Another year in the books means it’s time for my annual reading recap and 2025’s list is really special.
Here’s a quick look at the 2025 breakdown by the numbers:
- Total Books: 40
- Total Pages: 11,582
- Format: 8 Print / 32 Digital
- Genre: 15 Fiction / 25 Non-Fiction
- Author Gender: 12 Female / 28 Male
- Library Use: (100% digital) 32 library books (including 6 audiobooks)
The year to year trends that stand out to me, given that I read exactly the same number of books in 2024, is that I read six fewer books by female writers, slightly less fiction, and just two more physical books (and one less audiobook). I did read one poetry book! And since I started tracking two years ago, my reading is ‘frontlist’ heavy which means 24 (more than half!) of the books I read in 2025 either published in 2025 or 2024, within the last year. I can’t help but want to know which books live up to the buzzy hype and have my own opinion about them (which helps you sift through new recommendations!).
Even though I read two fewer fiction books this year, those were the ones I that will stay with me. There’s something about single word title novels like Perfection, Culpability, Playworld, Martyr!, Dogs, Rejection, (incl. non-fiction like Lorne, Montaigne, Molly) that made the list in 2025 that stand out looking back now.
Usually it’s the novels by female authors that rise to the top for me, and there were so many good ones this year like Rental House, Colored Television, and Long Island Compromise that I loved that were just slightly overshadowed (and maybe this is recency bias) by the men I read that I’d call my top favorites. Those men who wrote Culpability, Perfection, and Playworld (as well as Martyr!) rocked my reading experiences this year. Everyone should read all of these, I can say without a second’s hesitation.
When I can get lost in a masterful biography, I tend to learn a ton with a deep dive into cultural, political, and social history more than any class I’ve ever taken and this year was no different with Lorne (absolutely fascinating anecdotes I’ll never forget), Master of the Senate (a true education in its comprehensive history of the Senate, civil rights, and LBJ),and The Fish the Ate the Whale (trust me, you need to know more about how the banana shaped our world) were complete standouts that I think everyone would love as much as I did.
There were several essay collections that made my year, everything from David Lynch’s mediations on creativity to Anthony Bourdain’s overlooked mixed bag, to many newer (and still living!) writers like Maris Kreizman and Ira Madison III’s breakouts that I enjoyed.
Now that I can see the data laid out in a grid, I’m going to make my common pledge to try to shift more towards print fiction books by female writers to balance the scales a bit more in 2026. But who knows where the year will take me.
If any book below catches your interest, I hope you follow through and read it. You can check out my reviews for every book I read on my Goodreads page. Let me know what you’re reading these days and send me your recommendations!
And without further ado, here are my top reads from 2025.
My Top Reads from 2025
Favorite Fiction:
- Playworld by Adam Ross
- Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
- Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
Favorite Non-Fiction:
- The Fish that Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen
- The Master of the Senate (The Years of Lyndon Johnson #3) by Robert A. Caro
- Lorne by Susan Morrison
Honorable Mentions:
- Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
- A Marriage At Sea by Sophie Elmhirst
- Rental House by Weike Wang
Want to read reviews of every book here? Visit my GoodReads profile.
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