25 (More) Books to Read in 2025
A now, our 25 Books to Read in 2025—for the second half of the year!
Beat the holds for 25 must-read books (publishing August-December). These irresistible works of fiction and nonfiction are sure to have everyone talking. Join the conversation!
ICYMI:
Check out our 25 books to read in 2025 list for January-July
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The Magician of Tiger Castle: A Novel by Louis Sachar
The beloved author of Holes presents his first adult novel, a modern fantasy classic of forbidden love, a crumbling kingdom, and the unexpected magic all around us.
“After decades of children’s stories with adult intelligence, Sachar has given us an adult novel with a child’s heart. The Magician of Tiger Castle is a medieval fable for the modern age: wise and whimsical, tragic and comic, familiar and strange. I loved it.”—Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of Starling House
Available August 5th in Hardcover, eBook, Audio, and Large Print Editions.
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Watch the ‘Worlds Beyond’ Author Panel Featuring Louis Sachar
People Like Us: A Novel by Jason Mott
The riveting new novel by the author of the 2021 National Book Award winner and bestseller Hell of a Book. In People Like Us, two Black writers are trying to find peace and belonging in a world that is riven with gun violence.
“A meta-novel that stings and touches the reader . . . The whole book seems the literary equivalent of a post-bop jazz performance, with oblique happenings that compel attention because of the book’s antic energy and lyrical passages.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Part memoir, part travelogue, part fever dream, Mott’s novel deploys wicked humor and pathos to explore issues around race, gun violence, fame and mental health.”—Atlanta Journal Constitution
Available August 5th in Hardcover, eBook, Audio, and Large Print Editions.
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Watch Our ‘Group Reads’ Author Panel Featuring Jason Mott
A Land So Wide: A Novel by Erin A. Craig
From the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of The Thirteenth Child, comes an irresistible blend of dark fairytale and romantic fantasy set in the beautiful but brutal Canadian wilderness.
“With all the wit of a classic fable and the dreaminess of a modern romance, A Land So Wide is like the woods themselves: lovely, dark, and deep. I was beguiled by every word.”—Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning
“With a setting both lushly expansive and desperately claustrophobic, Craig invents a new mythology of terror and determination. I couldn’t get enough of this romantic, tense, and thrilling tale.”—Kiersten White, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hide
Available September 2nd in Hardcover, eBook, Audio, and Large Print Editions.
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Watch Our ‘Magic of Love’ Author Panel Featuring Erin A. Craig
Buckeye: A Novel by Patrick Ryan
One town. Two families. A secret that changes everything.
“A small-town novel of epic proportions” (Tom Perrotta), this captivating story weaves the intimate lives of two midwestern families across generations, from World War II to the late twentieth century.
“Buckeye offers just about everything I look for in a great story: a vivid setting, historical sweep, rich characters who break your heart even as they make you laugh and all of this in abundance.”—Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and the North Bath trilogy
“Full of love and war and the perilous intimacies of smalltown life, Buckeye is funny and tender, realistic and strange. Patrick Ryan has long been one of my favorite writers. I have a feeling that with this book he’s going to be everyone’s favorite writer.”—Ann Patchett
Available September 2nd in Hardcover, eBook, Audio, and Large Print Editions.
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Watch Our ‘Rooted in History’ Author Panel Featuring Patrick Ryan
All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation by Elizabeth Gilbert
In her first nonfiction book in a decade, the #1 bestselling writer who taught millions of readers to live authentically (Eat Pray Love) and creatively (Big Magic) shows how to break free.
“Gilbert rips open her life to share all the painful moments and grief . . . in a story of despair and courage that . . . must have been unimaginable to write . . . Fans of her more lighthearted memoir and novels may be shocked by this book’s intensity, but it’s a brave story with an ultimately hopeful outcome. Anyone who has faced addiction—or loved someone who has—will recognize and be moved by Gilbert’s journey.”—Booklist, starred review“The author of the world’s most famous memoir returns to the form to tell the story of a great love . . . A worthy addition to the literature of addiction and recovery, charming and harrowing by turns.”—Kirkus Reviews
Available September 9th in Hardcover, eBook, Audio, and Large Print Editions.
Also Available in Spanish: Hasta la orilla del río
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Boy from the North Country: A Novel by Sam Sussman
A son returns home to his dying mother to discover the astonishing truth of his origins and the secrets of a woman whose life and wisdom he is only beginning to understand.
