This week on the pod we welcome Booker Prize winning novelist Yann Martel!

Simon and Matt discuss his new novel, ‘Son Of Nobody’ as well as his inspirations and research for the book - including The Iliad.

Listen now - wherever you get podcasts! 🎧

#booksoftheyear #reading #bookrecommendations

This week, bestselling author Jennifer Niven joins us for our Q&A episode.

We discuss cats, authors she loves, archeology and her fantasy dinner party. (oh - and - 'the Eartha Kitt story')

Available now wherever you get your pods!

#booksoftheyear #books #reading

Jennifer Niven joins us this week for a chat about her brilliant new novel ‘Meet The Newmans’

Available now wherever you get your pods! 🎧

#booksoftheyear

Here’s an author who goes above and beyond…and actually dresses up as their book cover!

10/10 @jenniferniven.bsky.social !!

Our latest #booksoftheyear episode is available now, wherever you get your podcasts! 🎧

@simonmayo.bsky.social @mattmwilliams.bsky.social

#bookrecommendations #books

So happy that ⱯLFA has been named ‘Crime Novel of the Year’ by Morgunblaðið — the biggest newspaper in Iceland. Feeling grateful, proud, and a little bit stunned.
#booksoftheyear #icelandbooks
@orendabooks.bsky.social

2025: The Year in Review It’s Monday, December 29, 2025. I hope you’ve had a chance to enjoy this holiday season. 2025 has brought surprises—mostly good—and opportunities, which are welcome but sometimes bring their own ar…

A look back at a big, vibrant year full of movement, growth, and great reads. We’re reflecting on the moments, books, and conversations that made 2025 memorable—check out our latest blog post for the full year in review.

booktimist.com/2025/12/29/2...

#newyear #books #booksoftheyear

Also, I appear to have got over myself rather as the list is dominated by examples of fabulously absorbing storytelling rather than obscure literary cleverness.
No non-fiction this year either, which does surprise me.

What are your top reads of the year?

#booksky #BooksOfTheYear

13/13

This is the second year on the trot that my top ten books of the year has actually consisted of ten books. I must be getting better at counting.
#booksky #BooksOfTheYear

12/13

Snoakes's review of Ring the Bells (Stranger Times, #5) 5/5: I love the Stranger Times series, it just gets better and better. And it's really saying something that I bought Ring the Bells especially to read over the Christmas period as I'm not generally ...

Ring the Bells (Stranger Times, #5) by @caimhmc.bsky.social
#booksky #BooksOfTheYear
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

11/13

Snoakes's review of The Ministry of Time 5/5: The Ministry of Time combines time travel with Franklin's ill fated expedition to find the North West Passage. That description alone meant I was predestined to love this one, and it really is a...

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
#booksky #BooksOfTheYear
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

10/13

Snoakes's review of Deep Cuts 5/5: Deep Cuts tells the story of Percy and Joe and the music they make and love. While at college, Percy becomes friendly with their year's golden couple, Joe and Zoe. Joe is a talented musician, an...

Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley
#booksky #BooksOfTheYear
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

9/13

Snoakes's review of The Voyage Home (Women of Troy, #3) 5/5: The Voyage Home is the final part of Pat Barker's Women of Troy trilogy. Finally, Agamemnon is going home to his wife Clytemnestra after ten years at sea and war. In that time, the queen has be...

The Voyage Home (Women of Troy, #3) by Pat Barker
#booksky #BooksOfTheYear
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

8/13

Snoakes's review of Greenteeth 5/5: Greenteeth is a marvellous mix of folk tale and fantasy. Jenny Greenteeth is a monster who lives at the bottom of the lake at Chipping Appleby, and has done for hundreds, if not thousands, of ye...

Greenteeth by @mollyoneillwrites.bsky.social
#booksky #BooksOfTheYear
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

7/13

Snoakes's review of Allow Me to Introduce Myself 5/5: Allow Me to Introduce Myself is a gripping read that is simultaneously disturbing, thought-provoking and entertaining. Aṅụrị's entire life has been lived online. Her stepmother, Ophelia started...

Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli
#booksky #BooksOfTheYear
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

6/13

Snoakes's review of House of Odysseus (The Songs of Penelope, #2) 5/5: House of Odysseus is the second part in Claire North's Songs of Penelope trilogy. I love her version of Penelope. She's smart and wily, pretending to be demure and biddable while all the time s...

