Anne’s best books of 2025

[00:00:00] ANNE BOGEL: Did you see how I just slipped in another book as a favorite?

WILL BOGEL: You added the title. Yes, that was not on the list.

ANNE: But I really enjoyed and think about it all the time.

Hey readers, I'm Anne Bogel, and this is What Should I Read Next?. Welcome to the show that's dedicated to answering the question that plagues every reader, what should I read next?

Readers, welcome to 2026 and the first episode in a year of exciting milestones for us here at What Should I Read Next?. This month, precisely on January 12th, we are celebrating 10 years of this podcast, and we'll be sharing a few special podcast episodes to mark this moment. And then as we move into the rest of 2026, there is plenty more to celebrate.

The blog Modern Mrs. Darcy turns 15 in February, we're celebrating 10 years of reading better together in the Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club later this year, and our 15th annual Summer Reading Guide come May.

[00:01:05] For a long time now, we've been dreaming up ways to celebrate, and we're so happy you are here to join us. Thank you so much to everyone who has listened, supported our show in all the ways, and been a crucial part of our community of readers.

Today we have an unusual episode. It's not technically part of our anniversary celebrations, but it feels very much of a piece with those episodes—still fun, a little different. And that means today I get to talk about my favorite reads of the year gone by.

Now, at this point, this feels like a little bit of a tradition, but I'm pretty sure what our What Should I Read Next? super secret spreadsheet document is telling me that we just did this for the first time in 2023. So this is just our fourth time in 10 years of podcasting.

And once again, my husband and our What Should I Read Next? executive producer Will Bogel, is joining me to talk about all the books. Or rather all my books. William, welcome to the show.

[00:02:01] WILL: Thank you. I'm glad to be back to do this again.

ANNE: Oh, well, thank you for shepherding this conversation today. You might be the person I talk books with the most, and I'm happy to do it on air today.

WILL: Probably, but there are a couple of people that probably give me a run for my money.

ANNE: It might be close. We're going to jump right in. Let's get to it.

WILL: Okay. So you said not talking all the books, but talking about all your books. We've been calling this the best books and best books of 2025. How do you define best?

ANNE: Oh man, a tricky definition question right out of the gate. Although this is something we've talked about repeatedly over the years. I'm not looking to... I mean, I'm not grading anybody's papers or anybody's manuscripts. I'm not looking for technical brilliance, although that may factor in. I'm just thinking about the ones I liked the most. The ones that made me go, "Wow, this was amazing."

[00:02:55] And there's some really beautiful, excellent, wonderful craft in our conversation today, and I love that. But there are some books that I haven't seen any best books of the year lists, but I remember my reading experience and it was top-notch, superb.

Something you and I were talking about as we were walking the dog yesterday was how so much of what makes a favorite for me is—I don't want to sound all mushy-gushy—but how it speaks to the heart. That's really an important part for me. And we're going to hear that in my favorites. But yes, I'm not bestowing any major literary awards. This is just what I liked best. Hugely subjective.

WILL: Hugely. Well, as we say here at What Should I Read Next?, you are the expert in your own reading life, and it is what should I read next, so it is all about what books work for you.

ANNE: And as we often say, reading is personal. So these are my personal picks.

WILL: Your personal bests.

[00:03:56] ANNE: Mm-hmm. I'm going to describe why they work so well for me. I'm definitely not saying I love this and you will too, but for many of you, I love this and maybe you will too. So listen and see what sounds good.

WILL: Okay. You've already done this a couple times, right? Because on the blog — you have a blog post — is it called Best Books of 2025?

ANNE: Favorite.

WILL: Favorite, okay.

ANNE: I have my Favorite Books of 2025 and my Favorite Audiobooks from 2025. I mean, Google those words plus Modern Mrs. Darcy and they'll come right up. But we also have them linked in show notes for you. This episode today is very much a companion to those posts. I'm not superseding anything I've already said. If I omit a book today that I mentioned in those posts, it doesn't mean I've changed my mind. These things go together.

WILL: You're editing the list down. You cut something out.

ANNE: I'm not. I'm not. I'm not.

WILL: Not, okay.

[00:04:51] ANNE: I do really appreciate how having conversations with our voices about books is different. Like you can hear more emotion and nuance and details than you can in the short little snippets I write for the blog about these books. So I do like that about the podcast format. But it's harder to take a podcast episode to the library. You know, look at it on your phone or in your journal and see what's in stock. That's easier from the blog.

