Books of 2025 in the rearview mirror

2025 may have been a sucky SUCKY year in terms of, well, everything on earth, but it was a banner year for reading for me. I read 61 books, a new PB, and only about a half dozen fell into the “hated it” category.

For 2026, I am sticking with my 2 books clubs because I love them. One club is dedicated to reading books from the Amnesty book club list and although we seem to be down to just 3 regular members, I adore them and the books we’ve read have been the most enlightening. The second club is the Big Island “read whatever you want” club, where we each share what we’ve read over the past month. This is a wonderful group of women with varied tastes in reading, which exposes us all to a wide range of interests. I’ve read several books this year based on recommendations from this group.

I also need to rethink my rating system. It’s become apparent that a single, one-dimensional rating system is not really sufficient to convey important details. I’m not sure where to go with this yet, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to evolve a better system through my 2026 reading. In fact, that’s my only challenge for 2026: to develop a more informative rating system.

And with that, if you are interested in a quick recap of the year, here you go!

The Best of the Best

• The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. A classic and way too prescient.
• This Is Happiness, by Niall Williams. It’s about happiness, and that’s how it will make you feel.
• The Ministry for the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson. A hopeful view of fixing the climate crisis, one we will not achieve.
• The Premonition, by Michael Lewis. How to properly fight a pandemic (hint: do everything the opposite of what we did during COVID)
• This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. A love story set across all time.
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith. A much better positive outlook story than the Alchemist.
• Do Not Say We Have Nothing, by Madeleine Thien. My favourite of the Amnesty books.
• Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan. A short and simple story that packs a powerful punch.

Because I like the author, and you might too.

• Written on the Dark, by GGK
• The Trespasser, by Tana French 
• The Secret Place, by Tana French
• The Hunter, by Tana French
• A Shimmer of Hummingbirds, by Steve Burrows
• A Tiding of Magpies, by Steve Burrows
• A Dance of Cranes, by Steve Burrows
• A Foreboding of Petrels, by Steve Burrows
• A Nye of Pheasants, by Steve Burrows
• A Deceit of Lapwings, by Steve Burrows

If you want a new perspective

• A Life Worth Living, by Nicole Flynn
• The Serviceberry, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• How to Pronounce Knife, by Souvankham Thammavongsa
• We Have Always Been Here, by Samra Habib
• Good Citizens Need Not Fear, by Maria Reva
• The Inconvenient Indian, by Thomas King
• Laughing All the Way to the Mosque, by Zarqa Nawaz
• The Message, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Island of Sea Women, by Lisa See
• real ones, by Katherena Vermette

Cozy fun, no need to think to hard

• Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies, by Catherine Mack
• A Room With a View, by E. M. Forster
• Evvie Drake Starts Over, by Linda Holmes
• Flying Solo, by Linda Holmes
• How To Read A Book, by Monica Wood
• The Bookshop on the Corner, by Jenny Colgan
• The Book Club for Troublesome Women, by Marie Bostwick
• Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
• Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, by Benjamin Stevenson
• The Sentence is Death, by Anthony Horowitz
• Death at the Sign of the Rook, by Kate Atkinson
• The Briar Club, by Kate Quinn

Sciency books make me happy

• Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler
• The Year’s Best Science Fiction: 24th Annual Edition, Daryl Gregory
• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
• The Poppy War, by R. F. Kuang
• How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog, by Chad Orzel

A collection of books that don’t fit my categories, but all worth reading!

• Frog Music, by Emma Donoghue
• Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell
• Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman, by Lindy West
• What’s Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies, by Tim Urban
• Open Secrets, by Alice Munro
• Look What Flew Through the County, by Yvonne Buys
• Ducks, by Kate Beaton
• Human Croquet, Kate Atkinson
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery
• Murder on the Inside: The True Story of the Deadly Riot at Kingston Penitentiary, by Catherine Fogarty
• August Into Winter, by Guy Vanderhaeghe

The Worst. Maybe give these a pass.

• The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. Ugh, this spiritual self-help stuff is not for me.
• Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert, by Bob the Drag Queen. Why you should never read a book by a reality TV star. Likely you didn’t need to be told that.
• Blue Monday, by Nicci French. At least one of these two authors is not a good writer.
• Beautiful Ugly, by Alice Feeney. Just plain dumb.
• The Life Impossible, by Matt Haig. A controversial take, with apologies to those who loved this one.