The List
I recently became an avid reader, shortly after turning 40. Was it my maturity? My desire for quiet? My want to escape chaos? Probably a bit of everything.
I've always read, but I would never consider myself a reader. Suddenly, it was my entire personality. I started marking stuff your kindle days on my calendar, following BookTokers, becoming a BookToker, (deleting all my videos), and trying to keep a reading journal. I finally bought a Kindle (I'd been exclusively Kobo up until this year), tracked my reading, and surpassing my 50 book goal.
While scrolling through YouTube (BookTube) to get inspiration for a reading journal, I came across JashiiCorrin and her gorgeous journals. I specifically watched the video where she goes through her friend's (@Monica.Bibliophilebynight on Insta) reading journal about a million times. I don't consider myself artsy, but I decided that if I had a gorgeous reading journal this coming year, I would use it. Obviously.
While falling deep into BookTube, I discovered Jack in the Books, an avid reader and aspiring writer. In one video, he was going through The New York Times Reader's Choice of the top 100 books of the 21st century so far. I was hooked. As I wrote (and re-wrote, then typed since my writing wasn't nice enough) the list of 100 books, deciding this is where I would pull my reading from in 2025, I decided that this was going to be my entire personality. ADHD what?
So here we are - in an effort to read more diversely and to read books with substance, I plan to read all 100 books on this list. And to include you, these books will be the Blind Date with a Book for 2025. Obviously not all 100 (although they will all be available through the shop to purchase), but either biweekly or monthly, we will spin the wheel to randomly decide which book will be sent out (obviously you don't get to see until the books are delivered) and you'll be invited to take part in our book club (yet to be named) to discuss the books.
So, without further ado (I once heard this is how you should never announce something) the list!
100 - A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman; translated by Henning Koch
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99 - Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe
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98 - Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stewart
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97 - My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh
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96 - The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett
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95 - A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
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94 - The Bee Sting - Paul Murray
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93 - Remarkably Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt 
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92 - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczyk
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91 - Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
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90 - In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado
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89 - The Glass Castle - Jeanette Walls
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88 - The Plot Against American - Philip Roth
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87 - Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo
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86 - Life of Pi - Yann Martel
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85 - When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
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84 - Tenth of December - George Saunders
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83 - Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann
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82 - Tom Lake - Ann Patchett
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81 - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
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80 - Deacon King Kong - James McBride
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79 - IQ84 - Haruki Marakami 
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78 - Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Marakami
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77 - Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari
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76 - Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson
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75 - The Lincoln Highway - Amor Towles 
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74 - Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishigur
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73 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling 
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72 - Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner 
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71 - Sing, Unburied, Sing - Jesmyn Ward 
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70 - Know My Name - Chanel Miller
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69 - Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann 
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68 - The Devil In the White City - Erik Larson 
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67 - Piranesi - Susanna Clarke 
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66 - Just Kids - Patti Smith 
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65 - Evicted - Matthew Desmond 
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64 - 2666 - Roberto Bolano 
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63 - The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemisin 
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62 - The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen 
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61 - North Woods - Daniel Mason
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60 - The Dutch House - Ann Patchett 
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59 - Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens
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58 - White Teeth - Zadie Smith
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57 - Small Things Like These - Clare Keegan
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56 - The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
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55 - Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
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54 - 11/22/63 - Stephen King
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53 - Trust - Hernan Diaz
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52 - The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
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51 - Caste - Isabel Wilkerson
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50 - James - Percival Everett 
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49 - Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
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48 - On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong 
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47 - Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
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46 - The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller 
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45 - There There - Tommy Orange 
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44 - The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store - James McBride 
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43 - Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates
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42 - The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz
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41 - Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
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40 - The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
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39 - Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout 
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38 - The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai
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37 - The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead
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36 - The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion
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35 - The Covenant of Water - Abraham Verghese
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34 - Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
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33 - The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
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32 - Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr
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31 - Circe - Madeline Miller
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30 - A Visit From the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan
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29 - Say Nothing - Patrick Redden Keffe
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28 - Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese
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27 - Normal People - Sally Rooney 
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26 - The Corrections - Jonathan Frazen
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25 - Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
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24. Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
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23 - The Warmth of Other Suns - Isabel Wilkerson
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22 - Hamnet - Maggie O’Farrell
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21 - Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi
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20 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
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19 - Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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18 - Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
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17. Atonement - Ian McEwan
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16 - Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
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15 - The Road - Cormac McCarthy 
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14 - Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
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13 - The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
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12 - The Overstory - Richard Powers
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11 - A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
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10 - Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
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9 - Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
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8 - My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante
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7 - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabriella Zevin
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6 - Educated - Tara Westover
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5 - Pachinko - Min Jin Lee 
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4 - The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
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3 - A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles
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2 - All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr 
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1 - Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingslover 
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