It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a bookworm. While I was once the type who would alternate between not reading for months and then reading constantly, perhaps on holiday or if I was particularly bored, I wanted it to be a consistent habit this year. At the start of 2025, I set myself a goal to read 20 books and I’m already at 16 in July!
I wanted a relatively manageable goal because I knew that if, for example, I set a goal of 30 books and only read 15, it would discourage me from setting another goal next year. I’m predicting that I will have read somewhere between 25 and 30 books by the end of the year, but I’m not putting too much pressure on myself. I’ll be in my final year of uni for the last quarter, and I’ll probably have lots of academic reading and coursework to focus on. Still, I’m both happy and surprised that I’ve already read this many.
I wrote in my article about my journaling routines that I like to write reviews of all the books I read. This way I can consolidate what I’ve taken away from them, as well as keep a record of what I’ve read. I thought it would be a good idea to share these reviews with you; they might inspire you with books to add to your reading list, although there will be spoilers, so be careful if you’re planning to read any of these.
11th January
Title: Everything I Know About Love
Author: Dolly Alderton
Pages: 368
Genre: memoir
Published: 2018
Star rating: ★★★★
I really enjoyed this book because it’s gritty, real, and shows the ugly side of being a young adult. I grew to love Dolly as a person and related to many of her feelings, like existentialism and anxiety. I especially loved her reflections on embracing the mundanity of life, as it’s something I’ve been struggling with recently. Some parts were so emotional that they nearly made me cry, like the chapter where Florence dies, but I appreciated how she puts a somewhat positive spin on it – it made her appreciate life’s simplicity.
5th February
Title: Pride and Prejuice
Author: Jane Austen
Genre: romance
Pages: 304
Published: 1813
Star rating: ★
To be honest, I thought that this book was really overrated. I don’t blame Jane Austen for this since it was written in a different era, but I found it hard to understand because of the language used. I think that this led me to not fully engage with the story. Maybe I need to read it again to properly appreciate it, but I don’t plan on doing that for the foreseeable.
18th February
Title: Conversations on Love
Author: Natasha Lunn
Genre: self-help, relationships
Pages: 320
Published: 2021
Star rating: ★★★★
I liked this book a lot because it taught me about why people act the way they do in relationships and gives a unique perspective on love, i.e. that it’s all around us, that it’s a risk, and that it’s a choice. It’s given me some advice which I’ll be taking with me into future relationships. The only downside was the long, slightly unstructured chapters, which made it difficult to find a good stopping point. Besides that, it was an enjoyable read.
4th March
Title: Beautiful World, Where Are You?
Author: Sally Rooney
Genre: romance, friendship
Pages: 352
Published: 2021
Star rating: ★★★★
I enjoyed this for all the same reasons I liked Conversations with Friends: Rooney’s writing style is easy to read and relatable. I preferred this one to because it felt more realistic — it simply depicts life as a young adult. My favourite types of books are ones with romance but not in an unrealistic film-like way, so this book fulfilled that expectation for me. I also found it really sweet how at the end, Eileen and Alice both realise their lives are in fact already beautiful through the richness of their relationships.
13th March
Title: Buy Yourself the Damn Flowers
Author: Tam Kaur
Genre: self-help
Pages: 288
Published: 2024
Star rating: ★★★★
I expected this book to be condescending based on how Tam Kaur comes across online, but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s given me some useful ideas to implement on my own self-love journey whilst being easy to digest — it took me less than two weeks to read which is fast for me. The reason it doesn’t get five stars is because I found there to be some discrepancies that aren’t really explained, e.g. it advises against asking others for their approval, yet it later recommends you ask family and friends for advice.
22nd March
Title: You Could Be So Pretty
Author: Holly Bourne
Genre: dystopian fiction
Pages: 400
Published: 2023
Star rating: ★★★
This book reminded me why I used to love Holly Bourne’s books. While I think I’ve outgrown her writing style a bit because I now find it slightly juvenile, I loved the premise of the book. I was thinking to myself how crazy it would be if the world was like this, until I realised the point is that this IS what the world is like. It’s made me want to read more books on feminism to properly educate myself. I’d definitely recommend this book to younger readers who want to understand why feminism still matters in 2025.
