I was thinking that 2025 was just a so-so reading year until I looked back at my list and thought, "Actually, there are a lot of gems here." As ever, I am mixing it up: physical books, ebooks, audiobooks. I like to have options ready for any situation from emptying the dishwasher or folding the laundry to waiting for a podiatrist appointment or teen practice pick-up to making a plane trip fly by or taking my poolside relaxation to the next level.
I no longer offer a lot of commentary in these annual wrap-up posts. If you want brief reviews of these books, check my Instagram -- I'm @booksandcarbs there! You can always hit me up via email or text or in the comments of this post.
Most of the books below were published in 2025. I'll note the exceptions.
Fiction Highlights
All the Colors of the Dark (2024) by Chris Whitaker
Heart the Lover by Lily King
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Home of the American Circus by Allison Larkin
Lucky Night by Eliza Kennedy
Bug Hollow by Michelle Huneven
Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley
Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
Honorable Mentions
Far and Away by Amy Poeppel
Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson
No Two Persons (2023) by Erica Bauermeister
We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes
Fiction Highlights with Romance Vibes -- not separating out because I find romance to be a lesser category but because I know some people avoid this genre (their loss!)
Grace & Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman
Love Sick by Deidra Duncan
It's A Love Story by Annabel Monaghan
Take Me Home (2024) by Melanie Sweeney
Books I loved (and feel protective of) that you may NOT love...
Hot Air by Marcy Dermansky
Seduction Theory by Emily Adrian
Every Tom, Dick & Harry by Elinor Lipman
The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers
Memoir/Non-Fiction Highlights
A Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting by Casey Johnston
Secrets of Adulthood: Simple Truths for Our Complex Lives by Gretchen Rubin
Be Ready When the Luck Happens (2024) by Ina Garten
Open (2009) by Andre Agassi
When Gavin Met Stacey and Everything in Between by Ruth Jones and James Corden
Series that I am "series-ly" loving...
Shannon Bowring's The Road to Dalton series -- read the final installment of the trilogy this past year, In A Distant Valley
Beth Brower's The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion series -- I listened to the first eight of these books this year via Hoopla!
Elin Hilderbrand's The Academy series -- co-written with her daughter Shelby Cunningham, book two publishes in 2026
Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series -- I read all of them in 2025 and FREAKING LOVED the experience! The first book in the series is called Case Histories and you must read in order
Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache series -- the first is Still Life and most recent is The Black Wolf, must be read in order
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