I’ve read some wonderful books this year. My favourites were: The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie; Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks; and (best of all) the fantastically bonkers The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.
One of the great things about reading is there are always more books to read. Some of the books on my radar for 2025 are:
Orlando by Virginia Woolf – just because;
The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge – shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1973;
Restless by William Boyd – winner of the Costa Novel Award in 2006;
Orbital by Samantha Harvey – 2024 Booker Prize winner;
American Pastoral by Philip Roth – winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize;
Fools of Fortune by William Trevor – Whitbread Novel of the Year in 1983;
Normal People by Sally Rooney – winner of the 2018 Costa Novel of the Year.
What books are on your ‘to-read’ list at the moment?
Happy New Year, everyone, and happy reading!
whatcathyread 
What a fab list! So many authors on it that I have yet to discover. I didn’t get much reading done in 2024 with work overload. Your radar books – I will definitely read the Bainbridge and I too was thinking about Virginia Woolf for my 2025 list. I read American Pastoral some years ago and it was a huge hit with me – very believable. On that subject – the happenstance of turning to terrorist acts – I recently read the satirical novel, The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing – again, very believable – the psychologies of some of those drawn to living in squats and rigidifying on platitudes. I recently chatted with a neighbour who was a Housing Officer in the 1970s and yes, even those characters in Lessing’s novel are well-observed. I think The Good Terrorist is set in the early 1980s and that Lessing was drawn to writing it following the IRA bombing of Harrods.
I hope to read these over the next few weeks:
Sad Little Men: How Public Schools Failed Britain Richard Beard
The Mad Women’s Ball Victoria Mas
Send Nudes (short stories) Saba Sams
Absolutely Forever Rose Tremain
Of these authors, I’ve only read Tremain and I must admit I chose the book for its cover – so bad – I will make sure I don’t do that when I buy from a book shop this year.
Because I’m retiring this year (Easter), I treated myself to the Faber and Faber Poetry Diary, 2025 – I’m determined not only to have a coffee break each day but to read poetry in it too.
Very much looking forward to the What Cathy Read blogs and will take cues from there for more 2025 reading. Thanks so much for such stimulating blogs, Cathy. Have an enchanting 2025