Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books I Read in 2025

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Best Books I Read in 2025

I am generally pretty stingy when it comes to giving a book a grade of 5/5. Looking back over the last 5 years I have given somewhere between 2 to 4 books the top grade each year. For 2025, I have 13! I am pretty sure that is the most ever for me. So what was different this year? The only thing that I can think of is that I wasn't working for the first 7 months of the year, so I was reading purely for enjoyment. I wasn't trying to read on the commute, or before going to bed or during lunch breaks. There's certainly been a drop in the grades since I went back to work.  Other than, it might just have been an extraordinary first half of the year.

So here are my top 10 13 books for 2025

Midnight in Paris by Gillian Harvey - I started off with several books set in Paris. I have read quite a few of Gillian Harvey's books over the years and enjoyed them all, but this one just really worked for me! (my review)

The Paris Bookshop for the Broken-Hearted by Rebecca Raisin - Another author who I have read a lot of books from. I love the way that she writes about places, books and foods, and this one combined those very well. (my review)

The Wedding People by Alison Espach - I had heard such good things about this book and it completely lived up to expectations. (my review)

The Jam Maker by Mary-Lou Stephens - I went to hear Mary-Lou Stephens talk about this book and knew that I was going to enjoy it! (my review)

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley - I don't reread much, but I have read this book about 4 times now. it is still a 5/5 read for me every time. This one isn't pictured in the collage in order to fit all the others in. (my review)

Pictures of You by Emma Grey - I met Emma Grey at a reader's retreat a couple of years go but it took me that long to actually read one of her books. This was the first of two 5/5 reads by this author this year! (my review)

The Women by Kristin Hannah - This book seems to be a love it or hate it kind of book. I loved it! (my review)

Beartown by Fredrik Backman - What can I say that hasn't already been said about Fredrik Backman. I really must find time to read the second book in this trilogy! (my review)

Eat Your Heart Out by Victoria Brownlee - This was a surprise 5/5 book for me! It was just so much fun. (my review)

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson - I have enjoyed all of this author's books now, but this one is my favourite. (my review)

The Whisky Widow by Karen Brooks - This book had me wondering why on earth I had not read Karen Brooks before. So good! (my review)

The Last Love Note by Emma Grey - The second entry from Emma Grey on this list! Can't wait for her new book! (my review)

An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister - This author is an academic who specialises in romance and popular fiction, and you can tell! This book is now doing the rounds of my book club. Even our octogenarian member enjoyed it! 

One of the pleasing aspects of this is that 7 of these books are by Aussie authors!

I love seeing everyone's best of lists each year! Do we have any in common?

This week

I'm reading

Happy New Year everyone! 

The beginning of the year means resetting everything, including the counter for the number of books read. However, the counter now sits at 2 after the first 4 days of the year. Admittedly I finished two books yesterday otherwise it would still be at zero. 

I finished reading The Sweet Life Cafe by Helen Rolfe which I really enjoyed. It is set on an island in the Channel Islands. In the list of books it is shown as a standalone novel, but it really does feel like it could be the start of a duology or trilogy! I am planning to review this later in the month!

I also read So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan. Her books are very short, but they do pack a punch!

Finally, I started reading The Girl from Lake Maggiore by Siobhan Daiko.

Books let our imaginations travel where our feet cannot - Nora Nguyen

Bookish travel

Here's where I travelled too through the pages of books during December

Asia

Japan - The Menu of Happiness, Best Wishes from the Full Moon Coffee Shop

Europe

Scotland  - The Secret Christmas Library

Britain - Golden Girls on the Run, Hot Desk, The War Time Library, One December Morning, 

Ireland - The Oyster Catcher

Normally this is where I talk about my best books for the month before. I read 8 books in December and they were all good but there was nothing exceptional. I gave every book I read a grading of 4/5. That may well also reflect how busy my brain is with other things!

