Reading List

I Read 100+ Books a Year for Three Years. Here’s How My Reading Habits Have Changed.

by margaritakruyff

What do tuberculosis, A.I., and space-time have in common? They are a few of the topics on which I did a deep dive in my reading journey last year.

I have always prided myself on being a generalist. In high school, I played volleyball, sang in chorus, ran track, and danced hip hop. In 2007, I pivoted from a degree in marine biology to marine policy because I did not want to dedicate my career to one marine species, but a whole suite of environmental issues.

Being a generalist has served me well thus far. It has cultivated my curiosity, honed my ability to pick up new subjects, and enabled me to see issues from various perspectives. But, I’ve always wondered what I am missing by not doing a deeper dive from time to time.

For the past five years, I have been challenging myself to read a book per week, and my reading choices—as reflected by my 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 reading lists—have reflected my multidisciplinary bent. In 2025, I tried something new. I aimed for a tad more depth, and went down some REALLY niche rabbit holes.

In hindsight, the topics I honed in on aren’t so random. Last year I spent a lot of time outdoors exploring Alaska and the Four Corners, inspiring 7 books centered on nature and people living on the fringes of society. Similarly, my work in transportation and logistics for a large corporation motivated me to read 10+ books about notable inventors, founders, and Fortune 500 leaders. And, given the state of the economy, is it any surprise I read one fiction and one non-fiction book on the Great Depression? (I’m continuing the theme this year with “1929” on audiobook.)

For the third year in a row, I read more than 100 books. Unlike prior years, I let my curiosity take me down some interesting rabbit holes, and found that depth is important within measure. Topics like general relativity and neural networks are not something the average person “gets” on first pass. They require patience, repetition, and often different teachers. (Carlo Rovelli is a damn good one!) I’m excited to carry a bit more depth into the new year.

The full list of books I finished this year is below in order of completion. As always, I’ve marked the books I loved and highly recommend in bold. Those with an (A) were audiobooks. The ones marked with an asterisk were the monthly selections for my Miami-based book club, The Booze and Books Club.

Thank you to everyone who recommended books this past year. As I kickstart my reading journey for 2026, I’d love to know — what books should I add to next year’s list? Leave me a comment below.

