Books I read in 2025

For the past few years I've been chronicling the books I've read. I keep an analog book journal where I capture my brief thoughts, along with important things that happened in my life while I was reading. I give each book a star rating out of five. You can read more about my ranking system here:

The books I read in 2024

 In short, under three stars are the kinds of book I hate so much I go onto the book suggestion subreddits and pick fights with people who post about enjoying them (I know...). Five stars is nearly unattainable; I've given that label to only a select few books. And so it's wild that I gave out FOUR five-star-reviews this year (although two of them were re-reads so not actually NEW five-star-reviews). The irony of giving my first read of 2025 five stars is not lost on me.

1. ​Playground, Richard Powers. 5 stars
2. Low Hanging Fruit, Randy Rainbow. 3.5 stars
3. The Seven Year Slip, Ashley Poston. 2 stars
4. Daisy Jones and the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid. 4.5 stars
5. The Wedding People, Alison Espach. 4 stars.
6. Devolution, Max Brooks. 3.5 stars
7. In the Lives of Puppets, TJ Klune. 3.5 stars
8. Life of Pi, Yann Martel. 4.5 stars
9. Born a Crime, Trevor Noah. 3.5 stars
10. The Women, Kristin Hannah. 4.5 stars
11. West With Giraffes, Linda Rutlege. 3.5 stars
12. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. 4.5 stars
13. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith. 5 stars
14. The Dutch House, Anne Pratchett. 3.5 stars
15. The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah. 3.5 stars
16. The Paradise Problem, Christina Lauren. 2 stars
17. Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett. 5 stars
18. Taste: My Life Through Food, Stanley Tucci. 2.5 stars
19. The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhorn. 3 stars
20. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain. 4 stars
21. Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry. 3.5 stars
22. One True Loves, Taylor Jenkins Reid. 3 stars
23. Nine Perfect Strangers, Liane Moriarty. 4 stars
24. Nuclear War, Annie Jacobson. 4 stars
25. Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia. 2 stars
26. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakaur. 3.5 stars
27. Atmosphere, Taylor Jenkins Reid. 4 stars
28. Cultish, Amanda Montell. 4 stars
29. The Measure, Nikki Erlick. 3.5 stars
30. Say You'll Remember Me, Abby Jimenez. 3 stars
31. Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown. 3.5 stars
32. My Friends, Frederick Backman. 3.5 stars
33. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, Susan Cain. 3/5 stars
34. Before Dorothy, Hazel Gaynor. 2 stars
35. What If It's You?, Jilly Gagnon. 3 stars
36. Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir. 5 stars
37. Murder Bot #1 All Systems Red, Martha Wells. 4 stars
38. Truly Madly Guilty, Liane Moriarty. 3.5 stars
39. The Lost Story, Meg Shaffer. 3 stars.
40. The Age of Magical Overthinking, Amanda Montell. 3.5 stars
41. James, Percival Everette. 4.5 stars.
42. The Poppy Fields, Nikki Erlick. 3.5 stars
43. Mad Honey, Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. 3.5 stars
44. The Last One, Alexdra Oliva. 2.5 stars.
45. Margo's Got Money Trouble, Rufi Thorpe. 2.5 stars
46. The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah. 4 stars
47. A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson. 4 stars
48. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris. 3.5 stars
49. Murderbot #3 Rogue Protocol, Martha Wells. 3.5 stars
50. Half Magic, Edward Eager. 4.5 stars
51. The Bones Beneath My Skin, TJ Klune. 2.5 stars
52. The Perfect Storm, Sebastien Junger. 2.5 stars
53. Murderbot #2 Artificial Condition. 3 stars
54. The Humans, Matt Haig. 4 stars
55. Wordslut, Amanda Montell. 4 stars
56. Golden Girl, Elin Hildebrand. 2.5 stars
57. Orbital, Samantha Harvey. 4 stars
58. Secret of Secrets, Dan Brown. 2.5 stars
59. What Kind of Paradise, Janelle Brown. 4.5 stars
60. Sunrise on the Reaping, Susanne Collins. 3 stars.
61. The Year of Living Biblically, AJ Jacobs. 3.5 stars

My reviews are very tip-of-tongue and not preconceived in the least. Which means there's a lot of my stream of conscious thoughts. Here are some excerpts that make me laugh because I clearly was having Opinions.

• "Barf. This bitch needs to stop publishing dumb shit."
• "Obviously everyone ends up rich and famous even though the whole books is all, 'oh, money doesn't matter!' Then out of nowhere... BAM! Erotica. I hated this book"
• "Nothing happened really except for everyone having so many feelings. I wish we had fewer feelings and more plot."
• "Blech. Why do people love this??"
• "A bit annoying that the only person over 30 was the villain."
• "Selfish twat."
• "It was mostly an excuse to write one profound thing after another."
• "If we could just get Republicans to read it, maybe the world would stop ending. But they don't understand most of the words so that won't happen."
• "What a waste of a great idea."

So what do I recommend? Generally anything four stars and up. Although there are some 3.5-ers that are perfectly delightful, just perhaps not hugely impactful, and some four star+ that were just what I needed at the time and not objectively awesome. But regardless of my ratings, here are 2025's books that I just can't stop thinking about:

• Playground
• Daisy Jones and the Six (*Important! 10000x better as an audio book!)
• Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
• The Women
• Pillars of the Earth
• Cultish
• James
• A Walk in the Woods
• What Kind of Paradise