Something Old and Something New For 2025

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Happy 2025 readers! I and our HOTS bloggers are hoping you’ve had a stellar start to the new year, perhaps with a new (or old) New Year’s resolution under your belt. We’re probably all familiar with the less than positive statistics that most resolutions aren’t built to last, but we’re optimistic that whatever it is you’ve made your thing of the year is something achievable and something you can work towards with conviction. Maybe whatever you’ve decided on lands somewhere in between trying to go to the gym more often or going on that wild adventure you’ve always been planning on, but mine and many of our library staff (like Sumayyah) revolve around reading. Surprise, surprise. Whether it’s pages, words, or titles, we’re challenging ourselves to finally tackle and conquer our forever towering mountain of books or our endlessly long to-read list, which is, of course, a good and very achievable goal for 2025 and will probably not also be our resolution coming into 2026.

In the spirit of our very ambitious reading resolution, and in case you were missing our year-round-up post, I’ve polled our staff across the system to gather their favorite reads of last year (though not exclusively published in 2024) and what they’re most looking forward to reading in 2025. In case your reading list isn’t a full city block long and you’re looking for something to pick up at your next library visit, see below for what my colleagues have to say about how they’re kicking off 2025 with a bang satisfying page turn!

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For those who’ve made financial 2025 resolutions, Sijal says:

“I read a lot on personal finance in 2024, and one of my favorite reads this year was Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker. It’s an older book that challenges consumerism and talks about simple living to achieve financial goals… it offered a very thought-provoking perspective on being more mindful of how/where/why we spend our money.

In 2025, I’m looking forward to reading Nexus by Yuval Noah Hararias I enjoyed reading his previous book Sapiens.”

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For those who love some grounded science-fiction, Seleena says:

“I really enjoyed Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter. It’s a perfect read about a woman’s experience with burnout in the Silicon Valley tech industry, mental health, and balancing relationships. I kind of enjoyed the millennial dread of it all, strange enough.”

For memoir lovers, Daniela says:

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“For 2024 I’ll go with Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. I was hooked and just couldn’t put it down. The reviews really do speak for themselves—it’s an exceptional memoir that reads like a captivating story. It struck a chord with me.

For 2025, A Woman in the Polar Night is on my to-read list. Originally written in 1934, this classic memoir details the author’s year in the Arctic wilderness. I’m fascinated by the idea of moving somewhere completely foreign and remote—there’s something so alluring about it but I’m sure there are many challenges and obstacles to be overcome. I’m excited to see what the author discovers!”

For mythology fans, Rhea says:

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“I read a lot of Greek mythology-based books in 2024. My favorite was Medusa’s Sisters by Lauren J. Bear (a reimagining of the story of Medusa and her sisters, from the sisters’ perspective). I’m currently awaiting the last book in Pat Barker’s The Women of Troy series, but the first two books, The Silence of the Girls & The Women of Troy, were fantastic!”

For those with a taste for the macabre, Anastasia says:

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“I don’t say this often, but I was truly captivated by Patrick Süskind’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. It’s an unsettling novel that explores the life of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a man born with no body odor but somehow blessed with an extraordinary sense of smell. Grenouille becomes obsessed with creating the perfect “perfume”; an essence that embodies something so powerful it can manipulate and control the emotions of others. The obsession with this “human scent” leads him down a disturbing and murderous path, and you know they had me at “murder”! I couldn’t put this down until I was done!”

For those who want to pick up some Canadian literature, Mirella says:

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“My favorite reads of 2024 were North of Normal: A Memoir of My Wilderness Childhood, My Counterculture Family, and How I Survived Both by Cea Sunrise Person and Son of Elsewhere by Elamin Abdelmahmoud. North of Normal is a fascinating account of a young girl and her family as they live life “off the grid” in Northern Alberta and Son of Elsewhere is great for those who are fans of the CBC pop culture program radio program Commotion. Show host Elamin shares his experiences as a newcomer from Sudan and growing up as a child in Canada.”

For those who want even more recommendations from our blogging team, Sumayyah says:

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“My favorite 2024 read was The Girl and the Witch’s Garden by Erin Bowman which is a fantasy, middle-grade book that’s like if The Secret Garden had a crossover with Spirited Away! It’s a lovely exploration of grief, love, friendship, complicated families, and magic. It made me cry!

In 2025 I’m looking forward to reading all the books Adam recommended for me but….my goal is to also read through my personal library of unread books before I get any more. The Wonderling by Mira Bartok is one example. It’s another middle-grade fantasy about plucky orphan animal children, identity, and belonging. It’s got a very pretty cover, which I’m always a sucker for.”

