Marley's Top 10 Books for 2025

The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth

Can you believe that the year is nearly over? Although I'll probably squish a few more books in before the end of the year, find out what I have read so far and what I chose as my Top 10 Books for 2025.

At the end of 2024, I set myself the goal of reading 50 books in 2025. Assuming I don't manage to read 8 books in December (which is highly unlikely), I will not meet this goal.

I read 42 books in 2025.

That being said, I have spent a lot of time reading my bible this year, which I think more than makes up for the missing books (It does, right?! lol).

So firstly, let's have a look at ALL the books I have read in 2025 so far.

These are in order of reading from most recent to oldest (Dec to Jan).

All of the Books Marley Read in 2025

	Title	Author
1	I Will Find You	Harlan Coben
2	The Diary of a Young Girl	Anne Frank
3	(Un)Qualified: How God Uses Broken People to Do Big Things	Steven Furtick
4	Dinner with a Perfect Stranger: An Invitation Worth Considering	David Gregory
5	Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical	Timothy J. Keller
6	Conversations with Friends	Sally Rooney
7	Winning Him Without Words: 10 Keys to Thriving in Your Spiritually Mismatched Marriage	Lynn  Donovan
8	Hippie	Paulo Coelho
9	So Late in the Day	Claire Keegan
10	The Soulmate	Sally Hepworth
11	The Things We Keep	Sally Hepworth
12	Doom and Bloom: The Case for Creativity in a World Hooked on Panic	Campbell Walker
13	Everything Is Spiritual: Finding Your Way in a Turbulent World	Rob Bell
14	We Need Your Art: Stop Messing Around and Make Something	Amie McNee
15	The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma	Bessel van der Kolk
16	Fix Your Eyes on Jesus	Anne Ortlund
17	How to Be Here: A Guide to Creating a Life Worth Living	Rob Bell
18	A Little Life	Hanya Yanagihara
19	Women Don't Owe You Pretty	Florence Given
20	A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3.5)	Sarah J. Maas
21	Yellowface	R.F. Kuang
22	What I Know for Sure	Oprah Winfrey
23	Wild Creature Mind: The Neuroscience Breakthrough That Helps You Transform Anxiety and Live a Fiercely Loving Life	Steve Biddulph
24	A Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #4)	Sarah J. Maas
25	What the Family Needed	Steven Amsterdam
26	A Swim in a Pond in the Rain	George Saunders
27	Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear	Jinger Duggar Vuolo
28	Write for Life: Creative Tools for Every Writer	Julia Cameron
29	Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book	Courtney Maum
30	Novelist as a Vocation	Haruki Murakami
31	Hygge: The Danish Art of Happiness	Marie Tourell Soderberg
32	Quiet: Learning to Silence the Brain Chatter and Believing That You're Good Enough	Fearne Cotton
33	Ramming the shears: A collection of drawings	Michael Leunig
34	The Picture of Dorian Gray	Oscar Wilde
35	The Thirteenth Home of Noah Bradley	Amber Lee Dodd
36	The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times	Michelle Obama
37	Our Little Farm: Adventures in Sustainable Living	Peter Wohlleben
38	The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse	Charlie Mackesy
39	Goatperson and other tales	Michael Leunig
40	Playground	Richard Powers
41	You Don't Have To Have A Dream: Advice for the Incrementally Ambitious	Tim Minchin
42	Safeguards: Shielding Our Homes and Equipping Our Kids	Julie Lowe

We Need Your Art by Amie McNee

Now, before I get to my favourite book of 2025, let me mention some other favourite books and special Marley shoutouts:

• Author of the year: Sally Hepworth

  Fun, easy to read, and reliable.

• Most Anticipated: We Need Your Art by Amie McNee

• Most Creatively Encouraging: We Need Your Art by Amie McNee

• Favourite Spiritual/Religious Author: Timothy Keller

  In October, I read his book Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical, and I am currently about halfway through The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.

  I don't find his books easy to read, but I find them theologically sound, deep thinking, relevant, and filled with wisdom.

*Drumroll* And here are...

My Top 10 Books for 2025

	Title	Author
10	A Swim in a Pond in the Rain	George Saunders
9	Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear	Jinger Duggar Vuolo
8	What the Family Needed	Steven Amsterdam
7	The Picture of Dorian Gray	Oscar Wilde
6	Conversations with Friends	Sally Rooney
5	I Will Find You	Harlan Coben
4	The Soulmate	Sally Hepworth
3	The Diary of a Young Girl	Anne Frank
2	A Little Life	Hanya Yanagihara
1	Yellowface	R.F. Kuang

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Ahh yes. Yellowface and A Little Life.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Yellowface. It was interesting, fun escapism, and fairly relevant for me. I looked forward to picking it up.

I didn't enjoy reading A Little Life as much as I did Yellowface. It was a hard read. But I respected it, and reading it was valuable. It was incredibly well written and thought-provoking. So much so, that I wrote a blog post about it > Book Review: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.

Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang

I liked both of these books, but I had to give it to Yellowface, a book that didn't give me a knot in my stomach every time I picked it up.

Before I finish up, I do have one more special shoutout.

Favourite Children's Book:

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery.

I have been reading through this book with Miss 13. It is a first read for both of us. We will most likely finish it before the end of the year, and I have to say that I have really enjoyed reading through this one. I'm not sure why it has taken me nearly 42 years to read this book! As a special bonus, Miss 13, Miss 14, and I have started watching the 'Anne With an E' series on Netflix, which is super fun.

I'd love to know what has been your favourite book to read in 2025?

Let me know in the comments.

Happy reading!

Much love,

Marley