I’m excited to share my top reads of 2025. I planned to do a list of ten, but the photo template had room for one more, so here we are with eleven favorites. I finished 25 books this year. I usually reach for thrillers and mysteries, memoirs on audio while flipping through the physical book for photos, and historical fiction. I aim for about a book a week, although some weeks slipped by without any reading at all.
This year I tried something new. I listen to the free audiobook preview while reading those first pages. It makes it easier to get into the story and gives me a comfortable pace. Then I check the page count, divide by seven and tell myself that is all I need to read each day. I borrow every book from the library, so I have three weeks to finish and return each one.
If you need inspiration to fall back in love with reading, there is a great New York Times article called How to Rekindle Your Love of Reading.
Memoir
Uptown Girl: The Inspiring Journey of Christie Brinkley, Beloved Supermodel And All-American Icon by Christie Brinkley
Christie has three kids from three marriages, and her youngest, Sailor, arrived when she was 44. Now at 71, she and Sailor jump into TikTok trends together, which is pretty charming to watch. Her childhood was rough at times. Her biological father gave up his parental rights when she was eight, something that left a lasting mark. She grew up in California and now lives in Sag Harbor on Long Island.
Christie has always been open about how she eats. She shifted to a vegetarian diet as a teenager and says she leans vegan most of the time, though she doesn’t obsess over labels. She sticks to whole foods, lots of produce and minimal processed stuff, but she’ll have seafood now and then.
One of the most gripping parts of her story is the 1994 helicopter crash she survived while heli skiing in Colorado. The aircraft dropped from about 300 feet, slammed into a mountainside and split in two. She was thrown across the snow and truly thought she might die. Everyone survived, which still feels unbelievable. She dealt with injuries and PTSD afterward and eventually needed a hip replacement, but the experience gave her a deeper sense of gratitude and a clearer view of what matters. She has even joked that a little bit of “magic dirt” she carried helped save her, though she mostly sees the whole event as a remarkable turning point in her life.
Christie’s career has stretched far beyond modeling. After becoming one of the biggest faces of the late seventies and eighties, she moved into acting, appearing in films like National Lampoon’s Vacation and White Sands, plus various TV roles. She hit the stage too, performing in Grease in the early nineties and then taking on Roxie Hart in Chicago in 2011, 2012 and again in 2019.
In 2024 she debuted a women’s clothing line called TWRHLL on HSN. That same year, she returned to the spotlight in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 60th Anniversary issue at age seventy, proving she still knows exactly how to steal a cover.
I'll Have What She's Having - Chelsea Handler
This book is a collection of short stories about her life and they are very funny. I've read all of Chelsea's books and this book shows her evolution after going through therapy. She's a more introspective and grounded individual. Her personal growth resonates deeply. I took so much away from this book! The book was both funny and uplifting with personal stories. Her vulnerability shine through her candidness about her journey toward self-improvement. A theme of gratitude runs through this personal essay collection. This is a whole new Chelsea.
I wouldn't call her childless anymore, she's child adjacent. I mean she cares for three quasi stepkids, 20 nieces and nephews and has numerous teens to ski with so she won't die alone as she says. I listened to every podcast she was on while I waited for a copy of the book from the library and unfortunately she spoiled 90% of the book on them. She now has her own podcast.
Cher: The Memoir, Part 1
I listened to the audiobook and since Cher is dyslexic, so she picked a narrator whose voice feels close to her own. At 79, she’s only telling the early part of her life, mostly the Sonny and Cher era. Her background alone is interesting. Her father was Armenian and her mother had Irish, English, German and Cherokee roots. Somehow she ended up with two blonde kids, which made me pause more than once. She was born Cherilyn Sarkisian, and her mother, who is still alive at 92, married seven times. Her mom’s motto is pretty unforgettable: "If you don’t pay attention to age, it won’t pay attention to you.
1988 Academy Awards at age 42 when she won and Oscar for the movie Moonstruck
2017 Billboard Music Awards at age 71 and she wore this bodysuit again in 2025 at the February 2025: SNL50: The Homecoming Concert at age 78. Cher has won a total of four Billboard Music Awards.
