If you’re anything like me you probably spent the last days of December looking at lists of books you should be reading in 2025. I’ve even made my own list of the ones I’m most looking forward to. It’s also the time of year where we choose how we’re going to track our reading and whether we’re going set ourselves a challenge. There’s the Goodreads annual challenge where you try to read even more books to meet your target, there’s Storygraph which I don’t know anything about. I do Goodreads mainly because there’s a record of what I’ve read so I can do my end of year posts. There are other ways to challenge ourselves, such as choosing to read more classics or the Agatha Christie challenge where you read through her works during the year. As those of you will know I’m struggling with my health at the moment so I decided to take a hiatus from blog tours and Squad POD activities to read by mood for a while and be free from obligations. I’m really enjoying it, even if I am missing the camaraderie of the squad at times, that excitement of all reading a book together and talking about it is hard to beat.
I’m not big on New Years Resolutions, it’s the wrong time of year and too much pressure. So my only change for this year is to act on something I noticed from struggling so much this year. When I’m in a reading slump I noticed that I managed to get going again by reading non-fiction. It seemed to be a mix of memoir, humour, crime, history and fashion. Over the past couple of years I’ve been reading books by celebrities, often comedians and actors: Phillipa Perry, Lou Sanders, David Mitchell, Rupert Everett and Miriam Margoyles to name a few. I’ve read some brilliant memoirs on illness and death such as Patient by Ben Watt, Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox and Christopher Reeve’s memoirs. I loved reading memoirs by comedians Lou Sanders and Fern Brady who both detailed difficulties they faced being late diagnosed with autism and ADHD. I also found myself drawn to books of letters or diaries and I’ve loved reading Virginia Woolf’s diaries but also Kenneth William’s diaries which happen to be hilarious and sad at the same time. I have a thing about the Mitford sisters and dip in and out of their letters to each other regularly. So this year I’m going to read a non-fiction book every month. Ive found twelve non-fiction books I haven’t read yet and I’m going to pick one every month to read and review. I’m excited to get started on them. I wish you all a Happy New Year and I hope you enjoy all the challenges you’ve set yourself this year.
Here’s the info on my choices:
Mind-Whispering by Tara Bennett-Goleman from Ebury
Always Take Notes: Advice From The Worlds Greatest Writers. Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd. Ithaca Press from Bonnier Publishing
What about Men? By Caitlin Moran. From Ebury. Penguin Publishing
Unwell Women by Elinor Cleghorn. Wiedenfeld & Nicolson.
Tove Jansson Work and Love by Tuula Karjalainen. Penguin Books.
The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective by Sara Lodge. From Yale University Press.
MILF by Paloma Faith from Ebury Publishing/ Penguin Random House
The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place. By Kate Summerscale. From Bloomsbury.
Want. Written by Anonymou. Edited by Gillian Anderson. Simon & Schuster UK.
The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes by Kate Strasden. Chatto & Windus.
The Untamed Thread by Fleur Woods. By Koa Press.
Jane Austen’s Wardrobe by Hilary Davidson. From Yale University Press.
The Lotus Readers 
That’s so interesting how you turn to nonfiction as nourishment, I totally agree that there’s certain times when we indeed need a different kind of reading comfort. I find thus particularly so in winter and like reading creative nonfiction nature writing for this reason, Kathleen Jamie’s Findings is one I remember loving and Tove Jansson A Winter Book and I always have a Hay House published book on my bedside table (the publishing company Louise Hay started at 60 featuring inspirational people she encouraged to write a book!) Kyle Gray is my current read, a favourite whose words never fail to uplift.
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It’s almost like a reset button for me. I have a book of life writing by women by the bed and it’s great to read a short piece from it when I’ve just finished a book. I don’t like to start a new one at night.
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