WellRead in 2025

At the end of 2025, and after two failed attempts at Advent calendars the previous two years (and essentially flushing $25 down the toilet, twice), I decided instead to check out every Advent book I could find, and pick one to purchase for future holidays.

Update: still haven't picked one.

I started (and did not finish, but enjoyed nonetheless) John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed. One of the things he “reviews” is our obsession with ratings, a phenomenon primarily popularized by Satan, aka Amazon. Green explains that he reviewed books as an employee for Booklist in the early 2000s. He had 120 words per book, no five-star rating included; ratings were virtually nonexistent as we know them today. (In the book Green also "reviews" Canadian Geese, Diet Dr. Pepper, air conditioning... it's a fun read!)

With Green in mind, here are some favorites from 2025, sans ratings.

FICTION

The Names by Florence Knapp

If I were rating books, I’d give this one a 5/5 ;) Our neighborhood started a book club! And this novel led to over an hour of rich conversation.

How to Read A Book by Monica Wood

I guess a favorite book theme of 2025 for me was prison? (Two of my other favorites being The Sun Does Shine and The Many Lives of Mama Love.) A novel about, among other things, a prison book club. And the main character supports her local bookstore, saying at one point that “the Nazis were more subtle than Amazon”. I see you, Monica.

The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig 

A beautiful, wholesome story of a one-room schoolhouse in Montana in 1910. The author’s vocabulary is unlike anything I’ve ever read. I am now anxiously awaiting the return of Haley’s Comet (expected in 2061).

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 

A book I originally thought would be a Did Not Finish, but after a second recommendation, I loved it. I then recommended it to a few friends who also loved it. Ultimately, a story of redemption and the endurance of friendship. Also about video games, but don’t let that deter you.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

I don’t know of a Liane Moriarty book I haven’t loved. This one was especially sweet.

NONFICTION

Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren 

A challenge to see life’s inconveniences, life’s interruptions, life’s imperfections, as holiness.

Every Moment Holy by Douglas Kaine McKelvey

Liturgies seem to be my new love language. I was gifted this book after giving birth to Gwen, but didn’t open it until several months later. With a liturgy from every scenario from drinking coffee to watching a storm, the liturgies are an invitation to slowing down and to seeking and seeing God’s presence.

The Opt-Out Family by Erin Loechner

My FAVORITE author finally wrote another book. Full of ideas for how to opt-out of technology as a family, Loechner invites us to be more engaging than the algorithm.

A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by W. Phillip Keller

This book may have just changed my life. I read it at the beginning of 2025, and it truly thought about it all year. A modern-day shepherd teaches Psalm 23. 

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Book by Katie Jacobs

After renewing this cookbook for approximately the sixth time from the library, I decided it was time to invest in a copy of my own. The most fun book for baking cookies for all occasions.

If one of your New Year's resolutions was to read more, I hope you find the book for you. There's a reader in all of us! Put the phone down and pull out a book has long been a mindset for me. It's now a mantra after reading this article. Join me!