2025 is coming to a close and if you're anything like me, you've read quite a few books this year (and counting). So far, my favorite book of the year is The Life Impossible by Matt Haig or Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb, so a little bit all over the place when considering genre.
But we want to know what books you really enjoyed reading this year. Fill out the form below, and we'll add your book (or books) here to inspire others to either finish their reading goals for 2025 or add to the list for next year!
Epitaph for a Peach — Recommended by BSPR's News Director, Sáša Woodruff
Goodreads description: A lyrical, sensuous and thoroughly engrossing memoir of one critical year in the life of an organic peach farmer, Epitaph for a Peach is "a delightful narrative . . . with poetic flair and a sense of humor" (Library Journal).
All Fours — Recommended by BSPR Reporter Julie Luchetta
Goodreads description: A semifamous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to New York. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.
Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.
The Name Sake — Recommended by BSPR Newsroom Intern Jaime Geary
Goodreads description: The Name Sake is the story of a boy brought up Indian in America, from 'the kind of writer who makes you want to grab the next person and say read this! ' (Amy Tan). When her grandmother learned of Ashima's pregnancy, she was particularly thrilled at the prospect of naming the family's first sahib. And so Ashima and Ashoke have agreed to put off the decision of what to name the baby until a letter comes...' for now, the label on his hospital cot reads simply baby boy Ganguli. But as time passes and still no letter arrives from India, American bureaucracy takes over and demands that 'baby boy Ganguli' be given a name. In a panic, his father decides to nickname him 'Gogol' - after his favourite writer. Brought up as an Indian in suburban America, Gogol Ganguli soon finds himself itching to cast off his awkward name, just as he longs to leave behind the inherited values of his Bengali parents. And so he sets off on his own path through life, a path strewn with conflicting loyalties, love and loss... spanning three decades and crossing continents, Jhumpa Lahiri's much-anticipated first novel is a triumph of humane storytelling. Elegant, subtle and moving, the namesake is for everyone who loved the clarity, sympathy and grace of Lahiri's Pulitzer Prize-winning debut story collection, Interpreter of Maladies.
Blue Guide (Wales specifically, but any Blue Guide) — Recommended by Idaho Matters Senior Producer, Samantha Wright
"If I have to pick just one, any Blue Guide. If there’s a place you want to know more about, track down a Blue Guide (they are hard to find). I’m currently reading ‘Wales.’"
Goodreads description: A guide to Wales which includes essays on its history and culture. and gives coverage of the country's castles, market towns, cathedrals, churches and scenery. It also features details of the national art collections in Aberystwyth and Cardiff, as well as smaller galleries and museums.
Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao — Recommended by BSPR's Digital Strategy Manager, Lacey Daley
Goodreads description: Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fukœ—the curse that has haunted the Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.
Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.
The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus — Recommended by BSPR's Morning Edition Host, George Prentice
Goodreads description: A witty, atmospheric, and brilliantly told novel that offers compelling portraits of womanhood, motherhood and female friendship, along with the irresistible intrigue surrounding an extraordinary British family
Arriving at the University of Edinburgh for her first term, Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she’ll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father’s—now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox—lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lord Lennox’s centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents’ secret, just as she’s falling in love for the first time . . .
As Pen experiences the sharp shock of adulthood, she comes to rely on herself for the first time in her life. A rich and rewarding novel of campus life, of sexual awakening, and ultimately, of the many ways women can become mothers in this world, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus asks to what extent we need to look back in order to move forward.
