A Year of Extraordinary Books
Every year, the publishing world releases tens of thousands of new titles, and every year, a handful rise above the noise to become the books everyone is talking about. 2025 was a particularly strong year for fiction and nonfiction alike, with established authors delivering career-best work and newcomers arriving with astonishing confidence. We read hundreds of books over the course of the year, tracked critical reception, monitored reader enthusiasm, and debated fiercely among ourselves to arrive at this list of the best books of 2025 — the must-read titles that defined the year across literary fiction, epic fantasy, historical fiction, memoir, thriller, and YA.
What makes 2025 stand out is the diversity of voices and genres represented in the year's best work. Literary fiction and genre fiction continued to blur their boundaries, nonfiction authors found new ways to make complex topics accessible and urgent, and debut novelists proved, once again, that the future of literature is in excellent hands. Whether you're searching for the best fantasy books of the year, the best historical fiction, a can't-miss memoir, or simply wondering what to read next, here are our top picks for the best books of 2025, organized by category, with an honest look at what each book is about, who it's for, and why it belongs on your reading list.
Literary Fiction
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Sally Rooney's fourth novel cements her status as one of the most important literary fiction writers of her generation, and Intermezzo is arguably her most ambitious book yet. The novel follows two brothers — Ivan, a chess prodigy in his twenties, and Peter, a lawyer in his thirties — as they grieve their father's death and navigate complicated, tender, and messy romantic relationships that force them to reckon with who they are to each other and who they want to become. Rooney expands her range here, moving beyond the twenty-something milieu of her earlier novels to give us older characters, a wider emotional canvas, and a more structurally ambitious narrative that shifts perspective and rhythm from chapter to chapter.
If you loved Normal People or Conversations with Friends and are looking for what to read next from Sally Rooney, Intermezzo is the answer — and if you've never read her before, this is a remarkable place to start. The prose is as precise and quietly devastating as ever, and the emotional insights into grief, sibling rivalry, love, and self-deception cut as deep as anything she's written. It's a must-read for fans of contemporary literary fiction and character-driven family dramas, an unflinching exploration of how loss can both fracture and rebuild the bonds between the people we're bound to, and a strong contender for the best literary fiction book of 2025.
James by Percival Everett
Percival Everett's celebrated, widely awarded reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, the enslaved man at the heart of Twain's novel, is a tour de force of American literary fiction and one of the most talked-about books of 2025. James gives interior life, wit, and agency to a character who, in the original, was often reduced to dialect and stereotype. Everett's Jim is brilliant, strategic, and acutely aware of the performance and code-switching required to survive in a world that denies his humanity, and the novel uses that awareness to interrogate language, power, and the stories America tells about itself.
The result is a novel that is by turns darkly funny, devastating, and profoundly original — a genre-bending work of historical fiction and social commentary from a writer who has been quietly producing extraordinary fiction for decades and has finally received the wide recognition he deserves. For readers who love literary fiction that reframes a classic, tackles slavery and identity with unflinching honesty, and rewards close, careful reading, James is an essential must-read: the rare reimagining that stands entirely on its own as a masterwork, and one of the best novels — of any genre — published this year.
Genre Fiction
The Women by Kristin Hannah
Kristin Hannah, long celebrated for sweeping, emotionally rich historical fiction, delivered one of her most powerful novels yet with The Women, a book that quickly became one of the best-selling and most-discussed titles of the year. Set during and after the Vietnam War, the novel follows Frances "Frankie" McGrath, an Army nurse who volunteers for service in Vietnam and returns home to a country that refuses to acknowledge her sacrifice, her trauma, or her service at all. Hannah's research is meticulous, and her portrayal of the women who served in Vietnam — nurses, soldiers, and support staff largely erased from popular memory of the war — functions as both a historical corrective and a heartfelt tribute.
The novel captures the horror of war, the fierce bonds forged under fire, and the long, often invisible shadow of PTSD with an honesty that never feels gratuitous. If you loved The Nightingale or The Great Alone, The Women belongs at the top of your list of what to read next; if you're searching for the best historical fiction books of 2025 or the best books about the Vietnam War and its aftermath, this is essential reading. It's a must-read for anyone drawn to stories of female friendship, resilience, and the fight to be seen — a gripping, moving, unputdownable novel that lingers long after the final page.
Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson concluded the first arc of his sprawling epic fantasy series, the Stormlight Archive, with Wind and Truth, a massive, meticulously plotted novel that delivered on more than a decade of setup. Fans who have followed Dalinar Kholin's journey — and the fates of Kaladin, Shallan, Adolin, and the rest of Sanderson's vast ensemble — from the very beginning finally found resolution, surprise, and emotional payoff in equal measure, all while new readers can appreciate just how far the saga has traveled. Sanderson's worldbuilding remains unparalleled in contemporary fantasy, and his ability to braid dozens of character arcs, magic systems, and political threads into a single, satisfying conclusion is nothing short of remarkable.
At over 1,200 pages, Wind and Truth is a serious commitment, but for readers who love immersive, high-stakes epic fantasy in the tradition of The Wheel of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire, it rewards every hour of investment. It's a must-read for anyone who wants to know what to read after finishing the earlier Stormlight Archive books, and a strong pick for anyone hunting for the best fantasy books of 2025 — a triumphant, emotionally exhausting, deeply satisfying capstone to one of the genre's defining series.
