The best books of 2025

This list is part of the best books of 2025.

Join 1,210 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2025

Book cover of Is a River Alive?

J.S. Watts ❤️ loved this book because...

Poetic, thought-provoking writing about a really important subject.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Outlook 🥈 Thoughts
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Robert Macfarlane ,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Is a River Alive? as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From celebrated writer Robert Macfarlane comes this brilliant, perspective-shifting new book - which answers a resounding yes to the question of its title.

At its heart is a single, transformative idea: that rivers are not mere matter for human use, but living beings - who should be recognized as such in both imagination and law. Is a River Alive? takes the reader on an exhilarating exploration of the past, present and futures of this ancient, urgent concept.

The book flows first to northern Ecuador, where a miraculous cloud-forest and its rivers are threatened by goldmining.

Then, to the wounded rivers,…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2025

Book cover of The Ten Thousand Doors of January

J.S. Watts ❤️ loved this book because...

After a slow beginning, the book gathers pace and carries you forward with it, wrapping you in an amazing world of possibilities and hope.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Originality
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Alix E. Harrow ,

Why should I read it?

10 authors picked The Ten Thousand Doors of January as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"A gorgeous, aching love letter to stories, storytellers, and the doors they lead us through...absolutely enchanting."—Christina Henry, bestselling author of Alice and Lost Boys

LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER! Finalist for the 2020 Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards. 

In the early 1900s, a young woman embarks on a fantastical journey of self-discovery after finding a mysterious book in this captivating and lyrical debut.

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely…


My 3rd favorite read in 2025

Book cover of Grief's Alphabet

J.S. Watts ❤️ loved this book because...

Poetry that is thought- provoking, emotional and resonant.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Emotions 🥈 Thoughts
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Carrie Etter ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Grief's Alphabet as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Grief's Alphabet by Carrie Etter is a shattering elegy for the poet's mother, opening a pathway through grief in spite of the impossible task of expressing such a loss. Beginning both chronologically and alphabetically, the collection moves from early life with the narrator's adoption, through to the mother's unexpected death and the banal yet painful tasks which follow, such as sorting clothes and arranging the funeral. The final section deals with life after loss, and the long work of grieving which culminates in the title poem. Evoking the complex, intimate relationship between mother and daughter, this raw yet deft collection…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Underword

By J.S. Watts ,

Book cover of Underword

What is my book about?

In an age where we can talk about anything, we remain reticent about death. It is an integral, complex, unavoidable part of life, the one guaranteed thing all of us will experience, but it remains our final taboo. Underword is a poetry collection that is not afraid to examine death from many angles and viewpoints. Loosely following the narrative flow of the story of Orpheus, the poems of Underword explore life, dying, death, mourning, moving on, concepts of hell and the afterlife, hope, disintegration and despair, and, of course, endings. Death is as limitless and as limiting as life. Its stories are many.

Book cover of Is a River Alive?
Book cover of The Ten Thousand Doors of January
Book cover of Grief's Alphabet

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