Musings & Reviews

2025 was the most serious reading year of my life. I cannot say with any certainty that I read the most books I ever have in a year, as I read voraciously in high school and college but never quite kept track. But I set clear goals for myself, and in particular I wanted to read as many 2025 new releases as I could. I’m very proud of what I accomplished in that regard and I have been greatly looking forward to putting this piece together.

Below you will find two lists. The first will be my favorite “older” books I read in ’25, alongside some honorable mentions. The second list will be my top 10 favorite new release novels I read, alongside some honorable mentions. As is the case with any of these lists I put together, this is all my subjective opinion based on what I was able to engage with in the calendar year. I hope you enjoy and perhaps take some recommendations! There are lots of excellent books herein. And let me know what your favorite reads of the year were! Reading is as important and vital as it ever has been in the face of AI and chatbots and technofascism. Reading fiction fosters our curiosity and helps us build empathy. It stimulates the brain, keeps us on our toes, and there’s truly nothing better than a great, well told story.



Favorite Older Reads

Honorable Mentions:

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, 2024
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, 2023
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, 2022
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, 2021
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, 2011

5. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, 2022

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and inspired by Dickens’ classic David Copperfield, this is a powerful, darkly funny work. Dealing with the American foster care system and the opioid crisis in Appalachia, and featuring Kingsolver’s typically astute and lyrical prose, this terrific coming of age story strikes the perfect balance of tones. Our narrator is so likable, and that prevents the story from ever veering too far into the world of trauma porn.

4. Piranesi by Susan Clarke, 2020

A gorgeous, fantastical existential journey. There are no answers, and the narrative is a labyrinth, reflecting the setting of the novel itself. Regardless, the book fully engulfs you, like a great old story. Trying to solve the mysteries isn’t necessarily the point. There is so much rich thematic material (questions of identity, the power of knowledge, the very nature of reality,) and coupled with the contemplative tone it left me pondering and theorizing in the best way.

3. James by Percival Everett, 2024

Another Pulitzer winner, this novel brilliantly re-tells the story of Huck Finn from the perspective of James, the slave he meets on his journey. Everett’s writing is so sharp, so funny, with so many terrific turns of phrase and playful uses of language and differing dialects. A rollicking adventure that exposes American racism and slavery in the deep south for the tragedy that it was, while delightfully making a mockery of the intellect of those who owned slaves. Empowering, painful, rousing, and deliciously satirical.

2. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, 2024

Soulful, powerful, surreal, hilarious. Cyrus, our main character, is incredibly intriguing and well drawn. So many thoughtful notions, insightful musings, and delightful strangeness. So much of it hit me so deeply and personally. Our mortality, our quest to find meaning in our lives and in our death, the impact of those who have been left behind. The complex existence of being Muslim in this country and what it truly means to be an American. Even more so, this has some of the most gorgeous prose I’ve read in ages. There are myriad sentences I went back and read over and over again because of the sheer beauty of their construction, the diction, the specificity of the word selection. This novel moved me deeply. Akbar is an incredible writer and I cannot wait to see what he does next.

1. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, 2013

Quite simply, this is one of the best books I’ve ever read. A linguistically brilliant, incredibly clever riff on epic 19th century novels, filled with a hugely rewarding, Byzantine narrative and a wide array of fascinating characters. The novel features many long, hugely descriptive paragraphs over its 830 pages, and I fully understand that it may not be for everyone. But I could not put it down as it fully washed over me, completely entranced by its prose, wit, and ambition.



My Favorite Novels of 2025

Honorable Mentions:

And the River Drags Her Down by Jihyun Yun
Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
The Favorites by Layne Fargo
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

10. King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby

This was my first S.A. Cosby thriller and it will most certainly not be my last. Propulsive, riveting, shocking. Cosby’s use of language is authentic and clever, his plotting and character work so sharp. This feels like reading a great season of a prestige crime television show that doesn’t actually exist. Awesome.

9. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Told entirely in epistolary style, this beautiful novel explores the life of an older women, Sylvia Van Antwerp, through a series of letters she writes to friends, family, famous authors, colleagues, and more. Through these elegantly written letters we grasp the full scope of Sylvia, her life, her personality, her secrets, her desires, her family. It is an incredibly moving and lovely work. The type of novel both you and your Mom would love, a special gift indeed.

8. Audition by Katie Kitamura

I fully understand why Audition may not be for everyone. This is a cerebral and immaculate work, a smart character study, so stylish in its structure and prose. It unfolds almost as a puzzle, as if everything is a performance and we’re never quite sure what’s real. It is not a plot heavy book, and it’s all the better for it in my mind. All of this, plus the novel’s thematic and literal usage of live theater, makes it all play so deeply into my own sensibilities.

