Book List 2025

Who would have thought that reading would become a super power one day? For all of us, who have been reading since we were old enough to understand words, had English teachers prod our imaginations with stories, and checked out more books from libraries than we could carry, reading has been akin to breathing, to making sense of life itself. Every year, we read because books are our friends, and we need stories to get by. Therefore, online banter around whether reading is performative, and whether ebooks and audio books count towards reading or not don’t bother us. The only stance we obstinately hold is that reading only non-fiction and dismissing fiction is not the right way to read. But this debate is for another time. Here’s a list of the books the Bookhad admins read this year. For mini-reviews of some of these, head over to amarllyis’ blog. We wish you all a happy new year, and many more stories. 🔖📚👓

Book	Author	Rating	Genre
The Cost of Living	Deborah Levy	★★★☆☆	Memoir
There are Rivers in the Sky	Elif Shafak	★★★★☆	Fiction
The Railway	Hamid Ismailov	★★★★☆	Fiction
Us Against You	Fredrik Backman	★★★☆☆	Fiction
When We Cease to Understand the World	Benjamin Labatut	★★★★☆	Non-Fiction
The Death of Ivan Ilyich	Leo Tolstoy	★★★☆☆	Fiction
The Judgement	Franz Kafka	★★★☆☆	Short Fiction
The Idiot	Elif Batuman	★★★☆☆	Fiction
Stoner	John Williams	★★★★☆	Literary Fiction
Madonna in a Fur Coat	Sabahattin Ali	★★★☆☆	Fiction
A Gentleman in Moscow	Amor Towles	★★★★★	Fiction
The Sea and Little Fishes	Terry Pratchett	★★★☆☆	Fantasy
I Who Have Never Known Men	Jacqueline Harpman	★★★☆☆	Dystopia
The Will of the Many	James Islington	★★★★☆	Fantasy
The Obedient Father	Akhil Sharma	★☆☆☆☆	Fiction
The Plague	Albert Camus	★★★★☆	Literary Fiction
Baumgartner’s Bombay	Anita Desai	★★★☆☆	Literary Fiction
Midnight’s Tides	Steven Erikson	★★★★☆	High Fantasy
The Hobbit	J. R. R. Tolkien	★★★★★	Fantasy
The Extras	Kiran Nagarkar	★★★★☆	Literary Fiction
The Judgement	Franz Kafka	★★★☆☆	Short Fiction
Diary of a Madman	Nikolai Gogol	★★★☆☆	Short Fiction
Daddy	Sylvia Plath	★★★★☆	Poetry
Skin Games	Jim Butcher	★★★☆☆	Fantasy
Moving Pictures	Terry Pratchett	★★★☆☆	Fantasy
A Confederacy of Dunces	John Kennedy Toole	★★★☆☆	Fiction
Why Fish Don’t Exist	Lulu Miller	★★★★☆	Non-Fiction
Peace Talks	Jim Butcher	★★★☆☆	Urban Fantasy
Battle Ground	Jim Butcher	★★★☆☆	Urban Fantasy
The Crate	Stephen King	★☆☆☆☆	Fiction
The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy	Douglas Adams	★★☆☆☆	Humour
The Restaurant at the End of The Universe	Douglas Adams	★★☆☆☆	Humour
The Island of Sea Women	Lisa See	★★★★☆	Historical Fiction
The Days of Abandonment	Elena Ferrante	★★★★☆	Literary Fiction
No Exit and Three Other Plays	Jean Paul Sartre	★★★★☆	Plays
The Song of Achilles	Madeline Miller	★★★☆☆	Fiction
Orbital	Samantha Harvey	★★★★★	Fiction
Lanny	Max Porter	★★★☆☆	Fiction
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches	Sangu Mandanna	★★★☆☆	Cosy Fantasy
The Spellshop	Sarah Beth Durst	★★☆☆☆	Cosy Fantasy
Leonard and Hungry Paul	Ronan Hession	★★★★☆	Literary Fiction