#TopTenTuesday Books I Enjoyed in 2025 #TuesdayBookBlog

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

  • Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
  • Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
  • Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
  • Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is Best Books I Read in 2025. A list of my favourite books of 2025 would likely consist mainly of historical fiction so, to do something different, I’ve focused on books in other genres I enjoyed last year. Links from each title will take you to my review.

Nonfiction:

A Year in a Small Garden by Frances Tophill
The CIA Book Club by Charlie English
The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke

Crime/thriller:

The Bookseller by Tim Sullivan
That Which May Destroy You by Abda Khan
The Coming Fire by Greg Mosse

Contemporary/literary fiction:

The Language of Remembering by Patrick Holloway
Woman in Blue by Douglas Bruton
The Night Swimmer by Simon J. Houlton
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

My Week in Books – 4th January 2026

Monday – I shared my Q&A with Jodie Morgan, author of cozy mystery Murder at the Summer Cheese Festival, plus an excerpt from the book.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Most Recent Additions To My Bookshelf.

Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday is a weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading.

Thursday – I shared the fifty books on my second Classics Club list. Something to keep me occupied until December 2030!

Friday – I published my wrap-up for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2025.

Saturday – I took part in the #6Degrees of Separation meme, forging a chain from The French Lieutenant’s Women to J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement. I also participated in the Six on Saturday meme, sharing six things from my garden this week.

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Macmillan Audio)

A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island’s researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain.

Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore. The family nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, but it seems she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she’s there. And when Rowan stumbles upon sabotaged radios and a recently dug grave, she realises that she’s not the only one on the island with a secret.

I’m reading Whale Fall and The Eights from my TBR pile and listening to the audiobook of Wild Dark Shore for my book club.


  • Book Review: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • Book Review: The Huntingfield Paintress by Pamela Holmes
  • Book Review: Tin Man by Sarah Winman