One of the best and easiest brain exercises is reading. This year, I challenged myself to read more and happily surpassed my goal! To encourage and boost your brain and reading now and into the future, I’ve compiled my favorite books of 2025.
Over the past few years, I’ve shared my book lists on my other website and here are links to those book posts for more ideas. Partial 2025 book list, 2024 Fall Favorites Book List, 2024 Midyear Book List & Service Ideas! (great ideas to give back in the upcoming holiday season!) Here’s more with my 2023 Favorite Books, 2022 Favorite Books + Book Reading Tips! Plus there’s 2021 Books-Mind, Soul, & Escape to somewhere Favorites, 20 Books for 2020, 2019 Fiction Faves and 2019 Non-fiction notables.
Now onto my favorite books of 2025!
Favorite Fiction Books
Fiction took center stage in my reading this past year as my brain desired the different way of thinking that fiction provides. Here are my fiction favorite books (and a few others):
Fiction Favorite:
We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker was my favorite fiction book this year. I loved another of Whitaker’s books, All the Colors of the Dark so much that I searched for another Chris Whitaker book. I found We Begin at the End which is an intricately woven story of love, loss, friendships, families, and judgements. To become a favorite of mine means I can’t predict what’s next and this one delivered on that. It’s definitely worth the read or listen.
Historical Fiction:
Dragonfly by Leila Meacham is my historical fiction favorite of this year, which means a lot since I read a number of books in this genre. The story of five idealistic 20-something Americans who became spies at the end of WWII in France kept me engaged and guessing the entire book. I highly recommend if you enjoy the historical fiction genre.
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn was my second favorite historical fiction this year and worth mentioning. I found the backstory of code breakers in rural England during WWII fascinating and the fictionalized account weaved in among the history also interesting. Worthy of a read!
Fun/Easy/Vacation Fiction:
This category includes books that are fun and easy to read, especially if on vacation or simply to take a mental vacation from everyday life to a new and fun location. The View from Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani was recommended as a fun read. It was and ended up being my Favorite Fun Fiction read. I think its selection was also fueled by my love for Italy and stoked my desire to travel back there soon! This was a fun story depicting love, family, and creating a life you want when life doesn’t go as planned. I really enjoyed it.
In this same category is another fave Death in the Dark Woods by Annelise Ryan (a pseudonym for Beth Amos) a local (to me) author. I enjoy supporting other local authors and picked up her previous book, A Death in Door County at my local bookstore. This is its sequel and both are fun, easy reads. Plus, I enjoyed the Wisconsin settings!
I also continued another fun beach series with The Pelican Did It by Key Dew Shostak This series has become my favorite easy read to take on vacation!
Mystery Fiction:
While I read a lot of mysteries this year, The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith (AKA J.K. Rowling) stands out as my favorite. But to read this one, you’ll need to read through the series as this is the latest installment. I had previously purchased the first book of this series for my son to continue his love of J.K.Rowling’s writing as he got older. He never read it, so in January instead of buying new, I thought I’d try the first book. The series backstory about detective Cormoran Strike and his partner Robin is what really hooked me to keep reading through the whole series (thus far). It took me through fall since true to Galbraith/Rowling’s style, the books kept getting bigger/longer! It’s a good series and if interested, click here for all the titles.
The Hallmarked Man was my clear favorite of all of them. It was very long, so I listened to this one on audible and it was fun to put voices to characters I’d pictured and heard in my head all year. If you want to dig in to the series, this book makes it worth it.
Favorite Non-Fiction
Not surprisingly, my non-fiction favorite books of 2025 revolve around memory wellness and here they are:
The Brain Health Kitchen: Preventing Alzheimer’s Through Food by Annie Fenn, MD-I picked up this cookbook in January and really enjoyed it, as I share the author’s back story of family with memory issues. The recipes are easy to follow and reinforce all I advocate and educate on regarding brain healthy eating. It’s educational, easy to read, and great fun working through the recipes!
Ironic how my other two favorites are similar but different in their titling and approach to memory…
Why We Forget and How to Remember Better by Andrew E. Budson, MD and Elizabeth A. Kensinger, PhD -more of a review for me and maybe a bit too sciency for the average reader, but if you want a deep dive into memory, this is it. The memory techniques at the back of the book are worth the read alone.
Why We Remember by Charan Ranganath PhD is a more “outside the box” approach to memory and thinking, which I enjoyed a bit more. I appreciated his different way of discussing memory including the beginning memory review, which varied from other memory books I’ve read (there have been many)! I’m only partially through this one, but it’s an easier read and I look forward to finishing it soon.
I hope this list of my favorite books of 2025 sparks you to read more this holiday season and into 2026! Let’s continue to make our moments memorable with reading!