Recommendsday: Favourite reads of the year so far

We are nearly at the halfway point in the year, so I thought today I would take the opportunity to mention my favourite reads of 2025 so far. Now it should be noted that these are not all new books and I think principally that’s because I’ve had a few absolutely chronic binge reads that means that I’ve just read less other stuff all together so the mix of new to old is very much skewed in favour of the old at the halfway mark of the year.

I’m going to start with the not new stuff, because there is more of it. Lets start with the a murder mystery and A Case of Mice and Murder. This is an edwardian era mystery set in essentially a closed community – the barristers of the Temple. I loved it and have recommended it a few times now. The sequel is out next month and is just as good. Next up is Legends and Lattes, which is sort of Terry Pratchett-esque but with very low takes and a very cozy vibe. I still need to read the second book in the series, which is a prequel and there is a third book coming in the autumn. And then there is On Turpentine Lane a fun romantic comedy with a mystery subplot that had me smiling and laughing the whole way through. And obviously the main binge was that six week period where I read the entire Dr Ruth Galloway series, so I should really mention those as well.

On the new book front, my favourite is probably The Favourites, which is one of the better portrayals of figure skating in fiction. I’ve seen a lot of other skating fans who have enjoyed it too, but really is a melodrama about intertwined relationships that uses the sport as a driving factor – you definitely don’t need to know the difference between an axel and a salchow to enjoy this (particularly as it’s set in ice dance and they don’t do jumps!). I also really enjoyed Curtis Sittenfeld’s latest short story collection, Show Don’t Tell. I remain someone who prefers novels to short stories, but I like Sittenfeld’s writing and ideas so much and this is really good, especially if you’ve read Prep because you get to revisit the characters years down the line. There are a couple more new releases that I’ve enjoyed but that are later books in series which usually means I don’t review them because: spoilers. But the latest Vinyl Detective was a return to form and was a BotW pick and Murder Below Deck, the second Paul Delamere book was also a really fun read.

That’s your lot today,