Since it is already February, it’s past time to reflect on my 2025 reading list and see what I most enjoyed this past year.
Books Read in 2025
Total Books: 57 Total Pages: 20718 Average: 363 Longest: 1315 Shortest: 70
The longest book read (like the past two years) was a travel guide – Lonely Planet’s Eastern Europe, plus the almost equally lengthy Romania & Bulgaria. Admittedly, I probably scanned both more than read them for our Passage to Eastern Europe river cruise.
Compared to 2024, I read 1 less book, but I read/scanned 885 more pages.
Genres: 10.5 (8 in 2024) – the half is for the history/memoir (D. H. Lawrence’s Etruscan Places) as it is both history and biographical so I couldn’t decide where to put it.
| Genre | Books Read |
| Adventure Fiction | 2 |
| Biography | 4 |
| Fiction | 10 |
| Historical Fiction | 5 |
| History | 3 |
| History/Memoir | 1 |
| Mystery | 13 |
| Religion | 1 |
| Science | 1 |
| Thriller | 15 |
| Travel | 2 |
Most Read Authors: Louise Penny – 6; Ernest Dempsey – 5; David Baldacci – 3
All three of those were due to my catching up on previously unread books in series by those authors.
Of the 57 books that I read this year, I was gifted 1 physical book, bought 25, obtained 23 on Kindle Unlimited, and acquired 8 via Amazon First Reads.
2025 Favorites
Here’s a list of my favorites this year listed by author:
| Author | Title | Subtitle | Genre |
| Chung, Vinh | Where the Wind Leads | Biography | |
| Constantine, Liv | The Next Mrs. Parrish | Thriller | |
| Jordan-Lake, Joy | Echoes of Us | Historical Fiction | |
| Larson, Erik | Isaac’s Storm | A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History | Science |
| Penny, Louise | Glass Houses | Chief Inspector Gamache #13 | Mystery |
All of the above books are available on Kindle, but not necessarily on Kindle Unlimited. In fact, I purchased or was gifted all of these.
The Complete 2025 Book List
Here’s the complete list of 57 books in order by author.
| Author | Title | Subtitle | Type |
| Andrews, Mary Kay | The Newcomer | Fiction | |
| Andrews, Mary Kay | Summers at The Saint | Fiction | |
| Bailey, Robert | The Boomerang | Thriller | |
| Baldacci, David | The 6:20 Man | 6:20 Man #1 | Thriller |
| Baldacci, David | The Edge | 6:20 Man #2 | Thriller |
| Baldacci, David | To Die For | 6:20 Man #3 | Thriller |
| Captivating History | The Balkans: A Captivating Guide to the History of the Balkan Peninsula, Starting from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages to the Modern Period | History | |
| Captivating History | The Etruscans: A Captivating Guide to the Etruscan Civilization of Ancient Italy That Preceded the Roman Republic | History | |
| Center, Katherine | Hello Stranger | Fiction | |
| Chance, Megan | Glamorous Notions | Thriller | |
| Child, Lee | The Secret | Jack Reacher #28 | Thriller |
| Child, Lee | In Too Deep | Jack Reacher #29 | Thriller |
| Chung, Vinh | Where the Wind Leads | Biography | |
| Connelly, Michael | The Waiting | Renee Ballard #6 | Thriller |
| Constantine, Liv | The Next Mrs. Parrish | Thriller | |
| Dasher, Carolyn | American Sky | Historical Fiction | |
| Dempsey, Ernest | The Saint’s Covenant | Sean Wyatt #24 | Adventure Fiction |
| Dempsey, Ernest | The Florentine Pursuit | Sean Wyatt | Adventure Fiction |
| Dempsey, Ernest | The Mexican Connection | Adriana Villa #1 | Thriller |
| Dempsey, Ernest | War of Thieves | Adriana Villa #2 | Thriller |
| Dempsey, Ernest | The Syndicate | Adriana Villa #3 | Thriller |
| Ernst, Tim | The Search for Haley | An Insider’s Account of the largest Search Mission in Arkansas History | Biography |
| Fitzgerald, F. Scott | The Great Gatsby | 1986 Collier Books Scribner Classic | Fiction |
| Gerritsen, Tess | The Summer Guests | Martini Club #2 | Thriller |
| Golden, Peter | Their Shadows Deep | Fiction | |
| Grisham, John | The Widow | Thriller | |
| Hannah, Kristin | The Women | Fiction | |
| Healey, Jane | The Women of Arlington Hall | Historical Fiction | |
| Horowitz, Anthony | A Line to Kill | Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery #3 | Mystery |
| Horowitz, Anthony | The Twist of a Knife | Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery #4 | Mystery |
| Jordan-Lake, Joy | Echoes of Us | Historical Fiction | |
| Larson, Erik | Isaac’s Storm | A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History | Science |
| Lawrence, D. H. | Etruscan Places | History/Memoir | |
| Lonely Planet | Lonely Planet: Romania & Bulgaria | Travel | |
| Lonely Planet | Lonely Planet: Eastern Europe | Travel | |
| MacDonald, Dee | The Silver Ladies of Penny Lane | Fiction | |
| McElroy, Leigh | A Minute of Presence for Women: Awaken Your Heart to the God of Wonder | Religion | |
| McGee, Katharine | The Queen’s Game | Historical Fiction | |
| Osman, Richard | The Last Devil to Die | Thursday Murder Club #4 | Mystery |
| Penny, Louise | How the Light Gets In | Chief Inspector Gamache #9 | Mystery |
| Penny, Louise | The Long Way Home | Chief Inspector Gamache #10 | Mystery |
| Penny, Louise | The Nature of the Beast | Chief Inspector Gamache #11 | Mystery |
| Penny, Louise | A Great Reckoning | Chief Inspector Gamache #12 | Mystery |
| Penny, Louise | Glass Houses | Chief Inspector Gamache #13 | Mystery |
| Penny, Louise | Kingdom of The Blind | Chief Inspector Gamache #14 | Mystery |
| Quinn, Kate | The Briar Club | Historical Fiction | |
| Ross, LJ | Belsay | A DCI Ryan Mystery #23 | Mystery |
| Stevenson, Benjamin | Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone | Ernest Cunningham Mysteries #1 | Mystery |
| Stevenson, Benjamin | Everyone on This Train is a Suspect | Ernest Cunningham Mysteries #2 | Mystery |
| Stoker, Bram | Dracula | Fiction | |
| Story, Laura; McElroy, Leigh | I Give Up: The Secret Joy of a Surrendered Life | Biography | |
| Thorogood, Robert | The Marlow Murder Club | Marlow #1 | Mystery |
| Unger, Lisa | The Kill Clause | Thriller | |
| Walsh, Courtney | The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley | Fiction | |
| Watson, Sue | Wanting Daisy Dead | Fiction | |
| Welch, Frances | The Lives and Deaths of the Princesses of Hesse | The curious destinies of Queen Victoria’s granddaughters | Biography |
| Williams, Grace L. | Give Her Credit | The Untold Account of a Women’s Bank That Empowered a Generation | History |
2025 Monthly Book Reviews
If you missed any of my detailed monthly reviews, here’s a handy group of links – just click the arrows for more.
Until next time, read what pleases you!
Notes By Nancy 
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