The Book Case — “We Pick Our Favorites: 2025”
ABC News | Charlie Gibson, Kate Gibson
Date: January 1, 2026
Overview
In this special New Year's episode, hosts Charlie and Kate Gibson reflect on their favorite books discovered and discussed throughout 2025. Continuing their mission to entice listeners out of literary ruts and into unexpected genres, they alternate sharing top picks, reminiscing not only on the books themselves but also on memorable author interviews and the impact these works had on them as readers. Their selections span genres and themes, from climate fiction and memoir to epistolary novels and survival sagas, each accompanied by quotes, anecdotes, and, where possible, insights from the authors themselves.
Key Discussion Points & Notable Books
1. The Guardian and the Thief by Meghan Majamdar
Picked by: Kate Gibson
Segment begins: [02:40]
- Theme: Moral ambiguity amidst crisis; set in climate change-ravaged India.
- Kate was particularly moved by the book’s exploration of where morality intersects survival. She admires how Majamdar “does it beautifully... without becoming didactic. There is no lecturing in this book” ([02:51]).
- The narrative refrains from overt moralizing but compels the reader to consider what they might do to ensure their family’s survival.
- Charlie adds praise, noting Majamdar’s status as a young, “old soul” author.
- The book was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Meghan Majamdar ([04:41]):
“I felt the more truthful thing would be to show how both of these main characters in the book have elements of guardians and elements of thieves in them. And that moral murkiness I find so interesting for fiction... People are not like that. We change in circumstances...”
- Meghan expands on the constant, everyday calculations we make between ethics and convenience, using shrimp-buying as a concrete example ([06:07–08:01]).
Notable Quotes:
- Kate ([02:52]): “It is just a story of would you do this for your family's survival?... and she never directly asks that question.”
- Charlie ([04:03]): “This is a book about moral relativism, about how do our morals intersect with the imperatives of our lives?”
2. Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
Picked by: Charlie Gibson
Segment begins: [08:21]
- Theme: Grief, love, and tribute; personal memoir following the sudden loss of Brooks’s husband, Tony Horowitz.
- Charlie felt the book was uplifting, a testament to love and resilience rather than a depressing account of loss.
- Brooks shares her process—delaying her grief and ultimately retreating for solitude on Flinders Island to write ([09:43]).
- Both hosts note the universality of loss; Charlie shares a poignant personal story about his mother's passing.
Geraldine Brooks ([09:43]):
“So I'm dealing with all the kinds of things that you don't want to be thinking about... when you're just desperately sad and wish you could just go and sit under a yew tree and throw a veil over your head. But modern life doesn't allow you to do that.... I realized that I needed to get away from all that noise and go somewhere extremely quiet.”
Notable Quotes:
- Charlie ([11:31]): “Everyone has lost someone... that they wish they could write a tribute as beautiful as the one Geraldine Brooks has written in Memorial Days. But... those tributes never get written. They just get... held in your heart.”
- Kate ([12:53]): “There are few moments in life where your life cracks. There's a before this thing happened, and then there's an after this thing happened. And she does such a beautiful job... of capturing what that's like.”
3. Heart the Lover by Lily King
Picked by: Kate Gibson
Segment begins: [12:53]
- Theme: Love triangle, enduring love, and grief; notable for its spare style and emotional focus.
- Kate commends King for bringing freshness to the well-trodden trope of love triangles and for her depiction of hospice moments.
- Lily King reveals the writing process was inspired by Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake and her own need for joy/fun in her writing ([14:54]).
Lily King ([14:54]):
“I read six pages [of Tom Lake]... I just thought, she is having fun and I want to have fun. So I flipped to the back of that notebook... And I just started writing these three characters in a classroom in college. And I immediately knew where we would go.”
- King also reflects on thinking of this as her “minor book”—shorter in length and emotional weight, and how that freed her creatively.
Notable Quotes:
- Kate ([13:15]): “Her characters stay with me, and I just loved this book. I thought it was beautifully written... I would highly recommend.”
4. Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhurst
Picked by: Charlie Gibson
Segment begins: [17:13]
- Theme: Survival at sea, psychological endurance, and marriage under extreme duress; based on the true story of Maurice and Marilyn Bailey.
- Focuses less on physical survival and more on the psychological and emotional dynamics between the married couple adrift ([18:38]).
