Best Books of 2025 by Genre

December is such a fun month for me because I love pouring over all of the best-book lists, comparing my lists with others, and potentially discovering some titles I may have missed along the way.

2025 was such an interesting year for books. I had more misses than I usually do in the fiction arena but still read so many fabulous titles. In addition, I read more nonfiction than normal, finding some truly amazing books in that genre. I recently wrote a feature entitled Best Books of 2025 highlighting some of the best books that published in 2025 as well as some favorites from Buzz readers. More favorites from these readers will be included in a Page Turners article in a few weeks. While it was not hard to narrow down my “best of” list this year, there are many other reads that I thoroughly enjoyed and want to shoutout here. I organized the books by genre below, and within each genre, I list the books alphabetically.

Mysteries and thrillers:

• The Backwater by Vikki Wakefield
• Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino
• Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
• Dead Money by Jakob Kerr
• Departure 37 by Scott Carson
• Dissolution by Nicholas Binge
• The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark
• Heartwood by Amity Gaige
• The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
• The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer
• The Killer Question by Janice Hallett
• Mrs. Spy by M.J. Robotham
• The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens
• Splinter Effect by Andrew Luddington
• We Don’t Talk About Carol by Kristen L. Berry
• Welcome to Murder Week by Karen Dukess
• The Whyte Python World Tour by Travis Kennedy

Historical fiction:

• Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor
• The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick
• The Eights by Joanna Miller
• Follow Me to Africa by Penny Haw
• The Last Assignment by Erika Robuck
• Let’s Call Her Barbie by Renee Rosen
• The Library of Lost Dollhouses by Elise Hooper
• The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater
• The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes by Chanel Cleeton
• The Missing Pages by Alyson Richman
• The Queen of Sugar Hill by ReShonda Tate
• The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis
• The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry
• The Unexpected Diva by Tiffany Warren
• What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown

Cindy Burnett shares favorite books of 2025 by genre. Here are some top reads. (Photo: Cindy Burnett)

Fiction:

• Abigail & Alexa Save the Wedding by Lian Dolan
• Beartooth by Callan Wink
• The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey
• The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff
• Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• Dominion by Addie Citchens
• Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild
• Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
• A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
• It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan
• Let’s Make a Scene by Laura Wood
• My Friends by Fredrik Backman
• Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell
• Park Avenue by Renee Ahdieh
• Penitence by Kristin Koval
• The Satisfaction Café by Kathy Wang
• Slanting Towards the Sea by Lidija Hilje
• Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein
• Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
• Tilt by Emma Pattee
• What Happened to the McCrays? by Tracey Lange

Nonfiction:

• Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn
• The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan by Lyse Doucet
• A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children by Haley Cohen Gilliland
• The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon
• Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon - The Untold Story by Jeffrey Kluger
• In Gad We Trust: A Tell-Some by Josh Gad
• The Library of Lost Maps: An Archive of a World in Progress by James Cheshire
• Matriarch: A Memoir by Tina Knowles
• Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
• The Mother Next Door: Medicine, Deception, and Munchausen by Proxy by Andrea Dunlop and Mike Weber
• No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris
• Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton
• The Secret Life of a Cemetery: The Wild Nature and Enchanting Lore of Pere-Lachaise by Benoit Gallot
• Syme’s Letter Writer: A Guide to Modern Correspondence About (Almost) Every Imaginable Subject of Daily Life by Rachel Syme
• This American Woman: A Once-in-a-Billion Memoir by Zarna Garg

I hope you enjoy perusing this list and finding some books that you have not yet read but now want to. Feel free to share your favorite lists or books with me!

For more book recommendations and bookish thoughts, see Cindy’s monthly Buzz Reads column, her award-winning Thoughts from a Page Podcast or follow @ThoughtsFromaPage on Instagram.