X Great Holiday Reads For 2025
Fox by Joyce Carol Oates
Francis Fox is a charming English teacher new to the idyllic Langhorne Academy. He beguiles many of his students, their parents and his colleagues at the elite boarding school, while leaving others wondering where he came from and why his biography is so enigmatic. When two brothers discover Fox’s car half-submerged in a pond in a local nature preserve, and parts of an unidentified body strewn about the nearby woods, the entire community – including detective Horace Zwender and his deputy – begins to ask disturbing questions about Fox and who he might really be. A hypnotic, galloping tale of crime and complicity, revenge and restitution, Fox illuminates the darkest corners of the human psyche, while asking profound moral questions about justice and the response evil demands.
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The Fathers by John Niven
In a busy maternity ward, first-time father Dan meets Jada, a dad welcoming his sixth child into the world. Dan and Jada come from very different places, both called Glasgow. Dan is a successful TV writer with a townhouse in the West End and a shiny Tesla ready to drive his wife and baby home. Jada is a hustling, small-time criminal who is already planning how to separate Dan from some of the luxuries Jada has never been able to enjoy in his tiny flat in a brutalist council block. Both men find that the birth of their sons has fired their ambitions. Dan plans to walk away from his saccharine TV success, and finally knuckle down to writing that novel he always felt he had in him. While, for Jada, it's the opportunity for one last get-rich-quick scheme – ripping off a local airport. When a tragedy occurs, their worlds are brought closer than either could ever have imagined. Close enough that it could mean destruction for both of them…
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When The Going Was Good by Graydon Carter
When the Going Was Good is Airmail founder Graydon Carter’s lively recounting of how he made his mark as one of society’s most talented editors. Carter arrived in New York from Canada with little more than a suitcase, a failed literary magazine in his past, and a keen sense of ambition. He landed a job at Time, went on to work at Life, co-founded Spy magazine, and edited the New York Observer before catching the eye of Condé Nast chairman Si Newhouse, who tapped him to run Vanity Fair. With his inimitable voice and raconteur’s quips, Carter brings readers inside the drawing rooms of the great and not-always-good of America, Britain and Europe. He assembled one of the best ever stables of writers and photographers under one roof, and here he recreates the steps he took to cement Vanity Fair’s place at the epicentre of art, culture, business and politics. Charming, candid and brimming with humour, When The Going Was Good perfectly captures the last golden age of print magazines.
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Long Island by Colm Tóibín
Long Island is an exhilarating novel that asks whether it’s possible to return to the past and renew a great love that seemed gone forever. In this sequel to Tóibín's prize-winning, bestselling novel Brooklyn, a man with an Irish accent knocks on Eilis Fiorello’s door on Long Island, and everything changes. Eilis and Tony have built a secure, happy life here since leaving Brooklyn – perhaps a little stifled by the in-laws so close, but 20 years married and with two children, they’re looking towards a good future. Yet this stranger will reveal something that will make Eilis question the life she has created. For the first time in years, she suddenly feels very far from home, and the revelation will see her turn towards Ireland once again. Did she make the wrong choice marrying Tony all those years ago? Is it too late to take a different path?
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We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
Two books from Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series are in the top 100 bestselling books of the past 50 years, so he clearly knows a thing or two about writing a gripping whodunnit. While Netflix is currently readying an adaptation of his first Thursday Murder Club book (starring David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce and Richard E. Grant, to name a few), his first book in a new murder mystery series, We Solve Murders, is now out in paperback. Retired Steve Wheeler enjoys a quiet life, while his daughter-in-law Amy thrives on adrenaline as a private security officer. Assigned to protect a famous author, Amy's job takes a dangerous turn, forcing her to call Steve for help. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy?
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You Are Here by David Nicholls
If you’re plotting a staycation, this wry read from David Nicholls could be a great companion. Marnie is stuck – whether that’s working alone in her London flat, battling the long afternoons or feeling like life is passing her by. Michael is coming undone, reeling from his wife’s departure, increasingly reclusive, and taking himself on long, solitary walks across the moors. When a persistent mutual friend and some very English weather conspire to bring them together, Marnie and Michael find themselves alone on the most epic of walks, and on the precipice of a new friendship. But can they survive the journey?
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The Hotel Avocado by Bob Mortimer
Following the success of his 2023 novel, The Satsuma Complex, comedian Bob Mortimer returned with this follow-up story at the end of last year. Now in paperback, The Hotel Avocado sees Gary Thorn struggling with a big decision. Should he stay in London, wallowing in the safety of his legal job in Peckham and eating pies with his next-door neighbour Grace and her dog Lassoo? Or should he move to Brighton, where his girlfriend Emily is about to open the Hotel Avocado? Either way, he’d be letting someone down. Sinister forces are closing in, and the arrival of the mysterious Mr Sequence makes things worse – his life is now at risk. All Gary wants is a happy life, but first, he needs to stay alive to enjoy it.
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Men In Love by Irvine Welsh
Over 30 years after his seminal book Trainspotting was released (and turned into a cult film by Danny Boyle), Irvine Welsh returns to its dysfunctional characters. Heroin is in the past, Thatcher’s reign is ending, and Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie are chasing new highs – raves, romance and redemption. Reuniting after a botched drug deal, they follow the beat of the dancefloor and the pull of a new era. Sick Boy falls hard for Amanda – wealthy, well connected, and everything he isn’t. When wedding plans begin, he sees a shot at reinvention. But as the 90s approach, can love really save them – or is it just another delusion in a chaotic search for meaning?
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A History of Britain in Ten Enemies by Terry Deary
Terry Deary is the author of no fewer than 342 published books, including the acclaimed Horrible Histories series, selling over 38 million copies in 45 languages. Now he’s written one for adults. As Deary argues, nations and their leaders are defined by the enemies they make. And as it happens, Britannia got its name from the Romans, and for the past two centuries we have been ruled by Germans. A History of Britain in Ten Enemies is a witty, whistlestop tour of British history that will have you laughing as you find out what they didn't teach you in school.
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Lost Boys: A Personal Journey Through the Manosphere by James Bloodworth
Rarely has there seemed a more confusing time to be a man. This uncertainty has spawned an array of bizarre and harmful underground subcultures, collectively known as the 'manosphere', as men search for new forms of belonging. In Lost Boys, acclaimed journalist James Bloodworth delves into these worlds and asks: what does their emergence say about Western society? Why are so many men susceptible to the sinister beliefs these groups promote? And what can we do about their pernicious encroachment upon our social and political spheres? Along the way, he enlists in a bootcamp for 'alpha males', dissects cultural figures including Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate, and accompanies modern-day Hugh Hefners as they broadcast their jet-set lifestyles to millions of followers. Combining compulsive memoir with powerful reporting, Lost Boys is an essential guide to the contradictions in contemporary masculinity.
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Death & The Gardener by Georgi Gospodinov
A man sits at his dying father’s bedside. His father was one of that generation of tragic smokers born right after WWII in Bulgaria, who clung to the snorkels of their cigarettes. A rebel without a cause, he knew how to fail with heroic self-deprecation. The garden he created out of a barren village yard first saved him, then killed him. It remains his living legacy: peonies and potatoes, roses and cherry trees – and endless stories. From a winner of the International Booker Prize comes this novel about a father, a son and an orphaned garden in a fading world that spans ancient Ithaca to present-day Sofia.
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Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach to scrape for shrimp. He spends the rest of the day selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream. When a striking visitor turns up, bringing the promise of Hollywood glamour, Thomas is shaken from the drudgery of his days and begins to see a different future. But how much of what the American claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas? Haunting and timeless, this is the story of a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.
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