This past year was rough for me. For the first time in my life, I had Reader’s Block. I won’t name names (or titles!), but two books in a row rubbed me the wrong way. They were just not good. Or maybe all the other books I read were just that much better? However you look at it, I just had a really hard time getting back into reading after those two no-good books. And ages ago, I adopted the practice of not finishing books that I didn’t like because life’s too short! But sometimes, one has to read a bad book (or two!) because of … obligations.

Anyhow! The good news is I’m outta that funk! The book that saved me was The Taylors by Jen Calonita. A middle grade book about a group of girls named after Taylor Swift broke the curse! It even gave me goosebumps.

Right after The Taylors, I found myself reading my book of the year, Atmosphere, by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Who would’ve thought that this graduate of Space Camp would fall hard for a sapphic, historical fiction novel about the first female astronauts at NASA?

Rounding out my favorite reads of the year:

• Love Stories (The Taylors Version #1) by Elizabeth Eulberg – this is the young adult companion to Jen Calonita’s book.

• It Rhymes With Takei by George Takei (graphic novel/non-fiction)
• Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman (horror)
• Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly (non-fiction)

This past year, I wrote book reviews on NetGalley, Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph, and this blog. I logged my book reading on both Goodreads and StoryGraph. I think it’s important to continue to write reviews on Amazon and Goodreads because those are still so vital for authors.

Without further ado, here’s what I read in 2025!