It’s time for one of my favorite posts of every year: a big-picture recap of my year in books, with a bunch of nerdy statistics drawn from my MANY reading journals and trackers, plus a roundup of my favorite books from the last twelve months. You may or may not be into deep-diving your own reading; personally, I have found that documenting and analyzing my reading life elevates my entire reading experience, and it’s fun to see it all come together in these end-of-year posts.
I’m going to stop right here for just a second to address all of the Type A’s among you who are thinking, Kendra, it’s not really the end of the year just yet. You still have time to read more books in 2025! And you are absolutely right! [Type A’s usually are!] But I always cap off my reading mid-December, and whatever I read between now and the end of the year will be slotted into my reading records for 2026.
Believe it or not, this is my thirteenth end-of-year book post! (You can read all of my past years’ reading posts here: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.) My reading has changed quite a bit in those thirteen years. Most notably, I do far fewer audiobooks these days, and I read a lot more Middle Grade thanks to read-alouds with my kids (twenty-four this year). I’m also not reading anywhere near my peak-reading numbers of 205 books per year (2018 Kendra had three fewer kids and a lot more free time!). Despite those big changes from further back in my reading life, my reading has stabilized over the past few years in terms of numbers (135 books this year, compared with 145 in 2024, 130 in 2023, and 135 in 2022) and format (about a third of my reading has consistently come from audiobooks, the rest from Kindle or print).
A pretty notable difference this year is that (outside of read-alouds) I prioritized Kindle over print reading because babies and physical books don’t mix well. Another difference is that I read a much higher percentage of fiction compared with my usual even split of fiction/nonfiction; I find that I have not been drawn to a lot of the nonfiction titles crossing my path, with much of the content feeling too agenda-driven or too similar to books I’ve read before. The uptick in fiction is also due in part to the Emma M. Lion series (more on those books later in this post!) which marked a return to fiction on audio after listening to (almost) exclusively nonfiction titles for the past couple of years. You can see a break-down of my specific books by format here.
One benefit of these annual reading overviews is that they give me perspective on my reading life. I have been in a reading slump for the last couple of months, and recency bias would make it easy for me to paint all of my 2025 reading with a negative brush. But the numbers don’t bear that out. I only had 3 DNFs in 2025, and the 135 books I finished had an average star rating of over 4 stars, which means I really enjoyed a vast majority of the books that I read this past year. If you’re interested in which books fell where in my star ratings scale, you can see my books by star ratings here.
A few more fun facts about my reading this year: while this is a recap of what I read in 2025, most of my reading came from books published prior to 2025 (only 30% of my books were published this year, although that frontlist percentage ticks up to 40% if I include books published in the second half of 2024). Twenty of the books (15%) I read this year were rereads (most of those fell into the read-aloud category), and 44 books (about 33%) were written by new-to-me authors. Twenty-seven books I read this year (20%) were debut titles, and 70% of the books I read were by female authors.
(This is the point in the post where I remind you that YOU WERE WARNED about my obsession with all the nerdy, nitty-gritty details!)
I read a lot of really good books this year (plus quite a few forgettable ones and a couple that I actively hated), and I’ll be sharing many of those books in a bookish superlatives post next month. But a handful of titles rose above the rest, making their way to my Top 15 books of 2025. While not all of these books were published in 2025, they are all books that I read for the first time in the last twelve months. And they are all books that I can’t stop talking about, thinking about, and recommending.
This year’s Top 15 consists of six nonfiction titles and nine novels. I’ve sorted these books by category and listed them alphabetically because—#1 favorites excepted—I couldn’t possibly rank them. For each book, I’m sharing a superlative or two along with a brief summary and a few reflections. Feel free to check out the linked Quick Lit posts containing each book’s full review.
My favorite nonfiction titles are not as diverse as they could be: in addition to one faith-based book and one relatable memoir, I have TWO books about reading with children, and two more books about raising lots of kids. Clearly, I wanted to read about parenting this year!
