2025 was another absolutely incredible year for reading for me and filled with so many memorable books that I keep recommending to friends and family right & left! I read 154 (!!!) books throughout this past year — far and away the most books I have ever read in a year. My goal was to read 72 books, and I am so pleased to have far surpassed and more than doubled my annual goal. As many books as I was able to devour this year, though, it’s so much less about the number and surpassing a goal for me. Reading is and always has been one of the great loves of my life, and it’s something that has brought me deep happiness my entire life. Reading is a pure delight and joy, and I personally never want reading to be a chore or simply something to check off the list. There are SO MANY incredible books to be read, and my to-be-read book stack is constantly growing. I read quickly and often, but I barely feel like I can keep up with all of the books that I want to read and all of the knowledge I want to learn!

A few fun book stats for 2025:

154 books read

52,194 pages read

124 fiction books + 30 non-fiction books

49 library visits

top 5% Goodreads reader

read 100 books by August 1st

I love when dear friends recommend books to me, and those are the ones that instantly go to the top of my reading queue. Truly, one of the happiest gifts I could ever give someone is a book that he or she loves and connects with, and the same is true when I am given an excellent book recommendation, too. I have shared annual book and reading recaps at the end of every year for quite a while now (2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2015, 2014, 2013, my 2022 non-fiction book list, my 2021 non-fiction book list, and my all time favorite books), and here is my 2025 recap of all of the very best books that I read this year! I hope some on this list inspire you to read them and love them, too.

My top 9 fiction books of 2025 include:

• Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
• James by Percival Everett
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
• Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
• Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• My Beloved by Jan Karon
• You Are Here by David Nicholls
• Isola by Allegra Goodman

my honorable mention/runner-up fiction books of 2025:

• My Friends by Fredrik Backman
• Circle of Days by Ken Follett
• The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown
• The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion series by Beth Brower
• Louise Penny’s mystery series
• The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger
• This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
• What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
• Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
• Home of the American Circus by Allison Larkin
• The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick
• Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
• By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult
• We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes

My top 6 (new) non-fiction books of 2025 include:

• Go Forward in Love by Timothy Keller
• The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust by Francis S. Collins
• How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith by Mariann Edgar Budde
• A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko
• Ten Words to Live By: Delighting in and Doing What God Commands by Jen Wilkin
• My Reading Life by Pat Conroy

I also had a goal to read 25 non-fiction books over the course of 2025, and I am very pleased that I read 30 non-fiction books this past year! I didn’t check every single book off my pre-set non-fiction book list for 2025 that I shared a year ago, but I did read many of them – plus many more. 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. Many of my non-fiction reads cover topics that are deeply important to me, like faith, personal growth and development, and business – plus topics I just love reading about, like food and travel and interesting people. 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! I’ll be sharing my 2026 non-fiction book selections very shortly.

Whew! It’s always hard – in a good way! – to narrow down my favorite books of the year, and what a fun year of reading it was. If I had to pick just one, Theo of Golden stands out as one of the most beautiful, transformative, poignant, and powerful books I’ve ever read; one that left me savoring every single word and taking my time to thoroughly enjoy the experience of reading it for the first time… while also not wanting the book to end because it was so profound and I didn’t want it to be over!

I am a little in awe that I managed to read 154 books this year (over 50,000 pages!). I would highly, highly recommend all of the books that I shared above, plus a smattering of others, of course. Every single ranking & rating of these 154 books from this year is shared on my saved highlights of stories on my Instagram. My library queue is already overflowing with books that I can’t wait to read in the new year.

Now it’s your turn! What is THE best book you’ve read in the last year? What’s your most recommended book to your own family or friends? I would absolutely love to hear from you and add to my queue, and I hope you enjoyed this roundup of my recent reads, as well!

I always share what I’m reading in real time over on Instagram (#stephaniereads), along with Goodreads – so find me on one or both of those! I share rankings and recommendations on Instagram Stories as I finish every book, so all of my reviews and recaps are on there. You can read a ton more previous blog posts of mine about books: when & how I read, the best books of 2024 (all 142 of them!), my 2025 non-fiction book list, 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! Happy reading!!

Affiliate links are used in this post – but I can’t sing the praises of shopping from smaller, independent bookstores (or supporting the library!) enough!