I have been toying with the idea of a newsletter for my book reviews for several months, and it feels appropriate that my first should come during this liminal time between Christmas and New Year’s. It’s a delicious time of year when I read a lot, thanks to holiday travel and lounging at home. I’m overdue for my Best Books of 2025*, and thanks to all my reading time this week, I have some last-minute additions, including Maria Reva’s debut novel Endling.

*This list is my personal “Best Of” what I read this year, not my opinions on the best new books published this year. Most of my selections were released in 2025, but my list will include some older titles.

Without further adieu…

1. Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li

   I would not universally recommend Things in Nature Merely Grow, a provocative memoir about the author processing both of her sons’ suicides. This short book profoundly affected me and changed the ways I think and feel about grief. It has stayed with me months later — my best book of 2025 by far.

2. The Vietri Project by Nicola DeRobertis-Theye

   I discovered The Vietri Project on a list of books curated by the New York Public Library for Italian American Heritage Month, and it took me completely by surprise. I had a summer of books about “unlikable female protagonists with messy lives and bad choices.” The narrator is a young woman who, on a whim, goes to Rome to solve a mystery. It just so happens her estranged extended family lives in Rome, too. While she makes some poor choices, she also makes some good ones and moves forward with where and how she wants to make a life. It did something I needed at the time – it gave me hope.

3. Katabasis by R. F. Kuang

   Back in August, I saw R. F. Kuang speak at an event promoting Katabasis (she was fantastic). I read it several months later because I wanted to get through her earlier book, Babel, first. Babel is astonishing book – you should read it. But I believe Katabasis is better, more mature and even weirder. It’s a Dantesque journey through hell by two graduate students, and its take-down of academia’s foibles and faults was exactly what I needed after a grueling fall semester.

4. The Dad Rock that Made Me a Woman by Niko Stratis

   This charming collection of essays about music and gender was one of my favorite non-fiction reads this year. Music critic Niko Stratis recounts her life as a trans woman in Canada’s Yukon Territory, doing so through the musical artists who shaped her. She has chapters on some of my favorite artists, like Neko Case, the Mountain Goats, and Bruce Springsteen. While some of the transphobia and toxic masculinity was challenging at times, it’s an incredibly hopeful and beautiful memoir.

5. Funny Story by Emily Henry

   2025 was the year I got into the contemporary romance genre, and by far, the best I read was Funny Story. I read it twice! I believe it worked well for me because 1) Emily Henry is a good writer and 2) the protagonists felt like people I know. (One is a librarian!) Romances about normal people figuring out life and love are my favorites, and this hit all the right notes.

6. Endling by Maria Reva

   Like I said, Endling is a last-minute addition to the list. I finished it yesterday! But what a feat. I describe it as 90 Day Fiancé mashed up with a documentary about endangered snails. But imagine it then takes a sharp turn and becomes a meditation on experiencing war as a member of the invaded country’s diaspora. Like what?! But truly, it works so well.

   

7. Audition by Katie Kitamura

   Of the books from my summer of the messy, unlikable female protagonist, Audition was the best of the bunch. What does it mean for a woman to be an artist? Audition doesn’t even try to offer a definitive answer. Rather, it takes one of the strangest turns I’ve ever read in fiction, as we get something of a “Sliding Doors” alternate timeline for a middle-aged Broadway actress. It shouldn’t work, but it does, remarkably so.

8. Actress of a Certain Age by Jeff Hiller

   Okay, Jeff Hiller’s “celebrity” memoir was the most fun I had reading this year. I read the print book, then I listened to the audiobook, which he narrates. I highly recommend the audio version. What a delight.

   

9. The Slip by Lucas Schaefer
   2025 was a big year for Austin-area fiction writers. Fernando A. Flores, Emily Hunt Kivel, and Ashley Whitaker all had releases from the Big 5 publishers. But Lucas Schaefer’s sprawling epic about a missing teen and other characters at an Austin boxing gym got the most buzz. I haven’t read a book so situated in Austin, and I’m glad our city got some literary representation.

10. The Antidote by Karen Russell

    I was going to put a different book in this spot (The Quickening and Woodworking came so close!), but I just couldn’t relegate Karen Russell to the honorable mentions because I really loved this book. It’s another sprawling epic with many, many characters, and structurally, it’s got some flaws. But I love that Karen Russell applied her unique brand of magical realism to historical fiction and gave us the Prairie Witch, one of my favorite protagonists this year.

Honorable Mentions:

• The Quickening by Elizabeth Rush

  Antarctica, scientists, and motherhood

• Woodworking by Emily St. James

  Hilarious and heart-felt!

• Mornings Without Mii by Mayumi Inaba

  Memoir of life (and death) with a cat

• Back After This by Linda Holmes

  Podcaster romance (better than it sounds)

• Everyone is Lying to You by Jo Piazza

  Trad wife thriller

• Memory Piece by Lisa Ko

  Friendships across art and time

• Liquid by Mariam Rahmani

  A love letter to Los Angeles and Tehran

• What Happens in Amsterdam by Rachel Lynn Solomon

  An expat marriage of convenience

• A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

  A cozy utopia

Books I read this year but did not like, despite all their buzz:

• All Fours by Miranda July

• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

• No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

If you liked these books, great! Really, I mean that. Reading taste is inherently subjective, and you like what you like! But sometimes it’s fun to hate on a book, (especially ones that sold as well as Fourth Wing and All Fours).

Speaking of judgement-free reading, I’ll be back in a few days with thoughts on what makes a romance book work. Thanks for subscribing!