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14 Best Books Of 2025 According To People And The New York Times

Leo Migdal
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14 best books of 2025 according to people and the new york times

If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Books by Stephen Graham Jones, Suzanne Collins and more made the '100 Notable Books of the Year' NYT list and PEOPLE's recommendations For anyone looking to wrap up their 2025 TBR lists or in the thick of holiday shopping, look no further. We combed through The New York Times' list of 100 Notable Books of 2025 and cross-checked their editors' favorites against PEOPLE's monthly recommendations to pinpoint a list of books recommended by experts at both... From stunning historical fiction by Allegra Goodman, haunting horror by Stephen Graham Jones to Oprah's Book Club pick A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar and the hotly-anticipated Hunger Games prequel Sunrise on... In this hilarious, profound novel, lonely teenager Griffin Hurt, disconnected from the dysfunctional adults around him in 1980s New York City, explores the many identities in his life, from child actor to champion wrestler...

— Caroline Leavitt Another year, another stack of great books to read. PBS News Hour’s Jeffrey Brown talked with Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air, and author Ann Patchett about their top picks this year. “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” by Kiran Desai “It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It is a sweeping epic about two young people who are both from the same small town in India.

They are living in the States. And when they’re in the States, they feel too Indian. And when they go home to India, they feel too American. And this is the story of how they slowly wind their way to one another and maybe cure their loneliness. Kiran Desai is a brilliant, all encompassing writer, and I love this book.” READ MORE: Novelist Rabih Alameddine and poet Patricia Smith win National Book Awards

“The Antidote: A Novel” by Karen Russell Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North a Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism My Father, Seven Children and the Adverts That Helped Them Escape the Holocaust Last week, The New York Times shared their 100 Notable Books of 2025. Now, they're back with their overall top 10 books of 2025.

Book Riot Editorial is made up of passionate readers, writers, and book lovers dedicated to delivering insightful book recommendations, literary analysis, and the latest in book culture. With expertise spanning multiple genres and a deep understanding of the publishing industry, we offer thoughtful commentary, book deals, and news that matters to readers. Whether it’s uncovering hidden gems, analyzing literary trends, or championing diverse voices, Book Riot’s editorial team is here to keep you informed and inspired. Last week, The New York Times shared their 100 Notable Books of 2025. Now, they’re back with their overall top 10 books of 2025: five fiction and five nonfiction. As you might expect, the fiction books are all literary fiction, including a stream-of-consciousness World War I novel, a book about an Austrian filmmaker in World War II, and a 700-page family saga.

You can listen to The New York Times Book Review podcast to hear editor Gilbert Cruz and his colleagues discuss their process of narrowing the 100 notable picks to these top ten. They also talk about what made these ten titles stand out. Here are the ten best books of 2025, according to The New York Times. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.

Books can be a refuge from (waves arms) all this, even when they take you deeper into the darkness of 2025. There is a grace in the relationship between book and reader, with nothing but your eyes and brain and the words on the page. Thank goodness for the hearts and minds of the authors who imagine and construct these worlds, who ask these rigorous questions, who spend their lives with words. It’s a pleasure to join with a couple of my fellow book critics in selecting some of our favorite books of the year. — Carolyn Kellogg Our picks for this year’s best in arts and entertainment.

“Audition” By Katie KitamuraRiverhead: 208 pages, $28 There's no better time than the start of summer to take a pause and reset your priorities. And, if we may be so bold, one of those priorities really should be to dig into one of the many great new books that have been published this year. It's only June, and yet we've already been blessed with a wealth of heart-rending memoirs, absorbing novels, and mind-expanding nonfiction. Meander through the beguiling mind of a theater actress, take a siblings road trip that challenges the very notion of family, or delve into a deep, personal secret. Here, the 14 best books of the year so far.

