Top 10 History Books I Read in 2025

Hello friends. Today we are diving into all of the history books that I read in 2025. If you're new here, welcome or

2025. If you're new here, welcome or welcome back. My name is Kayn. I am a

welcome back. My name is Kayn. I am a PhD candidate in history and African-American studies at Yale University. I study history for my

University. I study history for my profession. I make history content on

profession. I make history content on social media. And I also really love

social media. And I also really love reading historical fiction. So today I'm going to be sharing with you a couple historical fiction and non-fiction books that I read in 2025. You do not need to

have studied history in order to enjoy these books. In fact, most of them are

these books. In fact, most of them are actually in time periods that I didn't know anything about or I had a very cursory knowledge of from grade school.

So, first I actually did a bit of a deep dive into World War II history. There is

a lot of World War II non-fiction as well as historical fiction. And this one kind of toes the line between both. This

is In the Garden of Beast by Eric Larson. Now, Eric Larson wrote Devil in

Larson. Now, Eric Larson wrote Devil in the White City, which I actually had to read in undergrad. And he does a really great job of towing the line between historical fiction and non-fiction. And

this book is about the Dodd family, or more specifically, William Dodd, who was an American historian working in Chicago and ended up being recruited to become

the US ambassador in Berlin in 1933.

Now for those of you that know this history then you will be very well aware that 1933 was a kind of crucial year in the development of Nazi sentiment and

the power of Adolf Hitler. This was not a familiar history to me. I primarily

study the 17th and the 18th century and didn't have very much knowledge of this time. And I was also reading this back

time. And I was also reading this back in March when there was a lot of news about the dismantling of the Department of Education and things going on in the United States. And a lot of this felt

United States. And a lot of this felt really poignant. And the reason I say

really poignant. And the reason I say that is because you get to witness the change in people's attitudes towards

Jewish members of society in a very subtle way through the eyes of William Dodd. You also get to see Berlin society

Dodd. You also get to see Berlin society from the perspective of his daughter.

Now, his daughter is very interesting because she actually had multiple relationships with people across Berlin, including other ambassadors, members of the secret police, and she was and she

also had a relationship with the Soviet spy. It's very fascinating. And what I

spy. It's very fascinating. And what I really love about Eric Larson's style of writing is that everything that's in quotes is actually from a document. It's

not intended to be misleading and it's also not intended to be this kind of grand fictionalization of this time period and this experience. I personally

really enjoyed the writing style. It was

a very easy read in terms of the pros, but it is a history that is very challenging to grapple with, but I think it's a really strong example of how we as a society can be easily manipulated

and was fantastic. The other book I actually

was fantastic. The other book I actually finished right at the end of the year was The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. I

read The Rose Code in 2024 and that was about women that were codereakers at Bletchley Park. And this one is instead

Bletchley Park. And this one is instead about a woman who actually goes undercover as a spy in German occupied France during the First World War. And

then it does a bit of a time jump to a second point of view which is a woman after World War II who has come to the UK from America. She has lost her cousin

who was in German occupied territory during the Second World War and there's kind of a common link between these two women and she ends up going and trying to find Eve who is the spy from the

First World War in order to find her missing cousin. This was an incredibly

missing cousin. This was an incredibly well-written book. It is really

well-written book. It is really challenging because you are actually delving into a very difficult history.

And if you are somebody that struggles with things surrounding like sexual violence and just physical violence generally, this might not be the book for you. But I thought it was very well

for you. But I thought it was very well done. I really enjoyed it and it ended

done. I really enjoyed it and it ended up being a five-star read for me. This

is one that I would recommend. And I was told before that Kate Quinn's books can feel a bit sy when you start to read more of her literature, but in reading The Rose Code in this, I felt like her

writing style really came alive and I felt very wrapped up into the characters and I really enjoyed it and I would highly recommend it. Next up, I have two books by Patty Callahan. This is

Becoming Mrs. Lewis and this is The Secret Book of Flora Lee. Now, I became absolutely obsessed with Patty Callahan when I was preparing to go on a trip to

promote the story she left behind. I

went to the Lake District in order to promote one of her books, but in doing so, I wanted to read all of her back catalog. And actually, I will say that

catalog. And actually, I will say that my favorites were Becoming Mrs. Lewis and The Secret Book of Flora Lee.

Becoming Mrs. Lewis is about Joy Davidman. She was an American who became

Davidman. She was an American who became quite fascinated with CS Lewis's writing. She ended up actually becoming

writing. She ended up actually becoming kind of a pen pal of his and they would write back and forth about religion and philosophy. They ended up developing

philosophy. They ended up developing this really strong friendship and throughout the years of her 30s and 40s

she is in a marriage with a alcoholic and she ends up going to England in order to meet CS Lewis and this is kind of the evolution of their friendship

into a bit of a romance. They talk a lot about the difference between kind of platonic and romantic love and I just thought this was so beautifully done.

