Top Ten Reads of 2025

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!

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

Pottermania

I read both kids Harry Potter #1 (The Philosopher's or Sorcerer's Stone) in their young lives. Niall really got into the characters this year and has been asking to be read (subsequent books) also, really enjoying the characters and magic. I read a few as a young adult, but didn't finish the series and have forgotten a lot about the plot, although the characters have stuck with me.

    Spirit Day at school as favorite book character- guess who!

We started watching the films as our Friday night family movies for a while and Iver then started independently started reading the books (which they got as a set from Santa), although not in order (I think he started with #6 to beat us to watching that movie, and then worked his way through all the others).

He is a good reader, although he hasn't been particularly interested in (voluntarily) picking up books just to read "for fun," and often rejects the books I bring home from the library that I think he'll like. However, he just just blazed through the Harry Potter series-- waking up early to read, going to bed later to read, and bringing the book(s) in the car so he could experience the magic. He is a master at HP trivia, and I often find the kids playing "spells" with one another ("Stupefy!"). It's been wonderful to see and witness; however, now that he finished the series, it may be a letdown to find something as good (I definitely know the feeling!). He tells me he may start them all over again, straightaway, since he loves them so much! 

 The Harry Potter completist!  

(Niall and I are only partway through book 4 because Iver stole it from us!)

We have been exploring the idea of taking them to a Harry Potter theme park-- either at Universal Studios in Florida (the bigger one) or in LA, since they're so enamored! I think they're at great ages for this kind of trip, although we hear that it may be better if Niall is a bit older/taller so we (he) can experience some of the more major rides.  We'll see and we’ll see how long the Pottermania lasts! 

Top Ten Reads of 2024

I read 73 books in 2024 (with a few days to go).  I didn't have a knock-it-out-of-of the park with all-time favorites, but did read some great ones-- here are some recs if you're searching!

I really enjoyed this memoir by Maggie Smith, a poet and gifted writer, who writes in short vignettes about her painful (and unexpected) divorce and parenting while trying to "make this place beautiful" in a way she had not planned for her life. 

I hadn't read anything by Abby Jimenez before, but this was my gateway book!  Lovers of Emily Henry will enjoy this author and this sweet book in which Briana and Jacob, both Emergency Department physicians fresh off their own messy break-ups, start a letter-writing friendship--- which, of course, develops into more... (I followed this with Part of Your World, which I also loved).

I love all of Irish-American writer Tana French's Irish murder mysteries, and The Hunter, her newest, also did not disappoint. In this book set in Ardnakelty, a small village in the west of Ireland, teenage Trey Reddy's absent father shows back up in town with a scheme to get villagers rich with hidden gold.... but when his associate ends up dead, everyone is pointing fingers.

I was so excited that I got to read (thanks to our local librarian) an early read copy of this newest historical fiction book from Kristin Hannah. It follows Frances "Frankie" McGrath, a brand-new nurse who joins the army and serves in the Vietnam war, shaping her life in both good and traumatic ways as it did for many who enlisted (including the often-forgotten "women"). 

I adore Emily Henry's writing and this was another cute love story that involves Daphne and Miles, who become (complicated!) roommates when their (ex-) partners (Peter and Petra, childhood not-so-platonic-after-all best friends) dump them for eachother.

I picked up The Best Minds on the recommendation from fellow reader-friend Jessica. This is the extremely well written and heartbreaking (true) story about the author's friend (Michael Laudor), chronicling his life from their shared suburban childhood in NY through Ivy-league education at Yale, through a psychotic break, and his turn towards violence. Even the best of families, communities, friends, and mental health safety nets (albeit flawed) can't save everyone with the devastating illness of schizophrenia. 

I really enjoyed this novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, in which Monique is mysteriously chosen as the biographer for Evelyn Hugo, a woman who rose from humble origins to movie star status. Monique searches to understand Evelyn's choices in seven husbands and, and to discover who, in fact, was the great love of her life (as well as why she was chosen to write Evelyn's story).