Mystery/Thriller
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers - Jesse Q. Sutanto
The books is 339 pages but the book size is smaller than usual so its a quick and easy read.
Middle of the Night - Riley Sager
This is great to listen to as an audio book. Super easy to get into and then you’re hooked. A suspenseful thriller about Ethan Marsh, whose best friend vanished from their backyard tent one summer night in 1994. Decades later, haunted by guilt and insomnia, Ethan returns home and begins experiencing strange, unsettling events that force him to confront the long-buried secrets surrounding his friend’s disappearance. The story alternates between past and present, blending mystery, psychological tension, and dark family and neighborhood secrets.
Beautiful Ugly - Alice Feeney
The book starts off with the mystery of a wife’s eccentric disappearance. The author likes to confuse you in this book so you really have to pay attention. There are dual timelines and dual POVs, the characters are all oddballs. The whole story has an ever present sinister vibe. The book ends with a wacky twist that of course you didn’t see coming because it’s so ludicrous. It's a slow burn mystery building you up for the ending. This book is a quick read, I read it in 4 days.
The story takes place on a remote Scottish island filled with bizarre female characters. The author said its based on her time in Hebrides. I had never heard of it so I looked it up and the pictures gave me a visual for the book. Rated one of Goodreads best mystery books of the year.
The Sicilian Inheritance - Jo Piazza
I listened to it on audiobook and it's a mix of mystery and historical fiction. The Sicilian Inheritance follows Sara Marsala, a woman facing personal and professional setbacks, who inherits land in Sicily from her great-aunt. Traveling there, she uncovers family secrets and a possible historical murder involving her grandmother Serafina. The story alternates between Sara’s present-day investigation and Serafina’s early 20th-century life, exploring themes of family legacy, resilience, and women’s struggles across generations.
The novel immerses readers in vivid settings, moving from American urban immigrant life to the rustic villages of Sicily. Its greatest strength lies in weaving a multigenerational story that combines family history, women’s struggles, cultural identity, and mystery. By contrasting early 20th-century Sicily with present-day America and Sicily, the book spans decades and gives the story depth. At its emotional core is Serafina, a young woman challenging patriarchal expectations long before her time, providing a compelling and resonant center to the narrative.
Nobody's Fool - Harlan Coben
Man what a thriller, it was a fast paced, riveting, ingenious psychological thriller that I couldn't put it down and read it in one day! I never do that! Detective Sami Kierce thought he accidently killed a girl in Spain during Euro summer after college. Twenty years later he's now a former cop turned rouge private investigator. The past and present day collide when disgraced detective turned night school teacher in NYC, Sami Kierce has a blast from his past walk into his class before running out.
Gosh there were so many twists in this book it kept me on my toes! The book had some cheesy laughs in it as well. Coben is a master of his craft when it comes to winding up a story so good, that when he springs all the surprises on, you don't know which way to look with a twisty ending.
Fiction
The wedding people - Alison Espach
I did not really want to read this but I also desperately wanted to read it as it was all anyone was talking about last year. This one Goodreads #1 fiction book of 2024 even though it's not my usual genre to read. The novel follows Phoebe Stone, a woman recently divorced and in a dark place emotionally, who checks into a luxury hotel in Newport, Rhode Island. She planned the stay as a doomed last escape, but instead finds herself accidentally drawn into a lavish wedding happening at the hotel as she’s mistaken for a guest, though she has no connection to the event.
Historical Fiction
The Lion Women of Tehran - Marjan Kamali
This book was a quick and easy read! It starts in 1950 Tehran, through the Iranian revolution in 1979 until present day America. But when the government was overthrown in 1979 and a new regime took place, the became hijab mandatory and morality police were out and about. Women who dared use their voice would be incarcerated. The books emphasis is on women’s rights and the feminist movement in Iran. This book offered a great introduction on Iranian history.
We're living through what they did, this is what life is like as you slide into fascism. Some of the best historical fiction I've read. This book, like the Kite Runner before it, helped me gain appreciation for a different culture.
The Women - Kristin Hannah
This book is 470 pages so I kept putting off reading it! But it was the number one book of 2024 so I knew I had to read it! I loved her other book The Nightingale so I knew this would be good.
