The 2025 debut novels which will stay with me are Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell about an emotionally abusive marriage and We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown about three teenage girls growing up in Doncaster. I also thought the four novellas in The Elements by John Boyne are among the Irish author’s best work and examine the impact of abuse from different perspectives.
Elsewhere, a lot of the fiction I enjoyed reading this year wasn’t particularly new. Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood is one of the Canadian author’s earliest novels about a woman who can’t quite escape her complicated past, Engleby by Sebastian Faulks is a clever and suspenseful psychological character study and the first four books in the Slough House series by Mick Herron are excellent page-turners about MI5 spies who have been exiled to desk jobs. I plan to read more books by Atwood, Faulks and Herron in 2026.
I often lean towards non-fiction about books or food. Bookish by Lucy Mangan is an enjoyable bibliomemoir while The Bookseller of Hay by James Hanning is a fascinating biography of Richard Booth who put Hay-on-Wye on the map as a mecca for second-hand books. I finally read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain which is a modern classic of food writing while Moveable Feasts by Chris Newens offers a gastronomic tour of Paris beyond the obvious clichés.
Saltwater Mansions by David Whitehouse is an intriguing piece of non-fiction about a woman who disappears from Margate. John and Paul by Ian Leslie achieves the near-impossible of looking at the Beatles through a new lens, focusing on Lennon and McCartney’s songwriting partnership and personal chemistry. And Base Notes by Adelle Stripe is an excellent memoir of working-class life in northern England based around powerful memories of different fragrances.
Which books did you enjoy reading in 2025?
A Little Blog of Books 
Nice collection! Here are mine: https://wordsandpeace.com/2026/01/06/year-of-reading-2025-part-1-my-top-23-books/
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I read Kitchen Confidential decades ago but it is still a book I think about!
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I’ve just read more of your thoughts on Nesting, it sounds like a really interesting read, thanks for putting it on my radar ☺️
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I’m currently enjoying Bookish. I hadn’t felt immediately drawn to it, it sounded a bit more words about words, but of course, it’s all to do with what life and society were like at the time.
I read Kitchen Confidential v recently too, finally made it to the party there. Since then, I’ve read Jay Rayner’s Dining Hell, also a trip back to a society from the recent past.
My friend has recommended some Boynes, I’ve been a bit put off as I’ve found some of his work sentimental, but I must read Elements, it sounds good.
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