A Few of My Favorite Books of 2025

Well, the year drew to a close a couple of weeks ago, and before I start looking forward to the books that are captivating my attention, it is time to discuss a few of my favorite reads of 2025. If you have read my posts before, you know that I did have some struggles with reading mid-year. I suspect that most readers are familiar with the syndrome where no matter what books you pick up, they are destined to languish unfinished or returned to the library very quickly.

However, by the end of the year, I had started to get back in the swing of reading. As the year drew to a close, I found myself engrossed in a couple of books and audiobooks. I am not one to create set in stone reading plans or offical TBR's but rather go where the mood strikes me. And often I find those books to be some of the most rewarding.

So without much more preamble, here are a few of my favorites of 2025

A Favorite New Contemporary Author: Annie Lyons

In 2025, I read two of Annie Lyon's books that were very enjoyable. Both of these books have had scenes that have lingered with me since I completed them mid-year.

The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett

Oh, how I enjoyed this book. It was a thoughtful, kind, and wonderful story. The book centers around Eudora Honeysett, who has decided that she is going to go to Switzerland and participate in assisted death, as she feels that there is nothing left to live for. Enter next door, a dynamic little 10-year-old girl, Rose, who teaches Eudora what it means to live and embrace life as an octogenarian. Stanley, the affable and kind neighbor, enters the scene, and what you get is utterly heartwarming. Stanley, Rose, and her parents teach Eudora that it is not too late to embrace life. This is one of my favorites for the gentle way the author handled the end-of-life topic, the past, and the feeling that it's never too late to find some joy and purpose.

The Air Raid Book Club

So after reading about Eudora, I quickly picked up another book by Annie Lyons. The Air Raid Book Club was a gem. This book centers on a widowed woman (Gertie) who is running a bookstore in London in 1938. She misses her beloved husband desperately and is struggling to find purpose and enjoyment in life. Gertie takes in a Jewish teenage refugee girl from Germany, who is understandably troubled and challenging. What ensues over the subsequent years of the War, the Holocaust, and the Blitz is dramatic. It always makes me think of how strong people had to be during the first half of the last century. How the whole world must have felt on fire, yet they somehow carved out their own sense of normalcy to maintain sanity and carry on. This book is about friendship and how people come into our lives, creating cohesion and filling voids left by loss, all the while forming a family and finding new peace out of the wreckage of war.

Some quotes from this book that made it to my reading journal:

"I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair," Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you," John Bunyan

A Favorite Older Author: Paul Gallico

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

I started 2025 reading Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, and absolutely loved this book. Yes, I had seen the recent movie production and enjoyed watching it. However, as is often the case, the book was so much more! Mrs. Harris is a char woman (cleaning woman) in London for wealthy Londoners. While cleaning, Mrs. Harris spies a fabulous Christian Dior dress in the closet of her clients, and it ignites her imagination and dreams. So she sets out to save money to go to Paris and buy her very own couture gown. We follow her triumphs and travails of working to save the money necessary to get to Paris.

What transpires through this book is a woman who is not polished but is kind. And while in Paris, Mrs. Harris encounters people in the venerable fashion house who have forgotten what it means to be kind and gracious. However, the warm-heartedness, plain speaking, and kindness of Mrs Gallico remind these people to show others grace. I don't mean to say Mrs. Harris is sappy; she is not. But she is sincere and genuine. This book left me feeling hopeful and uplifted.

The Snow Goose

At the end of the year, I listened to a wonderful short novella by Paul Gallico called "The Snow Goose." Being only forty-five minutes long, I went through this in a day during my work commute. What a gem! In fact, as the book finished, I sat in the car for a few minutes and thought about what I had just heard. There is nothing better than a book that causes you to step back and give some real thought to what you have just read.

This novella centers around Rhayadar, a man who lives as a lighthouse keeper in England along the coast. He is a hunchback with some distorted limbs and lives alone at the lighthouse, minding himself while caring for animals and birds. He meets a young, lonely girl, Fritha, and a wounded migrating snow goose. With the epic evacuation of Dunkirk as part of this story, we are treated to a story about the connection between humans and animals, and the quiet bravery that is shown quietly and without fanfare.

I will be reading more of Paul Gallico, and in fact, I have The Coronation on my bookshelf and plan to get to that this coming year.

An Ode to C.S. Lewis

Once Upon a Wardrobe - Patti Callahan Henry

During Christmas and New Year, I read Once Upon a Wardrobe - Patti Callahan Henry. I took my time reading this because the story was wonderful and the writing at times lyrical.

For those of us who are fans of C.S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia, this book should be required reading. It is set in 1950, and the main character Meg, is attending Oxford at one of the small handful of colleges admitting women. Studying mathematics suits Meg's analytical nature. But the love of her little brother George, who is terminally ill is stronger. George had just finished reading The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and asked his sister to find C.S. Lewis at Oxford and ask him about Narnia. Having read part of the Narnia series, I can relate to a young George being captivated by the book.

Meg meets C.S. Lewis and his brother Warnie, and he proceeds to tell Meg stories of his life and childhood. Meg wants a simple answer, but what she discovers is that the journey of life can create its own magic and does not follow linear and direct routes.

Patti Callahan Henry is a wonderful author, and I have read another book by her, called The Secret Book of Flora Lea, and I am currently reading The Story She Left Behind (LOVING this one).

A Gem from a Library Book Sale

The Lido - a Novel by Libby Page

First off, I had no idea what a Lido was. By the time I finished this book, I was wishing that we had a Lido like this in our community. This story centers around a Lido (a public swimming pool), complete with a cafe and spacious outdoor areas. This particular Lido is in a suburb of London called Brixton and is in danger of being turned into an upscale fitness center by some property developers.

Rosemary, a widow, has lived her whole life in Brixton and the Lido has played such a large part of her life and marriage. Kate is a twenty-something woman who moves to the area and starts working at the local paper, and is dealing with her own issues and baggage. They teamup to fight the proposed development, along with a wonderful group of neighbors. As we read, we are taken back to Rosemary's memories surrounding the Liod and how much a part of her story it is. Kate continues to struggle, but draws strength from her friend Rosemary.

This is such a lovely book that left me weepy in the end. I felt like I was in BRixton and wanted to be there helping them thwart the Council and the developers.

In closing, I read around thirty-two books last year, and many were quite good. I will be integrating some of those reads into other posts about authors and genres going forward.

Thank you for spending some time with me, and happy reading!

Sharon