The Best Books of 2025!

We are just days away until the new year is here. But before throwing the 2025 calendar out, it is only right to list the best books of 2025. So, keep reading to find out which books made the list!

When this year started, I didn’t know that I would be reading a ton of books that would release the same year. Often times, I am reading the best books from the past year as well as books that caught my eye. But unintentionally, I ended up reading a bunch of new books.

As you can guess, it is not easy to read all the new books released in one year. Publications like the New York Times and NPR have a team whose job is to read new books. And I have turned to these lists to find the newest books to read.

My list is going to be biased and incomplete and won’t be a fair assessment of the best books of 2025. But these are all the new books released in 2025 that I loved and enjoyed. And I will be reading even more books released in 2025 in the coming months. You can see the full list below!

The Best Books of 2025!

• The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
• Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
• Gingko Season by Naomi Xu Elegant
• The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis
• Katabasis by R.F. Kuang 
• People Like Us by Jason Mott
• Saltcrop by by Yume Kitasei 
• The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar
• Waste Wars by Alexander Clapp 
• Onyx Storm (The Empyrean #3) by Rebecca Yarros
• Born in Flames by Bench Ansfield

I really loved The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong and I am glad I read it when I did. It is in contention as one of my favorite books of 2025. The novel tackles themes such as identity, depression, and suicide with such a delicate pen. You can tell that Vuong knows what he is writing about.

The other book that I would choose as my favorite book of 2025 is Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. I loved every second of this book and it is beautifully written. Who knew a book about a family and a stranger on a stranded island would be this good?

I also loved Katabasis by R.F. Kuang because it has some of the best world building that I read this year. Kuang is an author that I am always going to check out and this novel was one I was looking forward to all year. And I know that I am biased but the novel lived up and surpassed all my expectations.

Another novel I chose to read because I am a fan of the author is The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar. He wrote Holes and that is one of the best books and movies from my childhood. His new novel is his first adult novel and it is a fantasy novel.

Sachar’s writing style combined with a fantasy setting is a combination that I didn’t know I needed. This novel is fantastic and I was highly invested in this book. I do hope that this novel gets a sequel and if you love fantasy books, this is worth checking out!

In 2025, I made it a goal to read more nonfiction books and I read two new releases. Waste Wars by Alexander Clapp and Born in Flames by Bench Ansfield are two amazing books that I really enjoyed.

In Waste Wars, Clapp travels around the world to see where our trash ends up. And the stories he uncovers are incredible. We throw our trash out and never think about it again. But there are cities where their economy has come to rely on our trash.

As a New Yorker, I had to read Born in Flames. I didn’t know the origin of the phrase “The Bronx is Burning” and the history behind it. The 1970’s were 50 years ago and there are many people that were alive during this time. But even then, things can get buried fast and you won’t here about stuff that you should know about.

The book is about landlords intentionally setting their buildings on fire because of the high insurance payouts. Ansfield talks about the fires that took place and all of the events that led to it. From regulations to events from the past, Ansfield makes sure to educate the reader and show how this atrocity was happening and the people that suffered from it.

Lastly, I had to talk about Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. I loved the first book in the Empyrean series but Iron Flame was a disappointed. That’s probably why it took me while to get myself to read Onyx Storm and I was impressed.

The pacing of this novel is a lot better than Iron Flame which I was happy about. We meet new characters and the protagonists visit new lands. There is a lot going on and Yarros does a great job of balancing it all together in this book. It is a long read but it you won’t realize it because this is what you have been waiting for!

Conclusion

When 2025 started, I didn’t think I would have read over a dozen books releasing in 2025. Normally, my reading list is too long for me to get around to all the amazing books releasing the same year. But because I read over a 115 books, I was able to make time to read new releases as well.

In 2026, I will try to make it a goal to read more new releases. While I am proud of this list, I want to read more new books and make a longer list. There are a ton of books that probably would have made the list if I had gotten around to read them.

This is my best books of 2025 list and I am proud of this list. What books from 2025 did you love? Let us know in the comments below. Until next time, happy reading!

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