What My Book Club Read in 2025
We just completed 6 straight years of book club! I can hardly believe it! I truly treasure the many, many moments my close friends and I have spent discussing stories these last 6 years. I always loved fiction, but I found it hard to dedicate myself to sticking to a book. Since I began our book club, having the accountability and steady schedule has kept us all reading fiction consistently! We’ve also been transported to so many different time periods and places and grown in empathy.
I loved so many of our 2025 book selections, but this year held 2 of my favorite books we’ve read in the entire 6 years of book club. Keep reading to find out which!
If you want to know how we structure our book club and how we keep it going for so many years, join my email list and get this book club guide for free, or listen to this podcast episode!
Here are the books we read together in 2025, along with my thoughts on each:
The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks ⭐️⭐️⭐️
So different than any other books we’ve read, and it was an immersive look at the Hollywood film industry. I enjoyed how the storyline tied together between time periods. Overall, it was good - entertaining but not life-changing.
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Chris Whitaker also wrote one of my favorite books from the beginning of book club, We Begin At the End, and I was so excited to read this, especially with all the hype. It was layered, creepy, completely engrossing, and kept me on the edge of my seat until the end. Chris Whitaker has a way of adding twists and turns that leave you shocked. I loved the play of color/light & dark throughout the book - the title is absolutely perfect. One of those books you just never forget.
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This historical fiction book gave me a lot of the same vibes as Hamnet, which is one of my favorite novels ever. The main character, Martha Ballard, was a real-life 18th-century midwife and healer in Hallowell, Maine, and I loved her. I tend to like books with a confident, powerful female main character, especially in the time period Martha lived in when women were seen as weak and inferior. A surprising/shocking ending, too!
James by Percival Everett ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I liked this book, but I just didn’t love it. I know that won’t be a popular perspective, since it just won The Pulitzer Prize. But I found myself just kind of reading through most of the book not super engaged in the story. I’ve loved so many other novels we’ve read about this time period that opened my eyes to the brutal treatment and experiences of enslaved black people in America, but this one didn’t do it for me for some reason.
The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’ve really enjoyed all the books we’ve read by Patti Callahan Henry over the years, like The Secret Book of Flora Lea, Becoming Mrs. Lewis, and Once Upon A Wardrobe. I loved this novel’s setting in England’s Lake District, and I was on the edge of my seat for sure. However, without spoiling anything, I’ll say that something really bothered me about the mother suddenly vanishing during her young daughter’s childhood - and why.
West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes…” is definitely one of the most intriguing first lines of a book I’ve ever read. Such a wonderful story! I can’t even remember how I heard about this book, but I love a novel featuring endearing real life animal characters. Historical fiction - even better. I just loved the two giraffes as well as the main character, Woodrow Wilson Nickel. So much of the story was based on the real account of two giraffes who were transported across the U.S. in a makeshift truck (basically a jalopy) during the Dust Bowl era - from New York City to the San Diego Zoo in 1938, led by a mischievous young man named Woodrow Wilson Nickel. The book begins at the end of his life many, many years later and then flashes back and shares the whole, crazy story.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
FAVORITE AWARD! 🏆 This is not only one of my favorites of the year but one of my favorites overall in 6 years of book club. Apparently it’s a lot of other people’s too - this book has exploded since the beginning of the year! When I first posted on Instagram that I was going to be reading this book (after many friends recommended it!), my friend Andrea said, “Savor it.” I read it as slowly as possible, which was hard to do! Now, I know what she meant…each chapter is pretty short but completely engrossing, revealing the story of another member of the town of Golden and how the mysteriously kind older man character, Theo, speaks life into them. Absolutely beautiful.
Fun fact: I worked with Allen Levi in the late 90s when I worked at Grassroots Music - Allen was one of the indie artists whose music we distributed to stores!
Heartwood by Amity Gaige ⭐️⭐️⭐️
For me, this book was just okay. I really loved the nature writing and the main character’s letters to her mother and the overall theme of motherhood and healing. The story itself just didn’t stick with me for some reason - I kind of forgot we read it until I went over this list.
Go As A River by Shelly Read ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
FAVORITE AWARD! 🏆 This is not only one of my favorites of the year but one of my favorites overall in 6 years of book club. This story will stick with me for a long time. The main character, Victoria Nash, really is “a character for the ages,” as one reviewer said. Beginning in 1948 on a generational peach farm in Iola, Colorado, this novel had everything - a strong, endearing female main character, a storyline that spans decades, so much symbolism and depth. I especially appreciated the nature writing and how Shelly Read communicates the feeling of being connected to the soil and land. To me, the peach trees were actual characters in this book, as well as the river itself. I was completely immersed in the Colorado landscape and spent time researching the story behind the real town of Iola - fascinating. I wanted more from the ending, but I do have to say it added an element of wonder and mystery.
Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
This one took awhile for me to get into, and for about half the book I wondered how it was all going to tie together, but I ended up really enjoying it! I loved learning more about the original story book of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum, which inspired the movie, and how the original story contained so many pieces/symbols of Frank and Maud Baum’s real life. I fell in love with Maud’s character - what a woman! Jumping between time periods was also great - that’s always one of my favorite things in a novel. On another note, it was saddening, but not surprising, to learn of the corruption in Hollywood even back in the 1930s and how despicably Judy Garland was treated as a teenage actress. Reading this made me want to watch The Wizard of Oz again and look for the details I didn’t notice before.
See what we read in past years…
Books we read in 2024 - um, I haven’t posted this yet, I’ll update when I do! oops!
