2025 was a weird year for reading in the end. I read 66 books in total, most of them being read in the first eight months of the year before three months of severe morning sickness hit. During that time, the last thing I wanted to do was read (or do much of anything, other than get through each day!).
As I wasn’t able to read in my usual ways, I ended up reaching for easy reads, like manga and novellas. I was also quite motivated to read books from my shelves, knowing we’d desperately need the space in the house with a little one coming along (see my 2025 Bookshelf Challenge – I managed 17% of my unread owned books in the end, which I think is good?).
Despite the few months that were a bit of a blip in my reading year, I read some truly incredible books in 2025, some of which are now all-time favourites. So, here’s to my weird but still totally valid year of reading: 
The Fairy Tale Fan Club // Richard Ayoade
The Kamogawa Food Detectives // Hisashi Kashiwai
The Spell Shop // Sarah Beth Durst
She’s Always Hungry // Eliza Clark
Dead In Devon // Stephanie Austin
Toffee // Sarah Crossan
The Kaiju Preservation Society // John Scalzi (this was a re-read because I love this book so much)
The Restaurant of Lost Recipes // Hisashi Kashiwai
Station Eleven // Emily St. John Mandel
Smashed // Junji Ito
Godkiller // Hannah Kaner
Monumenta // Lara Haworth
Death at Morning House // Maureen Johnson
Hum // Helen Philips (this deserves an honourable mention, as it only just missed out of my top 5 list)
Four Seasons in Japan // Nick Bradley
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter // Theodora Goss
We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year Old Overlord // Garth Nix
Girlfriend on Mars // Deborah Willis
Half a Soul // Olivia Atwater
Who Wants To Live Forever // Hanna Thomas Uose
Young Hag and the Witches’ Quest // Isabel Greenberg
Table for One // Emma Gannon
The Unworthy // Agustina Bazterrica
The God of the Woods // Liz Moore
4.50 From Paddington // Agatha Christie (this was my first ever Agatha Christie read – I know, shocking it’s taken this long!)
Piglet // Lottie Hazell
The Gentleman from Peru // André Aciman
We All Want Impossible Things // Catherine Newman
Strange Pictures // Uketsu
How To Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying // Django Wexler
Water // John Boyne
Spy Family Vol. 1 // Tatsuya Endo
Spy Family Vol. 2 // Tatsuya Endo
Spy Family Vol. 3 // Tatsuya Endo
Spy Family Vol. 4 // Tatsuya Endo
Spy Family Vol. 5 // Tatsuya Endo
Spy Family Vol. 6 // Tatsuya Endo
The Android’s Dream // John Scalzi
Sandwich // Catherine Newman
The Book of Guilt // Catherine Chidgey
The Last Devil to Die // Richard Osman
Remina // Junji Ito
The Bell Witches // Lindsey Kelk
Tusk Love // Thea Guanzon
Super-Frog Saves Tokyo // Haruki Murakami (one of the strangest books I read this year)
Swept Away // Beth O’Leary
Bone Talk // Candy Gourlay
Rainforest // Michelle Paver
The Memory Police // Yoko Ogawa
Miss Benson’s Beetle // Rachel Joyce
Strange Houses // Uketsu
Make Every Penny Count // Ricky and Naomi Willis
Seventeen: A Coming of Age Story // Joe Gibson
Budgets Don’t Work (But This Does) // Melissa Browne
The Devil You Know: Stories of Human Cruelty and Compassion // Dr. Gwen Adshead
Ravenous: How to Get Ourselves and Our Planet into Shape // Henry Dimbleby
In the Dream House // Carmen Maria Machado
Everything is Tuberculosis // John Green
Just Mercy // Bryan Stevenson
The Mind-Gut Connection // Emeran Mayer
The Salt Path // Raynor Winn
A Story About Cancer (With A Happy Ending) // India Desjardins
Food Noise // Dr Jack Mosley
The Little Book of Hygge // Meik Wiking
The Modern Midwife’s Guide to Pregnancy, Birth & Beyond // Marie Louise
What books did you love reading in 2025?
