It’s that time of year again—List Season! I’ve gathered the best book recommendations so you don’t have to wade through dozens of lists yourself. After looking at 58 lists from 49 different sources, I found over 1,300 unique book suggestions. That’s a lot of reading to sift through!
This year, 90 books made it onto five or more lists. It seems the favorites remain pretty consistent year after year. For instance, just like last year, we’ve got 90 books hitting that high mark. So, what are the standout titles? Let’s dive in!
Top Books According to Critics
21 Lists:
Kiran Desai, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
Arundhati Roy, Mother Mary Comes to Me
20 Lists:
Katie Kitamura, Audition
19 Lists:
Lily King, Heart the Lover
18 Lists:
Megha Majumdar, A Guardian and a Thief
16 Lists:
Nicholas Boggs, Baldwin: A Love Story
Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
Ian McEwan, What We Can Know
David Szalay, Flesh
15 Lists:
Susan Choi, Flashlight
Sophie Elmhirst, A Marriage at Sea
14 Lists:
Angela Flournoy, The Wilderness
13 Lists:
Daniel Kehlmann, tr. Ross Benjamin, The Director
R.F. Kuang, Katabasis
Yiyun Li, Things in Nature Merely Grow
Ocean Vuong, The Emperor of Gladness
12 Lists:
S.A. Cosby, King of Ashes
Stephen Graham Jones, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
Han Kang, tr. e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris, We Do Not Part
11 Lists:
Chloe Dalton, Raising Hare
Robert Macfarlane, Is a River Alive?
Karen Russell, The Antidote
10 Lists:
V.E. Schwab, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
Miriam Toews, A Truce That Is Not Peace
Sarrah Wynn-Williams, Careless People
9 Lists:
Allegra Goodman, Isola
Laila Lalami, The Dream Hotel
Jill Lepore, We the People
Thomas Pynchon, Shadow Ticket
8 Lists:
Scott Anderson, King of Kings
Geraldine Brooks, Memorial Days
Caroline Fraser, Murderland
Haley Cohen Gilliland, A Flower Traveled in My Blood
Adam Johnson, The Wayfinder
Vincenzo Latronico, tr. Sophie Hughes, Perfection
Charlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark Shore
Imani Perry, Black in Blues
Torrey Peters, Stag Dance
Taylor Jenkins Reid, Atmosphere
Patrick Ryan, Buckeye
Francesca Wade, Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife
Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard Devotional
7 Lists:
Stephen Greenblatt, Dark Renaissance
Nnedi Okorafor, Death of the Author
Sam Tanenhaus, Buckley
6 Lists:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dream Count
Margaret Atwood, Book of Lives
Ron Chernow, Mark Twain
Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping
Melissa Febos, The Dry Season
John Green, Everything is Tuberculosis
Abdulrazak Gurnah, Theft
Mick Herron, Clown Town
Jonas Hassen Khemiri, The Sisters
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Abundance
Ian Leslie, John & Paul
Ed Park, An Oral History of Atlantis
Xenobe Purvis, The Hounding
Lucas Schaefer, The Slip
Patti Smith, Bread of Angels
Vauhini Vara, Searches: Selfhood in the Visual Age
Frances Wilson, Electric Spark
5 Lists:
Rick Atkinson, The Fate of the Day
Tash Aw, The South
Alison Bechdel, Spent
Leo Damrosch, Storyteller
Lyse Doucet, The Finest Hotel in Kabul
Neko Case, The Harder I Fight the More I Love You
Virginia Evans, The Correspondent
Kate Folk, Sky Daddy
Amity Gaige, Heartwood
Caleb Gayle, Black Moses
Sophie Gilbert, Girl on Girl
Sarah Hall, Helm
Seamus Heaney, The Poems of Seamus Heaney
Emily Henry, Great Big Beautiful Life
Florence Knapp, The Names
Beth Macy, Paper Girl
Keith McNally, I Regret Almost Everything
Suzanne O’Sullivan, The Age of Diagnosis
Olga Ravn, tr. Martin Aitkin, The Wax Child
Mary Roach, Replaceable You
Adam Ross, Playworld
Eli Sharabi, Hostage
Brandon Taylor, Minor Black Figures
Stephanie Wambugu, Lonely Crowds
Bryan Washington, Palaver
Charmaine Wilkerson, Good Dirt
Nussaibah Younis, Fundamentally
These findings aren’t just a reflection of critics’ choices; they give us insight into the literary conversations happening today. A quick glance at social media, especially platforms like Twitter and Instagram, shows users buzzing about these titles, sharing thoughts and recommendations. For instance, hashtags like #BestBooks2025 have been trending, igniting discussions among avid readers.
In summary, this curated list shines a light on notable voices in literature. It’s a great guide if you’re looking for your next read. For further exploration, you can check out the full lists compiled by outlets like NPR and The New York Times for more insights.
