In 2011, I started keeping a list of books I’ve read in my phone’s notepad, so I could remember them.
Here is my list for 2025 in the order I read them:
“Night Watch” by Jayne Anne Phillips (c2023)
“The Last Train to Key West” by Chanel Cleeton (c2020)
“Florida” by Lauren Groff (c2018)
“The Frozen River” by Ariel Lawhon (c2023)
“Intermezzo” by Sally Rooney (c2024)
“Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan (c2021)
“Foster” by Claire Keegan (c2010)
“James” by Percival Everett (c2024)
“How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir” by Molly Jong-Fast (c2025)
“Savannah Blues” by Mary Kay Andrews (c2002)
“The Director” by Daniel Kehlmann (c2025)
“Tom Lake” by Ann Patchett (c2023)
“The Covenant of Water” by Abraham Verghese (c2023)
“A Visit from the Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan (c2010)
“The Candy House” by Jennifer Egan (c2022)
“The Summer Before the War” by Helen Simonson (c2016)
“Ordinary Human Failings” by Megan Nolan (c2024)
“Heart the Lover” (c2025) by Lily King
Many of these selections I read for my book group, which I absolutely love. We have such good discussions! Three of the four other women in my book club read way more than I do, so it’s sometimes hard to find something that none of them has read before. So this is how we choose our books:
We rotate the job of picking the book. When it’s your turn, you circulate three titles that interest you and the others rank them 1-3. Usually a clear winner emerges without much math needed.
Looking back on the list, I think Florida by Lauren Groff was my favorite. I’m not usually a short stories person, but this collection really blew me away. I read it before heading to Key West for the first time in February. If you’ve spent any amount of time in the Sunshine State, at least one of the characters will resonate with you. There’s a grain of truth in all the “Florida Man” jokes and memes (that’s why they’re funny) and this book goes deep into the truly fascinating and unique characters that seem to be made possible only in that flat, sticky, hot, beautiful, bizarre one-of-a-kind American state.
I read several books by contemporary Irish women authors this year (both before and after my big 60th birthday trip to Ireland in June). Sally Rooney, Claire Keegan, and Megan Nolan are all great. Several of their novels have been adapted for film and TV. I especially recommend “Ordinary Human Failings” by Megan Nolan. I’ve never read a more aptly titled book. Here’s the quote where she uses the exact words. It’s early on in the book.
On one of his first mornings a memo had been sent around from Edward to the desks of the entire editorial staff, which read:
A REMINDER! Reasonable excuses for lateness/missing meetings/not doing something I told you to do etc, include: Bereavement (parent only). Serious illness (life-threatening, your own). Reasonable excuses do NOT INCLUDE ordinary human failings such as hangovers, broken hearts, etc etc etc.
I think it’s the “etc etc etc” that makes this line so good. The story is all about the etceteras.

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