Seriously, Everyone. Last Call on Best Books of the Year Lists.

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

This is it. The book industry’s version of buying your gifts on Christmas Eve. These are the last year-end lists I am going to be linking too. Let’s get it all out of our system. 2026 is coming.

The Goodreads Choice Winners

I was pretty uninterested in the results, and now the results have come through to fulfill my low expectations. Sunrise at the Reaping garnered the most votes overall (just over 300,000) with Onyx Storm right behind (and just under 300,000). I am unable to muster anything to say, but if you find yourself needing to buy a book at Target, this is probably your best guide to that particular aisle.

Best Books of the Year Clear Out

I had bookmarked all of these, but it’s time to get rid of them. For your consideration:

Apple’s Best Books of the Year
The New Yorker’s Best Books of the Year
The Atlantic’s 10 Best Books of the Year
The New Statesman’s Best Books of the Year
The Wall Street Journal’s Best Books of the Year
10 Best Science Books of 2025 from The Smithsonian
Slate’s 10 Best Books of the Year
The Conversation’s Best Books of 2025

Lauren Graham and Amy Sherman-Palladino To Give the People What They Want

At least, in book form. Both have gone on to other projects, but neither can escape Star’s Hallow. So why fight it? Graham and Sherman-Palladino will collaborate on a book about Gilmore Girls. So look for them both to dominate your social feeds with clips from podcast interviews in the fall of 2027.

Quotes from The Iconic Books of 2025

Emily Martin here at Book Riot had a good idea: let’s look at some of the actual language from the notable books of 2025. Given the paragraph-at-the-most nature of most year-end lists, there isn’t time for much, if any, citation.