2025 - The Year in Books - The Travel Oracle

Besides globe trotting (me) and running ALL the races (Stephen), we have other interests. If you follow us on Instagram at The__Travel__Oracle, you know that Stephen is spending most of his days training the newest member of our family, Mr. Milo. (His full name, by the way, is Milo Minute – which is pretty cool for a runner’s dog.) And I spend a lot of time with my nose in a book. This year I managed a record 40 reads. Rather than bore you will all of them, let’s just unpack the highlights. If you’re a reader like me, let’s talk 2025, the Year in Books!

Motivating

Non-Fiction

Beige book cover close up of a sharpened pencil.

Title – Educated
Author – Tara Westover
On Amazon

This is my #1 book for this year and I JUST COULDN’T WAIT to tell you about it! Tara grew up in a survivalist family in Idaho, without the benefit of any formal schooling. Through her own desire for knowledge, she earned a doctorate from Trinity College and wrote her thesis on family, morality and social science. The journey between these two places was absolutely astounding. If you’ve ever been in a toxic religious environment, this book might really resonate with you too. And it made me look into getting an MBA, just saying.

Fiction

Orange book cover with a cartoon of a woman with a bun in her hair and wearing glasses.

Title – Lessons in Chemistry
Author – Bonnie Garmus
On Amazon

I think it’s crazy-unusual that a fictional book will make me want to be more smarter, but here we are! Elizabeth Zott is an unapologetic chemist whose life takes an interesting turn when she becomes the host of a beloved TV cooking show. She doesn’t follow social norms and the book is both funny and empowering.

Social Science

Non-Fiction

White book cover with large title - The Comfort Crisis. There is a small picture of a mountain at the bottom.

Title – The Comfort Crisis
Author – Michael Easter
On Amazon

What happens when a suburban author decides to get really uncomfortable? He discovers all the ways that discomfort helps our mental health. Could it be that becoming more comfortable has become our undoing? I think he’s really on to something.

Escape to Another World

Fiction

Blue book cover with a stylized island in the middle of it

Title – The Life Impossible
Author – Matt Haig
On Amazon

When retired math teacher, Grace Winters, is given a hovel in Ibiza by someone she barely knows, magic happens. Literally. I never knew what was going to happen and it made me feel very, very happy.

The Mystery I Never Figured Out

Fiction

Photo of a woman from the lips down. She is holding a letter.

Title – Dream Girl
Author – Laura Lippman
On Amazon (for only 3.99!!)

Best selling author, Gerry Anderson, is constantly asked on whom the main character in his best-selling book is based. He knows she’s completely fictional. That is, until she starts to call him and drops him a letter. I couldn’t guess it, no matter how hard I tried. Very diabolical and entertaining!

A Story About Another Life

Fiction

Book cover for The Berry Pickers. The print on the book looks like stylized blue berries.

Title – The Berry Pickers
Author – Amanda Peters
On Amazon

In 1962, a Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia, loses their youngest child in the blueberry fields in Maine. That same girl grows up in a suburban family, haunted by dreams of her lost past. Just an amazing story with complex characters that will take you all across Canada and back to the berry fields.

And that’s a Wrap!

The other 34 books were decently entertaining but not really worth making the list. What about you? Read anything good lately?? We’d love to hear from you. Here’s to an amazing 2026!