everything I read in 2025, ranked
250 books from worst to best
Namely, I read 250 books.
This is less than last year, more than the year before, and way less than in 2022, when I ruined my own life by reading one a day.
I’ll never do that again.
More importantly, to engage in cliché, it was a time of quality over quantity: I read so many good books this year. I already shared a post about my favorites (as well as posts about the biggest disappointments and next year’s most anticipated), but I’m not ready to quit talking about 2025’s best and worst.
So I’m ready to do the unthinkable.
I’m going to rank every single book I read, worst to best.
The Bad
250. Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild
This book made me rage so much I a) switched to the audiobook to try to distract myself; b) accidentally walked 5 miles in the rain stomping along to the audiobook; c) wrote notes about hating it while reading; and d) regaled an entire table of strangers at my friend’s law school grad party with the plot summary.
249. Sympathy Tower Tokyo by Rie Qudan
AI tech bro edgelord ragebait — none of these words are in the bible.
248. LA Women by Ella Berman
This is Didion and Babitz fanfiction that hates both Didion and Babitz.
247. Hot Wax by ML Rio
Even the characters and plot and style can’t maintain themselves through this excruciating book.
246. We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad
Hard to imagine a book that needed a sequel less than Bunny, and what a worse sequel than this would’ve been.
245. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
I never once considered reading a Hendrix book until I picked this up for an upcoming post. I should have kept up that streak.
244. Cake Eater by Carl Radke
I’m a reader of books and a watcher of reality TV. I have learned my lesson about combining the two.
243. Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
This tries so hard to be funny and edgy about an interesting topic that it manages to strike out on all three adjectives.
242. When We Grow Up by Angelica Baker
I don’t know why I think I’m going to love low-rated lit fic every time, but this caricature of a book may have cured me.
241. Nothing Serious by Emily J. Smith
This is one of those books where the protagonist is so unlikable and there is so little else going on that the result is borderline unreadable and completely forgettable.
240. Death Takes Me by Cristina Rivera Garza
One of those Very Literary Novels, which mostly means the prose is nonsense and there are horrific descriptors of penises.
239. Friends of the Museum by Heather McGowan
This is a lot like The Seven Deaths of Hardcastle, in that it’s boring and pretentious and hates fat people.
238. Bitter Texas Honey by Ashley Whitaker
This made me lib out even more than I think I was intended to.
237. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
If you only trained AI on 2016 BuzzFeed listicles made up of viral Tumblr posts, it would publish this book immediately before you got singularity’d.
236. The Book of Everlasting Things by Aanchal Malhotra
The way the plot of this entire book would be taken down by a text message.
235. The Winter’s Promise by Christelle Dabos
It feels surreal that this continued to exist past 2013. It’s like a time capsule.
234. How to Care for a Human Girl by Ashley Wurzbacher
I’ve had to severely limit my used bookstore excursions solely because I kept coming out with books like this one.
233. The Material by Camille Bordas
Exactly as charming as you’d imagine literary fiction about the students and teachers of a stand-up comedy college major would be.
232. Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire
What if you stepped through a fantastical door into a fairytale land where magic is real, and the result was basically just a big pond with turtles in it?
231. Broke Heart Blues by Joyce Carol Oates
My decision to read more Oates was a good one. It was starting with a mostly out-of-print, underread and not particularly beloved novel where I went wrong.
230. Save Me, Stranger by Erika Krause
A short story collection with brilliant ideas and no execution.
229. The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica
Bazterrica’s works meet the same description as the last one.
228. The Adults by Alison Espach
Sometimes when an author’s third or fourth book hits it big after the others very much did not, there’s a reason.
227. Don’t Sleep with the Dead by Nghi Vo
Against the odds I really enjoyed Vo’s take on Gatsby. It’s this weird sequel with no IP to go off of I did not care for.
226. Crush by Ada Calhoun
When you’re trying to hit word count at the end of an essay and just add a bunch of in-text citations, but a book.
225. The Folklore of Forever by Sarah Hogle
Sarah Hogle has never been too weird or too cheesy or too out there for me, but I don’t want to read about the romantic escapades of a male podcaster ever.
224. Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake
Reading the words “okay boomer,” in 2025, in a physical, published, real book took years off my life.
223. The Family Recipe by Carolyn Huynh
I really like sandwiches, but not enough to read about 4 siblings and several others in multiple timelines and dozens of settings selling them.
222. The Influencers by Anna-Marie Mclemore
This is about a bunch of influencer daughters named after months and their mean mom and her mean dead husband and no surprise it has the same utter lack of realism that is the Mclemore classic.
221. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
Less cute than I expected a beloved middle grade book about wordplay to be.
220. Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan
I love the first two books in this romance trilogy so much that reading about this AI startup investor and sports betting app founder be rich and evil together caused me physical pain.
219. My Name is Emilia Del Valle by Isabel Allende
Every time I saw this book I thought it didn’t sound like my cup of tea, and then I read it anyway. That’s on me.
219. The Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve
Something that happens to me not infrequently is liking what I think is a lit fic synopsis and then reading it and it’s aggressively book club. I don’t hate book club fiction but I’m not a fan of the self-inflicted bait and switch.
218. See: Loss. See Also; Love by Yukiko Tominaga
This is a totally fine book that is about nothing and for no one.
217. Idol Burning by Rin Usami
A book about fandom that has nothing of particular interest to say on the matter.
The Bleh
216. I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki
Chased Japanese books about cats so hard I ended up with a classic satire on the uncomfortable entrance of Westernism.
215. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
The honor of being the worst book I read for my long classics project this year. Thomas Hardy you are such a scold.
214. The Nimbus by Robert Baird
I wish this book about a two-year-old who starts glowing was actually about the light-up toddler in question, instead of all these academic dorks.
213. Oddbody by Rose Keating
10 stories with identical tone and identical depth and identical purpose gets to be a snooze.
212. Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso
Another L for my penchant for picking up random backlist books by authors I’ve kind of liked before.
211. The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling
Not a children’s classic strong enough to withstand the lack of whimsy of adult readers.
210. An Oral History of Atlantis by Ed Park
I thought these were going to be brilliantly written for some reason. They weren’t particularly.
209. Talking at Night by Claire Daverley
I love Sally Rooney so much that I never understand any of the criticisms of her books. This helped.
208. Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet by Samantha Allen
A boring dead guy and his annoying ghostwriter. Match made in heaven.
207. The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis
This mild disappointment should have been what finally taught me the judging-books-by-their-cover lesson.
206. Women, Seated by Zhang Yueran
I started this book in an airport Margaritaville and I continued it on a very delayed Spirit airlines flight. It turns out that neither of those environments were what was preventing me from getting into this.
205. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke
This is like a million pages long and nothing happens in any of them.
204. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
This is not the radical and unbelievable and wild read I was told it would be. To its detriment.
203. Happiness and Love by Zoe Dubno
I kept almost liking this and it kept getting in the way of itself. Which, considering it is both small and oddly shaped, is pretty impressive.
202. Middle Spoon by Alejandro Varela
This is a series of unanswered emails from a married guy to his ex lover, mostly complaining about things that don’t matter. I actually liked that aspect. Representation.
201. Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave by Mariana Enriquez
I knew I would like the parts of this memoir of an author walking around graveyards that were about graveyards, but I did not know how much I would not like the memoir of the author part.
200. After Midnight by Daphne Du Maurier
In my experience, “Never Before Anthologized Stories By Iconic Author” usually have a reason for never having been collected.
199. Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li
I really like Yiyun Li’s fiction, and I really like Yiyun Li’s nonfiction. I do not like the in-between.
198. Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova
Even a scrap of human lung can move to Berlin if they’re committed to being hard to be around.
197. The Motherload by Sarah Hoover
The quasi-feminist motherhood memoir you’d expect from Tom Sachs’ wife who once went anonymously viral for writing an underpaid art assistant ad that involved nannying and picking up dog poop.
196. Making Space by RF Kuang
A short sci-fi story about a creepy alien kid. A very, very short story.
