Currently Reading

Season 8, Episode 24: Mary and Roxanna's Top Reads of 2025!

January 19, 2026

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  • Both Mary and Roxanna experienced challenging personal years in 2025, leading them to prioritize reading for joy and coping, and normalizing the abandonment of detailed reading tracking. 
  • Roxanna's reading statistics showed a significant positive shift toward diversity (20% POC authors) and genre variety, largely influenced by reading the entire *The Unseen Journals of Emma M. Lion* series. 
  • The hosts emphasized that their 'Top 10' lists are based on books that remained memorable ('heart print books') rather than just the highest-rated or objectively 'best' reads of the year. 
  • Roxanna ranked "The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lyon" series by Beth Brower as her #1 read of 2025, describing it as a grounding touchstone that blends elements of "Anne of Green Gables" and "Gilmore Girls." 
  • Mary ranked the unfinished graphic novel series "Lightfall" by Tim Probert as her #1 read of 2025, finding its themes of hope and perseverance deeply resonant during a difficult personal year. 
  • Both hosts highly recommended "The Frozen River" by Ariel Lawhon, despite its potentially off-putting genre elements (historical fiction, 1789 Maine setting, graphic childbirth triggers), praising its immersive quality and the strength of the protagonist, Martha Ballard. 

Segments

Podcast Introduction and Hosts
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(00:00:11)
  • Key Takeaway: The Currently Reading podcast focuses heavily on book talk with spoiler-free descriptions.
  • Summary: Mary Heim, a therapist and mom from Wisconsin, and Roxanna Casamkara, a marketer and mood reader from Toronto, host the show. They prioritize book discussion over casual chat. This episode features their top 10 reads of 2025.
Reviewing Reading Years
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(00:01:19)
  • Key Takeaway: Roxanna navigated a year of major life changes, including career shifts and family health issues, making her reading volume a personal success.
  • Summary: Roxanna detailed significant life events in 2025, such as leaving her job to support her parents, starting an AI company, and managing family transitions. She considered reading more than four books a major achievement given the year’s intensity. Mary acknowledged the general difficulty of reading amidst global and personal pressures.
Top 10 Selection Criteria
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(00:03:03)
  • Key Takeaway: Mary selects her top books based on emotional resonance (‘vibes’), while Roxanna focuses on books that remain actively memorable.
  • Summary: Roxanna excluded 4.5 and 5-star reads if they were instantly forgotten, focusing only on those that stayed with her. Mary uses a visual method, screenshotting titles that evoke strong feelings like enjoyment or crying, and then narrows the list down.
Reading Tracker Vulnerability
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(00:04:59)
  • Key Takeaway: Mary revealed she abandoned her detailed reading spreadsheet after a devastating personal loss, granting permission for listeners to prioritize well-being over tracking.
  • Summary: Mary read 107 books, partly due to incorporating graphic novels as an accessible coping mechanism. She stopped tracking data in March after learning her son was terminally ill in utero. Roxanna recovered her stats by exporting her Goodreads CSV and processing it through AI tools.
Patreon and Tracking Utility
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(00:12:03)
  • Key Takeaway: The Currently Reading reading tracker is praised as a flexible tool that allows users to start minimally and build complexity over time to better understand reading habits.
  • Summary: Roxanna noted that the tracker allows users to hide unused fields and focus only on essential data like title, author, and rating. She highlighted the ‘year-over-year stats’ sheet as a quick way to compare reading trends with minimal effort. The core message is that tracking should serve the reader, not the other way around.
Roxanna’s Top 10: #10 and #9
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(00:14:25)
  • Key Takeaway: Roxanna’s #10, The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar, is lauded as the ‘best feat of literary magic’ for its lyrical prose and powerful metaphor on immigrant identity.
  • Summary: Roxanna’s #10, The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar by Indra Das, is a short novella about a boy whose dragon memories are suppressed by his family’s tea of forgetting. Her #9, The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z Hossain, is a short, satirical blend of sci-fi and fantasy about a Jin King challenging a city ruled by Karma AI.