This is but one of those books that I would reread. I really enjoyed being in

would reread. I really enjoyed being in Joyy's head and it gave me a new perspective on CS Lewis and living in Oxford and I just I just love this book.

Next up is The Secret Book of Flora Lee.

Now if you've read Narnia or you're aware of the story then you are aware of the Pi Piper operation. Pied Piper was essentially a mission to get children out of London and into the countryside.

Many of them were separated from their parents to go live in the countryside with families that they did not know.

And in doing so, many were deeply traumatized by the experience being separated from their parents at a time when their parents needed to remain in London. This was during the Blitz and

London. This was during the Blitz and many lost their parents as a result. And

this story is about two sisters, Hazel and Flora, and they are sent away during the Pied Piper operation to go live with a single mother and her child out in the Oxfordshire countryside. They end up

Oxfordshire countryside. They end up developing this really great friendship with the boy who lives in that house.

And the two girls, in order to kind of deal with the emotions of being separated from their mother, begin making up these stories along the brook.

And one day, Flora, the sister, falls into the water and is never found again.

We jump forward in time and the sister Hazel is now working as a rare book seller in Bloomsbury in London. She's an

adult. She is getting engaged and one day somebody drops a book off that is the story that her and her sister had come up with, the world that they had

developed. And so it's a bit of a

developed. And so it's a bit of a mystery. Now, one of the things that I

mystery. Now, one of the things that I really love about Patty Callahan's writing in this book as well as in the story she left behind is that it feels like a thriller. There's always an

element of mystery and something that's going to be found out by the end.

However, it never loses its whimsy. I

don't really like thrillers just because they often have this really kind of strong gotcha moment. Uh these don't and that's why I really like them. The

discovery of the missing person is something that slowly unfolds over time and is just done in such a way that is really heartwarming. So, I love Patty

really heartwarming. So, I love Patty Callahan's writing. I did do a paid

Callahan's writing. I did do a paid campaign with her for the story she left behind, but I'm not paid to promote any of her books beyond that. And I just really fell in love with her writing. I

think that she has such a magical way of developing character. And while the plot

developing character. And while the plot has like a bit of a kind of thriller element to it, it never feels overbearing. So, I absolutely loved The

overbearing. So, I absolutely loved The Secret Book of Laura Lee and it is one that I would highly recommend to you.

The next three relate to modern China.

The first is Ma's Last Dancer by Lee Shunshin. And I don't know if I got the

Shunshin. And I don't know if I got the tonality of that correct, but he was a ballet dancer for Madame Mao's dance school in Beijing. This was a

beautifully written memoir. It covers

his life as a young boy growing up on the aotments in communist China and then his journey to Beijing and his training as a dancer. He later ends up going to

America and defecting from China. He is

actually exiled afterward. And this is kind of his internal battle of identity, his relationship to communist rhetoric

and ideology and relation to family and everything. It's so beautiful. It's also

everything. It's so beautiful. It's also

been made into a film, but I will say I really highly recommend reading the memoir cuz the film was wonderful, but the book really touched me. Next, we

have The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. This

is my mom's favorite book, and it covers the experiences of, I think, four or five women in China and then their journeys to America and then their

relationships to their daughters. I

personally don't love multiple POVs typically, but what was really beautiful about this was that it kind of read like a series of short stories that interlin in the relationship between the

daughters and the mothers. All of them fled China in 1949, which is the same year that my great-grandmother actually immigrated from China to Taiwan and then later to

America. A lot of the stories that are

America. A lot of the stories that are embedded in this about kind of abandonment and the challenges of women in mid-century China was something that

related to a lot of the experiences that I've heard my family recount and was something that I connected with greatly.

I can see why in particular my mom really loved this book because it relates so much to the relationships between mothers and daughters and the misunderstandings that happen between

mothers and daughters both across cultural lines but also in the kind of gender dynamics of how their relationships to men are playing out. It

was such a beautiful book. I also just watched the film. The film

honestly made me cry more than the book did. It was beautiful. One of the

did. It was beautiful. One of the characters, June, is played by the woman who did the voice for Fa Mulan in Mulan

uh the Disney uh animation. And I highly recommend both. Lastly, I've got When

recommend both. Lastly, I've got When Sleeping Women Wake by Emma Pay Yin.

