Buffy's 2025 Recap
A mega post looking back at Buffy's second year!
I always start my month reviews feeling amazed that another month has passed but now the YEAR is over! It has been such a wonderful second year for Buffy’s, which continues to grow as a community in ways beyond what I could ever have hoped for. I thought it would be nice to look back at each month of Buffy’s in 2025, as the year winds to an end. I hope you all have a beautiful, restful Christmas/Holiday season - it is a time of year I often dread, so I am trying to just read lots and be extra cosy (see our Buffy’s Christmas gift guide for inspo there). I can’t wait for what Buffy’s has in store for 2026 - we are kicking off the year with a really exciting event in partnership with London’s Royal Ballet and Opera, to celebrate their production of Woolf Works based on Virginia Woolf’s novels, which is such a brilliant way to start the year. Please keep subscribing/following/joining in the conversation to see what’s next! xxx
January - New York
We started the year by discussing what has remained as one of my favourite reads of 2025; Stoner by John Williams. Drinking wine at Casetta in the Lower East Side, this was such a great book to start the year with - everyone loved it, and for very good reason too! It is such a gentle, slow story about one man’s life, the entire trajectory of which is revealed on the first page, that its beauty creeps up on completely. It manages to never once be boring whilst following the quotidian existence of William Stoner, an English professor at the University of Missouri, and perfectly depicts the way seemingly small decisions can alter the course of a life.
February - London
February was one of my favourite venues of the year, Bruno in Victoria Park in London, it was so cosy and they did this really incredible cheese plate, amongst other delicious bits!! We discussed Symposium by Muriel Spark. This was one of the lightest reads we had in 2025 and was so much fun to discuss, largely centered on one dinner party, and the events preceding it. I must read more Spark next year, she was a joy to read and research!
February was also our first brand event of the year, kicking off with J Crew. It was SUCH an incredible way to start our year of brand partnership events. I went to ten different independent book shops in New York and asked them for three novel recommendations, each with a handwritten note in them from the book shop explaining why they loved it. We then displayed them in J Crew’s SoHo store for guests to browse and choose a title to take home. It was a gorgeous evening, we had catering from the iconic Balthazar and drank martinis, and the J Crew team were so supportive. I am so grateful to every brand who has supported Buffy’s so far!
March - New York
March saw us back in New York, at Jac’s on Bond, discussing Love In The Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, one of the hardest reads in 2025 for me. This was dense but so worth the effort, and we loved talking about it. It was a re-read for many attendees - it’s always so interesting to hear people discussing how different a re-read feels. If you came to this book club too then WELL DONE as it was the booziest one that we had all year! We got through so many martinis, it was brilliant (and still maintained a fairly intellectual conversation about Garcia Marquez!).
April - London
In April we discussed The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides at Wine Bar in Mayfair. What a venue this was! In a beautiful part of London, it is hidden underneath a Farm Shop so is really easy to miss, but they do the most incredible food and the space is gorgeous. The Marriage Plot was a novel a lot of people disliked… and we talked about it for HOURS. It focuses on the lives of three friends and their first year post-college. Like it or not, Eugenides knows how to write a novel that you feel engrossed in, even if it annoys you at the same time!
May - New York
In May we discussed Sabahattin Ali’s Madonna in a Fur Coat at Manuela in New York. This Turkish book written in 1943 was recently re-released and translated by Penguin Classics, and for whatever reason has ended up EVERYWHERE online - it does have a very beautiful cover, which might account for it! I found this one of the most disappointing books we discussed this year. It just did not do it for me. The very viral ‘TikTok’ reads can be a bit hit or miss, but I would never want to tarnish them with the same brush when there are some brilliant recommendations out there, (Stoner, for instance, has had lots of viral moments this year). Madonna In A Fur Coat just did not gel with me, it felt like an empty romance that was mostly unbelievable! The great thing about book clubs is even the books you don’t like make for a great discussion, so we still talked for hours.
June - London
For our June book selection, we tried something different, asking four independent bookshops in London to select a book each for the vote. I made this video where I interviewed each bookseller - I want to experiment with more interactive ways of selecting books for the vote next year (our January 2026 selection is based on lists of Buffy’s readers favourite books of 2025)!
The final selected book was Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea - certainly one of my favourites of the year and so fruitful for discussion. The book club was held in London, at the gorgeous Bistro Freddie. Wine and discussion flowed - the central character, retired actor Charles Arrowby, was so divisive.
See the full June recap here.
July
Our July book club was part of a partnership with The Rosewood hotel group, who so kindly allowed us to use two of their amazing hotels for our summer book clubs. July’s was held in The Carlyle hotel (!!!), a historic, iconic art-deco hotel in New York. I actually got to stay the night there, which was such an unforgettable experience. For the selection, I looked at four appropriately New York-y books, and Mary McCarthy’s The Group was the winner. A story about the diverging lives of eight Vassar graduates, and their 20s and 30s in 1950s New York. For me, it was slightly bogged down by the sheer number of characters, but the general consensus on the book was really positive.
See the full July recap here.
August
This month saw our first ever book club outside of New York and London, and the first time I’ve discussed the same book with two different groups, which was really fascinating. The Edinburgh Book Festival kindly invited Buffy’s to be part of their spectacular programme, and we hosted a discussion of NW by Zadie Smith at the beautiful Elliot’s.
For our London version, we were in our second Rosewood venue, the newly opened Chancery Rosewood (it opened the week after the book club!).