195. A New New Me by Helen Oyeyemi
I hate when a book is so stylized that I cannot tell what’s going on. It makes me feel like an angry 17 year old. YOU’RE RUINING MY LIFE.
194. The Bodyguard Affair by Amy Lea
The least romantic romance ever. But it does have roughly 900 emotional subplots if you’re into that.
193. Cat’s People by Tanya Guerrero
A bunch of cornballs live in a neighborhood and love a stray cat. Which really is pretty nice for them to be fair.
192. Adam and Evie’s Matchmaking Tour by Nora Nguyen
I read this ahead of my own romantic whirlwind trip through Vietnam. It was not a great romance but it did make me excited for the food.
191. She’s Always Hungry by Eliza Clark
Too many wannabe eerie feminist short story collections where every one is like “and the real horror…IS THE PATRIARCHY!!!”
190. Slaveroad by John Edgar Wideman
This was my first foray into this lauded scholar, and I think it was a strange place to start.
189. Apartment Women by Gu Byeong-Mo
Very simple story, very very simple writing. But I felt something!
188. The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa
Basically a retelling of the little prince, except the little prince is a talking cat and the pilot is a depressing high schooler whose grandpa just died and the life lessons are all reading-specific, as in this teenager who just inherited a used bookstore thinks he is the single authority on what it means to love books.
187. Vantage Point by Sara Sligar
I read multiple books this year to try to soothe my post-Succession sorrows. This was one of the many that didn’t live up to that title.
186. Listen to Your Sister by Neena Viel
This was funny but also more utterly disgusting than horrifying.
185. Rosarita by Anita Desai
Pretty. That’s really all.
184. What It’s Like In Words by Eliza Moss
I was more interested in all of the relationships that weren’t the toxic abusive one at the center.
183. Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao
Instalove is such a waste of a magical pawn shop.
182. Universality by Natasha Brown
Sometimes you wait years for an author’s sophomore novel and the delay was to try to find something to say.
181. Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Adichie can just…exit the writing world now, I think. We’re good on this sort of cancel culture drivel.
The Okay
180. Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata
I am being forced to accept that Convenience Store Woman was the exception to Murata’s work and not the rule.
179. The Usual Desire to Kill by Camilla Barnes
This is A Humor Book. That is all it is.
178. The Snares by Rav Grewal Kok
Unbelievable: Book About Drone Warfare Makes It Seem Like It Was Mostly All Total Assholes Orchestrating It.
177. The End of Loneliness by Benedict Wells
Kind of a soap opera.
176. Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen
It’s not enough for the synopsis to be kind of kooky. I want to die of strangeness.
175. Once Upon A Time by Slim Aarons
I almost spent $75 on this rich people photo book because I was in a cute store in California. Thank god I remembered about libraries.
174. The Passengers on the Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa
People who take the train and nice things that happen to them. Pleasant.
173. Miss Kim Knows and Other Stories by Cho Nam-Joo
None of these were Kim Ji-Young, I’ll say that.
172. As You Wish by Leesa Cross-Smith
This is an objectively pretty bad YA contemporary about girls fetishizing au pairing in Korea…but for some reason it had me locked in.
171. Tuesday Nights in 1980 by Molly Prentiss
Molly Prentiss’ sophomore novel is possibly my single most underrated favorite, but when I finally got to this I did not think it was magical.
170. How to Lose Your Mother by Molly Jong-Fast
I do think being honestly yourself is the best way to write a memoir, but if who you are is kind of shallow and mean then maybe ease up a bit.
169. How to Dodge a Cannonball by Dennard Dayle
I am sorry to satire as a concept, but several hundred pages is too long for even the best joke.
168. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
I tried to return to my YA fantasy glory days, but it turns out not being the target audience in absolutely any way is a bit of a roadblock.
167. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
Everyone else left (to say everyone was mean to this book) but I stayed here (it is what everyone said it is when they were being mean).
166. Jamaica Road by Lisa Smith
I allow myself one Sweeping Emotional Saga per year. Not because they’re too heartbreaking, but mostly because they aren’t.
165. The Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
It feels like most allegedly cozy books these days are actually really depressing.
164. Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson
Please stick to YA, Holly Jackson. And don’t make any more protagonists mock an innocent man eating a PB&J. Some of us are sensitive and can’t stop thinking about it even months later.
163. Love Forms by Claire Adam
Really, really good cover. Just okay book.
162. First Time, Long Time by Amy Silverberg
About that classic life phase where you start dating Howard Stern because he’s rich and your dad loves him but then you cheat on him with his daughter.
161. Dear Fang, with Love by Rufi Thorpe
The best way I can describe this book is that it has that ineffable quality of forgotten 2010s literary fiction, in spite of not really being that.
160. Ruins by Amy Taylor
If I am going to read about rich vacationers polyamorously destroying local lives during Mediterranean heat waves, I’d like a little more suaveness as we get it done.
159. The People’s Project by Various
I read this to feel better about being alive right now, but it mostly got me irritated.
158. If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You by Leigh Stein
Utter nonsense, but with the aesthetic of Hot Topic in the aughts.
157. Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon by Mizuki Tsujimura
I like the idea of every soul meeting one loved one after death, but I don’t know why a high schooler had to get a full time job in making it happen.
156. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
This somehow feels both modern and dated, which is both its best and worst attribute.
155. The City Changes Its Face by Eimear McBride
I accidentally picked up a sequel without having read the first book, and I could not make heads or tails of this writing style, and neither of those were my major issue.
154. Sweet Heat by Bolu Balubolou
I am spoiled by romance series in which each couple knows each other, and therefore did not expect this sequel in which it’s the same couple several years after a wretched breakup.
153. Scarlet Morning by ND Stevenson
This is not the graphic novel I anticipated when I saw “by the author of Nimona,” but rather a pretty forgettable middle grade adventure.
152. The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park by Michiko Aoyama
One of the seemingly dozens of books I read this year fitting the “sweet Japanese collections about a magical entity solving people’s problems.” This one was a hippo statue.
151. You Are the Detective Maureen Johnson
I should not be the detective.
The Fine
150. There Will Never Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
Like Patricia Lockwood, I am terrified of Patricia Lockwood losing her relationship to words because of long covid-related word fog. And I feel this book is what would happen if she did, so.
149. The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
Love any kind of family or friend group saga, but if you’re going to have multiple perspectives over multiple decades we’ve got to trim down the chapter length. I have no idea where we are.
148. It Girl by Marisa Meltzer
Shoutout to the charm of Jane Birkin. The power it takes to keep me entertained through this dry and repetitive account…
147. Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa
This was nice. But not that nice.
146. A Mouthful of Dust by Nghi Vo
This series and the Wayward Children series…sign me up for a short book and a mild disappointment every year!
145. The Ha-Ha by Jennifer Dawson
I am not THAT shocked this midcentury feminist mental health novel was nearly lost to time. Sorry.
144. One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
Not everyone can write a Rachel Cusk-level dialogue-heavy exploration of being alive, but everyone can convince me to read a book with that description.
143. Flesh by David Szalay
A man writing about sex and corruption and guilt winning a major literary award. Groundbreaking.
142. Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
This both took me a long time to finish and was generally an enjoyable read.
141. Colored Television by Danzy Senna
At times I really liked it and at times I hated reading it so much that I could only think about DNFing it in order to get through it. That’s satire, baby.
140. Ghost Music by An Yu
I didn’t not like this book, but no matter how much I think about it I still have no idea what it means.
139. The Adult by Bronwyn Fischer
Even when you’re otherwise enjoying a book, it’s no fun when it just…ends. Or I guess especially then.
138. The Lake’s Water Is Never Sweet by Giulia Caminito
I liked this rough and tumble girl coming of age, but when I read that it’s a composite of three stories it made too much sense.
137. Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida
A bunch of weirdos over a bunch of nights. Just where you’d expect to find them.
136. I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying by Youngmi Mayer
It’s honestly so cool to write a memoir mostly about how funny and chill you are. Especially if you’re right.
135. Hum by Helen Phillips
Writing a dystopian novel in which we’re all being constantly advertised to and having our privacy invaded on the screens we hold…it’s like, yeah. I know that already.