Every Book I Read in 2025

  1. “Elon Musk” by Walter Isaacson (A)
  2. “The Answer is No” by Fredrik Backman
  3. “You Could Make This Place Beautiful” by Maggie Smith
  4. “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson (A)
  5. “HBR’s 10 Must Reads: The definitive management ideas of the year from Harvard Business Review 2025”
  6. “The Day of the Triffids” by John Wyndham (A)
  7. “Same As It Ever Was” by Claire Lombardo
  8. “Good Dirt” by Charmaine Wilkerson*
  9. “Be Ready When the Luck Happens” by Ina Garten (A)
  10. “Never Eat Alone” by Keith Ferrazzi
  11. “Discipline is Destiny” by Ryan Holiday
  12. “Wish You Were Here” by Jodi Picoult
  13. “Dirtbag Queen: A Memoir of My Mother” by Andy Corren
  14. “My Life So Far” by Jane Fonda (A)
  15. “Sunrise on the Reaping” by Suzanne Collins (A)
  16. “Playworld: A Novel” by Adam Ross*
  17. “When the Moon Hits Your Eye” by John Scalzi
  18. “Stag Dance” by Torrey Peters*
  19. “The Great Alone” by Kristin Hannah
  20. “The Gift of Fear” by Gavin de Becker (A)
  21. “The Helsinki Affair” by Anna Pitoniak
  22. “Looking for Alaska” by John Green
  23. “Eleanore of Avignon” by Elizabeth DeLozier (A)
  24. “Retreat” by Krysten Ritter
  25. “What’s Our Problem: A Self-Help Book for Societies” by Tim Urban (A)
  26. “I’ll Have What She’s Having” by Chelsea Handler (A)
  27. “Dear Dolly” by Dolly Alderton
  28. “The Great Depression: A Diary” by Benjamin Roth, James Ledbetter, and Daniel B. Roth (A)
  29. “Harvard Business Review: Supply Chain”
  30. “The Four Winds” by Kristin Hannah
  31. “Sam Walton” by John Huey and Sam Walton (A)
  32. “Everything Is Tuberculosis” by John Green
  33. “Audition” by Katie Kitamura*
  34. “The Toyota Way” by Jeffrey Liker (A)
  35. “The Instrumentalist” by Harriet Constable (A)
  36. “Congratulations, the Best Is Over!” By R. Eric Thomas (A)
  37. “The 4 Jobs Club” by Kathryn Sollmann
  38. “The Tell” by Amy Griffin (A)*
  39. “Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan
  40. “How The Mighty Fall” by Jim Collins (A)
  41. “Tough Choices” by Carly Fiorina (A)
  42. “My Last Innocent Year” by Daisy Alpert Florin
  43. “If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name” by Heather Lende
  44. “Fooled by Randomness” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (A)
  45. “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore
  46. “Scarcity Brain” by Michael Easter (A)
  47. “Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come” by Jessica Pan (A)
  48. “We Can Do Hard Things” by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle
  49. “La Maestria del Amor” by Don Miguel Ruiz
  50. “Miami Style: The Fashion Story of the Iconic City” by Ashley Brozic
  51. “On The Grid: Life Behind the Scenes of Formula 1” by Luke Smith
  52. “Empire of AI” by Karen Hao (A)
  53. “Surviving to Drive” by Gunther Steiner (A)
  54. “The Urgent Life” by Bozoma Saint John (A)
  55. “Animal Instinct” by Amy Shearn*
  56. “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  57. “I’ll Look So Hot in a Coffin” by Carla Sosenko
  58. “The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, The Vampire Accountant” by Drew Hayes (A)
  59. “Super Sad True Love Story” by Gary Shteyngart
  60. “Genius Makers” by Cade Metz (A)
  61. “Open Book” by Jessica Simpson (A)
  62. “Never Flinch” by Stephen King
  63. “The River is Waiting” by Wally Lamb*
  64. “Anxious People” by Fredrik Backman
  65. “The Storyteller” by Jodi Picoult (A)
  66. “The Thinking Machine” by Stephen Witt (A)
  67. “The Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy” by Jeffrey Toobin
  68. “The Innovator’s Dilemma” by Clayton M. Christensen (A)
  69. “How to Win at Travel” by Brian Kelly (“The Points Guy”)
  70. “My Friends” by Fredrik Backman*
  71. “The Disordered Mind” by Eric R. Kandel
  72. “Shock Induction” by Chuck Palahniuk
  73. “The Mailman” by Stephen Starring Grant (A)
  74. “Broken Country” by Clare Leslie Hall (A)
  75. “How to Be a Saint” by Kate Sidley (A)
  76. “Who Is Government: The Untold Story of Public Service” by Michael Lewis
  77. “I Am America (And So Can You!)” by Stephen Colbert (A)
  78. “Erosion: Essays of Undoing” by Terry Tempest Williams
  79. “Paddle Your Own Canoe” by Nick Offerman (A)
  80. “Maggie: Or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar” by Katie Yee (A)*
  81. “The Order of Time” by Carlo Rovelli (A)
  82. “Orbital” by Samantha Harvey
  83. “The Courage to Be Happy” by Ichiro Kishimi (A)
  84. “Magic Hour” by Kristin Hannah (A)
  85. “The Secret of Secrets” by Dan Brown (A)
  86. “Breath” by James Nestor
  87. “Loca” by Alejandro Heredia*
  88. “The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel” by Douglas Brunt (A)
  89. “Fuzz” by Mary Roach
  90. “Crown of Midnight” by Sarah J. Maas
  91. “Heir of Fire” by Sarah J. Maas
  92. “O Caledonia” by Elspeth Barker (A)
  93. “Queen of Shadows” by Sarah J. Maas
  94. “Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents” by Lindsay C. Gibson, Ph. D.
  95. “Tower of Dawn” by Sarah J. Maas
  96. “Kingdom of Ash” by Sarah J. Maas
  97. “HBR’s 10 Must Reads: 2026”
  98. “Guns, Germs and Steel” by Jared Diamond (A)
  99. “I Regret Almost Everything” by Keith McNally*
  100. “I Am You” by Victoria Redel*
  101. “Discontent” by Beatriz Serrano
  102. “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans (A)*
  103. “The Ha-Ha” by Jennifer Dawson
  104. “The Maidens” by Alex Michaelides
  105. “Slow Productivity” by Cal Newport (A)
  106. “Home” by Whitney Hanson
  107. “I Who Have Never Known Men” by Jacqueline Harpman (A)

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