My Favourite Books of 2025

    I read a lot of books this year as usual, and spanning a ton of different genres and categories. That's pretty evident in my favourites as well, as I have a book or two from most of the genres I read, and I loved them all for different reasons.

    Most of these will be repeats from some of my monthly favourites, but these are the ones that really stood the test of time! Here they are, in no particular order.

    This fantasy book from an underrated author is about Maeve, whose hands were badly burnt as a child, and so she has lost the use of them. She has spent the last ten years with her aunt and uncle, who were healers, but now she's finally returning home to the family she barely knows anymore. She feels misplaced as they're still adjusting to how she needs to do things now, but she finds solace in her youngest brother and the stray dogs she adopts. When they all disappear into the forest one day, she goes after them, and adventures begin. 

    In a lot of ways this is typical Irish-inspired fantasy, but this time it felt nostalgic and lovely to me instead of boring. I think it was because I loved Maeve so much, and her personal struggles with confidence and finding her place were so compelling. The side characters were great, and the world of Sevenwaters really came alive. And I really liked the inclusion of Maeve's disability, and the way she and other people reacted to it were realistic. She made some people uncomfortable, but the people who loved her worked hard to give her the accommodations she needed. This is a later book in a series, but I read it as a standalone, and it worked fine. I have bought the first book in the series, though, and will be reading that in 2026!

    This memoir told through a graphic novel format was brilliant and close to perfect. Tessa, the author, is a quarter Chinese, but lives with her Chinese grandmother who has essentially lost her mind. It's only as an adult, after her grandmother has died and her relationship with her mother is almost nonexistent, that she decides to go back to read her grandmother's memoir and discover more about her life so that she can understand herself and her maternal family better. 

    The author weaves in a lot of historical details as she talks about her grandmother's life, and how she lived through Mao's revolution, in a way that really helped me understand what life was like then. She includes parts of her grandma's memoir, commenting on how it affected the rest of her grandmother's life, or where she can sense lies. And all of it leads her to understand how this trauma is impacting her two generations later, and how generations of mental illness affected her, before she even struggled with it herself. I thought it was all so smart and profound, and made me reflect on so many parts of my own life and experience, both when in China/Taiwan and as the daughter of immigrants. 

    I don't read a lot of self-help these days, but this one came highly recommended in a podcast, and I still think about it months after reading it. Oishi is a psychologist studying what makes a good life, and says that while happiness and meaningfulness are common qualities people name as necessary for a good life, he believes that psychological richness is an undervalued quality. Richness includes curiosity, exploration, and experiences that make your life fuller. He makes a quite good case for valuing and pursuing richness in our lives, and uses lots of real-life examples results from studies, making his points easy to understand. Increasing my own psychological richness is one of my main intentions going into 2026.

    I'm someone who rarely gets emotional from books or other forms of media, and don't ask me why this one struck such a cord in me, because I have no idea. The main character Douglas is a normal man, a scientist who lives fairly happily with his wife and son, but his world is shaken up when his wife says she's thinking of leaving him. They still go on their big trip around Europe with Albie, and Douglas is set on making sure everything goes perfectly, so he can convince his wife to stay with him. He also wants to improve his relationship with his son, but after an argument, Albie sets off on his own, Connie goes back home, and Douglas decides to find his son. As we hear about the disastrous trip, Douglas also tells the story of his life with Connie.

    This book made me think and reflect so much as I read it. Douglas is a very typical man - set in his ways, not great at communicating, focusing too much for providing financially for his family and maybe not enough on providing emotional support. But he loves both his wife and son, desperately, and I couldn't help but understand him, even if he was frustrating. This is also the story of a marriage between two people who love each other but are very different, and it could be hard to tell if they truly belonged together. His relationship with his son was also fully fleshed-out and understandable, and I thought a lot about being a child who's very different from her parents. And as a bonus, he travels all over Europe, so the setting is amazing as well!

    This YA horror book by a trans Canadian author is not for the faint of heart. Asher has run away from home and ended up in small town Bridlington, which has lots of secrets. He meets a lot of the town citizens, including Paz, who is the town scapegoat despite being only 11. When her friend dies, she's sure a monster got him, and so she and her friends decide to go into the old mill and kill it. 

    It's a book about being trans or queer and living in a small town, and creating a facade to stay safe but how that backfires. And maybe closing your eyes to anything that's "not your business" is not good actually. It was intriguing and full of rage and violence, and went in unexpected directions that didn't feel like cheap twists. I thought it was super well done and I enjoyed it throughout.

