Our “best of the best” returns for 2025! We’ve reviewed the end-of-year best book lists and narrowed them down into one reference guide.
Overwhelmed by what to read from the past year? We’ve gathered the fiction, nonfiction, and young adult titles we recommended in 2025 that also appear on at least one of the favorite lists from:
Book Riot, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Bookpage, New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Washington Post, Silent Book Club, NYPL, Shelf Awareness and NPR
Check out these “best of the best” books below!
Best of the Best 2025… FICTION
A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith
Library Journal Editors’ Picks, Library Journal Starred Reviews
A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith
Library Journal Editor’s Picks, Library Journal Starred Reviews
A Girl Within a Girl Within a Girl by Nanda Reddy
Library Journal Starred Reviews
August Lane by Regina Black
NPR, New York Times 100 Most Notable, Book Riot
Bog Queen by Anna North
Publishers Weekly
Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake
NPR, Library Journal Starred Reviews
Her One Regret by Donna Freitas
NYT Best Mystery, Library Journal Editors’ Picks, Library Journal Starred Reviews
How to Dodge a Cannonball by Dennard Dayle
NPR, NYT 100 Most Notable, Kirk’s Reviews
Huguette by Cara Black
Library Journal Starred Reviews
I See You’ve Called In Dead by John Kenney
NPR
King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby
NPR, New York Public Library, Library Journal Editors’ Picks, Library Journal Starred Reviews, Silent Book Club, Obama’s Book List, Kirkus Reviews, Book Riot
Maria La Divina by Jerome Charyn
Library Journal Starred Reviews
Mercy by Joan Silber
NPR
Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith
Shelf Awareness
Once Upon a Time in Dollywood by Ashley Jordan
NPR, Library Journal Starred Reviews
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
Silent Book Club
The Harvey Girls by Juliette Fay
NPR
The Island of Last Things by Emma Sloley
NPR
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
NPR, Shelf Awareness
The Museum Detective by Maha Khan Phillips
Library Journal Starred Reviews
The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict
Library Journal Starred Reviews
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
Book Riot
To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage
Book Riot
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Book Riot, Library Journal Starred Reviews, Kirkus Reviews, Silent Book Club
Best of the Best 2025… NONFICTION
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
NPR, Washington Post, Bookpage Best Nonfiction
Unfit Parent by Jessica Slice
NPR
Best of the Best 2025… YOUNG ADULT
Graciela in the Abyss by Meg Medina
Shelf Awareness, Publishers Weekly
Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout
Publisher’s Weekly
The Experiment by Rebecca Stead
NPR
The Scammer by Tiffany D. Jackson
Book Riot
Curious about the most popular books on the Reading Group Choices site in 2025? We’ve got the top two books from each month listed here!