“A loving ode to an extraordinary mother; a soulful coming of age; an unlikely portrait of Dylan in his prime as fresh as they come. Sam Sussman’s Boy from the North Country heralds the arrival of a blazing new literary talent.”—Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Homeland Elegies and Disgraced
“A debut novel of rare power, a page-turning story of a son learning to return to his mother’s transformative love. Tragic and redemptive, poetic and provocative, this novel held me breathless at every turn. Sussman is a writer of many gifts.”—Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Today Will Be Different
Available September 16th in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love: A Cookbook by Samin Nosrat
From the bestselling author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat—and one of America’s most beloved chefs and teachers—125 meticulously tested, flavor-forward, soul-nourishing recipes that bring joy and a sense of communion.
Good Things is an essential, joyful guide to cooking and living, whether you’re looking for a comforting tomato soup to console a struggling friend, seeking a deeper sense of connection in your life, or hosting a dinner for ten in your too-small dining room. Here you’ll find go-to recipes for ricotta custard pancakes, a showstopping roast chicken burnished with saffron, a crunchy, tingly Calabrian chili crisp, super-chewy sky-high focaccia, and a decades-in-the-making, childhood-evoking yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Along the way, you’ll also find plenty of tips, techniques, and lessons, from how to buy olive oil (check the harvest date) to when to splurge (salad dressing is where you want to use your best ingredients) to the best uses for your pressure cooker (chicken stock and dulce de leche, naturally).
Available September 16th in Hardcover and eBook Editions.
Poems & Prayers by Matthew McConaughey
From the Academy Award–winning actor and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Greenlights comes an inspiring, faith-filled, and often hilarious collection of personal poetry and prayers about navigating the rodeo of life and chasing down the original dream, belief.
My prayers are my poems are my prayers.
I think it’s time for us to flip the script on what’s historically been our means of making sense, and instead open our aperture to enchantment and look to faith, belief, and dreams for our reality.
Let’s sing more than we might make sense, believe in more than the world can conclude, get more impressed with the wow instead of the how, let inspiration interrupt our appointments, dream our way to reality, serve some soul food to our hungry heads, put proof on the shelf for a season, and rhyme our way to reason.
Forget logic, certainty, owning, or making a start-up company of it; let’s go beyond what we can merely imagine, and believe, in the poetry of life.
Available September 16th in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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Alchemised: A Novel by SenLinYu
In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy—and the man tasked with unearthing the deepest secrets of her past.
Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed.
Helena’s fight—to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self—is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost.
Available September 23rd in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
Also Available in Spanish: Alchemised
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Watch Our ‘Endless Possibilities’ Author Panel Featuring SenLinYu
What We Can Know: A Novel by Ian McEwan
From the Booker prize–winning, bestselling author of Atonement and Saturday, a genre-bending new novel full of secrets and surprises; an immersive exploration, across time and history, of what can ever be truly known.
What We Can Know is a masterpiece, a fictional tour de force, a love story about both people and the words they leave behind, a literary detective story which reclaims the present from our sense of looming catastrophe and imagines a future world where all is not quite lost.
Available September 23rd in Hardcover, eBook, and Large Print Editions.
I Am You: A Novel by Victoria Redel
A mesmerizing historical novel, I Am You is a meditation on gender, an ode to artistic creation, and an unforgettable love story that reimagines the life of renowned still life painter Maria van Oosterwijck during Dutch’s Golden Age.
“I Am You is that rarest of novels, a story of ferocious insights into the human psyche and the drive to create art, coupled with twists and turns that grab you from the beginning and don’t let go until the end. It’s a stunning accomplishment.”—Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Day and The Hours
Available September 30th in Hardcover and eBook Editions.
Conform: A Novel by Ariel Sullivan
The must-read first novel from Jenna Bush Hager’s new venture, Thousand Voices.
In the far future, one young woman finds herself torn between two loves—and two sides of a rebellion boiling under the surface—in the first novel of a sweeping dystopian romance series.
“Ariel Sullivan’s Conform pulses with drama and romantic tension, propelling readers through a world where love, autonomy, and rebellion collide. Like a cross between The Hunger Games and The Handmaid’s Tale, this dystopian debut delivers gripping twists and an irresistible emotional core, exploring power, identity, and the cost of defiance. I loved this novel! Propulsive, thought-provoking, and utterly unputdownable, it’s a must-read.”—Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of The Leftover Woman
Available October 14th in Hardcover, eBook, Audio, and Large Print Editions.
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Watch Our ‘Magic of Love’ Author Panel Featuring Ariel Sullivan
A Guardian and a Thief: A Novel by Megha Majumdar
Megha Majumdar’s electrifying new novel, following her acclaimed New York Times bestseller A Burning—longlisted for the National Book Award—is set in a near-future Kolkata, India, ravaged by climate change and food scarcity, in which two families seeking to protect their children must battle each other. A piercing and propulsive tour de force.