WILL: Also, this episode's coming out in January. So we got to record this a little later in the year than those blog posts. Was there anything that you read after you had to write up those posts that you might include today?

ANNE: I read several great books, but nothing I would have included on my very favorites, except one that's not publishing till 2026. So while today I don't have anything new to share since those blog posts, I haven't past years. Like a couple years ago I read Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt right there at the end of the year and ended up sharing that one as my Team Best Books pick when we came back together in January.

[00:05:52] So today I don't have any favorites I'm going to talk about, but I might buy Team Best Books on January 8th.

WILL: Okay. Well, we'll stay tuned for that as well. How many books did you read this year?

ANNE: You know, I don't know precisely, but it's not much over 200, but right around there. And those are books that I read in full, not ones I read 10 pages of or 300 pages of and then didn't end up finishing.

WILL: 300 pages and quitting doesn't count? Okay.

ANNE: No, it doesn't count.

WILL: 200 though, that's a little less than you have been doing, right?

ANNE: It's a little less than I have been doing like the past 10 years and it's not too far off for the last like three. I've been reading a little less the past few years.

WILL: Okay.

ANNE: Whereas I read a huge number of books in like 2020, 2021.

WILL: I remember huge.

ANNE: 300-ish. Those years, yeah.

[00:06:48] WILL: So with still 200 books to pick from, was it hard to come up with a not overwhelming number of bests? I know we tell our team, going into the team event, best books of the year that we do for Patreon and book club, we tell them that they have two or three books, right? However much you can talk about in five minutes is really what we say. So if you're gushing about one book, you got to keep it short to just one. But how about you?

ANNE: I mean, after 10 years, many listeners have been on the podcast and we've chatted about books for an hour. But for those of you who haven't, you should know that so often our little chitchat before we hit record, before I'm talking to a guest that you'll then listen to on Tuesday morning, something I tell them is we're asking for three favorites. Three from amongst your favorites, not your very three favorite books ever.

And that is what helps me choose my favorites. Because yes, I wanted to include all the books. Like this was such a good reading year. I read so many wonderful books. I kind of wanted to include the Summer Reading Guide as one of my favorite books and just like rope all 35 of those into my favorite books, because this was such a good year and such a good summer publishing window.

[00:08:03] I mean, craft-wise, I think there were so many great books, but also so many that were just to my taste. Yeah, it's hard. I ended up choosing seven for my audiobooks, which was significantly less than last year where I chose 12, and then I had a dozen favorite books that I read for the first time in print. But I'm going to sneak in some more titles today that I almost included in my favorites list. Not sneak in. I want to share those because they were so good.

And also, I feel a little freer to lean toward abundance here. But like scrolling through 30 favorites on the blog, it seems like, Anne, make up your mind. Somehow this feels more freewheeling. Yeah.

WILL: Where do you want to start? What jumps out to you the most?

ANNE: Can I say how much I enjoy doing this? Like looking at the year as a whole and seeing what themes emerge. If you've ever come to a Summer Reading Guide unboxing or one of our seasonal book previews, you hear me say like, "Oh, it's so interesting to see what themes emerge in a certain season." But I enjoy doing that for my own reading life as well.

[00:09:09] So, Will, I think you and I are always talking about books that surprise and delight. And part of the thing that makes a book memorable is that it feels surprising in some way. And what stood out in my 2025 reading year, probably once again, are books that felt either really unique, like I've never read anything like this before, I've never encountered a character like this, or ones where I thought, "There's no way it's a good idea for me to read this," but then I ended up loving it. So that's something I want to talk about.

I have my just really fabulous sink into the story, immersive reading experiences kind of favorites. I had several tragic comedies that I really enjoyed this year that all had strong family relational components. I always love a good naughty family drama. So no surprise I had some of those. I mean, just a lot of really good books. But before we say goodbye today, I did choose some very top favorites to share for 2025.

[00:10:19] WILL: Okay. Something to look forward to. Well, start by telling me some of these books that you felt sort of were a little unique or unlikely for you, like surprising, not a book you think you would gravitate towards, but maybe stretched your comfort zone a little bit with.

ANNE: I would be delighted. First of all, love These Heathens by Mia McKenzie. I've recommended this book so much this past year because it was just so unique. The narrator protagonist is a 17-year-old girl growing up in small town Georgia named Doris. She was just so smart and sassy and wide-eyed and fun. I was hanging on her every word. The story takes place in one whirlwind weekend. I couldn't wait to hear what happened and I couldn't wait to hear how Doris was going to tell it to me. I loved it.

