By: Clare Buchanan
Photo Credit: Clare Buchanan
I was scrolling through Substack over winter break when I came across Eliza McLamb’s latest post: her 2025 Reading Wrapped. Similar to Spotify Wrapped, McLamb summarized her year in reading through chosen categories and gathered statistics. Inspired by the North Carolina-born singer-songwriter’s creativity and the organization of her year-long reading, I decided to make something similar of my own.
Here are some quick stats to put my 2025 Reading Wrapped into perspective, provided to me by Goodreads:
- Words Read: 5,289
- Books Read: 19!
13 fiction
1 short story
3 non-fiction
2 books of essays
- Shortest Book: 33 pages
- Longest Book: 453 pages
A list of all the books I read this year: (with ratings!)
- “Beautiful World, Where Are You?” by Sally Rooney (3/5)
- “N-W” by Zadie Smith (5/5)
- “Mr. Salary” by Sally Rooney (4/5)
- “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë (5/5)
- “Nightbitch” by Rachel Yoder (4/5)
- “Sunrise on the Reaping” by Suzanne Collins (3/5)
- “Oh, What A Paradise It Seems” by John Cheever (4/5)
- “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin (5/5)
- “White Teeth” by Zadie Smith (5/5)
- “The Catcher And The Rye” by J.D. Salinger (4/5)
- “Giovanni’s Room” by James Baldwin (4/5)
- “Big Swiss” by Jen Beagin (4/5)
- “The Raven King” by Marcus Tanner (3/5)
- “The Book of the City of Ladies” by Christine de Pizan (4/5)
- “America for Americans” by Erika Lee (4/5)
- “I Who Have Never Known Men” by Jacqueline Harpman (4/5)
- “White Poverty” by Reverend Dr. William J Barber II (4/5)
- “Heart the Lover” by Lily King (3/5)
- “Swing Time” by Zadie Smith (4/5)
Photo Credit: Clare Buchanan
Books So Good I Wish I Had Written Them — self explanatory.
- “White Teeth” – Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith was twenty years old when she wrote “White Teeth.” I think about this at least two times a day. It is really upsetting for me that this book is perfect all the way through. “White Teeth” is a tale about two old friends and their families, and it also serves as social commentary on the entire geopolitical state of the world and the United Kingdom’s role within it. As James Joyce once said, “In the particular is contained the universal.”
- “Wuthering Heights” – Emily Brontë
I mean, duh. Heathcliff!!! Catherine!!! Doomed!!! When I visited the house the Brontë
Sisters lived in when I was studying abroad, and saw the couch Emily Brontë died on, I whispered gratefully into the room, hoping she was listening: “Thank you, Emily. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
- “Oh, What A Paradise It Seems” – John Cheever
From my Goodreads review: “Unsurprising homoerotic subplot here from Mr. John Cheever, aka the suburban social commentary GOAT, aka the ‘Chekov of the Suburbs.’ Couldn’t get enough of his little zingers!” If you’ve never indulged yourself in the delectable prose and sweaty narratives of John Cheever, please do.
Likely To Recommend To A Friend — books that need to be read by friends, and even foes.
- “The Fire Next Time” – James Baldwin
From my Goodreads review: “My first official Baldwin book, and it caused the crash out of a century. Just kept weeping even hours after I had finished it. Baldwin has the answers. All of them.”
- “The Book of the City of Ladies” – Catherine De Pizan
Said to be the first piece of published Western feminist literature, De Pizan scathingly wrote “City of Ladies” in response to the extreme sexism of her time in Renaissance Italy in the 15th century. If you love Wollstonecraft, you’re gonna love De Pizan.
Growers Not Showers — books that grew on me over time.
- “Catcher In The Rye”, J.D. Salinger
From my Goodreads review: “One of the worst things I have ever subjected myself to. And yet, I think that was the whole point. Redeeming in the end, absolute rollercoaster leading up to it. 17 year old boys might be the root of all evil.”
- “I Who Have Never Known Men”, Jacqueline Harpman
The entire time I was reading this book, I was extremely confused and disoriented. There seemed to be some historical allusions sprinkled throughout the book, but none of it clicked into place for me until well after I had finished this dismal, grave, and jarring book.
Wildcards — books that shocked me to my core.
- “Nightbitch” by Rachel Yoder
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I bought this book at a shop in Nottingham one Saturday while studying abroad. I finished it on the train back from Hebden Bridge, completely shocked. This doesn’t spoil anything — but basically this woman turns into…a dog. And it’s a wild read.
- “Big Swiss” by Jen Beagin
A story of a love affair between two twisted women fueled by an untameable and primal passion set in the backdrop of the Catskill mountains. A genuinely messy tale that doesn’t necessarily end well for anyone.
Graveyard Of Books Dearly Departed: (books I started, but did not finish in 2025.)
- “Orlando” by Virginia Woolf
- “The Lathe of Heaven” by Ursula K. Le Guin
- “Intermezzo” by Sally Rooney
- “The Virgin Suicides” by Jeffery Eugenides
- “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros
- “Sylvia Plath Watches Us Sleep” by Victoria Richards
2026 To Be Read (TBR) List:
- “Franny and Zooey” by J.D. Salinger (I was looking at this book at a bookstore in Morro Bay when a man beside me told me it’s best if I just buy the book and “pull the trigger.” He told me that all the questions posed by “The Catcher In The Rye” were answered in “Franny and Zooey.” So I gave in and bought the book.)
- “Play It As It Lays” by Joan Didion (For when I need a taste of home — of California.)
- “Dead and Alive” by Zadie Smith (For when I need to make sense of the world.)
- “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt (To be read rather selfishly, for I wish to become Donna Tartt.)
- “Ulysses” by James Joyce (An ambitious desire that will likely not be achieved.)
- “Notes From The Underground” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Giving Dostoyevsky another chance to prove himself after he almost blew it with “Crime and Punishment.”)
- “Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan (Because multi-generational-mother-daughter relationships are what make the world go round!)
The Salemite- Salem College's Newspaper 
Leave a comment