Best Books of 2025

As the year closes, I enjoy reflecting on my reading from the past year, evaluating what resonated with me. So many fabulous books were published, but I also had more misses than normal. After some intense deliberation, I narrowed down my favorites, those books that I still think about regularly.

Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell (fiction) – When Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision to grab her two young daughters and flee, she knows that leaving is the right thing to do, but she finds that staying away is much harder than the leaving ever was. With no job and little support, she struggles to find a home for her girls and herself as her emotionally abusive husband Ryan launches an unrelenting campaign for her to return home. Navigating the broken Irish housing system, Ciara bravely fights the odds in this compelling tale of survival and the effects of enduring the long-term consequences of emotional abuse. O’Donnell’s vivid prose brings to life the unsettling brutality of gaslighting and coercive partner control where the bruises are not physical. 

Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton (memoir) – During the Covid lockdown in the English countryside, Dalton stumbles across a leveret (a baby hare) and brings it home. As she learns to feed it and take care of it with little guidance because raising a hare is quite rare, what results is an unlikely relationship between her and the hare, a development that completely changes the way Dalton views the world. This book contains so many beautiful passages that I stopped to absorb and reflect on and helped me evaluate how I move about in the world. I loved Raising Hare from beginning to end. 

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (fiction) – Most mornings, 73-year-old Sybil Van Antwerp sits down to write letters – to her brother, to her best friend Rosalie, to Joan Didion and Ann Patchett to give them her thoughts on their latest books, and to others. Sybil’s wry wit and clever sense of humor are present throughout, and the letters she writes and receives are a joy to read. The Correspondent explores the importance of literature, making connections, expanding worldviews through experiences, as well as the ups and downs of a long life. I loved the reflections on love, loss, parenting, family, and most importantly the passage of time. 

Culpability by Bruce Holsinger (family drama, mystery) – A family’s world is upended after their car swerves, causing an accident that results in the death of two elderly people in an oncoming car. Oldest child Charlie was in the driver’s seat and grabbed the wheel right before the wreck, but the car was self-driving with AI technology. Who exactly is at fault? This engrossing novel explores culpability in the age of technology, and as AI becomes more prevalent, what our role is as humans in a world dominated by machines. Against the backdrop of technology, Holsinger also explores family dynamics, grief, secrets, and parenting. 

What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown (mystery) – In What Kind of Paradise, Janelle Brown evocatively wrestles with the effects of progress, technology, and power through the lens of a fierce and lonely girl and her paranoid and extremist father. Jane has spent her entire life in rural Montana living off the grid with her father. He is evasive about their past and educates Jane with 19th-century philosophical works while leaving her regularly for week-long jaunts. When she accompanies him on a trip that ends in murder, she realizes that nothing is as she believed it to be. Brown brings to life the early days of the internet with vivid detail, creating such a tense experience for the reader who understands how drastically different things are today from how early internet pioneers wanted or expected them to be. This haunting page turner explores right and wrong, extremism, technology, and family.

The Whyte Python World Tour by Travis Kennedy (fiction/thriller) – This hilarious and irreverent novel stars Rikki Thunder, a member of Whyte Python, a heavy metal band who is recruited by the CIA in the late 1980s to go behind the Iron Curtain and help spark a revolution through the power of rock. While this might sound like a strange premise, it is loosely inspired by allegedly true events. The Whyte Python World Tour is one of the most entertaining books that I have read this year. Rikki Thunder is a gem: naïve, unintentionally humorous, and a fabulous narrator. Kennedy weaves humor, heart, history, music, travel, and so much fun into this page turner. 

The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (speculative fiction) – This lyrical combination of dystopian intrigue and historical fiction grabbed me from page one. Set in a 1970s English small town, the book follows triplet boys who are the only remaining residents at New Forest Home, in the care of three women they call Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon, and Mother Night. Their small and controlled world consists of taking their medicine to fight off an unknown illness, doing their chores, and playing games. A sense of dread builds in the reader as the story unfolds; clearly something is amiss, but what exactly? The tension ratchets up until the unexpected and highly satisfying ending. While there is a mystery at the heart of the story, so much more is at play – the nature of truth and control, testing the bounds of morality, and the age-old debate over nature versus nurture. 

Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story by Jeffrey Kluger (nonfiction) – “Without Gemini, there would be no Apollo.” This sentence encapsulates the profound importance of the Gemini program on the subsequent Mercury and Apollo programs. In Gemini, Kluger chronicles the history of the Gemini (pronounced Geminee) program from its origins, highlighting both its numerous successes and failures. Consisting of 10 flights over the course of just 20 months, Gemini sent men into space for the first time, but also led to deaths, near deaths, and all sorts of other failures that will have the reader marveling at how a moon landing ever happened at all. Kluger manages to bring a very human element to this riveting story as he details the challenges and dangers faced by the Gemini missions and the astronauts who participated. 