[00:11:11] You Didn't Hear This From Me by Kelsey McKinney is a nonfiction book about gossip that published early this year. And it was this really fun blend of scholarly take and really chatty dishy tone of voice that ran from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Gossip Girl. I've read this on my Kindle.

You may not remember this, William, but this is the one where I'm like sitting on the couch just shaking because I'm laughing so hard. And that's when you're just like, "What are you reading?" I'm like, "Hmm, a nonfiction book actually about gossip." And you were like, "What?" But that's fun. It stuck with me.

WILL: And that seems like a perfect setup for a gossip book, you know, to be that chatty, really fun commentary.

ANNE: It was. And I wasn't expecting it to be so fun. It was fun and smart. And I loved that combo. The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck was one I just kind of stumbled across in, I think, a literary magazine someplace. But I listened on audio, which was a delight.

[00:12:21] The writing was, I thought, wonderful. This was a short story collection, but it had this really interesting structure. I am a sucker for a book with an interesting structure that really works. Also, I love an epigraph. And so the epigraph here, or maybe it's not technically the epigraph, I listened on audio, but the thing Shattuck tells you at the very beginning of the book is, "This is a hook and chain poem. Like we have these stories that go together in pairs. And the second story provides a new perspective or fresh insight on what was shared in the first. And then the first and last story serve as bookends with the stories in the middle divided into pairings."

What I'm trying to say is there was such fun, smart interplay between all these stories. It was a little bit of a puzzle and a little bit of somebody's telling you just a really great yarn by the fire. It was the best short story collection I read in a long time. I loved it. I feel like I keep talking about this.

[00:13:16] WILL: Yeah, I remember you talking about it. I didn't realize you listened to it on audio. That's cool that you could kind of pick out the hook and chain on audio. It feels like, maybe for me, that seeing the chapters broken out in print would make more sense that you could pair them up in your head.

ANNE: Picking up on an intricate structure is harder for me when I'm listening. I really appreciated the definition right at the front of the book that says, "This is what a hook and chain is."

WILL: That he told you what to do.

ANNE: But even as you're listening, you're like, "Wait a second." These characters were telling a ghost story early in the book. And now later in the book, I recognize this story. I'm finding out what happened way back when that was so alarming that they're telling ghost stories about it 200 years later. That's the kind of interplay.

Oh, and they all are linked together by Nantucket. They all take place or heavily call to Nantucket from way back in the 1700s to right now in New England. I had a lot of words about that one. So it was unique. It was different. It worked.

[00:14:24] WILL: Yeah. Any other interesting, unique ones?

ANNE: Yes. A Physical Education by Casey Johnston. I've read her newsletter about mostly weightlifting forever. And this is the one I described to you as a really soulful book about weightlifting. And I was expecting to hear about health and fitness, but I wasn't expecting it to have so much emotional depth. I mean, I was delighted to discover that.

Endling by Maria Reva is one I've seen on a lot of best-of-year lists. This also had an interesting structure. It's unlike anything I've ever read. It was a straightforward story I was really enjoying about the Ukrainian mail-order bride industry and a scientist studying snails who is trying to save species on the brink of extinction. That whole plot is going but then all of a sudden, the plot stops and Reva enters the story, and she and her editor are talking about: "Well, is this story working? What do we do next? Is this the book you said you were going to write?"

[00:15:28] And then there's this acknowledgement section that appears mid-book. And I'm reading this as an e-galley that's not probably particularly well-formatted. So I didn't know anything about it. I'm going, "What is happening?" But then Maria Reva goes an entirely different direction.

It was designed to frustrate readers who want a beginning and a middle and end in a straightforward way. But I really like feeling like I'm game for going where this writer is taking me, even if I don't really understand where in the world it is we are going. I enjoyed finding out.

WILL: That feels like it could be gimmicky, but it worked, huh?

ANNE: This is really important. Another book I enjoyed, Joyride by Susan Orlean. I remember her describing her own work as being so not necessarily obviously interesting in premise that she really has to write it fantastically for the reader to care at all. I think that's also true about Endling. Do you see how I just slipped in another-

[00:16:33] WILL: You added a title, yes. That was not on the list.

ANNE: But I really enjoyed and think about all the time. Okay, last two. The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett Graff. This one is personal. This is one I would say it felt unlikely. I've been meaning to read this since it came out years ago, but thought, "Yikes, that sounds scary and sad and terrible." But I finally picked it up and... I mean, it was quite a reading experience.