Best Guide for Navigating Children’s Literature: The Redeemed Reader: Cultivating a Child’s Discernment and Imagination Through Truth and Story, by Janie Cheaney, Betsy Farquhar, Hayley Morell, and Megan Saben—From the team behind one of my favorite online resources, a book that doesn’t just help Christian parents with knowing WHAT to read (though it does do that!) but also shows us how to read, how to pick the best books, and how to navigate books that are problematic but not irredeemable. The Redeemed Reader will challenge your thinking, open your eyes to new ways of approaching books, and empower you to be a thoughtful book shepherd for your children (and maybe even yourself). This is an excellent follow-up to Glady’s Hunt’s classic, which was another favorite read of this year. (Original Review)
Favorite Read-Aloud of the Year: Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr., and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey— This memoir of twelve kids being raised by an efficiency expert in the 1920s is a total hoot! I loved the jaunty tone and warm family vibes, and it was so fun to read this aloud with my four kids who thought our family felt big but is NOTHING compared with the Gilbreths! (Original Review)
Best Invitation to Reading with Kids: Honey for a Child’s Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life, by Gladys Hunt—A good book is “a magic gateway into a wider world of wonder, beauty, delight, and adventure,” and sharing books with our children allows us to introduce to them the “wonder of words put together in such a way that they spin out pure joy and magic.” This modern classic examines the attributes of a good book and guides parents in choosing the very sweetest honey to share with our children. The annotated book lists—with recommended titles for every age and reading preference—are pure gold. (Original Review)
Best Connection to My Word for the Year: A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23—Discovering God’s Love for You, by W. Phillip Keller—Psalm 23 is one of the most universally known and loved passages of Scripture, and the psalmist’s words in these six iconic verses have brought comfort to generations of believers. But familiarity with this psalm can blind us to its rich significance. Here, a real-life shepherd takes the psalm line by line, expounding on each phrase’s meaning and coloring in the psalmist’s sketch with personal details drawn from years of walking in a shepherd’s sandals and studying sheep. I will never look at Psalm 23 (or sheep!) the same way again after reading this profound book. (Original Review)
Most Powerful Reflections on Motherhood, Book That Made Me Wish I’d Had More Children: Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth, by Catherine Ruth Pakuluk—This book is the response of one social scientist (and mother of eight) to the question of why modern women are choosing to have fewer children AND why some women are choosing to defy that trend. Pakuluk’s interviews with fifty-five mothers of large families (five or more children) paint a beautiful portrait of faith, family, motherhood, and purpose. I found this book utterly fascinating, and it came to me at just the right time—freshly into life as a mom of four, and still getting my footing in this new iteration of motherhood. The women in this book were kindred souls who beautifully articulated their attitudes towards children and mothering, giving words to things I’ve felt and haven’t known quite how to explain. This is a must-read for anyone on the fence about having a big family; I only wish I could have read it when the option of having more children was still available to me. (Original Review)
Most Relatable Memoir: Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating-Disorder Recovery, by Mallary Tenore Tarpley—Mallary was just eleven years old when she lost her mother to cancer, and the tragedy was a catalyst for a life-threatening eating disorder that remains a struggle to this day. In Slip, Mallary incorporates her journalistic experience into this book that is packed with eating disorder research and first-hand reporting based on hundreds of interviews and surveys of doctors, eating disorder experts, and individuals with lived ED experience. This research, science, and collection of additional anecdotes builds upon Mallary’s own story, capturing the complexities of a subject that is pervasive yet poorly understood and rarely discussed. Mallary’s ongoing journey with anorexia mirrors my own, making this an uncomfortable but also enlightening and redemptive read. (Original Review)
Sadness is a theme in my favorite novels of the year: almost every one of these books made me cry, and some made me sob with such a ferocity that my family was worried. To me, crying in a novel means the author succeeded in making me feel emotionally invested—and that’s a good thing! These nine books could be slotted into a range of genres, but every one of them features admirable prose, compelling characters, and stories that left a profound mark on this reader.
