23 books I read in 2025 and the lessons they taught me
- Lidia Infante
- Jan 18
- 10 min read
Since 2016, I’ve been aiming to read at least 12 books per year. This year I’ve nearly doubled my goal, which is awesome.
Reading paper books has made a big comeback into my life after becoming a mum. It’s super easy to pick up/drop a book at a moment’s notice, so it’s been a good hobby this year.
I’ve split this list into fiction and non-fiction and ordered the books by rating to help navigate this faster. Enjoy!
Non-fiction
Your Baby Week By Week
By Caroline Fertleman and Simone Cave. Format: Print book. My score: 5/5 ⭐
This is the best book ever for new mums. I have praised it plenty on my blog post about newborn essentials, and I’ve gifted it to every single pregnant woman or newborn mum I’ve met since I read it.
What I learned
How to keep my baby alive, help him sleep, feed him, calm him down when he cries… Everything, this book is the best.
Cribsheet
By Emily Oster. Format: Audiobook, then print book. My score: 5/5 ⭐
I love this book!!!! Someone recommended this to me when I shared my 2024 reading list and I can’t remember who, but I am so grateful. It’s a super factual, empowering, scientific, data-driven book that empowers you to make data-led choices when raising a baby.
What I learned
Colic is just excessive crying. It’s not a tummy thing. You can’t solve it.
Most babies wake up between 7 and 8 am regardless of when you put them to sleep. You don’t need a schedule at the beginning.
Babies don’t actually benefit from having a stay-at-home mum. They benefit from having a happy mum.
Sleep training doesn’t have any negative effects on children and it correlates with better life outcomes.
Watching Sesame Street after turning 2 correlates with better life outcomes, screens under 2 are almost universally bad.
Impact players
By Liz Wiseman. Format: Audiobook, and then print book so I could reference it. My score: 4.5/5 ⭐
My previous manager recommended this book and it’s such an excellent read. It teaches you how to elevate your impact at work which is a hugely underrated skill, especially in senior-but-not-yet-executive positions like mine.
I recommend it to anyone and everyone who joins my team, it’s a really great read.
What I learned
Be flexible. Pick up the work that needs doing, even if it’s not your responsibility. I find that areas with unclear ownership are often the ones in need of the most TLC and the ones where you’ll find most organisational resistance.
When you complete a project, don’t just move on to the next one. Take time to measure the impact, thank your partners and shout about the success and learnings to anyone who will listen.
Seek feedback constantly. Ask your manager, cross-functional partners, team and peers how you’re doing and what you can do to make work easier for everyone. You might not always get honest answers at the beginning, but show that you take their feedback seriously by putting it into action.
Careless People
By Sarah Wynn-Williams. Format: Audiobook. My score: 4/5 ⭐
This book went quite big in 2025 because Facebook tried to ban it, in classic Streisand Effect fashion.
As a tech worker, Careless People made me feel a little bit icky about my industry. It has not been a good year in tech, with mass layoffs everywhere, the looming AI bubble and tech billionaires embarrassing themselves for a few more dollars.
One of the main “villains” of the story is Cheryl Sandberg, who gets more or less accused of sexually harassing her employees and discriminating against mums and pregnant women. Cheryl’s whole brand is as a feminist icon in the workplace, as the author of Lean In.
This year I really struggled with PTSD due to my own experiences of sexual violence and this book added to the feeling of worthlessness and isolation. I see my experience reflected in this book (and political climate) that no one really cares about survivors if there’s a chance to advance their career.
What I learned
At work we are disposable. Take a sick day if you’re sick.
Who deserves your love?
By KC Davis. Format: Print book. My score: 4/5 ⭐
I was trying to figure out if I needed to cut a friend out of my life after a few difficult incidents when I found this Tiktok by the author explaining her decision tree on difficult relationships. I bought it right away.
It’s a quick read and it’s very practical, full of examples. I found it very helpful.
What I learned
Boundaries are entirely yours! Instead of thinking about boundaries as something someone can cross, I now think of them as the action you take to protect yourself after a violation of your values.
A boundary isn’t a request, it’s not a punishment, and it’s not a threat. For example, if you’ve made your mother aware that you don’t want to discuss other people’s bodies or what they eat, but they keep bringing it up, you can just say “I’m not going to discuss this with you” or hang up the phone.
The book has some great practical guidance on how to do this.
