The 16 Books That Rocked My World in 2025 + A really cool thing that happened to me
In 2025, I hit triple digits. I've never read more than I did last year. Here is a tidy summary for your consideration.
Well. How aesthetically pleasing, dear. But, um, what does this mean?
Taking all of the facts I gathered and noted above, I've drawn several conclusions about my reading habits, and where to focus in 2026. There's just too much to read, and in so little time. Here are some unstructured observations (not in order of any importance, but rather they're listed in order of leaving my brain).
(By the way: prepare for a longer block of text, I don't want this thing getting TOO GIFy).
First: I want to put a damper on how many new releases I'm reading. 44% of my reading in 2025 was published in that year. So, I'm going to try to restrict "Hot! in 2026" books to about 25% of my reading volume. Why? Ursula K. Le Guin said so, and who in the hell am I to argue with her?
Her point is a good one (for a writer): if you get in the habit of only reading in the current voice, usage, phrasing, you'll adopt the same (and thereby sound like everyone else). So she encourages writers to read books from different voices, using different patterns of their respective language, across the centuries.
Second: As a result of the above, I also want to diversify by time period. I need to read some classics. I mean, come on...in 2025, 96% of the books I read were published in the last 25 years.
So, each month, I want to pick up the following: (i) at least one book from the 19th-century or earlier; (ii) At least one book from the 20th century. I would love for each of those books to be written by women. Please send recommendations. I've already read the bigguns, though FYI--Mary, Jane, Charlotte, etc. IYKYK.
Third: Increasing my time with books by BIPOC in 2025 was very purposeful. That effort paid off (at 41% of my reading, up from about 15% in 2024), and I feel intellectually stronger because of it. The well of empathy that is pretty natural to my countenance expanded by an order of magnitude thanks to these writers.
And yet I did not read much from queer authors, who made up about 17% of my total volume (in particular, I only read one nonbinary author and no trans authors that I am aware of! 🤯). I was honestly surprised when I started crunching the numbers for this newsletter. But on second thought, it makes sense. I didn't go out of my way to find queer authors. And I was never going to stumble on them.
Because this is another example of the algorithm at work. If you're not intentional about selecting authors from underrepresented groups, you're unlikely to see them. The algorithm is going to default to feeding you work from the majority; that's the internet's algorithm but society's as well (and also how marketing budgets get allocated). So I'll be much more mindful about selecting LGBTQ+ authors, as well as hitting at least 50% BIPOC. I also hope to find work by more disabled writers (given I myself fall into this category, it's time to pay attention). Recommendations are needed!
Fourth: I really, really love poetry, but it's new to me. I only started reading it in late 2024, and I only started writing poetry mid-2025. Now that I've opened up my mind and time to this genre, my life has legitimately improved: reading poems is one of the best parts of my day. So rather than just read one here and there, I'm going to make a concerted effort to read an entire collection at least once a month.
Fifth: I cannot believe I didn't read a single science fiction or high fantasy novel in 2025. That was not on purpose (I mean, hell, I went on a whole rant about why people shouldn't disregard fantasy early in the life of this newsletter)! Already in 2026, I've already read one already (a GREAT sci-fi thriller by Native author Daniel H. Wilson, review forthcoming). So, anyway. I'll be more thoughtful about reaching for those too!
My 16 Favorites Read in 2025
You know I can wax rhapsodic with the best of them. But rather than gush all over myself again about each of my 16 favorite books read in 2025, instead I present a kind of end-of-year wrap-up + I'll repost each faves' entry from its respective newsletter post. Here they are in all their beauty.
As usual, I preferred speculative fiction and horror, but the fact that 1/3 of my favorites came from newish-to-me genres signals growth. Or something (...right?):
While I gave over 30 books 5 stars in 2025, the following became my favorites because they did one of the following to me:
I didn't just cry, I sobbed, because the narrative was so deeply affecting. Sobbed during the read and after. And not for a little bit. For hours and hours, on and off.
These narratives left me feeling actual, guttural fear.
I threw each of these across the room at some point.
Each caused me to run outside and spin around in circles as a I cheered in rhapsodic joy (this is (mostly) metaphorical but you get the gist).
These four books populated every spare thought I had for at least a week thanks to their incredible weirdness (actually, in this case, not metaphorical).
