Better late than never, I’m rounding up and recapping my favorite reading moments of 2025. Click on any bolded book title to find the book on Bookshop.org.
BE READY WHEN THE LUCK HAPPENS by Ina Garten
What a way to start off a year. This cheerful and inspiring story is told with complete candor, never shying away from exposing the not-so-glamorous side of success. Although Ina is a culinary artist, I found quite a bit of her advice applicable to writing.
Ina Garten tells her story like she cooks: simply with a healthy dose of humor and practicality. I finished this book feeling empowered and hungry.
STORY GENIUS: How to use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel by Lisa Cron
This fabulous book has changed the way I approach a new writing project, offering lessons and examples to help dig deeper than the surface even before beginning Draft 1. This process has helped me see beyond the traditional “If/then” mindset of pantsing and ask the question “Why does it matter?” I highly recommend this book for any writer, plotters and pantsers alike. Even if you eventually return to your old methodologies, I guarantee you will do so with a new, improved perspective on character motivation and why each choice matters.
THE INTUITIVE AUTHOR by Tiffany Yates Martin
Billed a s a “survival manual for authors,” Martin guides writers through their toughest career obstacles in a way that feels like making a new writing friend, the kind that cheers you on at every peak and never judges you for the valleys.
THE GIFT BEST GIVEN by Edward Di Gangi
A beautifully-written, meticulously researched memoir told in dual timeline/POV through the eyes of 17-year-old ice skater Genevieve Knorowski in the 1940s and present day through the author’s search for his birth mother.
SUNRISE ON THE REAPING by Suzanne Collins
I don’t really need to summarize this one, do I? The latest in Collins’ Hunger Games series, SotR tells the story of the 50th Hunger Games and its victor, young Haymitch Abernathy. This might be the most emotionally gutting of the series (at least until Collins writes about Finnick and Annie). What I’m enjoying most about these sequel/prequels is the opportunity to get into the WHY of the characters we (think we) know so well.
THE SMALL AND THE MIGHTY: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History by Sharon McMahon
This book was probably the most important book I read in 2025. Each of McMahon’s chapters offers a glimpse at a piece of history that has gone largely undiscussed. Oh, the outlines will look familiar (women’s suffrage, the bus strikes of the late 1960s, the anthem “America the Beautiful”) but the author goes deep into detail, providing a fully rendered portrait of foreground and background, allowing the reader to appreciate the full picture of a particular moment in US History. This book felt like a rare ray of sunshine and hope in an otherwise bleak year.
SUNNY DAYS: The Children’s Television Revolution that Changed America by David Kamp
At 52, I am still a PBS Kid. I grew up watching Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, and The Electric Company. It was fascinating (and timely) to read the full history of how Children’s Television came to be and why it deserves our continued support.
YOU’VE REACHED SAM by Dustin Thao
I’ve had a soft spot for magical realism YA romance ever since reading Eve Bunting’s Ghosts of Departure Point in 1986. Julie is grieving the death of her boyfriend/best friend, Sam, until a magical (?) phone allows her the opportunity to speak to him in the afterlife. Despite the fantasy elements, this book gets the reality of grief exactly right.
LAST SUMMER ON STATE STREET by Toya Wolfe
Each of us have a last summer of childhood, and this book allows the reader to look back and experience that time again. Wolfe’s debut novel deals with the big emotions and small everyday joys and tragedies faced by four young girls in the Robert Taylor Homes in South Side Chicago 1999.
THE MEASURE by Nikki Erlick
I’m not even sure where to start. This is one of those books that is more impactful the less you know. Suffice it to say, Erlick’s book begins in the real world, takes an immediate hard left, and then asks readers to consider: What would YOU do? Probably my most recommended book of the year.
ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK by Chris Whitaker
I love to read thrillers on vacation, and this book was a highlight of my summer reading. The story begins with the abduction and hunt for a missing girl and the boy who tried to save. But it doesn’t stop there. Instead of sensationalizing the crime, the book continues, examining the aftermath of trauma and tragedy and how it shapes the lives of everyone it touches.
CUE THE SUN! The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum
I read this excellent history of reality TV as part of my research for a new writing project (full disclosure, I was dividing my reading time between this and Story Genius because one informed the other as I worked on plot and meaning and how the two connect). I expected this to be a salacious and gossipy tell-all, and while it had some great behind-the-scenes stories, it was also an eye-opening look at how the reality genre began (as far back as “Candid Camera,” which I’d never really connected to reality tv) and bringing us through the 2020s and changing ways we consume not only our entertainment but our reality.
NIGHTMARES FROM THE GRAY by Joey Powell
I’m an 80s horror fan through and through so imagine my absolute delight at reading Joey Powell’s Nightmares, which resides at the spiritual intersection of Derry, Maine and Hawkins, Indiana. It is the best band of misfit kids battle evil story I have read in ages. If you like your scares smart and tightly paced, this is a book for you.
Did you read any of these books? What was your favorite read of 2025? Drop me a line and let me know.
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