Julsbookdiaries

Hello all! 

Here is a list of five of my favorite books from 2025, so far. The genres are all over the place here, so we have literary fiction to start with, then go through nonfiction, epic fantasy, historical fiction, and end with a good romance. If you’re looking for a specific genre recommendation, the books are listed in the same order as I listed off the genres. However, if you’re just generally interested in any and all genres, and would love some new recs, then please indulge in all five of these reviews. I hope you enjoy them and learn something new along the way!

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow mainly focuses on two characters: Sadie and Sam. They meet as kids but don’t become really close until they are college aged. Their shared passion is video games. This book is about how two people can ebb and flow in their relationship and always come back to each other in new forms and stages in their lives. They share a bond that pulls them together no matter the distance or time that passes. It shows the good, the bad, and the ugly of real life and relationships. 

Sadie and Sam combine their shared passion for video games to work on creating games together. Zevin captures their physical struggles with their designs and limited equipment at first, along with their differing opinions and combative ideas about what their games should be about. There are times when Sadie and Sam, as both business partners and friends, hate each other and don’t speak for a while, but these are balanced out by their career successes and happy moments with each other. While this book tackles many different themes, at the core of it all is the relationship between the characters in the story. Even the side characters, who were only present for a single scene or chapter, added to the complex nature of the main characters’ storylines. 

This book honestly took me a lot longer to read than usual, and once I finally finished, it felt like a lifetime had passed. The story spans over a few decades, so it felt like I was going through the motions with the characters as they grew and started new career paths and developed new relationships. 

I was hesitant at first to read this because I wasn’t sure if I would be interested in a book about video games. But alas, Zevin reeled me in with her dynamic characters, and gamer jargon. This was a 5-star read from the beginning, and I highly recommend it.

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture by Roxane Gay

Wow wow wow, this book is so important!!! Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture is a collection of essays from 30 different people, including the author, Roxane Gay, who have experienced sexual assault in their life. There are essays that involve family members, friends, partners, camp counselors, you name it – it’s there. 

While this is a full-length book, it flies by. Keep in mind, the content in this book is more than disturbing. There were parts that made my skin crawl and made me want to curl up into a ball and cringe inside of my body. But these stories are REAL, and just a small look into what has happened and what is still happening. 

It’s hard to put into words how important I feel this book is. I think everyone should read it. Every single story here is impactful. One of the essays titled, “The Ways We Are Taught to Be a Girl” was particularly disturbing for me. The author, xTx, sectioned her essays into six “lessons”. Each lesson was a story, going in chronological order of her life, of ways in which she was sexually violated or assaulted. There were stories involving her friend’s brother, brother’s friend, dad’s friend, camp counselor, an older man at an arcade, and friend’s boyfriend’s friend. The timeline of these stories spanned from around age seven to age fifteen. She ends by writing, “I legitimately think, ‘I got off easy.’ I didn’t get raped…” (127). 

A portion of the essays talk about rape, but a lot of them that don’t. Those essays about other forms of sexual assault, outside of rape, often have the authors wondering if what they experienced was even “that bad.” I guess that’s the whole point of this collection. A lot of these authors think that yes, what happened to them was bad, but there is always someone else that had it worse than them.

However, the point of this collection is that ALL of this is BAD. It doesn’t matter exactly what was done. It doesn’t matter how many times. ALL of it is sexual assault and a violation against a person’s well-being. While there are too many astounding stories to dive into here, I highly recommend engaging in this piece of text to be informed about what kind of sexual violence is happening every day. I also hope that this awareness will help in bringing this conversation further into light and eventually deter these types of things from happening.

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

I read Tress in back in February, and it was my first taste of Brandon Sanderson’s books after trying to be convinced to read them over and over again. I feel like this was a good book to start with to slowly but steadily enter the Cosmere (Sanderson’s fictional universe). This one is a standalone and takes inspiration from The Princess Bride. However, in this book, Tress is the one actively seeking out her lover, instead of waiting around for him to return. 

The detail and description in this book really helped with visualizing the different scenes in my head. This is a quest-driven fantasy book, and after finishing it, I was craving another quest to follow along with. It made reading the book more exciting – I felt like I was right there with the characters trying to reach their goal of saving Charlie, Tress’ love interest. 

This is a story full of adventure and suspense, and it is fueled by young love. The story takes place mostly on a ship, sailing through different seas, which each have their own dangerous quirks. On her journey, Tress meets a crew of pirates that start out as wary of her, but as time goes on, she makes connections with each of the characters, and they uplift and support her goal, no matter how much danger it puts everyone in. If you’re looking for a fantasy story with a strong and determined female main character, and a story that is full of adventure, pirates, and a talking rat friend, then this book might just be for you!

Human Acts by Han Kang

In Human Acts, Han Kang writes about and recounts the student-led Gwangju Uprising: a mass protest of the South Korean military government in early 1980. This book details the harsh and graphic horrors that students faced at the hands of an abusive and violent military response. It follows the victims, survivors, and their family members, and shows the detrimental and everlasting effects on families that were ripped apart at the hands of an abuse of power. 

This is a short, yet powerful read. The graphic nature of some of the earlier scenes will send a chill down your spine. It’s not something I would recommend reading right before bed, if you have the choice. While the initial chapters in the book describe violence and death in great detail, these scenes are an important set-up for the following chapters, which detail the lasting mental and physical effects on former students and families that were left shattered. 

The timeline of this book stretches from 1980 to 2013, starting through the eyes of the middle school student, Dong-ho. His job is overseeing the dead bodies of protestors, and keeping track of who comes in, so he can help family members identify the bodies of their missing loved ones. Each chapter following the first strings together a list of characters, giving readers an opportunity to learn how each person in the story was affected differently, and how everyone is connected. The book ends through the eyes of Kang herself, or a stand-in named, “The Writer”, bringing the book full circle, as the author recalls her connection to the Gwangju Uprising.  

Funny Story by Emily Henry

Funny Story is about two people who just got broken up with. Daphne’s fiance left her for his best friend. In turn, this best friend’s boyfriend, Miles, also gets broken up with. So, what do Daphne and Miles do? Well obviously they become roommates. 

Ah, the classic roommates to lovers trope. But, let me not get ahead of myself. Daphne is a children’s librarian who is working towards a major “Read-A-Thon” and Miles is a buyer, bartender, server extraordinaire for a winery in town. As Daphne and Miles live together, and become close friends, they each go through ups and downs with friends, family, and exes who try crawling back into their lives. 

Daphne plans on moving out of their lakeside town after her Read-A-Thon, but it becomes Miles’ mission to introduce her to all of the little unknown spots and special people that the town has to offer to convince Daphne to stay. 

This is a super cute story, and a pretty quick read! I won’t completely spoil what happens with Daphne and Miles at the end, but if you’re looking for a happy ending, I think you’ll love this book. So, if you’re looking for something to boost your spirits from any uncertainty or chaos in our world, pick this book up for a breath of fresh air.