Nonfiction
Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari
The author of Sapiens returns with Nexus, a sweeping work of nonfiction that examines how information networks — from ancient religious myths to today's social media algorithms — have shaped human civilization, and what the rise of artificial intelligence means for our collective future. Yuval Noah Harari argues that the ability to create and share stories has always been humanity's greatest power, and that AI represents a fundamentally new kind of storyteller, one capable of generating narratives, decisions, and even beliefs without any human being directly involved in the process.
The book is characteristically ambitious in scope, drawing connections across history, religion, politics, and technology, and it arrives at a genuinely urgent moment in the global conversation about AI safety and regulation. For readers who loved Sapiens or Homo Deus and want to know what to read next from Harari, or for anyone searching for the best nonfiction books of 2025 about artificial intelligence, information, and power, Nexus is essential — a must-read that will change how you think about truth, technology, and the networks that govern modern life.
Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten
The Barefoot Contessa's memoir was one of the year's most delightful surprises and quickly established itself as one of the best memoirs of 2025. Far from a celebrity vanity project, Ina Garten's book is a candid, beautifully written account of a woman who repeatedly reinvented herself — from a White House nuclear policy analyst to the beloved cookbook author and television personality millions of readers already know. Her story of buying a specialty food store in the Hamptons on a whim, with no business experience whatsoever, is both genuinely inspiring and unexpectedly practical as a lesson in calculated risk-taking and self-reinvention.
Written with the same warmth, precision, and hospitality that define her cookbooks, the memoir proves that the best nonfiction doesn't require dramatic trauma to be compelling — sometimes a life well-lived, told honestly, is story enough. It's a must-read for fans of food memoirs, career-reinvention stories, and anyone who has ever wondered what it takes to bet on yourself, and one of the most purely enjoyable reading experiences of the year.
Thrillers and Mystery
The thriller genre had a banner year in 2025, with several novels standing out for their originality, tension, and execution — genuinely strong contenders for anyone compiling a list of the best thriller books of the year. The psychological suspense category continued to evolve beyond the "unreliable narrator" formula that dominated the post-Gone Girl era, with new voices bringing fresh perspectives, cultural specificity, and formal experimentation to a genre that could easily have gone stale. Established thriller writers pushed themselves into more ambitious territory too, blending domestic suspense with social commentary and testing just how far a twist can be stretched before it snaps.
The year also saw a welcome resurgence of the classic detective novel, updated with contemporary sensibilities and diverse settings that give the whodunit format new life. Several authors demonstrated that the mystery genre, far from being exhausted, still offers rich possibilities when combined with sharp social commentary, unreliable perpetrators, and morally complicated detectives. If you're searching for what to read next after Gone Girl, or simply want the best mystery and suspense novels of 2025, mystery and thriller readers had more excellent, must-read options this year than they could possibly consume in twelve months.
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Speculative fiction continued its march into the mainstream in 2025, cementing another strong year for science fiction and fantasy readers hunting for the genre's best new releases. Dune's enduring influence was visible in several new space operas that combined political intrigue with ecological urgency, proving that big-idea, world-spanning science fiction is as popular as ever. The success of Project Hail Mary's film adaptation brought renewed attention to hard science fiction, and several debut authors published first novels in that same tradition of accessible, science-driven, optimistic storytelling — a great entry point for readers who want the best science fiction books without a steep learning curve.
Fantasy, meanwhile, continued to diversify well beyond the European medieval settings that once dominated the genre, drawing on Asian, African, and Indigenous mythologies to build genuinely new, richly imagined worlds. For readers looking for what to read after Dune or Project Hail Mary, or simply searching for the best fantasy and science fiction books of the year, 2025 offered an unusually deep, unusually inventive field of must-read options.
Young Adult and Middle Grade
The YA category produced several standout titles in 2025 that transcended age boundaries and earned a place among the best young adult books of the year. Authors continued to push the envelope in terms of representation and emotional complexity, and the best YA novels of 2025 tackled serious themes — identity, mental health, systemic injustice — without ever condescending to their audience. The Fault in Our Stars may have defined a generation's relationship with YA fiction, but the genre has evolved considerably since then, producing work that is more diverse, more formally adventurous, and more politically engaged than ever.
For teen readers, parents, and adult YA fans alike searching for what to read next after The Fault in Our Stars, this year's crop of young adult and middle grade must-reads offers something genuinely new: coming-of-age stories that trust their readers with hard truths, and characters who feel like real, complicated people rather than lessons in disguise.
How to Choose Your Next Read
With so many excellent books to choose from, the challenge isn't finding something good — it's deciding where to start. Our advice: don't feel obligated to read every book on any "best of" list. Instead, identify the two or three titles that genuinely excite you and start there. Let each book lead you to the next, whether that means exploring a new author's backlist, chasing down more books like your favorite pick from this list, or diving deeper into a genre you're just discovering. The best reading life is one guided by curiosity and pleasure, not obligation. Whatever you choose from this list of the best books of 2025, we're confident you'll find something that surprises, moves, or challenges you in exactly the way you need.
