and wonder. Her illustrations added to the whimsy of the prose. I was gifted an ARC of No Less Strange or Wonderful in exchange for my honest review.
The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon
If you don’t already follow Sharon, please take a minute to do that right now. Sharon is known lovingly as America’s Government Teacher, and her passion for empowering people through education is obvious within two seconds of watching her on IG stories. I pre-ordered Sharon’s book when it came a while ago, and I finally got around to reading it this month. It tells the story of ordinary Americans—some you’ve probably heard of, many of them are probably new names—and how their pursuit of justice, truth, and equality helped shape America.
🎧 Grief is for People by Sloane Crosley
My husband asked me what I was listening to recently, and I told him, “Oh, it’s an audiobook about grief…the author’s best friend committed suicide, she got robbed, and then the pandemic hit.” Yikes, I know. But. Crosley’s voice and wit, which I discovered in 2020 via I Was Told There’d Be Cake, still shine through clearly in this memoir. Crosley reads the audiobook herself, and I’d highly recommend it. For those wary of another pandemic read, that is a factor in this book, but not the focus.
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
Full disclosure: this book took me nearly five months to finish. I really appreciated (and agree with) the heart of what it had to say: delay the introduction of phones/tech, increase real-world childhood experiences. But by the second half of the book, everything started to feel repetitive, and some of the suggestions for schools, parents, and society to implement seemed a little flimsy, even if logical and well-intentioned. I do think this should be required reading for all parents—even those with kids nowhere near middle school.
I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora EphronWhile Heartburn has been on my TBR list for a while, I wasn’t aware of this collection until my writing group decided to write essays inspired by Ephron’s “Where I Live” essay. The subtitle is “And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman,” and Ephron chronicles her adventures in cooking, feelings about aging and beauty, relationships, the places we call home, and more. Some of the essays touch on serious topics, but Ephron’s voice is always light and often drenched in satire. At times the essays read a bit cheesy (to be fair, this is coming from someone who also finds Ephron’s romantic comedies to be a little too sappy). Overall it was a quick, enjoyable read, honest and witty like many of the beloved characters from Ephron’s films.
The Tell by Amy Griffin
Amy has always been good at running—but what is she running from? After going through MDMA therapy to dig deeper into her forgotten past, Amy confronts the dark truth that’s eluded her for years, and now she must decide how to move forward. Amy’s reckoning with her own memories show the power in trusting ourselves and sharing our stories. (tw: sexual abuse)
The Power Pause by Neha Ruch
The Power Pause is a powerful, practical guide to career pauses for ambitious women. Ruch’s work at The Power Pause (formerly Mother Untitled) aims to equip and empower all mothers, while also re-shaping the narrative around motherhood and work. Filled with many real-life examples from a diverse group of women, The Power Pause continues this important work while also outlining ways to plan, execute, and harness the power of a pause.⭐️ 🎧 The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
I loved listening to Robin Wall Kimmerer narrate her own audiobook, but I wished I also had a hard copy so I could highlight, underline, and star entire pages of wisdom. The Serviceberry is a short, sweet book about gift economies and reciprocity, and how we might learn from nature and indigenous cultures the value of sharing bounty rather than hoarding it for ourselves.
🎧 The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Definitely late to the party on this one, which was originally published in 2006. Jeannette Walls’ memoir describes an upbringing full of uncertainty and dysfunction, but also adventure. Raised by parents who struggled to face their own demons and challenges, the Walls children were encouraged to be independent, curious, and imaginative. Against all odds, they made it from their impoverished childhood home to NYC. For fans of Educated by Tara Westover.
🎧 Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green 🎧
Loved the audiobook, which is read by the author. For anyone who loves deep dives and/or how things broadly connect in ways that might not always be obvious: history, public health, scientific research, policy, & more.
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Melissa Kutsche 