This is a list of my favorite books from 2025, a year that, despite being filled with the usual amount of human disappointments, provided me with several books that are remarkably difficult to put down.
These stories are unputdownable, making them the perfect companions for a long flight – where the person in the middle seat is snoring like a trucker – or for lounging on a beach, where the sand has a persistent habit of finding its way into your sandwiches.
I have presented them in a “Blind Date With a Book” format. Below, you will find a brief, somewhat cryptic review of each volume, carefully written with enough information for you to uncover its identity. If a description piques your interest, you may click the link to “unwrap it” and reveal the title, author, and perhaps a reason to cancel your afternoon plans.
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Book 1: Mary Poppins meets X-Men
A story about children who burst into flames when they are agitated – a condition that is both physically hazardous and socially inconvenient.
Despite its title, this book contains quite a lot to behold. The story follows Lillian, a woman whose life has been challenging to this point, and who is recruited by her wealthy friend to care for stepchildren who possess the peculiar habit of catching fire whenever they feel a particularly strong emotion. The author writes with a peculiar kind of grace, treating spontaneous combustion as a mere logistical hurdle, like trying to find a matching sock in a dark room. It is a charming, singular, and strangely hopeful book about the families we choose when the families we were born into are too busy being ambitious or combustible to notice us. I found it quite distressing how much I enjoyed it.
Book 2: Daisy Jones & The Six meets The Midnight Library
A tale concerning an elusive author who has lived three distinct lives and is finally deciding to confess her true identity – a task that is often as messy as trying to eat blueberry pierogies while wearing a white t-shirt.
This is a book that explores the exhausting amount of imagination required to reinvent oneself, particularly when one’s original identity, a girl named Annie Callahan, is buried under a layer of tragedy and several pseudonyms. The story follows a reclusive literary sensation who has spent years hiding from a past involving a shattered dream in upstate New York and a best friend she left behind, only to find that even the most carefully constructed secrets eventually begin to leak like a faulty faucet. It explores the messy business of queer identity, the heavy burden of ambition, and the peculiar way that our past choices can haunt us even when we are wearing dark sunglasses and an ugly bucket hat. It is a story about the terrifying possibility of being truly known, written with a clarity that I found quite unsettling. If you enjoy watching a character slowly dismantle the walls they have spent decades building, you will find this book quite captivating
Book 3: Secret Life of Bees meets It Ends with Us
A story in which a beehive serves as a metaphor for the intricate, sticky, and occasionally stinging nature of human secrets.
This is a book that concerns itself with the life of Olivia McAfee, a woman who has fled a glamorous but fractured life to return to her family’s beekeeping farm – a profession that involves wearing a net over one’s face and hoping for the best. The narrative, much like a swarm of bees, moves in multiple directions at once, alternating between Olivia’s perspective and that of Lily, a girl who has moved to town for a fresh start. When Lily is found dead and Olivia’s son, Asher, is accused of her murder, the story transforms into a courtroom drama of the highest order. The stakes are grounded in the very real and complicated truths of gender identity, the weight of the past, and the lengths a mother will go to protect a child she may not fully understand. It is a thoughtful exploration of how much of ourselves we show to the world, and whether the secrets we keep are meant to protect others or simply to keep ourselves from stinging.
Book 4: Anxious People meets Normal People
A book that concerns itself with the startlingly complex business of being a person in the company of other people.
The author possesses a peculiar habit of describing the human condition as if it were a complicated piece of IKEA furniture – confusing to assemble, prone to collapsing if you miss a screw, but ultimately sturdy enough to hold your favorite books. This book explores the terrifyingly ordinary obstacles of growing up, growing old, and forgetting to say “I love you” until it is very nearly too late. It is a book that suggests that the greatest mystery in the world is why we choose to care about other people when it is so much safer to stay home and organize one’s button collection. Reading this book is a bit like falling down a flight of stairs, only to realize at the bottom that you have somehow landed in a very comfortable armchair with a warm cup of cocoa. It is a series of small, painful jolts that end in a feeling of strange, quiet relief.