UNPUTDOWNABLE Buzz resident Celia Anderson selected Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall as her favorite book of the year. She says it's a "beautifully told, engrossing story" that readers won't be able to put down.

Favorites from Buzz Readers: 

In addition to compiling my list, I reached out to Buzz residents to hear what they loved this year (some were recently published, others were published previously).  To my delight, I received so many responses that we did not have space to include all of them. Look out for more favorites from Buzz readers in an online Page Turners column this month. 

Sally Mason: “Culpability by Bruce Holsinger (this book also made my list; see above). This book combines family drama along with moral responsibility and what that means in the age of AI.”

Michele Carlin: “Theo of Golden by Allen Levi – this unexpected gem was suggested to me by a friend, and I now find myself recommending it to everyone. Theo, somewhat of a mystery man, arrives in the fictional town of Golden, where he quickly establishes himself in the community. The book chronicles each relationship he builds, from the local barista to the bookstore owner to the homeless woman, and how his simple gestures affect them. I love this book because it movingly illustrates the positive impact of small acts of kindness and placing worth on others versus oneself.” 

Paige Erwin: “Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver – a modern take on Charles Dickens set in the USA. So impressed by the author’s ability to speak in the voice of a teenage boy navigating the challenges of growing up in rural Appalachia. The story highlights the multiple layers and expanse of the interconnections between the economic dependencies of a rural community, the key roles of football and family, the opioid epidemic, and the challenges of overcoming adversity.  I love how Barbara Kingsolver and her husband are using the proceeds from this Pulitzer Prize winning novel to found and support Higher Ground Women's Recovery Residence.”

 Elaine Schroller: “A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr. If I had to choose one favorite for 2025, this is the one. Having done in-depth research about WWI for my own novels, I’m drawn to books that explore the effects of war on the individuals who fought. While this story touches on Tom Birkin’s battle memories, it’s about his healing from them while he restores a medieval mural in a tiny church in an even tinier village. I was so transfixed by Carr’s evocative descriptions that I finished A Month in the Country in one day.”

Stacy Humphries: “The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett is quirky, funny, and unexpectedly touching. I loved the eccentric, imperfect main character and the ‘chosen family’ theme that unfolds along a hilarious road trip (with help from a clever cat). Even when the story dips into tough territory, humor carries the reader through. If you enjoy books like Fredrik Backman’s, this one is for you.”

Kelly Hogan: “The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray – I love books about women doing amazing things and without compromise. This one is no exception and such an intriguing subject matter. The author does an incredible job writing about the early 1900s, educating us about the time period without muddling the main storyline.” 

Lori Fisher: “The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (also on my list; see above) – I loved getting to know the main character, through nothing but the letters she has written and received. Each letter is dated and addressed to various recipients. A very unique reading experience.”

Amanda McGee: “One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune. I am a huge Carley Fortune fan and thought this was her best book yet. She did an amazing job of making it a sequel to Every Summer After and at the same time allowing it to be a stand-alone novel.” 

Chris Cander: “In Dictée by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (published in 1982), the reader is beckoned into a poignant interplay of language and identity, where author Theresa Hak Kyung Cha crafts a lyrical exploration that transcends the confines of traditional narrative. Each section unfolds like a delicate origami, revealing the layered complexities of belonging and memory through a kaleidoscope of voices. Cha’s prose, at once haunting and luminous, breathes life into the fragmented experiences of diaspora, capturing the struggle to communicate that lingers in the spaces between words. As the pages turn, the reader feels the weight of history, the pressure of silence, and the power of reclaiming one’s identity.”

Jen Fink: “The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston. It is a lovely, feel-good story about friendship, forgiveness, and finding family. The main character’s kindness and sense of humor in the wake of his hardships allows him to begin again even in his elderly years. I really enjoyed the quirkiness of it!”

Celia Anderson: “Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall has it all! A terrific love story, a parent’s sorrow and twists you didn’t see coming! Dorcet, England with a strong 1960s vibe! A beautifully told, engrossing story that you won’t be able [to] put down!”

For more book recommendations and bookish thoughts, see Cindy’s monthly Buzz Reads column, her award-winning Thoughts from a Page Podcast or follow @ThoughtsFromaPage on Instagram.