My Favorite Books of 2025

I read 90 books in 2025. As is traditional, I've compiled this recap of my favorite and most memorable reads of the year.

My previous lists: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020.

This year I organized my top 20 into categories—one Top 10 favorite and one runner-up in each category:

Can't-Put-It-Down Historical Fiction

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
This historical fiction / murder mystery / love story set in a colonial Maine town in 1789 was my favorite read of the year. Spoiler alert: life was rough back then. An absolute banger of a book.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Follows the lives of two sisters in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. Spoiler alert: life was also rough back then. Kristin Hannah never disappoints (see below).

Sweet Stories of Friends and Family

My Friends by Fredrik Backman
A note-perfect musing on friendship, art, and love. Funny, sweet, and sad all at the same time. My second-favorite book of the year.

The Sirens by Emilia Hart
A story of sisterhood, told in two parallel tracks, one contemporary and one two-hundred years in the past.

Family Drama, Alaska Style

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Yep, another winner from Kristin Hannah. This one is about a family that moves north to a remote community in Alaska in the 1970s—and then things go south. The community, on Alaska's Kachemak Bay, is a fictionalized version of where my mother lived for much of her adult life, so the book was particularly meaningful to me. My #3 book of the year.

The Griffin Sisters Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner
Two sisters who were once rock stars rekindle their relationship. This book is also set around the town of Homer, near where my mother lived in Alaska. It's nuts that two of my favorite books of the year were set there.

Just Freaking Great Novels

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Female space shuttle pilots in the 1980s? It's as if this book were scientifically engineered in a laboratory to appeal directly to me. Great story. Couldn't put it down.

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker
A literary thriller and family drama from the author of my favorite book from 2024.

Just-For-Fun Mysteries

The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osmon
Book five in the Thursday Murder Club series. An annual entry on my favorites of the year list. Always a great time revisiting these characters.

Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart
A thriller that reads like a screenplay. Fast, funny, and jam-packed with action. I loved it.

Non-Fiction About Simple Pleasures

If You Lived Here You'd Be Home By Now: Why We Traded the Commuting Life for a Little House on the Prairie by Chris Ingraham
Washington Post reporter Chris Ingraham wrote a tongue-in-cheek article about how Red Lake Falls, Minnesota was named the worst place to live in America. Then he visited, fell in love with the town, and moved his family there.

Joyride by Susan Orlean
A compelling, delightful memoir by master essayist Susan Orlean (author of The Orchid Thief, among others). If you like Susan Orlean, you'll love this book. If you don't know Susan Orlean, start with one of her collections such as The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People.

Fiction Where Honestly Not Much Happens

Wreck by Catherine Newman
Catherine Newman's books are short on plot and action and yet completely readable and relatable. Read Sandwich first if you're new to Newman. This is a sequel to that book.

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
Another book with a not-much-happens plot (it follows a mother-of-the-bride over three days surrounding the wedding) and yet it's delightfully compelling.

Terrifying or Hopeful Technology Manifestos

If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All by Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares
The title says it all. I'm not an AI doomer but this book scared the living pants off of me.

Deep Future: Creating Technology That Matters by Pablos Holman
OK, put your pants back on. This book shares some of the crazy technology innovations that are coming in the near future. I mean, assuming that AI doesn't kill us all first.

I Can't Believe This Actually Happened

A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst
I can't resist a good shipwreck story. This is a good (and true) shipwreck story.

Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by Susan Morrison
If you have ever been a fan of SNL, this behind-the-scenes look at the show and the life of its founder is a can't-miss. Also the longest book I read this year at a hefty 655 pages.

Books Where Life Gets Weird

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
A woman on a flight predicts everyone's date and cause of death. Then people start dying.

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult
A woman gets stranded on the Galapagos Islands during COVID. Then things get strange.

Honorable Mentions

These books didn't squeak into my top 20, but were each memorable and enjoyable:

Heartwood by Amity Gaige
Fiction: a race against time to rescue a woman who has gone lost on the Appalachian Trail.

Tilt by Emma Pattee
A very pregnant woman has to walk home across Portland, Oregon after a massive earthquake levels the city. If you live in Portland, this is another pants scarer-offer.

Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi
A Hollywood agent has to help introduce a gelatinous space alien to the Earth's general public. Silly and fun.

The Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve
The inevitable time travel book on my annual list.

In Five Years by Rebecca Searle
The inevitable waking-up-in-a-different-body book on my annual list.

The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan
Taylor Jenkins Reid lite.

The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory by Thomas Fuller
Bad News Bears minus the bad news and the bears. Everyone loves an underdog story.