Book 5: Life is Beautiful meets The Lovely Bones
To read this book is to realize that humans are capable of both immense cruelty and extraordinary kindness, often at the exact same time.
This is a story about a young girl named Liesel Meminger who lives in a country that is currently making a very large and tragic mistake called World War II. Liesel discovers that books are much more interesting than bread, even if they are significantly harder to chew, and she begins a career of “borrowing” them from places where they are being ignored or, more distressingly, set on fire. The narrator of this tale is none other than Death, who is a very overworked gentleman who finds humans to be both exhausting and endlessly fascinating. He tells the story of Liesel’s life on Himmel Street, which is a word that means Heaven, despite the fact that the sky is frequently filled with things that are decidedly not angelic. The author’s writing is filled with the sort of strange and beautiful metaphors that make you want to stop and underline them, provided you have a pencil and the book does not belong to a library. It is a story that proves that even in the darkest of times, words have the power to act as a flashlight, a bandage, or a very sturdy bridge.
This is the longest book I read last year, but it moves with grace, hitting notes of sorrow and joy in equal measure. While the ending is not what one would call happy, it will make your eyes leak, but in a way that feels necessary.
Book 6: Educated meets A Short History of Nearly Everything
A nonfiction book that examines a bacterium that has spent centuries being a very rude guest in the human body.
The author traces the history of a microscopic tragedy that we have known how to stop for a very long time by following the life of a young man named Henry. The author argues that our history, our art, and even our architecture have been shaped by this disease, which we often pretend is a thing of the past despite it currently being a very loud and deadly thing of the present. It is a book that manages to be both a medical detective story and a polite but firm demand that we stop being so disorganized with our life-saving medicine. To read it is to realize that the world is knitted together by more than just air and hope; it is knitted together by the tiny, invisible things we share with one another, for better or for worse.
Book 7: Despicable Me meets Succession
A delightful, fast-paced romp through the absurd, proving that even a person who feels like a background character in their own life can become a protagonist, provided they have the right volcanic real estate.
This is a story about Charlie, a substitute teacher whose life is about as exciting as a bowl of plain oatmeal, until he inherits a villainous empire from an uncle he barely knew. This empire includes things most people do not find in their inheritance, such as a volcanic lair, a unionized labor force of dolphins who are quite vocal about their benefits packages, and a collection of spy cats who are far more intelligent than any creature with a taste for canned tuna has a right to be.
The author writes with the sort of wit that suggests he has spent a great deal of time thinking about the logistical nightmares of being a criminal mastermind. He points out that being a villain is less about cackling at the moon and more about managing a very large and very dangerous human resources department. To read this book is to realize that world domination requires a surprising amount of paperwork and that dolphins are significantly more opinionated than nature documentaries would have you believe.
Book 8: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets Anxious People
A heartwarming and occasionally chaotic story that proves that even if you are seven years old and wearing a Gryffindor scarf, you are still brave enough to face the truth.
This is a story about seven-year-old Elsa and her grandmother, a woman who was rather eccentric. When the grandmother departs this world, she leaves Elsa with a series of letters to deliver to people she has wronged, a task that is significantly more complicated than simply mailing a thank-you note.
The book moves between our world and the Land-of-Almost-Awake, a kingdom of fairy tales the grandmother invented to help Elsa navigate a reality that is often too loud and too unkind for a child who is different. Backman reveals that every monster living in Elsa’s apartment building is actually just a person with a very sad story they haven’t told yet. It is a tale that argues that having a vivid imagination is not a mental flaw, but a necessary survival tool, like a compass or a very sharp pair of scissors. To read this book is to realize that every adult was once a child who was probably sorry about something, and that the best way to honor the dead is to finish their apologies for them.
Whether you found yourself drawn to the sharp wit of a reluctant villain or the bittersweet letters of an eccentric grandmother, I hope these hidden gems provide you with the same late-night “just one more chapter” moments they gave me.
Now, it’s your turn to dive in. Pick the mystery that calls to you, click through to reveal your next great read, and prepare to lose track of time. After all, life is too short for boring books and mediocre sandwiches.
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