Reading Recap 2025
six books that I can't stop thinking about
As your inboxes flood with everyone else's “best of 2025” lists, I’m here to join the party. This is my 11th year making this list, and it's always my favorite thing—it’s a list! About books! How much better can life get?
Every year, the list looks a little different, but the basic rules are the same:
I include any book I read for the first time this year (so as much as I champion rereads, alas, they won’t make this list).
There is no particular order.
Links to my longer goodreads review of each book are linked in the title.
Like last year, I started the year with a list of books I wanted to read in various genres. This was always intended to be aspirational—guardrails rather than requirements. I know that if I don't write out a couple books that I want to make sure I get to, I'll just grab the nearest thing next to me and I will end up wishing I had been more intentional. But I also welcome serendipity, and having a flexible list of goals has helped me embrace both intentionality and spontaneity. I ended up reading ten of the books on my list, and I’m in the middle of two more, in addition to all the extra books I picked up. Some of them were pretty dense (looking at you, The Master and His Emissary) so I feel proud overall of what I've read, even if I read fewer total books than I have in a while.
Looking ahead at 2026, I have a simple goal: more fiction. Especially now that I'm in school, I'm craving stories. I need to balance out all the non-fiction that I’m reading for classes with some good novels and fantasy. Please send me your recommendations of what you think I should read on that front!! And I want to continue my 2025 practice of always having a book of poetry that I'm reading through.
Sometimes I get stressed when I look at all the books I want to read—working in the Regent library is a wonderful curse because I’m even more aware now of all the amazing books out there, books that I simply won’t have enough time to read. But then I think, what a life, that I get to be stressed by the over-abundance of good books I have access to. Plus, I believe there’s going to be a redeemed library of Alexandria in the new heavens and the new earth, so I can always look forward to that. ;)
Okay, here we go! My favorite 2025 reads: one fiction, three non-fiction, two poetry.
Fiction
#1 Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
I get the hype. I’ve heard people rave about this book for years, and it did not disappointment. The prose is just stunning, and I love the characters, and I will be thinking about a particular scene toward the end for a long time.
Honorable Mention: The Secret History by Donna Tartt | Quite an intense read but man, it pulled me in and it made me think. This is my favorite goodreads review I wrote this year as well, so if you’ve read the book, let’s chat!
Non-Fiction
#2 Handle with Care: How Jesus Redeems the Power of Touch in Life and Ministry by Lore Ferguson Wilbert
If I had to pick just one book of the year, it would be this one. How should we touch each other as Christians? (If even that question makes you uncomfortable, then you definitely need to read this book.) Lore argues not touching each other is just as harmful—and un-Christ-like—as touching each other wrongly. She walks through various aspects of Christian community and their relationship to touch with wisdom and nuance and biblical insight. Her reflections on lack of touch for single people are really important, and the last chapter on communion made made me cry.
#3 Room for Good Things to Run Wild: How Ordinary People Become Every Day Saints by Josh Nadeau
I have followed Josh for years through his Instagram art account, swordandpencil. It was a joy to get to see his beautiful art accompany his equally beautiful writing. This is his memoir of how God took hold of him and exposed him to the “Hidden Music” running through everything. It's hard to describe this book because it's personal and poetic and grasping at the ineffable, but I will say that Josh articulated so many things I have felt, especially the haunting sense that there is more to the Christian life than we’ve been taught. Josh really is a prophetic voice for my generation.
#4 Reforming a Theology of Gender: Constructive Reflections on Judith Butler and Queer Theory by Daniel R. Patterson
This one is more academic, but I still want to hand it to everyone. Patterson is coming from a conservative Christian position on gender theory, but he argues that Judith Butler’s queer theory exposes key pitfalls in traditional Christian gender accounts and illuminates a path forward. While most people in his world probably feel deeply threatened by and skeptical of Butler, he treats her ideas sympathetically and respectfully, and that model of humble engagement is itself worth the read. I also can’t stop thinking about his conclusions about how we have idolized Adam and Even and how looking toward Jesus should reshape how we understand gender.
Honorable Mention: Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren | I’ve been wanting to read this for ages, and I finally got to for a class (yeah, theology school is pretty great). Funny and wise and life-changing. I’ll be recommending it for a long time.
Poetry
#5 You Are a Sacred Place: Visual Poems for Living in Climate Crisis by Madeleine Jubilee Saito
I just love Madeleine’s work—she’s another Instagram favorite whom I’m excited to follow into the world of full-length books. This stunning book is her signature watercolor comicbook-style poetry—“visual poems,” she calls them—and reflects on how to live with hope in the face of climate change. Regardless of your opinion on this issue (I can’t seem to avoid hot-button topics this year, can I? Gender theory and climate change, let’s go!), she models beautifully how to love and lament over and hope for the world God has created. Here’s a sample spread:
#6 Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God by Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy
Ever since that quote in the final frame of Jo Jo Rabbit, I have known I need to read Rilke, and he is just as good as I expected. These certainly aren't your typical poems about God—Rilke is pretty unorthodox. And oh, I love it. This is for those in love with God and those disappointed in Him, those who feel Him like a shadow they can’t shake and those who can’t find Him. “Our hands shake as we try to construct you, / block on block. / But you, cathedral we dimly perceive— / who can bring you to completion?” I mean come on!!
Honorable Mention: The Mourner’s Almanac by Elle Rosamilia | My dear friend published this beautiful collection of poetry that is brave and soft and strong. I don’t know anyone who weaves images and emotion together like she does.
Oh, and I published a book of poetry this year too. :) It’s truly because of people like you who have cheered me on for years that this little book is out in the world. Thank you all endlessly. You can find it here.
Well, friends, here we are. 2025 slides away like short winter sunlight, and we will officially be in the second half of the decade, and you know what? Good books are still being written, preserved, read, underlined, and shared. We are the lucky ones, and God is good. Much love to you all!
to staying awake,
Aberdeen