The God of the Woods came highly recommended from friends and booklists, and I agree it is well worth the long read! The wealthy Van Laar family is touched by tragedy when their son, Bear, disappears from a trail on the woods of Camp Emerson in the sixties. More than a decade later, his sister Barbara (a bit of a rebel and a new camper) also goes missing-- leading to a lot of speculation on if/how the disappearances are connected, who was responsible, and their motives. The chapters alternate points of view of the counselors and camp staff, family members, townies, and investigators, which really leaves you guessing how the secrets will be revealed. It was definitely one of the top books of 2024 for me!

I have been fascinated with Octopuses for some time- including after reading a fantastic fiction book Remarkably Bright Creatures and watching the documentary "My Octopus Teacher." This book was given to me by a fellow book-loving patient and explored the life and cycle of several octopus "friends" as told by the author, who came to know them intimately in their aquaria and also watched them in the while diving. You will never view octopuses the same (or eat them, probably) after reading this. 

I loved By Any Other Name, a new release (which my sis-in-law gifted me for my birthday in November) from one my favorite authors of all time, which tells the story of two women writers (playwright Melina Green and her ancestor, Emilia Bassano, who lived in Elizabethan England), whose words threaten to be forgotten at the expense of more famous men (namely in the case of Emilia, William Shakespeare). It discusses friendship, love, loss, and ambition in the best kind of historical fiction novel! 

If you need more inspiration, here are my previous years' favorites:

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

AppleGATE-Way books!

Iver has been (to my dismay) a bit of a reluctant independent reader in his life so far....  until this past month or so!

Through his school English class, fourth graders have read and done "literature circles" for a few novels so far-- Morning Girl, Island of the Blue Dolphins (which I remembered from grade school and which I re-read at Iver's request!), and The One and Only Ivan. Iver was really motivated to complete the assignments and to get ahead in reading... but it's also translated into some independent reading at home which just warms my heart so much.

The One and Only Ivan is a sweet book told from the perspective of Ivan, a shopping-mall gorilla (based on a true account of a gorilla held for 27 years in a mall in Tacoma, WA) who is eventually released to a more humane wildlife habitat in Atlanta.  It's been Iver's favorite book to date (it's actually very funny), and also a cute movie (originally released on Disney, now rentable on Amazon) that we watched together after he finished the book. 

After reading Ivan, Iver requested several of the other spin-offs in the quartet by the same author, told from the perspectives of different animal characters, which we were able to borrow from the local library  (Niall also likes them, requesting them to be read aloud to him).

(Bob is the free-roaming dog).

(Ruby is a baby elephant)

(Ivan and female gorilla Kinyani have twins)

He's read another book, Crenshaw, by the same author, and has requested a few more from the library. He's also started into the Judy Blume books he received for Christmas last year. I'm so happy that he's enjoying books on his own-- a new chapter for us (and him). I wonder what he'll read next!

Keepin' it Real

I enjoyed The Velveteen Rabbit as a child. I saw words from the book on a post recently and they struck me. 

I have often been accused of being "negative" in life. (A good book I read a couple of years ago about people who see the world as glass-half-empty is Bittersweet by Susan Cain, who also wrote Quiet, another book [about the blessings of often-misunderstood introverts] with which I strongly identify). I am not alone.  Iver also, like me, tends to have a "realistic" (as well as highly sensitive) temperament.  At times, I may be "content."  However, I am not a laugh-out-loud often kind of person (my kids love to try to get me to laugh out loud). 

Sometimes I say (or write in ranting company e-mails) things that people don't want to hear because they can be uncomfortable and reveal flaws.  My words may come across as negative, but they are in efforts to make things better, usually offering practical solutions. When things don't improve, it is possible to spiral into cynicism.  As a HSP (highly sensitive person), I am affected deeply about things and people around me, especially things which are inefficient, not working well, or unjust.    