134. The City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
When you’re Murakami, you can just write one of your lesser-known novels again.
132. Idle Grounds by Krystelle Rutherford
This has a lot of very interesting things in it, but it isn’t really interested in any of them.
131. Who I Always Was by Theresa Okokon
I didn’t know you could just set out to write a memoir as a civilian. But I’m not mad at it.
130. Saving Five by Amanda Nguyen
I did know you could write a memoir if you led the single most accomplished existence of any millennial, but I wish it wouldn’t end with the glorification of Jeff Bezos.
129. Luminous by Silvia Park
This book has everything: speculative aspects, childhood trauma, murder, estrangement, forbidden romance, a robot sibling, too many perspectives, too much actually, now that I think of it.
128. Stag Dance by Torrey Peters
This is some stories and one novella, but there is no reason why the stories are stories and the novella is a novella.
127. The Devourer by Alison Ames
If you are in the market for a new niche subgenre called “bantery sapphic YA horror with pretty covers,” Ames has you covered.
126. Fun for the Whole Family by Jennifer Smith
4 protagonists and 4 romances and 4 plotlines and multiple timelines and multiple perspectives and a partridge in a pear tree.
125. Dirty Kitchen by Jill Damatac
The most adorable cover an objectively traumatic book has ever had.
124. Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán
This is about being very quiet and then very loud. Fittingly, it is boring and then not.
123. Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
Reading this was like doing homework, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
122. How to Giggle by Paige DeSorbo and Hannah Berner
The less awful of the Summer House cast member books I read this year. Which is still not good.
121. The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi
Forgettable, unrealistic, shallow, and very pleasant.
120. Promise Boys by Nick Brooks
An enjoyable read while being about serious topics, which is the greatest asset of YA.
119. Central Places by Delia Cai
Mostly wanted to read this book because the author got kicked out of jury duty for tweeting that the FBI agent on the stand was hot. But no book can live up to that hype.
118. Hot Girls with Balls by Benedict Nguyen
Possibly the worst formatting of any novel I’ve ever read. But everything else was pretty good.
117. If You Love It, Let It Kill You by Hannah Pittard
The least annoying of the four authors involved in that New York Magazine-covered cheating situation a couple years ago. Which granted is not a major superlative.
116. Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez
A classic horror case of the setup is too good and I’m having fun for hundreds of pages and then the conclusion is lame and then, oop, it’s over.
115. Everything You Ever Wanted by Luiza Sauza
This made me feel relieved that I could never be tricked into going to space.
114. A Catalog of Burnt Objects by Shana Youngdahl
I really liked this author’s YA contemporary debut. This one, for which I accidentally waited several years, was fine.
113. Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan
This is both touching and too long.
112. The Convenience Store by the Sea by Sonoko Machida
I want to live inside this cover, and inside this book, even if it is mostly about crowd response to a pop star-level hot cashier. Maybe that’s an add.
111. The Sad Ghost Club by Lize Meddings
Pros: cute illustrations, about ghosts; cons: sentimental, I already forgot most of it.
110. Firefly Summer by Morgan Matson
I love Morgan Matson, but mostly when she’s writing about teens finding themselves and also love all in one wild summer <3
The Pretty Good
109. Fire in Every Direction by Tareq Baconi
A jumpy and confusing but also reflective and powerful memoir.
108. The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyns
Someone said this is like Song of Solomon and Shirley Jackson with some Flannery O’Connor mixed in. It's wild how accurate that is.
107. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Just wait until I sip on my evil little guy potion about this.
106. Razorblade Tears by SA Cosby
Like an 80s action movie but woke. Which is a compliment.
105. Wish You Weren’t Here by Erin Baldwin
Summery YA contemporaries are therapy to me. This scratched the itch.
104. When the Harvest Comes by Denne Michele Norris
This had the tone and somberness of an extremely emotional drama, but everyone was being really nice to each other.
103. I Used to Be Charming by Eve Babitz
This is not the best of Babitz (hence the “previously uncollected” of it all), but it’s worth reading for the insane defunct publications alone.
102. Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa
A very crass and shocking look at societal ableism, in Japan and at large.
101. Vladivostok Circus by Elisa Shua Dusapin
No one writes atmosphere and immersion in boredom and drudgery like Dusapin.
100. Gliff by Ali Smith
I thought Brave New World was somewhat basic and silly, and I am rewarded for that with this take from Ali Smith I prefer.
99. Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
After visceral hate prompted by one too many pretentious teens, I swore off John Green books — but the switch to either nonfiction or adult works helped because this went fine.
98. Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe
This is over the top almost to the point of goofiness, but it’s also got surprising death for a story about evil rich serpent girls.
97. The House of My Mother by Shari Franke
I was pleasantly surprised by this one! Not the contents. Those were horrific. But the quality.
96. Hard Copy by Fien Veldman
The natural conclusion of seeking out weird books is to end up reading about a girl who falls in love with a printer.
95. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Old-timey satire works better for me than modern, for some reason. Maybe the charm of the ancients.
94. The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei
This is such an arduous read, in mostly a good way.
93. The Compound by Aisling Rawle
If Love Island had a vague dystopian threat looming just outside. So…Love Island.
92. Bitter Sweet by Hattie Williams
If Love Island had a vague dystopian threat looming just outside. So…Love Island.
91. Work Nights by Erica Peplin
Really enjoying books about hard-to-like young women struggling with societal pressure.
90. The Odyssey by Homer
To me the supremacy of the Iliad is so obvious I struggle to accept that it’s an unpopular opinion.
89. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
I never felt inclined to pick this up, and I was never mad when I did.
88. Flying Solo by Linda Holmes
Linda Holmes is officially all hits no misses for me, but this (which is more about a wooden duck than romance) cut it close.
87. Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object by Laurie Colwin
Even Laurie Colwin’s weirdest and worst book is charming…but this one was strange.
86. How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz
I am not normally an audiobook person, but someone told me to give it a try here and they couldn’t have been more right.
85. The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
I love a fairytale! This is short and simple, as they should be.
84. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
The bad bits of the new Hunger Games books (annoying people, really bad song lyrics) but also the good from the originals (Haymitch).
83. Berlin by Bea Setton
Reading this made me feel unbelievably icky, as god intended for unreliable narrators.
82. Dominion by Addie Citchens
This was doing a bit too much, but a lot of that was good things.
81. Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
A lot of people didn’t like this, but it’s just if Emily Henry wrote Evelyn Hugo. What’s not to like about that.
80. Favorite Daughter by Morgan Dick
A delightful book about horrible people.
79. Authority by Andrea Long Chu
Pretty blah essays, but there is absolutely no one doing criticism like Chu.
78. Private Rites by Julia Armfield
Not much of a horror novel, except in the way that daily life and its tragedies is horrifying. Now that I think of it…
77. The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalani
Intense and oppressive dystopian that also feels about a week and a half away.
76. I Leave It Up to You by Jinwoo Chong
I'm down to live in a world where, when you come out of a coma, you realize the meaning of life is hanging out with your family and working in your dad's sushi restaurant and falling in love with a hot male nurse.
75. The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley
A frustrating read, because it challenges.
74. The Other Wife by Jackie Kennedy-Thomas
I support women’s wrongs.
73. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
A dramatic and soapy bemoaning of etiquette / romanticizing of Times of Yore, but it didn’t go where I expected.
72. Little Movements by Lauren Morrow
Lost me in the middle, but had me in the beginning and end.
71. The Waterbearers by Sasha Bonet
This was my year of the memoir by non-famous people. More of that!
70. What Hunger by Catherine Dang
I liked what this book was doing with family and heritage and survival, but also…it was A LOT about raw beef.
69. Second Life by Amanda Hess
A collection of statements about how weird being a parent is these days. Didn’t build toward anything, but I didn’t need it to.
68. Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang
Talentless but attention-starved representation is so important.
67. Black in Blues by Imani Perry
Segmented-feeling chapters that are at least united by brilliance.
66. Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan
A complicated book about complicated characters, and my feelings about it are complicated too.
