Book Riot – The Podcast

Episode: UPDATED – Our Favorite Books of 2025

Date: December 17, 2025
Hosts: Jeff O’Neill and Rebecca Schinsky
Special Guests: Book Riot editors (Sharifah Williams, Kelly Jensen, Danica Ellis, Erica Ezzafedi, Vanessa Diaz)

Overview

This annual special episode gathers the Book Riot team to share their favorite books of 2025. Hosts Jeff O’Neill and Rebecca Schinsky are joined by various editors, who each bring their top picks, spanning literary fiction, non-fiction, genre fiction, graphic novels, and more. Together, they discuss themes, literary trends, memorable reads, and the state of reading in 2025, offering a vibrant, insightful roundup for listeners preparing their own year-end lists.

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Rethinking Literary Categories

(06:02 – 08:00)

• Jeff and Rebecca discuss issues with Goodreads and major outlets shelving literary fiction under other categories (e.g., George Saunders in historical, Emily St. John Mandel in fantasy).
• Jeff: “George Saunders and Emily St. John should be in the same category... we’ve just strayed too far from [the] utility of literary fiction.”
• Rebecca: “If the category says sci-fi, you expect certain things... if you get Emily St. John Mandel, you might have a surprising but possibly frustrated experience.”

2. Year-End Reading Reflections

(01:00 – 03:21; 41:13 – 43:55)

• Hosts express “year-end list fatigue” but acknowledge the tradition of reviewing favorites.
• Both found 2025 to be "a B reading year," with some A+ standouts but more solid than spectacular.

Jeff & Rebecca’s Top Picks of 2025

1. Audition by Katie Kitamura

(08:50 – 13:59)

• A taut, ambiguous literary novel about a stage actress evaluating roles in life and love.
• Rebecca: "[Kitamura explores] the roles that we play... what it is to be seen by other people and to be constructing the ways that we are perceived."
• Jeff: “You can bring out three or four book reading experiences... It’s like a reversible jacket: this way it’s one thing, turn it inside out, it’s something else.”
• Memorable for its restraint, ambiguity, and control over the narrative.

2. Life in Three Dimensions by Shigehiro Oishi

(15:36 – 18:56)

• Nonfiction exploring "psychological richness" – seeking interesting, complex experiences versus traditional “happiness” or “meaning.”
• Jeff: “This third thing between meaning and happiness... what we want at the highest version from our reading.”
• Both hosts enjoyed how the book offered new vocabulary for understanding different life philosophies.

3. Stonyard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

(19:04 – 20:51)

• Rebecca’s pick: An introspective, meditative novel about a woman escaping to an Australian monastery.
• Rebecca: “I really loved Stonyard Devotional... it reads as her journals, it is meditative, with a rhythm to her days. Ambiguity reigns—never really know why she leaves her old life.”

4. Exit 0 by Marie-Helene Bertino

(20:57 – 22:21)

• Jeff’s favorite: A short story collection with uncanny, speculative elements.
• Jeff: “Each one is so interesting... like koans. Answers to questions we don’t even know what the question is—like ‘42’ in Hitchhiker’s Guide.”

5. Searches by Vauhini Vara

(22:30 – 25:13)

• Nonfiction blending memoir and the ethics of creativity and AI, focusing on documenting grief using ChatGPT and exploring humanity in a tech-driven age.
• Rebecca: “Side by sides of the human-written and AI-written versions make a compelling argument: this technology, at least right now, cannot replace human creativity.”

6. This American Woman by Zarna Garg

(25:13 – 27:02)

• Jeff’s most recommended book: Stand-up comic Garg narrates her immigration and identity story.
• Jeff: “A Swiss army book—generally recommendable to anyone. Highly recommend audio. Her first visit to Chuck E. Cheese will stick with you.”

7. The Dry Season by Melissa Febos

(27:02 – 29:49)

• Rebecca’s pick: Febos’s memoir about self-examination, sex, celibacy, and the roles of women across history.
• Rebecca: “She inventories every romantic entanglement and bravely explores what a creative life outside relationships could look like.”

8. The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers

(29:49 – 32:21)

• Jeff’s pick: A novel exploring the dual paths of adultery—both the affair that happened and the one that didn’t.
• Jeff: “I want my contemporary fiction to look at mores, what is said and unsaid, and how difficult it is to get outside of that.”

9. Heart the Lover by Lily King

(32:23 – 34:33)

• Rebecca’s pick: A concise, moving literary take on the love-triangle novel.
• Rebecca: “It packs a powerful punch—30 years and multiple relationships in so few pages. Closest I came to crying while reading this year.”

10. Tilt by Emma Petit

(34:33 – 35:54)

• Jeff’s ‘read-in-one-sitting’ pick: A debut novel where a heavily pregnant woman is caught in an earthquake in Portland.
• Jeff: “Singular reading experience—visceral, evocative, powerful. The main character literally walks by my house.”

11. The Carpool Detectives by Chuck Hogan

(35:54 – 38:17)

• Jeff’s favorite audiobook: True story of four women who solve a cold case during COVID.
• Jeff: “Unbelievably great audiobook... should have been a bigger book and a movie. Process stuff is amazing.”

Book Riot Editors' Favorite Picks

Each segment featured a different editor introducing their top books.

Kelly Jensen

Notable theme: Weird, unhinged female leads.