Mary’s Top 10: #10 (Honorable Mention)
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(00:16:54)
  • Key Takeaway: Mary included Empty Cradle, Broken Heart as an essential, though not enjoyable, read that provided comfort and community through shared stories following her son’s loss.
  • Summary: Mary broke her rule to include Empty Cradle, Broken Heart by Deborah L. Davis, a book about surviving pregnancy and infant loss. She found comfort in the practical information and stories from other parents. She stressed that listeners should hope never to need this book.
Mary’s Top 10: #10 and #9
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(00:18:12)
  • Key Takeaway: Mary’s #10, God of the Woods by Liz Moore, was a captivating mystery/thriller that successfully broke her reading slump while vacationing in the Northwoods.
  • Summary: Mary’s #10, God of the Woods by Liz Moore, is a mystery/family drama about a boy’s disappearance at an Adirondack home, praised for its thriller pacing and literary writing. Roxanna’s #8, The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe, is a backlist contemporary fiction novel with subtle fantasy elements concerning a Tufa veteran returning home.
Mary’s Top 10: #8 and Roxanna’s #8
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(00:27:14)
  • Key Takeaway: Mary’s #8, The Service Berry by Robin Wall Kimmerer, was her favorite reading experience of the year when buddy-read with a friend, focusing on reciprocity and gift economies.
  • Summary: Mary highly recommends The Service Berry as a buddy read to explore concepts of reciprocity, mutual aid, and community outside of market capitalism. Roxanna’s #7, To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers, is a short sci-fi novella that explores themes of isolation and the purpose of life when astronauts realize they might be alone in the universe.
Mary’s Top 10: #7 and Roxanna’s #7
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(00:34:04)
  • Key Takeaway: Mary’s #7, The Millicent Quibbs School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science: Secrets of the Purple Pearl by Kate McKinnon, is mandatory listening on audio for its comedic genius.
  • Summary: Mary defended including the sequel in her top 10, emphasizing Kate McKinnon’s narration is the best audio performance available, even for an adult reading the middle grade book. Roxanna’s #6, The Unseen World by Liz Moore, is a captivating 1980s Boston story about a daughter uncovering her brilliant but fading father’s past, praised for intricate plotting and character development.
Mary’s Top 10: #6 and Roxanna’s #6
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(00:40:01)
  • Key Takeaway: Mary’s #6, The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff, was an unexpected buzzy hit that deeply resonated due to its messy, emotional portrayal of grief and family redemption.
  • Summary: Mary found The Bright Years to be a lucky accident that perfectly hit her preference for books that explore the human condition through messy family dynamics. Roxanna’s #5, The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman, is cozy fantasy dealing thoughtfully with death and grief, recommended as a blend of Under the Whispering Door and Monk and Robot.
Mary’s Top 10: #5 and Roxanna’s #5
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(00:45:59)
  • Key Takeaway: Mary’s #5, The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J. Klune, is an early, action-adventure Klune novel featuring found family but containing an unexpectedly explicit spicy scene.
  • Summary: Mary noted that The Bones Beneath My Skin felt different from Klune’s recent work due to its action/adventure plot and explicit queer content, though the core heart and found family elements remained strong. Roxanna’s #4, Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend, is the fourth book in the Nevermoor series, masterfully combining a murder mystery with Morrigan’s adolescent growth.
Middle Grade Excellence and Pivots
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(00:53:03)
  • Key Takeaway: The inclusion of multiple middle grade sequels in the top 10 lists highlights the consistent high quality and complex thematic handling found in contemporary middle grade fiction.
  • Summary: Mary observed that sequels in middle grade series (like McKinnon’s and Townsend’s) often make the top lists, which is rare for adult fiction sequels. This demonstrates middle grade’s ability to handle heavy topics like identity and grief accessibly. Roxanna agreed, noting the Nevermoor series offers complex Harry Potter-esque vibes.
Mary’s Top 10: #4 and Roxanna’s #3
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(00:54:04)
  • Key Takeaway: Mary’s #4, The Women of Wild Hill by Kirsten Miller, is an empowering, matrilineal witch story that excels in sisterly connection and feminist rage fantasy.
