Best books of 2025

Belle
Written By Jennifer Duby

This was a big reading year for me. According to my GoodReads, I read 64 books, which is the most I’ve read in a year since I started keeping track. I think this is also a record year for books I DNF’d. I really gave myself permission to give up on anything I wasn’t enjoying. Ironically, I think this helped increase my book count bc it meant I moved on to something I could finish apace rather than trying to slog through something I hated. In no particular order, here are my faves:

  • Small Mercies, Dennis Lehane. Set in Southie during the busing controversy of 1974. Gritty and real and compassionate portrayal of racism in Boston in that era.

  • Hunter's Heart Ridge, Sarah Stewart Taylor. My favorite series by SST. The Vermont setting and characters are -chef’s kiss-.

  • Murder Takes a Vacation, Laura Lippman. I really hope we get to see more of Mrs. Blossom. Utterly delightful.

  • The Kind Worth Killing (Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner, #1), Peter Swanson. This year I read everything by this author and especially loved the Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner. Hope to see more of these.

  • Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping [On a Dead Man] (Vera Wong, #2), Jesse Q. Sutanto. If you haven’t read the Vera Wong books yet, do yourself a favor and get on it. So much fun.

  • The Stolen Coast, Dwyer Murphy. Noir set on Cape Cod by the editor in chief of Literary Hub's CrimeReads vertical, who’s from Wareham MA, so he oughta know.

  • The God of the Woods, Liz Moore. I fell in love with audio books this year, and this was the one that  did it.

  • The Blue Hour, Paula Hawkins. Weirdly, I read more than one book set on an island this year, but this one was the best.

  • El Dorado Drive, Megan Abbott. Ms. Abbott can do almost no wrong in my book.

  • The Last Hitman, Robin Yocum. Not sure how you make a hitman an appealing protagonist, but Yocum did it.

 

I actually read some nonfiction this year! [pats self on back]. My M.O. is to buy nonfiction books and intend to read them without ever actually cracking the spine. These I loved:

 

  • The Backyard Bird Chronicles, by Amy Tan.

  • The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum: The Rise and Fall of an American Organized-Crime Boss, by Margalit Fox.

  • The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, by David Grann.

  • The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century, by Edward Dolnick.

Jennifer Duby

This article was written by Jennifer Duby, founder of Cyrano Content.

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