This book is about the Japanese occupation in Hong Kong, and it covers the experiences of a mother and her daughter. They are separated in the

daughter. They are separated in the early stages of the occupation and it's just a brutal survival story. I'm really

glad that I read this after having been to Hong Kong before just because I understood the layout of the land a little bit better. And there were certain things about the writing that occasionally I found distracting. Now,

this isn't necessarily a criticism of the writer. I just think that this is a

the writer. I just think that this is a general statement as somebody who studies history that sometimes I find especially in historical fiction that the internal

voice feels too modern for the context of that particular book and the time period in which that character is existing. Now, that may be me just being

existing. Now, that may be me just being too critical, but it were there but there were times where I did find it a tiny bit distracting, but the overall story is absolutely beautiful and I

think it's such an important history for us to grapple with. We often think of World War II from the context of the Western Front. I grew up in California

Western Front. I grew up in California and a lot of the conversation about World War II really centered around Japanese interament, the Eastern Front and and how the war was waged in the

Pacific. However, there are aspects of

Pacific. However, there are aspects of that history that I know very little about. And so, it was nice getting to

about. And so, it was nice getting to actually experience and learn more about this time period through historical fiction just because it made it more accessible even to me because I often

find that reading non-fiction in a space that I am unfamiliar can just feel a bit daunting. So, this was absolutely

daunting. So, this was absolutely beautiful. I can't wait to see what else

beautiful. I can't wait to see what else she writes. And for the last three, I've

she writes. And for the last three, I've got one more historical fiction and two non-fiction. The next book is Hammet by

non-fiction. The next book is Hammet by Maggie O. Farerrell. Now, those of you

Maggie O. Farerrell. Now, those of you that study early modern history will know that this is one of the books that is the most highly recommended because it is about the life of Shakespeare, his wife, and his children. We begin with

the point of view of Hamnet, who is Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway's young son, and his two sisters. The town of Stratford has been struck with the

plague and his sister has fallen ill. We

also jump back in time to the meeting of Shakespeare and his wife Agnes, also known as Anne. And this is one of the most beautifully written books that I

read in 2025. I don't want to give any spoilers because this is a very kind of deep, heart-wrenching book, but it is one that I think everyone should read.

One, I think it's a really strong introduction to attitudes of the late 16th century, but also it's such a beautiful character study and it's just

remarkably done. Highly recommend. You

remarkably done. Highly recommend. You

need to put this on your reading list.

Next up, we have two non-fiction books and they're ones that are a return because I have been really falling back in love with studying the American

Revolution. My PhD focuses on the 17th

Revolution. My PhD focuses on the 17th century and colonial Virginia and so I feel close to the subject matter but my first love was actually studying the

late 18th century and the early republic. I've got Abigail Adams Witness

republic. I've got Abigail Adams Witness to the Revolution by Natalie S. Bober

and I also have American Slavery, American Freedom by Edund Morgan.

Two very different books. This one

doesn't necessarily dive into the revolution so much, but it does look at the kind of racial ideology that made freedom and the conception of liberty by

the founding generation possible. That

freedom was based on the forced labor of enslaved individuals.

And this book really goes all the way back to the early settlement of Virginia in order to give us a really strong view

of how the demographics of Virginia and its relationship to Native Americans, its relationship to the slave trade, its relationship to England really shaped

their identity and their sense of understanding around what it means to be free. Guys, Abigail Adams is a

free. Guys, Abigail Adams is a biography. I believe the first one was

biography. I believe the first one was written by was it Woody Holton?

Whoever it was, there were other biographies about Abigail Adams. And I would say that this is one of those just really strong studies, cursory

studies. I was using this in order to do

studies. I was using this in order to do some research for some content that I'm producing on Substack and I wanted to get back into a bit more of a study of

the revolution. So, Abigail Adams was my

the revolution. So, Abigail Adams was my way in. I really love biographies. This

way in. I really love biographies. This

was a really strong case study. Um, I

would love to read more about her and continue to write about her in future content. Um, if you're interested in the

content. Um, if you're interested in the series on Substack, it's called Arguing the American Revolution. I post a new article every Monday and you can find

that down below in the description. Um,

all the articles that I post in that series are going to be for free. Um, but

if you would like to support my Substack, it's also there as a paid option as well. Um, I'd really appreciate it. But I wanted to dive a

appreciate it. But I wanted to dive a bit more into the history of the revolution and the things that I know from my undergraduate days and take a little bit of a mental break from all

the work that I do on my dissertation. I

will also produce some articles about my dissertation at some point. Um, but I'm doing enough writing on that subject in my dissertation as it is. So, I hope you enjoyed this video of going into some of

my favorite reads from 2025.

It was a fine stack. I ended up reading 52 books total in 2025 and this was 10 of them. So, I hope you enjoyed this

of them. So, I hope you enjoyed this video and let me know down below some of your favorite history books from 2025 and if there's anything you recommend that I should read. Thank you everyone

and I'll see you soon.