Putting together my favourite reads of the year is always such a treat. There are usually books that I knew, the moment I read them, would make the final list – while others come as more of a surprise as I look through my notebook.
I’ll do proper stats etc soon, but my overall reflection is that 2025 was quite an average reading year – with some real stand-outs. For different reasons, I dearly love all the books on this list, and have followed my usual caveats: no re-reads and no author can appear more than once. Click on the title to take you to a review – or, for one of them, the podcast episode where Rachel and I discussed it.
Here we go, in reverse order!
10. Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel (2025) by Mark Hussey
From my review: “It’s amazing how comprehensive he can be in a relatively short space. Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel does two things marvellously: give a huge amount of relevant, fascinating, detailed information in a distinct and enjoyable way, and remind me why I love Woolf’s novel so much. Now, of course, I am impatient for Hussey to give the same treatment to all the rest of Woolf’s oeuvre.”
9. Bookish (2025) by Lucy Mangan
From my review: “Even in the sadder moments, there is a warmth that flows through Bookish. How do you capture it? How do you make a book feel like curling up a sofa for a natter with a dear friend? I suppose by being an excellent writer, and that is a keynote of Bookish. It’s a hoot, it’s self-deprecating and simultaneously celebratory about the reading life.”
8. Love (1925) by Elizabeth von Arnim
From my review: “I prefer von Arnim on flippant form, and love her most when she manages to be ironically witty while still having a serious point (Father is the best example), and I found the melancholy rather overtook the irony in the second half. But I still think Love is up there with her best novels.”
7. Catherine Carter (1952) by Pamela Hansford Johnson
From my review: “It is suffused by the author’s affection for the main characters, even when they are being weak and flawed. In that way, it reminded me of Elizabeth Goudge. It’s by a long distance my favourite of hers so far.”
6. Perfection (2022) by Vincenzo Latronico
I didn’t write a review, because it was on a podcast instead. What I loved so much about this novella, translated by Sophie Hughes, was how unusual it was. The main characters really represent a generation. There is no dialogue, and we don’t get to know them as individuals, but it says so much about the millennial experience, and with calm beauty.
5. Treasure Hunt (1952) by Molly Keane
From my review: “She manages to people the novel with ‘normal’ characters and those who are borderline grotesques without it feeling uneven. Philip and Veronica are sensible, thoughtful, driven people who react much as you might expect to much-loved parents/uncle/aunt who behave foolishly – there is a warmth to the novel that means you never feel the generations are antagonists, even when they have very different wishes.”
4. The New York Trilogy (1986) by Paul Auster
From my review: “What makes Auster so good is the quality of his writing – and what makes it so refreshing is that he isn’t playing needless games with it. So much postmodern fiction ends up being convoluted and self-indulgent. Or, even if we are being more charitable, the style is co-opted as part of the postmodernism: it intends to confuse, or blur the boundaries between reality and irreality, or highlight the fictionality of what you are reading. In City of Glass, he lets all of those fascinating things come through character and plot.”
3. The Equations of Love (1952) by Ethel Wilson
From my review: “I bought The Equations of Love by Ethel Wilson in Canada back in 2017, based on her being a Persephone author. Since then, I’ve read another couple of novels by her – but I think this overlooked gem might be her masterpiece.”
2. Blue Postcards (2021) by Douglas Bruton
From my review: “I think Blue Postcards is a brilliant book. Bruton has clearly researched Klein in depth, and has written about him in a form that allows freedom to make something much looser and more interesting than a traditional biography.”
1. Follow Your Heart (1994) by Susanna Tamaro
From my review: “The first section of the novella is really just Olga walking around her home, remembering, thinking, reflecting. It is in the form of a letter to her granddaughter, but in the same way that Gilead by Marilynne Robinson is a letter to John’s son […] That is to say, Olga’s granddaughter is the one being continually addressed, but we have no idea if this letter will ever be sent – it’s really a way for Olga to frame her thoughts. And it’s beautiful. She is painfully honest with herself, not allowing the refuge of any comforting lies – whether about her own behaviour, the future of this relationship, or even about the lifespan of the birds and beasts she delights in seeing.
“Tamaro’s (and [translator Avril] Bardoni’s) major achievement is that capturing of voice. That’s what carries you through a book like this, and there is a rich gentleness throughout.”
Have you read any of these? What would you like to read next? The main thing I noted is that half of them came from this year’s ‘read the year’ clubs, which proves what an ongoing success they are for my reading life!