Back in 2022, I posted a list of 12 books that I had read in the year or so before that post … books that were favorites of mine from my 2022 reading. My intention has been to post a list of my favorite books each year. It is now early 2026, we just got through 2025, and I haven’t posted those lists. Hmm, how time flies.
Ah, but there’s no time like the present, right? 🙂
In this blog post, I’d like to share my favorite 12 books from this past year or two. I’m a slow reader, one word at a time, so I don’t read very many books. And big, thick books take me so long to read that I usually get bored and give up half way through, so I’ve just stopped even picking up a big, thick book.
But, in spite of that, I love to read! I learn so much. And I can travel to so many places. And discover new thoughts and ideas. So, here’s my list … please share some of your favorite books below in the comments.
One more thing … the list below is not in order of least favorite to most favorite (or the opposite, most to least), it’s just a list. Well, on the other hand, to be perfectly honest, “Old Wood Boat” made me cry, and made my heart sing.
So please do with this list as you wish. All books are not favorites of all people. We all have different interests. But here they are … my 12 favorite books from 2024-2025.
Carving Space, an anthology. At first, when I read the title of this book, I assumed it was about wood-working, carving wood, finding and describing a space in which to carve wood. But no, it’s about people carving out space of their own, for their own language, for their own experiences and history written in their own words, in their own voice. For five years, the Indigenous Voices Awards have nurtured the work of Indigenous writers in lands claimed by Canada. This book showcases the winners of those awards. The writings are fascinating and, I hope, taught me a lot. Sometimes we aren’t given space, sometimes we have to carve out space for ourselves, for our lives and for our voices. This book was a positive experience of that.
Sharks Don’t Sink, adventures of a rogue shark scientist, by Jasmin Graham. Jasmin is an extraordinary scientist. Besides that, she chose to work in a field populated mostly by men scientists (she’s a woman) … and mostly populated by white men (she’s black). But not much of the book is about sexism or racism, though those two subjects are discussed, she’s honest about them, because they are real. Most of the book is about sharks! And ship rides. And diving. And science. And all manner of cool scientific stuff that I’d never heard of before I read this book.
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro. This novel is a portrait of the perfect English butler, Stevens, who, at the end of his career in postwar England, reviews his life and secretly questions the “greatness” of the nobleman he served, as he (the butler) drives by himself through the countryside, visiting places he has never seen before. The author was born in Japan, but his family moved to England when he was a boy. He received the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1989 for this book. In part, the book is sad, but it also shows a marvelous part of the butler’s history and life, and a wonderful view into the countryside of England.
Alfie and Me, by Carl Safina. This is a true story about raising, then freeing, an orphaned screech owl, whose lasting friendship with the author illuminates humanity’s relationship with the world. When ecologist Carl Safina and his wife, Patricia, took in a near-death baby owl, they expected that, like other wild orphans they’d rescued, she’d be a temporary presence. But Alfie’s feathers were not growing correctly, requiring prolonged care. As Alfie grew and gained strength, she became a part of the family, joining a menagerie of dogs and chickens and making a home for herself in the backyard. Carl and Patricia began to realize that the healing was mutual; Alfie had been braided into their world, and was now pulling them into hers. Carl Safina is the vice president for Marine Conservation and founder of the Living Oceans Program at the National Audubon Society.
The Six, America’s first women astronauts, by Loren Grush. When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s the agency excluded women from the corps, arguing that only military test pilots–a group then made up exclusively of men–had the right stuff. It was an era in which women were steered away from jobs in science and deemed unqualified for space flight. Eventually, NASA opened the application process to women. From a candidate pool of 8,000 women, six elite women were selected in 1978 … Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon. This was a fascinating, wonderful read about these women, and about the space program and the training, amazing.
Under Coconut Skies, feasts and stories from the Philippines, by Yasmin Newman. I was raised in the Philippines. Yasmin’s book brought back so many memories. This book is mostly about food and recipes from Filipinos. But it’s also a book about the spirit of generosity and community among Filipinos, and about their celebrations and feasts and folk-lore. The author invites you into her kitchen, and into the homes of friends. Sizzling wild mushroom sisig, turmeric and bark rice and pork belly adobo, and candied kalamansi cake … yum! All easy recipes along with stories of her travels through the Philippines. Yasmin’s mother is Filipina.
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, by Kim Fu. Twelve marvelous tales … of a girl growing wings on her legs, or a Kafkaesque nightmare, a group of children who steal a haunted doll, a runaway bride encounters a sea monster, toy boxes that control time, many more. Sly, and provocative. Modern life wrestling with … life. Magical realism by a woman who lives in Seattle, WA.