Set over the course of one week, A Guardian and a Thief tells two stories: the story of Ma’s frantic search for the thief—who stole her purse containing treasured immigration documents; and the story of Boomba, the thief, whose desperation to care for his family drives him to commit a series of escalating crimes whose consequences he cannot fathom.
With stunning control and command, Megha Majumdar paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of two families, each operating from a place of ferocious love and undefeated hope, each discovering how far they will go to secure their children’s future as they stave off encroaching catastrophe.
Available October 14th in Hardcover, eBook, Audio, and Large Print Editions.
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Like a Wave We Break: A Memoir of Falling Apart and Finding Myself by Jane Chen
The courageous memoir of one woman’s globe-spanning journey of unraveling and awakening—breaking free of the narratives that once defined her and confronting the long-buried truths of a traumatic past—by the former CEO and co-founder of Embrace.
“Jane Chen’s powerful and poignant book illustrates how we can use our struggles to serve others. It ultimately shows that life is not about what happens to us, but about the meaning we give to it.”—Tony Robbins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Money: Master the Game and Awaken the Giant Within
Available October 14th in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging by Angela Buchdahl
From the first Asian American to be ordained as a rabbi, a stirring account of one woman’s journey from feeling like an outsider to becoming one of the most admired religious leaders in the world.
“Love and light live in Angela Buchdahl’s extraordinary memoir. It comes at a time when the world needs reminding that all our hearts must remain open to the oneness of humanity—and, not least, to the outsiders among us . . . Crossing over is at the heart of the Jewish experience, and in exploring the arc between home and promised lands, memory and meaning, Buchdahl has given us a memoir of profound insight and hope.”—Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University
“Come for the story; stay for the sermon. Honest, intelligent, and tender, this memoir of a one remarkable woman’s journey tells a story of everyone’s need to be part of and in service to something larger than themselves.”—Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author of Grit
Available October 21st in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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Tom’s Crossing: A Novel by Mark Z. Danielewski
From the bestselling author of House of Leaves comes a magisterial novel about two friends determined to rescue a pair of horses set for slaughter.
While folks still like to focus on the crimes that shocked the small city of Orvop, Utah, back in the fall of 1982, not to mention the trials that followed, far more remember the adventure that took place beyond municipal lines.
For sure no one expected the dead to rise, but they did. No one expected the mountain to fall either, but it did. No one expected an act of courage so great, and likewise so appalling, that it still staggers the heart and mind of anyone who knows anything about the Katanogos massif, to say nothing of Pillars Meadow.
As one Orvop high school teacher described that extraordinary feat just days before she died, Fer sure no one expected Kalin March to look Old Porch in the eye and tell him: You get what you deserve when you ride with cowards.
Available October 28th in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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I Deliver Parcels in Beijing by Hu Anyan; Translated by Jack Hargreaves
A runaway bestseller in China, this delightfully honest and humorous account gives a face and voice to the future of work—as if Nomadland met Nickel and Dimed.
In 2023, I Deliver Parcels in Beijing became the literary sensation of the year in China. Hu Anyan’s story, about short-term jobs in various anonymous megacities, hit a nerve with a generation of young people who feel at odds with an ever-growing pressure to perform and succeed.
I Deliver Parcels in Beijing is an honest and startling first-person portrait of Hu Anyan’s struggle against the dehumanizing nature of our contemporary global work system—and his discovery of the power of sharing a story.
Available October 28th in Hardcover and eBook Editions.
Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore by Char Adams
NBC News reporter Char Adams writes a deeply compelling and rigorously reported history of Black political movements, told through the lens of Black-owned bookstores, which have been centers for organizing from abolition to the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter.
“Black-Owned needs to be read, especially by folks who’ve never been inside a Black-owned bookstore. I have and their effect on neighborhoods, on literacy, on getting kids reading, is amazing and inspiring. So is this passionate and honest book.”—James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Writer and The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians
“A deeply researched, beautiful tribute, and a heartfelt history of the sometimes small, but always mighty Black bookshop.”—Evan Friss, New York Times bestselling author of The Bookshop
Available November 4th in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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Cursed Daughters: A Novel by Oyinkan Braithwaite
A young woman must shake off a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin in this wickedly funny, brilliantly perceptive novel about love, female rivalry, and superstition from the author of the smash hit My Sister, the Serial Killer.