WILL: No, I remember you really, really enjoyed it. Got to the end and I was sort of leaning over your shoulder like, "Okay, you really liked this. I wonder if I should." And I read like a page or two over your shoulder, I was like, "No, not for me."

ANNE: Well, my hesitation just then was about words like "enjoyed" and "light" because that's not quite right.

WILL: Sure.

ANNE: But I was ready to read this book. And I'm glad I did. Then Crooks by Lou Berney is a book that does not have Anne Bogel's name written all over it, but it's a... This is a tragic comedy. It was in the Fall Book Preview as a spotlight title.

[00:17:34] But it's about a family of organized crime. I mean, a family whose business is organized crime. So you meet the parents, and you see how they involve their kids and their schemes, and then you see how the kids try to make peace with the family business and find their own way in it or apart from it over the years. I was rooting for these characters so hard.

Some of the stuff in this book is brutal. And I almost quit at the beginning because one of the plots kind of gave me the ick. But I'm glad I didn't put it down because I just felt so in love with some of these characters. I so desperately wanted all the good things in the lives of these fictional characters that do not actually exist because I was hooked. I was hooked. I loved it.

WILL: Very nice. You mentioned that this was a tragic comedy. At the beginning you said that was one of the things that sort of worked for you. Are there other tragic comedies that made your "best of" list?

[00:18:38] ANNE: Yeah. This year I really enjoyed a handful of books that shared the hardest things and also had me laughing out loud from page to page. Kevin Wilson's Run for the Hills was a big one. I got to read that twice because we read it in book club. I read all those books twice so I can read it the second time or third time sometimes right before our author talk. We aired that conversation on the podcast. It is fabulous. I encourage you to listen if you haven't.

One that felt similar in plots but totally different as a reading experience was Annie Hartnett's The Road to Tender Hearts, which also has the hardest, saddest things and also had me like guffawing. It was so tender and warm.

WILL: A tender guffaw. That's quite a breadth.

ANNE: A tender, heartbreaking guffaw.

WILL: Yeah, there you go.

[00:19:32] ANNE: Yeah, yeah. And a hat that talks. And a tabby cat with magical powers. I mean, I've read Annie Hartnett before, so that doesn't feel so unlikely as it might if I were picking it up for the first time. But it's like, "Annie, you got to pull this off or it's not going to be any good." And she did and it was fabulous, in my opinion.

WILL: Very nice. Your opinion is all that matters right now.

ANNE: Well, these are my favorites.

WILL: Yes. Tell me some more of your favorites.

ANNE: Lots of freedom there. You know what we didn't say is how every week typically I'm recommending books a guest may enjoy and what I think or don't isn't really necessarily relevant. So this is kind of fun and different.

Okay, next. Really fabulous, immersive reading experiences. How about that?

WILL: That sounds fabulous.

ANNE: You were sitting right beside me for some of these, like The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow.

WILL: I remember that one.

ANNE: Do you?

WILL: I remember you finishing it. I remember the ending.

ANNE: Yes. Do you want to tell us what happened?

[00:20:33] WILL: It was an immersive reading experience. That's for sure. It was rather immersive sitting next to you. You want me to tell this, right?

ANNE: I'm curious what you're going to say.

WILL: I think you were bawling before you finished. Maybe the last four or five pages. It's not like, close the book and start crying, you're so sad. You were telling me it was so sad. But I'm like sitting there like, "Do I do something?" You're not done. Like I don't want to interrupt. You have four or five pages left. I don't want to interrupt. Kind of get to the end of the book, right? But yes, I remember you telling me it was very sad, but fabulous, right?

ANNE: It was so good. And I read it really quickly too because I read it on vacation. So I had lots of reading time. And that definitely contributed to the immersive reading experience. I was in it for a few hours every day and then it was done.

I've enjoyed Alix E. Harrow in the past. I think this is her best and certainly my favorite by a mile, but we are all What Should I Read Next? listeners here. And we talk about Rainer Maria Rilke all the time. I have a soft spot in my heart for him.

[00:21:38] Every week I close the episodes with "Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading" from Rilke. And the epigraph from this book was from a Rilke poem, and it was absolutely perfect. And basically the story in a nutshell... So from before page one, I was like, "Alix E. Harrow, let's do this. I'm ready. I'm here for it. I love it. I want to find out what happens next."

