I read 62 books in 2025. These were my 25 faves.
Plus, a five-year snapshot of 75 other books that've stayed with me!
Before we get into the fun, this edition of The Sunday Series is too long for email, so I’d recommend clicking out to read in browser or even better, in the Substack app, where you can like and comment! Your engagement on Substack means the world to me as I work to expand the reach of TSS in 2026 and beyond 💌
Hello, bookworms!
Since launching The Sunday Series in 2020, my annual reading roundup has become a TSS staple. For the past five years, I’ve used Goodreads to track my reading, both setting a reading goal for the year and using the platform to look back and jog my memory on which titles left the biggest impression. Some years I’ve fallen short of my reading goal, but this year, I managed to polish off 62 titles!
In 2025, I read 62 books.
In 2024, I read 56 books.
In 2023, I read 56 books.
In 2022, I read 52 books.
In 2021, I read 37 books.
Which brings us to the purpose of today’s edition of my annual reading roundup: I’m sharing the 25 books that stood out to me most this year. Plus, exclusively for paid subscribers, I’m looking back at over 300 books read in recent years and rounding up 75 of my top reads, making this a robust reference of 100 total books you can dive into with absolute confidence—that is, if we share the same reading taste! Before you dive in, a quick note on the lens with which I pick books…
At all times, I’m reading something fiction and something nonfiction. But I consume them differently. When it comes to fiction, I read all of my books in physical form, whether that be hardcover, paperback, or Kindle (a new addition to my rotation in the past year). For nonfiction, I listen via Libro.fm, the Libby app, or Spotify. I particularly love listening when the author is the narrator of the audiobook, as most often is the case for memoirs, which just so happen to be my most sought-after nonfiction genre.
When it comes to fiction, I’m drawn to complex women, messy friendships, complicated family dynamics, ambition, secrets (did someone say double life/hidden family??), and reinvention, with a particular soft spot for upmarket fiction and literary suspense. If there’s sharp social commentary, a beautifully rendered setting, or a twist that feels inevitable in hindsight, even better. I’m also a sucker for an unlikeable narrator and mulit-POV novels that really get you in the head of the storyteller.
With nonfiction, I’m most compelled by voice. I love memoirs and essays that feel intimate, self-aware, vulnerable, and culturally attuned—books that explore identity, creativity, power, pleasure, food, work, media, and modern relationships through a personal lens. I tend to favor writers who are thoughtful without being precious, reflective without being didactic, and who make you feel like you’re in conversation with them rather than being taught a lesson. I particularly gravitate towards memoirs set in New York.
Fiction or nonfiction, I’m always chasing the same thing: books that make me feel more attuned to how people live, love, fail, and start over—and that I can’t wait to press into the hands of friends.
Okay, let’s get into it!!! If there’s an asterisk, that indicates it was a West Village Book Club pick. In case you’re new here, I launched WVBC in 2022, and we collectively launched our book club Substack on January 1st. In it, each month, the six of us round up a review of our meeting and recap what we each read. Subscribe below if you’re interested…we have some fun stuff coming in 2026!!
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (2024)* | This was a WVBC pick earlier this year, and we all were drawn into this heart-pounding literary thriller that manages to blend gritty suspense with gut-punch emotion. It’s a longer read, but it paces quickly! FWIW, we all finished the 500+ pages, which says something.
The Art of Vanishing by Morgan Pager (2025)* | A smart literary novel about a woman who discovers she can actually enter the paintings in the museum where she works. Pager explores art, love, and longing through a quietly surreal lens, using the museum as a space for both escape and self-reckoning. Thoughtful, inventive, and emotionally restrained.
The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand (2005) | I picked this one up ahead of our Nantucket trip because its beachfront restaurant was inspired by Galley Beach, a spot we dined at in June. This quintessential Nantucket novel combines romance, reinvention, and all the drama behind the doors of an iconic seaside restaurant. Written in 2005, it was fun to do one of Hilderbrand’s backlist books!
