The Stacks, Ep. 404 – The Best Books of 2025 with MJ Franklin and Greta Johnsen

Podcast Date: December 24, 2025
Host: Traci Thomas
Guests: MJ Franklin (New York Times Book Review Editor), Greta Johnsen (host of the “Happy to Be Here” podcast)

Episode Overview

This annual special gathers three book experts—host Traci Thomas, returning guests MJ Franklin and Greta Johnsen—to debate and compile The Stacks’ top 10 best books of 2025. In a year the trio agrees was “weird” and lacking breakout consensus hits, their discussion is lively, incisive, self-aware, and fun as they wrestle with personal favorites, genre oddities, and the challenges of distilling hundreds of reads into a single list. Along the way, they reflect on trends in publishing, the state of memoir, the impact of reading classics, and what’s on their most anticipated radar for 2026.

Main Themes & Purpose

• Selection of the Best Books of 2025:
  Each panelist brings a secret short list of favorites, and the episode walks through their individual picks and debates for a collective top 10.
• Reflections on the Year in Books:
  2025 was, they agree, a year of “singles, not albums”—with many enjoyable reads, but little widespread agreement on greatness.
• Genre Diversity and Bookish Joy:
  The panel’s selections reflect an embrace of the unexpected, from cookbooks and memoirs to highly literary fiction and wild short stories.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. 2025: A Weird Year for Books

• No single title dominated the cultural conversation.
• Everyone’s personal bests are much more idiosyncratic this year.
• “This year as an album, there were a lot of skips. I DNF’d so many books this year.” (Traci, 07:51)
• A sense that consensus is impossible: “Nobody has agreed on a single book all year.” (Traci, 00:00)

2. How They Compiled Their Lists

• Panelists brought more candidates than usual and felt pressure (or freedom) to take risks or throw “curveballs.”
• Self-consciousness about how to balance personal favorites with “best” or “notable” in a less remarkable literary year.

3. Notable Trends & Observations

• Memoir Fatigue: Traci nearly swears off the genre (“Memoir as a genre is done”) but still finds three memoirs among her loves (08:10).
• Value of Reading Classics:
  Reading Frankenstein became an organizing motif and a frame for seeing modern fiction’s roots. “Since I read Frankenstein, I have talked about Frankenstein in every episode…” (Traci, 13:05).
• The importance of clarity and accessibility in nonfiction:
  Praises for Eve Ewing’s Original Sins as “so incredibly accessible… gives you a sense of how smart she is, that she can understand complicated things and write them for just a normal person.” (Traci, 32:46)

4. The Top 10 Books of 2025

Each panelist selects three; the 10th book is hotly debated.

Greta’s Picks:

• Good Things by Samin Nosrat (“It’s a celebration of simplicity, of goodness… in this horrific hellscape of a year, I just connected with it strongly.” – Greta, 17:27)
• Original Sins by Eve L. Ewing (“Phenomenal, essential read… deeply hopeful.” – Greta, 28:27)
• Sinkhole and Other Inexplicable Voids by Lena Crow (“Capital ‘W’ weird… vibrant and strange, reminds me of Kelly Link.” – Greta, 52:58)

MJ’s Picks:

• We Do Not Part by Hong Giong (“Cerebral, hallucinatory, so moving about care, family history, and the way that lives with us… challenging but everyone should read.” – MJ, 21:21)
• There Is No Place for Us by Brian Goldstone (“Challenging, despairing, essential for understanding the homelessness crisis—works in tandem with Original Sins.” – MJ, 34:42)
• Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambugu (“The modern Sula… about lifelong friendship, pristine writing, a debut with sharp sentences.” – MJ, 55:32)

Traci’s Picks:

• The Gods of New York by Jonathan Mailer (“Not the best written, but the most fun I had reading all year… salacious, juicy, so great.” – Traci, 23:51)
• Hunchback by Sao Ichikawa (“Short, horny, about disability and power, a wild unlikable woman… the choices are so unhinged. I love it.” – Traci, 42:11)
• One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against Us by Omar El Akkad (“The most urgent book of the year… searing essays on Israel/Palestine and the lie of the West.” – Traci, 57:58)

The Panel’s 10th Pick:

• Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li
  (“Transcendent memoir; about grief, storytelling, memory… exacting, cerebral, not a flood of emotion but about how we render stories into time immemorial.” – Traci, 69:04, MJ, 71:19)

Other Strongly Endorsed Titles:

• Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor (MJ’s shout-out, 55:13)
• Sad Tiger by Neige Sino (Traci, 72:08)
• