MY 10 FAVORITE READS OF 2025

Good morning, everyone! It's time once more for another list of the top 10 novels I read last year. I used to post these lists in mid-December, until I ended up reading a second-place novel at the last minute. So, I moved it to January in case any books I read in the last two weeks of the year end up on my favorites list. As usual, my picks don't have to have been published within the year, in this case, 2025. They're just the best books that I read last year, regardless of their publication date. This list reflects my personal taste as well, so the books are not necessarily award winners. Here are my picks:

THE TOP TEN NOVELS THAT I READ IN 2024

Good morning! It's time again to unveil the best books that I read this year. This is the sixth consecutive year I do this since I started this blog. In fact, I've been making these lists for a bit longer than that. They're a bit too long to post on normal social media, like Facebook or Threads. Even sites like Goodreads and The Storygraph aren't well suited for this. That's why I launched this blog. I wanted a place where I could share my reviews and opinions with the world.

This year, I decided to post this list now, rather than in December as usual. That makes it less likely that a great read I finish last-minute doesn't make it as one of the picks. It almost happened with Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson. It was a fantastic book, but I read it very late in 2023. I just would rather not cut it too close again. Without further ado, here are my choices for the top 10 books I read in 2024:

THE TOP 10 BOOKS I READ IN 2023

Good morning, folks! It’s time again for my annual list of the 10 best books that I read. This year was my most prolific yet. I’ve finished 84 books as of the time I’m writing this post. It could increase slightly, but I’m pretty much done for the year. And though I read so many books, there weren’t that many to choose from to pick my top 10. It seems the…likability of the books I read this year wasn’t as high as usual. Despite that, there were still plenty of books that I greatly enjoyed.

One of my picks this year was a huge surprise. This book was so good I added it to this list at the very last minute. Usually, December is a wind-down month for me; I either read less books or pick only books that I’ve read before. But this last-minute book is part of a series I didn’t want to postpone until next year. And boy, was that a good choice. The book is Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson. It was absolutely earth-shattering in my opinion. I liked it so much I couldn’t not include it in this list. And it damn near beat all my other picks. Here’s the full list:

BOOK REVIEW: RECURSION BY BLAKE CROUCH

Title: Recursion

Author: Blake Crouch

Genre: Science fiction, thriller

Published on: June 11, 2019 by Ballantine Books

“Gloriously twisting . . . a heady campfire tale of a novel.”—The New York Times Book Review

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time • NPR • BookRiot

Reality is broken.
 
At first, it looks like a disease. An epidemic that spreads through no known means, driving its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. But the force that’s sweeping the world is no pathogen. It’s just the first shock wave, unleashed by a stunning discovery—and what’s in jeopardy is not our minds but the very fabric of time itself.
 
In New York City, Detective Barry Sutton is closing in on the truth—and in a remote laboratory, neuroscientist Helena Smith is unaware that she alone holds the key to this mystery . . . and the tools for fighting back.
 
Together, Barry and Helena will have to confront their enemy—before they, and the world, are trapped in a loop of ever-growing chaos.

 

Ever read a novel that turned out to be way deeper and more layered than the premise suggested? Recursion is a prime example. It’s a hard sci-fi novel mainly set in present-time New York City (as of 2019). The main characters are Barry Sutton and Helena Smith. Barry is a seasoned NYPD detective. He’s divorced and had a daughter who died in a tragic hit-and-run years ago. Helena is a gifted neuroscientist searching for a way to reverse or stop the effects of diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Barry and Helena don’t know each other at first. They even live on opposite corners of the U.S. The story begins with Barry failing to prevent a suicide. A woman jumped from a building after being unable to endure FMS any longer. False Memory Syndrome is a mysterious affliction that’s emerged recently. Sufferers claim to have vivid memories of a life that never happened. Barry is intrigued after his encounter with the woman. He decides to get to the bottom of what FMS is and where it came from.