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors (2024) | Easily one of the most touching stories I’ve read in years, this one is about three estranged sisters reuniting in the wake of tragedy. Mellors’ sophomore novel delivers a sweeping, stylish family drama about grief, identity, and love. I loved her writing style so much that I ran out to get her debut (on my list below) right away.
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (2025) | Easily one of the best books I’ve read in recent memory, this sweeping second-chance romance is an atmospheric dual-timeline novel set in mid‑20th‑century UK countryside. It follows Beth—a farmer’s wife—whose quiet marriage begins to unravel when her teenage first love, Gabriel, returns to town with a young son. Their reconnection reopens old grief, sparks a love triangle, and culminates in a gripping murder and courtroom drama. I loved it for its emotional twists and murky moral terrain!
Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors (2022) | A messy, modern love story about a whirlwind marriage between a British painter and an older, successful American man in New York City. Mellors captures intimacy, power imbalance, and emotional dependency with brutal honesty, making this a sharp portrait of how love can both save and slowly undo you. Complicated, stylish, and deeply human.
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025) | A clever, voice-driven novel told through letters, emails, and professional exchanges that reveal the quiet interior life of a woman whose job is to stay observant—but emotionally removed. As her carefully structured world begins to crack, the book becomes a meditation on loneliness, connection, and the stories we tell (or withhold). It had me sobbing on my flight home from Sydney!!!!
Discontent by Beatriz Serrano (2025) | A darkly funny, sharply observed novel originally written in Spanish and translated into English about a woman unraveling under the pressures of modern work, capitalism, and emotional burnout. Serrano skewers corporate culture and personal dissatisfaction with biting wit, making this feel both painfully specific and uncomfortably universal. Perfect if you like your social commentary with teeth.
Heart the Lover by Lily King (2025)* | A quiet, emotionally precise novel about longing, betrayal, and the complicated aftermath of love that doesn’t resolve neatly. King excels at interiority here, tracing how desire and restraint coexist within long-term relationships. It’s tender, thoughtful, and devastating in a very restrained way. I hosted WVBC last month when this was our pick and had so much fun gathering our crew to discuss it!!
Once and Again by Rebecca Serle (2026) | Out in March, I got my hands on an early copy of this time-bending love story that explores fate, grief, and the possibility of getting a second chance at a life-defining relationship. Serle blends romance with her classic magical realism in a way that feels grounded rather than gimmicky. If you like emotional what-ifs that make you reflect on timing and choice, this one hits.
Mansion Beach by Meg Mitchell Moore (2025) | A reverse Great Gatsby, I’ve been recommending this beach read to so many friends. Set on Shelter Island, sun, sand, and simmering secrets collide in this sharp coastal drama about privilege, ambition, and the price of reinvention.
Set Piece by Lana Schwartz (2025) | A modern second-chance romance set on a movie set, following a breakout TV star and the no-nonsense production designer he once fell for—back when she was bartending. When their paths cross again years later, chemistry reignites, complicated by fame, motherhood, and very real adult baggage. Breezy, romantic, and a quick, fun read.
The Tenant by Frieda McFadden (2025) | A fast-paced psychological thriller that wastes no time pulling you into a web of suspicion, secrets, and escalating paranoia. As a seemingly straightforward rental situation turns sinister, McFadden delivers twist after twist that makes this incredibly bingeable. Perfect if you want something propulsive and addictive.
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (2025)* | A haunting, atmospheric novel set on a remote coastline on a fake island between Antarctica and Tasmania, where isolation amplifies grief, family bonds, and environmental threat. McConaghy blends literary prose with mounting suspense, creating a story that feels both intimate and expansive. Nature plays a central role here, almost as a character itself.
The Women by Kristin Hannah (2024)* | A powerful historical novel about women who served as nurses during the Vietnam War, told with Hannah’s signature emotional sweep. This book shines a light on a group long overlooked in war narratives, exploring trauma, friendship, and resilience. It’s heartbreaking, absorbing, and deeply human.
