My Favorite Books of 2025

I read 68 books in 2025 (it was actually a few more than that if you add in some of my daughters’ homeschool books and a few cookbooks and home decor books, but I didn’t track those). Of those 68, it was difficult to pick a top ten. There’s quite a smattering here, but the list covers most of the genres I included in my 2025 reading plan: fiction, memoir, time management, Christian spirituality—all except homeschooling, which is a bit unusual.

The best homeschooling book I read in 2025 was one I edited—Scholé Every Day, by Mystie Winckler, Brandy Vencel, and Abby Wahl—and it isn’t actually about homeschooling per se. It’s about how to build a robust reading life as a mom. Somehow, I don’t think my top ten for 2025 would impress those three wonderful authors—there’s nothing particularly challenging among my list of favorites, with the exception, perhaps, of Madeleine L’Engle.

I read a handful of books on women’s health, and if I were awarding accolades by category, that would go to The Galvestion Diet by Dr. Mary Claire Haver. I want to be clear though—The Galvestion Diet is not a “diet book” in a diet culture sense. Yes, it’s a book about women’s bodies and how to nourish them best in the peri- and post-menopausal years, but it’s not a weight loss book of the traditional kind. I honestly wish the publisher had given it a different title. It sounds too much like The South Beach Diet, which is probably what they were going for, but it was a big miss, in my opinion. (They only used “Galvestion” because it’s where Dr. Haver lives, FYI.) Titling complaint aside, it was a treasure trove of great information for me as I turned 50.

What I relearned as I went through the process of choosing my top ten is that I really enjoy reading certain types of fiction. Notice that there are novels featuring Julia Child and Queen Elizabeth II on this list. I also love bookish fiction, as evidenced by The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion (I read the entire series—scarfed it down, if I’m being honest, so it represents eight of my 68 books read).

The books I needed most this year were Field Notes for the Wilderness and The Let Them Theory. Both of these provided for my heart, mind, and spirit in important ways.

A couple of other runners-up in the memoir category were Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten and Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl—food memoir is always a favorite genre for me.

I want to close here with an honorable mention children’s book: Winter Cottage by Carol Ryrie Brink. Brink’s Caddie Woodlawn was among my favorites when I was growing up—I reread it countless times—but this title was one I hadn’t heard of. I can’t recall now how I found out about it, but I read it aloud to my girls, and we all loved it. It’s about a family who gets stranded in a small Wisconsin village in winter during the Depression and ends up squatting in a cottage on a lake. It’s warm and compassionate, a really lovely story about human kindness.

I’m shooting for 75 books this year, in most of the same categories, but while I want to challenge myself and grow intellectually, I want to continue to have fun with my reading—and that means more fiction, memoir, and biography in the mix. I also have plans, with a couple of girlfriends, to start up a Jane Austen book club. We’ll read her novels, her letters, some Jane-adjacent books and biographies, and maybe some fan fiction. We’ll celebrate her birthday and get together for viewings of the various film adaptations.

Here’s what I’m currently reading in this first month of the year. (Keep in mind, all of these are just a chapter, section, or few pages at a time, so my current reads list changes verrrry slooooowly, maybe every 12 weeks or so.)

Daily:

• The Irrational Season by Madeleine L’Engle

• The Stillness of Winter by Barbara Mahaney

• Goldenrod by Maggie Smith

• 1000 Words by Jami Attenberg

• 100 Ways to Change Your Life by Liz Moody

• Jane Austen for Every Day of the Year by Tara Richardson

Monday:

• Atomic Habits by James Clear

Tuesday:

• Holy Hygge by Jamie Erickson

Wednesday:

• Small Moves, Big Life by Andrea Leigh Rogers

• How to Raise an Intuitive Eater by Sumner Brooks

Thursday:

• Homegrown by Amber O’Neal Johnston

• ADHD Is Awesome by Penn and Kim Holderness

Friday:

• Mastering the Process by Elizabeth George

• You Are a Writer by Jeff Goins

Saturday:

• Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman

• Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley

Sunday:

• Becoming the Pastor’s Wife by Beth Allison Barr

• Wholehearted Faith by Rachel Held Evans

• Woven by Meredith Miller

On audio:

• 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam

Fiction on my nightstand:

• The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Monthly, for a book club:

• School Education by Charlotte Mason

With my kids:

• Meet the Austins by Madeleine L’Engle (read aoud by me)

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling (on audio)