65. Soldier Sailor by Clare Kilroy
I can’t tell if this intense depressing read cured my literary baby fever or made it worse.
64. Family Happiness by Laurie Colwin
Only Laurie Colwin could write a book whose plot, such as there is one, centers around a woman making herself miserable and have me come away charmed.
63. Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda
I wouldn’t call these stories so much as “amusing and in turns horrifying vignettes,” but I had a good time.
62. Where Are You Really From by Elaine Hsieh Chou
An extremely varied collection with some stories I will remember forever and some I have already forgotten.
61. This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan
The romance is the relationship I found the least compelling in this book. I meant that as a compliment when I wrote it but now I’m not sure.
60. Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller
You’d never believe what a burn on the patriarchy that title turns out to be.
59. Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
The classic story of boy meets girl, boy turns into shark, society learns the meaning of life.
58. As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson
I was surprised to enjoy the first book in this series, and exponentially more shocked to like this exponentially more.
The Truly Good
57. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
This is kind of cheating at being a novel, because whenever Tolstoy feels like it he throws in a full chapter on how Napoleon is overrated or people are sheep instead of having themes and characters make his point for him, but in some ways...even after spending a year reading it...I was sad to finish!
56. Thirst Trap by Grainne O’Hare
This is a lovely messy book about being evil and hedonistic in your 20s, as is our god-given right.
55. Grimm Tales for Young and Old by Philip Pullman
I have read many, many nearly identical collections of fairytales. This is a solid one.
54. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
Magical realism about being a haunted woman.
53. Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel
Writing about the topic of motherhood on expert mode.
52. The Mobius Book by Catherine Lacey
I think breakups might be the single most interesting subject there is.
51. Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City by Jane Wong
I have wanted to read this since it was offhandedly mentioned to me, which does not normally meet my standards for wanting to read something. I’m glad I did.
50. Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
Searing juxtaposition of daily horrors with the fulfillment and emotion that come from making and seeing art.
49. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
To say I had high expectations for this book would be an understatement. Worth the hype.
48. There’s No Turning Back by Alba de Cespedes
I had a gut feeling about this book, and brilliant writing and characterization proved me right.
47. A Family Matter by Claire Lynch
Things, especially cruelties, that feel far from us in time and in distance and in thought can be troublingly close.
46. Theft by Abdulrazek Gurnah
On the list for its main character alone. Badar stans rise up.
45. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Armin
This so stubbornly refused to go anywhere I wanted it to, and still I enjoyed it.
44. Back After This by Linda Holmes
I love Linda Holmes books because they get what I need from a romance: Everything except a romance.
43. The Wedding People by Alison Espach (reread)
I was blown away by the sheer force of pleasant surprise when I first read this, and I liked it nearly as much on the second read.
42. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
I wasn’t FULLY satisfied by this strange conclusion, but the camp vibes and the eerie questions and the rich freaks made for a good time.
41. Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
I did not like this author’s first book and I made a joke about the cover of this one that made a lot of people mad at me and I kind of wanted to hate this as a result of those two things but I couldn’t resist.
40. Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li
I cannot fathom what Yiyun Li has been through, nor her ability to write about it.
39. The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
This manages to be that rare thing of an excellent, tight story with thematic riches, in spite and because of a slow first half.
38. Audition by Katie Kitamura
I read almost every paragraph of the first half of this book twice.
37. We Do Not Part by Han Kang
Deep and still and quiet, hugely emotional in the smallest strokes.
36. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Too many cool people loved this. I was always going to read it and agree.
35. Homeseeking by Karissa Chen
Heaven is probably a long, character-driven book.
34. The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
A book that I kept trying to reach for hours and days after finishing it.
33. The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan
I am a fan of all kinds — the Philadelphia Eagles, the little guys that hop around the edges of city sidewalks, the vibrant flyers — but this book put me to shame.
32. Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
An invulnerable start but such an honest ending.
31. Self Help by Lorrie Moore
I always try to write mini reviews for every story when I read a collection, and I often give up after writing the same thing 10 times. This is the first time I’ve not done it for liking them too much.
