My favorite books of 2025

Gripping! Her wild, intense writing is so beautiful, and this has an exceptional plot with characters who deepen, transform, evolve, surprise, and touch. Windswept, lost, found, imperiled, reinvisioned, hopeless, loving. Wow.

I don’t remember how I discovered this, but I’m so glad I did! A small book that feels just right in the hand. A quick, unput-downable read. A day in a woman’s life that will change everything—or nothing—forever. Superb!

A top favorite of the year, this is engaging, erudite, surprising, unusual, funny, full of grace and eccentricities, with a touch of romance and the unexpected—and so rewarding. An epistolary novel, unparalleled in my experience. I urge you to read this one!

Also enjoy: Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, She Almost Gave Up. Now She Has the Year’s Unlikely Hit Novel from The Wall Street Journal.

I started and dropped this twice. But, since two of my sons were getting married this fall, I persevered. And loved it! I loved the humor, the exceptional, unexpected plot twists, and the surprisingly touching parts. A fun read.

In recent years, our Book Club of 2 has carefully selected a brand new, entertaining mystery for a summer read. Some of our normal choices are pretty hefty, such as Amanda H. Podany’s Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East, at 600+ pages. But in summer, we wanna have fun!

Last year was Liz Moore’s excellent blockbuster, The God of the Woods. This year’s Heartwood is another winner, also set in the woods. A female park ranger leads a team of staff and volunteers racing against the clock to find a very sweet, petite missing hiker alone and lost on the Appalachian Trail. Intriguing!

I’d never read anything by Scott Turow. Sometimes I’m a bit of a snob and avoid mainstream blockbuster authors. I found it in a tiny library when it was brand-new and had excellent reviews, and couldn’t resist. I loved it! Turow is an excellent writer, and this is a terrific legal thriller/whodunit. Friends I’ve recommended it to have heartily agreed!

Carol, a librarian at Cleveland Park Library, recommended this series for light reading while I was traveling in France for my son’s wedding this fall. And was she right! 

Set in a small town in the Dordogne, it stars Bruno, both police officer and de facto community counselor with a heart of gold. A superb cook, with a love of the wines and foods unique to the region, he owns a small property and an adorable dog/truffle-hunter, and is in love with a woman who loves him too, and who he (probably) can’t have. Each story also includes a slice of history. (Martin Walker was, by the way, the US Bureau Chief of The Guardian newspaper for 25 years.)

Oooohhhhhh. Heartbreak. And beauty. And healing. Author of top-notch novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Horse, Year of Wonders, and People of the Book, Brooks shares her sudden loss and life transformed after her vibrant 60-year-old husband, author Tony Horowitz, collapsed and died on a street corner in Washington, DC. Powerful, elegant, and exquisite, it’s stayed with me like a soft perfume.

After reading, enjoy this marvelous Diane Rehm Book Club interview with Geraldine Brooks about the book.

Such an endearing memoir with insights into the author’s personal and ethical evolution, beginning on a cold morning in 2021 when she discovered a newborn leveret in her front garden, exposed and unprotected. Should she interfere with nature and attempt to help? A busy professional woman, she’s drawn into challenges and considerations that change her life.

From J. D. Biersdorfer, The Tiny Brown Hare Who Taught One Woman to Slow Down.  NY Times gift article, to enjoy after finishing the book.

Can you imagine growing up in Ecuador’s Amazon Rainforest? Nor can I, which is why I wanted to read this memoir by a powerful indigenous voice in climate change activism. After experiencing ruthless actions of capitalist forces against herself, her tribe, and their land, she rose to become a leader through sheer determination. Enlightening and inspiring.

The poet Javier Zamora’s beautifully written story of his 3,000-mile trek at the age of nine with a random group of strangers, from a small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. Filled with stretches of terror, painful setbacks, and unexpected kindness, his arduous journey is a striking portrait of what so many have indured trying to achieve safety for themselves and their families—so important for us to witness.

I am not a science fiction fan, yet, surprisingly, these were two of my very favorite books of the year! The first was our March selection for Rockledge Readers (thanks, Kristen!). “A delightful and quietly philosophical novella that presents a hopeful glimpse into a future where humanity actually does the right thing.” (—BuzzFeed). I like being in a place where a tea monk (you’ll see) and a robot become friends and travelling companions, so I sought out the second volume at once. Even if sci-fi isn’t your thing, this is lovely, different, and I encourage you to try it.

I knew the moment I read it that this would be my favorite nonfiction book of the year, hands down. The lung disease I have is related to tuberculosis, but that’s not why. It’s because it’s the most powerful thing I’ve ever read about caring for other people; about how a modest amount of money could save millions of people’s lives—including our own—but we don’t spend it (now). About the love between a famous American YA author and a young man named Henry in Sierra Leone, who looks like a child because tuberculosis has severely curtailed his growth. I wound up full of hope that if everyone read this book, we would absolutely combat tuberculosis and save countless lives.

Also read: Rebecca Robbins, John Green is Obsessed With Tuberculosis. His New Book Explains Why. (NY Times gift article)

A masterful narration focused on the lives of three people during the Great Migration, the move by millions of Black individuals from the southern U.S. to the north and west from the 1920s to the 1970s. A massive history lesson delivered with brilliance and feeling by a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist. Number two on the NY Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.

What a rewarding read! I’d had this on my radar for a long time when a new friend, a cashier at a healthy food grocery store, and I started talking about, of all things, owls. From under the counter, he pulled out this book. I placed a hold on the audiobook at the library, and, as luck would have it, got it within a week. My friend and I shared as we progressed. A favorite quote from the author, while handling a mature female long-eared owl caught in the wild for banding: “I felt smaller in my body and bigger in my soul.” Nice!

Now I want to read everything she’s written! Narrative nonfiction at its finest. Beth returns to her hometown of Urbana, Ohio, to find out what’s gone so terribly wrong since she grew up and managed to climb a ladder out of poverty to become a journalist and renowned author. Why does such a pathway seem virtually impossible now? Brilliant. Incisive. Intimate. Important. Captivating. Highly recommended.

I had the great good fortune of attending two classes with the poet John Brehm this year in my sangha, The Center for Mindful Living. (Thank you, Michele!) Unforgettable! A wonderful poet and gentle, inspiring teacher, his beautiful little book delivers as promised. You’ll be a better poetry reader and find poetry more fulfilling after learning from John. A gift.