1st April
Title: Body Positive Power
Author: Megan Jayne Crabbe
Genre: self-help
Pages: 280
Published: 2018
Star rating: ★★★★
I wasn’t expecting this book to help me much, but surprisingly it did. It explains the history and reasoning behind our fatphobic society, as well as some shocking statistics (like how the average age a girl starts dieting is eight). Crabbe shares her own story with dieting and recovering from an eating disorder, which was powerful and inspiring. The only thing missing was an in-depth discussion of disabled bodies, but perhaps it wasn’t hers to tell.
8th April
Title: Girl, Interrupted
Author: Susanna Kaysen
Genre: memoir, autobiography
Pages: 192
Published: 1993
Star rating: ★★★
This book reminded me of The Bell Jar, so of course I really liked it. At first, I thought it was boring because it doesn’t seem like a lot happens, but when I learnt it was a true story, I liked it more. It gives an unfiltered look at mental illness, and I liked the inclusion of the clinical details. The first-person perspective made it feel even more real and compelling.
18th April
Title: First, We Make the Beast Beautiful
Author: Sarah Wilson
Genre: memoir, self-help
Pages: 320
Published: 2017
Star rating: ★★★★
I’d say that this is one of the best books on mental health that I’ve read. It gives lots of interesting theories and facts about anxiety, as well as coping mechanisms that I’ve started using. I like how it’s written by someone who’s simply a sufferer of anxiety who talks about what worked for her, because I find that books written by experts come across condescending and contain too much jargon. She also includes quotes from other books, like Tolle’s The Power of Now, which I like because I can use that to further my understanding even more. The reason it doesn’t get five stars is because it didn’t seem to have a clear structure, which could have been related to the fact I read it digitally.
25th April
Title: My Year of Rest and Relaxation
Author: Ottessa Moshfegh
Genre: literary fiction
Pages: 304
Published: 2018
Star rating: ★★★★★
My favourite book this year because it explores similar themes to my favourite book ever: The Bell Jar. I simply love books about young women searching for their purpose in life. Some say the protagonist is unlikeable but I disagree — she reminds me of myself to an extent. I really loved the writing style and the dry humour of the narrator because it made me want to carry on reading. I also like the ending as it shows how much your perspective on things can change after being away from them, a profound way of showing that we fail to appreciate life’s beauty when we’re so used to it.
6th May
Title: How to Be a Woman
Author: Caitlin Moran
Genre: memoir
Pages: 336
Published: 2011
Star rating: ★★★★
I thought that this book was the perfect combination of being funny, educational and moving that Caitlin Moran does really well. For this reason, I’d definitely give this book to someone who either wants to learn more about living as a woman, or someone who doesn’t believe there are inequalities between the sexes. I loved Moran’s style of writing because it’s clear that she’s expressing her true opinions and she doesn’t care if people disagree with her. She isn’t afraid to call people out, like Katie Price who people named a feminist despite her not really caring about feminist issues, and from that, I can tell that I’d get along with Moran if I ever met her. It made me want to read more of her books since this one has only scratched the surface, and I’d love to read more of her witty-but-dry humour.
14th May
Title: The Woman Destroyed
Author: Simone de Beauvoir
Genre: feminist fiction
Pages: 257
Published: 1967
Star rating: ★★
I found it hard to get into this book because of how long the chapters were without clear structure; it makes it hard to find a natural place to stop reading and be able to pick it up again. I liked the poetic style of writing, especially in the first section, but I didn’t particularly like the main characters. My favourite one was the last woman because I think she captures the heartache of finding out your husband doesn’t love you anymore, and I think the ending is very poignant. I would like to read more of De Beauvoir’s works because I know she was a powerful feminist of her time, but the fact I didn’t enjoy this book much makes me hesitant.
