I have read 140 books this year, making this my best reading year yet. Being on the ship for four months and no data, plus a summer where most of my hometown friends didn’t move back home, meant lots of reading time. Another plus of this year is lots of my friends got into reading, so I sped through lots of books so we could talk about them together. With reading so many books, I had lots of great ones, quite a few meh ones, and a handful of terrible. The books below are my top 10 for the year that I would recommend to almost anyone.

• The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
  • This book is 100% in my top 10 reads of ALL TIME. Gabrielle Zevin just knows how to tell a story! Our main character loses his wife, then discovers his bookstore is not doing so well, and then the rare edition of a book he was going to sell to make ends meet goes missing. However, something shows up on his doorstep the next day that changes everything. This story, though under 300 pages, made me never want to leave. I loved every single character and loved just how much I felt apart of the family.

• Daydream by Hannah Grace
  • Normally in romance books, the female main character is just perfect. If she’s curvy, she’s an hourglass. If she’s small, she’s basically Tinker Bell. If she’s tall, she’s a model. You get my meaning. Daydream is no literature or masterpiece, but the female main character in this story was NORMAL. She felt just ok about her body, had dreams that seemed way far off in the distance, and she could not stop saying yes to those around her. Our main male character wanted to be her friend more than anything else. Is this book a NYT winner? Heck no, but I really loved it.

• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
  • After visiting a concentration camp in Germany in April, I knew I needed to add some WW2 books, both fiction and true story, to my list. My grandfather served as a medic in the war, and I believe it is so important to learn from all perspectives. This book gave us the perspective of the French, helpless and lost, as well as a German Hitler Youth. I loved the storytelling and the emotion in this book, and I definitely will be searching for reads like this one more often.

• House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas
  • SJM is the QUEEN of fantasy and this was the fastest I’ve ever read 800 pages. This is the second book in the Crescent City series, an urban fantasy, so I can’t say too much without spoiling. I just think Maas captures such a unique world with such ease every single time. I truly never have even a guess for what’s next and I just feel the magic of reading so strongly when I’m reading her books. The cliffhanger on this was crazy too! IYKYK

• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
  • Stories about strong women always get me, and this was no exception. This book won so many 2023 awards and was picked up for an Apple TV+ series, so I knew it would be good for sure. This story follows a female scientist in the 1960s facing grief, single motherhood, and a lack of respect at work simply because of her gender. This story covered so many things so well, and I think this book deserved all the awards won.

• The Women by Kristin Hannah
  • OH MY GOSH! This was my first book ever by Hannah, and it will not be my last. This book took us through life in the U.S. during the Vietnam War, particularly for women, Our main character struggles to find her purpose at home, leading to her enlisting as a nurse abroad. She serves and saves lives everyday but comes home to people refusing to acknowledge that any women served in the war. Kristin Hannah just covered such a raw topic so well in this book.

• Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
  • So this is definitely an unpopular opinion because I feel like I’ve seen so many people say this was a letdown. However, I loved this book. I tore through it on the ship and the cliffhanger has had me in knots since. I obviously can’t say much because this is the second book in a series, but this entire series is like a grownup Harry Potter with dragons. The third one comes out next month and my SAS friends and I are counting down the days!

• Funny Story by Emily Henry
  • I LAUGHED OUT LOUD during this book. This is 100% my favorite Emily Henry book simply because of the New Girl vibes. I am obsessed with the show, New Girl. If you ever wanted to understand my sense of humor, it is simply that show. Well this book loosely resembled New Girl and told the story of a girl being left behind by someone she thought would be in her life forever as well as a guy who is constantly underestimated and belittled. Somehow it was so meaningful while also making me kick my feet.

• Just For The Summer by Abby Jimenez
  • This book starts out so cute. Both of our main characters realize that everyone who dates them meets the love of their life right after. They decide to date to cancel each other out, but suddenly her work brings her right to his hometown. Then family complicates things and Emma and Justin have to decide who comes first? This was such a beautiful story about family responsibility and fear of commitment, when I totally just expected a rom-com.

• Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
  • This was my first non-fiction of the year, and I read it cover to cover. When I read it, graduation was looming and I just wanted to start educating myself on the financial landscape as well as how to really set myself up for success. This was a great introduction to the finance books world because Kiyosaki was so easy to understand on such complicated topics.

There were obviously so many honorable mentions that I could go on forever about. I am so grateful to love reading as much as I do and to be able to have the time to lose myself in a book. Here’s to 2025!