MY TOP 10 READS OF 2022

 

Good morning! It's once again time to share the books I enjoyed reading the most this year. And in 2022, there were a lot of books to pick from. So far I've read over 70 books, which I track with The StoryGraph. That's pretty much the same as the number of books I finished in 2021. I ended up selecting just 10 books as always, which makes for tough decisions.

This is also the second year in which I've exclusively used The StoryGraph instead of Goodreads. I moved over because the latter remained static the entire decade I used it. It was also quite bloated and didn't have a handful of features I consider must-haves. Rating books in fractions of a star is the biggest advantage The StoryGraph has, in my opinion. I can also see reading statistics, which tells me I read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi this year. Anyway, here are the books I ended up selecting:

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THE 20 QUESTIONS BOOK TAG

Good morning! I am back with another non-review post. This is one I've been working on for a little while. I first came across this interesting tag while visiting Bookish Brews. It's one of my most frequented book blogs. As a book blogger myself, I thought it would be good to take part in this tag. It also means something fresh to post, other than book reviews and discussion posts. Answering these questions was cool as well, and it'll give my blog visitors a better idea of what I like when it comes to books. Here are my responses:

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How many books are too many books in a series?

I feel that would depend on the series. For instance, I’m really invested in the Old World Chronology (by Melissa F. Olson) and In the Company of Killers (by J.A. Redmerski) at the moment. Neither of these series are that long, but I wouldn’t mind if they went to 12 or more installments each in total. They are just so good. I would very likely start them today if I’d never read them before. There are some super-long series that seem excessive to me, though. Bella Forrest and Janet Evanovich come to mind. I'm sorry if you're a fan of them, but they have like 30 books per series. That'd take me almost half a year to read nonstop. My reading backlog is already miles long as it is.

How do you feel about cliffhangers?

They don’t bother me when done right, and when the book is getting a sequel. I can appreciate how cliffhangers build intrigue and make you more eager to continue the series. But it’s really disappointing when an author ends up abandoning the series. It’s even worse if you enjoyed the book. That almost makes me wish I could unread it.

 

2021'S TOP TEN BOOKS I READ

 

Here we are at last, at the end of another year. And this one was particularly trying. With the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting quarantine, 2021 has felt long. It wasn’t as hard for me as for other people (I’m an introvert) but I wouldn’t call the year a pleasant experience. 2020 was quite the tough start of a new decade. I’m with everyone hoping for a better 2022.

Even without a pandemic or home isolation, I read every day. The number of books I finished this year wasn’t that much higher than usual. Some of them were really good, which made it a hard choice to pick between them. As I’ve done before, I ended up with 10 picks. These are the books I enjoyed reading the most this year. The list starts after the jump:

MY 10 FAVORITE READS OF 2020

Here we are at last, at the end of another year. And this one was particularly trying. What with the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting quarantine, 2020 has felt long. It wasn’t as hard for me as for other people (I’m an introvert) but I wouldn’t call the year a pleasant experience. 2020 was quite the tough start of a new decade. I’m with everyone hoping for a better 2021.

Even without a pandemic or home isolation, I read a lot. The number of books I finished this year wasn’t that much higher than usual. A bunch of them were riveting, which made it a hard choice to pick between them. As I’ve done before, I ended up with 10 choices. These are the books I enjoyed the most this year. Without further ado, here they are:

THE TOP 10 BOOKS I READ IN 2019

Greetings! It’s me again, and this is the post that influenced my need for a blog. Reading is my favorite pastime, so I get through lots of books every year. I’ve been keeping track of what I read on Goodreads since 2013. That means this is the seventh consecutive year since I really got into reading. 2013 was also the year I first bought a Kindle, which allowed me to read as much as I want. I don't have a preference for ebooks, but they’re very affordable. 

This year, I’ve read 49 new books. I read fiction (mystery, romance, sci-fi) almost exclusively. I also read nonfiction, although I don’t register those. I sort of reserve Goodreads for pleasure reads rather than learning reads. Below, I’ve chosen the 10 books I liked the most. I’m starting the list from the bottom, and finish the list with my favorite book of the year. Here it is: