The best books of 2025 (according to a non-fiction book editor)

It’s back for 2025! My book wrap-up of the year, where I share my favourite books from the past year (December 2024 to November 2025) and come up with my own awards for certain categories.

I share this at this time of year for anyone wondering what to add to their own book Christmas wish list or if you’re wondering which book to buy someone for Christmas this year. The great thing about my list (I know, I’m so modest) is that these are all books I’ve read in 2025, not books that were published in 2025, so you don’t have to go spending lots of money if one takes your fancy, woohoo! And don’t forget to use your local library, too, if you’re just looking for some new books to add to your ever-growing TBR.

I recently decided when I share book reviews to share my thoughts but not my star ratings. Partly so it doesn’t become reductive, but also because sometimes I just don’t know what I’d rate a book. There are times when I finish a book and I know I haven’t done it justice because I was rushing to finish (perhaps because it’s due for book club, or I’m excited to read a new release), I wasn’t in the right frame of mind, or I just didn’t ‘get’ it, even though I can tell it’s been well written.

For the same reason, I’m not sharing my DNFs (did not finish) on here. Most of these are audiobooks due to my not gelling with narrator.

Although I’m a non-fiction book editor, I read as widely as I can. According to StoryGraph, my split between fiction and non-fiction is nearly 50/50 (51% fiction and 49% non-fiction). I predominantly read print books, but 32% of the books I read in 2025 were audiobooks, which I mainly listen to on my walks and runs, and sometimes in the car.

Anyway, here we go! Read below, to find out my personal favourites of 2025 in the following categories:

• Best non-fiction book

• Best fiction book

• Best audiobook – non-fiction

• Best audiobook – fiction

• Best Christmas book

• The book I need to try again

• My teenager’s favourite book of 2025

• My 11-year-old’s favourite book of 2025

Scroll to the end to see a list of every book I read in 2025, if that floats your boat (I love these sort of lists, so I reckon there are plenty of you out there who are the same!). This starts in December 2024 and finishes in November 2025 (this month included I’ve had a DNF after 150 pages and making my way through 22 hours of Philip Pullman’s The Rose Fields).

Best non-fiction book

Brother.do.you.love.me by Manni Coe

Thanks to my getting confused with dates, I only gave myself 3 days to read this for book club, so I read and listened to it. An experience I would highly recommend for this book! Reading means you get to see Reuben's drawings, but listening means you get to hear his voice.

This was an enlightening, hopeful, and beautifully written account of Manni and Reuben trying their best to find the best life for Reuben, who has Down's syndrome.

Packed with gorgeous lines like this one: 'he [Reuben] meets people, casts his nets of friendship, full of love and aspirations, only for those nets to be hauled back empty.

Runner-up of best non-fiction:

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy

Let’s just address the obvious. This book title is extremely provocative. Jennette McCurdy has said that was a deliberate choice. She wants people to pick it up and try to work out why on earth she'd call her book that.

It does have a lot to do with her book, which recounts various recollections and memories from childhood that she has explored through therapy. Much of this centres on her distorted relationship with her mum, who dies when Jeanette is 21 years old, and how she navigates her unexpected independence.

Of course, this book hasn't sold millions of copies because it has a provocative title.

I could not put this book down. It's a masterclass in storytelling and present-tense narrative, with a strong childlike voice domineering the first half, and then a more assertive voice emerging in the second half.

Best fiction book

Medea by Rosie Hewlett

It’s hard to believe that Rosie didn’t get a book deal for her first book, Medusa, because she was told there wasn’t a market for Greek feminist retellings: look at the market now! However, because the shelves are pretty packed with Greek mythology novels, some are definitely better than others.

As you can probably tell from the fact it’s won Best Fiction Book of 2025, Rosie Hewlett’s retelling of Medusa was sensational. I wasn't prepared for how dark (and kinda spicy) this would be, but Rosie's characterisation of Medea just made perfect sense. Page after page you can't believe what is happening and yet you keep reading...

Runner-up of best fiction book

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

I read this in the same week as Medea (pretty good week for books!). I started this a couple of days before going away on holiday and read most of it on our plane journey over. Brutal and engaging, with a voice that just oozes its origins and captures the heartache of the young boy at the centre of this novel. It reminded me of A Boy Called It (non-fiction).

Best audiobook – non-fiction

The Year I Met My Brain: A travel companion for adults who have just found out they have ADHD by Matilda Boseley

There are three reasons this wins the best audiobook for non-fiction: the print version isn’t available in the UK, it came at a really important point in my life, and I could listen to Matilda’s voice all day!