“I devoured Cursed Daughters and immediately wanted to start all over again. It’s a triumph: bold, searing, and utterly original. From the first page, it grips with an electric pulse. Funny and fearless, soaked in secrets, spirit, heartbreak, and love, it’s told in a voice as scalding as it is tender . . . This is a taut, feverish novel that burns itself into you. Impossible to put down.”—Abi Daré, New York Times bestselling author of Girl with the Louding Voice
Available November 4th in Hardcover, eBook, Audio, and Large Print Editions.
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The Look by Michelle Obama; Foreword by Farah Jasmine Griffin; with Meredith Koop
Beautifully illustrated with more than 200 photographs, including never-before-seen images, The Look is a stunning journey through Michelle Obama’s style evolution, in her own words for the first time.
In this celebration of style, from the moment she entered the public eye during her husband’s U.S. Senate campaign through her time as the first Black First Lady and today as one of this country’s most influential figures, Michelle Obama shares how she uses the beauty and intrigue of fashion to draw attention to her message.
In The Look, Michelle Obama explores the joy and the purpose of fashion and beauty and how—when wielded with grace and care—they can uplift and affirm the values one holds most dear. Confidence, she concludes, cannot be put on. But when you’re wearing something that’s intentional or beloved, clothing can make you feel like the best version of yourself.
Available November 4th in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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Star of the Show: My Life on Stage by Dolly Parton with Tom Roland
A stunning celebration of Dolly Parton’s iconic career as a performer, featuring entertaining personal stories alongside more than 500 full-color photographs, including exclusive images and ephemera from her archive, and an eight-page gatefold listing her lifetime of performances.
In Star of the Show, the culminating book in Dolly Parton’s photographic trilogy—following Songteller (lyrics) and Behind the Seams (fashion)—the global superstar finally shares a definitive look at her career as one of the world’s most dazzling and beloved performers.
Brimming with Parton’s trademark wit and heartfelt sincerity, Star of the Show: My Life on Stage is not only an homage to one of history’s most cherished artists, but also a must-have collector’s item for—and love letter to—any fan of the one and only Dolly Parton.
Available November 11th in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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The Sunshine Man: A Novel by Emma Stonex
The week I shot a man clean through the head began like any other . . .
A taut, electrifying thriller about a woman determined to avenge her sister’s murder—and the killer who must confront his own ghosts.
“An ambitious revenge thriller . . . What makes this thought-provoking book well worth the read is the delicate and perceptive chronicling of how good intentions, childhood misunderstandings, throwaway comments and split-second decisions can pave the way for disaster.”—The Guardian
“Masterful. Not only suspenseful and exquisitely tense but a nuanced, humanely observed portrait of grief and trauma. A triumph.”—Jo Harkin, author of The Pretender
Available November 11th in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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The White Hot: A Novel by Quiara Alegria Hudes
The story of a runaway mother’s ten days of freedom—and the pain, desire, longing, and wonder we find on the messy road to enlightenment—from Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes.
“In The White Hot, Quiara Alegría Hudes has written the brown Latina modern-day Siddhartha that Hermann Hesse never saw coming. Here is a necessary takedown of the patriarchy—a book written for everyone, but especially for those of us whose moms fled because escaping was the only option. I wish this masterpiece had existed for teenage me. Gracias, Hudes, for gifting us April Soto, a force of a voice that will stay with me forever.”—Javier Zamora, author of Solito
Available November 11th in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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I, Medusa: A Novel by Ayana Gray
From New York Times bestselling author Ayana Gray comes a new kind of villain origin story, reimagining one of the most iconic monsters in Greek mythology as a provocative and powerful young heroine.
“As powerful and heartbreaking as the character for whom it’s named, I, Medusa grips you from the first page, deftly exploring sisterhood, power, friendship, manipulation and the abiding rage felt by unfairly maligned women all the way back to antiquity. I finished this book in a day.”—Sabaa Tahir, internationally bestselling author of An Ember in the Ashes
Available November 18th in Hardcover, eBook, Audio, and Large Print Editions.
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Watch Our ‘Endless Possibilities’ Author Panel Featuring Ayana Gray
Something Wicked: A Novel by Falon Ballard
From the beloved USA Today bestselling romance author Falon Ballard comes a seductive romantasy that blends Macbeth and Moulin Rouge! into a hypnotic saga of sex, love, and murder.
“Falon Ballard left no prisoners with Something Wicked. Dark, dramatic, and oh, so sexy, this book oozed with delicious tension. I couldn’t get enough.”—Nisha J Tuli, International bestselling author of Trial of the Sun Queen
“Something Wicked kept me hooked from start to finish. It’s intricate, sensual, and filled with all the best elements romantasy has to offer. Falon Ballard makes a skillful debut in the genre!”—India Holton, bestselling author of The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love
Available December 2nd in Hardcover, eBook, and Audio Editions.
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