Top 10 Books of 2025 So Far: A Mid-Year Review

Mid-Year Reading Overview

• 📊 The speaker has read 65 books and over 19,559 pages so far in 2025, from which a top 10 list has been compiled.
• 💡 An honorable mention is included for a reread, a category usually excluded from favorite lists, due to its significant impact.

Revisiting a Favorite

• 📚 Under the Skin by Michel Faber was a standout reread, loved even more than the first time eight years prior.
• 👽 This haunting science fiction novel features Isserlay picking up strong male hitchhikers in Scotland, with a twist revealed early on.
• 🎬 The book offers a different experience from the film adaptation starring Scarlett Johansson, as the book's premise wouldn't translate directly to screen.

Engaging Thrillers & Dramas

• 🕵️‍♀️ The Catch by T.M. Logan is a fun, flawed family drama about a suspicious father investigating his daughter's fiancé, narrated by Richard Armitage.
• 🍕 Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier starts as a slice-of-life story about a pregnant delivery girl, then descends into quiet intensity and obsession, similar in tone to Convenience Store Woman.
• 🎭 All Fours by Miranda July is a "Marmite book" exploring sexuality, menopause, and desire through the lens of a filmmaker's debauched motel stay, described as "erotic Wes Anderson."

Thought-Provoking Speculative Fiction

• 🌳 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey, set in the 1970s New Forest, is a speculative fiction novel about triplets, reminiscent of Never Let Me Go but focusing on the political climate.
• 💰 Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe is a fun, plot-heavy story about a pregnant woman, her ex-pro wrestler dad, and her decision to start an OnlyFans account.

Personal & Magical Journeys

• ✨ The Chronicles of Whetherwhy by Anna James is a middle-grade fantasy with a unique magical system tied to seasons and bookbinding, following twins Juniper and Rafferty.
• 💖 The Unfamiliar by Kirsty Logan is a short non-fiction audiobook where the author openly discusses her experiences with infertility, miscarriage, and IVF as a queer woman.

Contemporary Challenges & Top Pick

• 🔥 So Thrilled for You by Holly Bourne is a riotous read exploring changing friendships, motherhood, jealousy, and love among four friends, starting with a baby shower gone wrong.
• 🏡 Nesting by Róisín O'Donnell is a stressful debut about Ciara in an emotionally abusive relationship with two children and a third on the way, also highlighting the housing crisis in Ireland.
• 🤖 Hum by Helen Phillips is the speaker's favorite book of 2025 so far, a deeply unsettling speculative fiction novel about a woman altering her face to avoid facial recognition by AI robots (Hums), and the impact of technology on family life. It's a haunting mirror of our own world.