I listened to this back in February, when I was ADHD curious but hadn’t decided whether or not to do anything about it. Although I identified with a lot of the struggles Matilda describes in the book, I also felt her experience was a lot more pronounced than mine, so I decided I probably didn’t have ADHD because my traits weren’t ‘as bad’ as hers.

Fast-forward to the end of July and I have my own ADHD diagnosis (moderate to severe). I decided to share my diagnosis on my social media because I want to dismantle preconceptions about ADHD, especially in women. My ADHD is completely different to Matilda’s, because no one’s ADHD is the same!

I loved Matilda’s warm, funny, compassionate narration, and you will be absolutely gain a lot just by listening to this book (whether you are ADHD curious, newly diagnosed, or want to support someone in your life with ADHD), but having got my hands on a copy, I can attest to the beauty of the print copy too. Full of gorgeous illustrations and diagrams.

Runner-up of best audiobook:

You Are Not Alone: A new way to grieve by Cariad Lloyd

I went through a real audiobook funk in September and October, struggling to find and then enjoy an audiobook. I’ve had a print copy of Cariad’s book for a couple of years and absolutely love how she talks on her Weirdos Book Club podcast, so I figured surely that would be a good combination.

I’m so wise, because it was indeed a great combination. Cariad has a great narrating voice, able to weave jokes with more touching moments. I whizzed through this one and was so gutted when I got to the end!

It also highlights a neglected topic that we need to feel braver and more informed to be able to talk about: grief and bereavement.

Best audiobook – fiction

The Rose Field (Book of Dust 3), narrated by Michael Sheen

I recently shared on social media that my morning run got very exciting when the end of it coincided with a climactic scene in The Rose Field, the third book in Philip Pullman’s ‘Book of Dust’ series. I’m sure the version in print was equally dramatic, but my word does Michael Sheen do a cracking job with this book. I’ve listened to his narration for the other two books in the ‘Book of Dust’ series and one of the reasons I was so excited for the final one to come out was so I could listen to Michael Sheen’s narration. When there are 22 hours of audiobook to get through, a decent (well, amazing) narrator is necessary!

Somebody get this man a Speakies award (British Audio Awards).

Best Christmas book

A new category because last year it took me ages to find a decent Christmas book!

Happy Bloody Christmas by Jo Middleton

I am incredibly fussy when it comes to Christmas books. I don’t want anything too taxing during such a fun and busy season, but I also don’t want anything overly saccharine and predictable. Jo Middleton’s Happy Bloody Christmas contained both the relatable side of Christmas (wrangling with in-laws) and the not-so-relatable side (finding your boss murdered in your larder cupboard).

Incredibly funny and wonderfully festive. If you enjoy Gill Sims (the Why Mummy Drinks… books) then you’ll love this.

The book I need to try again

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

At the start of this blog post I said I wasn’t including my DNFs, but my not finishing A Gentleman in Moscow was down to me, not the author. I could tell this was written beautifully, with incredible attention to detail, but that’s also why I couldn’t finish reading it. Such a slow-paced and profound book requires patience and attentiveness, which I just didn’t have back in November after a busy and relentless half term holiday, followed by a fun but demanding edit at work.

Ideally, I need a quiet winter on my own, where I can dedicate a full hour or two at a time to this bestselling book.

My teenager’s favourite book of 2024

The Will of the Many by James Islington

This would probably also be my husband's favourite book of the year. He was keen to read it after it was recommended to him by a work colleague and he absolutely devoured it (he won't mind my saying he is usually a very slow reader) and thought our then 13-year-old would enjoy it. My teen also read it in a matter of days, despite it being around the 240,000 word mark (720 pages).

My 11-year-old’s favourite book of 2024

Will you allow my 11-year-old to choose a favourite book series? Good.

It's the Skandar series by A.F. Steadman.

We saw A.F. Steadman at the Cheltenham Literature Festival this year, which piqued his interest a little (my 14-year-old has been a fan since they were first published), then we listened to the first book to and from France a couple of weeks later and he was hooked!

Every book I read in 2025

It’s the list you all want, right? This includes audiobooks (which I 100% say counts as reading!) and books I’ve listened to with my children.

