Lit Lists for the End of 2025

Hey friends,

I’m a list-maker. I love writing things down, crossing things out, circling, starring, and highlighting. So I really love reading book lists. This time of year I’m studying them all, making – of course – more lists from lists. I think I also love seeing these lists so much because each is a reminder that as difficult as life can be, people are creating, and writing, and publishing in sheer and beautiful numbers. And we’re reading.

My number one fave is the formerly titled NPR Book Concierge, (now NPR’s Books We Love) not only because over the years it has linked to interviews we’ve done on our public radio show TTBOOK (which ended this year, if you hadn’t heard;) The layout featuring all the gorgeous covers, is so fun to look through. Here’s a post about how NPR first designed the list. When it comes out, I’ll save it for when I have a big cup of coffee and some real time. This is a big list, and one where you’re apt to find a great read serendipitously when you weren’t even looking for it. It also reminds me of books I have been meaning to read – like Lydia Millet’s “Atavists” and Rick Atkinson’s “The Fate of the Day,” and I’ll move them closer in my piles of books.

I’ve put together a roundup of the best of the “best of” book lists:

NPR’s Books We Love

The New Yorker’s Best Books of 2025

Literary Hub’s 43 Favorite Books of 2025

New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2025

Maureen Corrigan’s 10 Best Books of 2025

The New York Public Library’s Best Books of the Year

10 Best Books from The New York Times (if the 100 is too much)

Slate’s 10 Best Books of 2025

The Washington Post’s 10 Best Books of the Year

The Guardian’s Best Books of the Year

And then, there are all the SO MANY deserving books that never make it to a list. Look in your indie bookstores for “recommended by staff” or at your library’s “too good to miss” section” to find some of those. Or just wander through stacks of books at a used or new bookstore or beloved local library. Here are my top five that I read in 2025:

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane

You Dreamed of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue

James by Percival Everett

Aflame by Pico Iyer

I hope this holiday season you have many books to read, and listen to, and are making your lists for next year now, too. What were your favorites of 2025?

 –    Shannon