  • Summary: Mary praised The Women of Wild Hill as an evolution of Miller’s previous work, rooted in family history and fighting the patriarchy, though some readers might find the initial exposition slow. Roxanna’s #3, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, is a novel of letters featuring an older female protagonist, praised for its character depth despite not being cozy.
Mary’s Top 10: #3 and Roxanna’s #2
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(00:59:09)
  • Key Takeaway: Mary’s #3, Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross, is a mythological prequel to Divine Rivals that provided a deep, immersive world experience akin to a goddess retelling.
  • Summary: Mary found Wild Reverence even more immersive than the Divine Rivals duology, comparing its excellence to Circe or Clytemnestra. Roxanna’s #2, Frozen River by Ariel Lawren, is a historical fiction novel set in 1789 Maine about midwife Martha Ballard, which completely immersed her despite historical fiction not being her usual genre.
Rebecca Ross’s Wild Reverence
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(01:00:23)
  • Key Takeaway: “Wild Reverence” by Rebecca Ross provided the magic of falling deeply and completely into its world, setting the stage for later duology events.
  • Summary: The book is set in the same world as “Divine Rivals” but tells a story from an entirely different time period, comparing its scope to retelling a Greek myth versus World War II. The immersive quality of the world-building was a major highlight for the host. This book was ranked as Mary’s #3 read.
Roxanna’s #2: Frozen River
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(01:01:00)
  • Key Takeaway: “The Frozen River” by Ariel Lawhon is a highly immersive historical fiction set in 1789 Maine featuring a midwife pulled into a murder investigation.
  • Summary: The book is historical fiction set in 1789 Maine, following midwife Martha Ballard, a character with an iron will who investigates a murder case. The narrative successfully immerses the reader, making them feel the cold and sense the town’s dangerous undercurrents. Listeners should be aware of triggers including graphic childbirth and sexual violence.
Mary’s #2: The Correspondent
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(01:05:05)
  • Key Takeaway: “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans is a worthy favorite, best experienced in print format for tracking the epistolary plot lines.
  • Summary: The book follows the transformation of the main character, Sybil, even into her 70s, showing she is not done living or growing through her letters. Reading in print format is recommended over audio for easier tracking of the numerous letter recipients and plot threads. The book offers deep insight into the human experience and character transformation.
Roxanna’s #1: Emma M. Lyon
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(01:08:10)
  • Key Takeaway: The entire “Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lyon” series by Beth Brower served as Roxanna’s #1 read, offering a blend of humor, heart, and developing character depth.
  • Summary: Set in 1883 London, the epistolary series follows Emma M. Lyon, a gentlewoman with backbone who moves to the quirky community of St. Crispians. The series is compared favorably to “Anne of Green Gables,” “Gilmore Girls,” and “84, Charing Cross Road” for its bookish warmth and feminist heroine. Listeners are advised to continue past the lighter first two books to experience the deeper character development starting around book three.
Mary’s #1: Lightfall Series
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(01:14:31)
  • Key Takeaway: The “Lightfall” graphic novel series by Tim Probert provided Mary with a crucial, allegorical port in a storm during a challenging personal time.
  • Summary: This unfinished graphic novel series is a found family, fantastical adventure featuring two unlikely heroes, which served as an important break from traditional reading during a slump. The story beautifully holds hope even when things feel hopeless, rooted in community, love, and perseverance. Mary’s mother, a non-graphic novel reader, also enjoyed the series, suggesting its broad appeal.
Wrap Up and Listener Engagement
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(01:20:40)
  • Key Takeaway: The hosts encourage listeners to connect via social media, email, or by becoming patrons to support the show’s growth.
  • Summary: Listeners can find the hosts on Instagram (Mary Reads and Makes, RoxannaTheReader) and find full show notes at currentlyreadingpodcast.com. Support options include becoming a patron, reviewing on Apple Podcasts, or shouting out the show on social media. The episode concludes with the traditional sign-off wishing for hot coffee and unput-downable books.