Sometimes my honesty is not always welcomed. I may not always tell you what you want to hear, but I will be honest (and real). I can't stand superficial small talk, which exhausts deeply feeling realists like me. True honesty is truly the only way to have deep, and genuine relationships.  

I may be kinda shabby and definitely worn down, but think everyone should appreciate me wanting to keep it real! 

"Concerning Behavior"

 

I was prepping the kids last week to take them for their first "well child" visit in a couple of years, as we wanted to check Niall's growth percentiles and to see if their doctor was concerned (he is <1% weight, 3% height and 6% BMI, and there are no major red flags but something we'll keep watching). Iver wondered why he had to go to the doctor if he wasn't due for shots and anything. I told him sometimes we talk about medical and behavioral concerns at well child visits, and that I might mention some behavior concerns (mainly defiant attitudes and intense outbursts of anger, although this is improving) to his doctor. He was very embarrassed and didn't want that to happen! 

"I'm concerned about YOUR behavior," he said.

Me: What do you mean? What behavior, specifically?

Iver: Your reading. You're always reading!  It's concerning!  Extremely concerning!  YOU should go to the doctor!

Top Ten Reads of 2023

I read 76 books in 2023!  Keeping track of my books on Goodreads and Facebook albums has been a great way for me to share my favorites with friends and family and to remember the titles and authors I've really enjoyed.  I have blogged/shared my top-ten lists for the past several years.   Below are my top ten books read in 2023, in order by when I read them, although I do think The Winners, up first, was my absolute favorite. 

I'm not sure if "leaving it all out on the rink" is said in the sport of hockey, but WOW! (to use another baseball analogy)-- Swedish author Fredrik Backman hits another one out of the park here. His latest novel, The Winners, is the third in the "Beartown" Trilogy and is a 668-page saga following the residents of a forest down obsessed with hockey set a couple of years after the rape of Maya, which threatened to destroy the town and neighboring (rival) Hed. This book is about so much more than ice hockey, though. It's about messy, flawed humans, the challenges of parenting, teen loneliness, love and relationships, work-life balance, loyalty, betrayal, losing, and winning. It's about life, death, and everything in between and Backman's breathlessly captivating writing, humor, and depth of emotions as well as the characters will stay with you long after the last page.

On Rotation was the delightful debut novel by a Ghanaian-American physician and author which tells the story of Angela, a medical student trying to make a meaningful difference in the demanding and often unrewarding field of medicine (something I know a lot about!) while also juggling matters of her own heart (with new but complicated love interest Ricky) as well as her African parental/cultural expectations. Funny and heartwarming! 

This memoir was an incredible read while we were abroad in El Salvador for spring break. It chronicles poet Javier Zamora’s adventure as a solo nine-year-old as he flees his native El Salvador through Central America to join his parents in "La USA." Your heart will break reading about the hardships of facing dishonest people and coyotes, fear of and deportation by "La Migra," but you'll also be amazed at the kindness and love he is shown, particularly from other "migrantes" along the way. No human is illegal.  

Wow!!  I couldn't have more superlatives for this book if I tried. Remarkably Bright Creatures is the heartfelt debut novel by Shelby Van Pelt which tells the story of a remarkable friendship between an aquarium cleaner Tova, a stoic widow grieving both her husband's death from cancer and the mystery of her son's disappearance as a teenager decades before, and a Giant Pacific Octopus (Marcellus). Uniquely told from their different points of view and involving another major character, Cameron, whose connection with Tova is explained as the book unfolds based on incredibly smart Marcellus' clues and communication, this book will leave you amazed and also reconsidering how such a smart animal can ever be humanely confined in a tank. 

