"I grew up mostly an only child, so I spent a lot of time reading in my room, then imagining stories of my own. Which is to say, books have always felt like some of the very best, most satisfying company.

"These days, living in the D.C. area, my local indies have become a refuge from the uncertainty and heartache swirling around this city. Even as our local economy bears the brunt of a government shutdown and massive government layoffs, when I visit Wonderland Books or Politics and Prose, they're almost always bustling with customers. I think that's because they supply more than books--they provide community and escape. More than ever, I believe booksellers are heroes for their communities."

Choosing 10 fiction titles and 10 nonfiction titles to represent the best books of the year is a daunting task. But it also gives us the opportunity to reflect on the reading experiences that left indelible marks on our souls. Through mounting glee and terror, fits of rage and laughter, these 20 works of literature emerged as our favorites of 2025. Click here to read our reviews. (And don't miss our Best Children's and YA Books, to be announced next week!) --Dave Wheeler, senior editor, Shelf Awareness

Fiction
Audition by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead)
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga Press)
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab (Tor)
The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis (Holt)
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller (Europa Editions)
Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith (Bloomsbury)
An Oral History of Atlantis by Ed Park (Random House)
Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park (Dundurn Press)
The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (And His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine (Grove)
When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén, transl. by Alice Menzies (Vintage)

Nonfiction
Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty Year Trail to Overnight Success by Jeff Hiller (Simon & Schuster)
Clam Down: A Metamorphosis by Anelise Chen (One World)
Lullaby for the Grieving by Ashley M. Jones (Hub City Press)
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy (Scribner)
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Knopf)
The Quiet Ear: An Investigation of Missing Sound by Raymond Antrobus (Hogarth)
Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy by Mary Roach (Norton)
Scream with Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism (1968-1980) by Eleanor Johnson (Atria)
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone (Crown)
Things Become Other Things: A Walking Memoir by Craig Mod (Random House)

For Third Place Books, with stores in Lake Forest Park, Ravenna, and Seward Park, Wash., Small Business Saturday and the start of the holiday shopping season was "solid for us," reported managing partner Robert Sindelar. 

Robert Sindelar at Third Place Books

Across Thanksgiving weekend, one store was up, another was flat, and another was a little down compared to 2024. Taken all together, sales were "flat with last year," and considering how strong 2024 was for the bookstore, "that's just fine for us," Sindelar remarked. He added that for the month of November, Third Place Books was up about 10% across all three stores.

Asked whether any titles have jumped out as major books of the season, Sindelar said there "weren't really any runaways," with sales pretty consistent across genres and categories. As booksellers, he continued, "we love that," and he hopes that publishers are equally encouraged. Having 1,000 people buy 1,000 different titles is "better for the life of reading, better for the life of bookstores, better for the life of books," than having 1,000 people buy one title, he said.

On the subject of supply-chain issues, Sindelar indicated there's been nothing significantly different from the standard of the last few years. For sidelines and nonbook items, the Third Place Books team has gotten more into the habit of stocking up early, and if a given item runs out, "just go buy something else to take its place." Tariffs did not have a meaningful impact on the store's holiday buying, he added, and those sections of the stores are "full and selling tons."

Touching on rising prices and broader economic concerns, Sindelar pointed out that "obviously prices are up on books, but prices are up everywhere." Though some customers may feel "a little sticker shock" compared to the past few holiday seasons, it's not as drastic as the sticker shock they'd feel "going down the street and buying a sweater." Ultimately, "what you can leave a bookstore with in terms of value for your dollar is still pretty amazing."

In Brookline, Mass., Brookline Booksmith was up nearly 10% on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, reported co-owners Peter Win, Lisa Riddle, and Alie Hess. The store was a bit down on Sunday--"the cold, rainy weather was a big factor"--but for the weekend as a whole, the store was up 5%-6%. 

Some of the store's top sellers from the past week include The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, and 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation by Andrew Ross Sorkin. At the same time, "small, quirky books" such as Lessons from Cats for Surviving Fascism by Stewart Reynolds, Hot Victorians: Meet Your Dream Man from the Past by Aaron Radford-Wattley, and Toilets of the World by Morna E. Gregory and Sian James, are selling at a wild pace.