30. Flashlight by Susan Choi
Long and character-driven with a sneaking plot.
29. The Lone Pilgrim by Laurie Colwin
I treat Colwin’s books like the nonrenewable precious resource they are, but now I won’t be able to keep resisting her stories.
28. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Modern classics get the Unforgettable Character billing a lot, but this deserved it.
27. Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
An atmospheric and satisfying little novel with outsize impact.
26. Good Girl by Aria Aber
A grimy, twisty, frustrating book, full of mistakes and violence, thoughtlessness and party drugs, clubs at dawn and unclean apartments — angering and worthwhile.
25. The White Album by Joan Didion
Didion is a broadly incredible writer on a broad range of subjects, making what should be by now outdated feel fresh and interesting, making me feel like I’m in Hawaii while in actual fact I am freezing cold in the Detroit airport.
24. The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai
Both deeply personal and stirringly broad.
23. Ghost Fish by Stuart Pennebaker
A simple lovely sweet EMOTIONAL book, with a little hint of magical realism and a lot of love for the world. That’s how I like them.
22. The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers
Always reading lit fic about women blowing up their lives.
21. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
This is long with a gross romance, but I love revenge, I love this pacing, I had a great time.
20. Loved One by Aisha Muharrar
In spite of the heavy subject matter, so much of this felt light and refreshing and fun.
The Excellent
19. Gather Me by Glory Edim
A thoughtful, honest memoir about the power of books over the course of one lovely life.
18. Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
This was as interesting as it was informative, as optimistic as it was devastating, and also it was just fun to read my same opinions.
17. The Last Supper by Rachel Cusk
Peak escapism, because it feels intelligent and also the escape in question is to Italy.
16. Notes to John by Joan Didion
This level of insight into the mind of one of our greatest writers is a treasure.
15. Metamorphoses by Ovid
The Now That’s What I Call Music of mythology greatest hits.
14. Worry by Alexandra Tanner
Filled with topics I never tire of reading about, and funny and sharp and pleasantly wordy in doing it.
13. Writers and Lovers by Lily King (reread)
I physically had to reread this, for a reason I will explain later. It was as good as I remembered.
12. The Anthropologists by Aysegül Savas
Thinking “this is exactly the phase of life I’m in” while reading is rare for me, and the level to which this resonated was special.
11. Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo
I missed reading this so much after finishing it I nearly entered a reading slump — occupational hazard of wonderful characters and a long book.
10. Persephone’s Curse by Katrina Leno
This had the same qualities of my top few favorites of the year, while being young adult magical realism. A treat.
9. Betty by Tiffany McDaniel
Prone to being over the top, but somehow all of that absurdity only served to make this more absorbing, its points truer, the story it told more unforgettable.
8. Biting the Hand by Julia Lee
The rage and hope in these pages are such a balm right now, as are the personal stories aimed at displaying the pervasive violence of whiteness and the racial hierarchy that seeps insidiously into everything we do.
7. We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin
We’re so lucky to have Emily Austin’s wacky goofy funny cynical cutting loving brilliant brain helping us to navigate these unprecedented times.
6. Recognizing the Stranger by Isabella Hammad
As I struggle to think of anything other than Palestine, these passages were one of the only things that made sense, that stood the test of morality, that I could bear to read.
5. Native Son by Richard Wright
I couldn’t escape this book — I thought of it constantly, felt it deeply, was consumed by it. It should be required reading.
4. Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor
Every Brandon Taylor book has been special to me, but this one was perfection.
3. The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
It’s hard to describe how much I loved every page of this messed-up family, except to say that I got up halfway through my library copy to buy one and I entered a reading slump immediately after finishing.
2. One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
The title is perfect, and somehow so is every word contained within it.
1. Heart the Lover by Lily King
Sometimes I worry I’m too stingy with my five stars. Then I read a novel where I can tell from the start I’m discovering a new favorite and I know I was just waiting for that feeling. I cannot shut up about this book.
The effort alone that went into this post is incredible. I am so impressed.
didn't read any of these books but i sure as heck read this whole post and thought "yup, sounds accurate"