Alison says:

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The Nightmare Before Kissmas is my favorite book published in 2024.  As soon as I read the premise, that each holiday has a royal family and kingdom tucked away from the regular world, and that princes from my two favorite holidays (Christmas and Halloween) were going to potentially fall in love I was hooked. It has not disappointed me at all, as it features delightful characters, smart dialogue, tender moments, tense moments, funny moments, and cool world-building.

For 2025, I think the one I’m most excited about now is Go Luck Yourself by Sara Raasch, which is a sequel to The Nightmare Before Kissmas. It’s out in March, and it’s another queer romance but this time between another member of Christmas royalty and a St. Patrick’s Day royal.

And Adam says:

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“I’ll toss in Shades of Grey and Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde. They’re dystopian fiction, which I’m usually not a fan of, but the world Fforde has created is just so weird, but… recognizable? It’s a lot of fun figuring out extra information about how the world works from the dialogue and background events. The story follows protagonist Eddie Russet as he learns more about the behind-the-scenes goings-on in his strictly rule-governed world that almost feels like a boarding school. Oh, and people are mostly colorblind, with the one specific color you can see determining everything from your job to your marriage prospects.”

And as for what he’s looking forward to getting his hands on in 2025, he says:

Shades of Grey came out in 2009, while Red Side Story is a 2024 release. There’s supposed to be a third book to finish the story, but I’ve heard that from Patrick Rothfuss too, so I’ll believe it when I read it.”

Of course, I couldn’t finish off this post without throwing my hat into the discussion, so for my favorite 2024 read I’ll be championing three different books because who can pick just one?

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I was going to start with The Nice House on the Lake by James Tynion, but as I’ve already recommended it in an earlier post, doing it again felt like a bit of a cop-out. It’s a good thing I got my hands on the second volume! Volume two builds so well on the groundwork Tynion’s already laid out and everything that stood out to me when I just started the series holds true for its conclusion. Doing some further research into the series, as my curiosity and I are wont to do, I discovered that Tynion had started writing this project as a personal challenge to scare his therapist. You really start to get a sense of the mirror he’s holding up to himself as you get a clear picture of who Walter is through the people who know him and who are now trapped with him in his nice house on the lake. It’s quiet horror done with an expert’s touch and highlights what I love so much about the genre: sometimes it’s the best vehicle to get to the meat of the faults and hardships of being human, in a way that doesn’t let you sweep it under the rug. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next part of the series, The Nice House by the Sea, when the first volume gets published later this year.

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Still, if you were tired of hearing me talk about the same graphic novel, let me introduce you to Diane Zahler’s book of junior fiction, Goblin Market, which had me by the few lines scrawled on the back cover. It has all the cornerstones of classic fairytales- a bold and brave young girl, magic, dark forests, and the monsters of small-town folklore. When Lizzie’s sister Minka falls ill after meeting a boy at the market she’s head over heels for, it’s up to Lizzie to find the cause behind it and save her sister before it’s too late. It’s a well done horror novel for children parading as a fantasy book and has done a great job of recontextualizing its source material for the modern day reader.

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My last highlight of 2024 is Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura. I still haven’t gotten around to watching the film adaptation, but I am glad I read the book first when I came across the movie. It’s got heart, mystery, and magic all wrapped up in a story about kids trying to navigate the difficulties of growing up in the Japanese education system when they’re transported to a magical castle beyond their bedroom mirrors. The book is the recipient of 2018’s Japan’s Booksellers’ Award, which is voted on by bookstore clerks around the country every year, so you can rest assured that the story is going to be top-notch.    

As for what I’m looking forward to picking up in 2025 well, I guess some things just don’t change as you can see from my favorites of last year. I came across Coup De Grâce from a very intriguing Twitter post (a new year, another year of me refusing to call Twitter by anything other than Twitter). Other than that, all I’ve heard is that Sofia Ajram’s book is very reminiscent of House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski, which I enjoyed for its creative use of formatting and labyrinth-style storytelling. But sometimes going in blind is the most fun when picking up a new read, so in 2025 I think I’m going to be more spontaneous with what I pick up off a shelf, starting with this one.

That wraps up our look behind at 2024 and our peek into 2025. If you’re interested to see more of what we’ve read and are reading, be sure to check out this companion list on BiblioCommons.

From all of us here on the HOTS team, we wish you a happy and full new year of reads!  

About Maya

Maya is an Information staff member at Vaughan Public Libraries. If she isn't scratching her head over the next sentence in her writing, she's making art and stretching her creative legs. She's a huge film buff and loves weird, fantastical fiction.  |  Meet the team