A vivid, emotional journey through a forgotten chapter of history. I hesitated to read such a long book but once I started I couldn't put it down!
Before reading this book, I knew very little about the Vietnam War as it happened before I was born, and most historical fiction I’ve encountered focuses on World War II. That’s why I appreciated this novel so much: it shed light on a different war, one often overlooked in literature, especially from a female perspective.
I had traveled to Vietnam once, where I learned about the war from the Vietnamese point of view, the horrors they experienced, the long duration of the conflict (I hadn’t realized it lasted 20 years), and the devastating toll. They call it The American War. When American soldiers came home, they weren’t welcomed as heroes. Instead, they were spit on and ignored. Over 58,000 American troops died, and 766 were held as POWs, including John McCain, who spent five and a half years in captivity.
The novel follows Frankie, a privileged, somewhat self-absorbed young woman who volunteers to serve in Vietnam. I couldn’t help but wonder if her name was a nod to Frances FitzGerald, the American journalist who covered the war and broke barriers as a woman in a male-dominated field. While Frankie is flawed, often leaning on her more experienced veteran roommates yet failed to support new arrivals, her transformation over the course of the novel is powerful.
One of the most striking parts of the book is what happens after Frankie returns home. Both times she goes to the VA for help, she's told: “There were no women in Vietnam.” That erasure is deeply painful, especially knowing that over 11,000 American women served in Vietnam, 90% as nurses. Frankie references the TV show MASH*, which began airing before the war even ended. Though it was technically about the Korean War, many viewers associated it with Vietnam, which made it resonate so strongly. As a child, I grew up watching reruns of MASH* seeing Loretta Swit as Major Margaret Houlihan gave me a visual reference for Frankie and the women in this book. After reading, I went to YouTube to look up real-life footage of many of the events the author referenced, deepening the experience even more.
The setting in Vietnam is captured with vivid, visceral detail. The jungle heat, the constant exhaustion, the fear, it’s all there, alongside intense and often graphic scenes of war. You feel immersed in the chaos and trauma. The medical side is equally harrowing, from treating malaria and rat bites to witnessing the physical and emotional toll on young soldiers, many of whom were Black or Hispanic due to systemic inequities in the draft. The presence of a Black nurse was quietly groundbreaking, especially in a setting where Black officers were rare.
One of the most heartbreaking parts of the novel is what happens after the war. Frankie returns to a country that pretends women weren’t even there. At the VA hospital, she's told, twice, that “there were no women in Vietnam.” In reality, over 11,000 American women served, 90% of them nurses. The erasure of their contributions is staggering. The book makes a point of highlighting this silence.
The author also weaves in a great sense of time through music, there’s even a Spotify playlist of songs mentioned in the novel. For me, All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix will always evoke the era and the war. Frankie’s polaroid camera and care packages from home filled with hair conditioner, perfume, and lotion were poignant reminders of her youth and femininity amidst the brutality of war. One photograph she takes of three nurses outside the O-Club, including a Black nurse, becomes a symbol of proof that "We were there." Their friendship endures long after the war.
What sets this book apart is that it doesn't stop when the fighting ends. It dives deep into the aftermath, PTSD, addiction, shame, and anger. Frankie, like so many others, is not hailed as a hero. She’s lost, unsupported, and deeply wounded in ways that the medical community of the time doesn’t yet understand. I cried many times while reading this book.
The story doesn’t shy away from the darker aspects either: the use of Agent Orange, napalm, and heroin; the conflicting experiences of providing medical aid to villagers one day and bombing them the next. The horrors of war are laid bare, from the image of a 9-year-old girl burned by napalm to the systemic racial disparities in the draft and officer ranks. Even small details, like cigarettes being given to patients in the hospital and drinking alcohol (and TAB) while on deployment, paint a picture of a time so different, and yet so crucial to remember.
This book left a lasting impression on me. It tells one woman’s story, but in doing so, gives voice to the thousands who served and were forgotten. It’s a powerful reminder of how history often overlooks the women who were there and how important it is to tell their stories.
This won in Goodreads best books for the #1 Winner for Readers' Favorite Historical Fiction (2024), Nominee for Readers' Favorite Audiobook (2024).
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