Molly
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Molly ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
MOLLY: My favorite book of the year is Niall Williams’ THIS IS HAPPINESS. It is not an especially “new” book, first published in 2019, in hardcover by Bloomsbury Publishing. (And what IS it about Bloomsbury—they published “my” beloved, PIRANESI!)
I resisted THIS IS HAPPINESS for admittedly personal reasons: Chapter One is only one sentence: “It had stopped raining.” This was what has come to be called a “trigger” for me: the first page of Frank McCourt’s memoir, ANGELA’S ASHES also famously involved rain. Middle of the first page was, “Above all-- we were wet” and I was IN as a reader. So now Frank’s dead these several years and I need to read about Irish rain? Again and still?
Also, I live one town over from Mt. Kisco, where Niall Williams commuted to his job at a long-gone but great independent bookstore, Fox and Sutherland. Mt. Kisco, of all places.
Point is, I was feeling emotionally crowded. People always send me Irish stuff because: Frank but also because of Molly Malone. I must be Irish! (Or, parenthetically, Molly Goldberg. I must be Jewish! I am neither.)
Anyway, to make a short story LONG as my husband sometimes complains, THIS IS HAPPINESS is a miracle of a novel. If someone had said, “Molly, you MUST read this novel. It’s about a remote rural town in Ireland, recounted by someone now in his sixties, as the main character details the arrival of electricity,” I would’ve said, “Kill me, right NOW.” Of course, it’s so much more, you can sift through the reviews yourself…LOVED this novel.
Three books I loved (but have no time to write about, not anymore):
THE NAMES, by Florence Knapp
THE TRAUMA OF EVERYDAY LIFE, by Mark Epstein
RIVER FLOW, New and Selected Poems, by David Whyte. NB: I do NOT want poetry on my list, not unless you’re in a headlong competition with Gerard Manley Hopkins!
Lucy
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Lucy ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
LUCY: This year of reading (for pleasure) was a funky one, because the first few months of 2025 were also my parental leave. In some ways I had expanded time for reading, and in other ways, my reading was fractured into such short bursts, that I needed books which could sustain that kind of disruption! Devouring the two most talked-about romantasy series was a good fit for this window of time—so I finally got to see what all the fuss was about, vis a vis ACOTAR and Fourth Wing, etc.! But I also took this moment to seek out the lesser-known Octavia Butler novels, and fell down that rabbit hole with utter delight. Like many readers, I had already read and loved her most famous works—KINDRED of course, and the Parable books. This time, I started her WILD SEED books, which were haunting and unique. But I was really knocked flat by Butler's FLEDGLING, which is about a vampire who presents as a ten-year-old girl but is actually 53. (I read this on audio, and probably wouldn't have picked up the paperback because the current cover design is kind of off-putting!) The novel opens with our heroine coming to consciousness, with no memories of who or what she is... though based on her extreme hunger, she pieces this together and it becomes clear that she and her vampire family were brutally attacked (no other survivors) before the story's opening. She learns she is a kind of hybrid vampire, and therefore represents a major threat to other vampires in the wider community. Her journey, and Butler's spin on vampire mythology, is absolutely riveting and wholly original. This is not like ANY other "vampire book" you've ever encountered. And I'm not sure it would have been published in today's market, for reasons I won't reveal (as they are spoilers). It was a fascinating read that has stayed with me for many months!
Others that I particularly loved this year:
KING OF ASHES (S.A. Cosby never disappoints and this one is electric!)
THE PALLBEARER'S CLUB (so inventive! So fresh)
HAPPINESS FALLS (suspense, but not what you expect! Phenomenal characters)
MEXICAN GOTHIC (late to the party on this one! But better late than never)
WHEN THE WOLF COMES HOME (brilliantly combining horror with improv comedy-- and a twist that knocked me senseless!)
Heather
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Heather ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
HEATHER: The idea of a beach read has many definitions, depending on who you talk to. For some, it's code for anything "lite", whether that be in size so it fits in your straw tote, or subject matter so nothing detracts from an azure sky. This summer, I found the perfect vacation companion in Aisling Rawle's THE COMPOUND. It's pitched as Love Island meets LORD OF THE FLIES and boy, did it deliver! Somehow, Rawle manages to juggle a huge cast of characters without it ever feeling over-stuffed, and in Lily she's created a deliciously fresh heroine, one who is not the smartest girl in the room and doesn't care at all. It was exactly the kind of character I'd been eager to read, a welcome reprieve from the girl who walks around Brooklyn being too smart for her own good—a trope I admit I felt a bit tired of. THE COMPOUND was the perfect escape that had me on the edge of my seat. When I finished, I immediately gave it to my best friend so we could discuss; the ultimate sign of a novel's success.
Other notable 2025 new-to-me reads:
DOPPLEGANGER by Naomi Klein
HOUSEKEEPING by Marilynne Robinson
Marin
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Marin ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
MARIN: There’s been a pattern these last few years of me shuffling between on and off years for reading—not for a lack of trying, I might add! Some years it feels like almost every book I pick is a banger, while other years feel way more sluggish. The only good thing about a sluggish reading year, though, is that my favorites of the year stand out from the pack in an undeniable way.