I'm watching

We went to the movies on New Year's Eve and watched Nuremberg which stars Russell Crowe as Hermann Goerring, Rami Malek and Leo Woodall. It tells the story of the Nuremberg war trials, starting with the arrest of Goerring through to the verdicts in the first trial. It's a serious subject but the movie was very compelling. Here's the trailer

After we got home we watched the concert from Sydney leading up to the always spectacular fireworks. We do get a bit of a show in our local area with all the illegal fireworks!

On the lighter side we also watched Big Fat Quiz of the Year, hosted by Jimmy Carr, which is always a fun way to revisit some of the bigger stories of the year.

Life

On New Year's Day we decided to go and visit the Melbourne Museum where they currently have an exhibition called Treasures of the Viking Age which all about the Galloway Horde which was found in Scotland in 2014. The exhibition itself was very interesting. We also took the opportunity to take a look around the other parts of the museum. They have recently reopened the natural history part of the museum with all the stuffed animals etc. It is now very modern, very interactive with the use of lots of technology like screens etc. It's a very different space to what it was when I used to take my son to the museum! My favourite part is the garden, and it was great to see so many families out there!


Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Most Recent Additions
One December Morning by Emma Davies
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - January
January in Japan: Since the last January in Japan
In My Kitchen: December
Six Degrees of Separation: The Four Dutchmen to Case Histories


I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date, Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and the Good Book and a Cup of Tea link up hosted at Boondock Ramblings

Six Degrees of Separation: The Four Dutchmen to Case Histories

 Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links. I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Boondock Ramblings

This month is a wildcard to begin the year so we start with the book that we finished last month’s chain with, which means I am starting with The Four Dutchmen by W Somerset Maughan. My instant thought was to o with a Dutch connection but I actually did a whole Dutch chain a couple of months ago so had to give it some more thought.

I very nearly still went with a Dutch related book for my first link but instead I am going in a completely different route. My first choice this month is The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. This is a book featuring dragons in a romantasy setting.

My next selection is also a book with dragons but this time the setting is real history, with a twist. Temeraire by Naomi Novik is set against the background of the Napoleonic Wars! This book was also published under the title His Majesty's Dragon. (my review)

From here, I had a decision to make. One choice would have taken me down the path of books published with different titles, but in the end I have chosen to focus on the word dragons, even though there was no sign of actual dragons in the book. My next selection is Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman which is one of a trilogy of books which tells the history of Welsh royalty

The book that I have read most recently that was set in Wales is Christmas at Hollybush Farm by Jo Thomas. (my review)

The most recent book that I read which was a Christmassy book was One December Morning by Emma Davies. (my review)

A book that was mentioned in that book was Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. (my review)

So there's my Six Degrees of Separation which has dragons and no dragons, a bit of time in Wales and some Christmas fun. 

Next month, the starting point is Flashlight by Helen Choi, a book that I am currently trying, and struggling, to read.

Will you be joining us?

In My Kitchen: December

Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I share everything I have made over the previous month. Like the last few months, motivation has been hard to come by when it comes to baking!

I haven't really been baking much and then I decided that I needed to make some Christmas biscuits but couldn't decide what to make. In the end, I made four different types! The first two were a classic shortbread and then a pistachio, sour cherry and white chocolate version. These are both made from the same base recipe. Shortbread is one of my husband's favourite and I have made these before using the recipe from Emelia Jackson's second book Some of My Best Friends are Cookies. 

The other two recipes came from Advent by Anja Dunk. The first recipe was one that I made last year and was Chocolate Meringue Kisses. The new recipe that I tried was Weihnachtsroschen or Christmas Swirls. These are meant to be neat circles which you then put a dollop of jam into the centre. When I made the dough, I did try to pipe it into circles but the dough was way too stiff to pipe so I ended up just rolling it into balls and then putting a thumbprint into the dough and adding the jam. The dough was really fun to play with as it had a lovely feel.

For breakfast on Christmas day we had pancakes with berries and cream. That meant that we had a ton of berries left over, so I decided to make a relatively simple no bake cheesecake which is vanilla with a ginger nut biscuit base. It is one that I have made and shared the recipe before. What I didn't do is take a picture! Oh well. I will have to make it again at some point.

Christmas for us is very traditional. Robert and I started on Christmas Eve with a heap of prawns (pictured above). We then had the pancakes for breakfast and then went to lunch at my sisters. We always have a very traditional lunch, no matter the weather. Fortunately, it was quite cool this year so it was perfect for a hot lunch. We started with Prawn Cocktail, and then the main course of roast turkey and vegetables, ham and bread rolls. For dessert, there was a selection (shown above) but the centrepiece is always the homemade plum pudding that my sister makes which is then set on fire just before serving it!

Speaking of Christmas, I did quite well in the foodie Christmas gifts department. I was given new kitchen scales, Everybody Love Cake by Alisha Henderson and a baking mat, some chocolates and a bottle of Baileys (not pictured).I also got the pet treat maker and Christmas baking kit when we played Naughty Santa. If you don't know what that is, basically you take turns to open presents but then someone else can either choose to open a present or they can choose to steal your present and then you get to choose to open or steal! 

At the front you can see new kitchen scales. This was a welcome gift as the ones I have been using for years were starting to play up. When you turned it on and pressed the button to make it get to 0, you had to wait as it slowly went into the negative. It usually ended up at around -15g, so if you wanted 100g you would have to do the maths and say if I want 100g then I need the scales to say 85g! I am looking forward to not having to do maths when cooking!

We have been talking about buying a drinks fridge to put in the garage. We had decided that we were going to wait for the Boxing Day sales to buy one, but then someone put one up on our community Facebook page for $50 so we snapped that up instead. Fortunately, it seems to work fine

I mentioned last month that we love a free glass and this month we picked up 6 champagne glasses. One of our supermarket chains, regularly has promotions where you get points for shopping with them, and then you can exchange those points for whatever the promotional items are. Currently, they are giving away European glassware. Given that this supermarket is where we do most of our shopping, it doesn't take too long to accumulate enough points. We got 6 glasses and I think we probably still have enough points to get more glasses. We'll see.

52 Recipes Challenge

A tthe beginning of the year I declared that we were going to try 52 new recipes in the year. I mean, that's only one new recipe a week which feels doable. It turns out it was not! To be fair, at the end of June we were on track but since then we have tried very few new recipes, so we only ended up trying 38 new recipes for the year.

I don't think that we will be doing this challenge again this year!

Here are the new recipes we tried this month.

Pork Schnitzel

Crumpets

Weekly Meals

Saturday - Pork chops, baked potatoes and coleslaw
Sunday - Roast chicken, potatos
Monday - Chicken Shwarma
Tuesday - Smash Burgers
Wednesday - Out for dinner
Thursday - Steak, mash potato and broccoli
Friday -

Weekend Cooking posts from the last month

Best of 2025

Afternoon Tea Diaries: Palate Through Time: Before at Oxi Tea Rooms

Christmas at Hollybush Farm by Jo Thomas

In My Kitchen: November

I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

January in Japan: Since the last January in Japan

Welcome to my own personal January in Japan which I will be doing in conjunction with the Japanese Literature Challenge which runs throughout January and February. 

Over the last couple of years, I have been reading more and more Japanese books, but it doesn't stop there. It includes food, movies and more but the big highlight for last year was obviously visiting both Japan and South Korea, which was an amazing holidays.

Since last January, here are most of the things that I have done that have a Japanese connection. 