But this is about a lady knight, another theme that I'm seeing in the publishing landscape in 2025 and moving into 2026, a lady knight named Una Everlasting from way back when and a Tweedy scholar named Owen and they fall in love over and over and over and over again because of time travel and scary magic and wicked chancellor, prime minister. She might be the prime minister technically. That's not the part that matters.

[00:22:33] I mean, this felt like an epic story. And I still can't believe it's just over 300 pages because it felt bigger than an author should be able to contain there. I have to say this is something I've said a lot on the podcast, but it bears repeating. If you love The Frozen River and are on the hunt for something similar, take a look at this one. And I don't think people who love Ariel Lawhon are going to be like, "You know what I need next? Some science fiction fantasy from Tor." But the emotional heart of those books I think are so similar. History, mystery, and especially the like married long-term love story. They're in both books. And I think I love both books for those, all those elements.

WILL: That's not a pairing you're going to get from AI.

ANNE: No, it's not. Real people, real recommendations. Sometimes they get pretty oddball. I love Cover Story by Mhairi McFarlane, which was just right book at the right time: workplace, enemies to lovers, maybe rivals to lovers, set in Manchester, England.

[00:23:39] My one regret is they kept talking about the accents in this book and how people talked, and somebody had posh London, and somebody had working London, and all the Manchester accents. And I read this before the audio was available, but had the audio been available, I would have opted for that. And I have since heard from readers who did the audio, yes, it was fabulous.

This was a Fall Book Preview Spotlight title, but that was just the right book at the right time. Like fell into the world, wanted to know what happened to the characters, there for every page, and then followed it up with two more Mhairi McFarlane novels because I wanted more where that came from.

WILL: Yeah, nice.

ANNE: Next Time Will Be Our Turn by Jesse Q. Sutanto, which is the Modern Mrs. Darcy flight pick in February 2026 for Sutanto's book, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. She's coming to join us and talk books. We've talked about hosting her for years. I'm so excited. So just you all know that's happening.

[00:24:31] But Next Time Will Be Our Turn felt really different coming from her, who's known for Vera Wong and the Dial A for Aunties series. I mean, this had my calling cards of wistful, reflective, looking back at what happened 60 years ago and how it's impacting your life today.

Single conversation between a grandmother and a granddaughter where the struggling granddaughter comes to, or rather is seen like in the emotional sense by her grandmother, who decides it's time to share a story from her past. And this just felt like listening in on a really... I'm afraid to say things are beautifully told because I fear that reads as boring, but I was so just swept up in the grandmother's recollection of what happened way back then. And it was way back then, but it felt so present and immediate in the story. And every once in a while, she'd check in with the granddaughter who'd be there in the text. And I remember, "Oh, right, this is a conversation. Both of them are there together." I love that.

[00:25:38] I was really surprised by the extent to which I love The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand. This is her boarding school novel. I wanna tell you what these teenage students were up to, like the big project they undertake, because it was so fun, but I don't wanna spoil anything should you discover it yourself. But something I always enjoy about Elin Hilderbrand is Googling every single dish, recipe, location, bar, restaurant, designer brand that's mentioned in the pages. It was a lot of fun.

WILL: I remember you saying that. There's a sequel, right? Is she coming out with another one, a follow-up?

ANNE: You know, I don't know that I've read that for sure, but it ends on... not exactly a cliffhanger, but it ends with... It has to be. It has to be.

WILL: Feels like there's more to come.

ANNE: I feel like I Googled this.

WILL: I remember you talking like you were ready for more, that it ended, and you were like, "Oh, I can see where... I like this. I could do another round."

[00:26:35] ANNE: Yeah. I thought I'd give it a try and was just hooked in a way I didn't really anticipate. I loved Writers & Lovers by Lily King so much. I'm trying to remember if I read a review of this before Fall Book Preview or before I read it. But the critical review said, "This is not King at her best, but people who enjoy her work will find enough to appreciate." You know what, I think I read that after because I was like, "Whatever, that's your opinion. This was fabulous."

WILL: No, you are someone who enjoys her work, though. So, I mean, they were talking about you.

ANNE: I am someone who enjoys her work. Yeah, yeah. Let me just slide in. If you've read Writers & Lovers in this one and you need another, I think Father of the Rain is your next step, which feels, I think, more in-step than Euphoria, which she's so well-known for.