• Best Offer Wins by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
  Woman obsessed with winning a home becomes increasingly unhinged in a biting satire of housing, class, gender, and race.
  “Margo gets this idea in her head and just... you're like, please stop, please stop, but you understand why.” (49:47)

• Blob by Maggie Sue
  “Weird girl fiction”—unlikable female protagonist brings home a sentient blob, which becomes a metaphor for intimacy, agency, and identity.
  “I love me a good unlikable character... blob starts to develop its own feelings and limbs!” (51:20)

• Sky Daddy by Kate Folk
  Woman sexually obsessed with airplanes; explores societal norms, obsession, and self-awareness; equal parts bonkers and sympathetic.
  “She bought a plane fragment off ebay and keeps it in her mouth... Forever ruined how I look at airplanes.” (56:34)

Danica Ellis

Whimsical, quirky fiction and middle-grade graphic novels.

• Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon
  Romantasy originally conceived as a D&D in-joke, now a full-fledged, heartfelt and tongue-in-cheek romance with a half-orc lead.
  “It’s both slow burn and steamy, with a merchant’s daughter and a half-orc named Oscar on a journey of protection and love.” (62:35)

• Lewin Wren's Guide to Geozoology by Angela Shea
  Middle-grade graphic novel: a cozy, beautifully illustrated adventure about a girl, her grandmother, and giant landscape-fused animals, exploring grief and generational language divides.
  “The illustrations are just so beautiful... cozy and comforting, but also an interesting story about grief and languages.” (65:29)

Erica Ezzafedi

Historical fiction and horror; Black traditions and unsung stories.

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
  Indigenous horror spanning 1912 and 2012, vampires mixed with historical reality, especially the Marias Massacre. “I had a nightmare from it... the vampire part wasn’t the scariest—real-life history was.” (77:38)

• Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray
  Biographical novel about Jessie Redmon Fauset, midwife of the Harlem Renaissance, her crucial role, and messy affair with W.E.B. Du Bois. “Historical fiction that shows people at all their messiness... juicy and fun to read.” (84:30)

Sharifah Williams

Reading as a parent, focus on meaning and the timely.

• One Day Everyone Will Know by Omar El Akkad
  Acclaimed nonfiction on Palestine, Gaza, and the necessity of moral clarity in the face of atrocity. “A grounding experience... will stand as a historical document we can return to for moral courage.” (87:38) National Book Award Winner.

• The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
  Literary fiction following Black women's friendship and growth; stands out for avoiding trauma as center and foregrounding tenderness and complexity. “A love note to my twenties... I just loved being taken on that journey.” (93:50)

Vanessa Diaz

Macabre, art-centric fiction, genre mixing.

• The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  Genre-mixing (horror, dark academia, historical) novel about witches, academia, a missing student, and Mexican folklore. “I like to joke Silvia Moreno-Garcia has a genre roulette she spins for each book, and this is her dark academia turn.” (99:42)

• The Macabre by Kosoko Jackson
  Art, horror, and queer romance—an artist can enter haunted paintings tied to colonialism and his ancestry, a globe-trotting, gory adventure. “A gory romp and a history lesson... he can physically step into paintings—unspeakable evil and art history collide.” (107:12)

Notable Quotes

• On Literary Fiction as a Category:
  “We need the junk drawer of literary fiction. We know it’s not a fork, not a spoon, but what is it? The special thing you use to open the special thing.” —Jeff (08:00)

• On Memorable Reading Experiences:
  “This is one of the first books we both read this year, and I’ve continued to think about it all year long.” —Rebecca, on Audition (13:13)

• On Psychological Richness:
  “A negative experience isn’t a disaster. You get to talk about it later, and I just find that so useful, for understanding people and as a life organizing principle.” —Jeff (16:20)

• On the Power of Storytelling:
  “I deeply appreciate [Febos’s] willingness to talk about all sorts of stuff. One aspires to be that open and then one is afraid of the internet, so I appreciate her.” —Rebecca, on The Dry Season (29:49)

• On Book Categories:
  “Use the utility of literary fiction... it does serve a useful purpose, especially on a list like this.” —Rebecca (06:59)

Memorable/Eccentric Moments

• Kelly Jensen’s “Weird Girl Fiction” Picks:
  House-hunting leading to unhinged obsession (Best Offer Wins), a literal romance with a blob (Blob), airplane attraction (Sky Daddy).
• Laughs shared over strange covers, wild book premises (e.g., street-blob gets agency), and the joys of a truly unclassifiable book.
• Repeated amusement at the range of genres and how “literary” so often means “hard to neatly describe.”

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Literary Fiction Category Rant: 06:02 – 08:00
• Discussion of Audition: 08:50 – 13:59
• Life in Three Dimensions: 15:36 – 18:56
• Stonyard Devotional: 19:04 – 20:51
• Exit 0: 20:55 – 22:22
• Searches/AI & Creativity: 22:30 – 25:13
• This American Woman: 25:13 – 27:02
• Melissa Febos – The Dry Season: 27:02 – 29:49
• The Ten Year Affair: 29:49 – 32:21
• Heart the Lover: 32:23 – 34:33
• Tilt: 34:33 – 35:54
• The Carpool Detectives: 35:54 – 38:17
• Kelly Jensen’s Segment: 44:16 – 58:13
• Danica Ellis’s Segment: 58:42 – 68:56
• Erica Ezzafedi’s Segment: 70:29 – 85:28
• Sharifah Williams’s Segment: 85:28 – 99:32
• Vanessa Diaz’s Segment: 99:34 – 111:11

Closing Thoughts

The Book Riot team’s 2025 favorites capture a wide swath of today’s literature: ambiguous, experimental literary fiction, rich memoirs and essays, unclassifiable genre-benders, cozy and innovative graphic novels, and urgent, timely nonfiction. Their passion for both the strange and the substantial shines throughout. Each pick is contextualized with candid, reader-minded discussion, making the episode a treasure map for anyone seeking the year’s most thought-provoking, inventive, and emotionally resonant reads.

If you’re looking for your next favorite book (or ten) of 2025, this episode’s recommendations are a vibrant place to start.