Top 10 Books of 2025

Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share our top 10 books of 2025 this week. I have barely reviewed anything this year so I’m including brief thoughts on each one as well.

5-Star Reads

I’m unreasonably stingy with my five-star ratings so only two made it through this year (most links go to GoodReads but some go to my reviews):

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Mangu Sandanna–I loved this author’s book, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches (link to my review), so much so that it was one of my top ten books of 2024. I may have liked Magical Innkeeping even more. It’s not a perfect book but it was the perfect book at the perfect time for me. I love stories of found families and this is a delightfully quirky, eccentric, and caring example.

Another Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day by Clemency Burton-Hill–Another repeat author. Ms. Burton-Hill’s book Year of Wonder was on my list of top ten books in 2021. I loved starting my day by listening to a piece of music beautifully introduced by the author. The first book was more diverse than you would expect for a book about classical music, but this installment is even more so, with many female and non-European composers from current times and centuries past. There is something for everyone in these pages, I promise you. She even includes film composers!

4.5 Star Reads

I’m just listing these in alphabetical order

Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear–I’m usually pretty resistant to self-help books but I picked this up, thinking it would count for the “How-To” prompt in Shelleyrae’s Nonfiction Reader Challenge. I was surprised to find that the book was approachable and had actionable ways to change your habits. It probably could have been a long article instead of a full-length book because it did get repetitive at times, but I appreciated that everything was broken down into small, unintimidating pieces. A perfect choice as we start a new year.

The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea–I wish I could mail this book out to everyone who is so very anti-immigrant in the US right now. The Devil’s Highway investigates an incident in 2001 when a group of 26 men and boys attempted to cross into the US through the Arizona desert. Only twelve survived. It was a human tragedy and I can’t help but feel that the only villains in the piece are the systems that cause people to attempt such an act and the people who profit off of them. There’s a lot to think about in this brutal yet beautifully written book.

Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life by Jason Roberts–I just saw that this won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2025! The author compares the lives and philosophies of Carl Linnaeus, father of our current system of scientific identification, and Georges-Louis de Buffon, who essentially believed that life is too complex to fit into neat categories. The book is part biography, part history, and part science, but it is all fascinating. As a biology major, I’m of course familiar with Linnaeus. I’d never heard of Buffon. Imagine my surprise when I found him describing ideas that sound surprisingly like evolution, well before Darwin published his book. But the Church forced Buffon to recant. *sigh* There were more cutting-edge ideas, as well as some baffling ones, but you get the idea. If you have any interest in nonfiction, there is something in this book that will appeal to you.

Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill, read by Catrin Walker-Booth–You can read a real review if you click on the link in the title! Woohoo! This is another story of found family. I liked that the group didn’t always get along, and in fact had some major arguments, but they found their way back to agreement with each other. I felt like I was hearing a fairy tale before bed as I listened to the audio book. This would be a cozy read for anyone who fell in love with simple fantasy books in the ’80s and ’90s.

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta–I suspect that the author and I would vote very differently on many political issues but we have common ground in wondering what on earth has happened to the evangelical church. We both grew up in evangelical churches and don’t recognize what we hear and see pastors doing and saying on the news. Mr. Alberta investigates the history of this Christian nationalist movement and interviews many of the most powerful pastors in the news today. He’s so brutally honest about what he finds that I actually fear for his safety. And that says something about the state of the Church today, doesn’t it? This isn’t for everyone but if you wonder what happened, as I do, give this a try.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles #2) by TJ Klune–I loved The House in the Cerulean Sea so much that it was in my top ten books of 2020. I was excited to read a sequel but nervous too. Could it possibly live up to the first? It absolutely did. We learn more about Arthur Parnassus and his own trauma. I love this found family so much, it’s ridiculous. The kids are adorably mischievous but they are all so full of love and support for each other. These books are a balm for the soul.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden–I’ve read all of this author’s novels and love them. Her book The Winter of the Witch made my top ten list in 2020. ButThe Warm Hands of Ghosts felt like a hugely talented author really coming into her own. The book is beautifully written, disturbing, and atmospheric. I truly felt like I was on the battlefield in World War I with these characters. One scene was so claustrophobic, I felt like I was struggling to breathe. For an exploration of love, loss, and the high mental and physical toll of war, both on those on the front lines and those left at home, pick this up.

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts, illustrated by Rohan Eason–The link in the book title takes you to my full review. I haven’t read a lot of Japanese literature, but I have enjoyed the few books I’ve picked up. This one was utterly charming. The series of loosely connected stories made me feel hopeful that we can each help ourselves when we feel stuck or unfulfilled, but maybe most importantly, we can help each other too.

Bonus: My Husband’s Top Three Books of 2025

My husband used to get stressed out when I asked him for his short list but this morning, as I was washing breakfast dishes, he popped out with them with absolutely no prompting. These were the only three books he rated 5 stars this year and he says they aren’t in any order of preference.

The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown

The Curse of Pietro Houdini by Derek B. Miller

The Resurrectionist by A. Rae Dunlap

That’s my list(s)! Have you read any of these? Which books did/would you choose? Link up every Tuesday at That Artsy Reader Girl!

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