My Twelve Books of Christmas 2025
It’s that time of year again, where I talk about my favorite books of the year, what I call My Twelve Books of Christmas 2025. I don’t know about you, but when I review the list of books I’ve read each year, sometimes I don’t remember particular stories very well. Maybe a book was decent, definitely good enough to finish, but for some reason it just doesn’t pop in my memory. Other books, though, I think about all during the year. And this year, I read some truly exceptional books.
Last year, after talking about books to get you started as a writer, I talked about my top books of 2024. I had a few main categories and ended with a “best of the rest.” This year, though, I have more categories, and a baker’s dozen of books. Let’s get started!
Best Cover
Okay, it’s not fair to only give Anton Hur’s Toward Eternity the Best Cover designation (although I do think that’s true). This book is so much more. A kind of literary science fiction that’s easy-to-read, it made me think a lot. We’re in the near future and cancer has been eradicated via a type of therapy where nanites, or robot cells, replace an afflicted human’s cells. The book brings up existential questions, such as what it means to be a person. And what role does language play? A truly interesting mix of sci-fi and poetry, with a bit of mystery thrown in.
Best for Book Clubs
For me, best for book clubs means that there will be things to talk about, such as social issues or things that make you think. Maybe some elements are based on true events. There should be a good story in there, and of course it should be well-written. The Reformatory, by Tananarive Due, is all of those things. I love Due’s writing, and have enjoyed other of her works, but I think she really hit it out of the park with this book, which I feel will appeal to a wide range of readers.
Finished during Covid times, Due’s novel fictionalizes events at a place based on the real-life Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida. Operational for more than 100 years, it’s incredible to think this reform school only shut down in 2011, despite a long history of abuse and violence. One of the residents who died there at the age of 15 was a great-uncle of Due’s. She has said in interviews that she wrote The Reformatory as a tribute to his memory. The book has an element of speculative fiction to it with the haints, or ghosts, that haunt the grounds, but the most horrifying characters are humans.
Best Thriller
An evil protagonist I couldn’t stop thinking about was Joe, in You, by Caroline Kepnes. A thriller based in New York City, there are many things to like about the bookstore manager main character. Too bad he’s a serial killer. If you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself empathizing with Joe, which will probably make you wonder about yourself. It also had one of the most interesting points of view I read this year. Fair warning: it’s violent.
Best Twist
From best thriller to best twist, we move on to Death of the Author, by Nnedi Okorafor. Highly entertaining, the book takes place partially in Nigeria, where main character Zelu Onyenezi-Onyedele and her family are from, and Chicago, where they live. Zelu can’t get her book published, and loses her job, too. She comes up with the idea for a book called Rusted Robots, where one of the main characters is a robot trying to collect humanity’s stories in a post-apocalyptic Nigeria after the humans are long gone. This book was fun. I might not recommend it to a hardcore sci-fi fan, but it was perfect for me (I’m sci-fi light).
Saddest Book
Absolutely the saddest book on this list, Things in Nature Merely Grow, by Yiyun Li, is technically classed as a memoir. I would possibly argue that it is an essay on the nature of life, although the subject matter is death. Specifically, the death of Li and her husband’s two sons, Vincent and James, who both killed themselves. I’ve read reviews that claim this book isn’t sad, because of the way Li discusses what happened to their family, but I can only seem to think of it in terms of sadness. And because of how some strangers said absolutely unimaginable things to her.
Best Memoir
I have two books in this category, a best memoir and a runner-up: We Did Okay, Kid, by Anthony Hopkins, and Vagabond, by Tim Curry. The memoir by Anthony Hopkins is also almost my choice for best audiobook (superbly narrated by Kenneth Branagh). Tim Curry’s audiobook is also an incredible listen. He narrated it himself, despite lingering effects of a stroke about 10 years ago.
Both memoirs are highly entertaining, but Hopkins shares more on his personal life and regrets related to his alcoholism. He also talks a lot about how he was called stupid when he was a boy. His differences turned out to include a photographic memory, a boon to his acting. The man acted with true legends of cinema before becoming one himself, and learning about all of those experiences was amazing.
Curry states up front that you won’t be hearing anything about his personal life. He does manage to throw shade at a few fellow actors, though. One of those is someone I had only just listened to a podcast interview with. My first thought when I heard the podcast was that I was expecting them to know about cinema, given that they’ve been an actor for so long. I maybe wouldn’t go as far as Curry did in describing this actor, but it did make me think (and laugh). Curry has done so many things in his acting — and singing — life. It’s nice to hear about all of them, and not just Frank-N-Furter.
Best Biography
From writing about yourself to being written about, we move on to best biography. I found The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky, fascinating. Author Simon Shuster is uniquely qualified, in my opinion, to write about the issues surrounding the invasion of Ukraine, and Zelenskyy. Born in Russia, he initially grew up speaking Russian, but he also has relatives in Ukraine on his father’s side. His family moved to the U.S. when he was young, and he has worked as a foreign correspondent for Time magazine covering Russia and Ukraine for 17 years. He stayed embedded with Zelensky and his staff for several months before he wrote The Showman.
Best Classic
East of Eden, by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck wrote East of Eden so beautifully, with long descriptive passages, but also a story that pulls you along. It has one of my all-time favorite characters, Lee, and one of the best villains I’ve read in a long time, Cathy Ames. If you like sweeping family sagas, this one is definitely for you. This book motivated me to get Steinbeck’s craft-related book, Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters. I also hope to follow up with some of his shorter works in the near future.
Best New Setting
I didn’t expect a novel about war-torn Georgia to be so entertaining when I picked up Hard By a Great Forest, by Leo Vardiashvili. Saba and his family emigrate to London. Twenty years later, his father returns to Georgia, enticed by memories of the homeland, then promptly disappears. Sort of a literary mystery, with some laughs thrown in along the way, I’ll probably reread this, if only to see if I find it as fun the second time around as I did the first.
One I’m Still Thinking About
I keep thinking about Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin. I read this early in 2025, but I’ve thought about it frequently during the course of the year. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s about videogames. What it’s really about is love and friendship. Sam and Sadie, and 30 years between them, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Venice Beach, California. There are two scenes in this book I just keep going back to in my mind.
Best Non-Fiction
And here we are, to the two heavy-hitters on the list: the best non-fiction and best fiction. My non-fiction choice could easily fill several categories, because it’s also my favorite audiobook of the year, and could be best travel, best history, and best adventure. A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon, by Kevin Fedarko, has it all. It combines so many informative elements, but it’s a true adventure, and is exactly the type of adventure I want to read about: something that I admire but that I would never actually attempt. It’s also hilarious, and Fedarko’s narration had me laughing out loud in many, many spots.
This is the book that I would pass on to just about anyone, that’s how appealing I found it. I’m eager to read his first book, The Emerald Mile, about a rafting trip down the Grand Canyon.
My Favorite Book of 2025
It’s incredible to me that the last book I’ll probably read this year turned out to be my favorite book of 2025: King Sorrow, by Joe Hill. At almost 900 pages, it’s a doorstopper. But like all great doorstoppers, it has a story that pulls you along. It flies (so to speak).
We meet Arthur and his five best friends. The six of them make a deal with a devil to help get Arthur out of a jam. The way it all turns out, it makes you wonder if it was worth it. Then again, not doing it wasn’t really an option.
It’s been a long time since I’ve come across such a readable book. There are characters you love, some you hate, and a dragon, too. The book spans 1989 to 2022, with characters who start out in high school and end up in middle age. It’s thrilling and sad, tragic and fun. Yes, you have to be willing to suspend disbelief. But is something like the Long Dark really so far-fetched? And who would’ve ever thought a sweatshirt could get you into so much trouble?
Well, that’s a wrap (haha) on My Twelve Books of Christmas. Do any of your favorites for 2025 match mine? If not, what were some of your favorites? Let me know in the comments below. Happy holidays…and happy reading!
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