And just like that, the door closes on another year’s reading pile. With many nights of turning off the TV early and reading with a neck light with a baby in the room, the 2025 pile was record-high, with nonfiction narrowly outpacing fiction.
@HigginbothamA’s Challenger and Navalny’s Patriot were early reads and top the list these many months later as the most memorable of the year. They are joined there by
@DanKoeppel’s delightful Banana (which led me down a rabbit hole of ordering rare banana varieties and discovering a whole new world
@JESS3 already knew well). I thank
@DonSeymour for his recommendation of Craftsman’s Legacy and British Are Coming — both strong entries that spoke to my different myriad interests.
I’ve enjoyed having an entry each year in my Sci Fi stack from
@MaryRobinette @Neuvel and
@Cmdr_Hadfield, and this trio did not disappoint. I’m sad I am soon running out of unread material from them. Adding
@MattHaig1 and starting the Expanse and Silo series will help fill that gap. Clancy and Herron remain reliable beach reads.
I always “come home” to
@Backmanland and his Thoughts particularly resonated this year with the birth of my baby boy. I’ve been holding off on his latest, My Friends, for early 2026 as I find I enjoy his books the most when I have the opportunity to really immerse myself and allow my Nordic heart to get lost in it.
Congrats to my fiends
@jonallendc and
@amieparnes for another successful tick-tock. I can’t wait to read the next.
On to 2026!