This year was…something. On a macro scale, it was quite a roller coaster, and I’m not sure I need to go there at the moment. But on a personal scale, 2025 brought me a great deal of growth and clarity, and for that I’m grateful.
I spent the year working hard towards my goal of creating a sustainable (if not yet financially viable) career in narration and voiceover while continuing to pursue my passion for teaching, promoting literacy, and working with young humans. How this looks at the end on 2025 is different than I envisioned it at the beginning, but after focusing on audiobook narration rather than splitting my efforts between narration and voiceover work, I managed to record my first audiobook and to get some very positive feedback on several auditions that didn’t land me a booking. I attended narrator events where I got hooked into an amazingly supportive network of professionals, and I had a remarkable small-world experience when I connected with an actor and narrator who turned out the be the daughter of a woman who was in the writing group I led on the other side of the continent more than 20 years ago, long before audiobook narration or acting of any kind was even on my radar.
This year I discovered clarity around my goals for teaching and volunteering. I began volunteering reading picture books to classrooms of children just starting elementary school, and while that was a little terrifying at first, it has become a highlight of my week. I also had an opportunity to deepen my role at work by becoming a mentor for new teachers, and I discovered a passion for supporting peers as they grow their careers. I also accidentally learned that my third graders are much calmer when I bring my energy level and vocal volume down a little, so I’m hoping to do more of that intentionally in the coming year.
Some of the discoveries were challenges that I still need to figure out, like how to pursue things I love and be there for the people who matter most to me while still caring for my body and spirit instead of sidelining my physical and emotional needs until something breaks. I continue to have just two settings—flooring it and stalling out—but I’m hopeful that, just as I learned how to work the clutch and shift smoothly while learning to drive a manual transmission when I was 16, I’ll learn a little more balance (and perhaps even finesse?) during 2026.
On the reading front, I’m amazed to look back at all the incredible books I read in 2025, and I’m excited to take on new challenges in 2026. I’m reviving my Cavalcade of Classics with a new list of 50 books to read over the next five years, including all seven volumes of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, which I hope to read before January 1, 2027. And as usual, I’m planning to read the full Tournament of Books shortlist before the tournament begins in early March. We’ll see how that goes.
To support all of my goals and to honor the last precious bit of time before my kids are both adults and before I turn 50, I’m planning to spend less time with my phone and more time in nature, exploring new places, taking photos, and maybe doing a little nature drawing, if I’m feeling like pushing my comfort zone even more. I plan to practice asking for what I want rather than setting my needs and desires aside preemptively to support the needs and desires of those around me. I’m going to do my best to sit with discomfort and consciously choose my next moves so I can address patterns of behavior that no longer work for me rather than going on autopilot. And I plan to make time to cook new recipes and old favorites, something I’ve neglected over the past few years.
But before I do all of that, here’s where my reading journey took me in 2025:
Number of books read: 166 (29% more than 2024)
Number of books I didn’t finish: 11 (six more than in 2024)
Pages read for the year: 48,217 (19% more than in 2024)
I had nine 5-star reads in 2025:
- The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck
- Erasure by Percival Everett
- The Bill of Obligations by Richard Haass
- Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
- One Man’s Meat by E.B. White
- Emotional Labor by Rose Hackman
- The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
- The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
- Gliff by Ali Smith
2025 Cover Collage!
You can see the whole beautiful wrap-up on TheStoryGraph.
And that’s my reading for 2025!
I hope that your own 2025 Year in Books was pleasant, that 2026 brings you many welcome adventures, both bookish and otherwise, and that any challenges you face serve to help you grow stronger and more resilient.
Imperfect Happiness 