Asked about tariffs and gift buying, the owners noted that the team had to pivot and "find new vendors" for some particular food and gift items, especially those coming from the U.K., and it was "sad not being able to feature and support those makers." The store's gift buyers, they continued, "navigated the uncertainties and shifts in the sourcing landscape with ingenuity and effort and were able, in some cases, to discover new lines and new distributors."

Generally speaking, Riddle, Win, and Hess are feeling hopeful for the 2025 holiday season. The mood in-store has been "festive and joyful," and customers have been "generous in their gift giving already." The bookstore has had a "wonderful year" leading into the holidays, and the owners "are trusting that the grace of that momentum will hold steady and carry us through.

Javier Ramirez and Kristen Enola Ramirez at Exile in Bookville

Exile in Bookville in Chicago, Ill., had a "very slow" Small Business Saturday, said co-owners Javier and Kristin Ramirez, due to inclement weather that slowed things down for indies across the Chicago area. A good amount of customers still "braved the weather" to stop by, and many more customers supported the store by ordering online. And despite the slow SBS, "sales as a whole have outpaced last year and we remain eternally grateful to our devoted customers."

Though Exile in Bookville is a general-interest store, the owners devote a lot of space and attention to translated titles and small press titles, and they said it "warms our hearts" to see those books do so well. They pointed to I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman and The Bear by Andrew Krivak as "constant bestsellers." They also reported no supply-chain issues so far this season. 

Looking ahead, they hope for a "busy holiday season both in-store and online" and for the support and momentum they've seen throughout the year to continue. They're anticipating they'll exceed last year's sales, and said they're "beyond grateful to our local community and to our national and international communities that continue to support us from afar. Book people are truly the best!" --Alex Mutter

If you are interested in having your store appear in a future Holiday Hum article, please e-mail alex@shelf-awareness.com.

The American Booksellers Association's 21st annual Winter Institute, which will be held February 23-26 in Pittsburgh, Pa., is featuring the following keynote speakers:  

Tuesday, February 24
LeVar Burton, the award-winning actor, director, producer, and podcaster whose decades-long body of work includes Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Reading Rainbow. As a lifelong literacy advocate, Burton has dedicated decades to encouraging children to read. He's the ABA's current Indie Bookstore Ambassador.

Janet Webster Jones, owner of Source Booksellers, Detroit, Mich., and a retired educator from the Detroit Public Schools, where she spent a 40-year career. She has been in the bookselling business since 1989. 

Wednesday, February 25
Xochitl Gonzalez, the author of Anita de Monte Laughs Last, a Reese's Book Club Pick and longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the award-winning Olga Dies Dreaming.

Audrey I-Wei Huang, a frontline bookseller at Belmont Books in Belmont, Mass. She served on a number of awards and bookselling committees, and was named Handseller of the Year by the Book Publisher Representatives of New England in 2024.

Marlon James, author of the Booker Prize-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings and the award-winning novels Black Leopard, Red Wolf; Moon Witch, Spider King; The Book of Night Women; and John Crow's Devil.

Min Jin Lee, author of the novels Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and one of the New York Times "100 Best Books of the Century."

Colson Whitehead, the author of 12 works of fiction and nonfiction, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and a National Book Award winner.

Thursday, February 26
Isaac Fitzgerald, the author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts and the children's book How to Be a Pirate; and co-author of Pen & Ink and Knives & Ink. 

Aimee Nezhukumatathil, the author of two illustrated collections of essays (Bite by Bite and World of Wonders), four award-winning poetry collections; and has served as a poetry editor for environmental magazines.

Thursday, February 26, Featured Speaker
Brenna Connor, industry analyst, Circana Books, who has been working with data and analytics for a decade in roles including marketing, research, and insights. She is an expert on trends in the book industry.

Visible Voice Books, which announced in August that it would be moving from Professor Ave. to 4601 Lorain Ave. in the Ohio City neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, reopened at its new location on November 12. The Plain Dealer (via MSN) reported that owner Dave Ferrante "has turned a 100-plus-year-old building into an extremely cool, modern, comfortable two-level atrium-style space. The vibe is a mix: It's as if a campus library, modern bookstore, bar, creative architecture and live-music venue all mixed together, resulting in what Ferrante has created. Toss in couches, a spiral staircase, a liquor license (craft beer and wine), and you have Visible Voice 2.0."

