2025 Recommended Reading List

Two newsletters in two weeks! Don’t worry, I’ll now go dark again until summer. Also, this is a long one, with a lot of links, so you may find it easier to read online. Sorry about that.

There were long weeks in 2025 that went by without me reading at all, which is one of those things where stress compounds stress. Reading is important! Read more, kids! I also didn’t have any awards to judge last year and Real Life Responsibilities overwhelmed all my reading challenge commitments. All in all, it felt like a year where I wasn’t reading enough.

(Coincidentally, one of my friends and role models writes about the challenges of reading in a responsibility-filled world in a recent Shelfie. She’s handling her Responsibilities with much more aplomb than I am, but that, in general, has long been the difference between us.)

All that said, according to my trusty Goodreads page, I covered a surprising amount of ground in 2025. Aided by - amongst other things - Bradford Literature Festival, some anthology background reading, and a fair amount of comfort reading.

A moment for introspective trend-spotting:

• Like the last few years, I read a lot of romance in 2025. Unlike the last few years, I wasn’t blown away by it. I could blame the way the modern romance genre is ‘maturing’ right now, but I suspect, in romance terms, it is ‘me, not you’ - my taste has moved to a different part of the cycle.

• In fact, my favourite books this year were all a bit weird. Fantasy books that subvert traditional tropes. Genre mash-ups. Books that don’t fit in categories neatly, or aren’t written in traditional ways.

• There’s still a lot comfort reading in here, but rather than finding it in new, squishy romances, it came from revisiting favourites from when I was a teenager.

• Fewer comics than usual. This is disappointing! Exactly a year ago, my holiday present to myself was a cheap tablet and a Marvel Unlimited subscription, with the notion of reading more comics this year. Spoiler: I did not. I found MU really user-unfriendly, and the tablet has now been repurposed as the ‘kid movies for train journeys’ device. I read a few comics, and I’d love to read more, but going digital was clearly not the solution. I have since unsubscribed to MU and will be trying to find another way forward. The library, maybe?

• As always, humour goes a long way. When I make these lists, the books I often remember most - and most positively - are the ones that made me chuckle.

Without further ado, some of my recommended reading from 2025. These are not all 2025 books (very few are). I’ve put in Bookshop.org links where I can, but some aren’t available there - either because they’re out of print or because I still don’t really understand how Bookshop.org get their stock. Happy hunting!

I was a guest on Josh Connolly’s Dysfunctional podcast this week!

We talk for an hour about the role that communications can play in preventing extreme violence. Josh is a phenomenal guy and doesn’t shy away from asking tough questions. One tiny caveat: I’m very … jiggly… which is entirely down to Foof being camped on my feet for the entire podcast. Cats!

Find it on Acast / Spotify / Apple / YouTube

Molly Aitken’s Bright I Burn - Historical fiction inspired by the first woman in Ireland to be burned as a witch. Both vicious and sympathetic, a look at a powerful, fascinating woman and her life. Somewhat fantastical, in the classic sense that ‘all history is a secondary world’, and the protagonist’s perspective is heavily inflected by her superstitious and omen-inflected perceptions of the world around her.

Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover - Another genre mash-up, although this time in the very way the book is written and presented. A coming-of-age story about two boys, their love of basketball, their adoration of their father, and the inevitable challenge of growing up and apart. Written in verse, it is really powerful. You can hear the rhythm of the ball on the court.

Ibn Razīn Al-Tujībī Al-Tujībī’s The Exile’s Cookbook - Translated ancient cookbook from Muslim Spain. I enjoyed this way too much for a fairly esoteric tome, and have adapted one recipe for the BBQ already. (I referenced this book in my TED talk, because, of course I did.)

Kent Babb’s Across the River: Life, Death and Football in an American City - Non-fiction, following a season with a high school football team in post-Katrina New Orleans. It is somewhat hopeful, as you see the discipline, passion and belonging that football provides to young men in a shattered city. But overshadowing that hope is the stark acknowledgement of the personal sacrifices by coaches, parents and teachers to provide these slimmest of lifelines. And, beyond that, the vast majority of young people in the system who don’t even have access to the faint hope that football can provide. Grim stuff.

Leonora Bell’s If I Only Had a Duke - I think I’ve read all possible permutations of ducal bonking at this point. They all tend to dance together in one big anachronistic ballroom of lustful hijinks. (It doesn’t help that Historical Romance’s penchant for punny titles and similar covers means that the books themselves are entirely interchangeable.) In this one, my favourite of the year, a young woman determined to not be married is made the talk of the ton when a popular Duke waltzes with her on a whim. Irritated by the attention and keen to return to her original plans (a cottage in Ireland, lots of books; you can see the appeal), she convinces the Duke to escort her overseas because… reasons? I dunno. Hijinks! Lustful hijinks!

