By the end of 2025, I will have finished 165 books. This feels like a standard, manageable number for me. After last year's record-breaking 215, I wanted to be more intentional in my reading for this year.
I was so intentional, in fact, that I had a difficult time culling my Best Of list to a practical number. When I went to check my top board to write this, I had 23 books on it, and they were a mish-mash of fiction and nonfiction.
So though it broke my heart, I eliminated some simply because I had forgotten enough of the plot. So here is my top 15 list, still a mix of fiction and non.
15. The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill
To be honest, this wasn't my favorite book. But it's an important book, and it also happens to be the only middle-grade novel included on my list. If I were still teaching middle school, I'd absolutely include this in the curriculum. It's a fairy-tale type story about community and prejudice.
14. Sociopath, a Memoir by Patric Gagne
Holy cow. Gagne, a psychologist and diagnosed sociopath, recounts growing up and what led to her self-diagnosis and eventual life spent helping other sociopaths.
13. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
This book surprised me with its quiet depth. It’s reflective without being preachy, tender without being sentimental. Theo’s journey is about belonging, masculinity, faith, and the long work of becoming yourself when the world has already told you who you’re supposed to be.
12. The Exvangelicals by Sarah McCammon
This felt like reading a collective memoir of so many people I love. McCammon captures the grief, clarity, and courage it takes to disentangle faith from the systems that weaponized it. It’s compassionate journalism that doesn’t rush anyone to a conclusion.
11. The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Darkly funny and unexpectedly tender. This book understands loneliness in a way that felt almost intrusive. It’s about the strange intersections of joy and despair and the way other people can become lifelines without meaning to.
10. Promise Boys by Nick Brooks
Sharp, fast-paced, and devastating in its commentary. This is a thriller, yes, but it’s also an indictment of systems that criminalize Black boys before they’re ever given a chance to be believed. I finished this angry in the way that means something important landed.
9. Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack
Pure fun with teeth. A clever, meta mystery that knows exactly what it’s doing and refuses to take itself too seriously. I laughed out loud more than once, which is rare for me in this genre.
8. Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Emily Henry does what she always does: writes about love in a way that feels deeply human rather than aspirational. This one wrestles with ambition, grief, and the stories we tell ourselves about what a “good life” looks like.
7. All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert
The author of Eat, Pray, Love told her story of love addiction and codependency as she experienced her partner dying from cancer while in the throes of terrible drug addiction. This book felt like sitting across from someone telling the truth slowly, carefully, without trying to perform it. Gilbert’s honesty about love, addiction, and self-protection made me uncomfortable in the best way.
6. When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O'Neal
A story about grief, survival, and the stories we build when the truth is too painful to face. This book understands sibling relationships and long-held secrets with remarkable tenderness.
5. The Measure by Nikki Erlick
This book asks a simple question and then refuses to let you off the hook. What would you do if you knew how long you had? It’s not really about death, but about how fear and certainty shape the way we love.
4. One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
Grief wrapped in sunlight. This book explores mother-daughter relationships and the ache of realizing your parents were full people long before they were yours. I closed it feeling both comforted and undone. And saving up for a vacation to the Amalfi Coast.
3. Awake by Jen Hatmaker
This book is told through short vignettes about Jen’s life, her divorce, and the slow, uneven work of rebuilding. What surprised me most is how relatable it felt even for those who haven’t experienced divorce themselves. It captures the disorientation of waking up to a life you didn’t plan, and the quiet bravery it takes to choose honesty over appearances.
2. You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson
I read (okay, listened, because this is spoken word poetry and hits harder from Gibson's voice) this book after watching Come See Me in the Good Light, which is one of the most brutiful films I’ve ever seen. The poetry hit deeper because of it, like a continuation of the same beating heart. Andrea Gibson writes with vulnerability, ferocity, and hope all at once, reminding me that telling the truth is both an act of survival and an act of love.
1. Hell Bent by Brian Recker
This was the most important book I read this year. Recker dismantles harmful theology with care, scholarship, and deep pastoral love. This book helped me reclaim Jesus without having to reclaim the systems that distorted him. It didn’t just change how I think. It changed how free I felt.
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