Welcome to another seasonal “Best Of” list featuring my best reads of the years: 2015-2025.
Best of the Best: 2015 to 2025
Inspired by Davida @ The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog, I’ve put together my own “Best of the Best” list, which I’ll add to each year.
Each year I’ve been blogging, I’ve put together a most memorable reads of the year list. Now, inspired by Davida, here are my top ELEVEN reads of the last ELEVEN years. I’ve only been blogging for eight and a half years, but I started keeping records a few years before that, so I’m including all eleven years. For each year, I’ve included a link to my most memorable reads of that year. It’s excruciating to pick the best of the best and I’ve excluded many favorite reads. However, these are the books I still think about years after I’ve read them and will probably want to reread at some point.
*This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
2015:
(Preblogging) The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
(reviewed the first year I started blogging)
2016:
(Preblogging) Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (not reviewed on the blog)
2017:
(I didn’t choose a favorite this year because I chose to use categories.) Looking back at the list now, I will have to choose Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman as my favorite of the year (not reviewed on blog). See my complete list for the year here: 2017 Really Recommendable Reads
2018:
A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
See my complete list for the year here: Most Memorable Reads of 2018
2019:
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
See my complete list for the year here: Most Memorable Reads of 2019
2020:
The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
See my complete list for the year here: Most Memorable Reads of 2020
2021:
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
See my complete list for the year here: Most Memorable Reads of 2021
2022:
The Girl From Guernica by Karen Robards
See my complete list for the year here: Most Memorable Reads of 2022.
2023:
Go as a River by Shelley Read
See my complete list for the year here: Most Memorable Reads of 2023
I’ve made a FREE Book Club Kit for Go as a River for your book club!
2024:
James by Percival Everett
I’ve created a FREE Book Club Kit for James for your book club!
See my complete list for the year here: Most Memorable Reads of 2024.
2025:
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
(The audio format is fabulous!)
I’ve created a FREE Book Club Kit of The Correspondent for your book club!
See my complete list of memorable reads for 2025 here.
Ranked in Order:
Ok….this isn’t my favorite thing to do but Davida has set the bar high, so I’ll give this daunting task a try! All of these are on my lifetime favorites list and I have vivid memories of reading each one. I have awarded each of these books five stars, so they could all be #1. Tomorrow I might arrange them differently.
#11
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
#10
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
#9
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
#8
Go as a River by Shelley Read
#7
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
#6
The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
#5
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
#4
The Girl From Guernica by Karen Robards
#3
James by Percival Everett
#2
A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
(The book with the most emotional, heartfelt, and poignant ending.)
#1
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
QOTD:
If you ranked your books over the past few years, which would be your #1 read?
Do you keep a list of favorites from year to year?
Do we share a favorite?
Happy Reading Book Buddies!
“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke
“I love the world of words, where life and literature connect.”
~Denise J Hughes
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~Madeleine Riley, Top Shelf Text
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Very impressive, Carol!
Thanks! 📚🥂
Some good books here, I’ve read a couple of them.
Thanks! 🥂📚
Some great reads there. I don’t think I could choose just one book per year 😆
The trick is to not overthink it! I always worry that my runner up for one year might have beaten out the next years winner! 😂 #bookproblems
Picking favourites and then ranking them is so hard. The only one of these that I have read is Eleanor Oliphant and I really loved that. It was a book that stayed in my head for a long while.
I love brave Eleanor! 💖
Wow, that is really hard to narrow down! I usually group about 10. At hand, I only have the last 6 years to mention: 2020 was a GOOD year for reading, sooo many 5 stars, but I guess I’ll go with WHEN WE WERE THE KENNEDYS by Monica Wood.
2021—MEET ME AT THE MUSEUM by Anne Youngson.
2022—PROJECT HAIL MARY by Andy Weir
2023—FLIGHT BEHAVIOUR by Barbara Kingsolver
2024—HOW TO READ A BOOK by Monica Wood
2025—THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans
I just want to say: I know you are mainly a historical fiction reader, but by my count, at least 8 of the 11 you listed would be classified as Literary Fiction! I think you like LIt Fic more than you realize! [it is my preferred genre 🙂 ]
You got me! I appreciate a solid dose of literary fiction in my reading!