John Bellairs’ The Face in the Frost - A forgotten standalone fantasy classic by the author of The House with a Clock in its Walls. Two middle-aged wizards of negligable influence are being pursued by a mysterious dark wizard of terrifying power. It is esoteric and entirely adorable. Not a book for people who like robust magic systems or detailed world-building; this is an atmospheric, academic, meandering adventure. No longer in print, but well worth finding.

Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Tainted Cup - This book won pretty much every genre award last year, and, having read it, it is a worthy winner. If you’ll forgive me the deeply annoying and hipsterish statement that is about to follow… this isn’t Bennett’s best book. It is really good, don’t get me wrong, but RJB has been steadily turning out clever, weird, genre-bending books for over fifteen years now. This book - a murder mystery in a Roman-inspired fantasy world dominated by fungal kaiju - is almost Bennett-lite. Read his other books! He gets even more clever and weird and genre-bending! Check out his first album, yo. I have it on vinyl.

(As an aside, this reminds me a lot of when A Game of Thrones came out and Ye Olde Fans were exasperated because GRRM had been putting out genuinely amazing and subversive science fiction, fantasy and horror for decades. But slap some dragons on it and throw in proper marketing and suddenly everyone’s a GRRM fan?! Bah! Read Fevre Dream and The Apocalypse Rag!)

(Counterpoint: if you turn this on its head, it is fantastic that authors like GRRM and RJB finally get the attention they have always deserved, if a lot later than expected. There is hope for us all!)

Olivie Blake’s Masters of Death - A charming standalone about gods and death and estate agents and ghosts and, above all, love. It reminds me a lot of Good Omens. I’ve not talked about Gaiman here, and it feels like a disservice to derail my Blake praise to have a rant about the impact of genre fiction’s most iconic figure being unmasked as a sex predator. So I won’t. BUT,… I see a lot of what-I-liked-about-Gaiman’s-work in Blake’s. Blake is funny and romantic. Her plots are winding and often melodramatic, and don’t shy away from people saying the Big Things to one another. She writes lovely books that don’t shy away from hard-hitting moments. Even her books about Bad People still portray them sympathetic and fragile, and always find reasons for redemption. Masters of Death is all that and funny, thus the Pratchett comparison as well. Also this is an actual true standalone fantasy with a big cosmic plot that starts, middles and ends tidily.

Katie Bohn’s Romance is Dead - A murder mystery on a B-movie set? With a romance between a bored scream queen and a foppish reality star? Sign me up. Very goofy, very fun.

Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow - I’ve read Brackett’s peripatetic, post-apocalyptic novel a few times now. It depresses me every single time. Then a few years pass and I think I should try again. And then it depresses me again! This is, basically, the plot of The Long Tomorrow.

Elise Bryant’s It’s Elementary - There’s a new sub-genre now of mommy-detectives. Mothers (usually single) who have to navigate the PTA and also MURDER. They’re outsiders in their social circles, have precocious kid/s who are facing their own issues, and there maaaaaay be a hot teacher involved. I hesitate to call these a type of ‘cozy’, as, although they’re often funny, they are very much rooted in the real struggles of modern motherhood, and they can be very stressful reads. Neither are they ‘noir’, although they do share that sense of isolation, and being trapped by circumstances. Whatever they are, they’re popular - and this is my favourite of the ones I’ve read.

Marcus Carter’s Treacherous Play - There have been a lot of studies about people that play violent video games. Does it make them bad people? (Spoilers: no.) But what about games where you’re encouraged to ‘play badly’ - e.g. use deceit and treachery to win? Or people that play games in a kinda mean way? As someone that has burned several friendships over games of Diplomacy, I thought this study into ‘treacherous play’ was absolutely fascinating.

Amy Coombe’s Stay for a Spell - Hey, this book isn’t out yet, but you can pre-order it! An overworked princess is “cursed” by a magical bookshop, and is forced to live amongst piles of delightful reading rather than be “free” to continue her grueling diplomatic duties. It is an ode to books, obviously. And a charming subversion of classic fairy tale tropes. It is also about making your own destiny. And roguish pirates. And bookshop cats. It is a delight. Above all else: if you make me laugh out loud, you get a place on this list.

Katie Cotugno’s Meet the Benedettos - This list is alphabetical, which is unfortunate as it ruins my need for drama. But, hey, this sassy Pride & Prejudice retelling featuring a family of former reality TV stars is my personal book of the year. It is a great story in its own right, as well as being a creative - genuinely surprising! - reintepretation of the original. Cotugno’s books (of which I’ve now read ALL of them) tend to feature deeply flawed characters, and often ‘reclaim’ villainous or unlikeable people - painting them sympathetically while still acknowledging their mistakes. Continuing this trend, Meet the Benedettos gives some pride back to the minor characters about whom we are prejudiced after eading Austen’s original story. That is a very poorly constructed sentence, but I was determined to make it work.

