As you will see, I gravitate toward a myriad of book genres and enjoy everything from suspenseful thrillers and historical fiction to breezy romance reads and science fiction. I hope something below pops out at you and becomes a favorite read for you this year!
Best Books I Read in 2025
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Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life by Helen Fisher
Genre: Fiction / My rating: A
One of you recommended Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life to me on Instagram after I mentioned how much I loved Eleanor Oliphant and Molly the Maid, two books with uniquely wonderful main characters. As expected, I absolutely adored Joe Nathan. He is a neurodivergent young man who loves the TV show Friends and is so wonderful in his innocence and his desire for routine, predictability and his determination to do the right thing. Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life is such a unique book and one I thoroughly enjoyed. It has depth, so many sweet moments and great takeaways. It is not a light read but it was also one my tender heart could still handle. I know this book will stick with me and it’s the book currently claiming the top spot on my list of best books I’ve read so far this year.
Amazon summary: Joe-Nathan likes the two parts of his name separate, just like dinner and dessert. Mean Charlie at work sometimes calls him Joe-Nuthin. But Joe is far from nothing. Joe is a good friend, good at his job, good at making things and at following rules, and he is learning how to do lots of things by himself.
Joe’s mother knows there are a million things he isn’t yet prepared for. While she helps to guide him every day, she is also writing notebooks of advice for Joe, of all the things she hasn’t yet told him about life and things he might forget.
By following her advice, Joe’s life is about to be more of a surprise than he expects. Because he’s about to learn that remarkable things can happen when you leave your comfort zone, and that you can do even the hardest things with a little help from your friends.
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Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: Romance/Historical Fiction / My rating: A
Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of my all-time favorite authors. She has a way with words that deeply moves me and a gift for storytelling that completely immerses me in her novels. I went into Atmosphere knowing nothing about the book other than glowing reviews from so many of you and from the very first page, I was all-in on this book.
The book follows the story of Joan, a woman in training to become an astronaut in the 1980s. The facts about space and space exploration expertly woven into the story were fascinating to me (the boys also loved when I would share some of these random space nuggets with them) and learning more about that it was like for women working for NASA during this time only served to give me more respect for this incredibly talented and intelligent group of women. The love story component was moving (I don’t want to spoil anything, but online reviews will give you insight into this if you’re curious) and the way the author wrote about Joan’s love for her niece moved me deeply.
This passage in particular is one I bookmarked in my Kindle and wanted to highlight here, as it is something I’ve felt about motherhood for years that I’ve never been able to accurately articulate:
We just want all versions of our kids at all times.
Amazon summary: Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.
Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.
As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.
Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.
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Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Genre: Coming of age fiction / My rating: A
Despite so many glowing recommendations, I put off reading Demon Copperhead when I read the synopsis of the book online because I knew it was going to be a heavy read. Yes, it was, but it was also an intensely moving and captivating coming-of-age story about a boy born to a teenage addict mother in rural Appalachia. The author’s ability to write as Damon, or Demon as he is much more commonly known, felt so believable. She captured his wit, resilience, determination and intelligence but also his flaws, frustrations and struggles in such a human way. This book touched me and made me think deeply and I know it will be one that will stick with me.
Amazon summary: Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.
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Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
Genre: Fiction/Mystery/Romance / My rating: A-
I absolutely devoured this book. From start to finish, it had me hooked. Broken Country is so many things in one — a mystery, a romance, family drama, suspense. It’s a captivating, heartbreaking read and one that kept me guessing until the end. The book is heavy and hard to read sometimes, especially as a mother, as it involves the death of a child which feels important to mention as someone who typically avoids novels that involve bad things happening to children. (The death of the child in this novel is discussed from the very beginning and does not come out of nowhere. But it is integral to the whole story.)
I loved the way this book includes complex characters and relationships. And the way I felt about them changed and flowed as I turned each page. It’s the kind of book that makes you think and stretches your desire to understand and your empathy. I found myself caring deeply for the characters and anxiously awaiting the end of the day when I could curl up and read this one again.
Amazon summary: “The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.”
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married. But their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.
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Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Genre: Fiction/Mystery / My rating: A-
Whoaaaa what a read! One of my biggest reader friends recommended this book to me with glowing reviews so my expectations were very, very high. I’ll admit that for the first half of the book, I recognized the writer’s talent for capturing beautiful imagery and characters so realistic you felt like they could climb right off the pages… and yet, I was a little bored. This book is the definition of a slow burn for me. It took a while to get going but when it did, my goodness I could not put it down.
