BOOK MUSE

Okay, friends. Here’s my “Top Ten Reads” for 2025 (out just a few days before the year ends :). As always, I try to think about the 70+ books I read this year and provide some good offerings in fiction and non-fiction, along recs for my favorite poetry, short story, and essay collections.

Read on! And let me know what books you’ve liked too. You can even subscribe to Book Muse to get a monthly reading recommendation—just don’t become a paid subscriber. (Then this will feel like work, and I don’t like to work).

FICTION

1. Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Warning: this book will break your heart. It’s a dystopian novel set in Ireland that explores the cost of staying in a country that is falling into a totalitarian regime from the point of view of a mother and wife. But it is compelling and utterly terrifying tale—I listened to it as an audiobook, and it took me over a month to finish this book because I could only listen for a few hours at a time without feeling sick to my stomach. While it’s not a tale for the faint of heart, it is a powerful testament the ways we depend on our government to safeguard the ones we love.

2. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

I know I reviewed this book earlier in the year, but I think it may be one of my favorites of all time. It’s about a family living on a remote Antarctic island and the woman who washes up on their shore. Here’s what I said, “The book features beautifully written dialogue, gorgeous scenes, characters you will love, and a plotline that unfurls in utterly unexpected ways. But here’s what blows me away about this book: in the face of despair and loss, McConaghy shows us people who refuse to give up their love for one another and the world around them.” This is still true: a must-read for our time.

3. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

A well-written historical fiction set in a small New England town in the late 1700s. This story features a midwife, Martha Ballard, and the discovery of a body frozen in the river. Think murder mystery/feminist history/colonial American literature. You will fall in love with Martha, the fiery kick-ass female as the protagonist who struggles against the patriarchy of her time period.

4. The Wedding People by Alison Espach

One of the fun and funniest books I’ve read in a long time. I’ll admit, I avoided it because the plot sounded rather silly: a woman running away from her life ends up at a resort in the midst of a wedding party seemed a bit too Liane Moriarty for me. I was wrong. This novel will make you laugh out loud, and maybe even spill a few tears.

NON-FICTION

5. Black AF History: The Un-whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriet

So good. Think Howard Zinn meets Dave Chappelle meets Ibram X. Kendi. It’s a contemporary retelling of history from a black man’s point of view, interspersed with stories from his family and quizzes at the end of each chapter to make sure you were paying attention. Read it. Seriously.

6. Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Helen Ann Peterson

As a Gen-Xer, I am often baffled by the kids these days. My friends and I often trade stories about the “younger generation” and shake our heads. This book helped me understand why our kids in their late 20s, 30s, and mid-40s are struggling. Reading this account made me feel more sympathetic—and more tolerant (two feelings I don’t come by easily.)

7. Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America by Laila Lalami

Lalami (author of the smart fiction book, The Dream Hotel), explores the emotional impact of immigration—even with access to a good education and a stable income—in the U.S. I teach a college general education literature class on immigrant/refugee literature, and I’ve brought sections of this book into my course to share with my students. This book will make you cringe, but you’ll want to keep reading.

SHORT STORIES

8. You Have a Friend in 10A by Maggie Shipstead

A smart writing teacher told me about this collection, and I read it over the summer. Wow. Each story features wildly different characters: two Olympian athletes, a dying Parisian, a child movie star, a narcissistic (and frankly quite terrible) author…and you end up loving them all. The dialogue is clever, the settings are intriguing, and the imagery works seamlessly. If you like short stories, you will love this book.

ESSAYS (MEMOIR)

9. This is the Night our House Will Catch on Fire: A Memoir by Nick Flynn

A totally wild ride. Flynn (author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, one of the most god-awful titles I’ve ever heard for a book that is remarkably well-written) writes about his mentally ill mother setting the house on fire while her son was inside. This idea becomes a metaphor he circles back to again as he describes his affair during his marriage, his seeming inability to parent his only child, and his recurring memories and dreams of his childhood. It’s like a musical score that begins with a melody and moves through variations, always returning to the same theme. It’s a finely crafted and beautiful read.

POETRY

10. The End of the Clockwork Universe by Fleda Brown *

I’ve read several essay collections and poetry books by Brown, and I have to say, this is my favorite. Perhaps because it features poems on walking, or the mosquito trapped in her shower, or her feelings about Toyota’s Prius (Priuses? Priusi?)—all things I can relate to. But here’s what she does that is remarkable: she will take any one of these everyday experiences and turn it just a bit on the page so that it comes together in an utterly new way. Think of her writing as a kid’s kaleidoscope, turning into different shapes and colors the more you look.

* All the links here go to StoryGraph (except for Fleda Brown’s poetry collection), the new platform I am using to track my books for the upcoming year. Because, you know, Goodreads is owned by Amazon. If you haven’t seen this app, check it out!