Books read in 2025
Every January, I list the books I’ve read in the past year. It’s February, but here goes. Last year I read 95 books, compared to 101 in the two prior years. Sometimes I blog about the books I really enjoy.
The photo shows a current to be read pile. Can anyone relate?
Here’s the 2025 list:
January
Zeinab Badawi An African History of Africa
Louise Penny The Grey Wolf
Richard Van Camp The Beast
Mark Wolynn It Didn’t Start with You
JJ Lee, Editor Better Next Year
Richard Flanagan Question 7
Jessica Waite The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards
Alan Bradley What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust
Ken Follett Eye of the Needle
Ken Follett Pillars of the Earth (CDs)
Clare Conville, Liz Hoggard & Sarah-Jane Lovett The Book for Dangerous Women
February
Ovidia Yu Meddling and Murder
Colleen McCullough The Thorn Birds
Vaseem Khan City of Destruction
March
Fiona Davis The Stolen Queen
Bernard McLaverty Grace Notes
Herve LeTellier The Anomaly
Samantha Harvey Orbital
Carol Dwek Mindset
Natasha Brown Assembly
Rob Lewis Fishers of Men
Kevin Toolis Rebel Hearts: Journeys within the IRA’s Soul
Ethel Lina White The Spiral Staircase
Kiley Reid Such a Fun Age
Carley Fortune Meet me at the Lake
April
Rosemary Sutcliff The King Arthur Trilogy
Rosemary Sutcliff/Homer The Odyssey
Helen Dunmore The Betrayal
Richard Coles Murder at the Monastery
Katy Hays The Cloisters
Coco Mellors Blue Sisters (skimmed)
Ann Patchett The Dutch House
Eckhart Tolle Stillness Speaks
Anthony Amore The Woman who Stole Vermeer
Iona Whishaw The Cost of a Hostage
May
Ben McIntyre The Siege
Harriet Pugh Tuckey Everest: the First Ascent How a Champion of Science Helped to Conquer the Mountain
Michelle de Kretzer Theory and Practice
AB Facey A Fortunate Life
June
Roisin O’Donnell Nesting
Caroline Lawrence The Secrets of Vesuvius
Natasha Brown Universality
Caroline Lawrence The Thieves of Ostia
Natasha Lester The Mademoiselle Alliance
Roxanna Spicer The Traitor’s Daughter (not finished)
Genevieve Graham The Secret Keeper
Lisa Jewell Ralph’s Party
Maeve Binchy, Clair Boylan, Emma Donoghue, Anne Haverty, Eilis Ni Dhuibne, Kater O’Riordan, & Deirdre Purcell Ladies’ Night at Finbar’s Hotel
July
Rebecca Mascull The Visitors
Niall Williams This is Happiness
Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse Five
Victoria Hislop The Island
Alexander McCall Smith The Winds from Further West
Eliza Jane Brazier Girls and Their Horses
August
Beth O’Leary The Flatshare
David Eagleman Sum
Victoria Hislop One Night in August
Claire Jimenez What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez
Vaseem Khan The Girl in Cell A
Gad Saad The Parasitic Mind (audio)
Will and Ian Ferguson Murder on the First Page
Leila Slimani The Perfect Nanny
Michelle Gallin Factory Girls
Robert Harris Enigma
September
Lucy Clarke The Hike
Simon Mason A Killing in November
Simon Mason Lost and Never Found
Simon Mason The Broken Afternoon
Simon Mason A Voice in the Night
Ron Base Curse of the Savoy
Aisling Rawle The Compound
Mick Herron Clown Town
Elinor Florence Finding Flora
October
John Boyne The Elements
David Park The Truth Commissioner
Lisa Ridzen When the Cranes Fly South
Rebecca Solnit Men Explain Things to me
Robin Wall Kimmerer Braiding Sweetgrass
Donal Ryan Heart be at Peace
Peter May The Black Loch
Alexander McCall Smith In the Time of Five Pumpkins
Barbara Hand Clow Awakening the Planetary Mind
November
Kieran Fox I Am Part of Infinity: the Spirituality of Albert Einstein
Sheila Wilkinson Hope against Hope
Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day
December
Vanessa Lafaye w R Mascull Miss Marley
Bridget Collins The Binding
R. Bruce Macdonald Never Say P*g, a Book of Sailors’ Superstitions
R. Bruce Macdonald Sound Like a Sailor
Richard Osman The Impossible Fortune
Iona Whishaw A Season for Spies
Scott Pape The Barefoot Investor
Tim Berners-Lee This Is for Everyone
Alan Murrin The Coast Road 9