7. The Antidote by Karen Russell

It has been well over a decade since Russell’s last novel, Swamplandia!, and it was worth the wait. I took my time with The Antidote and savored every page. It is an immense work, full of remarkable depth of language, complex characters, thoughtful examinations of the nature of memory, and magic. An American epic that highlights the dust bowl and the injustices and atrocities that this land was founded on. Not an easy read, but an excellent one.

6. A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar

There is so much ache in this book. So much fear. Of our increasing climate crisis. Of what could happen to water levels and our food supply. But there is also so much beauty. In the prose, yes. Gorgeous. But in the humanity. In the sacrifices we make. In considering how far we will go to protect the ones we love. A devastating and remarkable work. The ending is a stunner.

5. Sky Daddy by Kate Folk

Yes, this is a novel about a woman who is in love with and has sexual fantasies about airplanes. Stay with me. I loved every second of this. Delightfully weird, absolutely hilarious, oddly comforting. A powerful story of acceptance against all odds. A brilliant character study, so intoxicatingly well written. No book this year made me laugh harder. Linda is an incredible character, and you will not regret spending these pages with her.

4. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

The magic of Ocean’s writing is how tender and emotional his prose and storytelling is without ever becoming saccharine or sentimental. This is a book about friendship and the power of found family. Between our 19 year old main character Hai and Grazina, an old women suffering from dementia. And between Hai and his co-workers at HomeMarket, a Boston Market type restaurant. Through the building of these relationships we explore themes of generational trauma and how violence can pass down, the perils of living in a capitalist society and money anxiety, how self-depreciation and self-harm can be so damning, and so much more. It is a rich, deeply felt, complex novel that paints a singular but vital portrait of modern America, with wonderful, lovable characters and a nice little dose of magical realism. (If double features were a thing for books as they are for movies, I’d recommend reading this and Demon Copperhead back to back. They have a lot in common thematically.)

3. Heart the Lover by Lily King

Gorgeous, insightful, soulful. A story in two parts, one full of young love and wit and academia, the other full of longing, pain, wisdom. Such lovely writing, full of empathy, honesty, tenderness, and humor. So many literary references, not in a showy way but elegant and vital to these characters. It feels like a forgotten classic you discover in the stacks, but it’s also blissfully fresh. I adore these characters, the sincerity, the prose. Tissues recommended.

2. King Sorrow by Joe Hill

King Sorrow is Joe Hill’s magnum opus. This thing is immense in every possible way. A fantasy/horror epic, rife with fascinating and complex characters, genuine intensity and terror, and great mythology. The relationships, the anxieties, and the social dynamics are so thoughtful, palpable, authentic. The structure allows it to be many books in one, each distinct, funny, beautiful. King Sorrow is many things and dabbles in many genres, and it is masterful at all of them. The nearly 900 pages fly by. Bravo.

1. Buckeye by Patrick Ryan

There is always talk of the “Great American Novel.” There are some, such as Little Women or The Grapes of Wrath, that are widely agreed upon. There are others, more recent works, that get debated for years on end, with a lucky few perhaps entering the canon. But who is ultimately the arbiter of what makes such a book? Who gets to decide? I’d argue that at the end of the day it is up to the individual. That being said, I humbly propose Buckeye be considered. This is an overwhelming, remarkable work. Ryan’s prose and use of language is clear, considered, lovely. He operates as an omniscient narrator, allowing us to get into the heads of all of the characters. This book charts a wide course of Americana, from the early days of World War II to the Vietnam War and beyond. At its center are two couples, one fateful decision, and the consequences of their actions over decades.

Ryan deftly examines the full breadth of the human experience. The impact and horrors of war. Grief and pain. Love and forgiveness. The never-ending passage of time and the fleeting nature of small, quiet moments. The racism that has always permeated the USA. These characters are so compelling, so sumptuously drawn, so profoundly flawed. His portrait of small town America, in the made up Bonhomie, Ohio, is at once nostalgic and tragic. Ryan also brings in an element of ghostly spirituality that allows him (and the characters) to explore the nature of death and grief with a even more feeling and focus. Bonhomie, a word borrowed from French, means “cheerful friendliness.” Don’t we all wish that’s what our hometown was? Cheerful and friendly. If only.

“Therein, she thought, lies the unbearable solitude of a lie: you’re alone when you tell it, alone when you live it, alone when you try to dismantle it,” writes Ryan. But this beautiful, incredible novel, even when the characters lie or make mistakes, even when the tragic realities of the fraught political and social nature of this country are brought to light, left me feeling anything but alone. What a thing.