The Ultimate Best Books of 2025 List

The Ultimate Best Books of 2025 List

Reading All the Lists So You Don’t Have to Since 2017

By Emily Temple | December 25, 2025

A Mirror to Society: On Lee Friedlander’s Many American Christmases

A Mirror to Society: On Lee Friedlander’s Many American Christmases

Peter Kayafas Considers the Photographer’s Unique Perspective on a Multifaceted Holiday

By Peter Kayafas | December 23, 2025

On Henry David Thoreau’s Ultimate Instrument of Perception, the “Kalendar”

On Henry David Thoreau’s Ultimate Instrument of Perception, the “Kalendar”

Kristen Case Explores Thoreau’s Meticulous Tracking of Natural Phenomena

By Kristen Case | December 17, 2025

The 50 Biggest Literary Stories of the Year

The 50 Biggest Literary Stories of the Year

From Goodnight Moon to AI Slop.

By Emily Temple | December 15, 2025

The 173 Best Book Covers of 2025

The 173 Best Book Covers of 2025

According to 52 Book Cover Designers

By Emily Temple | December 11, 2025

What Happens When Gen Z Encounters Catullus’s Filthiest Poem?

What Happens When Gen Z Encounters Catullus’s Filthiest Poem?

“Reading wakes us up to love, culture, grief, war, a range of possibilities too vast to name, and also to great discomfort.”

By Rachel DeWoskin | December 10, 2025

Best Reviewed
Books of the Week

  • Country People
  • You Won't Get Free of It: Stories of Mothers and Daughters
  • Exit Stalin: The Soviet Union as a Civilization, 1953-1991
  • A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of Movies
  • It Will Come Back to You: Collected Stories
  • Cloudthief
  • Cool Machine
  • Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
  • Beginning Middle End
  • They Stole a City: Wilmington's White Supremacist Coup and the Families Who Live with Its Legacy

How Colette Was Inspired By Her Many Cats

By Susannah Fullerton | December 9, 2025

Beyond Winnie-the-Pooh: On A.A. Milne’s Romance Novels

By Gyles Brandreth | December 8, 2025

The Literary Hub Gift Guide:
50 Gifts for Writers

By Literary Hub | December 5, 2025

On the Infinite Lives of the Library

On the Infinite Lives of the Library

Steve Edwards Loves Nothing More Than Library Hours

By Steve Edwards | December 4, 2025

3 Ways to Become a Better Reader

3 Ways to Become a Better Reader

Hwang Bo-Reum on Little Ways to Cultivate Your Reading (and Writing) Life

By Hwang Bo-Reum | December 3, 2025

Lauren Rothery on Channeling Hollywood in Her Debut Novel

Lauren Rothery on Channeling Hollywood in Her Debut Novel

Jane Ciabattari Talks to the Author of Television

By Jane Ciabattari | December 2, 2025

Progressive Except for Palestine: On Growing Up in Bari Weiss’s “Urban Shtetl”

Progressive Except for Palestine: On Growing Up in Bari Weiss’s “Urban Shtetl”

Laura Kraftowitz Examines the Fault Lines and False Choices of Liberal Judaism

By Laura Kraftowitz | December 1, 2025

Why We All Make Sacrifices to the Human-Created God Called “The Economy”

Why We All Make Sacrifices to the Human-Created God Called “The Economy”

Sven Beckert on the Rise of Capitalism As Both an Economic System and a Way of Life

By Sven Beckert | December 1, 2025

What Was Literary Twitter? </br>*The Champion*

What Was Literary Twitter?
*The Champion*

crowning our queen.

By Literary Hub | November 25, 2025

How Crossword Puzzles Underwrote Three of America’s Major Publishers

How Crossword Puzzles Underwrote Three of America’s Major Publishers

Natan Last on the Unlikely Origins of Simon & Schuster, Random House and Farrar, Straus and Giroux

By Natan Last | November 25, 2025

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