The Must-Read Books of 2025 (So Far)

Amazon’s Best Books of 2025 So Far
Audible’s Best of the Year (So Far)

Alice lives behind a lens. As a photographer, she’s most comfortable letting other people shine. Lately though, she’s been itching for something more, and returns to the lake where she spent a magical summer when she was seventeen. Then she runs into Charlie Florek. Sun-slanted days and warm nights out on the lake with Charlie are a balm for Alice’s soul, but when she looks up and sees his piercing green gaze directly on her, she begins to worry for her heart. Because Alice sees people — that’s why she is so good at what she does — but she’s never met someone who looks and sees her right back.

Spotify’s Best Self-Help of the Year So Far

From bestselling author Martha Beck, a new path to overcoming anxiety by awakening the creativity within. Beck provides instructions for engaging the “creativity spiral,” in a process that not only shuts down anxiety but leads to innovative problem solving, a sense of meaning and purpose, and joyful, intimate connection with others — and with the world. The opposite of anxiety, it turns out, is a wonderful new way of life — one that can calm and inspire us as individuals and help us become a source of healing for everything around us.

Spotify’s Best Audiobooks of the Year So Far
Apple’s Best Books of the Year (So Far)

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Prairie Fires comes a terrifying true crime history of serial killers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. It’s a gripping investigation of how a new strain of psychopath emerged out of a toxic landscape of deadly industrial violence.

It was meant to be a harmless prank. What had they done? From the New York Times bestselling author of The Better Sister and The Wife comes a suspenseful story about a vacation in the Hamptons that goes terribly wrong for three friends with a complicated history.

From New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis, an utterly addictive new novel that will transport you from New York City’s most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back.

Apple’s Best Books of the Year (So Far)

Maya Killgore is 23 and still in the process of figuring out her life. Conor Harkness (her brother’s best friend) is 38, and Maya cannot stop thinking about him. Maya should just get over him – as Conor loves to remind her, the power dynamic is too imbalanced for a relationship to ever happen. But when Maya’s brother decides to get married in Sicily, she and Conor end up stuck together in a romantic villa for a week. And Maya decides that a summer fling might be just what she needs — even if it’s a problematic one.

They call them wayward girls. And they’re sent to Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, to give them up for adoptions, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened. Every moment of their waking day is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. But when one girl meets a librarian who gives her an occult book on witchcraft, power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid … and it’s usually paid in blood.

A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets, and then embarks on a magical quest when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop, in this dreamlike fantasy novel.

Audible’s Best of the Year (So Far)

Two women haunted by their sisters’ unsolved disappearances band together in this captivating mystery from the author of All Good People Here and host of the #1 true crime podcast Crime Junkie.

She was only eleven-and-a-half inches tall, but she would change the world. In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be mothers. One woman’s vision for a doll shaped like a grown woman and outfitted in an enviable wardrobe will let them dream they can be anything. Barbie is born in this bold novel by USA Today bestselling author Renée Rosen.

Spotify’s Best Romance of the Year So Far
Apple’s Best Books of the Year (So Far)

An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice.

Anna first fell in love with London at her hometown library — its Jane Austen balls a far cry from her life of food stamps and hand-me-downs. But when she finally arrives after college, the real London is a moldy flat and the same paycheck-to-paycheck grind — that fairy-tale life still out of reach. Then Anna meets the Wilders, who fly her to Saint-Tropez to tutor their teenage daughter and she soon finds herself plunged into a heady whirlpool of parties and excess. It’s like she’s stepped into the pages of a glittering new novel, but what will it cost her to play the part? Sparkling with intelligence and insight, All That Life Can Afford peels back the glossy layers of class and privilege, exploring what it means to create a new life for yourself that still honors the one you’ve left behind.

The daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom in this moving novel from the bestselling author of Black Cake, a Read With Jenna Book Club pick.

Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping novel from Emily Henry.

The New York Times’s Best Books of the Year (So Far)
BBC’s 12 Best Books of the Year So Far

A publishing event ten years in the making — a searing, exquisite new novel by the bestselling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists — the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires. A trenchant reflection of the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations of the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.