Book Reviews for My Beauties!
As promised, here are the reviews direct from various editions of HAVING WRITTEN circulated last year. You'll find a short introduction, an EXTRA Super Short Synopsis, a GIF (ofc), plus a link to that review. Two my favorites came in at the end of the year, so I'm giving each a full review at the bottom of this list. 😌
Know My Name, by Chanel Miller
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Memoir
Extra Super Short Synopsis: Chanel Miller is the woman that survived Brock Turner's assault. He only served three months in jail after the judge in the case sentenced him to SIX.
Review: Read me!
'The Haunting of Hill House' by Shirley Jackson
Rating: 5/5
Squick Factor: 0/5
Extra Super Short Synopsis: Eleanor's mean mom dies. A random acquaintance invites her to stay at Hill House and partake in an experiment. Shenanigans ensue.
Review: Read me!
The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan
Rating: 5/5
Genre & Vibes: Literary Historical Fiction/Heartrending
Extra Super Short Synopsis: A Malayan family endures British colonization, and then Japanese colonization, before and during WWII. Bring tissues.
Review: Read me!
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, by Kylie Lee Baker
Rating: 5/5
Squick Factor: 4/5
Genre & Vibes: Literary Horror/Mental health + sister d(t)ra(u)ma + COVID lockdown
Extra Super Short Synopsis: Cora Zeng works for a crime-scene cleanup crew. She doesn't listen to her aunt's warnings. Big mistake. Ghosts abound. Shenanigans ensue.
Review: Read me!
Katabasis, by R.F. Kuang
Rating: 5/5
Genre & Vibes: Dark academia (but in Hell)
Extra Super Short Synopsis: Two grad students in Cambridge's Applied Magick department journey to hell to bring back their academic advisor (who is a jerk). Shenanigans ensue!
Review: Read me!
We Love You Bunny (Bunny #2), by Mona Awad
Rating: 5/5
Genre & Vibes: Dark Speculative Literary Fiction
Squick Factor: 1.5/5
Extra Super Short Synopsis: The bunnies are PISSED. We hear much from the original Creation. Things get weird af. Shenanigans ensue.
Review: Read me!
Eileen, by Ottessa Moshfegh
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Dark Literary Fiction/LOL wut?
Squick Factor: 2/5
Extra Super Short Synopsis: A kinda mean young woman works in a prison and hates her life and meets a beautiful young woman. Shenanigans ensue. [Added note: because Eileen left me feeling so weird, I didn't rate the book five stars at first. But then I changed my mind and now it's one of my favorites of all time, not just 2025.]
Review: Read me!
Tell Me Everything, by Erika Krouse
Rating: 5/5
Genre & Vibes: Creative NonFic/Memoir/Female Rage
Extra Super Short Synopsis: The real life story of a private investigator who worked the CU Boulder Football program r*pe scandal in the mid-2000s. Get ready for your jaws to drop.
Review: Read me!
The Lion Women of Tehran, by Marjan Kamali
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Literary Historical Fiction/BFFs 😭
Super Short Synopsis: Two best friends endure a changing Iran, oceans part them, and yet...bring tissues.
Review: Read me!
The School for Good Mothers, by Jessamine Chan
Rating: Infinity/5
Genre: Speculative Lit Fic/Technohorror (???)
Squick Factor: 0/5
Extra Super Short Synopsis: A 37-year-old mother has a bad day, and so Child Protective Services separates the mother from her 18-month-old daughter. She's then institutionalized in a psychotic nightmare that is real tho. You will scream.
Review: Read me!
The Book of Records, by Madeline Thien
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Speculative Literary Fiction
Extra Super Short Synopsis: A girl and her father are refugees on an island, living in a building made of time (?)(Yes!). You'll learn about them + three incredible people who lived in the 8th, 13th, and 20th centuries.
Review: Read me!
The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Literary Fiction
Extra Super Short Synopsis: Gregor wakes to find he's morphed into a giant bug. He is worries he'll be late to work. Very bleak shenanigans ensue.
Review: Read me!
I'm Thinking of Ending Things, by Iain Reid
Rating 5/5
Genre: Literary Horror
Squick Factor: 1/5
Extra Super Short Synopsis: A woman goes with her boyfriend to meet his weird family for the first time. They live in a very remote place on a farm. Yikes.
Review: Read me.
I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Speculative Fiction
Squick Factor: 0/5
Extra Super Short Synopsis: We open to find a young girl living in a cage with 39 adult women. This is not a horror novel--I know it sounds like it is, but please, please just trust me it's not gross and it's worth it.
Review: Read me!
When Women Were Dragons, by Kelly Barnhill
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Speculative Fiction/Uplifting good-for-her
Super Short Synopsis: A mass dragoning has taken place. Women are spontaneously shedding their skins and becoming dragons, typically when they are under pressure or in danger. Oopsie, sometimes they eat their husbands, mean bosses, and/or abusers before they fly away. The government wants you to forget about this. Except it's happened many, many times before. But where do the dragons go? We follow one girl as she becomes a woman, raising her cousin as her sister. The protagonist is so talented at math even the 1960s can't keep her down.
Review: Kelly Barnhill dedicated the novel to Christine Blasey Ford, stating that the impetus, the spark of the novel's idea, came from the incredible courage Blasey Ford showed during that seminal historical event. You remember. The one that filled a great many of us with rage and despair? How many women, how many girls, have bravely come forward about their assaults, only to be slapped down, ignored, mocked with institutional force?
You can feel the feminine anger in When We Were Dragons--it's restrained, for sure, like a woman knows how to do--but it's palpable. And gosh when the girls break out of their restricted lives, be it metaphorically or literally by turning into dragons, you cannot help but jump and cheer.
This "Good-For-Her" (GFH) novel is a love story about a young woman learning to love, and advocate, for herself. And our hero brings other women and girls along with her. Usually, I like my GFH nice and bloody. But Barnhill doesn't need that. Plus: do you like speculative fiction when it's a little historical (again, 1950s-1960s)? Do you want feel like Nicole Kidman did she the day she formally divorced Tom Cruise? Then read When Women Were Dragons.
Devotions, by Mary Oliver
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Poetry
Super Short Synopsis: Mary Oliver selected her favorite poems from her storied career for Devotions, including some from her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection American Primitive. Devotions contains a great array of her poems, some of my favorites are in this collection, like "Whistling Swans," "Wild Geese," "Evidence," and "Franz Marc's Blue Horses."
Review: I only started reading poetry when, after a particularly intense and very gentle/loving yoga class, the teacher read Mary's poem (now my favorite) called The Summer Day. The moment took my breath away. It was a formative spiritual experience for me, and since then, I can't get enough poetry. I started writing it myself as a result, and even managed to publish some (more on that below!). Devotions is a great place to "start" if you're new to poetry, and Mary Oliver as a poet is, generally, also likely to appeal to a very broad range of people. Don't blame me if it changes you forever; you were warned!
And now for the cool thing that happened to me! Holy crap, I'm a published poet.
2025 was a wonderful time for me personally; though, of course, the societal horrors were extra horrific, which at times feels hard to reconcile. Nonetheless, I feel very grateful, lucky even, to have the time, space, and support to read this much, to write about it, and to write the things I want to write.
Importantly, 2025 was my year of poetry, and just this past Friday, January 16, I saw my first poems published in the literary magazine Across the Margin. I'm still in quite a shock.
Name *
Last things (promise!)
I'd love you forever if you'd read my work on Across the Margin and also make sure you're following me on Instagram and BlueSky for further such updates,
And don't forget I published a short fiction piece in streetcake magazine December edition (read here ❤️) or click the link below:
THANK YOU for making this newsletter such a success, I started it last year just for fun, and I look forward to continuing throughout this year and beyond.
NEXT WEEK: "Why Buy The Cow When You Can Get the Milk For Free?" 🙊 (On why you shouldn't post your unpublished, original work on social media from a lawyer who reads the terms and conditions 😉). Plus, my full January read list. It's a banger so far, folks.
Have a great week and read banned books.
ILYSM,
Charlotte
P.S. In my ongoing effort to leave Shamazon in the dust, I am switching my reading tracker to StoryGraph. I didn't select StoryGraph just because it's not Shamazon. It's legitimately a better platform and a far superior user experience compared to GoodReads. I highly recommend at least using it in addition to GoodReads, and please find me there!
P.P.S. (😬) And don't forget to subscribe below if you found me on the web!