Another big reading year in 2025 (211 total books!), which makes it hard to compile a best-of list, but here we go.

You can also check out my top 10 nonfiction and my reading stats/goals.

1. Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley – Sort of a romance with song-writing thrown in. Best example I’ve seen of a book about a writer where they show you their writing and it’s good.
2. Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor – I’ve soured on Nnedi Okorafor’s stuff lately, but this is her best yet. Really fascinating and a bit meta.
3. The Reason You’re Alive by Michael Quick – I love a strong voice, and this book has it. Doesn’t matter that the character is gruff and mean, it’s all part of the charm. Matthew Quick is good at that.
4. Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez – This author single handedly got me into romance, and this was a fun read. I love the guy’s goofy but committed focus. It’s endearing.
5. Mal Goes to War by Edward Ashton – I’m a sucker for deadpan AI narrators.
6. King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby – This was dark, disturbingly so, but Crosby tells a good story.
7. Along Came Amor by Alexis Daria – I enjoyed reading this romance, but part of why it worked so well was the build up of the previous two in the series.
8. The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean – Oof, this was a dark thriller. Really sucked me in.
9. Leave No Trace by Mindy Mijea – Really interesting mystery and setup, enjoyed the Minnesota angle.
10. Coyote by Allen M. Steele – An old school sci-fi colonizing story that had some fun and unique takes.

I read a lot in 2024, which makes coming up with the 10 best even harder. Seriously, I had 33 five-star fiction reads.

You can also check out my top 10 nonfiction and my reading stats.

Some of those may have been five stars in the excitement of the moment, and a few were re-reads, but still, it makes it hard to put together a list. With the backstop of honorable mentions, I’m pretty confident about my top 10 list, but not at all confident about the order. Rather than agonize over each place, I’m going to go read a book.

So here’s my top 10 fiction for 2024:

1. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver – She’s still got it. I haven’t read Kingsolver in a while, but this one shows why she’s so good.
2. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman – This series is so stupid. It’s like reading a role playing game. But it’s just dumb enough to be fun. The audiobook is amazing—probably makes it work. (I’m reading the physical version of the third book now, and I think it only works because I still have the audiobook voices in my head.)
3. Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell – Her Simon Snow series and all the comics are a nice diversion, but give us more character-driven Rainbow Rowell! This is basically a romance novel, and I loved it. Which spawned exploring that genre and actually adding it to my book tracking genre dropdown.
4. Suburban Dicks by Fabian Nicieza – A super pregnant former serial killer tracker turned minivan mom teams up with a disgraced journalist to solve a decades old suburban mystery. Laugh out loud funny.
5. The Future by Naomi Alderman – A real thinker of an apocalytpic story with plenty of action, focused on billionaire social media tycoons preparing for the end of the world.
6. Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton – A too-many-clones space caper that was both exciting and funny.
7. The Shore of Women by Pamela Sargent – A 1980s sci-fi classic that’s been on my to-read list for years and I finally got to it. Glad I did. Super interesting far-future scenario where women live in a techno paradise while men are thrown out to live as savages in the wild. Reading it in the context of today’s alpha bros is a bit unsettling.
8. Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice – Pair it with the first in the series, Moon of the Crusted Snow, for a great post-apocalytpic read.
9. Liberty’s Daughter by Naomi Kritzer – Really engage near-future sci-fi world with a pragmatic teen heroine solving problems.
10. Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese – A star hockey player comes out of a Canadian residential school. The descriptions are hauntingly beautiful. I read this one in a single day.