Best Reads of 2025

What an interesting year.  I truly thought that my ratings were going to be higher than previous years.  I purposefully set myself up with books that I thought would lead me there, but alas, I'm landing in nearly the same spot at 3.22/5.  However, I improved on my ability to DNF books.  I put down a whomping 10 after giving them a good chance.  Out of 100 books, I rated 47 of them 3.5/5 (good) or higher, which is not bad.  Could be better, but it's not bad.  I'm still listening to audiobooks a lot (80%) and most likely will continue to do so in 2026.  I am going to focus on DNFing more, so I can rid myself of books that I ultimately end up rating below 3/5 (just okay).  I don't need to continue reading when I'm not truly enjoying them.

In order of how I read 100 books, here are the Best Reads of 2025 that I rated 4/5 (very good) and up:

1.  The Family Experiment (Marrs) - 4.5/5, Sci-Fi

2.  Blacktop Wasteland (Cosby) - 4/5, Thriller

3.  The Housemaid's Secret (McFadden) - 4/5, Thriller

4.  The Frozen River (Lawhon) - 4/5, Historical Fiction

5.  The Day the World Came to Town (DeFede) - 4.25/5, Non-Fiction

6.  The Favorites (Fargo) - 4/5, Fiction

7.  Gray After Dark (Ihli) - 4/5, Thriller

8.  All Rhodes Lead Here (Zapata) - 4/5, Romance

9.  Don't Let Him In (Jewell) - 4/5, Domestic Thriller

10.  What Happened to Nina? (McTiernan) - 4/5, Thriller

11.  All We Ever Wanted (Giffin) - 4/5, Fiction

12.  The Lies I Tell (Clark) - 4/5, Thriller