It’s been a bumper year for reading, not least because I joined a book club which has exposed me to plenty of books I wouldn’t have chosen for myself. I even enjoyed reading a few of them 😉
Anyway, with a couple of weeks of 2025 left, my reading list totals 61 books . And I thought I’d share with you my top ten, starting with the two most recent because they’re easiest to talk about.
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
I haven’t been a big fan of Matt, even though I know his breakthrough book ‘Reasons to Stay Alive’ was a lifesaver for many. And when I read the cover blurb about a retired teacher being left a run-down house in Ibiza by a colleague she can barely remember, it didn’t sound promising. But my sister said it was a lovely book so I gave it a chance – and it was magical. Apart from a rather forgettable plot involving a wicked property developer and corrupt politicians at its heart this book is a lesson in how to practice mindfulness. As our retired teacher taps into the special energy of the island she starts, for the first time in decades, to really see the awesomeness of the world we live in. “My fruit salad arrived and I stared at the plate of fruit the way you might stare at a painting by Matisse, I was mesmerised by every shape and every colour. The tantalising crescents of orange, the vibrant green of kiwi. The small spheres of blueberries like planets in a scattered solar system orbiting a passion fruit.” I genuinely found, as I read this book, that I was seeing the world through fresh eyes, wide awake to everything around me, which felt like a gift during the darkest months of the year.
Just one Thing by Dr Michael Mosley
I’m late to the party with this one because the book is a 2022 compilation of items from the doctor’s popular radio show. Bite-size suggestions for improving my well-being have long been something I believe in, and is the premise behind my Have the Best Year of Your Life book which also offers small suggestions to shift you into a better place. I read one suggestion a day and turned down the corners of pages I thought I’d add into my life: actually eating an apple a day for its multiple health benefits, standing on one leg while I’m brushing my teeth to improve my balance as I grow older, and occasionally letting the water run cold at the end of my shower – because it’s an easier way to get at least some of the benefits of cold water swimming than jumping into my car and driving half an hour to the nearest lake. It’s all very real-life and do-able and there’s just enough science to convince without feeling bamboozled.
All the Way to the River by Liz Gilbert
I actually ‘read’ this as an audiobook and if the book interests you I’d suggest you might do the same. The reason I say that is because the book has been panned by plenty of critics for being sloppy, self-indulgent and even embarrassing. But the audio book is read by Liz herself, and in her own voice, the things she’s writing about – even the most raw and painful – feel authentic. Liz Gilbert is best known as the author of Eat, Pray, Love but this book is about addiction – to drugs, alcohol, love and sex, and to some of the unhealthy patterns of behaviour many of us will recognise, like needing to be needed or looking to how others feel about us to validate ourselves. It was a tough listen and often I didn’t much like the people in it, but it also taught me a great deal about addictive behaviours and in the end I decided it was a brave book to write.
You are Here by David Nicholls
Definitely time for something lighter…pure fiction from a writer whose love story One Day was made into a successful series. This time the central characters are two people in midlife navigating life changes, broken marriages and loneliness. But they are accidentally brought together on the Coast to Coast walk, about which I could talk for hours, having walked it myself four times now with my sister. I gobbled up all the mentions of familiar landmarks that have come to mean so much to me and that, as for Nicholls’ characters, have somehow come to reflect the landscape of my life – its ups and downs, bogs and brilliant moments. A part of me doesn’t want this book to be better known. Apparently there are already 80,000 people a year walking the 190 mile route. But I loved the characters, loved their humour and vulnerability, their lostness, and I loved reading about them walking the fells, the lakes, the dales and the moors that I love so much.
The Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate
Back to something more serious and the first of Mate’s books I’ve read. The fact that it is 500 pages makes it hard to sum up. He covers a heck of a lot of ground and there are too many memorable personal stories of healing in it to recall here. But at its heart the book shows us how our health and wellbeing are affected by the toxic culture we are living in – toxic in its broadest sense from diet and social media to the politics of greed. And by trauma that so many of us carry without realising it. It’s a compassionate book: you feel the author gently guiding you towards a better way, and to healing the past and present. It’s certainly made me want to read more of his books now.
Wilding by Isabella Tree
I’d never heard of Knepp, the rewilding project in Sussex, and now I can’t wait to visit and see at firsthand the miracles Isabella and her husband Charlie have worked to transform barren farmland into one of the UK’s richest habitats. One of the standouts for me in this book was realising what we think of as the countryside now, and want to protect, bears little relation to what the landscape looked like before the post-war drive for agricultural intensification. Our grandparents would have known the countryside to be a very different place, alive with wildflowers, with wildlife and richness. I can’t recommend this book highly enough if you’re looking for some hope amidst the endless depressing stories of spiralling species loss.
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
I owe this one to the book club and was probably the only one who really enjoyed it, because Bryson’s monotone cynicism does grate after a while. But I’m including it here because most of the other books I’ve chosen are on the serious side. And Bryson’s descriptions of a Dover b&b, and of navigating a British multi-storey car park literally brought tears running down my face. Read it and weep with laughter!
The Effortless Sleep Method by Sasha Stephens
I’m including this for all of my friends who struggle to get a decent night’s sleep. Me too. For much of my life. The author of this book suffered from chronic insomnia and somehow turned that around using the method she describes in the book. She’s a bit of a zealot which I initially found off-putting but I can’t argue with the fact that her book really helped me – and my daughter who has since recommended it to many of her friends struggling to sleep because of stress and then getting more stressed because they’re not sleeping.
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Great premise for this novel… A depressed woman checks into a hotel planning to kill herself and finds she’s the only guest not there for an over-the-top society wedding. Inevitably she gets drawn into it, turning everything in her and the bride’s life on its head. It was clever, funny and wise and I loved it enough to have bought copies for a few friends.
The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke
I’ve loved everything Rachel Clarke has ever written. You feel if you were ever to find yourself in hospital it’s this brilliant, compassionate and wise doctor you’d want treating you and advocating you. The Story of a Heart is a bit of a departure for her because she’s not writing about her own experience of covid and working with the dying as she did in her other books. Instead she follows the journey of a heart taken from a nine year old accident victim in Devon to give life to a young lad who is dying. Its powerful and moving, especially at the end when the father of the young girl is given a stethoscope so he can listen to his daughter’s heart beating strongly in its new home. I’ve been a big critic of the way the NHS has served my elderly relatives but this book is a reminder of the many dedicated people working within our health services and the miracles they can sometimes create.