(You’ll note the US link for the above. This book is annoyingly hard to find in the UK, and I’ve had to smuggle back copies to give to friends. Cotugno - who I first ‘discovered’ in a library book! - deserves more attention the the UK. I absolutely get why her books aren’t fly-off-the-shelf popular: they’re pitched as conventional (YA or adult) stories, which is a bit of a trap, as they aren’t. Readers go fully Marmite when they encounter her deeply flawed, mistake-prone characters. The British crowd has traditionally been more accepting of moral ambiguity in its young adult fiction than the equivalent American readership. Thus my two cents: publish her more and better, Britain!)

Timothy Fuller’s Harvard Has a Homicide - 1936 murder mystery set at Harvard, and one of the first popular crime novels with a university setting. A locked room, of sorts, with a snarky protagonist. It is really a window into a different time, and the university experience of 1936 bears very little resemblance to 2025. Written by a Harvard student (who was amazed at its sales), it is perhaps most interesting as a historical artefact.

Kate Golden’s Half City - Another book not out until next year. The publisher blurb promises that this urban fantasy / magic school / demon hunter mash-up will be my ‘next obsession’ and… they’re not wrong. This book is stupidly fun.

Sara Gran’s Claire DeWitt series - My series of the year! I know it is fudge to have a book of the year and a series of the year, but my newsletter, my rules. This trilogy of mysteries (plus her new collection, Little Mysteries) is fantastic. In every sense. Yes, it is a down-and-out, booze-addled noir detective who balances self-destruction with a passion for the truth. But it is also really odd, with a whimsical approach to detection that is seemingly mystical, but deeply rooted in an appreciation of human behaviour. There’s a semi-magical book! There’s a trilogy-long subplot about girl detectives! There’s an existentialist Nancy Drew meta-mystery! Sara Gran is operating on a higher plane, and it shows.

These books are brilliant mysteries (and fair ones- which is important, especially in a crime novel that’s overtly weird) and also something else entirely. To make a very loose comparison: this reminds me Grant Morrison’s Mystery Play, where there’s the text you read, but the work itself is some sort of literary sigil: a metatextual creation with some sort of underlying paranormal intent. There are layers within layers to these books, and I’m not convinced they all even exist in our reality. How’s that for a blurb?

Helen Graves’ My Drunken Kitchen - Absolutely hilarious, and from one of my favourite writers (food and otherwise). Also the recipes are great. Unpretentious and delicious, and easy enough to make whilst squiffy.

Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword - I could write about this book AGAIN, but you’ve heard it all from me before.

Helene Hanff’s 84 Charing Cross Road - Hey, this is not fiction. I don’t know why I thought it was? But after I read it, Anne told me this was actually a true story - a real collection of correspondence - and I got very teary. It is lovely, and a much-needed reminder that people are good.

Scott Hawkins’ The Library at Mount Char - In a year of reading some very Odd fantasy books (many of which skulk about on this list), this was, perhaps, the Oddest, and I think it is terrific. You see, there’s a sort of pandimensional conclave of, uh, orphaned suburban children who all have godly powers but are undeniably insane? And they work for, but also against, their omnipotent Father? And some random dude gets caught up in the plot? And also the President of the United States? And also a lion? It is incredibly violent and gross! But also, there’s a library!

(In the spirit of unsolicited feedback, that cover isn’t very good, is it? And the blurb of ‘ambitious!’ is both 100% accurate but also absolutely the definition of ‘damned with faint praise’. This limited edition has a much foxier cover, and is probably good for fans, but I’m not sure it makes any sense - or is very appealing to - people who haven’t read the book already. Flipping through the foreign editions there are some really bold interpretations, but I am not sure anyone comes close to nailing it. Especially not these guys. I don’t know what the answer is here. The challenge of selling a VERY WEIRD book.)

Elin Hilderbrand’s Swan Song - My first Hilderbrand! It is hot, rich people! Scheming and conniving and maybe even killing one another! How did it take me so long to find her?!

Shubnum Khan’s The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years - Another fabulous genre-spanning work, both comfortable and disruptive. A found family (of sorts) in a creaky old house in Durban. Everyone has their story and their secrets; some more than others. The combination of a child, a ghost and a disaster helps bring the story to its resolution. Stylishly written and extremely atmospheric.

Brigitte Knightley’s The Irresistable Urge to Fall for Your Enemy - This is ADORABLE. Yes, it is repurposed Harry Potter fanfic, but no, it is not Manacled and won’t make you bleach your soul after reading. A very proper and hardworking doctor-wizard is forced to buddy up with a very sassy and notorious assassin-wizard. There’s a plague or something, but who cares, they’re cute and the book is cover-to-cover BANTER, and it is great. This also made me laugh out loud.

