What I Read in 2025

I had a lot to say about the end of this year but I do not want to rehash that. I want to talk about books!!

I feel something akin to Imposter Syndrome for parenting, whenever people assume I did not read this year. “I know you couldn’t possibly be reading,” well-intentioned folks tell me. “I didn’t open a book that wasn’t for children for five straight years,” other parents assure me.

I mean, I didn’t read 52 books in 52 weeks in 2025. But I did read 50.

I debated not posting this at all because I don’t want to be judged for it. WHY wasn’t I caring for the baby in the time it took to read 50 books? If you feel the urge to ask me that … please don’t!

Not the least of all: a lot of this is trash. I needed to shut my brain off since I have had hormone- and trauma-induced insomnia on-and-off throughout 2025.

But really, I can’t stop anyone from judging me and it isn’t my business what you think about new parents reading.

Here is what I read in 2025:

1. My December Darling – Lauren Asher (romance)
2. Shadows So Cruel – Liv Zander (dark fantasy)
3. Females – Andrea Long Chu (queer theory)
4. People Standing in Front of Danzig’s House: Vol 1 – Dan Ozzi (photography)
5. French Kids Eat Everything – Karen le Billion (memoir)
6. The Glutton – A.K. Blakemore (fiction)
7. The Natural Mother of the Child: A Non-Binary Memoir of Parenthood – Krys Malcolm Belc (memoir)
8. Redeemed – Lauren Asher (romance)
9. The Loves of My Life – Edmund White (memoir)
10. Wind and Truth – Brandon Sanderson (fantasy)
11. Austerlitz – W.G. Sebald (fiction)
12. Orange World – Karen Russell (short story collection)
13. Lost Found Kept: A Memoir – Deborah Derrickson Kossman (memoir)
14. Yes I Am Human I Know You Were Wondering – Erin Dorney (Poetry and I love her newsletter, too)
15. Ovid’s Heroides: A New Translation and Critical Essays – Murgatroyd, Paul; Reeves, Bridget; Parker, Sarah (poetry)
16. The Pumpkin Spice Cafe – Laurie Gilmore (romance)
17. The Ruins – Scott Smith (thriller)
18. Who’s Afraid of Gender – Judith Butler (queer theory)
19. Poems of Parenting – Loryn Brantz (poetry)
20. How to Say Babylon – Safia Sinclair (memoir)
21. The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex – Melissa Febos (memoir)
22. Solecism – Rosebud Ben-Oni (Poetry)
23. The Aosawa Muders – Riku Onda (mystery)
24. Ragtime – E.L. Doctorow (fiction)
25. A Poison Like No Other: How microplastics corrupted our planet and our bodies – Matt Simon (nonfiction/environmental/journalism)
26. Mohawk Warrior Society – Karoniatajeh Louis Hall (history)
27. Yellowface – R.F. Kuang (fiction)
28. Open Me – Lisa Locasio (fiction)
29. The Great Spring: Writing, Zen, and this Zigzag Life – Natalie Goldberg (memoir)
30. LESLIE F*ING JONES (memoir)
31. Home – Marilynne Robinson (fiction)
32. The Sting of the Wild – Justin O. Schmidt (science/nonfiction)
33. The Big Break – Mark Tatulli (graphic novel, young adult)
34. Spain: The Centre of the World 1519-1683 – Robert Goodwin (history)
35. In the House of My Mother – Shari Franke (memoir)
36. We Love You, Bunny – Mona Awad (fiction)
37. The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History – Kassia St. Clair (history)
38. The Day the Klan Came to Town – Bill Campbell and Bizhan Khodabandeh (graphic novel)
39. Bride – Ali Hazelwood (Paranormal Romance)
40. How to Talk to a Science Denier – Lee McIntyre (nonfiction)
41. Vampires at Sea – Leslie Merbaum (fiction)
42. The Salt Stones – Helen Whybrow (essay collection)
43. 100 Places to See After You Die – Ken Jennings (nonfiction)
44. Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir (Sci-Fi)
45. The Flowers of Evil – Charles Baudelaire, translated by Richard Howard (poetry)
46. Specimen Days – Walt Whitman (memoir)
47. They Took to the Waters: The Forgotten Mineral Spring Resorts of New Jersey – Harry B. Weiss and Howard R. Kemble
48. A Lost Lady – Willa Cather
49. Mate – Ali Hazelwood
50. Fireside Christmas Stories

Top Whatever

The Natural Mother of the Child: A Non-Binary Memoir of Parenthood – Krys Malcolm Belc

The Loves of My Life – Edmund White

Austerlitz – W.G. Sebald

Orange World – Karen Russell

Ovid’s Heroides: A New Translation and Critical Essays – Murgatroyd, Paul; Reeves, Bridget; Parker, Sarah

How to Say Babylon – Safia Sinclair

The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex – Melissa Febos

The Aosawa Murders – Riku Onda

Ragtime – E.L. Doctorow

Home – Marilynne Robinson

A Lost Lady – Willa Cather