My favorite part of the New Year is setting a new reading goal and dreaming about all the potential 5 star reads that might be waiting for me. Every year part of that goal is a number (can I read a book a week? For the whole year?) but another big part for me is genre. Can I push myself to read more non-fiction? Might I like sci-fi? Am I deep enough to get anything out of a poetry collection? Here are some great reads from every genre in case, like me, you’re wanting to branch out in 2025.
Non-Fiction books for the Fiction reader:
When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father’s War and What Remains by Arianna Neumann. If you liked All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doeer, or The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, or any other great WWII novel, this is a no-brainer. When Time Stopped reads like all of those novels, with so many plot twists it’s borderline unbelievable. Arianna Neumann grew up in Venezuela, the happy daughter of a business tycoon. She knew her father, Hans, was originally from Germany, but he refused to talk much about it. Upon his death, Ariana discovered an envelope filled with some photographs of her father in Germany during the war - and she decides to investigate. And what she finds is, well, crazy and terrible and the stuff novels are made of.
Lit Fic for the Thriller Reader:
If you love the fast-paced aspects of thrillers but want to test the waters in the general fiction section, try Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka. This one will have you on the edge of your seat, at least for every other chapter. In this one, we meet Ansel Packer - a not-too-likeable fellow who is on Death Row, days away from his execution. Chapters alternate between Ansel’s current in-cell situation (a nail-biter!) and his backstory. I’d put this in the gen fic category due to the amazing amount of character development we get - not so much when it comes to Ansel, but more so the women who have lived alongside him: his mother, his neighbor, his girlfriend, and the female guard he befriends.
Lit Fic for the Romance Reader:
The biggest selling point for romance novels, for me, is the guarantee of a happy ending. HEA (happily ever after) or HFN (happy for now) are some romance acronyms that people sling around. So if you’re wanting to try some Fiction but wanting that same HEA or HFN feeling, you can look at Mercury by Amy Jo Burns. This felt a lot like the Sandra Bullock movie I loved called Hope Floats - set in a small town, lots of dynamic relationships and at the heart of it is a woman named Marley who moved into the town as a teenager, had a wild teen romance with Baylor but ended up married to Baylor’s brother Waylan. There is a bit of a mystery, a lot of drama, and a satisfying “HFN” for most of the characters (my favorite character, Baylor, gets “MHBHOD” ending - “maybe he’ll be happy one day.”)
YA for the grown-up reader:
There’s another post I’ve been wanting to write called slumpbusters, maybe that will be forthcoming this year, but one great way I’ve found of busting out of a reading slump is to try a Young Adult or even a Middle Reader novel. Usually they’re fast moving and easy to get into, completely bingeable. If you’re thinking of trying a YA, Maggie Steifvater’s Scorpio Races is a great place to start. Set on a very Welch or Irish feeling island, this is the Scorpio Races, a dangerous race held every November where contestants try to race their water horses through a dangerous course to win a lot of money. Puck Connelly never really meant to enter the race - in fact a girl has NEVER raced, but she ends up in the competition and pitted, mainly, against Sean Kendrick, the returning champ. There is romance (chaste, of course) and intrigue and then the grueling competition itself. With its moody setting, this is a fast-paced perfect entry into everything YA has to offer.
Poetry for … Everyone
Poetry is something that feels so intimidating but is it? There are a lot of super accessible poets, contemporary poets, and my 2025 goal is to get more of them into my life. Billy Collins has a new collection called Water, Water and Jenna Bush Hager just picked Mary Oliver’s Devotions as her December pick. I’m going to start there!