House of Odysseus (The Songs of Penelope, #2) by Claire North
#booksky #BooksOfTheYear
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

5/13

Snoakes's review of Death of the Author 5/5: Death of the Author is a spellbinding literary sci-fi tale. Zelu is a young Nigerian American woman. A wheelchair user, she lost the use of her legs in a childhood accident. Despite her successe...

Death of the Author by @nnedi.bsky.social
#booksky #BooksOfTheYear
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

4/13

Snoakes's review of Afterwards 5/5: Emma's husband, Jay, died suddenly leaving her alone and adrift. Afterwards is her story of what happened, well, Afterwards. She is devastated at his unexpected death, consumed by grief and with...

Afterwards by Charlotte Leonard
#booksky #BooksOfTheYear
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

3/13

Snoakes's review of Ink Blood Sister Scribe 5/5: Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a captivating fantasy thriller. In the world Emma Torzs has created, magic is real. Created and activated by blood, spells are bound into books to be collected and hoa...

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs
#booksky #BooksOfTheYear
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

2/13

Not that anyone's been waiting for it, but it's the end of the year and therefore time for my list of books that have really made me tell people* to "Hush up! I'm reading"...
#booksky #BooksOfTheYear

* - the Mr

1/13

Here are the authors I read for the first time in 2025 and loved so much I'll be diving into their backlists/waiting eagerly for their next creations. All highly recommended! #bookrecommendations #BooksOfTheYear #bookstagram

My top 12 books of 2025 📚

#booksky #reading #books #fantasy #newbooks #booksof2025 #booksoftheyear #favoritebooks

A journal page of someone’s favourite books of the year.

I read a lot! I think I will get to 215 books by the time the end of the year rolls around. Here are my top 14! That’s all I could narrow it down to! 😊 #booksoftheyear #bestof2025

Time to record my book reading stuff for end of the year for no one in particular.
#books #booksoftheyear

BOOKS OF THE YEAR part 2 - chosen by our contributors

Here's Part 2 of our Books of the Year roundups - great recommendations here by authors & booksellers. What's your best read of the year? Please tell us in the comments! reviewsbywriters.blogspot.com/2025/12/book... #greatreads #BooksoftheYear #readingrecommendations @booky.bsky.social

A large pile of books featuring titles by Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Comyns, Anita Brookner, Leonora Carrington, John McGahern, Edith Wharton, Barbara Pym, Caroline Blackwood, Vivian Gornick & more.

New on the blog today, Part 2 of my BOOKS OF THE YEAR, 2025 - favourites from a year of reading.

Featuring books by Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Comyns, Anita Brookner, Leonora Carrington, John McGahern & more! #BookSky 💙📚 #BooksOfTheYear

jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/m...

Best non-fiction

Siddhartha Mukherjee - The Emperor of All Maladies

Possibly suboptimal to read this post my diagnosis and while waiting for first chemo, but it’s brilliant. Both terrifying and hopeful.

And there you have it.

7/7

#BooksOfTheYear

Favourite crime fiction

Simon Mason’s Finder novellas

I read loads of crime fiction but these stood out. Calm, matter-of-fact, downbeat, but also consciously literary. Apparently influenced by Maigret? (Not read) Realky compelling. Read all three back to back. 6/7

#BooksOfTheYear

Novel that was a comfort

Lissa Evans - Small Bomb at Dimperley. Read this while waiting for a CT scan, having been told in an offhand way that I had a gynaecological mass that was probably cancer. I had to wait hours in A&E for the scan. Anyway, the book is lovely. 5/?
#BooksOfTheYear

Favourite novel that’s actually a series of short stories rather than a novel tbh

Ben Shattuck - The History of Sound. Loved this. Each story has a pair. Themed around history and the stories told about it. Apparently there’s a film? Suspect it doesn’t cover the whole book.

4/?

#BooksOfTheYear

Favourite memoir by someone I’d not previously heard of

Jennette McCurdy - I’m Glad My Mom Died. Bloody hell. Utterly compelling. One particular moment (the shower) really sticks with me - the kind of moment where you think: did I really read that?

3/?

#BooksOfTheYear