Cheers to 2026! I am not one of those power readers who can tear through 100+ books a year, and I tip my hat to those who can. In 2025, I committed to reading more, and in doing so, I started reading a morning book and a nighttime book with audiobooks sprinkled within. Mornings are for non-fiction, evenings are for fiction and for deeper books that my brain is unable to handle at 6:45 AM. I read 20 books this year, spanning genres from a dystopian future where an algorithm decides whether you’re a danger to society, to a horror about the adolescent pain of losing a friend to a demon possession, to a hilarious read about a road trip to find the best hot dog in America. Here are my top picks from 2025, with a few honorable mentions. Happy reading all!
Favorite Print Books in 2025
#1: Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Set in a dystopian future, prisoners earn their freedom by competing in televised fights to the death, each win earning them higher status, weaponry, and gear. Groups of chain-gangs move together as units from fight to fight with the winners earning near-celebrity status. Two prize fighters make it to the apex, about to earn their way out, when the rules of the game suddenly change.
This novel that stayed with me, one of those where I had to drop it in my lap and stare into the middle distance. It is relentless, and not a single word in it is wasted. Be aware, it’s explicitly violent from page one and doesn’t stop until the last.
#2: True Biz by Sara Novic
This novel surrounds three characters at a residential school for the Deaf as they navigate the difficulties of love and life and discover their identities and their place in a hearing world. Due to budget issues, and the push to eradicate deafness, the school comes under threat of closure, and each character faces an uncertain future.
The way this novel is constructed is the kind of clever that gives me intense writer jealousy. There are no quotation marks around spoken dialogue because it isn’t heard, the position on the page indicates sign language and who is signing by its position on the page, and many chapters contain sign language lessons and historical information. I learned a lot reading this, and like the previous book, there isn’t a wasted word (or sign).
PS: If anyone has read this and wants to talk about the one line where there are quotation marks, I could go on forever about the author’s choice.
#3: Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
This story follows Ted, a writer struggling to find his way with his beloved dachshund, Lily. When he discovers a tumor above Lily’s eye, which Ted imagines as a growing octopus. He goes to great lengths to defeat the creature before the monster takes his dog.
I was not ready for the journey this book took me on. It’s heart-wrenching and sentimental and sweet, and the story starts to slip out of reality and into the magical world Ted needs to create to save Lily. If you’re wondering how it ends, I apologize in advance. I laughed, I cried real hard, I hugged my dog a lot.
Favorite Audiobooks in 2025
#1: Broken Horses by Brandi Carlisle
I was already obsessed with Brandi Carlisle and her music, but after hearing her story in her own words, I’ve become a diehard fan. The memoir follows her unassuming childhood in Washington, her journey to find herself through music and her chosen family, and her rise to stardom in the Americana genre. In each chapter, Brandi Carlisle tells the tale of how a song came to be, then at the end of the chapter there’s a bonus acoustic performance of the song. As an added bonus for me, I’m seeing Brandi Carlisle for my fortieth birthday in the City of Brotherly Love!
#2: The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson
I did not know what to expect when I picked this book out in the dark of midwinter, but I couldn’t get enough. Eels are strange and fascinating, and the author floats you along uncharted waters to tell the tale of this bizarre and elusive creature. A narrator can make or break an audiobook, and Alex Wyndham’s melodic, almost ethereal voice was like swimming in the depths of the Sargasso Sea. It’s weird, it’s wonderful, and I enjoyed it.
#3: When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele
This memoir, narrated by the author, reflects on how Black Lives Matter grew from a hashtag to a movement. Khan-Cullors tells stories about how policing and police violence has affected members of her family and community, and what happens when the desire for change clashes with the systems of power. Stories in this book were especially heartbreaking and affected me to a point that I needed to take pauses between chapters. It is a difficult subject to digest, but a devastating reality that we should all face.
Honorable Mentions for 2025
- Open Book by Jessica Simpson
- Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller
- None of this Would Have Happened if Prince Were Alive by Carolyn Prusa
- The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
- Sonata by Andrea Avery
- Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus
K E Hubbard 
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