The building had formerly housed the Lorain Theater, then a supermarket, and an adult theater. "We gutted it," Ferrante said. "But it allowed us to fulfill our vision.... I always had this vision that to make a bookstore work. It can't be just a bookstore."

To achieve that goal, Ferrante created three spaces: a bookstore, a café, and a stage for live music and speakers. The space has room for three times as many books as its previous location. "The café and bookstore work off each other and build a community," he added, noting that music--both national and local acts--as well as authors and a speaker series will be ramping up in 2026. 

The French government is considering presenting an AI bill to parliament that "would protect copyright and reward creators, while giving generative AI developers secure access to reliable data," the Bookseller reported. 

In a statement, the Ministry of Culture said the aim is to "move beyond the sterile opposition between innovation and culture, and create a virtuous circle of value creation where everyone finds their rightful place."

A series of consultations launched by minister of culture Rachida Dati last June failed to produce the hoped-for results. One possible measure to be included in the new bill would be a reversal of the burden of proof to establish a "presumption of use of cultural content by AI providers" instead of creators having to prove their content has been used, the Bookseller noted.

"Copyright is the foundation of France's cultural exception and an essential pillar of our digital and creative sovereignty," Dati said, adding that she was "fully committed" to the emergence of "ethical and responsible AI models that are "beneficial for all."

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With bookstore numbers declining in Japan, there has been an increase in the number of bookstores "renting out shelves to allow book lovers to sell the works they want to recommend, fostering communities of such 'shelf owners,' " the Japan Times reported.

For example, Honmaru in Tokyo's Kanda Jinbocho secondhand bookstore district, has about 360 of these shelves, where the curators, "who are mainly individuals in their 20s to 60s and publishers, pay initial costs, monthly rent, and 5% of sales proceeds to the store," the Japan Times wrote.

Store manager Haru Shimokawa said the appeal of rental shelf bookstores "lies in arrangements of books you never see in conventional bookstores.... You can discover a new world every time. It's like a once-in-a-lifetime encounter, similar to a trip."

The number of bookstores leasing out shelves to individuals began to increase around the 2010s, and there are now about 110 nationwide, said Shimokawa, adding that the biggest advantage of such stores is that "a customer can become a bookseller for just a few thousand yen per month." 

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Travel + Leisure showcased "six indie bookstores in Bangkok that bibliophiles will love," noting: "Indie bookstores here aren't just about selling books; they're mini communities, creative hideaways and places to discover something unexpected. Whether you're browsing for a rare gem, catching a quiet corner to read, or joining a workshop or talk, Bangkok's indie book scene offers a refreshing break from the city's usual chaos." 

Charles Mitchell, who worked for Half Price Books and Texas Bookman, died on November 21. He was 74. Born in Fort Worth, Tex., he earned a theater degree at Southern Methodist University and taught briefly at Greenhill School before living in New York City for a year.

He returned to Dallas in 1972, and began his career in the book trade with Half Price Books, which had opened its first bookstore the same year on its way to becoming a chain that now operates 120 stores in 19 states. Mitchell rose though the company's ranks in the roles of buyer and Texas Bookman Warehouse director.

After retiring early, he pursued a life of reading, writing, and curating art. He wrote for Glasstire, Art in America, the Dallas Observer, and the Dallas News. He was the author of several art exhibition catalogs, and curated exhibits at the Reading Room and the McKinney Avenue Contemporary. Mitchell was also active in Dallas Video Fest, Wordspace, ArtsEye, Houston Fotofest, and Art+Seek on KERA. 

In a tribute to Mitchell published in the Dallas Morning News, Benjamin Lima wrote that "the Dallas art world has lost one of its leading lights who helped shape the local artistic culture as a critic, curator, collector, patron, and general all-around wise man of the arts.... 