    A book about "reimagining life with friendships at the center." Cohen splits the book into chapters, each one focusing on a different aspect of friendship, and showcasing a pair of friends who have decided to make their friendship with someone the center of their lives. Some of them have romantic partners as well, while others have decided to make one friendship the central relationship in their lives. The book has chapters touching on making that decision, the complications of choosing that when it confuses other people, the differences between platonic and romantic love, and where sex fits in. As someone who loves thinking about modern friendship, it gave me lots of new ways to look at it! 

    As a Jane Austen fan, I couldn't resist reading this non-fiction book. The author is a rare book dealer who loves Jane Austen, and she got interested in finding out more about the authors Austen liked and had on her own bookshelves. She focuses on 8 different female writers who were writing novels before or during Austen's time, most of which she really admired. For each author, we get a biography, a description of her most famous books, and most interestingly for me, an exploration of why these women are no longer in the canon of classics while Austen is. She also describes her search for meaningful editions of these books, giving so much insight into the industry of publishing and rare book dealing. I loved all those parts of the book, but one of my main takeaways was about collecting books, and how to create a meaningful collection for yourself. I've also started reading some of Jane Austen's favourite books myself!

    I had a lot of feelings going into this book and a lot of feelings coming out of it. Backman is one of my favourite writers, and I've read everything he's written, so a lot was on the line for me! Luckily, I loved his newest release just as much as his previous books.

    This is about Louisa, who is about to age out of the foster care system and has just lost her best friend to suicide. She meets her favourite artist by chance, who dies later that day and gifts her his famous painting of three kids on a pier. She ends up on a journey with one of the kids, now grown up, back to their hometown, and along the way she hears the story of the three friends. It's really wanting to know what eventually happened to them and how that summer ended that is the driving story of the book. As expected from Backman, this story is happy and sad, tragic and joyful. It's about characters who are full of anger and violence, but also love and loyalty, despite all of the horrible things they've experienced. 

    Backman has a very distinct writing style and voice. His narration and commentary is very present, and a lot of the hard-hitting lines come from that input. His humour leans toward the dad-joke side, and can be a bit silly, which I can imagine some people would roll their eyes at, but I find really charming. As always, I loved his vivid characters, and every scene is so full of emotion that I had to constantly take breaks.

    This book absolutely worked for me, and it was just so nice to read something that did everything I wanted it to. Augusta is a 42-year-old spinster living happily with her twin Julia, but when their boorish brother decides to get married and Julia finds a growth in her breast, they decide to use their independence and remaining time to be ill-mannered and help women in trouble however they can. Throughout the book they are given several tasks they can't refuse, getting them into trouble. They are also constantly put into contact with Lord Evan, who was sent to Australia for 20 years for a crime Gus is sure he didn't commit. And for the first time, Gus can't seem to stop thinking about a man, especially one who seems to admire how indefatigable she is. 

    I loved Gus, Julia, and Evan. I loved that she was a tall spinster who doesn't disparage other women, but still felt like a unique character who doesn't quite fit in. I loved that Julia, while quieter and more careful, also contributed a lot to their schemes with her acting abilities and great memory. I loved that Evan couldn't help but admire Gus's gumption. And it was just so fun! But the main thing that made this book stand out amongst books with similar premises is that this author obviously knows so much about the Regency era. She includes so many historical details about what was going on in that time, what they wore, the different laws, etc. This is an author writing Regency books because she's an expert in the era and not just because it's trendy.

 

   This was the first year I really paid attention to manga and discovering what kind I like, and this was my clear favourite. It's only three volumes, so a short one, but still impacted me emotionally. Yuriko and Gakurouta are newlyweds, but Yuriko is asexual and Gaku are gay, and they're both aware of the other's sexuality. Throughout the three volumes we learn about their backstories and how they discovered their sexualities, and how and why they decided to get married. 

    But a big part of the manga is these two friends adjusting to living together and learning how to support each other in an unconventional marriage. They deal with family and friends who pressure them to have kids or don't understand their relationship. It's heartwarming and lovely.

    I haven't been a huge of the romantasy dominating the bestseller lists these past few years, but I love this author and unsurprisingly, this was another winner by her. Owen is a scholar of Dominion who studies the mythology of Saint Una Everlasting, and he is suddenly sent into the past to meet her and record her story. He journeys with her to find the grail, knowing that in the end she will be betrayed.

    This book is so gorgeous. The romantic pairing is one that was designed for me specifically (small scholarly man x large warrior woman!!!), and is filled with yearning and devotion. But I was equally entranced by what it was saying about about empire and nationalism and mythology. And all of the characters and relationships are so rich! It felt like a masterpiece to me.

