Mumlife

The 25 Best Books Of The Year

January 28, 2026

I read 121 books in 2025, and here are my top 25 favourite fiction and non fiction books of the year. I tried to narrow it down to ten but it was impossible! Contains affiliate links.

My Year Of Reading

2025 was the year I attempted to stop doomscrolling which is how I ended up reading. 121 books in total. Which seems like a lot!

How did I end up reading that much? I’ve always loved reading anything I can get my hands on, quickly. Predictably, since becoming a mum, I’ve found it difficult to focus on reading, or to find the time to sit down and do it. There were many years where it took me all year to read a couple of books.

It’s only now my children are older that I have more time and, yes, the concentration span. I also think in the screens era its important to read in front of them, which will hopefully encourage them to read more. So I’ve tried to make it a priority.

I’ve also found it much easier to read digitally than physical books. Obviously I’ll always love books, but a book with a backlight meaning you can read it at any time? It’s a winner. A few years ago I bought myself a reward Kindle Paperwhite (a version of this one). This year I also read a lot of books from the Libby app via the library, so eventually bought a Kobo e-reader so I didn’t have to read library books on my phone. It’s been fantastic, and my eyes have thanked me. I bought the colour version of the Kobo but the black and white version is also good.

Here are my favourites out of all the books I read. Some – if not most – of these weren’t newly published in 2025, but they were new to me. I’ve found I’m very much a vibes-based reader, so it doesn’t matter when it was published. Hence I’ll probably end up reading a lot of 2025 bestsellers sometime during 2028.

And yes, I cut down on my screen time. Significantly!