See the full August recap here.
September
We began September (which always feels a bit like the start of a new year to me, I guess I’m still on an academic calendar 10+ years after finishing university), appropriately, with our second annual Buffy’s pub quiz! We did one of these last year at the beautiful Spaniards Inn pub in Hampstead, and this year’s was held at the Camberwell Arms and, as in 2024, in partnership with Penguin Classics, who generously donated loads of their books as prizes. We also had fragrance brand Miller Harris as a sponsor this year, who scented the room with gorgeous candles and gave the winning team their newest fragrance.
It was a gorgeous evening, with the best pints in South London (so my South London friends tell me), lovely snacks, and great book chat! It’s so fun putting these quizzes together, and I can’t wait to do it all again next year.
For the book club in September, we discussed Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto at the beautiful Margot in Brooklyn. It was an incredibly warm early autumn evening, and we drank delicious chilled wine.
See the full September recap here.
October
We hosted one of our biggest events in early October in New York in collaboration with my favourite lighting brand Louis Poulsen. We hired an amazing Brooklyn brownstone, had the best catering from Pinch, books generously donated by New Directions, NYRB, and Penguin Classics, and such a lovely bunch of guests.
Our book club for October was held at the cosiest pub in Chelsea, London - The Surprise. I love doing Buffy’s in London pubs - delicious beer, fires, leather chairs, a Richard Curtis dream. We discussed Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, our attempt at a spooky October pick! It made such a great book for discussion, with such vividly drawn characters and Manderley, the house the protagonists inhabited, being a character in and of itself.
See the full October recap here.
November
I began November by getting to attend my second Booker Prize Ceremony. The winner was David Szalay’s Flesh, which I read in a single day a few days after the ceremony. This always feels like a big career moment, being amongst book lovers and book makers is so so special.
We followed up our huge October event with TWO big events in London. The first was a book swap event with Penguin Vintage, held in the most spectacular home in West London, an ex-chapel with the highest ceilings I have ever seen. Monica Vinader kindly provided custom jewellery for every guest, which was so special, and Kelly’s Catering made focaccia, amazing salad, dips, and the most addictive chocolate, peanut, and date bark. San Germain made cocktails that tasted deceptively not like alcohol, an incredibly delicious take on a Hugo Spritz.
We also had a fantastic event with Aēsop (a DREAM collaboration), in their Seven Dials store. This was probably the closest I, a famous Christmas hater, got to hosting a Christmas event! I was tasked with pairing each scent with a book whose contents matched the notes of the fragrance, thirteen books and thirteen fragrances. Guests ate comte and crackers, drank negronis, and had the chance to have a fragrance experience with an Aēsop scent expert, then had to guess which book (from their opening lines) matched which fragrance. Aēsop kindly gifted guests a fragrance and a book, which is so so generous.
I documented the event preparations on my Youtube here, and Aēsop’s amazing videographer Rob Thorogood captured beautiful content, below.
See the full November recap here.
December
I hosted what was technically November’s book club last week in New York (delayed due to Thanksgiving!) and felt VERY emotional at the end of it, knowing it was the last event of 2025 - it has been such an amazing year for Buffy’s.
We discussed Michele Mari’s Verdigris at VICTORIA!, our first ever dive bar venue. We drank beer, martinis, and ate pizza, and it was an incredibly cosy way to spend a cold December eve. We were so lucky to have the book’s translator, Brian Robert Moore, attend the event and tell us more about Mari and the book. Such a perfect end to a really ambitious and wonderful YEAR of events.
Design appreciation
This year, we started working with an amazing graphic designer, Ben Smalley, this year, and I am so obsessed with the visual language he has created for Buffy’s. Below, some of the posters, bookmarks, and a tote bag Ben has designed for us - it’s been so much fun experimenting with these little merch “extras”, so do keep your eyes peeled for more in 2026.
Follow Ben on Instagram here.
Final thoughts
2025 has really surpassed all my expectations. It’s been incredible, and I am so excited about what is to come. I remember when I started my blog over 10 years ago and having the feeling that I could make it something, maybe even make it career, and I can recognise that feeling coming up around Buffy’s too. In an unpredictable online world ruled by viral trends and algorithms, building something rooted in real life feels more important than ever, and more rewarding. The real life moments we have shared together have been amongst the highlights of my year, we have laughed together, learned new things together, and I have watched friendships form. Every event we have done has sold out in minutes, and every time it makes me feel emotional that this is happening. You are all trusting and investing in Buffy’s, through paying for a ticket, to giving up your time to come to an event… I can’t find the words to express how grateful I am for this. In 2026 we are hoping to host more events with higher capacity, and continue to bring you the best venues and experiences. The brand partners we have are a huge part of making this possible, and we are already planning our biggest event yet for February!
Aside from the events, books themselves continue to change my life. Speaking with you all month to month has improved my reading skills ten fold, and I think I have had the best year of reading of my life. Your opinions, recommendations, and discussions when we meet are so valuable to me. I know our 2026 reading list will be amazing, and I am thrilled to get to read along with all of you.
Lizzy
xx
Buffys is my connection to something so different from my day-to-day world as a primary teacher. A chance to meet people from so many different spheres, to talk books, enjoy delicious food and drinks and to be in some very gorgeous spaces. To always receive such a warm welcome makes this community feel special- thank you Lizzy x
Thanks for being my reading “friend”this whole year. It's been awesome having BUFFY around!