The New York Times’s Best Books of the Year (So Far)
BBC’s 12 Best Books of the Year So Far
Apple’s Best Books of the Year (So Far)

Han Kang’s most revelatory book since The Vegetarian, We Do Not Part tells the story of a friendship between two women while powerfully reckoning with a hidden chapter in Korean history. Blurring the boundaries between dream and reality, We Do Not Part powerfully illuminates this forgotten chapter in history, buried for decades — bringing to light the lost voices of the past to save them from oblivion. Both a hymn to an enduring friendship and an argument for remembering, it is the story of profound love in the face of unspeakable violence — and a celebration of life, however fragile it might be.

BBC’s 12 Best Books of the Year So Far
Spotify’s Best Fiction of the Year So Far
Audible’s Best of the Year (So Far)

In this collection of one novel and three stories, bestselling author Torrey Peters’s keen eye for the rough edges of community and desire push the limits of trans writing. In Stag Dance, the titular novel, a group of restless lumberjacks working in an illegal winter logging outfit plan a dance that some of them will volunteer to attend as women. When the strongest of the axmen announces his intention to dance as a woman, he finds himself caught in a strange rivalry with a pretty young jack, provoking a cascade of obsession, jealousy, and betrayal that will culminate on the big night in an astonishing vision of gender and transition. Acidly funny and breathtaking in its scope, Stag Dance provokes, unsettles, and delights.

BBC’s 12 Best Books of the Year So Far

At the turn of the twenty-first century, three young people come of age in Tanzania. Karim returns to his sleepy hometown after university with new swagger and ambition. Fauzia glimpses in him a chance at escape from a smothering upbringing. The two of them offer a haven to Badar, a poor boy still unsure if the future holds anything for him at all. As tourism, technology, and unexpected opportunities and perils reach their quiet corner of the world, each arrives at a different understanding of what it means to take your fate into your own hands.

BBC’s 12 Best Books of the Year So Far

Cece is in love. She has arrived early at her future in-laws’ lake house in Montana to finish planning her wedding to Charlie, a young doctor with a brilliant life ahead of him. Charlie has asked Garrett, his best friend from college, to officiate the ceremony, though Cece can’t imagine anyone more ill-suited for the task. But as Cece spends time with Garrett, his gruff mask slips, and she grows increasingly uncertain about her future and must decide between the life she’s dreamed of and a life she’s never imagined. The events of that summer have long-lasting repercussions, not only on the three friends caught in its shadow but also on their children, who struggle to escape their parents’ story. Written with humor, precision, and enormous heart, Dream State is a thrillingly ambitious ode to the power of friendship, the weird weather of marriage, and the beauty of impermanence.

BBC’s 12 Best Books of the Year So Far
Spotify’s Best Fiction of the Year So Far

Sarah has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: Her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days. Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.

Amazon’s Best Books of 2025 So Far

An explosive, deeply reported exposé of Johnson & Johnson, one of America’s oldest and most trusted pharmaceutical companies — from an award-winning investigative journalist. Filled with shocking and infuriating but utterly necessary revelations, No More Tears is a landmark work that lays bare the deeply rooted corruption behind the image of babies bathing with a smile.

Amazon’s Best Books of 2025 So Far

From the author of Oprah’s Book Club pick and New York Times bestseller Nightcrawling, here is an astonishing new novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a small town on the Florida panhandle. The town thinks the Girls have lost their way, but really they are finding it: Looking for love, making and breaking friendships, and navigating the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood. Full of heart and life and hope, set against the shifting sands of these friends’ secrets and betrayals, The Girls Who Grew Big confirms Leila Mottley’s promise and offers an explosive new perspective on what it means to be a young woman.

Amazon’s Best Books of 2025 So Far

A heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey towards peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Horse. “Brooks tracks the geography of grief with patience and grace as she comes to terms with the ongoing nature of outliving the ones you love most … Her memoir is certainly a testament to her own unique loss, but it’s moreover a lifeline to others who will find themselves in this familiar, shattered landscape of grief” (Los Angeles Times).

