| Author | Title (13 fiction) | My comments |
|---|---|---|
| Jacob M. Appel | The Man Who Wouldn’t Stand Up | Described in 2013 as “The funniest, wittiest, nicest book you could hope to read.” It still is. |
| Alexander Baron | The Lowlife | A 1960s tale of a low-life gambler living in a rented room in London’s East End. Absolutely brilliant. |
| Elizabeth Day | Scissors, Paper, Stone | Wife and daughter of a man in a coma face up to their relationships. A fabulous read. |
| Louise Doughty | A Bird in Winter | Middle-aged woman goes on the run from a corrupt boss. A tense, well-written thriller. A fabulous read. |
| Anne Fine | Raking the Ashes | Tilly struggles with her partner’s dishonesty. A superb read. |
| Margaret Forster | Over | A father’s obsessive research into his daughter’s accidental death wrecks his marriage. A powerful tale of grief. |
| Claire Fuller | Unsettled Ground | Fifty-year-old brother and sister living with their mother struggle with past and present. A terrific tale. |
| Tessa Hadley | After the Funeral | Superb collection of short stories. |
| Meena Kandasamy | When I Hit You | A shocking, thought-provoking account of an Indian woman’s experience of domestic violence. A shattering read. |
| Sue Miller | The Good Mother | Recently divorced mother with a 4-year-old daughter finds sexual happiness but runs into trouble. |
| John Niven | The Fck-it List* | A dying man seeks revenge in Trump’s America. A fabulous read. |
| Liz Nugent | Unravelling Oliver | Why did writer Oliver assault his illustrator wife Alice? A fabulous tale. |
| Cornell Woolrich | I Married a Dead Man | A train crash and a case of mistaken identity. Despite improbabilities, a fabulous tale. |
| Author | Title (6 non-fiction) | My comments |
|---|---|---|
| Rory Carroll | Killing Thatcher | Fabulously detailed account of the plot to kill Margaret Thatcher at the Grand Hotel in Brighton. |
| Eugenia Cheng | Is Maths Real? | A really interesting book about maths. |
| Dunt & Lynskey | Conspiracy Theory | A brilliant history and psychology of conspiracism. |
| Abi Morgan | This Is Not a Pity Memoir | Superb memoir of dealing with the consequences of her partner’s brain injury. |
| Christine Negroni | The Crash Detectives | You should feel safer flying after reading this — but you might not. |
| Matt Taibbi | Divide | American Justice in the Age of the Wealth Gap. A terrific and shocking read. |
Summary of my favourite 2025 books by author gender (using ChatGPT)
Female-authored books: 12 (63%)
Male-authored books: 6 (32%)
Co-authored books: 1 (5%)
Strong tilt toward women writers, especially in fiction and memoir—very consistent with your interest in emotional acuity, relationships, and moral complexity.
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