From a meditative orbit around the Earth to a road trip with found family to a rundown mansion haunted by a lovesick spirit, the books I loved in 2025 helped me escape into other worlds and other-worldly dimensions. I gravitated toward quiet reads where the gravity of the story was not so much in a heart-pounding plot but in the heartfelt lives of the characters. You can find my picks here, along with all of the books I read in 2025. If you want to head back into my archive of old lists, go here. Enjoy this year’s list which, for the first time, includes not one, but two novellas.