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki (review) 

White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton (review)

Seeing Yayoi Kusama exhibition (for the second time)

Teppanyaki (in Brisbane for my stepson's 21st birthday)

Visiting Japan and South Korea

Seeing Asako Yuzuki at Melbourne Writers Festival

Siddonie in Japan (French/Japanese movie)

The Library of Heartbeats by Laura Imai Messina (review)

The Convenience Store by the Sea by Sonoko Machida (review)

Butter by Asako Yuzuki (review)

The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Cafe by Yuta Takahashi

The Phone Box at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina

The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park by Michiko Aoyama

Letters from the Ginza Shihodo Stationary Shop by Kenji Ueda

Best Wishes from the Full Moon Cafe by Mai Mochizuko

Over the coming month, I am planning to read more, watch a movie or two, maybe do a Japanese dinner or something! We'll see!

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - January 2026

Welcome to the 2026 edition of the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge! I am very excited to get the challenge underway for this year!

I am really looking forward to reading your reviews throughout the year! I am sure there is going to be a lot of great historical fiction discovered and shared with fellow HF lovers over the course of this year!

If you haven't already signed up, it's not too late! The sign up post is here.

Just to recap what participants need to know. At the beginning of each month I will put up a post which will have a Mr Linky embedded into it for you to add your link. I will also do a recap post each month to help highlight the books we have been reading and the people who are participating. 

Please remember...

• add the link(s) of your review(s) including your name and book title to the Mister Linky we’ll be adding to our monthly post (please, do not add your blog link, but the correct address that will guide us directly to your review). 
• it doesn't matter where you review - Bookstagram, Goodreads etc as long as you share a direct link to your review.
• any kind of historical fiction is accepted (fantasy, young adult, graphic novels...)
• You will always find a link to the current month's post for links in the sidebar of my blog
• if you have time, have a look some of the other links that are present. You never know when you will discover new blogs or books!

You can also join the challenge group on Facebook which you can find here and don't forget to use the #histficreadingchallenge hashtag on the socials.

Let the reading begin!!

One December Morning by Emma Davies

Earlier this year I read my first book by Emma Davies which was called The Midnight Bakery. As soon as I saw that there was going to be a new book out I knew that I was going to read it.

One December Morning starts with a really cute meet-cute. I am sure it is still a meet-cute even when the characters are in their 50s and 60s. When Peg and Henry meet in a petrol station, there is no reason to think that they will ever meet again. Hours later, they are both stuck in a traffic jam on the highway. With no sign of the cars moving, Peg approaches Henry's car and they sit together for a couple of hours chatting, sharing mince pies, until the traffic moves and they go their separate ways. 

It turns out, though, that they are heading in very similar directions. Widow Peg is returning home to her beloved cottage with a patch of wood that she can wander through whenever she needs some peace of mind or inspiration. Peg had been visiting her aging aunt who had been in hospital.

Divorcee Henry is heading a nearby village in the Cotswolds for a visit to his son Adam and uptight daughter in law Sophia. Henry doesn't really enjoy the whole Christmas production which Sophia put on. Everything has to look perfect, taste perfect, and spend time with other perfect people. Henry finds it all very uncomfortable, but he does it out of a sense of duty so that he can spend time with his son. 

After a heated discussion with Adam, Henry goes to find Peg's house looking for refuge. However, things don't come to plan. Peg finds herself becoming involved with Henry's family including Adam, Sophia and her mother Blanche. Adding Peg's aunt Mim and her own daughters into the mix, Peg's plan for a very low key Christmas with just her and a good book have gone right out the window.

Whilst Christmas plays an important part in this story, really the book is about being true to yourself and second chances. Several of the characters are facing unexpected changes in their lives and have the opportunity to think about what life really is all about!

I really enjoyed the first part of the story, and the end was nicely tied up, albeit it did feel a bit rushed. There is an odd change in the direction of the story at a point in the middle which had my scratching my head a bit when it happened. I ended up flipping back a couple of chapters to reread them to try and figure it what happened. In the end I just had to go with it!

I will be looking for books from this author's backlist and, of course, also for any new books she comes out with!

Thanks for Netgalley for the review copy. I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews. This will be my last review for the 2025 version of the challenge, but I have already signed up for the 2026 challenge!