The author of this sweeping novel, Abraham Verghese (who also wrote Cutting for Stone) is an incredible storyteller as well as a medical doctor currently working at Stanford. The fictional book chronicles the life of three generations of Christian Malayali living in South India (Kerala) during the twentieth century, starting with a twelve-year-old child-bride, who marries into a family in which a peculiar "condition" (an aversion to the omnipresent water and death by drowning) afflicts various members of the family. Many generational secrets are revealed in this incredible book, which has hefty and very interesting doses of medical and surgical details and knowledge, passionate love stories and relationship drama, history, politics, and amazing words and manifestations of faith in God. My mom told me that the estate (Parambil) where much of the book is set reflected much of her childhood in South India. I could not put down this (long!) page-turner, and tears were streaming down my face as I finished the last chapter. 

Australian OB-GYN Dr. Catherine Hamlin and her husband Reg moved to Ethiopia to start a midwifery school. What ensued was a lifelong dedication to medical practice helping victims of obstetric fistulae (resulting from obstructed labors and distances from medical centers, injuries almost never seen in first-world countries) and opening a "Hospital by the River" to surgically heal almost 90% of these unfortunate and often-ostracized patients, who, after years of incontinence, shame, and isolation can go on to lead happy, fulfilled lives. Birth nerds will really enjoy this really inspirational and hopeful book by a Christian woman called to serve "The least of these..."

Book Lovers, a title which caught my eye for obvious reasons, was my first book I read by Emily Henry, and I have subsequently read others (all funny and delightful romances)! This rom-com features Nora Stephens, type-A  New York City-based book agent, who goes on a trip to small-town North Carolina's Sunshine Falls with her very pregnant sister to bond. Surprisingly, gruff editor Charlie Lastra who she knows from NY is actually from the small town... and book lovers connect.  Fans of Colleen Hoover will enjoy Emily Henry's books, too (which are a bit less twisted).

Hello Beautiful was in high demand for e-reader loan and so I finally borrowed it in print from our local library on many others' recommendations. The novel tells the story of essentially abandoned child and basketball star William Waters, whose life changes when he marries into the close-knit Padavano family. Themes of family, love, forgiveness, grief, and second chances, are explored in this emotional novel, which I really enjoyed. 

Demon Copperhead was a long, deep, often depressing but ultimately hopeful book about the resilience of Demon (Damon), orphaned at a young age in the hills of Appalachia, bouncing from foster home to foster home, and trying to forge a meaningful life despite the curse of poverty, a culture of despair and opiate addiction, and not mattering enough. 

I loved Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers and in this novel, the protagonist and narrator, podcaster Bodie Kane, returns to her New Hampshire boarding school, Granby, to teach a course. In doing so, she starts rousing up long-buried memories regarding the death (decades earlier) of her former roommate, Thalia, and attempts to recover the true story of her murder and probable wrongful conviction (à la Serial). The book was extremely well written and a real page-turner. 

Here are my previous years' favorites:

2019

2020

2021

2022

Top Ten Reads of 2022

While not as many as in the previous (pandemic) years, I read sixty-six books in 2022, many of which moved me incredibly. I have been trying to keep posting my top-ten lists here for sharing recommendations with friends when they ask and for my own reflection. Here are my 2022 favorites (only in order of the timing of having read them)!  Happy Reading!

"Crying in your living room" is more like what will happen when you read this lovely memoir Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. This book was gifted to me by my sister-in-law Katherine, and it was an amazing first book to read in the New Year. It, a NY Times Bestseller (for a good reason!), tells the story of Michelle's sometimes conflict-filled but also love-filled relationship with her Korean mother, who gets hit with a surprising cancer diagnosis, weaving her memories of Korean language, culture, and food with her own complicated grief. I loved this book!

My local Humboldt friends will love Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson, who I believe was born in Arcata. It is set in 1970s Klamath and tells the story of a community and marriage, stressed by the tensions between the logging industry (and the workers who depend on the trees for their livelihoods) with concerned environmentalists and many women, who have noticed a striking pattern of deformed babies and adverse birth outcomes suspected to be due to chemicals used by the companies to protect their precious "crop." The content was right up my alley and the storytelling gripping.

