2025 was a landmark year for readers. So, as our team sat down to figure out what would make our annual list, we struggled to narrow down our favorites into what you see here.
Across this iteration of the “Best Books We Read” list, you’ll find stunning debuts, illuminating biographies, open-hearted memoirs, and urgent calls for action. But across all the genres, topics, and styles, one shared trait connects all of these books: Unforgettable, confident writing.
The Edge of Water
By Olufunke Grace Bankole
Tin House Books
The Edge of Water was hands down my most memorable read of 2025. Olufunke Grace Bankole’s hauntingly gorgeous prose pierces the veil between the material world and the mystic, creating this unforgettable story of motherhood that crosses continents and three generations of women with incredible finesse. It’s an unforgettable novel in every sense of the word, as I continuously shifted between “how did she write this” and “how did she make me cry again?”
— Michael Welch, Editor-In-Chief
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
By Omar El Akkad
Knopf
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This not only brutally explains and describes the disillusionment so many progressive people in the US are feeling right now, but also was prescient within months, as the famine finally seemed to break through and cause a mainstream outpouring of dismay and distress. This book is not only the manual for how the crisis in Palestine has been covered by the media, discussed by politicians, and dismissed, but also how liberals will continue to go through cycles of committing to inaction until it’s too late.
— Leah von Essen, Contributor
Death of the Author
By Nnedi Okorafor
William Morrow
I loved Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor! It’s such a beautiful sci-fi and lit-fic book that straddles both genres without feeling forced. On her main character, Zelu: I always appreciate a main character who is hard to love at times (i.e., difficult, temperamental, even self-sabotaging), and this one delivered, along with a moving story weaving together family life, migration, and this feeling of forever being the odd one out.
— Reema Saleh, Daily Editor
Sacrament
By Susan Straight
Counterpoint
Sacrament was a late 2025 read for me, and I’m glad I finished it in time to make this list! Susan Straight’s latest follows a group of nurses working at an ICU in San Bernardino during the summer of 2020, who are forced to live in a RV camp to avoid getting their families sick. I imagine I’m not alone when I say that I’m not usually keen to revisit that time period in fiction, but Straight masterfully explores the interwoven intricacies of the moment—tackling race, class, gender, and the ways in which care was complicated and challenged in America. Sacrament is the COVID pandemic novel. But if you’re hesitant with reckoning with that time again, I promise you Straight’s brilliant cast of characters and beautiful, rageful drama will make it worth your time.
— Michael Welch, Editor-In-Chief
Tilt
By Emma Pattee
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books
The writing in Tilt is amazing. The way the story hits you immediately and doesn’t let you go. You are in it for the long haul. There is so much in the 240 pages. So much emotion, loss, grief, memories. It is unforgettable.
— Karen Bellovich, Daily Editor
Paper Girl
By Beth Macy
Penguin Press
Part memoir of growing up in a small town in Ohio and part sociological study of our current political moment, this book by former journalist Macy draws a direct line from the downfall of local newspapers and the de-emphasis on the importance of education to the splintered and conspiracy-theory riddled society in which we all now find ourselves. As a former small-town Ohioan myself, I was absolutely riveted to this book, often putting it down only to shout “YES THAT’S EXACTLY IT.” I haven’t read anything in the last year that not only explained where we are now in such profound terms, but also gave me hope for the future.
— Greg Zimmerman, Daily Editor
Sour Cherry
By Natalia Theodoridou
Tin House Books
Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou was unlike anything else I have read this year—and maybe ever. Not the happiest read, and a bit suspenseful at times, but it is so kind and gentle with its themes and characters that I could not put it down.
— Hannah Korbel, Contributor
Nothing Compares to You: What Sinéad O’Connor Means to Us
Edited by Sonya Huber and Martha Bayne
Atria/One Signal Publishers
Nothing Compares to You is a lovely tribute to the iconic signer and dedicated activist Sinéad O’Connor, featuring writing from authors like Neko Case, Prochista Khakpour, and Chicago’s very own Megan Stielstra. It’s a beautiful celebration of a visionary artist who fiercely fought for a better future for all.
— Michael Welch, Editor-In-Chief
Woodworking
By Emily St. James
Crooked Media Reads
I loved so many books this year, but the one I recommended the most was Woodworking by Emily St. James. It’s a stunning, heartbreaking, hopeful book about two trans women from different generations who happen to cross paths at school. It speaks to the challenges and gifts of visibility and the importance of community, no matter what that looks like. This story changed me.
— Jen St. Jude, Editor-At-Large
Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism
By Eve L. Ewing
One World
It’s Eve Ewing so this was always going to be a banger. An incredibly thorough and accessible look at the racist history of the US public education system through its treatment of Black and Native American children that, once finished, asks us what we’re going to do to transform this harmful institution. The citations are also the best I’ve ever read.
