My Best-Loved Books of 2025

Dec 31 2025 My Best-Loved Books of 2025

In the mood for a cozy mystery with unexpected depth? The Night in Question by Susan Fletcher is a poignant meditation on life’s seasons, the quiet secrets we carry, and murder.

If nonfiction is your lane, here are my top two. The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory, by Thomas Fuller. Written by a journalist, it opened my eyes to the history and lived experience of the deaf community. For history lovers, The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon highlights twelve often-overlooked Americans who quietly shaped our nation from the Founding through the Civil Rights Movement. I found the heroes deeply inspiring.

Here’s to inspirational nonfiction! I am currently writing a book, so there are a few theology tomes I’ve enjoyed in my research, but I will spare you those. Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home by Richard Foster is my top pick in this category. A book I returned to more than once this year and will revisit. Also, Loved to Life: A 40-Day Pilgrimage with Love Himself That Will Change Your Life by Ann Voskamp. Her poetic prose moves me, and her passion for Christ is contagious.

Literary fiction was tough to narrow down. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, a wildly popular epistolary novel, was a page turner for me, and I will reread it (some language). And this one is short and oh so sweet: Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy.

Goodreads informed me that historical fiction was my most-read category in 2025, and that surprised me. I will pare it down to four: The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery (often called a YA romance but so much more!). The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan (imagine a wartime England cooking competition). Moloka’i by Alan Brennert (an unputdownable book club favorite). The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson (girl power, post-WWI, clean!).

Are memoirs your thing? I read several, but this one stands out: Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz. It is fantastic on audio. PG-13.

And finally, a shoutout to two series. Travel back to the 1800s, England, with The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower. Lastly, The Mitford Series by Jan Karon, a collection I return to again and again because it holds a special place in my heart.

 I would love to hear what you are reading.

Friends, I am deeply grateful for your faithful encouragement and support. Some of you have been here since 2015—thank you. And to those who are new, welcome! Because you read, I write. May the Lord bless and keep you.

Happy reading in 2026!