[00:27:30] Nobody needed an extra book in this episode where we're talking about 50 of them, but there's one all the same. Maybe that's perfect for you What Should I Read Next? listener. But again, wistful, reflective, what happened in the past, what does it mean, what does it mean for right now, who are we to the people we love, who are they to us, regrets, difficult choices, what might've been. I love exploring all those things in fiction. And this is both a prequel and sequel to Writers & Lovers, which I loved. I love that book. I might've loved this one more. I mean, I'm gonna share my very best of the year later, but that's one of them.

WILL: Very nice.

ANNE: And naughty family dramas, or dramas that have a web of relationships that feel familial.

WILL: This is your wheelhouse.

ANNE: Yeah, that's my wheelhouse. I don't know why I love that so much, but I really do.

WILL: So what kind of naughty dramas, family dramas did you get into?

[00:28:27] ANNE: Mm, a couple I did talk about on the blog and a couple I didn't. Liz Moore's Heft. There are lots of thorny family dynamics with the individual characters, but this is really a found family story. I've been thinking about reading more deeper Liz Moore backlist forever, toying with the idea of becoming a completist, which would take me some interesting places from her very early work. But this year I turned to Heft, which I've been meaning to read forever, and really enjoyed it.

Sarai Johnson's Grown Women, which I just stumbled upon and thought, "Hmm," multi-generational saga. Four generations of females in DC and Nashville. Sounds up my alley, and I loved it.

Slanting Towards the Sea, a summer reading pick about a husband and ex-wife who are still very much in each other's lives, and a love triangle of sorts unfolding against just a really beautiful backdrop in Croatia. There's a little bit of Italy in there too.

[00:29:35] Then The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy was unique in some really appealing ways. It felt like a family saga, but it was really about friends that were family to each other. Angela Flournoy described this in interviews as a coming-into-middle-age novel, and I'm here for that kind of thing.

WILL: That's a theme you've noticed too over the last couple of years, a little more not coming of age, but coming of middle age.

ANNE: Yeah. And then a couple years ago in the Summer Reading Guide we had a category that was coming of age and also midlife reckonings.

WILL: Reckonings. Yeah.

ANNE: And I really enjoy those like take a deep breath, where you've been, where you're going kind of stories

WILL: And The Wilderness caught that for you, huh?

[00:30:21] ANNE: Yeah, really enjoyed that. And I've seen that on some major media lists of Best of the Year, which is always interesting to see. It's always interesting... what is on those lists that I read and like I thought it was good, you know, but I didn't. We're not talking about it today on my best of list.

WILL: But this one matches up, huh?

ANNE: Yeah.

WILL: Okay, well, that was a whole bunch of best books, but you said there were a couple of titles you almost included in your favorites list. What lands in the... I probably want to mention this too.

ANNE: But not top 12 or top seven?

WILL: The books that got longlisted for Anne's best books.

ANNE: Should we do it like the Booker, the National Book Award? You know, I'd love that. I can have my field. See, I just need ways to share more favorites, and that would give me multiple iterations of favorite and best. That sounds like fun.

[00:31:21] I'm definitely aware that if I read fewer books it would be easier to choose favorites. But yeah, I read a ton. Why am I apologizing for sharing more books? Because I feel bad overwhelming you.

WILL: They're not overwhelmed. They're excited to hear.

ANNE: I want to say all the Summer Reading Guide books. This was such a good year. That's still available. And I say more about those books probably there than I am today. But I don't talk about books... like for my best of 2025, I'm not talking about books publishing in June 2026, but sometimes I read those in the year before.

Sometimes books get a little left behind. I loved Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall and Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. Love those, but I read them in 2024 and I fear that those got a little left out. But those were almost top top favorites.

[00:32:12] What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown was on my first lit. Flashlight by Susan Choi. The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark. Joyride, I already mentioned, by Susan Orlean. The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison. That was one of those just wonderful immersive reading experiences.

The Road to Tender Hearts I just talked about by Annie Hartnett. Oh gosh, I could share more of them, but that's probably plenty. Ooh, A Marriage at Sea was an audiobook that was on my first cut. And I've seen that on tons of like New York Times, Washington Post, Lit Hub lists. I also really enjoyed that one. I don't think it had the emotional resonance to make it one of my favorite favorites, but it was interesting. It was good.

You know, I think that's something I really learned this year is I really like books that are interesting, that teach me new things, that look at problems and situations in new ways. I enjoy that, but it's not enough to make something a favorite.

[00:33:10] WILL: Okay. Well, now that you've expanded the pool a little bit, can I ask you to narrow it down some?

ANNE: Yeah.

WILL: What would you say were the very best books you read this year?