— Ariana Valderrama, Contributor
To the Moon and Back
By Eliana Ramage
Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
To the Moon and Back is the story of a woman aspiring against all odds to be the first Cherokee woman to go to the moon. I love this book because it’s not a rosy narrative of perseverance. The main character makes mistakes, lots of mistakes, with her single-minded determination to get to the moon while her mother and sister maintain strong ties to their heritage. It’s a complicated, messy, beautiful story.
— Elisa Shoenberger, Contributor
I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness
By Irene Solà
Graywolf Press
A beast of a book, more than living up to the dark promises of its title. The fecund sensuality of Solà’s language only serves to highlight the horrors held within these pages, all the misogyny and pain that these ghostly women have had to endure over the years. Like seeing a new mythology being made in real time.
— Sara Batkie, Editor-At-Large
The Gloomy Girl Variety Show
By Freda Epum
Feminist Press
Freda Epum’s The Gloomy Girl Variety Show is brilliantly structured as a search for a home, i.e. a safe haven, and examines Epum’s intersectional identities as a Black, disabled, first generation Nigerian American female. Combining poetry, prose, and visual art, as well as cultural criticism, the book is an inventive narrative dealing with mental illness, while also highlighting the urgent need for racial justice.
— Rachel León, Managing Director
The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald
By John U. Bacon
Liveright Publishing Corporation
The Gales of November is so well written and well researched. It grabs you right away and you can’t put it down. It is a powerful story and an emotional tribute to the lives that were lost.
— Karen Bellovich, Daily Editor
Summer House
By Yiğit Karaahmet
Translated by Nichols Glastonbury
Soho Crime
My favorite book of 2025 was Summerhouse by Yigit Karaahmet because every single twist of this sexy thriller was totally unexpected and wild. So much fun!
— Christopher Bigelow, Contributor
The Hounding
By Xenobe Purvis
Henry Holt and Co.
Xenobe Purvis’ haunting and powerful debut The Hounding is a page-turner of a book about a group of unusual, willful girls in an 18th century village, told from the perspectives of other townsfolk who eventually begin spreading deadly rumors about them. A must read, but avoid looking at the marketing/jacket copy, which should have a spoiler alert.
— Elizabeth Niarchos Neukirch, Contributor
Notes From a Regicide
By Isaac Fellman
Tor Books
Fellman is one of our greatest working stylists, and this novel is astonishing: a sophisticated, ambiguous meditation on identity and chosen family, on the wake of history and the worth of art. “Breathtaking” is over-used, but it’s accurate here.
— Jake Casella Brookins, Contributor
All the Water in the World
By Eiren Caffall
St. Martin’s Press
Eiren Caffall’s debut novel is such a compelling and harrowing climate dystopian story that continually finds beauty and love amidst the horror. It seems strange to say that there’s a lot of hope in a novel about a world in which the sea has swallowed much of the coastline of the United States, but Caffall brings so much tenderness to her characters that you can’t help but awe at their resiliency in the face of the struggles. While climate fiction often has a familiar (and warranted) strain of doom, All the Water in the World offers something entirely different—and it’s truly remarkable.
— Michael Welch, Editor-In-Chief
Lonely Crowds
By Stephanie Wambugu
Little Brown and Company
Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambugu is a brilliant debut from a young novelist, exploring the life of the artist with remarkable, melancholic wisdom.
— Philip Janowski, Contributor
The Dissenters
By Youssef Rakha
Graywolf Press
Youssef Rakha’s The Dissenters is a deeply moving novel, offering a complex portrait of a woman and her shifting roles during political transformation, dealing with power, love, sex, and death. It’s less than 300 pages but reads like a sweeping epic twice that size.
— Rachel León, Managing Director
No Stars in Jefferson Park
By Maggie Anderson
Northwestern University Press
I might be biased here, but I have to say No Stars in Jefferson Park by Maggie Andersen. It’s such a tender memoir of love, loss, and growing as an artist while also being a book-length love letter to the city of Chicago. I love it so much.
— Christopher Bigelow, Contributor
What a Time to Be Alive
By Jade Chang
Ecco
I enjoyed What a Time to Be Alive by Jade Chang! It’s probably appropriately appreciated, but my TLDR? It’s funny, tragic, world-wearied, and often surprising as her protagonist Lola comes of age later than most—going from extremely messy 31-year old to ultra-famous internet folk hero overnight. There are snippets of prose that will stay in my back pocket for later.
— Reema Saleh, Daily Editor
I’ll Tell You When I’m Home
By Hala Alyan
Avid Reader Press
I always find Hala Alyan’s work is worth checking out, but this book is one not to miss. Structured as a pregnancy, this memoir deals with Alyan’s path to motherhood via surrogacy, past trauma, and her family’s exile and displacement. It’s lyrical and gorgeous, but also super sharp and deeply moving.
— Rachel León, Managing Director