Amazon’s Best Books of 2025 So Far

In her job as unofficial “problem solver” for Silicon Valley’s most ruthless venture capitalist, Mackenzie Clyde’s gotten used to playing for high stakes. Even if none of those tech-bro millions she’s so good at wrangling ever make it into her pockets. But this time, she’s in way over her head — or so it seems. The lightning-rod CEO of tech’s hottest startup has just been murdered, leaving behind billions in “dead money” frozen in his will. As the company’s chief investor, Mackenzie’s boss has a fortune on the line — and with the police treading water, it’s up to Mackenzie to step up and resolve things, fast. Featuring jaw-dropping twists and a wily, outsider heroine you can’t help rooting for, Dead Money is a brilliant sleight-of-hand mystery. Written by a longtime insider, it is also a dead-on snapshot of the Valley’s rich and famous — and a glimpse at the darkness lurking behind the tech world’s cheery facade.

Amazon’s Best Books of 2025 So Far
Spotify’s Best Audiobooks of the Year So Far
Audible’s Best of the Year (So Far)

From the author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits. Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: Transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love — this time among the stars.

Amazon’s Best Books of 2025 So Far
Spotify’s Best Audiobooks of the Year So Far
Apple’s Best Books of the Year (So Far)
Audible’s Best of the Year (So Far)

A revealing personal life story like no other — enlightening, entertaining, surprising, empowering — and a testament to the world-making power of Black motherhood. This is a page-turning chronicle of family love and heartbreak, of loss and perseverance, and of the kind of creativity, audacity, and will it takes for a girl from Galveston to change the world. It’s one brilliant woman’s intimate and revealing story, and a multigenerational family saga that carries within it the story of America — and the wisdom that women pass on to one another, mothers to daughters, across generations.

Amazon’s Best Books of 2025 So Far

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow illuminates the full, fascinating, and complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American literature, Mark Twain. Today, more than one hundred years after his death, Twain’s writing continues to be read, debated, and quoted. In this brilliant work of scholarship, a moving tribute to the writer’s talent and humanity, Chernow reveals the magnificent and often maddening life of one of the most original characters in American history.

Amazon’s Best Books of 2025 So Far
BBC’s 12 Best Books of the Year So Far

In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off to register her son’s birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she’d like to call the child, Cora hesitates … Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of Cora’s and her young son’s lives, shaped by her choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities of autonomy and healing.

The New York Times’s Best Books of the Year (So Far)

A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this “lushly painted” (People) historical epic of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam. Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.

The New York Times’s Best Books of the Year (So Far)

Burnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to the place she grew up, taking refuge in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of rural Australia. She doesn’t believe in God, or know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive existence almost by accident. Meditative, moving, and finely observed, Stone Yard Devotional is a seminal novel from a writer of rare power, exploring what it means to retreat from the world, the true nature of forgiveness, and the sustained effect of grief on the human soul.

The New York Times’s Best Books of the Year (So Far)
Spotify’s Best Biography & Memoir of the Year So Far

A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman’s unlikely friendship with a wild hare. Raising Hare chronicles their journey together while also taking a deep dive into the lives and nature of hares, and the way they have been viewed historically in art, literature, and folklore. We witness firsthand the joy at this extraordinary relationship between human and animal, which serves as a reminder that the best things, and the most beautiful experiences, arise when we least expect them.

The New York Times’s Best Books of the Year (So Far)

Through the “revelatory and gut-wrenching” (Associated Press) stories of five Atlanta families, this landmark work of journalism exposes a new and troubling trend — the dramatic rise of the working homeless in cities across America. By turns heartbreaking and urgent, There Is No Place for Us illuminates the true magnitude, causes, and consequences of the new American homelessness — and shows that it won’t be solved until housing is treated as a fundamental human right.

The New York Times’s Best Books of the Year (So Far)

In the second volume of the landmark American Revolution trilogy by the bestselling author of The British Are Coming, George Washington’s army fights on the knife edge between victory and defeat. Timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the Revolution, Atkinson’s brilliant account of the lethal conflict between the Americans and the British offers not only deeply researched and spectacularly dramatic history, but also a new perspective on the demands that democracy makes on its citizens.