Top Five Books of 2025

“…I kept having those sudden, subtle, and possibly microchemical raptures – little lights flicking deep inside the brain tissue – that some people experience when they finally find words for a very simple and yet till then utterly unspeakable feeling. When someone else’s words enter your consciousness like that, they become small conceptual light-marks.”

-Valeria Luiselli, Lost Children Archive

Happy New Year everyone! I hope your holiday season was as beautiful as it could be, whatever the circumstances in which you spent it.

Our little family, unfortunately, spent the two weeks battling various iterations of the flu (aside for my 6 year old who somehow managed to remain completely healthy) but we still found little moments to cherish each other and bathe in gratitude for all that we have. Thankfully we are all much healthier now!

In anticipation of, hopefully, a much more robust year of writing I wanted to start 2026 off right by celebrating an achievement from 2025 that I’m particularly proud of – I crushed my reading goal! I had set it at a modest 25 books (for 2025, obviously. I know, I know, how clever) and ended up finishing 52 instead. This meant that not only did I meet my declared goal but also my secret goal to read one book per week over the course of the year. Did I read one book per week? Maybe not. But…I read the equivalent! So I’m counting it.

I thought I would start this year off easy with a look at the top 5 books I read last year and why they were so impactful.

Interestingly, the quote which began this post actually comes from a book I tried several times to pick up and finish but just couldn’t manage. This is something else I started working on in 2025 and remains a work-in-progress even today: putting books I’m not enjoying down. Loved ones have been telling me for years that life is to short to read books we don’t enjoy and perhaps I am finally starting to listen. With a “To Read” list of over 5000 books and counting…I suppose it makes sense to cull unenjoyable ones early rather than devote time to them which could instead be spent on books I’m itching to pick up. As I said, it’s something I’m still working on.

However, thankfully, there was only one book I couldn’t manage to finish in 2025 and that I eventually, perhaps reluctantly, agreed to put down permanently at the beginning of 2026. The rest of my reads were, as you can see by the average rating of 4.52 stars, pretty damn good!

It was honestly hard for me to single out just 5 books which impacted me the most but after careful consideration…here they are (in no particular order because that would be another level of difficulty entirely).

#1 – What You Are Looking For is in The Library

I had read several reviews of this one which described as the perfect book for booklovers and I couldn’t add it to my to read menu fast enough. During one of my perusals of the Kobo sales, it came up for only $1.99 and I knew it was my chance to add it to my digital collection. I’m oh so glad I did, enough so that I might buy a physical copy for my bookshelf so I can dip in and out of the actual pages as needed.

At its heart, this book is about connection: connection with the right people, the right opportunities, the rights circumstances at the right time. But it’s also about the power of books and how they can connect you with dreams, ideas and possibilities that have either laid long buried in your subconscious or which have yet to be discovered at all. While the plot follows several individuals stuck at a crossroads who enter a community library and leave with a recommended book they didn’t even realize they needed from the empathic librarian the result is a beautifully languid study on life’s quiet beauty. Reading this book felt like a deep breath for the soul – something I truly needed after a crazy few years. I can’t recommend it enough.

#2 – Fourth Wing

Changing gears entirely for this one, as it is neither languid nor peaceful, this book nonetheless had an enormous impact on my reading life last year. Rather than being a deep breath for any part of me I may have actually held my breath for parts of it…but I digress. I think this book was the one that reminded me why Lord of the Rings remains probably my favourite book of all time (which reminds me…I’m overdue for a re-read). This was the first sweeping fantasy novel in a long while whose world and characters completely entranced me from the start. Yes, I read Game of Thrones during university but that one – whether due to the writing style or the treatment of women – never held me in thrall as much as this one did. As soon as I finished Fourth Wing I needed the next one…and then the next one. I couldn’t put them down. And it is the first time in a long time that I’ve eagerly awaited another sequel…probably since Harry Potter actually! And the last one of those came out in, well, 2007 (how is that possible). So it really has been that long. If you haven’t read this one yet because you’re worried about all the hype…maybe give it a shot. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

#3 – Legends and Lattes

And we are back to books that made me feel all warm and cozy inside. OK, this one is a mix as it does involve an orc who was part of a crew of hired blades before retiring from the fray to open a coffee shop so there is obviously some remnants of her former life. However, overall this book introduced me to an entirely new-to-me genre that I will be investing in heavily: cozy fantasy. The way this book made me feel is like if we had a book, or series of book, set entirely in The Shire. I mean, who among us wannabe hobbits wouldn’t enjoy the heck out of that. Come to think of it…I wonder how one could write such a thing without infringing on Tolkien’s copyright. Let me think on it. In the meantime, you best believe I’ll be reading everything Travis Baldree puts out because this book was like if Skyrim and Animal Crossing had a baby. Weird analogy? Maybe. But did I enjoy it? Yes, very much so.

#4 – Living the Good Life

Now this one is an older book, first published all the way back in 2004. Come to think of it, in 2004 I think I actually had a Goodlife membership…and I didn’t even know this book existed! First read by my husband, he recommended this to me as he thought the accessible way of talking about health and fitness would help inspire me to achieve my goals in those areas and boy does he ever know me well because it certainly did. I loved how Patchell-Adams talked about fitness and health as both a learning curve and something to take one step at a time. I realize that for many, this might seems like common sense. However, I’m the type of person who tends to go all-or-nothing. As in, I’m either going to go for a 30 minute run every single day or I’m going to give up entirely and eat chips on the couch. This read was a welcome reminder that it doesn’t have to be this way. A little bit of exercise, whatever kind, every single day adds up to a big change in the long run. If my daily yoga habit, which I’ve fought hard to build and maintain, is any indication…I too can learn to enjoy and even craze exercise. As my favourite Yoga with Adriene always says: a little goes a long way.

#5 – The Daughters of Izdihar

Number 5 already! I clearly chose the right books to represent the most impactful reads of 2025 because no matter how long it has been since I finished these they were incredibly easy to write about. Every single one. And The Daughters of Izdihar is no exception. This was the first audiobook I have listened to in a while (I’ve been on a podcast kick) and a wonderful reminder of why I enjoy this medium so much. The narrator was fantastic and made the unfamiliar names (it’s based on Egyptian history) sound much more beautiful than they would have in my heavily anglicized head. And the story. Oh, the story was exquisitely crafted and managed to somehow both infuriate me (there’s a lot of outright misogyny) and entice me to push through the fury to find out what happened next. I had to find out if those who were determined to keep women under thumb were going to get what they deserved and I was hooked from the very first chapter, rooting desperately for the heroines until the very end. The magic system was also beautifully built and complicated enough that there was always more to learn about how it could be wielded. This was another book, thankfully part of a duology that had already been completed, where I had to pick up the sequel immediately. Strong women putting misogynistic fools in their place? Yes, please. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for whatever Elsbai comes up with next.

And there we have it – the 5 books which had the biggest impact on me last year for a multitude of reasons. I still can’t believe how many books I read last year. Can I manage 26 for 2026? Can I hit 52 again? Only time will tell…

What about you? Did any books stick out to you last year? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments!

And, remember, life is filled with subtle raptures and goodness is it ever beautiful.

xo Erin