Katie's parents never told her "no" when she asked for a book, which was the start of most of her problems. She has an MLIS from the University of Illinois and works full time as a Circulation & Reference Manager in Illinois. She has a deep-rooted love of all things disturbing, twisted, and terrifying and takes enormous pleasure in creeping out her coworkers. When she's not at work, she's at home watching the Cubs with her cats and her cardigan collection. Other hobbies include scrapbooking, introducing more readers to the Church of Tana French, and convincing her husband that she can, in fact, fit more books onto her shelves.
Twitter: @kt_librarylady
The Best of 2025 book lists are coming in heavy this time of year, and I’ve rounded up a bunch of the big ones for your end-of-year ordering and displays. And once you’ve explored those, I have some comics and audiobook updates, plus a handful of authors in the news, and the most ridiculous Word of the Year designation. Let’s dive in.
Best of 2025 (and December 2025)
- Best books of the year from Amazon, AP News, The Atlantic, Chicago Tribune, The Guardian (crime novels, science fiction, memoirs & biographies, translated fiction, children’s books), Kirkus (general picks, nonfiction), LA Times, Library Journal, LitHub (general picks, small press titles), NYPL, New York Times (Top 10, notable books), NPR, Slate, Star Tribune, Time, Vulture, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post (top 10, fiction, nonfiction, mysteries, thrillers)
- Book Riot’s own Best of 2025 list is up, plus the best romance, SFF, horror, and queer books of the year.
- December picks from Amazon, Crime Reads, LA Times, New York Times, Parade, People, Reactor (horror, SFF crossover, romantasy, YA SFF)
- Book Riot’s best books of December, plus picks for mysteries/thrillers, romance, SFF, historical fiction, horror, nonfiction, children’s books, and queer books.
- The best comics & graphic novels of December, and of the year.
- The best audiobooks of the year from Audible, Audiofile, Libro.fm, and Washington Post.
- These were the most-read books of the Goodreads 2025 reading challenge.
- Underrated 2025 nonfiction.
All Things Comics
- Rick Atkinson’s Revolutionary War trilogy is being adapted into graphic editions.
- Comics about difficult sibling relationships.
- Ongoing comic series to catch up with, or discover for the first time.
Check Your Shelf
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Audiophilia
- Spotify has released its 2025 audiobook listening data.
- With record numbers of audiobook listeners, authors and publishers are embracing the “audio-first” trend.
- Do audiobooks count as reading? (Seriously, when will we stop getting articles asking this question?)
- Spotify’s top memoirs and romance novels.
- Book-to-screen adaptations are big business for audiobooks.
Authors in the News
- Thomas King, author of The Inconvenient Indian, has recently learned that he has no Indigenous ancestry, although he believed he was part Cherokee for most of his life.
- Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter’s Bone, has died at 72.
- Sally Rooney says she’s “almost certain” she can’t publish new books in the UK due to her ongoing support of the group Palestine Action, which is classified as a terrorist group in the UK.
And Finally…
- Dictionary.com’s word of the year is “67,” which isn’t a word at all, but two numbers listed together that mean absolutely nothing. If you ever wanted a sign that these “word of the year” designations are meaningless, well…here’s your sign.
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