Lady Demelza's Year in Books 2025

2025 was the year I got my reading groove back. 
It's been a source of nagging sadness to me that I just hadn't been reading as many books over the last several years. I mostly blamed the discovery of social media addiction.
And then this year, I got my new home. I got an armchair from the op shop, and I put it directly underneath the small, north-facing window in the lounge room. I got a footstool to put in front of the chair. And now I have a reading chair. A comfortable chair with a footstool and natural light coming in over your shoulder when you sit in it. 
And I started reading more books again. 
As it turns out, I still have time for social media addiction, as well. 

1. Nocturnes by John Connolly 2004
2. The Knowledge Gene by Lynne Kelly 2024
3. House of Glass by Susan Fletcher 2018
4. Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison 2024
5. Angels and Insects by A.S. Byatt 1994
6. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith 1998 (re-read)
7. Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler 1980
9. Crossing the Water by Sylvia Plath, collection published 1971
10. Mary Magdalene Revealed by Meggan Watterson 2019
11. Spare by Prince Harry 2023
12. The Gathering by Anne Enright 2007
14. The White Garden by Carmel Bird 1995
15. On Eating Meat by Matthew Evans 2019
16. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith 2000 (re-read)
17. Island of Whispers by Frances Hardinge 2023
18. The Scandinavian Guide to Happiness by Tim Rayborn 2021
19. Unraveller by Frances Hardinge 2023
20. Everything In Its Place by Oliver Sacks published 2019
21. Words To Sing the World Alive edited by Jasmin McGaughey 2025
22. The Strength of Us as Women edited by Kerry Reed-Gilbert 2000
23. If I Had a Wooden Ruler and Other Poems by Shelley O'Reilly 2018
24. Broken Starfish by Ron C Moss 2019
25. What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher 2022
26. Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake 2020
27. How to Make a Basket by Jazz Money 2021
28. Every Version of You by Grace Chan 2022
29. The Universe is a Small Place by R.J. Amos 2024
30. Night Side of the River by Jeanette Winterson 2023
31. Wrong Norma by Anne Carson 2024
32. Once by Annie Raser-Rowland 2024
33. Small Habits for a Big Life by Rebecca Ray 2023
34. Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez 2019
35. Hood Feminism by Nikki Kendall 2020
36. The Forest of a Thousand Eyes by Frances Hardinge 2024
37. Love by Jeanette Winterson 2017
38. She Doesn't Seem Autistic by Esther Ottaway 2023
39. Deep South: Stories from Tasmania edited by Ralph J Crane and Danielle Wood 2012
40. Ghostly edited by Audrey Niffenegger 2015
41. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai 2004
42. Darning: Repair Make Mend by Hikaru Noguchi 2020
43. In Love & Trouble by Alice Walker 2003
44. Unlimited Futures edited by Rafeif Ismail and Ellen Van Neerven
45. Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham 2006
46. Bone Black by bell hooks 1997
47. Says Who? by Anne Curzan 2024
48. Simplicity by Mark A Burch 1998
49. Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood 2023
50. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison 1977
51. Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman 
52. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg 1986 (re-read)
53. The Unspeak Poems and Other Verses by Tim Thorne 2014
55. Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler 2005
56. The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem edited by Jeremy Noel-Tod 2018
57. Grain Brain by David Perlmutter 2013
59. Psyche and the Hurricane by Michele Roberts 1991
60. Wild Ducks Flying Backwards by Tom Robbins 2006
61. If Women Rose Rooted by Sharon Blackie 2016
62. Wordwatching by Julian Burnside 2004
63. Throat by Ellen van Neerven 2020
64. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn 2002
65. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle 1973
66. Every Move You Make by David Malouf 2007
67. The Pigeon by Patrick Suskind 1989
68. Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig 2019

The Knowledge Gene by Lynne Kelly was a standout this year. It was one of those books that has actually changed the way I see a lot of things. It's a piece of the puzzle that explains humans. Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez was a magnificent achievement, for an academic and for a popular writer. She has pulled together a myriad of fully cited and properly referenced facts into a clear narrative that simply explains how the world operates on a default standard of maleness, and what that means for all our lives. 
I really enjoyed finding some magnificent and diverse collections of poetry, prose poetry and short stories this year. And this was the year that I allowed myself to go back and re-read one of my favourite series of novels from the beginning - The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander MacCall Smith. So good that I get goosebumps at the most beautiful paragraphs. 
You can also read my Year in Books for previous years by using the yearinbooks tag to find the posts. 

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