Happy 2025, friends! I just shared my favorite books from 2024 (all 142 of them!), and I am excited to share my fifth iteration of my non-fiction book picks for the upcoming year (here is my 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021 non-fiction book list!). In general, and especially when it comes to fiction books, I much prefer to read books as they come in from the library and as the mood strikes. I love reading far too much (and do so much of it!) to try to stick to a regimented or preconceived list that I created – but great for you if you do that, truly! In a continued effort to carve out time to read more and more non-fiction books that are on my to-read list, I created another non-fiction book list for the coming year. Of the 142 books that I read in 2024, 26 of them were non-fiction reads, and my top 5 non-fiction reads in 2024 were:

• Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things by Adam Grant
• The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt
• Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara
• Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir by Ina Garten
• Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia

This year, in a continued effort to immerse myself in some more non-fiction reads and learn more about topics that particularly interest me, I created a thoughtful list of books (25 of them!) that dear friends and family have read and wholly recommended, plus many more that I’ve had my eye on. I love, love, love non-fiction books (fiction, too!) covering a wide range of topics and written by a wide range of authors. There is SO MUCH to learn, so much wisdom to soak up, so many unique perspectives to listen to and immerse myself in, and an incredible array of topics to discover and deepen my thinking and knowledge base. It’s so important to me to constantly be learning and to read the works of people I admire or look up to… and some who just entertain me! From faith to history to business to biographies to racial reconciliation to the mind to personal growth and a myriad of other topics, I’m really excited to dive into this eclectic yet thought-provoking and enlightening mix.

my 25 non-fiction books for 2025:

• Encounters with Jesus: Unexpected Answers to Life’s Biggest Questions, Timothy Keller
• Go Forward in Love, Timothy Keller
• The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God, Timothy Keller (a beloved re-read!)
• The Meaning of Marriage Couple’s Devotional, Timothy and Kathy Keller
• Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion, Rebecca McLaughlin
• Jesus Through the Eyes of Women, Rebecca McLaughlin
• How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels, N.T. Wright
• How to Pray, C.S. Lewis
• Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis
• Women of the Word, Jen Wilkin
• In His Image: 10 Ways God Calls Us to Reflect His Character, Jen Wilkin
• Ten Words to Live By: Delighting In and Doing What God Commands, Jen Wilkin
• The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, & Trust, Francis Collins
• Reading Genesis, Marilynne Robinson
• Call Us What We Carry: Poems, Amanda Gorman
• Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism, Sebastian Smee
• The Art of Danish Living: How the World’s Happiest People Find Joy at Work, Meik Wiking
• Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business, Danny Meyer
• The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians, James Patterson
• King: A Life, Jonathan Eig
• The Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown
• The Wide Wide Sea, Hampton Sides
• The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Robin Wall Kimmerer
• We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People, Nemonte Nenquimo
• The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, Margaret Renkl

I’d love for you to join along with any and all of these non-fiction reads, if you’d like to! I’ll be sharing more along the way over on Instagram (#stephaniereads) and on Goodreads, as usual, and hopefully more here throughout the year, as well. What’s next on your to-be-read pile of books? Do you have any non-fiction reads that I should add to my list for this year? I’m all ears!

Looking for more on books?! You can read a ton more previous blog posts of mine about books: my favorite books of 2024, my 2024 non-fiction book list, my favorite books of 2023, my 2023 non-fiction book list, my favorite books of 2022, my 2022 non-fiction book list, my favorite books of 2021, my 2021 non-fiction book list, my favorite books of 2020, my favorite books of 2019, my favorite books ever, all things books, let’s talk about books, best books of 2014, best books of 2013, the South’s best books and authors, and plenty more in my blog’s archives!

Affiliate links are used in this post – but I can’t sing the praises of shopping from smaller, independent bookstores enough… or using your local library!!