ANNE: Most of these we've already talked about, but to call them out as, let's see, we've got six. The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow, These Heathens by Mia McKenzie, The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff, The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck, Heart the Lover, so much better than Serviceable or whatever that review said, by Lily King.

You know, the sorrow in sharing all these books as favorites is so many of them are new and now I know that the author won't have another book for a couple of years. Makes me sad. So I'm like, "Lily King, write me something immediately."

WILL: I'm ready for another one.

ANNE: But this just came out in October. It's going to be a little while. One we haven't talked about yet today is Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley. And, ooh, if I had to choose one favorite for 2025... I mean, I don't. So why am I even-

WILL: You don't. Yeah, I love the setup. What have you got?

[00:34:25] ANNE: It might be this.

WILL: Really? Okay.

ANNE: It might be this. It's a memoir and essays. And I listened to this-

WILL: I didn't realize that.

ANNE: ...on audio the first time. Yeah, it was so good. I mean, she's an actor. She reads it in her own voice, she's telling her very, very personal stories.

WILL: Very personal.

ANNE: And like hard stuff. This is a really unflinching look at a whole lot of painful memories from some of her personal life. Like she talks about scoliosis and high-risk pregnancy, but she's also talking about being a child actor and some of the very painful things that resulted from being on set without really adequate supervision, people looking out for from a very young age.

But I first heard about this when I read a piece or two about her concussion, which is where the title comes from, Run Towards the Danger. So I was interested in reading that whole thing in her own voice and then thought, "I'm gonna see what else is here." I loved it so much.

[00:35:32] I think it was right book, right time. I think it was a collection I didn't see coming. I didn't expect to find what I did find, and I was so happy to find what I found. But I read this on audio, immediately picked up the paperback, and then went back through and read that so I could underline the heck out of it. I loved it so much.

I'm probably forgetting at least one very favorite favorite and a bunch more books I mentioned, but something I really love about this podcast and everything we do in the greater Modern Mrs. Darcy landscape is there is always another opportunity to talk about.

I'm seeing a huge omission here. Nowhere have we talked about the book that took up 60-something hours of my audio reading life, The Power Broker, which was the best book. It was one of my favorite audiobooks of the year, but not a very best.

[00:36:23] WILL: I would think it'd have to be if you were going to commit to it or stick with it, I guess, right?

ANNE: I mean, if you've listened to this podcast for a minute, you know that I don't often hesitate to put down a book that does not feel right for you or is not delivering the 1,344-page reading experience you wanted. It does feel worth just mentioning that that happened.

WILL: I thought you would say, "If you've listened a while, you know that I have a fascination with cities and how they work," but...

ANNE: Oh my gosh, I really do. And I've picked up a couple of urban planning books along the way in our bookstore travels that maybe I need to read. Maybe. I definitely need to read. Maybe now's the time.

WILL: They will surely take less time than The Power Broker.

ANNE: Surely. Okay. Also, my very top favorites include three 2026 titles that I'm not gonna name today, their time will come, but there is good stuff coming. Because the thing is when the 2025 Summer Reading Guide selections are so good, I mean, when it seems like an unusually good year, it does make me wonder sometimes like, "Will next year be like this?" But it's looking pretty good.

[00:37:31] So I read three selections I thought were amazing, publishing in March, April, and June. And we're talking best of the year for me. And then I've read a handful more that I really, really loved and can't wait to talk about.

We are having a Spring Book Preview library chat. It's gonna be a little more casual, a little more personal, and focused on books that I have read and need to tell you about. It will only be for What Should I Read Next? Patreon and Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club members. And it's gonna take place on February 7th as part of our Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club Readers Day. And we're inviting Patreon in for that event.

But it's gonna be fun. I'm gonna talk about that March release then, maybe that April release. I'm deciding if that's gonna be a Spring Preview or a Summer Reading Guide. And then the June book I'll definitely be talking about in May. But they're good, and I can't wait. I'm excited to talk about them.

I love looking back and remembering the wonderful books I've experienced. And also there is such safety and satisfaction in knowing more good things await. Some I've already read, so I can tell you more good things await, and some I know I'm going to get to discover.

[00:38:41] WILL: It's fun to see you start the Summer Reading Guide process and be finding books that you're like, "Oh, this will go in this guide."

ANNE: Okay, I don't have that distance on that experience. Tell everybody what that's like, William.

WILL: It's a process putting together 35 titles, you know, to say this is what the Summer Reading Guide is, because you do read them all. That also means you read a whole lot more that don't go in. People may not know, but with the categories and the publishing dates and whatever, there's a lot of massaging to be like, these are not just the best books coming out this summer, but what makes up a good guide, right?

