We couldn’t close out 2025 without a Best Books of the Year episode with my “real life book club” members Yasmin and Steph.

Since I closed the 10 Things To Tell You podcast this summer, I’ve decided to post this annual year-end conversation on Secret Stuff, free and public for all to enjoy just like you did on 10TTTY, but now in a different spot.

JOIN SECRET STUFF on SUBSTACK

It was a weird reading year for everyone, as you’ll hear us discuss, which led to an uncommon mutual favorite novel, and also some differences of opinion on some of the picks. This conversation felt like the best parts of book club, gushing over a shared love and dissecting our differences of opinions on a different title.

Of course, we also couldn’t help but talk about the books we didn’t like in 2025 in a bonus conversation for Secret Stuff members only.

If you're a bookworm, make sure you check out:

2026 Secret Stuff Book Selections

SLOW READ: The Stand (which starts January 1!)

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Favorite Books of 2025:

Mutual Favorite:

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Yasmin’s Favorites:

 Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

 How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir by Molly Jong-Fast

The House of My Mother by Shari Franke

Steph’s Favorites:Heart the Lover by Lily King

Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

Laura’s Favorites:

What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown

 Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik

The Names by Florence Knapp

Also Discussed:

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

 A Woman of Independent Means by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Writers and Lovers by Lily King

Colored Television by Danzy Senna

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe

Fear of Flying by Erica Jong

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

As is our tradition, we ended our year in Secret Stuff with our annual No Book Book Club meeting. Instead of all reading the same book, we came with our recommendations for the best things we read this year.

These were the books we can’t stop talking about or buying for our loved ones… these were the books that went the distance in 2025.

ICYMI, we also announced the 2026 Secret Stuff Book Club selections.

For your convenience, we time-stamped this meeting so you can easily find what you may be looking for:

Announcements: 3:21

Laura’s Favorite Book Club Moments: 11:17

Fiction Recs: 16:06

Non-Fiction Recs: 58:28

BEST BOOKS OF 2025

Fiction:

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino

Still Life by Sarah Winman

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett

The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling

All Fours by Miranda July

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

Miss Austen by Gill Hornby

The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O’Neill

The Lexington Letter (from the TV Show “Severance,” available for free on Apple Books)

The You You Are (from the TV Show “Severance,” also available for free on Apple Books)

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

The Overstory by Richard Powers

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Non-Fiction:

The Storyteller by Dave Grohl

The Deepest Well by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris

Everything is Tuberculosi s by John Green

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Reagan: His Life and Legend by Max Boot

The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America by Sara B. Franklin

The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis by Maria Smilios

Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad

A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton

Challenger by Adam Higginbotham

It’s Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People by Dr. Ramani Durvasula

Also Mentioned:

There’s Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib

Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Stacks Podcast

Currently Reading Podcast

Our family of four just returned home from a long-awaited and life-changing trip to Africa.

I had so much fun documenting the two-week adventure on Instagram (check out the SAFARI highlight in my bio) that I wanted to share more details about the safaris including our travel coordinator, the three camps where we stayed, what surprised me the most, and the pros and cons of doing this as a vacation with teenagers.

For all the links to everything I share in this episode (and some bonus stuff like links to what I packed), check out the full post on Substack.

The 5th annual Stephen King Summer starts June 1 and I am so excited to embark on another summer celebrating the world’s greatest living storyteller.

See THIS POST with full details about SKS 2025

**Join SECRET STUFF as a monthly or annual member to get all the Stephen King Summer conversations**

By the end of August 2025, you will have a better understanding of Stephen King and his place in the literary landscape.

For Stephen King Summer 2025, we're reading:

THE SHINING (1977)

Under the Dome (2009)

And we're watching:

Christine (1983)

Episode 1 of The Outsider (2020)

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Stephen King Summer is a part of my Secret Stuff book club & membership community.

Browse Stephen King Summer MERCH

Not sure where to start with Stephen King? Jump right into Stephen King Summer OR listen to this episodes for book recommendations:

Ep 121: Stephen King Starter Kit

Ep 222: Stephen King Starter Kit Part II (What To Read And What To Skip)

Hope to see you over on Secret Stuff for the 5th annual STEPHEN KING SUMMER!

How have you changed in the last 10 years?

Who were you in 2015 and the years following? What is different about your life and ambitions and spirit now? We focused on the areas of family & home life, career paths, and the state of our spiritual/emotional selves.

This conversation aired as Ep 265 of the 10 Things To Tell You podcast, but I wanted to put it here for you as part of Secret Stuff AD FREE.

My longtime friend, podcasting pioneer, and fellow Substacker Meg Tietz and I get really vulnerable in this conversation. We both say things we’ve never said on microphone before. I hope that listening to it sparks something in you about your past decade.

It’s just a really good journal prompt that might lead to an AHA moment, some pattern recognition, and a NOTICING of things you’re ready to release.

My conversation partner of 30+ years (!!!) is Meg Tietz.

Follow Meg Tietz on Substack or on IG

Hire Meg for voice over work (she’s amazing!)

Mentioned in this episode:

Meg's Deconversion Series on Substack (Part 1) and Part 2 and Part 3

Ep 235: 4 Lessons After Publishing 2 Books

Ep 34: The Robbery

Ep 194: On Endings and Intuition