Care and Feeding by Laurie Woolever (2025) | I just finished this book this week and am sure it’s going to stay with me for quite some time. Woolever’s sharp writing paints a moving portrait of food, grief, marriage, cheating, and life after loss. Her work with both Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain as a longtime collaborator puts equal parts candor and heart into this story.
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams (2025) | A revealing memoir from a former Facebook insider that chronicles the company’s early idealism—and its moral unraveling. Wynn-Williams offers a clear-eyed look at power, tech culture, and the personal cost of working inside one of the most influential platforms of our time. Disturbing, fascinating, and hard to put down.
More: A Memoir of Open Marriage by Molly Roden Winter (2024) | A raw and riveting deep dive into love, desire, and the complexities of non-monogamy—this memoir is equal parts confessional and cultural critique. It was my first time listening to such a detailed chronicle of an open marriage and definitely kept me sucked in at a level that’s difficult for a memoir written by a ‘regular person’ (versus a celebrity).
The Tell: A Memoir by Amy Griffin (2025) | This book was all over the internet earlier this year, and with good reason. Griffin, a high-achieving investor and mother of four, honestly depicts her journey facing deeply buried childhood trauma as she uncovers an assault while undergoing a controversial MDMA-assisted therapy session. She uses this experience to explore themes of ambition, perfectionism, healing, and what happens when secrets unravel decades later.
We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay: Tips, Tales, Travels by Gary Janetti (2024) | If you’re new around here, this one is a bit biased as Gary is a friend of West Village Book Club and someone I’ve been able to collaborate with professionally, but funny enough, this book was my entry point to getting to know him! It’s hilarious, biting, and self-aware, as he infuses his signature wit into recounting travel stories spanning decades.
I think of the below grouping less as standalone memoirs and more as a case study of a cultural era—specifically, the glossy, ego-driven, wildly influential world of American media from the 1980s through the early 2000s, and its long afterlife today. These books trace how taste was made, how power circulated, how ambition was rewarded (or punished), and how entire cultural narratives were shaped by a relatively small group of people with outsized platforms.
Read together, they form a kind of unofficial syllabus on magazines, celebrity, gatekeeping, creative authority, and the cost of proximity to power—told from different vantage points: the editor, the insider, the observer, the staffer, the cultural critic. It’s part nostalgia, part reckoning, and deeply illuminating when taken as a whole.
The Vanity Fair Diaries: 1983-1992 by Tina Brown (2017) | A front-row account of Tina Brown’s rise at Vanity Fair, capturing the excess, ambition, and cultural dominance of magazines at their peak. Equal parts gossip, strategy, and self-mythology, this diary reads like a masterclass in power and taste-making. Essential context for this entire media-era grouping.
When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter (2025) | This irresistible peek into glossy magazine culture showcases the Vanity Fair days at their peak—full of name-dropping, mischief, and the unapologetic glamour of a bygone media era. Would be a good one to read following Tina Brown’s memoir!
Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America by Michael Grynbaum (2025) | A deeply reported cultural history of Condé Nast and the people who shaped its mythos. Grynbaum traces how influence, aesthetics, and hierarchy operated behind the scenes, offering a more analytical counterpoint to the memoirs in this section. A must-read for understanding the machinery behind the gloss.
Joyride: A Memoir by Susan Orlean (2025) | A charming, reflective memoir that blends personal storytelling with Orlean’s signature curiosity about people, passions, and obsession. Moving fluidly through her life and career, she explores what it means to stay open to wonder over time. Warm, thoughtful, and quintessentially Orlean.
I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally (2025) | Another epic memoir from the hospitality world, this unapologetic, darkly funny tell-all comes from the legendary restaurateur behind Balthazar and chronicles the chaos of New York dining and a life lived loudly. For anyone who appreciates the NY dining scene, I think this is a must-read. The impact his stroke had on his business, marriage, and writing life is particularly poignant.
Exclusive to paid subscribers, I’m now thrilled to roundup a backlist of my top 50 fiction picks and top 25 nonfiction picks beyond what I read this year.
28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand (2020)
Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler (2023)
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (2014)*
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson (2022)
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (2023)