"Unlike many who write about art, though, the breadth and depth of Mitchell's literary and cultural knowledge set his work apart. A glimpse at the index of his archive at the Dallas Museum of Art, or even his eccentric blog, suggests the range of his thinking. Later he exercised this range as president of the literary and poetry organization Word-space from 2010 to 2018, which was credited with helping nurture a 'literary renaissance' in Dallas."

Author and former broadcast news producer Christina Kovac (r.) celebrated the release of her thriller Watch Us Fall (Simon & Schuster) at Politics and Prose, Washington, D.C., where she was in conversation with author Angie Kim (l.).

Posted on Instagram by {pages} a bookstore in Manhattan Beach, Calif.: "So this just happened! Our first wedding proposal @pagesabookstore! We are so honored that the fabulous @charley_bink (former {pages} bookseller) chose @pagesabookstore to pop the question to the lovely Chace. And she said YES! A big big congratulations to these lovebirds! We couldn't be happier for you two!"

"Ho Ho Ho... here we go!" Janke Book Store, Wausau, Wis., shared a pic on Facebook of one crucial link in the holiday season sales pipeline: the UPS delivery person.

Emily Engwall has joined Sourcebooks as marketing & publicity manager, Poisoned Pen Press.

Digital Inc.: From Print to E-Book-Inside the Transformation of the Book Industry by Richard Curtis (Rivertowns Books).

HBO has released the official trailer for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the Game of Thrones prequel TV series based on George R.R. Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, Deadline reported. The series will premiere January 18 on HBO and HBO Max. 

The cast includes Peter Claffey, Dexter Sol Ansell, Daniel Ings, Sam Spruell, Bertie Carvel, Finn Bennett, Shaun Thomas, Henry Ashton, Edward Ashley, and Daniel Monks. Ira Parker is the showrunner.

A total of 28 authors have been selected for the longlist of the 2026 Joyce Carol Oates Prize by New Literary Project, which honors "a mid-career author of fiction in the midst of a burgeoning career, a distinguished writer who has emerged and is still emerging." The winner receives $50,000 and will have a brief Fall 2026 residence at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Bay Area, including Saint Mary's College of California, where they will give public readings and talks, teach classes, and make appearances during the 2026 NewLit Roadshow. Finalists will be named in March 2026, and the winner in April. See the longlist here.

photo: Beowulf Sheehan

Jen Percy is the author of Girls Play Dead: Acts of Self-Preservation (Doubleday, November 11, 2025), a work of cultural criticism and self-examination about all the ways fear shapes storytelling and language in the aftermath of misogyny and sexual assault. She is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and a graduate of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program and the Iowa Writers' Workshop in fiction. Percy's award-winning writing has appeared in Harper's, the New York Times, the New Republic, Esquire, among others. She teaches journalism at New York University's Arthur J. Carter Institute.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

A story-driven and kaleidoscopic examination of women making sense of often unimaginable reactions to trauma.

On your nightstand now:

Tyll, a hilarious historical novel by the German author Daniel Kehlmann about the life of a jester in 17th-century Europe. Also The House of Beauty, Arabelle Sicardi's debut on the human rights abuses and environmental destruction behind the fashion and beauty industries, and Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara on all the ways the Internet shapes personal identity. I have tons more--a big pile--that keeps growing but with a new baby and a book, I've been able to only read a few pages here and there.

Favorite book when you were a child:

As a kid I was obsessed with this book called Owl at Home (Arnold Lobel) about a frightened and lonely but gentle owl who is terrified of his own feet under the covers and makes "tear-drop tea" by thinking about sad things, like pencils that are too short, and crying into a tea pot. "It tastes a little bit salty," he says.

Your top five authors:

This list probably gets a refresh every year but right now I'm obsessed with Clarice Lispector for being utterly original, strange, and brilliant. I'm also a huge fan of Susan Minot for her perfect sentences about love and sex; Annie Ernaux for her bold memoirs on the most intimate subjects. I love everything by Mary Gaitskill, and recently fell in love with the work of Carol Shields for her extraordinary writing about the ordinary woman's internal life. Basically, I'm catching up on women writers and loving it, and finding new authors I love every month.

