The Best Books I Read in 2025
It’s time for all the best-of lists. Mine looks back on all the books I read in the past 11 months (not just ones that were published in this year). It leans heavily on recent books, though there are a few older gems that I didn’t discover until recently. What were your favorite reads this past year? What are you looking forward to reading next year?
Adult
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (2016)
Count Rostov is arrested during the 1917 revolution in Russia and is placed under house arrest in the Hotel Metropol in Moscow. Observing his life, which is limited to the walls of the hotel but still includes the ups and downs of friends, family, and politics, is enchanting. With no fortune left, he gets a job in the hotel restaurant. When his friend Nina must flee the city, she leaves her daughter Sofia in Rostov’s charge, giving him a family to care for. The details are what make this book wonderful, and I often found myself laughing aloud.
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst (2024)
In Durst’s acknowledgments for this book, she writes that she wanted it to feel “like a warm hug” and, wow, did she succeed. I adored this book. Kiela is a librarian at the book’s start, but a fire during a rebellion forces her to flee with as many books as she can carry and a sentient spider plant. The two settle on an island called Caltrey. They slowly carve out a life for themselves there, walking the line between opening up to the community and keeping their secrets. There’s a romance with a friendly and handy neighbor. There is delicious food and spells gone wrong (and right) and the revelation of a connection between the island and Kiela’s past. I urge you to pick this book up. You’ll find yourself drawn to the people, places, and magic in no time. Durst has also written a companion book, The Enchanted Greenhouse.
The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal (2025)
In volume four of the Lady Astronaut series, Elma and her husband are among the first settlers on Mars. Life in space requires constant problem solving and adaptation. One of the crew’s challenges is to honor the many cultures and beliefs of the citizens of the settlement without bringing along prejudice, racism, and hatred. As the characters try to survive and thrive, readers will cheer them on through all the struggles and triumphs.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (2022)
I listened to Remarkably Bright Creatures as an audiobook (narrated wonderfully by Marin Ireland and Michael Urie). The novel has three points of view: Tova, a 60-year-old who lives in a small town in Washington state and cleans the local aquarium at night; Cameron, a 30-year-old who lives in Modesto, CA, and is still finding his path; and Marcellus, a 4-year-old Great Pacific Octopus who lives at the aquarium Tova cleans. All three are searching — for family, for relief from grief, for freedom. Van Pelt does a fantastic job developing the characters as she weaves their stories together. I loved this satisfying and feel-good story.
Young adult
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley (2021)
Daunis is the daughter of a Native father and a white mother. She lives on Sugar Island off the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and loves hockey and chemistry. When Daunis witnesses a murder, she reluctant agrees to go undercover to help take down a drug ring. Boulley does an amazing job balancing Daunis’s coming of age story with a mystery while weaving in the elements of the Indigenous culture that defines Sugar Island. Beautifully written and hard to put down.
Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley (2023)
A companion novel to Firekeeper’s Daughter, this book by Boulley focuses on Daunis’s niece Perry. Perry’s been strong-armed into an internship for the summer. Despite her initial hesitation, she is moved by the cultural artifacts she sees in museums and private collections and vows to bring them back to her community. As in Firekeeper’s Daugher, Boulley inserts mystery as well: a character familiar from the first book is killed and young native women are going missing. Perry wants to become a warrior for her people — to do the things that others won’t.
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (2025)
Sunrise tells the story of Haymitch Abernathy’s time as a tribute in the 50th Hunger Games, when each district had to send twice as many children to be slaughtered. In the trilogy, Haymitch acts as mentor for Katniss and Peeta, and we mostly know him as a drunk and curmudgeon. Getting to see Haymitch before his games shows a softer side of his personality, making his transformation even more crushing. Collins skillfully shows Haymitch’s motivation and how the series of events leads him to take actions he wouldn’t have imagined.
Ash’s Cabin by Jen Wang (2024)
I really liked this latest graphic novel from the creator of The Princess and the Dressmaker. Ash’s parents have agreed to call them by their new name, but the adults seem befuddled by their choice. When the adults let Ash stay with her cousin for a month in the summer, Ash makes a plan to find their grandfather’s old cabin in the woods and live there. A gritty and heart-warming story of how to survive and how to find yourself.
Middle grade
The Wrong Way Home by Kate O’Shaughnessy (2024)
Fern finds life on the Ranch comforting and predictable. When her mom forces them to run away in the middle of the night, she’s confused. Why would they leave this great place? Her mom insists that life outside is better. Fern remains skeptical and figures out ways to get back to the life she’s always known. A remarkable look at what life in a cult might feel like for a young person.
Bad Badger by Mary Rosewood (2025)
Bad Badger is about a badger, Septimus, who thinks that he’s not very good at being his species. He isn’t like other badgers, preferring to live by the sea (and not in the forest) and is covered with spots that seem very un-badger-like. He loves classical music, freshly brewed tea, and solitude. That is until he meets Gully, a sea gull who visits his porch. Gully doesn’t talk much, allowing Septimus to share his interests. Is this a friend? Septimus wonders. When Gully returns day after day, Septimus begins to count on her presence. When Gully stops appearing, Septimus is worried he’s done something to offend. In trying to find Gully and make amends, he goes on journeys in which he meets other badgers in the forest and other gulls at the beach. It’s a lovely tale of friendship and building faith in yourself.
The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls by Judith Rossell (2025)
Maggie is sent away from the orphanage and to the notoriously strict Midwatch Institute. But when she arrives, she discovers that the harsh reputation is only a cover story. Instead the school aims to teach the girls in a warm and loving environment while helping out their unspecified but European city by solving mysteries. Fun and fantastical. Maggie and her cohort will win your hearts.