I read 83 books in 2025! I tried to go for ones I really thought I'd like, curating some book podcasts and lists, rather than just reading what came as available on Libby or on physical bookshelves, and it was a great multi-four (and some five-stars) year!
1. Night Road
I adore Kristin Hannah as an author and borrowed this book, which I couldn't put down and truly loved, from Krystal. Lexi, who grew up in foster care due to abandonment by her mother, who had substance use issues, is the new girl in high school when she comes to live with her Aunt. She soon befriends Mia and then falls for Mia's twin Zach. One tragic night just before their graduation changes the courses of their lives; this book explores the themes of the (often over-) protectiveness and deep love of parents, the bonds between siblings, that we are defined by more than our worst mistake, and the amazing power of forgiveness and grace. Get out the hankies for this one!
2. Broken Country
In rural England, years after Beth and Gabriel have a whirlwind teenage summer romance, they go their separate ways, he becoming betrothed to an American, and she settling down with dependable farmer Frank. Beth and Gabriel reconnect when he, a writer, and his young son Leo move back into his family home, and the pull of their connection becomes too much to resist. Exploring the themes of loss, guilt, blame, and forgiveness, the ending of the novel will leave you shocked at the impossible choices we all make in this life.
3. When Breath Becomes Air (reread)
I rarely re-read books, but as I've been going through a tough professional-personal transition, I wanted to again read the words of Paul Kalanithi in this memoir which is is one of the most inspirational reads of my lifetime (last read in 2016; thanks, Goodreads!). Paul, a gifted writer and neurosurgery resident, finds that he has metastatic lung cancer at the young age of 36. Hopeful to finish his residency and contribute to the field of brain science while also starting a family with his wife Lucy (relying on assisted reproductive technology due to his illness), he miraculously finds time to write this astonishing book amidst his ticking clock and toxic treatment regimens. His memoir will bring you some of the most heartfelt words one will ever read about what it means to be a conscientious and dedicated medical professional but, first and more important, a human with real limitations and who experiences grief and loss in many forms. I dare you to finish the epilogue, written by his widow, without sobbing.
4. Happy Ever After Playlist
I love Abby Jimenez's romances. In this one, the second book after The Friend Zone, Sloan is still grieving after the loss of her fiancé Brandon when a dog literally falls into her lap. Searching for the owner leads her into a first flirty text relationship with Jason (actually rock star Jaxon Waters). Despite the difficulties between them (her desire to have a stable home life and his fame and paparazzi following), this is a fun happily-ever-after novel, just like the title! If anyone local wants to borrow this one, I have it in print!
5. We Can Do Hard Things
This was a great new inspirational book with soooo many words of wisdom from wise ladies (Glennon, Abby, and Amanda, along with many other thoughtful people who contributed) which shares the name of their eponymous podcast, which I also listend to religiously. It covers love, parenting, and so many "hard" topics and I found myself scribbling down so many quotes to save (but wish I could have highlighted this library book!). It makes a great gift!
6. Long Bright River
This was another eye-opening and heartbreaking crime fictional novel recommended by my sister Vanessa by Liz Moore, author of God of the Woods, a mystery I loved last year. Mickey (Michaela) is a cop for the Philadelphia Police Department and is assigned to the Kensington area of town, home to many victims of the opioid crisis. Her younger sister, Kacey, who has struggled with heroin addiction since her teenage years, goes missing amidst a series of murders of young women in the district. Mickey races to locate her sister and the truth about the murderer in this page-turner.
7. Family Family
I loved Laurie Frankel's This is how it always is, a heartfelt novel about the family of a transgender child as they navigate their child's transition. In this book, which also echoes themes of her own experience (adoption), she tries to drive home the fact that adoption stories are not always traumatic/filled-with-regret stories but ones which can bring people together and make new meaning of the world "family." India Allwood, an aspiring actress, has two unplanned pregnancies as a young woman and with her whole "pro-choice" heart, selects adoptive families in which to entrust her biological babies (in closed adoptions). She later adopts two children she didn't birth, which has its own challenges, while her bio children seek her out years later when she has become famous. I loved this quote from the book: "This is what parenting is, India. Solving impossible-to-solve problems while also experiencing deep crises of faith while also being kind of annoyed while also never getting enough rest. These problems only ever go away by changing into different equally impossible problems. This is how it always is for all parents, no matter how you came by your children."
8. My Friends
I always know I'm going to love whatever Fredrik Backman (author of A Man Called Ove, Beartown, Anxious People, and The Winners) writes. This, his newest novel, tells the backstory of four best friends (Joar, fiercely protective of his mother as they are both battered, "The Artist," who paints a beautiful picture of the sea, Ted, the nerdy younger brother, and Ali, a spitfire and the only female) as they navigate their painful (and often traumatic) childhoods, relationships, and, later, adulthood. We learn what happens to all of them through the interactions, twenty-five years later, between Ted and Louisa, an aspiring artist on the cusp of aging out of the foster care system who has always been enthralled with the famed picture of the sea which she finally sees "live" in a museum.
9. The Tell
This was an exceptional memoir in which Amy, perfectionistic running and mother, uncovers a past trauma in an eye-opening MDMA-assisted therapy session, which blows her life open and leads to digging into her childhood past in Amarillo, Texas.
10. Awake
Awake was an astonishing and hopeful memoir, which I read in a single sitting, and which left me in tears on many pages while also making me laugh. Jen Hatmaker discovers her husband's infidelity after twenty-six years of marriage, and everything she knows about trust, love, family, and her Christian faith and church, is turned on its head. Her awakening-- finding out how to be an independent woman, her own best friend, and how to love and be loved (and carried) by others, is told in these pages.
Here are my previous years' top-ten lists if you need some reading inspiration!
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