Holiday Post 2025: Books and reading

Welcome to my third holiday post for 2025. 

 

In case you missed them, here is the first post looking at  "Traditions, Manners, and Miscellany" and the second post looking at "Gifts, strange things, and other shopping." 

 

Today I am looking at books and reading. I will look at some book lists, and see if there are any books I may have read and/or any books I would like to read down the road. If I read a book and reviewed it, I will add a link to the review so you can check it out as well. If I mention a book for my TBR list, I will include a WorldCat link so you can find it in a library near you. I will also add any other stories about reading during the holidays season as I find them. 

Even though I track a pretty broad range of sources on my feed reader, I know that I miss some things. Doing this post allows me to get an idea of what is out there that I may not have seen, and maybe it may also be of interest to my four readers.  

 

Big lists

  

This is what the title says: the big lists, you know, the ones everybody looks at and usually get covered in the media from the legacy media to every other book writer. I usually include these to remind myself of what other media thought were the big book deals of the year. I may or not have read anything from the big lists since I tend to read other things, but one never knows. Let's have a look in no particular order. 

• Amazon's best books of 2025. Like them or hate them, one has to acknowledge the outsized influence that the Big A has on books, reading, and publishing. Their page has lists in various categories such as a Top 20, their editors' picks, and lists by categories. I can say I have not read anything from their Top 20 selections, and I am at peace with that. 
• Barnes and Noble is not as big as they used to be, but still big enough to look at their 2025 best books list. They also offer lists in various categories, and to be honest, they offer more categories than the Big A.   

 

 Lists from Newspapers, Magazines, Periodicals, and other Websites

  

This is a look at print and online media ranging from large and popular publications to smaller ones. It is a very selective sampling of what is out there, and for the most part these are general lists. 

• Time Magazine has their 100 must-read books of 2025,  which odds are good meant I did not read a single one in 2025 because I rarely read must-read books. After looking at the list, sure enough, I have not read a single one. However, there are two books on the list I have on my current TBR( to be read) list: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter and The Martians. 
• The New York Times has a list of 10 best for the year. To be honest, compared to other lists, this one seems a bit measly. 
• The Associated Press has their must-reads of 2025. It has a blend of fiction and nonfiction, and for the most part fairly predictable. Still, from their list, Careless People by Sarah-Wynn Williams, the whistleblowing account of a former Facebook worker, may be the one for the TBR here. Although to be honest I am not sure I want to read yet another book on the malfeasance and corruption running rampant in social media and technology companies. I may need to order it for our library though. 
• I am sure every other librarian, including me, looks at Publishers Weekly best books lists, and here is the one for 2025.   The Buffalo Hunter Hunter made this list too; it made quite a few end of year lists, and from what I hear it is well deserved. Aside from that, nothing really catches my eye from this list. 
• Here is Esquire's list of 35 best books for 2025.  
• From their list, I will say Jane Austen is not on my usual reading horizon. I had to read some of her works as an English major, and that was more than enough for me. However, the book Jane Austen's Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney, which is about a book collector seeking the women writers that had an influence on Austen does sound interesting. I tend to like books about the book trade, antiquarian books, and history of books, so I am adding Romney's book to my TBR list.
• Yes, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter made this list too.
•  Colossal offers their list of favorites for 2025. Most if not all on their list I had not seen before, and some they describe as whimsical. An example of whimsical would be the book Fresh Sets: Contemporary Nail Art from Around the World. That book shows once again that you can really find a book on just about any topic. On a side note, on checking Worldcat, for my location, I see at least two libraries in Kentucky already have it, so I may consider requesting it on Interlibrary Loan. 
• Here is the list of best from Foreign Affairs. These are selected by their editors and reviewers. If you are a bit more into politics and current affairs, some of the books here may be for you.
• The Kyiv Independent offers a list of Ukraine-related books for the year, timely given current events at the moment.  
• Libby, the library service, also has a list of best books for 2025. If you have a library card in the United States, make sure you check to see if you library uses Libby for ebooks, audiobooks, and other media. I certainly recommend it both as a librarian and as a reader. 

 

 Lists by genres 

  

These are lists for specific genres and formats. Again, they are not listed in any particular order.  

• Literary Hub lists their best audiobooks for 2025.  I do not listen to audiobooks very much, but I do enjoy having someone read a book to me once in a while. For audiobooks, I tend to favor nonfiction as it feels easier to follow and to interrupt if I have to pause listening. From their list, Alton Brown's Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations is the one catching my attention for the TBR list now. 
• Want more audiobooks? LibroFm has a list too.  
• Literary Hub also has a list of 100 notable books from small presses. For me, one of the positive things to come out of my (selective) publishers' boycott is discovering and reading more books from small and independent presses. Also note that Lit Hub's list serves as a counter to the New York Times 100 notable books list for the year. Most of the books on the list seem to be literary fiction or creative nonfiction, but there are one or two other genres that may be of interest. From the list: 
• Costs of Living: A Whisper House Press Horror Anthology sounds interesting. I am trying to read a bit more horror these days, so I am always looking for good anthologies as I find short stories a bit easier to read lately. 
• Speaking of horror, also adding  Dead Red and Razor, a novella, to the TBR list.
• In nonfiction, The Sound of Exile: European Jewish Refugees in Shanghai 1938-1941 may be one I need to order for our library.
•  From CrimeReads:
• List of best books in crime fiction, mysteries, and thrillers.  
• Their best of noir fiction. 
• Here is their espionage fiction list.
•  Times Now (India) has a small fantasy and science fiction list for the year.
• Gizmodo got 20 science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors to pick out their best books in those genres for the year.  Naturally, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter made the list. 
• In history: 
• History Extra, part of the BBC, has a list of 37 best history books for the year.
• From their list, I already checked out from our library A Short History of the Gaza Strip.  While I know the basics of the history, I figured reading an up to date history would help me understand things better. 
• The list has one or two other "short" history books I may consider reading down the road.
• Black Perspectives, from the African American Intellectual History Society, presents a list of the best in Black history books for 2025.  There may be some items here I need to order for our library. I did go ahead and check our catalog, and from their list of 10 we have 4 at this moment.
• For horror, The Lineup has a list.  
• KCRW has a list of best cookbooks for the year. This list caught my eye in part because it mentions Barons, which I read and reviewed.  Note that Barons is a book about the food industry but it is not a cookbook. 
• Ministry of Pop Culture has their list of best books in pop culture. List features fiction and nonfiction.  
• Words Without Borders offers their selection of "the Best Books in (and on) Translation We Read in 2025."
• LGBTQ reading: 
• For folks who may enjoy sapphic fiction, I Heart Sapph Fic offers a list of top 5 for the year.
• OutSmart magazine has their list of must-read queer books for 2025.
• Them has their "32 Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2025." They state their list offers from "horror to heartfelt romance (and sometimes both at once)."

 

 Some miscellaneous lists for fun

Here are a few other lists on various topics just for fun. Maybe you will find something of interest here. Basically these are things that did not quite fit the above categories for me.  

• It is not often I see a list of books in cryptozoology, so I had to include this list of top books fro Cryptozoonews.  The list does feature books for adults and juvenile readers.