This week’s Top Ten topic set by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “the best books I read in 2025”. I often have trouble getting to 10 books that match the prompt but this week it was hard to limit myself to just ten.
One thing that struck me about my list is how few of my choices are contemporary novels — only three were published in 2025. Sadly, I’m disappointed by many of the books written by today’s authors. The ideas are there but the author isn’t always up to the task of creating depth in their characters or getting deep into an issue. Creative writing programmes have a lot to answer for I fear.
The books I’ve listed (not in any particular order) are all ones that stood head and shoulders above the rest. I’ve included links to the books I’ve reviewed so far.
1. Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
A brilliantly atmospheric novella which should really have made it to the Booker Prize shortlist.
2. Mapp and Lucia by E. F Benson
A wonderful comedy about the rivalry between two women who both consider themselves the Queen Bee of Tilling.
3. Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
Claire Fuller explores the issue of attitudes towards people who live on the margins of “conventional life.”
4. Clear by Carys Davies
Carys Davies can’t put a foot wrong in my estimation. This slim novella is the story of two men who cannot understand each other’s language yet find a way to connect.
5. Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard
The second novel of the Cazalet Chronicles, follows the various generations of the Cazalet family through the early years of the war.
6. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Don’t be misled by the seeming frivolous nature of this novel for amid the chatter about hats and refreshments, lies a tale about the precarious nature of women’s lives in the nineteenth century.
7. Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
Set during the Big Freeze of 1962-3, The Land in Winter captures the lives of two mismatched recently married couples as they contend with disappointments and resentments in their marriages.
8. Elephanta Suite by Paul Theroux
In three unconnected stories, Theroux shows how the lives of visitors are changed when they come face to face with the real India.
9. The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook
Brook captures the bleakness of life in Hamburg in the immediate aftermath of World War 2 in a novel which examines the compled attitudes of the victors towards the vanquished.
10. Oh William by Elizabeth Strout
The third of Strout’s novels about Lucy Barton is a richly layered novel that dissects the relationship between Lucy and her ex husband William, revealing the often conflicting feelings that have amassed over the decades.
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