Tops & Flops 2025

Let’s talk about the best and the worst of 2025! #bestbooks #worstbooks #booktube Categories: Tops - Book that surprised me the most - Book that I thought about the most - Best new release - Best reread - Best nonfiction read - Best fiction read of the year Flops - Most disappointing reads - Worst nonfiction read of the year - Worst fiction read of the year Books mentioned in alphabetical order Susan Abulhawa, The Blue Between Sky and Water (2015): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30211396-the-blue-between-sky-and-water #literaryfiction Sovej Balle, On the Calculation of Volume I, transl. from the Danish by Barbara J. Haveland (2020): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221256639-on-the-calculation-of-volume-i #translatedfiction Magdalena Blazević, In Late Summer, transl. from the Bosnian by Andelka Raguz (2022 / 2022): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/225324138-in-late-summer #translatedfiction Octavia Butler, Wild Seed (1980): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51947057-wild-seed #scifi Helen Garner, How to End a Story (2025): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/212303241-how-to-end-a-story #nonfiction Edith Hamilton, Mythology, Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes (1942): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8889013-mythology #nonfiction Leila Lalami, The Dream Hotel (2025): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218695937-the-dream-hotel #scifi Anaïs Nin, The Delta of Venus (1977): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50233650-delta-of-venus #literaryfiction Maria Popova, Figuring (2019): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40277347-figuring #nonfiction Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32388712-the-ministry-of-utmost-happiness #literaryfiction Name of my YouTube channel: I stole name ‘The Second Shelf’ from the title of Meg Wolitzer’s article in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/books/review/on-the-rules-of-literary-fiction-for-men-and-women.html?_r=1 Find me elsewhere: website: www.brittaboehler.com (hasn’t been updated in a while, sorry…) goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5497508.Britta_B_hler Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brittaboehler/ X, formerly twitter: https://twitter.com/Britta_Boehler I also wrote some books: Fiction: - De juiste houding (2021): https://www.uitgeverijcossee.nl/De%20juiste%20houding-T717.php available in Dutch - The Decision (2015): http://hauspublishing.com/fiction/the-decision or in the German original: Der Brief des Zauberers (2014): http://www.aufbau-verlag.de/index.php/autoren/britta-bohler-a01 also available in Dutch, French, Italian, Greek, Danish, Hebrew and Turkish Non-fiction (available only in Dutch): - De goede advocaat (2017): http://www.uitgeverijcossee.nl/boek/De-goede-advocaat-T559.php - Crisis in de rechtstaat (2004): https://www.singeluitgeverijen.nl/de-arbeiderspers/boek/crisis-in-de-rechtstaat/ - De zwerftocht van een leider (2000): https://www.singeluitgeverijen.nl/de-arbeiderspers/boek/de-zwerftocht-van-een-leider/ Crime novels under the pen name Britta Bolt (together with writer Rodney Bolt) The Posthumus Mysteries: - Lonely Graves (2014) - Lives Lost (2015) - Deadly Secrets (June 2016) https://www.hodder.co.uk/authors/detail.page?id=OyxVSj8qaz8LdzSTmFvOZFbcgK5hHe5EsnGIqAwZPIsQ/c8OEdhES6cW and for German readers: - Das Büro der einsamen Toten (2015) - Das Haus der verlorenen Seelen (2016) - Der Tote im fremden Mantel (February 2017) http://www.hoffmann-und-campe.de/autoren-info/britta-bolt/