28th May
Title: Clandestine
Author: James Ellroy
Genre: crime
Pages: 328
Published: 1992
Star rating: ★★★
This isn’t normally the type of book I’d choose, but I unexpectedly got quite into it. It was easy to get into and I thought it was an interesting read. I’ll admit I lost the thread of it about halfway through, but I quickly regained it and I thought the ending was really satisfying. Something that did annoy me was that I could instantly tell it was written by a man through the fact that in one of the sex scenes, they both orgasm at the same time (during a one-night stand). Still, a good read.
5th June
Title: Baise-Moi
Author: Virginie Despentes
Genre: feminism, erotic thriller
Pages: 244
Published: 1993
Star rating: ★★★★
This is the book I’m planning to write my dissertation on and I’m glad I chose it; it’s full of female rage which is the sort of thing I love reading about. It has all sorts of interesting quotes, particularly about the human body and about satirising the carnal greed of men, which I know will be good to analyse. I definitely don’t agree with the actions taken in the book because two wrongs don’t make a right, but it poses an interesting moral question of how far women will go when pushed, and I suppose the ending shows how it wasn’t the right answer. I’ll probably have to read it many more times over the course of my dissertation where I’ll be able to offer even more insights.
10th June
Title: The Courage to Be Disliked
Author: Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
Genre: self-help
Pages: 272
Published: 2013
Star rating: ★★★★
This book definitely helped to change my perspective on what it means to be happy. It’s really well-written and I like how it’s written as a dialogue between a philosopher and a young person, because it doesn’t come across as didactic, and the structure helps to dispel any arguments you’re bound to come up with as the reader. My favourite part is when it talks about the separation of tasks – it’s something I’ve never really thought of in this way before, but it’s something I’m going to remember in my everyday life. I’m still not 100% convinced by the entirety of Adlerian philosophy because some of it seems to be a gross oversimplification of the human psyche, but it’s made me want to learn more about him and about philosophy in general. I would have liked the book even more if there was a practical guide on how to apply the philosophy, but I suppose that it’s something you have to learn for yourself.
19th June
Title: Intermezzo
Author: Sally Rooney
Genre: psychological fiction
Pages: 448
Published: 2024
Star rating: ★★★★
I just love Sally Rooney’s style of writing for how it depicts mental health and the ups and downs of being a young adult in today’s world. This is the first of her books I’ve read since going to Dublin so I enjoyed it even more as I now know the places mentioned, like St. Stephen’s Green and O’Connell Street; I could imagine the book even more realistically. I also liked how it made reference to covid as it adds a touch of ‘modern day’. I appreciated the fact it switches between the perspectives of the two brothers as you could properly see the points of view of both of them. I was really angry at the ending, where Peter, Naomi and Sylvia end up being in a throuple, but when I think more about it, I like that it makes the point that love isn’t always simple and there isn’t only one way for a relationship to be. I also love the inclusion of Sylvia, a disabled woman.
26th June
Title: King Kong Theory
Author: Virginie Despentes
Genre: memoir, feminist theory
Pages: 143
Published: 2006
Star rating: ★★★
I enjoyed how readable this book was whilst also packing a punch in terms of feminist theory. It’s short enough that you could probably read it in one day and end up being far more educated on what it means to be a woman. With every one of Virginie Despentes’ books that I read, I start to love her a bit more, as I can see how cool and smart she is. I’ve noted down a few quotes from the book for my dissertation – my favourite was about how the female body belongs to men in the same way the male body belongs to industry or to the state in times of war, showing that none of us are truly free. I’m looking forward to reading more of Despentes’ work to gather even more intel for my dissertation.
I hope these reviews might encourage someone to pick up a book they wouldn’t normally read; I’m proud of the variety of themes I chose this year. After all, the beauty of reading is that it constantly expands your perspective.
- Ela Selam
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