    Another YA horror by a Canadian author! This book has dual timelines ten years apart, about Daisy facing an evil house, and Brittany investigating what happened to her.  Daisy can see ghosts and has a very complex relationship with her mom, but she just wants to help her set up the house they inherited as an AirBnB so she can be settled and live her own life. But her mom won't let her into the house, and then she realizes that it attracts both ghosts and living people, and something's not right. 

    This was a great haunted house story, and I loved how it intertwined with complex mother-daughter relationships, forgotten Black girls, and friendships. Plus, it's set in Timmins, and it was so nice to have an unapologetically Canadian book, with specific references that set it firmly in Ontario.

    T. Kingfisher was my most read author of 2025 (7 books!), but this was my favourite even though they were all great. It's inspired by Snow White, but don't expect a retelling. The main character is Anja, who is a poison expert. To her surprise the king shows up at his workshop and asks her to try to save his daughter, who seems to be poisoned. So she goes to the palace and tries her hardest to figure out what's wrong with Snow, only to fall through a mirror and discover a whole new world. With the help of a talking cat and one of her guards, she has to find out what's going on with these apples and mirrors. 

    Anja is a classic Kingfisher heroine - tall, fat, tactless, and a bit odd. And it always hits! I thought it was fascinating, and fun, and occasionally gross, as is to be expected from Kingfisher. It's not a romantasy, but there is a romance subplot that I really enjoyed.

    This is the story of Celestine, who was taken from his home in the Congo to live with a British man who saw himself as his saviour, but after his death, the man's relatives treated him as a slave and forced him to stay in the attic. Then 50 years later, a girl living with her stepmother is forced to sleep in the same attic and finds Celestine's belongings. As an adult, she finally decides to find out what she can about the boy who lived in the attic before her.

    This book tells a powerful story of colonialism, racism, and overcoming your circumstances by focusing on how you want to live your life despite what others have decided for you. There's a lot about trauma and how it affects people, and neither Celestine nor Lowra's healing is easily won. I was equally invested in both main characters and timelines, and I loved seeing how their stories came together.

    I usually stay away from war books, but I think I just read this WWI book about men in love throughout the war because it seemed like it would make me feel something. And oh boy did it ever! The book begins when the war is just starting, and Ellwood and Gaunt are best friends at boarding school who keep their feelings for each other hidden. They feel pressured to join the war while underage, and stay in contact in different ways throughout the war. And all the while their classmates and friends and fellow soldiers are dying. 

    And it's just SO SAD. All these boys with personalities and thoughts and families, and then they all just die because some men couldn't get their shit together. I thought that this book got that message through so well. The characters were so lifelike, even the ones who weren't there for long before getting offed - not in a heartless way just for the spectacle, but to underline how tragic the loss of life was. I wouldn't have been so invested though if not for the love story at the heart of it. It's not fluffy at all, but rather angsty and full of miscommunication and internalized homophobia (but actually refreshingly devoid of outright homophobia!). This book was so not my usual thing, but it was just nice to care about characters. I still think about it all the time.

    For something completely different, here is the most charming series I read this year, perfect for when I needed a palate cleanser between more difficult books! All of the books are very short, and I've read the first three, and I plan to continue the series in 2026! 

    As the title suggests, the book is told through the journal entries of Emma M. Lion, a woman living in Victorian London. After living as a lady's companion for several years, she has returned to live in the house she inherited, only to find out her elderly cousin through marriage has spent all the money left for her. She details her daily life, arguing with her terrible cousin, trying to make ends meet, being bossed around by her aunt, and meeting her strange neighbours. It's light-hearted and funny, but it's because Emma faces her difficult situation with a great attitude, even if she has the occasional bad day. It's not plot-driven, but I am excited about the hints of potential romance coming her way.

    Aster Glenn Gray is why I still give indie books a chance sometimes. (Yes, this cover is not good, and yes, this is the second book on this list about an MM romance during WWI. It's not my fault they were both great.) This is about Robert and David, who were friends at boarding school and then meet again after WWI while both convalescing after losing a limb. Told in single POV, Robert is immediately attracted to David again, but has no idea what David thinks. They rekindle their friendship, and he realizes how much David is suffering from grief and PTSD. 

    This book is a fairly slow burn, and the way these men interact each other creates so much romantic tension. But a lot of the book is them figuring out how to be together when they both have so much trauma and bad experiences. I just loved how tender and sweet it is, but also realistic. They both have issues, obviously, and I could feel so keenly how hard it can be to love someone who is suffering and you don't know what the right things to say are. The author also uses this book to explore boarding school culture in the early 1900s and how sexual experimentation was seen, as well as how views about sexuality have changed. 

    Those are my top 17 books, I guess! You are required to let me know if you end up reading and loving any of these now!