1. Stories for Christmas and the Festive Season British Library Women Writers

2. I Will Marry George Clooney (By Christmas) Tracy Bloom

3. The Gift Cecilia Ahern

4. The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories P.D. James

5. Skipping Christmas John Grisham

6. Happy Bloody Christmas Jo Middleton

7. Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night Sophie Hannah

8. Orbital Samantha Harvey

9. I Haven't Been Entirely Honest with You    Miranda Hart

10. T.V.: Big Adventures on the Small Screen   Peter Kay

11. Mexican Gothic  Silvia Moreno-Garcia

12. Powerful: be the expert in your own life        Maisie Hill

13. Gentlest of Wild Things    Sarah Underwood

14. Intermezzo         Sally Rooney

15. Notes to Self       Emilie Pine

16. How Not to Be a Supermodel: A Noughties Memoir Ruth Crilly

17. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August     Claire North

18. How Words Get Good: The Story of Making a Book Rebecca Lee

19. The Year I Met My Brain Matilda Boseley

20. Hello Beautiful   Ann Napolitano

21. Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body         Sara Pascoe

22. On Writers and Writing   Margaret Atwood

23. Spare    Prince Harry

24. A Room of One's Own     Virginia Woolf

25. Raising Hare      Chloe Dalton

26. Blue Sisters        Coco Mellors

27. Maurice and Maralyn: A Whale, a Shipwreck, a Love Story  Sophie Elmhirst

28. Beautiful World, Where Are You  Sally Rooney

29. I'm Glad My Mom Died  Jennette McCurdy

30. Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays The Rent Judi Dench, Brendan O‚ÄôHea

31. A Walk in the Woods     Bill Bryson

32. Pride and Prejudice          Jane Austen

33. Rachel's Holiday Marian Keyes

34. Theory & Practice           Michelle de Kretser

35. The Housemaid   Freida McFadden

36. Shuggie Bain      Douglas Stuart

37. Out of Character: From Abigail's Party to Gavin and Stacey, and Everything in Between Alison Steadman

38. Medusa Rosie Hewlett

39. Medea   Rosie Hewlett

40. Hera     Jennifer Saint

41. The Giant on the Skyline: On Home, Belonging and Learning to Let Go          Clover Stroud

42. The Country Girls           Edna O'Brien

43. The Hunger Games         Suzanne Collins

44. Catching Fire      Suzanne Collins

45. Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal: My Adventures in Neurodiversity         Robin Ince

46. Mockingjay        Suzanne Collins

47. Getting Better: Stories of Trauma and Recovery         Michael Rosen

48. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes           Suzanne Collins

49. Why am I like this?         Gemma Styles

50. Sunrise on the Reaping     Suzanne Collins

51. The Days of Abandonment           Elena Ferrante

52. Am I Having Fun Now?: Anxiety, Applause and Life's Big Questions, Answered        Suzi Ruffell

53. The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting: The Tragedy and The Glory of Growing Up Evanna Lynch

54. Some Body to Love: A Family Story           Alexandra Heminsley

55. My Family         David Baddiel

56. You Are Here    David Nicholls

57. Anna Karenina   Leo Tolstoy

58. Scripted Fearne Cotton

59. Small Things Like These  Claire Keegan

60. The ADHD Advantage: Why Your Brain Being Wired Differently is Your Superpower Anders Hansen

61. The Satsuma Complex     Bob Mortimer

62. The Burnout       Sophie Kinsella

63. Time Travelling with a Hamster     Ross Welford

64. Floating Solo      Shelley Wilson

65. Life, Death and Vanilla Slices      Jenny Eclair

66. Perimenopause Power: Navigating Your Hormones on the Journey to Menopause Maisie Hill

67. Openhearted: Eighty Years of Love, Loss, Laughter and Letting Go     Ann Ingle

68. Bitch: A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal          Lucy Cooke

69. brother. do. you. love. me   Manni Coe

70. The Murder After the Night Before Katy Brent

71. Raising Attention            Sarah Ockwell-Smith

72. Fires Which Burned Brightly: Ten Essays in Place of a Memoir           Sebastian Faulks

73. The Nightingale  Kristin Hannah

74. Weyward           Emilia Hart

75. You Are Not Alone        Cariad Lloyd

76. Just Ignore Him  Alan Davies

77. What's wrong with me?    Lorraine Candy

78. A Novel Murder E.C. Nevin

79. Skandar and the Unicorn Thief     A.F. Steadman

80. The Voyage Home                        Pat Barker

81. Till the Cows Come Home                        Sara Cox

82. The Rose Field     Philip Pullman