Grace Li’s Portrait of a Thief - Museum heists with Chinese-American post-grads stealing colonial-era artifacts to return to China. Is it morally grey? More than a little. Are the heists ridiculous? Absolutely. It is fun? Immensely.

(I like the a lot cover, btw. It screams ‘modern heist’. Sleek and contemporary, but with an classy, iconic nod to it.)

Kirsty Logan’s No and Other Love Stories - Logan has long been one of my favourite authors. This is a deeply distrubing collection and I adored every story in it while also having nightmares as a result. Enjoy!

Will McPhail’s In - To quote Anne: ‘why are all cartoonist’s memoirs so depressing?’. And this is, in fact, depressing! An artist searches for connection, and stumbles on a shortcut to hasten and deepen his relationships with other people. Maybe, just maybe, there’s a Question he can ask people that unlocks them, encourages them to open up, and, ultimately, makes him feel less lonely. It is a lovely idea, but does it work in practice? And does it get him the answers he really wants? This is a beautiful book about the insidious power of loneliness.

Daniel Polansky’s March’s End - Polansky, like Bennett (above), has been banging out brilliant weird fantasy books for over a decade. I’m hoping he’s the next one to be ‘discovered’ by the awards, as it is long overdue. March’s End is typical Polansky: a deeply troubling look at ‘portal fantasies’, with the March family juggling their real world needs with absolute power in a (slowly crumbling) magical realm. It is a take on the authoritarian tradition in fantasy, and pokes holes in the divine right of kings and chosen ones alike. Not dissimilar to The Magicians, but, I think, a lot more kind at heart. There’s no true Evil here (any more than there is objective Good), rather a lot of bumbling mortals dealing with more authority and power than any individual should rightly ever have.

(You know what? I also don’t like this cover. The challenge of a VERY WEIRD fantasy again. The throne with chains is a good symbol, and actually captures the book well. But it is buried in a very generic aesthetic, and this looks like Any Other Fantasy, which it decidedly isn’t.)

Tamora Pierce’s The Song of the Lioness - I reread a lot of my favourite fantasy epics this year: Belgariad; Memory, Sorrow and Thorn; Harper Hall… This, despite being of the same general vintage, wasn’t a reread. Alanna is both the classic fantasy protagonist and very much a young woman. There’s something really important about the way that Pierce does both, and I think I missed out by not reading this at a more formative time. Better late than never.

Claudia Roden’s Picnics and Other Outdoor Feasts - An ode to outdoor eating, with lots of creative ideas on how to make it fun and memorable. I look forward to both days of summer in 2026.

Sofia Samatar’s Tender - Samatar is always magnificent. A diverse collection of stories and themes, united by her uniquely flowing style of prose.

Richard Swan’s The Justice of Kings - Murder mystery/fantasy in a secondary world! A magically-empowered magistrate and his assistants try to solve a murder and get caught up in big ol’ political schemes. Vonvalt, the titular Justice, is a fascinating character: a crusader who truly believes in the importance of his work and the empire behind it. But is the society he fights for worth saving? Or is he the last good man? I’m not sure where the series is going, and I’m interested to see how it builds on this very promising start.

(This cover works for me. Big, imperial. Old school. It goes thonk. Works for the series format as well. This is an old school fantasy, and about people facing the challenge of becoming ‘heroic’ or iconic in some way. You feel that weight.)

Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys - I finally read this book! It is good.

Benjamin Wood’s The Bellwether Revivals - I’ve read a lot of Secret History knock-offs over the past few years, and this is - in many ways - the closest to Tartt’s masterpiece. The protagonist is an outsider, invited into a close-knit group of elite Cambridge students. There’s the awkwardness and the anxiety. There’s also an academic obsession, something that demonstrates the group’s general divorce from reality. This is more reader-friendly than The Secret HIstory, with a ‘happier’ ending, something of a romance, and less overall contempt for its characters. But, as far as Dark Academia goes, this gets it.

(First published in 2012, it is surprisingly out of print as a physical book, but the ebook seems readily available. More unsolicited advice: with the Dark Academia boom, this one is worth rejacketing and chucking back out into the market. You’re welcome, publishing!)

Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow - I finally read this book too! It is also good!

because tis the season

Buy my book.

Or, if you’re in the UK, both books.

Above and beyond everything else: I hope your holiday season goes well, and you are happy, healthy and stress-free. Please take care of yourself, eat delicious things, and - as much as possible - get some rest! 2025 was sure a thing. Thanks for putting up with my intermittant rambling for another year, and look forward to oversharing more in the next one.