Best Portrayal of Friendship, Best Coming of Age Story: My Friends, by Fredrik Backman—Twenty-five years ago, in a distant seaside town, a group of misfit teenagers forged an intractable bond, seeking refuge in each other when their home lives were far from safe. Their days of laughing and sharing secrets on an abandoned pier were preserved in a painting that in the present day is one of the world’s most recognizable pieces of art. The painting has meant much to many, but none more than Louisa, an orphan and aspiring artist who is certain she will find the meaning and belonging she sees in those three friends, if only she can view the painting in person. In an unexpected turn of events, Louisa is gifted the painting and embarks on a cross-country journey with Ted, one of the boys on the pier who spends the journey regaling her with tales from those long-ago summers. Together, Ted and Louisa process the grief of their many losses while also coming to understand themselves and each other in light of all they’ve gone through. Told with Backman’s trademark insight and lively humor, this is a story of friendship and found family and the ways that personal connection can help us survive and heal. (Original Review)
Best Narrative Voice, Best Audio Experience, Best Historical Fiction, Best Series: The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, by Beth Brower—It’s March of 1883, and Emma M. Lion has just returned to her home, Lapis Lazuli, in the London neighborhood of St. Crispian’s. Unfortunately, life for Emma is more difficult than it should be thanks to Cousin Archibald, whose squandering of the family fortune has foiled Emma’s plans for a charmed, studious life. Emma documents every moment of her time at Lapis Lazuli, from eccentric neighbors to overbearing family members, educational aspirations to unfortunate rat infestations. And thanks to Emma’s quick wit, keen insights, and wry humor, there’s never a dull moment within the pages of this Victorian socialite’s totally unfiltered journals. The books in this series MUST be read in order, and though I’m only sharing Book 1 of the series on this Top 15 for 2025, every one of the Emma M. Lion books (of the six I’ve read) is a winner. This series is fantastic on audio, and listening to these has been my favorite audiobook experience of the year. (Original Review)
Most Thought-Provoking: What Kind of Paradise, by Janelle Brown—Growing up in an isolated cabin in Montana with only her father for company, Jane’s off-the-grid experience of life in the 1990s is vastly different from that of other teens. Jane’s world is rocked one day when her beloved father returns from a long trip with a computer, giving Jane her first real access to life beyond their reclusive bubble. This taste of freedom prompts Jane to accompany her father on a trip away from the cabin, where she finds herself an unwitting accomplice to a horrific crime. Soon Jane is fending for herself on the streets of San Francisco, seeking answers to her past while trying to make sense of this new life she has discovered. This voicey and atmospheric tale is a provocative exploration of identity and family and loyalty; technology and the rise of AI; the clash of past and future ideologies; survivalism and doomsday fears; and the many grey areas around parenting (protecting vs suffocating children) and mental illness (that can masquerade as brilliance) and government (savior or villain?). This would make a GREAT book club pick, especially paired with Culpability (reviewed here), which was another of my most thought-provoking books of the year. (Original Review)
Best Deep-Dive into Addiction, Biggest Tear-Jerker: The Bright Years, by Sarah Damoff— In the late 1970s, Lillian and Ryan Bright are newly married and seem to have the perfect life. But when a daughter, Jet, enters the picture, past demons come to haunt them. The couple can’t outrun Ryan’s family history of alcoholism, or Lillian’s early orphanhood, or the child she gave up for adoption as a teenager. Over the next thirty years, echos of past trauma and tragedy reverberate through four generations of Brights as they come together and pull apart, encountering unthinkable heartache while still keeping their hearts open to the brightness that refuses to be obliterated. This is a beautiful and redemptive story of parenthood and family, death and resurrection, navigating addiction, forgiveness without blind trust, and learning how to love when love does not come easily. Coming in at under 300 pages, this isn’t long but is jam-packed with eloquent insight and hard-won emotion. (Original Review)
#1 Favorite Book of the Year (tie), Most Relatable (Enneagram 1) Protagonist: The Correspondent, by Virgina Evans—In this heartfelt epistolary novel, we meet Sybil Van Antwerp, a brilliant-yet-prickly woman in her seventies who is spending her retirement from a career in law engaging in a hobby that has been a touchpoint of her whole life: writing letters. For Sybil, letters are “like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle, or, a better metaphor, if dated, the links of a long chain.” Through her correspondence, Sybil makes sense of the great successes of her life and also her many failures and regrets. And in her letters, we get a picture of this woman who has always strived to lead a perfect and balanced life but who now sees that facade slipping away. Through the decade of Sybil’s letters, beginning in 2012, we watch this woman in the sunset years of life discovering a new and unexpected way to view the world and herself as she makes peace with her past in ways that ripple through her letters, spilling over into the lives of those she has loved and lost and is learning to love anew. The epistolary format is my personal FAVORITE form of storytelling, and here it is done with perfection, offering a story of love, humor, redemption, reconciliation, and an ever-evolving search for (and discovery of) purpose. (Original Review)