Book you've faked reading:

You know, I'm not sure I've done this! I think I wouldn't be very good at faking it. Although in college I faked being able to translate German passages of Kafka to English to a non-German speaker--maybe that counts?!

Book you're an evangelist for:

I devoured Emily Witt's Health and Safety. I'm blown away by her ability to write so hypnotically about three seemingly disparate topics (raves, an abusive boyfriend, political unrest) that amount to a masterful work of nonfiction.

Book you've bought for the cover:

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh. Any cover with a pre-20th century painting of a woman makes me really want to buy it!

Book you hid from your parents:

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides is one of my favorite books, and I devoured it as a teenager. But my mom had never read it and was convinced the book would guide me to suicide based on the title alone.

Book that changed your life:

Every book changes me in some way but each book feels unique in how it shapes me. I keep thinking back to reading Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway for the first time in college and how these made me want to become a writer. Her prose made me realize my anxious internal thoughts might actually matter--and that's life changing for anyone stepping into their 20s.

Favorite line from a book:

Oh this is such a hard question! It makes me think I should keep better track of lines I love because it's so nice to collect them. When I read Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, I marked this line: "And so we stood together like that, at the top of that field for what seemed like ages, not saying anything, just holding each other, while the wind kept blowing and blowing at us, tugging our clothes, and for a moment, it seemed like we were holding onto each other because that was the only way to stop us from being swept away into the night." I love the rhythm and way a gentle holding transforms quickly into an act of survival.

Five books you'll never part with:

Reading just a few of the sentences in any of these books always inspires me to write (and write better): Terese Marie Mailhot's Heart Berries, Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, Susan Minot's Lust and Other Stories, James Salter's Light Years, Annie Proulx's Close Range. I like having them around to flip through.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

I can't wait to reread John McPhee's Coming into the Country. When I read it years ago, it reignited a feeling of awe for the wilderness of the West that always dims while I spend my days in the cement forest of New York City--and I'm longing for that fire again because I miss the West.

Who wouldn't take a job that involves "saving the world"? Adi, the antihero of Jonathan Miles's powerful fourth novel, Eradication, is drawn to the job listing not just for the noble mission but also for the chance to be alone for five weeks on a Pacific island. A teacher reeling from his 11-year-old son Jairo's death and his wife leaving, Adi relishes getting away from it all. But he hasn't reckoned with the emotional challenge of eradicating an invasive species--and facing up to humanity's role in environmental crises.

Santa Flora once teemed with endemic birds and reptiles, but many species have gone extinct because of the ballooning population of goats. Whalers left a few on the island as food supplies to retrieve on the way back from expeditions, but the numbers have gotten out of hand since. The goats strip the cliffs of flora and compete with native fauna for habitat. A flashback to Adi's cursory interview reveals that he was completely unqualified, having never fired a gun, but the mysterious "foundation" was so desperate it hired him anyway. Armed with a sniper's rifle, his task is to kill all of the island's estimated 2,000 to 4,000 goats.

From the start, it's clear Adi's not cut out for this. The story nears the midpoint when he finally kills his first goat. He butchers it, but cries while eating the meat. In the meantime, he's made the mistake of becoming emotionally attached to the female goats hanging around his hut. He's identified individuals and named them; how can he kill them? As the likelihood of success plummets, he chooses a new tactic: slaughter all the males to halt reproduction.

Miles (Anatomy of a Miracle) spins a taut parable reminiscent of T.C. Boyle's When the Killing's Done. The setting is imprecise and the backstory sparse, as befits a fable. Adi's relationship with his son and jazz clarinet hobby are resonant. His island discoveries enhance a nuanced environmentalist message: a trash-covered beach; an injured bird thought to be extinct--embodying why the goats can't coexist with endangered species; and two drunken fishermen who illegally kill sharks and sell the fins to China. Guilt and blame, responsibility and revenge, trade off in this troubling novella. Attempts at rectification keep backfiring. Human tragedies, like Jairo's accidental death, may be random. Those that befall the natural world, though--whether intentional or not--can only be laid at humanity's door. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck

Shelf Talker: Jonathan Miles's taut, powerful fable pits an everyman against seemingly insurmountable environmental and personal problems.