I stayed up until 1:30 a.m. reading and reading away once I hit the halfway point because so many important smack-you-in-the-face things started to happen, one of which I never saw coming. The second half of this book had me so wrapped up in the story and characters that it completely redeemed the slower start.
Amazon summary: Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.
Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again.
But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.
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The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
Genre: Historical fiction / My rating: A-
My gosh this book just about wrecked me. I was so morally conflicted the entire time I read this book. And was so stressed out and heartbroken. It was the kind of book I could not stop reading because I just had to find out what happened in the end. An important warning: This book has a LOT of trigger warnings (miscarriage, stillbirth, loss, grief, child-related trauma — all the things) and it honestly is not a book I would’ve read had I not gone into it blind based on the recommendation of a friend.
I downloaded it from my Libby app, started reading and got hooked. Even though it was fairly clear from the beginning that this one was going to be a hard one to get through. This book is beautifully written. And would be an incredible discussion book for a book club if your heart can handle it. Just be prepared to be wrestling with yourself the entire time, especially if anything involving children breaks you.
My synopsis: The Light Between Oceans follows Tom Sherbourne as he returns to Australia after four years serving on the Western Front. Tom accepts a job as lighthouse keeper on an isolated island called Janus Rock. And falls in love with a passionate, loving young woman named Isabel. The two marry and Isabel follows Tom to Janus Rock where they start a life together and pray for a baby. After multiple traumatic losses, they begin to wonder if a baby will ever happen for them when a boat washes ashore, carrying a dead man and a crying baby. Isabel is convinced the baby is the answer to their prayers. She begs Tom not to report the boat, the man and the baby. Tom is greatly conflicted but Isabel’s love for the baby is immediate, deep and strong. And Tom finds himself falling for the child, too.
After raising the baby as their own for two years, Tom and Isabel take her to the mainland to meet her grandparents and come face to face with the reality of their deception when they learn about a man and a baby who went missing years earlier, leaving behind a devastated wife and mother whose life has never been the same. The Light Between Oceans is a heart-wrenching tale of love and loss and impossible choices.
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The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Genre: Domestic fiction/Dark comedy / My rating: A-
The Wedding People is one of those books I saw everywhere, yet I did not take the time to read anything about the plot and instead just added it to my library holds list. When it became available, I dove in and was surprised when I found myself laughing a lot, considering the semi-dark premise of the book. It has a bit of a clunky start. But as I continued reading, I found myself absolutely loving this book. The characters are unique and interesting. The dialogue is witty and hilarious. The premise is creative and tucked inside a unique plot are some tender and thought-provoking moments that give the book depth you don’t see coming. The Wedding People is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year.
Amazon summary: It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people. But she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years―she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe’s plan―which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.
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The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Genre: Contemporary Fiction / My Rating: A-
What a thoroughly entertaining read! I added this to my library holds list after one of you very highly recommended it and it’s the kind of novel that pulls you in from the very beginning. The story is told through a series of letters written by Sybil Van Antwerp, a woman in her 70s, to myriad of people of all ages. As Sybil says at one point, she finds that when you write someone a letter, most times they will write back, and the words she exchanges with people are filled with heart, humor, depth, vulnerability, growth and intrigue as you learn more about Sybil’s life and wonder where things are headed in her future.
(I would be remiss if I didn’t mention parts of the story center around Sybil’s loss of her son when he was 8-years-old which made my heart ache as a mother. I personally often avoid books where bad things happen to children so I just wanted to point this out as I didn’t know this would be part of the story when I began reading.)
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The Haters by Robyn Harding
Genre: Mystery/Thriller / My rating: A-
Right after I finished reading The Drowning Woman by Robyn Harding, I found The Haters by the same author through my Libby app and flew through it as well. I ended up liking this one even more than The Drowning Woman, as it kept me guessing right up until the very end. The Haters is about an author who publishes her first book, only to find herself horrifically harassed by someone online who rallies people to tear down her book with bad reviews that end up impacting her personal life, too. It’s an everyone’s-a-suspect kind of book that I absolutely flew through.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
What was the best book (or some of the best books) you read last year?
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