Best Road Trip Story, Most Quirky, Best Animal Protagonist: The Road to Tender Hearts, by Annie Hartnett—PJ Halliday is a lovable drunk whose sixty-three years have been riddled with tragedy. Even PJ’s one great moment of luck (winning $1.5 million in the lottery) has not served him well; the money didn’t last, and now he’s nearly broke and unsure how he will provide for Ollie and Luna, the ten-year-old relatives who have been unexpectedly placed in PJ’s care following their parents’ tragic deaths. On a lark, PJ decides to set out for a trip across the country to the Tender Hearts Retirement Community in Arizona to win back his high school love. Ollie and Luna are along for the ride, and they’re reluctantly joined by PJ’s adult daughter, Sophie, as well as Pancakes, a former nursing home therapy cat who predicts death at every corner. What could go wrong? Well. . . everything, actually. But this disastrous Massachusetts-to-Arizona road trip might also be the second chance at love and belonging that each member of this accidental family is seeking. With its absurdist narration and morbid themes, this dark comedy won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I was delighted by this zany tale of a wacky but impossibly endearing roadtrip. (Original Review)
Most Uplifting: The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife, by Anna Johnston—Frederick Fife has had a rough go of things lately. At eighty-two, his life feels empty of all that once brought him joy, especially his beloved Dawn whose absence is a crushing weight of unshakable grief. He’s also broke and on the brink of eviction, but that problem is resolved in the most shocking of ways when he’s mistaken for Bernard Greer, a missing resident from the local nursing home. Fred hesitantly takes Bernard’s place and soon settles into this new life of warm meals, unexpected friendship, and—perhaps—even the family he has always longed for. This book that reminded me of Pixar’s Up! stole my heart with its irresistible love story (storIES, actually) and moving meditations on loneliness and grief. (Original Review)
Best Domestic Thriller: Famous Last Words, by Gillian McAllister—Cam is just nine months into motherhood, and while she and her husband Luke love being parents, they’re still floundering in life with a new baby. Cam is sad to see her maternity leave end, but also eager to return to her job as a publishing agent. But on the morning of her first day back, she wakes to find her husband Luke MIA, a cryptic note the only sign that something is amiss. Later that day, the police arrive at her workplace to let her know that a hostage situation is underway. . . and that her husband is the gunman. What follows is the aftermath of this pivotal moment, as told through the stories of Cam and Niall, the hostage negotiator assigned to the situation. In addition to delivering a great story, Gillian McAllister writes wonderfully about parenting and marriage, enhancing a multilayered plot through a thoughtful exploration of grief, fractured relationship, and emotional healing. We are also given fun insights into the publishing business (something I don’t know much about), as well as the life of an introverted book worm (something I know quite well). (Original Review)
#1 Favorite Book of the Year (tie), Best Genre Mashup, Most Memorable Protagonists: All the Colors of the Dark, by Chris Whitaker—This sweeping epic that spans decades and crosses the nation begins in 1975 in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri. Thirteen-year-old Patch (so-named for the pirate’s patch he wears over his single eye) is a local boy and self-proclaimed pirate whose swashbuckling attitude masks the hardship he faces at home. His only friend is Saint, a whimsical tomboy with a love for bees. Patch and Saint are ripped from their childhoods when a mysterious man attacks Misty, the only daughter of a wealthy local family, and Patch rushes to save the girl, ushering in a lifetime of tragedy and heartbreak for Patch, Misty, Saint, and the entire town of Monta Clare. What follows is a love story, a thriller, and a heart-wrenching tale of longing, friendship, sacrifice, buried secrets, a search for purpose, and the pursuit of justice. I have never read anything quite like this literary masterpiece that is equal parts devastating and beautifully redemptive. Though its hard content makes it difficult to recommend to everyone, this was by far my most memorable read of the year. (Original Review)
And that’s a wrap for my reading life in 2025. I would absolutely love to hear from you: what did reading look like for you this year? Were you happy with your total book count? HOW did you read—what format did you prefer, and what were your favorite book genres? And the biggest question of all: what were your favorite books of the year? Click reply to this email, or drop a note in the comments, to share!
I’m here for all the nerdy stats and end of year reflections! I’m behind on my posts but hope to have them out the first week of January. First, I have to pull off Christmas. It’s been an awful few months. My mom died in October and I was suddenly drowning in grief and estate matters. I half heartedly ordered gifts and I’m limping through Christmas prep. I managed to do some reading but writing reviews has taken more brain power than I have available.
Hurray for The Correspondent! It’s my fav of the year….closely followed by Theo of Golden. My fav histfic was One Good Thing closely followed by Harvey Girls and The Lawyer and the Laundress. Enjoyable nonfiction has been sparse this year. One recent memoir I enjoyed is This American Woman.
Congrats on your great reading year!