Let Us Descend, a novel by Jesmyn Ward. In the years before the Civil War, Annis, who was a black slave and was sold south by her white owner, struggles through the horrific miles-long march to her next “home”, as she seeks comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother, opening herself to a world beyond this world. The author, Jesmyn Ward, was born in 1977, in Mississippi and has lived such true stories all her life. This was a hard read for me, but I would not have changed my choice for the world.
The River Has Roots, a novel by Amal El-Mohtar. The author won the Locus Awards 2015 award in the Short Story category. The author is an amazing writer, her description of “grammar” is extraordinary. Did you know a river has “grammar” in its movement, and how it speaks to us? Along with the wind? Of course they do! I knew that! 🙂 Actually, I didn’t know that until I read this book. I highly recommend this book. It’s a small book, a very small book, but it’s huge. It has to do with family, close-knit sisters, and fear, and death, and a witch (a good witch), and what we might call “magic”, and love, and truth. Truth and love.
Old Wood Boat, a picture book, by Nikki McClure. This very small book was intended, I believe, to be a children’s book. But for anyone who has owned and loved a boat, especially an old wood boat, especially a boat that you took from bad times and then you made the boat healthy and happy again, and of course that boat thereafter took care of you too, then this book speaks to adults and to children. The book has beautiful prose that matches the illustrations from this USA west coast artist and author. The old wood boat is in trouble, she’s not far from dying, but she remembers the wind and the water, even tho she has been separated from the water for so many years. One day, a family buys her, even as poorly as she looks, and takes her to their home, and they start the scraping and scrubbing, the sanding and the varnishing, the engine and electrical repairs, until she is wonderfully perfect and seaworthy once again. The boat is placed in the water again! And the family and the boat then set off on adventures! I love this book. 🙂
Among Wolves, by Gordon Haber. The book is Gordon Haber’s insights into Alaska’s most misunderstood animal, the wolf. He spent 43 years! weathering brutal temperatures in the wild to document the wolves and he has provided exceptional insights into wolf behavior. Haber’s writings and photos reveal an astonishing degree of cooperation between wolf family members as they hunt, raise pups, and play, social behaviors and traditions previously unknown. With wolves at risk of being destroyed by hunting and trapping, his studies advocated for a balanced approach to wolf management. His fieldwork registered as one of the longest studies in wildlife science of any animal on earth and have had a lasting impact on wolf policies. The book includes his personal photos, field notes, journals, and stories from friends. Wolves continue to polarize people, but this book, Haber’s work, could change your mind. Marybeth Holleman collated the information and wrote some of this book, all after Gordon Haber died. There are a number of books with this title … make sure you get the one written by Gordon Haber and Marybeth Holleman.
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell. This book is based on the true story of a girl who was stranded alone for 18 years on San Nicolas Island off the California coast after all of her people were removed from the island in 1835 and taken to the mainland of California. She had been left behind, alone. Her people had lived on that island for hundreds of years and didn’t know that anyone lived anywhere else on the planet until sailing ships arrived from Russia in the early 1800’s to fish the area and to hunt sea otters and such. How she came to be left alone on the island is just the beginning! How she survived the 18 years alone is most of the book, and it’s fabulously written by Scott O’Dell, who purposefully lived in the wild on the island, alone, to gain some understanding of what it meant to live there alone. Interestingly, the language her people spoke was unique to any linguists at the time. And, not surprisingly, the people brought to California from that island were susceptible to all manner of illnesses, although the book doesn’t address that until the very end. I read the synopsis of the book before I read the book, so I’ll share a bit of it here. It included the fact that all of her people had died by the time she was brought to California 18 years later, so no one spoke her language. She became sick and died within seven years, true story. One wonders if she might have chosen to STAY on that island rather than to have been taken to California. This is a “youth” book, written for early teens. I’m on my way to my library right now to borrow it again and read it again.
If your local library doesn’t have these books (either as a print book or digital book or audio book, etc), your library may be able to get a copy of the book by using the Inter-Library Loan system (ILL). Ask your local librarian.
The State of Washington has more than 350 public libraries, of all sorts, small local ones, or regional county library systems, or large city ones, and a few managed by the State itself. We love our libraries and our freedom to read anything we want to read. Go visit your local library and just browse around!
Please do share your favorite books from the past year or more in the comments below. I want more books to read!