That goes for my top pick of the year, Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan, which burned so bright I'm shocked I haven't heard more people talk about it. This coming-of-age novel (I almost want to call it an epic because it does have that scale imo) follows an aspiring doctor as she and her four brothers get caught up in the Sri Lankan civil war, which lasted for 3 decades and ended in 2009. Growing up in Asia, I'm ashamed to say that I wasn't knowledgeable at all about the tensions within Sri Lanka. I dove in knowing next to nothing but that didn't affect my reading experience at all--and what a testament that is to V. V. Ganeshananthan. I mourned, grieved, gasped. At times, it felt like I didn't have enough air to breathe while reading this novel. I've avoided historical fiction for a while now, feeling like there's so much oversimplification of the past in order to fit a narrative, but THIS book honors and sits in the grayness that comes with life and war.
V. V. Ganeshananthan has become an automatic read for me with this one novel. I'm going to pick her debut novel next and can't wait to see what she has up her sleeve for her 3rd book.
Other notable books I enjoyed in 2025:
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia & Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang are a tie for my top horror of the year! Funny how Lucy and I both read Mexican Gothic the same year 😂
Alex
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Alex ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
ALEX: One of our dear authors called me an intrepid traveler recently and I am preening, because I am far from it. However, I did make my figurative way to the Netherlands this year while reading The Safekeep by Dutch author Yael van der Wouden—a light little thing you can fit in your coat pocket (great for the aforementioned real travel) that also somehow contains the ineffable weight of tragedy, the buoyancy of love, and the answer to so many unspoken questions that start with 'what-if?'. It's a tumbling, slow, hot summer season unfolding at your feet in a small town in 1961, guarded by the quasi-shut in main character Isabel as she carefully tends her late mother's home and maintains a disciplined, safe lifestyle. But that's all upended when her brother brings his loud, gregarious, and graceless new girlfriend Eva to stay with Isabel while he heads off on an extended work trip. With an atmosphere steeped in the all-too-fresh memories and aftershocks of WW2 and a tension to take your breath away, I can only explain The Safekeep as a deliberate and poignant unfolding, with a twist at the end that will make you realize every small detail means so much more than you could ever imagine. Van der Wouden has a way of tapping into all five of my senses—one of my favorite tricks a transportive book pulls off, and not very often—that left me pining for well-worn floorboards and fresh fruit. I clung to it for the expert pacing and emotional resonance between Isabel and Eva, and endlessly recommend it for its most artful execution of Richard Price's quote: "The bigger the issue, the smaller you write." (If you read it, you'll see it!).
I should add, this light little thing won great big prizes and is on many shortlists, including winner of the Women's Prize for fiction and the Booker Prize shortlist.
A couple other top reads of the year (which also gutted me, completely and for wildly different reasons):
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis
Special intern edition!
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Special intern edition! ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
GRACIE: After reading numerous stellar novels over 2024, I couldn't have imagined that my 2025 reads would top that line-up—I mean, I still think about Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin—but this year introduced so many new favorites that compiling a list, as well as choosing the winner, became frustratingly difficult for me. How do you choose, really, when the round-up differed so vastly, from seasonal whims built on vibes, high-concept commercial novels, rich historical settings, quiet and haunting literary novels, and a few light-hearted yet complicated rom-coms? All I know is that the list of favorites is long, but I'll keep it brief, here, if I can manage it. At the end of the day, what these novels have in common is this: a story I'd go down with, and a story I'd come back to again and again. That top spot is just barely snagged by Layne Fargo's The Favorites (ironically). I'm a sucker for a story that so expertly blends artistry and athleticism, especially as a dancer myself, and I've always loved narratives about figure skaters; an art I find so impressive. The novel follows Kat and Heath, an Olympic-bound ice dancing duo. I was immersed in the high stakes of their childhood friends-to-lovers romance that simultaneously benefited and threatened their careers, the media-driven microscope on their lives, and the complexity of characterization—especially a dynamic female character that pushes the confines of what’s “expected” of women. I read this novel almost straight through a sleepless fourteen-hour flight, and, when I made it back to the city on my first subway commute, was so engrossed that I missed my stop (which almost never happens to me, luckily!). Suffice it to say, like that microscope on Kat and Heath’s lives, I was transfixed.
Honorable mentions:
Go as a River by Shelley Read
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
MEGHAN: Graduating from college this year meant I was finally free from assigned reading lists. Free from dissecting novels through theoretical frameworks I didn’t always care about. I’d read so many books because I had to, not because I chose them. And while some of those assigned reads were brilliant, entering 2025 I set a different intention: I wanted a book that made me more aware, more empathetic—something that wouldn’t just entertain me, but actually grow me. Meanwhile, many of my bookish friends were devouring the newest romcom with a coastal setting and a love interest who could kiss like a god (and trust me, I get it), but I was craving something that sat with me a bit longer.
Florence Knapp’s debut, THE NAMES, ended up being exactly that, and it shot straight to the top of this year’s favorite reads. The story begins in the aftermath of a devastating storm. Cora, with her nine-year-old daughter Maia, travels to register the birth of her son. Her husband Gordon—beloved in public, terrifyingly controlling in private—expects the baby to be named after him. But when the registrar asks what she’d like to call her child, Cora pauses. That hesitation cracks open three possible futures, each shaped by a different name choice. Spanning thirty-five years, the book moves through those alternate lives with remarkable clarity, threading together domestic abuse, the messy loyalty of family, and the possibility of healing through self-determination.
At its core, the novel asks a simple question—What’s in a name? It provokes your thoughts: Is identity something we’re handed, or something we fight to build? And if we could choose again, would we become someone entirely new, or somehow still ourselves? Knapp never offers easy answers. Instead, she gives us characters who suffer, break, soften, and rebuild. I closed this novel feeling a little rearranged, in the best way. More attentive. More human. And that, to me, is the mark of a book worth recognition.
My Other Favorite Reads of 2025:
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara