My Best Books of 2025
The newest electric bus models on London streets have different “ding” noises depending on whether you press a stop bell on the upper or lower deck. This indicates to the driver how long a passenger may need to get off (factoring in whether people will need more time to come down the stairs or not). Bus design, as a whole, is meant to add to the journey’s experience. This feature in particular encourages you to remain seated until the bus has come to a complete stop before standing to get off. It’s a little reminder to slow down, relax, and enjoy the ride.
The process of taking a moment after finishing a book to write a review allows me to reflect on my thoughts and take in the story. It adds to my experience of reading without disrupting the journey. (All of my book reviews can be read in my monthly reading wrap ups here on my blog, or on Instagram @orbiting_storyteller).
Having said that, some books inspire me to write notes or mark pages to return to. A lot of dog-eared pages or scribbles in my journal are a sign that a book took me on a journey I want to remember.
Here are the five books that left the biggest positive impression on me this year (in the order I read them) and something I’ve learned from each one (an idea taken from a Bookstagrammer’s Best Of video - I will put the link here if I can find it) …
1) Making It by Laura Kay
I really started the year off strong with the first book I read in 2025 making it – hehe – to my best books of the year list! I feel I know my book tastes much better than in previous years, which shows in the vast proportion of books I picked up over the last twelve months being ones I thoroughly enjoyed.
Laura Kay writes, what I would describe as, women’s fiction with generous hints of sapphic romance. It’s no wonder, therefore, that she immediately rose through the ranks to become one of my favourite authors. (I also read and loved another of Kay’s books, The Split, later in the year).
Making It follows Issy in her late twenties explore her sexuality, journey with her mental health, and enter the professional art scene with her knitted celebrations of her pet chinchilla, Abigail. She is talent spotted and asked to help produce a reality TV show about outsider artists, an experience that helps her come into her own.
This book taught me that romance novels really can stand on their own against literary genres! There is so much nuanced exploration of queer experiences in this story and Kay includes sensitive, enriching topics which she handles with such care.
This is a beautiful book which now sits pride of place on my rainbow bookcase.
2) Funny Story by Emily Henry
Another romance has made it to my favourite books list – I don’t think anyone is surprised!
Funny Story is a book I originally took out of the library, and that library book travelled with me to Glasgow - a city break spent with my best friend, exploring in glorious sunshine and reading in the local park.
I have since purchased my own copy and it became my only reread of the year when I was in need of a comfort book, which this one has certainly become.
Funny Story is about Daphne and Miles, who both suddenly find themselves single when their partners dump them to get with each other. Having built her whole life around her ex, Daphne ends up moving into Miles's spare room just until the summer, and her library’s Read-a-thon, are over. But in that time she ends up getting to know Miles, her coworkers, and this town and starts to create her own life in the very place she wanted to escape.
In 2025, Emily Henry taught me that I love reading stories about fellow library assistants and their libraries!
3) Dear Cisgender People by Kenny Ethan Jones
24 of the 59 books I read this year were library books. Working in a library provides me with so much reading inspiration and opportunity to read books I never would have otherwise come across.
Dear Cisgender People was one of the (many) books I issued to myself after spotting it while doing a bit of shelf tidying in the LGBT+ section. It’s a wonderfully written memoir and message to those unsure of transgender headlines.
The fight for trans rights is ongoing and one that is close to my heart (hello to my gorgeously trans girlfriend reading this!)
In his written words, Kenny taught me about his activism around gendered period discussions and products as well as ways to approach trans topics with people who don't know someone who's trans themselves or has only seen the negativity in the news.
4) The End Crowns All by Bea Fitzgerald
I love it when a book gives me the five star feeling! It’s such an abstract concept - so hard to pin down in words - but so thrilling to experience!
I was really sad when I got to the end of this 560-word sapphic mythological retelling of the fall of Troy because it was just. So. good! But don’t worry, I’ve cheered myself up since then by talking about this book with everyone who gives me a chance. The End Crowns All was my favourite of all our book picks at the London Ace Book Club this year.
The story follows the perspectives of both Cassandra and Helen, who genuinely are enemies before becoming lovers. Cassandra is a princess of Troy. She seeks admiration, but after receiving the "gift" of prophecy by Apollo, her reputation only goes downhill. Helen is Spartan and flees her husband leading to the war fought in her name. Together they help cause the war, and then team up to try to stop it.
The End Crowns All taught me that sometimes I simply can’t put my finger on why I found a book so engaging, but that doesn’t take away from the joy it can give you! It also taught me that I can enjoy mythological retellings, and I read another one - Aphrodite, written by a friend, Phoenicia Rogerson - shortly afterwards, a book which caused much discussion at work!
5) Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong
My Best Books of the year list wouldn’t be complete without a fabulous anthology, this time a collection of essays on disability.
I feel big emotional responses are such a great indicator of star rating. Any book that has me laughing out loud or crying full-on sobs will get a glowing review from me! And I cried so many times reading Disability Visibility I lost count!
I resonated with so many of the stories in this book! Some of my favourites include Imposter Syndrome and Parenting with a Disability by Jessica Slice, Why My Novel is Dedicated to My Disabled Friend Maddy by A. H. Reaume, and Six Ways of Looking at Crip Time by Ellen Samuels.
Disability Visibility - alongside The View from Down Here by Lucy Webster, another book about disability I read this year - taught me so much about disabled experiences beyond my own and really made me think. Because why are some forms of help socially acceptable while others are not?
I have genuinely had some of my views on disability changed by these two texts! I will no longer feel bad about my need for interdependence – a beautiful lifestyle to be celebrated – or think those of us with disabilities make anything less than superb parents with nothing to be ashamed of.
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It really has been a wonderfully successful year of reading! Here’s to another in 2026!
