The TBR 25 in '25 & Mt. TBR Challenges -- MY WRAP UP POST

 

THE TBR 25 IN '25 CHALLENGE

THE MT. TBR CHALLENGE

My Wrap Up Post

I did two TBR challenges in 2025, the TBR 25 in '25 Challenge that I hosted and the Mt. TBR Challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block. Both aim to clear books off TBR shelves. Any book in your possession as of January 1, 2025, counts as TBR. 

I finished the 25 books I picked for the TBR 25 in '25 Challenge earlier this year. I really buckled down and got 24 of them finished by June. The last one, Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking, took my longer because it was dry and dense. I didn't finish that one until the end of September and I started it in March. 

For the Mt. TBR Challenge, I finished an additional 112 books off my TBR shelves, for a total of 137 TBR books. I signed up at the Mt. Everest level to read 100 books off my TBR shelves and exceeded that goal. Inspired to try harder, I signed up for the Mr. Olympus level in 2026, with the goal of reading 150 TBR books. Wish me luck!

THE TBR 25 IN '25 CHALLENGE

• One Man’s San Francisco by Herb Cain

• French Provincial Cooking by Elizabeth David

• The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell 

• Daphne du Maurier: The Secret Life of the Renowned Storyteller by Margaret Forster 

• Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller

• Careless in Red by Elizabeth George

• Q.’s Legacy by Helene Hanff

• Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith

• Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith

• Absolute Truths by Susan Howatch 

• Beat Not the Bones by Charlotte Jay

• The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis

• The Widow on Dwyer Court by Lisa Kusel

• The Lady of the Mine by Sergei Lebedev

• Lost & Found: Public Theology in the Secular Age by Michael A. Milton 

• Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue by Sonia Purnell

• Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl

• Dragon’s Teeth by Upton Sinclair 

• The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen by Nigel Slater 

• The Maine Woods by Henry David Thoreau

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

• A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg

• Zabar's: A Family Story, with Recipes by Lori Zabar

THE MT. TBR CHALLENGE

The TBR 25 in '25 Challenge dovetailed nicely with the Mt TBR Challenge Bev at My Reader's Block hosts every year. This year, I signed up for the "Mt. Everest" Level to read a total of 100 books off my TBR shelves in 2025.

I climbed even higher! In addition to the 25 books I read for the TBR 25 in '25 Challenge, I read 112 books off my TBR shelves, for a total of 137 TBR books. That's a record for me.

MY MT. TBR BOOKS

Here are the additional 112 TBR books I read in 2025, in the order I read them. 

• Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

• The Venetian Affair by Helen MacInnes

• Dragon's Teeth by Sinclair Lewis

• Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan

• The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien

• The Bean Book: 100 Recipes for Cooking with All Kinds of Beans, from the Rancho Gordo Kitchen by Steve Sando

• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

• Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake

• How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days by Kari Leibowitz, PhD

• With Thanks and Appreciation: Thoughts, Sentiments, Tokens and Traditions of the Past by Pat Ross

• Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

• The Templars' Last Secret by Martin Walker

• A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

• This Body of Death by Elizabeth George

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• Sun Bird by Lindsay Moore

• Writing Notes with a Personal Touch by Daria Price Bowman

• Love Quotations: A Collection of Romantic Pictures and the Best Love Quotes, compiled by Helen Exley

• The Secret Place by Tana French

• Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon

• Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George

• Slightly Foxed, Vol. 84, Winter 2024

• Bamboo Farmer Wisdom: 101 Inspirational Thoughts by Greg Bell

• I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats by Francesco Marciuliano 

• Lonely Planet Hidden Libraries: The World’s Most Unusual Book Depositories by DC Helmuth

• Freedom Feminism: Its Surprising History and Why It Matters Today by Christina Hoff Sommers

• Just One Evil Act by Elizabeth George

• Literary Feasts: Inspired Eating from Classic Fiction by Sean Brand

• Penmarric by Susan Howatch

• The Trespasser by Tana French

• What Shall I Say? A Guide To Letter Writing For Ladies by Mrs. Humphreys

• The Snare of the Hunter by Helen MacInnes

• A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George

• The St. Trinian's Story *and the Pick of the Searle Cartoons, edited by Kaye Webb

• The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh

• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

• The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle

• Cimarron Rose by James Lee Burke

• Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir by Ina Garten

• A New Lease of Death by Ruth Rendell

• A Burnt-Out Case by Graham Greene

• The New Artisans: Handmade Designs for Contemporary Living by Olivier Dupon

• The Pilgrim's Regress by C.S. Lewis

• Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter

• Transcription by Kate Atkinson

• Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki 

• Double Blind by Edward St. Aubyn

• Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience by Shaun Usher

• The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan

• Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of a Fulfilled Life by Daniel Klein

• The Ice Saints by Frank Tuohy

• Emma by Jane Austen

• Agent in Place by Helen MacInnes

• Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym

• Above Suspicion by Helen MacInnes

• Helena by Evelyn Waugh

• The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry

• Wolf to the Slaughter by Ruth Rendell

• The Best Man to Die by Ruth Rendell

• I Like it Here by Kingsley Amis

• Old Bones by Aaron Elkins

• Thus was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell

• The Bookman's Wake by John Dunning

• A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr

• Jazz Funeral by Julie Smith

• August Folly by Angela Thirkell

• Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe

• The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

• No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym

• A Guilty Thing Surprised by Ruth Rendell

• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

• The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien

• Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

• Something Old, Something New: Classic Recipes Revised by Tamar Adler

• Murder Being Once Done by Ruth Rendell

• Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

• Zorba the Greek by  Kazantzakis

• No More Dying Then by Ruth Rendell

• Indian Summer by William Dean Howells

• The Luck of the Bodkins by P. G. Wodehouse

• Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark

• The Fisher King by Anthony Powell

• The Light of Day by Graham Swift

• The Anti-minimalist House by Massimo Listri

• Some Lie and Some Die by Ruth Rendell

• The Lonely Girl by Edna O'Brien

• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

• Shake Hands Forever by Ruth Rendell

• The Complete Stories by Evelyn Waugh

• Ivanov by Anton Chekhov

• Highland Fling by Nancy Mitford

• A Sleeping Life by Ruth Rendell

• Brazil by John Updike

• Falstaff by Rober Nye

• Persuasion by Jane Austen

• Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

• L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home by David Lebovitz

• The Green Knight by Iris Murdoch

• The Seagull by Anton Chekhov

• The Devil's Advocate by Morris West

• Girls in Their Married Bliss by Edna O'Brien

• The British Baking Book: The History of British Baking, Savory and Sweet by Regula Ysewijn

• Rabbit Remembered by John Updike

• My Life as a Man by Philip Roth

• The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe

• A Thousand Feasts by Nigel Sleter

• Cat Stories by James Herriot

• Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy

• The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

• Tempest Tost by Robertson Davies

• A Christmas Treasury of Yuletide Stories and Poems, edited by James Charlton and Barbara Gilson

• Leaven of Malice by Robertson Davies