Happy New Year, and welcome to my 2025 Reading Wrapped! This year was such a fun year with so many books and authors discovered, and I can’t wait to take you guys along for the ride! We have another short blog today because according to my attention span and writing capabilities, it is still very much the holidays. With that being said, I hope you all have had a wonderful season! And Merry Kwanzaa to those of you who celebrate!
All stats were calculated using the StoryGraph app.
This year, I read 155 books. My goal was 150, but when I started school again, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it. Then December hit, and I was only at 140! I’ve never gone without hitting my goal, but this year I definitely thought I was in trouble. December ended up being chock full of novellas and short stories, and that ended up saving me in the end. Listen, listen, it may not count to you, but when you’re as desperate as I am…
My top genre this year, surprisingly, was romance. This comes after I swore off romance in 2022 because I thought it was “too shallow” and I was “intellectually superior” for not reading it. Plot twist, it wasn’t and I’m not, so my silly little romances absolutely dominated 2025.
My average rating this year was a 3.87, which is a tad bit lower than recent years, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy what I read! I discovered so many wonderful authors and stories, most namely Fredrik Backman, so to me, my average rating is moot.
Oh… you don’t care about my average rating, do you? You want to know my top five? My favorite series? My most hated book? Oh, okay…
My top five books always take a very long time to pick. I usually do it bracket-style, with all of my five-star books lined up like basketball teams. There’s usually moments of dread when crossing books out, and when that happens, those books get a place in my Honorable Mentions.
Without further adieu, my top five books this year were:
By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult
Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
Honorable Mentions this year were:
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker
The Women by Kristin Hannah
This bracket only included standalone books and standalone prequels, so series weren’t included here. Neither were re-reads, except for Persepolis, because it’s been years since I last read it. As for series, my favorite one this year, maybe even ever, was Beartown by Fredrik Backman. I can’t say enough good things about this series. It broke me apart and put me back together a million times over and I can’t recommend it enough. On the outside, it seems like an innocent hockey story. But once you crack it open, you’ll realize that it’s so much more.
Enough about books I liked, let’s get into books I hated. Guys… this has absolutely nothing to do with the authors or their stories, as I’m sure these books are loved by someone out there. They’re just not loved by me.
My one-star reads this year:
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (and I’m not afraid to say this because he’s dead. I’m a D1 Dickens hater… WHAT, WHO SAID THAT?)
Even though I rated these books one star, I’m still very glad I read them. One of my favorite things about reading is that everyone has their own tastes and opinions, but that doesn’t mean that a certain book is objectively bad or good. I love being able to expand my horizons year after year and discover worlds that I never knew existed. As a reader, I time travel, quantum jump, fight in battles, mourn deaths, celebrate victories, and go on adventures all while sitting in one spot. And that’s something incredible, in my opinion.
What did you read this year? Any recommendations for me for 2026? Let me know!