- Marilyn’s inventiveness and emotional stability are contrasted with Maurice’s despair, even suggesting suicide.
- The aftermath of survival and how a marriage endures such a test make up the book’s impactful second half.
Sophie Elmhurst ([18:38]):
“The sheer idea of being trapped on a life raft with your spouse for a long period of time... what happens in that kind of crucible, that... claustrophobic setting.”
- The making of playing cards from a book on the raft is cited as a haunting detail about maintaining sanity.
Notable Quotes:
- Charlie ([19:49]): “As one reviewer noted, most survival stories involve men. But in this case, it was Marilyn who held things together.”
- Kate ([21:29]): “People who are eating raw turtle to survive took the time to make playing cards and played cards every day. It's really a great story.”
5. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Picked by: Kate Gibson
Segment begins: [26:36]
- Theme: The power of letter-writing; self-expression and connection across generations and experiences.
- Epistolary format centers the character Sippel von Antwerp—“a tough old girl” who writes to anyone, including strangers like a 23andMe operator.
- Inspired directly by 84 Charing Cross Road, Evans set out to explore a whole life via letters ([28:02]).
- The lack of physical description yet deep character development is praised.
- The book was largely discovered by the Gibsons before it hit bestseller status.
Virginia Evans ([28:02]):
"I try to write the book I want to read. And so that was the book I wanted to read... So then the character Sybil... sort of arrived to me. Her voice, her way of being, her particular manner."
Notable Quotes:
- Kate ([27:12]): “The main character, Sippel Von Antwerp, is amazing... and she will correspond with literally anybody who writes her.”
- Kate ([29:20]): “There is so much that is unspoken... in both the supporting character and the main character.”
6. The Interpreter by David Shipler
Picked by: Charlie Gibson
Segment begins: [31:15]
- Theme: War, language, trust, and the ambiguous role of interpreters set during the end of the Vietnam War.
- Loosely based on Shipler’s own reporting experience, with the character Lan representing the complexities of divided loyalties.
- Explores the impossibility of fully objective translation; how interpreters inevitably shape what is understood in moments of peril ([32:44]).
- Shipler notes the importance of both faithfulness to words and the need to translate the “meanings above the words.”
Will Cooley ([32:44]):
“The character I've created... believes [he is] faithful to the integrity of the words that are being spoken to him and that he is changing into English... He is poetic.”
- The discussion transitions into a broader conversation about translation and the gaps between languages.
Notable Quotes:
- Charlie ([35:59]): “You feel immersed in Vietnam. You can taste it, you can smell it, you can sense its ambiguities... and the book, The Interpreter, really raises that question.”
- Kate ([36:46]): “This book argues that there can't be 100% direct translation all of the time. It's going to require some interpretation.”
Memorable Moments & Quotes
- Humor & Banter: Kate teases Charlie about singing and church ([00:40]), and their playful jabs add warmth to the episode (“Indulgent is not even... on the list” [02:29]).
- Reflection on Reading & Discovery: Celebration when books they champion “become a bestseller” ([30:20]), and satisfaction from finding “the wonderful book... before it became a bestseller.”
- Advocacy for Literacy: The hosts urge listeners to “get as many people reading as we possibly can,” citing past episodes on literacy and book banning ([37:29]).
- Personal Touch: Charlie shares an intimate story about losing his mother and the wish to memorialize loved ones ([11:31]).
Timestamps for Important Segments
- [02:40] — The Guardian and the Thief
- [04:41] — Meghan Majamdar interview segment
- [08:21] — Memorial Days
- [09:43] — Geraldine Brooks interview segment
- [12:53] — Heart the Lover
- [14:54] — Lily King interview segment
- [17:13] — Marriage at Sea
- [18:38] — Sophie Elmhurst interview segment
- [26:36] — The Correspondent
- [28:02] — Virginia Evans interview segment
- [31:15] — The Interpreter
- [32:44] — David Shipler interview segment
Conclusion
Charlie and Kate close the episode reaffirming their goal to broaden listeners’ literary appetites and gratitude for their book-loving community. They urge everyone to include more reading—and listening to The Book Case—in their 2026 resolutions.
Charlie ([37:51]): “We wish you great reading, a great reading list for 2026. We hope we'll contribute to your reading list and may reading be on your list of New Year's resolutions.”
To learn more about the books and authors mentioned, refer to the episode description for links.