Favorite Books I've Read So Far This Year (first half of 2025)

I set a challenge goal of reading 40 books this year. So far I’ve read 29 (and I’m halfway through my 30th!) Here’s a small roundup and some stats of what I’ve read and loved so far this year:

A few favorites in no particular order:

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

A four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a mystery that will haunt the survivors, unravel a family, and remain unsolved for nearly fifty years. This book was heart-wrenching and beautiful. 

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

A story of community, family and secrets. Set in Pottstown, Pennsylvania in the 1930s and focuses on the relationship between the Black and Jewish communities. 

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

Franny Stone has always been the kind of woman who is able to love but unable to stay. Leaving behind everything but her research gear, she arrives in Greenland with a singular purpose: to follow the last Arctic terns in the world on what might be their final migration to Antarctica. Part dystopian, part climate fiction, part grief-novel, this book was a full gut-punch. 

Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper

Equal parts memoir, travelogue, and primer on the art of birding, this is Cooper’s story of learning to claim and defend space for himself and others like him, from his days at Marvel Comics introducing the first gay storylines to vivid and life-changing birding expeditions through Africa, Australia, the Americas, and the Himalayas.
BUY IT HERE

Isola by Allegra Goodman

A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this epic saga of love, faith, and defiance. Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

In the late 1800s, three sisters use witchcraft to change the course of history in Alix E. Harrow's powerful novel of magic and the suffragette movement. 

A couple reading stats. Of my 39 books read: 

• 34 were by women authors

• 3 were by black authors

• 5 were by aapi authors

• 2 were by indigenous authors

• 5 were non-fiction