I love Meet Me at the Museum, but the ending was too open ended for me! Do you think she met him?! How to Read a Book is definitely a memorable read! And I’m thrilled that we share the love for The Correspondent! Thanks for sharing your list! 🥂📚
I DEFINITELY think Tina met Anders! She just needed time, and I think it was absolutely in the works! How could she not, with the friendship they’d cultivated? I think she felt a little guilty, as she said in her last letters, and I think she would have wanted time to make a little separation, before she embarked on a life with Anders. And what would that look like? A move to Denmark? Something to consider. I was content at the end, to imagine that all things would proceed as they were meant to.
And How to Read a Book—now I’m second guessing my choice of BEST for that year, there were so many (The River We Remember by WK Krueger, Migrations by McConaghy, I Cheerfully Refuse by Enger, Sandwich by Newman, Tell Me Everything by Strout….) but Monica is from Maine, my state, and I have a connection to the prison theme in it—I have a family member in prison, and I know about the prison programs and volunteers, and how it works, and she nailed it! I didn’t like when Violet started that affair, but I forgave her, as a still-very-young person looking for love….and she did the right thing in the end.
And we’re not the only ones with The Correspondent at #1! SO MANY LISTS have it at #1. Even the New York Times had an article about the 5 Most Surprising Books of the year, and The Correspondent was listed first!
I must have reread the ending to MMatM 5 times and couldn’t decide! I love your thinking!
That icky affair in HtRaB kept it from being 5 stars for me. But otherwise such a great book!
So happy that so many are finding and loving Correspondent! I’ve read it twice!
I loved Meet Me at the Museum and Flight Behavior!
Good post, CArol–I may have to try and do this.
Thanks! How many years would you do?
Idk yet!
Awesome to see The Correspondent at #1! It’s really fun to look back and see all these favorites from so many years.
Like visiting old friends!
Must read The Invention of Wings and The Correspondent, as discussed earlier. But The Girl From Guernica also sounds highly interesting. Thanks for those, Carol.
Here is my list:
https://momobookblog.blogspot.com/2026/01/top-ten-tuesday-best-books-in-2025.html
They are all so tbr worthy! Hopping over to read your post… 🐇
Thanks, Carol. I am sure.
Oooh, I loved A Jane Austen Education! One of the best! How can we ever choose best book???
#bookproblems are the best problems! 🥂📚
Always the biggest problems, Susan.
[…] Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case: The Lost Art of Reading an Actual Book: What happens when people stop reading books? We’re starting to see what a postliterate society looks like—and it’s very lame.—worth the read just for the metaphor about eating your kids’ Halloween candy. 9 Classic Crime Stories That Have Just Entered the Public Domain in 2026—CrimeReads talks about some BIG titles that are now Public Domain. Mort Walker, Beetle Bailey, and the decline and fall of newspaper comics 100 Years of ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’: Adrian McKinty celebrates the centenary of Agatha Christie’s groundbreaking detective novel. Is Fantasy Still Not Taken “Seriously” in Some Circles?—this week’s Fantasy with Friends had a lot of good input, (as I predicted). Go read the participants. Let’s talk about “grimdark”—some good musings on Grimdark (which is being applied to broadly lately) Letting Stories Linger—yes. From Service to Storytelling: Local Vet Publishes Fantasy Novels—a nice little story about a local writer that I hope to make the acquaintance of soon. (at least in print) 26 Short Classics to Meet Your Goal of Reading More Classics in 2026—This could be a handy list It’s all Your Fault: Book Reviewers who Influence My Reading—The gloves come off, and Jodie calls out book reviewers who deliberately destroy TBR pile progress. Vile folks that you should check out. Speaking of destroying TBR progress, these Best of ’25 lists should set yours back a bit: Sifa Elisabeth’s Best Books of 2025 Ganesh’s (Pippin Took) top reads of 2025 (his reasoning behind The Kaiju Preservation Society is very sound) Jo Linsdell’sBest Reads of 2025 Celeste’s Favorite Books Published in 2025 and Favorite Backlist Books of 2025 show some great taste and burden me with some new titles My Top 5: Books Read In 2025—For Books Sake pulls of the Herculean task of limiting it to 5! TCL’s Best of the Best List for 2013-2025!—this is something I could never do…and props to Davida for pulling it off. And the madness is spreading, as Carol takes a stab at it: Best of the Best: 2015 to 2025 […]
Thanks! 📚🥂