What I am reading in 2025

I’m no expert; I’m not a professional writer. I am not many things, but I am an ambitious reader.

As soon as I compiled the reading list, I thought to myself, "This is an ambitious list. It’s probably pretty unachievable to read all of these books in a year." 

But for the first time in my life, I did not get overwhelmed—I felt excited. What will I know, and how will reading all these books change me?

My aim and the idea behind my newsletter are to read more nonfiction (strictly) and hopefully learn something valuable and beneficial—to switch off from the daily demanding work-life cycle. 

As someone who had to prioritise work and earning a living ahead of formal education, reading nonfiction books helped me get well-paid and, until recent times, a satisfying job, get promoted in a relatively short time, turn into a mentor to my younger colleagues, and overall, live a pretty damn awesome life. 

So, I will continue to read and surround myself with books.

I’m always on the lookout for new books, so my reading list for this year is growing.

For a couple of years, I have been figuring out what I am an expert in to narrow down my newsletter. I am not an expert in anything, so I decided to share what I am reading in nonfiction. 

January 2025

• The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times's Misreporting, Distortions and Fabrications Radically Alter History by Ashley Rindsberg

• First-Person Journalism: A Guide to Writing Personal Nonfiction with Real Impact by Martha Nichols

February 2025

• The Requisitions by Samuél Lopez-Barrantes

• The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin

• What Would Boudicca Do? by Beth Coates and Elizabeth Foley

• Several Short Sentences about Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg

March 2025

• Outliers: The Story of Success Paperback by Malcolm Gladwell

• The Writer's Journey: In the Footsteps of the Literary Greats by Travis Elborough

• The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary by Catherine Gray

• The Naughty Nineties: The Triumph of the American Libido by David Friend

April 2025

• Everything Is Predictable: How Bayes' Remarkable Theorem Explains the World by Tom Chivers 

• Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks 

• Careless People: The explosive memoir that Meta doesn't want you to read by Sarah Wynn-Williams

• Saving Five: A Memoir of Hope by Amanda Nguyen

• The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions by Dr Michael Norton

• Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes 

• Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism and Minding Other People's Business by Roxane Gay 

• The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins and Sawyer Robbins 

• Unruly: The Number One Bestseller ‘Horrible Histories for grownups’ The Times by David Mitchell

May 2025

• Dust and Light: On the Art of Fact in Fiction by Andrea Barrett

• The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human, and How To Tell Them Better by Will Storr

• A Story Is a Deal: How to use the science of storytelling to lead, motivate and persuade by Will Storr

• The Science of Revenge: Understanding the World's Deadliest Addiction and How to Overcome It by James Kimmel

• Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put by Annie B. Jones

• No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris

• Time Anxiety: The Illusion of Urgency and a Better Way to Live by Chris Guillebeau

• We Can Do Hard Things: Answers to Life's 20 Questions by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle

June 2025

• The Power of One: Blowing the Whistle by Frances Haugen

• She Said: The true story of the Weinstein scandal by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

• Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow

• Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup: The Story of Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos Scandal by John Carreyrou

• Logging Off: The Human Cost of Our Digital World by Adele Zeynep Walton

• To Exist As I Am: A Doctor's Notes on Recovery and Radical Acceptance by Grace Spence Green

July 2025

• The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher's Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient by William B. Irvine

• So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson

August 2025

• Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell

• I Want to Burn This Place Down: Essays Hardcover by Maris Kreizman

• The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It by Will Storr

September 2025

• Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

• Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It's Doing to Us by Will Storr

• Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

October 2025

• The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins and the fight for women in science by Kate Zernike

• Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture by Roxane Gay

• The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story by Pagan Kennedy

• Story of a Murder by Hallie Rubenhold

• The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

November 2025

• (Un)kind: How 'Be Kind' Entrenches Sexism by Victoria Smith

• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

• Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell

December 2025

• How We Grow Up: Understanding Adolescence by Matt Richtel

• How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future by Vaclav Smil

TBR (Whenever I get ‘extra’ time…)

• Lost in Work by Amelia Horgan

• Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away by Annie Duke 

• The Best American Essays 2005 by Susan Orlean

• The Best American Essays 2024 by Wesley Morris

• The Best American Essays 2023 by Vivian Gornick

• The Best American Essays 2022 by Alexander Chee 

• Essential Journalism: The NCTJ Guide for Trainee Journalists by Jonathan Baker

The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction

• The Peepshow by Kate Summerscale

• Agent Zo: The Untold Story of Courageous WW2 Resistance Fighter Elżbieta Zawacka by Clare Mulley

• Private Revolutions by Yuan Yang

The NYT Bestsellers

• The New York Times Book Review by New York Times and Tina Jordan

I’ve also decided to add to my reading list the books that have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list over the past decade under the heading “The 10-Best Books Through Time The New York Times Book Review.”

• Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker [2020]

• Uncanny Valley by Rachel Anna Wiener [2020]

• War by Margaret MacMillan [2020]

• Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe [2020]

• The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom [2019]

• No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder [2019]

• Educated by Tara Westover [2018]

• Fires by Caroline Fraser [2017]

• Dark Money by Jane Mayer [2016]

• The Return by Hisham Matar [2016]

• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates [2015]

• Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert [2015]

• The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf [2015]

• One of Us by Asne Seierstad; translated by Sarah Death [2015]

• Thirteen Days in September by Lawrence Wright [2014]

• The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark [2013]

• Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala [2013]

• Far from the Tree by Andrew Solomon [2012]

• Why Does the World Exist? by Jim Holt [2012]

• Arguably by Christopher Hitchens [2011]

• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman [2011]

• A World on Fire by Amanda Foreman [2011]

• Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff [2010]

• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson [2010]

Pulitzer Prize Winners/Nominees

As if that were not enough, I’ve also selected ten books that either won or were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize over the last decade. 

• To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement, by Benjamin Nathans [2025 | Winner]

• Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World, by John Vaillant [2024 | Nominee]

• His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice, by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa [2023 | Winner]

• Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City, by Andrea Elliott [2022 | Winner]

• Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy, by David Zucchino [2021 | Winner]

• Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country, by Sierra Crane Murdoch [2021 | Nominee]

• Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life, by Louise Aronson [2020 | Nominee]

• Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America, by Eliza Griswold [2019 | Winner]

• In a Day’s Work: The Fight to End Sexual Violence Against America’s Most Vulnerable Workers, by Bernice Yeung [2019 | Nominee]

• The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—and Us, by Richard O. Prum [2018 | Nominee]

• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond [2017 | Winner]

• Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, by Joby Warrick [2016 | Winner]

• The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbert [2015 | Winner]

• No Good Men Among the Living, by Anand Gopal [2015 | Nominee]

You might wonder why such an extensive list, Jana?! I wonder the same, but I also know you have to aim high to land somewhere. I don’t feel overwhelmed looking at these lists, and that’s a good sign. That in itself tells me I have made good progress, and my newsletter is slowly helping me recover from burnout.