Best of 2025

The listless literary December is dominated by one thing: lists. There are lists of everything. Best books. Notable (whatever that means) books. Favorite covers. Worst reads. Most anticipated books for next year. Etc. For authors who published in the calendar year, every list that omits your book is a vapid collection of puerile fluff churned out by hacks and celebrated by illiterate fools! On the other hand, each list where your work appears is a rare ray of sanity curated by the last remaining readers of taste and sophistication.
 
I kid, a bit.
 
As some of you may know, I published my second novel, Alliance of Deception in 2025 and am thrilled to see good reviews and sales. Especially exciting was inclusion in CKUA, Alberta’s excellent public radio station, in their fifth edition of Holiday Recommendations from Alberta’s Independent Bookstores. Check out the list if you get a chance.

I’ve also started my next historical fiction, and am deep in the research phase, so you may notice a few odd books. I’m not one to set targets, but I did feel I didn’t read nearly as much as I usually do. Still, I believe in quality over quantity, and I discovered some beautiful writing and vitally important stories. Here are my top picks:
 
Top Fiction: Stoner by John Williams
Top Canadian Fiction: The Antagonist by Lynn Coady
Top Commonwealth Fiction: The Coast Road by Alan Murrin
Top Classic: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Top Non-Fiction: The Art Thief by Michael Finkel
Top book I couldn’t forget: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Most disappointing Fiction: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
 
Other Reads:
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson
The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan
A Woman’s Story by Annie Ernaux
The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black
Virgins of Venice by Mary Lauen
The Sea by John Banville
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, & Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater by Peggy Orenstein
The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzce
At Winter I Get Up At Night by Jane Urquhart
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
In a Free State by V.S. Naipaul
Glass, Paper, Beans by Leah Hager Cohen
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley
Fagin the Thief by Allison Epstein
Altered States by Anita Brookner
Undue Influence by Anita Brookner
Night & Day by Virginia Woolf
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
Headmaster’s Wager by Vincent Lam
Travelling Into the Patagonian Wind by Ruth D. Stallard
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
The Ghosts of Lille by Kimberly Kocken
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact & the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides
Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
The First Time I Died by Krysta MacDonald
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
Widows & Orphans by Kate Hilton & Elizabeth Renzetti
Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd
On Isabella Street by Genevieve Graham
The Lisbon Crossing by Tom Gabbay
The Historians by Ceclia Ekback
Shelter by Frances Greenslade
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb
Midnight in Europe by Alan Furst
The Book Spy by Alan Hlad
The Good German by Dennis Bock
Agent Zigzag by Ben MacIntyre
Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier
Thundering & Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer’s Craft by Natalie Goldberg
The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa
War in the Shadows of the City of Light by Neill Lochery
Strangers at the Red Door by Dennis Bock
 
Thanks for reading, friends. I do really appreciate my faithful subscribers and wish you all a happy & safe holiday season.
In the meantime, happy reading!
Joni