The Little Book Of Self-Care For New Mums
By Beccy Hands. Format: Print book. My score: 3.5/5 ⭐
This was a gift from my husband after I gave birth. It’s a very realistic manual to taking care of yourself when you have a newborn and no time.
What I learned
That I was worth looking after. I really needed that reminder in the first few months of motherhood.
How To Piss Off Men
By Kyle Prue. Format: Print book. My score: 3.5/5 ⭐
I found Kyle on TikTok making skits about things you can say that are oddly targeted to bust fragile masculinity. Some of my favourites are:
“You would be such a good Frodo” - there’s something about this one that really tickles me.
“Is that a furry thing?” - when a man tells you he’s “an alpha male”.
“I love your pixie cut” - to a man who is clearly very proud of his looks.
The last chapter, titled “Why to piss off men”, does an incredible job at explaining how anger hijacks other emotions for men due to gendered socialisation and discusses masculine values through the most heartwarming story about the author's grandad.
Pottery For Beginners
By Kara Leigh Ford. Format: Print book. My score: 2.5/5 ⭐
In 2025 I took up pottery as a hobby. It is so fun! I really love making things for myself and others. I have a ginormous pile of things I’ve made that I don’t know what to do with, so do ping me if you’d like me to send you a questionable mug or bowl.
Someone recommended this book at the pottery studio I go to and I bought it. It was... okay?
What I learned
That you need a minimum 1.8kg of clay to throw a plate
The cut and slam method for wedging clay
That in order to cone clay well, you need to do it slowly and push in and down, not up
Algospeak
By Adam Aleksic. Format: Audiobook. My score: 2.5/5 ⭐
Another book I bought off Tiktok this year! I am absolutely fascinated by the relationship of language and thought. I became obsessed with how they shape each other when I read 1984 by George Orwell. In the book they use “Neospeak”, limiting the people’s vocabulary to rigid formulas, which is used to alter the population's cognitive abilities and thoughts.
Algospeak (the concept, not the book) has always reminded me of this and recent studies show that using words such as “SA” or “grape” can reduce our perception of how severe this crime really is.
What I learned
I did not get quite what I wanted out of this book, but chapter 3 is a masterclass in social media marketing and the psychology of attention.
People crave authenticity. Some ways to convey this on short-form video are holding your phone in your hand or starting the video with a shaky phone, as if you just grabbed it.
People are curious. Give enough information to implicitly highlight what the user doesn’t know. For example “I went on a date to the best restaurant in Manchester and I cannot believe what happened”. Without saying this directly, this intro tells me there are two things I don’t know: what is the best restaurant in Manchester and what happened on the date.
People respond best to emotional content. Use superlatives, like “my favourite thing about X is…” or “it should be illegal to X”.
People are interested in themselves. Center the audience in your content by using second person pronouns. Compare these two hooks for an easy example: “this is how top executives own a meeting" vs “this is how you can own a meeting like a top executive”.
There’s a lot more examples in the book and it’s super actionable. You can use these principles to write LinkedIn hooks, SEO titles and keep your content engaging.
Mating in captivity
By Esther Perel. Format: Audiobook. My score: 2/5 ⭐
A couples therapist explains why intimacy is hard in long term relationships, along with a bit of interesting anecdote. I feel lukewarm about this book, it was very French.
What I learned
Comfort and excitement are at odds. Desire thrives if there’s some separation from the others and in a long term relationship a lot of fusing of the selves happens.
There is still some separation from our partners, but two illusions hide it: that we already know them fully and that they won’t leave us. So notice the things you don’t know about your partner and when others check them out for some extra spark.
Heartbreak Is The National Anthem
By Rob Sheffield. Format: Print book. My score: 2/5 ⭐
Another gift from my husband! I had heard great things about this book, and how Rob Sheffield is one of the music journalists that knows Taylor Swift’s work best. I was looking for insider tips, some insight into her work, something extra, but there wasn’t much I didn’t already know.
What I learned
That I am super jealous of how often the author hangs out with Taylor herself.
Virus Don’t Get in Through the Feet (Los Virus No Entran Por Los Pies)
By Lucía Galán Bertrand. Format: Print book. My score: 1/5 ⭐
This is a book from a Spanish pediatrician about children’s health. I don’t recommend it. The writing comes across as very bitter and almost mocking of mothers and grandmothers who are trying their best to look after their loved ones. It felt incredibly tone-deaf to me and not very actionable at all.
