The New York Times Shares Their 100 Notable Books Of 2025 Book Riot

Leo Migdal

-Dec 12, 2025, 3:54 PM

the new york times shares their 100 notable books of 2025 book riot

From literary fiction to nonfiction to "dazzlingly weird fiction," here are the 100 notable books of 2025, according to The New York Times. 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. ‘Tis the season for Best Books of the Year lists, from Barnes & Noble’s overall #1 pick to the sprawling 384-book list from NPR. The New York Times list falls somewhere in the middle, with 100 fiction and nonfiction books selected by NYT staff.

As you might expect, there are a lot of literary fiction books represented, like Flesh by David Szalay and The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai. But plenty of other genres make an appearance, including romance (August Lane by Regina Black), horror (The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones), fantasy (Katabasis by R.F. Kuang), and what The New York Times describes as “dazzlingly weird fiction” (Trip by Amie Barrodale). You’ll find familiar titles here, like the bestselling Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins and Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, as well as the award-winning We Do Not Part by Han Kang. There are also books that have been on most of the other best books of the year lists, like One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad. Here is the standout fiction and nonfiction of the year, selected by the staff of The New York Times Book Review.

The list is in alphabetical order by title, starting with fiction. A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR NATIONAL BESTSELLER “A thunderous gallop of a war novel, a new classic, a best-in-class example of speculative fiction.” —The New York Times Book Review... An instant USA Today bestseller An NPR 2025 Book We Love A New York Times Notable Book of 2025 A Book Riot Best Book of 2025 A Publishers Weekly Best Romance Book of 2025... "A compelling, gory, ghostly romp."--Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie"This is what it felt like to live in New York City during lockdown: haunted, absurd, terrifying, ridiculous, and full of... The annual New York Times Book Review “100 Notable Books” list has arrived, honoring the year’s most compelling and influential works across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. We’re incredibly proud to share that 38 titles from Penguin Random House have been selected!

You can view the complete list online, as well as in the November 30 print edition of the New York Times. And there’s more to look forward to: the NYTBR’s “10 Best Books of 2025” list will be announced on Tuesday! A heartfelt congratulations to all the writers and to every team across PRH who helped bring these books to life. This recognition is a testament to your remarkable talent and commitment to excellence in publishing. Explore standout titles of the year from our U.S. imprints below:

DEATH TAKES ME by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Robin Myers and Sarah Booker (Hogarth) Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. The New York Times‘ Favorite Hidden Gem Books of 2025. We love an under-the-radar read here at Book Riot, so I hurried over to this New York Times list... For the past couple of months, the most popular books on Libby have been roughly the same 20 books. They usually just change order.

That’s also true for November, but with a few exceptions. Coming in at the end is the newly released book in Jeff Kinney’s wildly popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Partypooper (it’s #20). Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein, also known as the first sci-fi novel ever, also made it onto the list, no doubt as a result of Guillermo del Toro’s latest adaptation that just made it to... We have a long list of bestsellers for you this week, but none of these books are appearing here for the first time. That’s not a surprise: December is a big book-buying month, but it’s the slowest time in publishing, so there aren’t many buzzy books coming out now. It’s been a whirlwind few weeks in the book world.

In addition to some of the biggest book award announcements–see the National Book Award and the Booker–we’ve been in the midst of a flurry of “best books of 2025” lists. “Best of” lists began to grace screens in early October, several months before the end of the year, not to mention several weeks before folks were likely beginning to purchase books for the holiday... A terrifying new synthetic drug mixture is showing up in U.S. emergency rooms—and doctors say it’s hitting faster and harder than anything in recent years. AI was utilized for research, writing, citation management, and editing. Here is the standout fiction and nonfiction of the year, selected by the staff of The New York Times Book Review.

Each January, the editors and critics at the Book Review begin sifting through thousands of new books. By February, we’re meeting regularly to debate and discuss the standouts. All of us are passionate readers, but our tastes don’t necessarily overlap, so the conversations are lively! By September, we’re winnowing down our big list of contenders to arrive at 100 Notables. A hundred may seem like a lot of books, but not to us — we all have favorites that didn’t make the final cut. If you want to see the year’s top books, you can go straight to our 10 Best Books of 2025.

As you browse, you can save the books you’ve read or want to read. By the time you reach the end, you’ll have a personalized reading list to share. See the list at the New York Times. © Literary Affairs, 2005-2025. All Rights Reserved. The New York Times’s 100 Notable Books of the year list has landed, bringing us one heartbeat closer to the editors’ Top 5 Fiction and Top 5 Nonfiction picks for 2025.

Until the final list drops, we’re sharing our predicted ten, along with a quote from The New York Times. "Majumdar creates a deeply compassionate portrait of desperation, fear and the combined selflessness and selfishness of parenthood." - The New York Times "After arriving in Austin in the summer of 1998, the troubled teenage boy at the center of Schaefer’s impressive debut connects with a swaggering Haitian boxer, falls for a Russian phone sex operator (or... A decade later, new clues emerge in the mystery of his disappearance, involving colorful characters and a wild plot that twists and swings like a welterweight." - NYT "Pynchon’s first novel in a dozen years grabs you by the collar the way a mob enforcer might to refresh your memory. Remember his genre parodies, his outrageous names, his ornate zingers, his lollygagging but frequently hilarious descriptions?

It’s all here in this supercharged noir — a Chandleresque, Depression-era yarn involving a missing heiress and a disaster-prone private eye." - NYT "In this rich, bustling, old-fashioned epic, a young couple pushed toward marriage by their Indian families embark on what Desai has called “an endlessly unresolved romance,” navigating competing forces of tradition and modernity, love... Each January, the editors and critics at the Book Review begin sifting through thousands of new books. By February, we’re meeting regularly to debate and discuss the standouts. All of us are passionate readers, but our tastes don’t necessarily overlap, so the conversations are lively! By September, we’re winnowing down our big list of contenders to arrive at 100 Notables.

A hundred may seem like a lot of books, but not to us — we all have favorites that didn’t make the final cut. As you browse, you can save the books you’ve read or want to read. By the time you reach the end, you’ll have a personalized reading list to share. 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.

The New York Times Shares Their 100 Notable Books Of 2025 Book Riot

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DEATH TAKES ME By Cristina Rivera Garza, Translated By Robin