This past year was a great book of reads and story telling. I surpassed my goal and I’m very proud of that.
Let’s recap my 2025 in literature.
I read First Born Daughters, my first Bernice McFadden novel and fell completely in love with her writings. Naturally, I had to go back and read Sugar and This Bitter Earth. The story of these beautiful women and their relationship moved me and reframed how I think about the depth and importance of having deep connections with women. I can’t wait to add those books to my shelves.
I also read a lot of Historical Fiction which is no surprise, since it’s my favorite genre, Thriller/True Crime, a little Romance, and more Young Adult reads than normal. If I had to rank my favorites from each genre, it would go like this:
Romance – A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
Young Adult – Scammer by Tiffany Jackson
Thriller – Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby
Historical Fiction – James by Percival Everett
To be honest, I don’t feel too confident about this list. I loved every book I read and it’s really hard to choose.
I participated in my first buddy read with my sorority sister. The books we selected were Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson and The Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson. The Yellow Wife tore me up. I’m still aghast from the ending of that book.
I met two of my favorite Romance authors, Kennedy Ryan and Jasmine Guillory and they signed a few copies of my books. Kennedy has signed all but one of my books from the Skyland series.
I started volunteering at the bookstore at my local library. The sales are donated to the library and I’ve not had one shift where I didn’t buy a book. Here are a few of my purchases.
I attended a book discussion for Harlem Rhapsody with the author Victoria Christopher Murray. I loved hearing about her writing and research process for this book.
I read my first Fantasy genre book at the persistent pushing of a friend. Blood at the Root was an amazing book! After reading it, I was in high anticipation for the sequel, Bones at the Crossroads. I can’t wait to watch the film adaptation.
The books that didn’t really move me and were just okay were, Augustown by Kei Miller, Do What Godmother Says by L.S Stratton, and Mademoiselle Revolution by Zoe Sivak.
Overall, this year in books was good to me. I wanted to add more books by Black Male authors, and I think I accomplished that goal. Below are the stories I indulged in during 2025.
This year, I want to focus more on building a personal library of Black classics and collections. I have also begun adding my books to a digital library to help me to better keep track of what I have so that I don’t buy doubles. I plan to continue to add more books from Black Male authors, so if you have any suggestions, please pass them on.
Have you read any of the books from my 2025 read list? If you want to add any to your library, you can shop them here.
Happy Reading,
Starr