Several people suggested that I read Braiding Sweetgrass, and when it was front and center on the library's shelf, it was a sign it was time to bring it home. I have to admit that, despite my love for spending time in the natural world, I am not remotely a "plant" person and had to read it quite slowly to absorb all of the details, background, and in order to savor its lyric stories. Written by a NY-based biologist and native woman, this book is an incredible collection of stories describing the importance of plants (and the importance of loving them) to humanity. It laments the rift from collaborating with nature that we humans have sadly endured (and perpetuated), and demonstrates that by reviving many indigenous practices and their gentle approach to the other wondrous beings that share our earth, we can heal the planet-- and ourselves.

Hamnet, a work of historical fiction, was a breathtaking novel set in Elizabethan England. It jumps between the start of the love story between the famous (yet unnamed in the book) playwright William Shakespeare and his eccentric wife Agnes, and the death (during a bubonic plague outbreak) of their eleven-year-old son Hamnet and its aftermath, during which Shakespeare channeled his grief into immortalizing his son by writing one of the most famous plays of all time. I could not put this book down and have since read another one by Maggie O'Farrell, The Marriage Portrait (which I also recommend!).

I flew through Bonnie Garmus' delightful novel Lessons in Chemistry, which tells the fictional story of 1960s chemist and Elizabeth Zott, who surprisingly, against her feminist ways and plans, becomes a single mother. She marches through the layers of sex discrimination and biases against women in science to show her young daughter a different way forward and what all might be possible.

I hadn't read anything by Jenny Lawson before, but that will change! Broken was a wonderful, laugh-out-loud funny book of essays about her life, marriage, quirks (including lots of wild animal encounters), and struggles with chronic illness as well as mental health (note: there is a good deal of swearing in it).

This powerful debut novel follows the story of Frida, an Asian-American mother struggling to balance the demands of work and single motherhood after, newly postpartum, her husband leaves her for a hip and groovy younger woman. After one exceptionally bad day and lapse in judgment when she leaves her toddler, Harriet, home alone, she is forced by the state (in the name of "child well-being) to attend a school intended to "re-educate," reform and evaluate these "bad mothers" to determine whether they deserve to be re-united with their children. My insecure motherly heart was broken by this raw book which, while dystopian, demonstrates fully the impossibly harsh way we judge mothers and attempt to decide who qualifies as a "good" parent. We need to remember that "there is no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.”

It Ends with Us, the first novel I'd read from Colleen Hoover, delivered an emotional gut-punch and left me wanting to read many more novels by her! It tells the story of Lily Bloom and her first love in her small Maine hometown. It then follows her passionate relationship years later with a successful neurosurgeon, Ryle, while she's trying to launch her own flower business in the big city of Boston. Lily wonders how much can we forgive of those who love but hurt us and when and how do we move on... I've since devoured several other Colleen Hoover books, and the sequel to this one is out now! 

I adored This is Going to Hurt (now a TV show on AMC), written by a British doctor (OB-GYN resident)-turned-comedy-writer. He chronicles in diary form the hilarious, absurd, and poignant stories which comprise what is so amazing, true, but also extremely hard and demoralizing about daily work in medicine and in birth work. I hope to watch the show sometime! 

I adore both of the Obamas and after reading Michelle's recent book Becoming, I just knew I'd have to read this latest work of hers. Gifted to me by my sister for kindle, I devoured The Light We Carry in a couple of days. Woven with stories of her own family and "kitchen table" of ride-or-die friends, and challenges within her marriage, career, and life in the White House, Michelle, a remarkable writer and human being details how, despite outside pressures, competing demands, and expectations (especially on women and mothers), it is so important to stand firm in our convictions and to stay grounded so that our inner light can shine through. Despite being so famous, she comes across as such a down-to-earth person and I will forever be a fan! This was an inspirational book!

Here are my previous years' favorites:

2019

2020

2021