Halfway through reading it I realised I had edited some of the author’s work for a digital magazine during my very first SEO job! What a full circle moment.
Fiction
Project Hail Mary
By Andy Weir. Format: Print book. My score: 5/5 ⭐
What an excellent piece of science fiction! I loved every bit. The time jumps, the surprises, the science. They’re making a movie and, in my opinion, they’ve ruined one of the biggest plot surprises in the trailer, but hey ho, such is life. This is probably my favourite read of 2025.
The Wedding People
By Alison Espach. Format: Print book. My score: 5/5 ⭐
I picked this up at an airport on my way to a conference and it was such a pleasant read. No big cliffhangers, just good even-paced narration. I really enjoyed this.
The Dream Hotel
By Laila Lalami. Format: Audiobook. My score: 4.5/5 ⭐
This book was one of the most-anxiety inducing reads of my life. It’s a dystopian novel that follows a group of women in a sort of prison who are there because they dreamt of committing a crime.
It intersects AI and surveillance culture with misogyny, fascism and for-profit incarceration systems.
It has made me more mindful of the data I share for sure.
Heretical Fishing
By Haylock Jobson. Format: Audiobook. My score: 4.5/5 ⭐
I did not know LitRPG existed, I picked this up because it was free with Audible Premium! I’m now on book 3 of this saga, so you know I am loving it.
Fisher is a dead CEO who wakes up in a fantasy world and decides his mission in life is to fish as much as he can and make friends. This is a book where nothing happens, but many things happen. Extremely low stakes. Extremely cozy read.
It has fully and truly dethroned Harry Potter as my favourite bedtime audiobook.
The Harry Potter Saga
By You-Know-Who. Format: Audiobook. My score: 4/5 ⭐
I read them all last year too and let me tell you once again: these are excellent bedtime books.
Here are some thoughts:
Fred & George are the best characters
Harry is such an asshole
If Hermione was a man, she wouldn’t get half as much shit as she does
Odyssey
By Stephen Fry. Format: Audiobook. My score: 4/5 ⭐
I love Stephen Fry. I love Greek mythology. I emailed him a fun fact about etymology halfway through reading the book and he didn’t reply (I forgive you, Stephen).
It was less interesting than his previous books like Mythos, or Troy, but I still enjoyed it very much. I do remember that when I first heard about Ulysses’ journey it was supposed to be a long time trudging through awful stuff just to make it back to his wife and son, but to be fair, the guy has plenty of fun along the way.
Sailor Moon 5
By Naoko Takeuchi. Format: Comic. My score: 3.5/5 ⭐
Fun fact: Catalan children of my generation grew up watching tons of anime. Our public TV found anime rights more affordable than American shows and gave them excellent Catalan dubbing, turning a whole generation of 90s children into Japanophiles.
Sailor Moon is so incredibly underrated, and so modern for its time! The first manga came out in 1991 and it tells a story about:
Female-centric relationships - friendship, not love, is the core of the story,
Fluid genders - the Sailor Stars are male when in human form and female when they transform!,
And LGBT relationships - the dubbed anime presents Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus as cousins, but I assure you they’re not.
Heroes
By Stephen Fry. Format: Audiobook. My score: 3/5 ⭐
More Greek mythology from Stephen Fry, national treasure. It made me want to read more about Medea. And there’s a new book out about her, so that’s going on my 2026 reading list!
He’s Gone
By Rebecca Collomosse. Format: Audiobook. My score: 3/5 ⭐
I was trying to find a free book on Audible that wasn’t romantasy in disguise (harder than it sounds) when I found this one. It’s the story of a woman who just picked her wedding ring with her fiance, and on her way home she gets into the underground and suddenly he’s gone. And he never ever comes back.
It narrates her journey through her closure-less grief, with a dash of thriller in it. Genuinely good fiction.
The Girl With All The Gifts
By Mike Carey. Format: Audiobook. My score: 2.5/5 ⭐
I picked this up because it was free on Audible and I really enjoyed the first few chapters, where the mystery of why these children are caged and studied is still there. But once we’ve got the big reveal, it’s just like any other book of its genre (maybe slightly more boring).
Sunrise On The Reaping
By Suzanne Collins. Format: Audiobook. My score: 2/5 ⭐
The Hunger Games money must have run out, because we’ve had two new books come out lately. This was exactly what I expected, followed the same formula from the previous books and it works.
When the movie eventually becomes available on Prime Video I’ll watch it, like I’ve watched all the others.
