The 25 best books of 2025
The 25 highest-ranked books first published in 2025 in our ranking of 2,816, scored on how much readers love them, their prize, best-list and bestseller record, and current buzz. We rank 101 books of 2025 in all. How we rank
- 1
The Correspondent94.9Must-Read ScoreThe Correspondent
Sybil Van Antwerp is a sharp, private woman in her seventies who has written letters nearly every day of her life: to her brother, to old friends, to her children, to authors she admires and to people who have annoyed her.
Why it made the listWomen's Prize for Fiction winner (2026)#1 New York Times bestseller (1 week at #1)50 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025Goodreads Choice (fiction) finalist (2025) - 2
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This90.6Must-Read ScoreOne Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
In October 2023, a few weeks into the bombardment of Gaza, novelist Omar El Akkad posted a single line that went viral and became this book's title.
Why it made the listNational Book Award (Nonfiction) winner (2025)Goodreads Choice (nonfiction) finalist (2025) - 3
Things in Nature Merely Grow88.0Must-Read ScoreThings in Nature Merely Grow
Novelist Yiyun Li and her husband had two sons and lost them both to suicide: Vincent in 2017, at sixteen, and James in 2024, at nineteen.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize (Memoir) winner (2026)National Book Award (Nonfiction) finalist (2025)Goodreads Choice (memoir autobiography) finalist (2025) - 4
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America87.2Must-Read ScoreThere Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America
In America, hard work is supposed to keep a roof over your head.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction) winner (2026) - 5
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice86.7Must-Read ScoreNobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Virginia Roberts Giuffre was a teenager when she was recruited into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's network of abuse, and she became the most outspoken of their victims, the woman whose decision to speak publicly helped send both to prison.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (5 weeks at #1)31 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025Goodreads Choice (memoir autobiography) finalist (2025) - 6
Atmosphere85.9Must-Read ScoreAtmosphere
Joan Goodwin has loved the stars all her life, and in 1980, as a reserved physics professor in Houston, she's chosen as one of the first women to train for NASA's space shuttle program.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (historical fiction) winner (2025)#1 New York Times bestseller (2 weeks at #1)31 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025 - 7
Everything Is Tuberculosis85.7Must-Read ScoreEverything Is Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis killed more people than any other infectious disease in history, and it still kills over a million people a year, even though it's curable.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (nonfiction) winner (2025)#1 New York Times bestseller (2 weeks at #1)43 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025 - 8
My Friends83.9Must-Read ScoreMy Friends
A famous painting shows a group of teenagers on a pier by the sea one summer long ago.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (fiction) winner (2025)#1 New York Times bestseller (1 week at #1)30 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025 - 9
Mother Mary Comes to Me83.7Must-Read ScoreMother Mary Comes to Me
Arundhati Roy's memoir of her mother, Mary Roy: a fierce, brilliant, impossible woman who left an abusive marriage, raised her children alone in Kerala, founded a celebrated school, and won a landmark court case that gave Syrian Christian women in India equal inheritance rights.
Why it made the listNBCC Award (Memoir) winner (2025)Goodreads Choice (memoir autobiography) finalist (2025) - 10
We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution83.6Must-Read ScoreWe the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution
Jill Lepore, a Harvard historian, tells the history of the U.S.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize (History) winner (2026)Goodreads Choice (history biography) finalist (2025) - 11
A Drop of Corruption82.8Must-Read ScoreA Drop of Corruption
In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the edge of the Empire, a Treasury officer vanishes from a room locked from the inside, in a building whose every entrance is guarded.
Why it made the listHugo Award finalist (2026)Goodreads Choice (fantasy) finalist (2025) - 12
King of Kings82.7Must-Read ScoreKing of Kings
In 1979, the Shah of Iran, a key American ally with one of the world's best-equipped armies, was overthrown by a revolution led by an elderly exiled cleric, Ayatollah Khomeini, and almost no one in Washington saw it coming.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize (History) finalist (2026)NBCC Award (Nonfiction) finalist (2025) - 13
Alchemised82.1Must-Read ScoreAlchemised
Helena Marino was a healer for the resistance in a war against necromancers who raise the dead to fight for them.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (1 week at #1)27 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025Goodreads Choice (romantasy) finalist (2025) - 14
The Raven Scholar81.6Must-Read ScoreThe Raven Scholar
In the empire of Orrun, the next emperor is chosen through a deadly contest between candidates from each of the empire's orders.
Why it made the listHugo Award finalist (2026)Goodreads Choice (fantasy) finalist (2025) - 15
The House of My Mother81.0Must-Read ScoreThe House of My Mother
Shari Franke grew up as the eldest daughter on 8 Passengers, a YouTube channel that showed her family's life to millions of subscribers.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (memoir autobiography) winner (2025)#1 New York Times bestseller (3 weeks at #1)16 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025 - 16
The Everlasting80.9Must-Read ScoreThe Everlasting
Sir Una Everlasting is the legendary lady knight who founded the nation of Dominion: an orphan who became a hero and died for her queen.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (2026)Goodreads Choice (fantasy) finalist (2025) - 17
Shield of Sparrows80.7Must-Read ScoreShield of Sparrows
In a realm where the gods have sent monsters to keep mortals humble, a young princess has spent her life obeying her father and staying in the shadow of her sisters.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (romantasy) finalist (2025) - 18
Broken Country80.2Must-Read ScoreBroken Country
Beth and her kind husband Frank run a sheep farm in rural England, and their happy marriage depends on the past staying buried.
Why it made the list34 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025Goodreads Choice (historical fiction) finalist (2025) - 19
One Golden Summer79.2Must-Read ScoreOne Golden Summer
When Alice was seventeen, she spent one summer at her grandmother's cottage on a lake in Ontario.
Why it made the list22 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025Goodreads Choice (romance) finalist (2025) - 20
107 Days79.2Must-Read Score107 Days
On July 21, 2024, President Joe Biden announced that he would not run for reelection, and Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic candidate.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (2 weeks at #1)22 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025Goodreads Choice (memoir autobiography) finalist (2025) - 21
Heart the Lover79.1Must-Read ScoreHeart the Lover
In her senior year of college, the narrator falls into a friendship, and then a love affair, with two star students, Sam and Yash, who are best friends.
Why it made the listWomen's Prize for Fiction finalist (2026)Goodreads Choice (fiction) finalist (2025) - 22
Baldwin: A Love Story78.8Must-Read ScoreBaldwin: A Love Story
The first major biography of James Baldwin in three decades shows how profoundly his relationships shaped his life and work.
Why it made the listBaillie Gifford Prize finalist (2026)Goodreads Choice (history biography) finalist (2025) - 23
Wings of Starlight78.2Must-Read ScoreWings of Starlight
In Pixie Hollow, no fairy of the warm seasons has crossed into the Winter Woods in centuries, and most fear the monsters said to lurk there.
Why it made the list64 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025 - 24
Fake Skating78.0Must-Read ScoreFake Skating
Growing up, Dani and Alec were inseparable, until Dani moved away and their friendship ended badly.
Why it made the list50 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025 - 25
192977.9Must-Read Score1929
Andrew Ross Sorkin, the author of Too Big to Fail, tells the story of the 1929 stock market crash.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (6 weeks at #1)39 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025Goodreads Choice (history biography) finalist (2025)
