2025 Favorites

Happy New Year!

I have not done a favorites list for the last several years, and I miss having the record for myself, especially as I’ve quit using the platforms that keep up with these records for me. So in addition to some favorites from 2025, I will throw in a highlight or two from the years I’ve missed, where I can remember them.

Ok, let’s go…

2025 Favorites: Books 

Fiction

My Friends by Frederik Backman

The Girl with the Louding Voice Abi Daré (audiobook is the move here)

There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

The Most Fun We Ever Had Claire Lombardo

The Names by Florence Knapp

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

The Women of The Copper Country by Maria Doria Russell

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny (I have never been a mystery series girl, but I started this series in 2024 and I am ALL IN. I’d move to Three Pines if there weren’t so many murders there.)

Nonfiction

To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donahue

Consolations by David Whyte

The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism by George Monbiot (also a documentary)

Driving Over Lemons by Chris Stewart

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Emergent Strategies by adrienne maree brown

Quick Highlights from the years I missed:

2024: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

2023: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders

2022: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

2025 Favorites: Songs 

We shut down our family Spotify account this fall because they were recruiting for the devil. In the search for a new streaming service, my daughter, Mary Polly, turned us on to Qobuz, which (supposedly) is a more ethical streaming choice because they publish what they pay artists per stream. The kids have all gone back to physical media, listening to records and CDs, bought mostly from thrift stores, which is just WILD. But I do love hearing what they have found when I hop in their cars.

If you want to give Qobuz a try, here is a Qobuz playlist of the 95 songs I listened to the most in 2025.

But here are the highlights: the 5 songs that I listened to nonstop in 2025:

Dear Maria Joy Oladokun

Looks Like The End Of The Road Alison Krauss & Union Station (The whole album is delightful, but this track is my fav.)

Haven Hill Sierra Hull (From another album I listened to on repeat.)

Lost Woman’s Prayer Emily Scott Robinson (I feel pretty sure her upcoming album, Appalachia, will be on my 2026 favorites playlist!)

Nice To Each Other Olivia Dean (She played the Forwards Festival in Bristol this year which happens right around the corner from where we live.)

Quick Highlights from the years I missed:

2024: Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter (the whole album)

2023: To The Mountains Lizzy McAlpine (This has been my theme song for more than a few walking trips.)

2022: Portas do Sol Nena (I heard this song in a cab in Porto in June 2022 and I still listen to it regularly. It reminds me of being in Portugal and motivates me to figure out how to get back there as soon as possible.)

2025 Favorites: Movies + Documentaries

I have a very short list of movies I loved from this year. And no hope of remembering from years past.

Bob Trevino Likes It (Randomly watched this on an airplane and have been begging people to watch it ever since. Small cast. Slow burn. The two main performances by Barbie Ferreira and John Leguizamo are a WONDER!  Based on a true story from a time before Facebook algorithms ruled our lives, this film will restore your faith in humanity.)

A Complete Unknown (I’m pretty sure I was still in the womb when my dad introduced me to Bob Dylan, so this film was made for me and I ate it up. I could re-watch it weekly for the MUSIC ALONE.)

Lilith Fair: Building A Mystery (Speaking of things that were made for me, this documentary captures all the music that played in the background of my early married years. I had my first two babies during Lilith Fair summers. What a time!)

Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All (Yes please to music documentaries from all my favorite artists! I first heard Closer to Fine when I was working at summer camp in 1990. Rites of Passage was playing nonstop the year that Taido and I fell in love. We got married the year Galileo came out (1994). So of course, of course, I loved this story of the Indigo Girls. Pure nostalgia watch.)

2025 Favorites: TV 

Andor: Season 1 (I’m late to the party here but my son, Ben, talked me into watching the first season while I was home for Christmas. Now I’m ready for the rest. I’ve already re-watched Episode 10.)

Pachinko (LOVED this book, and I’m mesmerized by the series! I still have about 6 episodes left to watch.)

2025 Favorites: Podcasts 

On Being (Always brings me back to the light)

Scene On Radio (Season 7 on Capitalism and Season 5 on Climate Change)

Maintenance Phase (De-bunking diet culture, yes please)

If Books Could Kill (De-bunking popular books that we’ve let make opinions for us)

2025 Favorites: Experiences 

Celebrating our 30th anniversary over New Year’s in Lisboa with family. I’m still amazed that we’ve been married for that long.

Hiking with friends and family: the GR7 in Spain with old and new friends! Hiking a new Camino: The Camino del Norte from San Sebastian through Bilbao and on to Santander. Planning the perfect trip to Wales! A Hut-to-Hut hike in the Dolomites with my family. (Sleeping at Santnerpass, which is the hut in the photo for this post.) Returning to Switzerland. Reviving a canceled 2020 itinerary to walk the Way of Saint Francis to Assisi with friends. Doing walks in and around Bristol with my friends! I’m so grateful for the folks who travel year after year to come and walk with me! What a delight!

Swimming. I started swimming reluctantly in 2024 because I hurt my knee. There are a lot of things that I don’t love about it that kept me away from year-round swimming for a long time: paying for it, smelling like chlorine, exercising in a gym instead of out in the woods, awkward lane sharing with other swimmers of varying speeds, squeezing my wet thighs into warm fleece leggings afterwards. But in spite of all I don’t love about it, I have found swimming laps to be one of the most meditative and healing acts of kindness I can do for my body and soul.

Ashtanga Yoga. I’ve done a lot of yoga over the years, so it’s always with amazement that I find ways that yoga can be new to me. I had never done Ashtanga before 2024. Ashtanga is a set series, where the motions are the same every time. Like swimming, the repetitive nature of this yoga style has been comforting to me. Maybe in a world that feels out of control, it’s been a relief to have a season of knowing what to expect when I show up for yoga.

Live Music with Taido. I don’t even know how many sets of concert tickets Taido Chino has bought since we moved to Bristol. But here’s the way it always goes when I realize there is a concert on the calendar: I see it and think…dang, I’m going to have to stay up late for that.  Then the day arrives and I don’t really want to go, and I wonder if someone else can go with him so I can stay at home in my sweats. About a half hour before it’s time to leave, I change out of my leggings into jeans and something slightly cuter than the dirty t-shirt I’ve been wearing for three days. Maybe I put on a sweater or a flannel button down shirt. I might even smear on lip gloss instead of chapstick. Then I leave the house AFTER DARK. We walk into the city and it’s always wild to me that there are so many people out and about. Then we go to the concert venue and find our seats and wait for the music to start. The band comes out and starts to play and all of a sudden I’m enjoying myself. I LOVE IT! I’m so glad I came. We walk home talking about our favorite parts and we make playlists out of the set lists to listen to on repeat.

Cheers to getting out of the house after dark! And to all the walks, artists, authors, musicians and fellow travelers who make this wild world more beautiful to me!

Want to see more favorites (mostly books) from past years? Here’s 2009, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019 , 2020, and 2021.