And so just like your list here, there are some that probably should have gone in the Summer Reading Guide, but I found out them too late or the dates were just not right or whatever, you know? But it's nice when I see a light on one where you're like, "Oh, that is definitely going in the guide. We could build a guide around these couple of books," you know, like start filling in the rest of the titles.

ANNE: I do really enjoy putting that together. It's a lot of fun.

WILL: It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun. That's why we start early, right?

[00:39:45] ANNE: Indeed. William, thank you for joining me on the podcast to talk about my favorites for the fourth year running.

WILL: Thank you. Yes, I'm glad to be here. I have read a couple of these. But you remind me of a few that I remember at the time you were like, "Oh, I think you'd like this," and I haven't gotten to them. So maybe I'll add a couple to my TBR.

ANNE: Okay, you don't know I'm going to ask you this, but we have some Will Bogel book twins listening right now. Can you share a couple of favorites?

WILL: I'd say, I hope they're coming to Team Best Books because I'm not ready yet. A couple of favorites. You know, a lot of what I really enjoyed this year, you and I talked about in Patreon that I had my own little sort of reading project around the control of nature and how we... the long-term effects of things we do in the world. So I read some great books with that.

[00:40:36] Two of the books that I'll share from that project: Contemporary one came out this summer called Forest Euphoria, which is part memoir, part scientific history, a lot about mushrooms actually. And then one a little closer to home, a book that I sort of uncovered in a pile of books, I believe this was your dad's, called The Unforeseen Wilderness by Wendell Berry. I wouldn't peg your dad for a big Wendell Berry guy, but he's definitely a big Kentucky guy.

I read it sort of as a historical record, but it were essays that Wendell Berry wrote to stop a dam being built in the Red River Gorge. I think other people might like that, but it definitely meant a lot to me living here, kind of going to the Gorge. That sort of thing.

And then, man, I read some surfing books this year, which was kind of a weird, and not on purpose. But I really, really enjoyed Barbarian Days. That was a book you gave me maybe towards the beginning of the year. That's a surf memoir. And then I ended up reading Malibu Rising finally, which has a big kind of surf storyline in it as well.

[00:41:43] ANNE: Thank you for giving the readers what they want.

WILL: Happy to.

ANNE: More to come at Team Best Books.

WILL: Team Best Books. That's Thursday of this week. So if you subscribe to the podcast and you listen every Tuesday, you still can join us. If you want to be there to hear the whole team talk about their best books of 2025, yeah, become a patron and join us on Thursday. That's patreon.com/whatshouldireadnext?

ANNE: We would love to have you.

[00:42:16] Readers, thank you for joining us for my own favorite books of 2025. We would really love to know the titles you loved the most, too. Leave us a comment to share your superlatives on our show notes page. And that is where we will also share the very long list of titles we talked about today.

Our media production specialist, Holly Wielkoszewski, puts those together every week. Holly, thank you. Readers, find those at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com. We're also on Instagram at @WhatShouldIReadNext. We'd love to see your favorites, we'd love to see your comments, suggestions, questions over there. Share it with your friends. It means a lot to us.

A great way to keep up with everything happening this year and all our anniversaries and all the stuff we don't even know that we are gonna get to do together is sign up for our email list. It's quick and easy to sign up. It's free. Whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com/newsletter.

[00:43:13] And if you could subscribe or follow us in Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Overcast, wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribing and downloading those episodes helps us so much. It makes our network very happy. It helps us keep the lights on. That's directly connected to our ad revenue. And we get to pay our team and keep making a show. We want all that to happen. Thank you in advance.

And thank you to the people who make the show happen every week. That's executive producer Will Bogel, thank you, William, Media production specialist Holly Wielkoszewski who puts that book list together every week, social media manager and editor Leigh Kramer, community coordinator Brigid Misselhorn, community manager Shannan Malone, and our whole team at What Should I Read Next? and Modern Mrs. Darcy HQ. With help from the audio whizzes at Studio D Podcast Production.

Readers, that's it for this first episode of 2026. Thank you so much for listening. And here comes our patron saint, Rainer Maria Rilke, who said, "Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading." Happy reading, everyone.

[a]@[email protected] I'm changing this to "book" in the post transcript because that's what I hear when I listen, and I like that better than having an "inaudible" note right at the top in the embedded transcript. Let me know if you disagree.