It feels like the U.S. has lived 100 lifetimes since Karen Russell’s much-lauded 2011 debut Swamplandia!, but it’s safe to say that her highly anticipated follow-up The Antidote was worth the wait. An American epic that takes place in the 1930s in the fictional town of Uz, Neb., the story centers on a prairie witch who calls herself “the Antidote.” A healer of sorts, the Antidote,... But when a dust bowl devastates the town, it takes the witch’s memory deposits with it and leaves her fearful for her safety. What will happen to her when people can no longer unload their worst—and have to actually live with themselves? Told from the vantage point of multiple inhabitants of Uz, The Antidote is a sprawling yet meticulous story that implores us to see American history in its fullness, scars and all.—Rachel Sonis

Buy Now: The Antidote on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble Audition, Katie Kitamura's taut and incisive follow-up to Intimacies, begins on a rich premise. The narrator, a successful actress navigating a difficult new role, goes to a Manhattan restaurant to meet a younger man, Xavier, who claims he's her son. It’s impossible. The actress, who goes unnamed, has never given birth or been a parent. But the strange encounter isn't their last; Xavier begins working on the same play, and his bold assertion prompts her to unravel the many choices and performances that have brought her to this particular...

Halfway through, Audition changes realities, completely redefining the relationship between the two. Kitamura’s tantalizing novel asks a lot of the reader, offering multiple versions of the same life that circle around an idea raised by the protagonist herself: “As you get older things become less clear.”—Mahita... Buy Now: Audition on Bookshop Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble ‘Tis the season for reflecting on a well-read year. In 2025, we celebrated new romantasy novels at midnight release parties and traveled to see our favorite authors talk about breathing life into the page. We read the nail-biting new installments of beloved series and gasped over dishy celebrity memoirs.

We revisited books when the adaptations hit screens. We named our dogs and cats after our favorite characters. We found friends and community through reading. So, after all that reading, which books are we still thinking about now? The truth is, the best book of the year is deeply personal to every reader. Still, some titles transcended genre to unite us in spectacular storytelling.

We’ve narrowed down our favorite reads of 2025 to a list that has a little something for everyone, from sweeping family sagas to touching memoirs, gory horror novels to romances that guarantee a happily... What it’s about: A young woman grows up in the shadow of a generational family curse of lovelessness and the belief that she’s the reincarnation of her aunt.

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If You Click On Links We Provide, We May Receive

If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Books by Stephen Graham Jones, Suzanne Collins and more made the '100 Notable Books of the Year' NYT list and PEOPLE's recommendations For anyone looking to wrap up their 2025 TBR lists or in the thick of holiday shopping, look no further. We combed through The New York Times' list of 100 Notable Books of 2025 and cross-checked their e...

— Caroline Leavitt Another Year, Another Stack Of Great Books

— Caroline Leavitt Another year, another stack of great books to read. PBS News Hour’s Jeffrey Brown talked with Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air, and author Ann Patchett about their top picks this year. “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” by Kiran Desai “It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It is a sweeping epic about two young people who are both from the same small town in ...

They Are Living In The States. And When They’re In

They are living in the States. And when they’re in the States, they feel too Indian. And when they go home to India, they feel too American. And this is the story of how they slowly wind their way to one another and maybe cure their loneliness. Kiran Desai is a brilliant, all encompassing writer, and I love this book.” READ MORE: Novelist Rabih Alameddine and poet Patricia Smith win National Book ...

“The Antidote: A Novel” By Karen Russell Detroit, The Supreme

“The Antidote: A Novel” by Karen Russell Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North a Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism My Father, Seven Children and the Adverts That Helped Them Escape the Holocaust Last week, The New York Times shared their 100 Notable Books of 2025. Now, they're back with their overall top 10 books of 2025.

Book Riot Editorial Is Made Up Of Passionate Readers, Writers,

Book Riot Editorial is made up of passionate readers, writers, and book lovers dedicated to delivering insightful book recommendations, literary analysis, and the latest in book culture. With expertise spanning multiple genres and a deep understanding of the publishing industry, we offer thoughtful commentary, book deals, and news that matters to readers. Whether it’s uncovering hidden gems, analy...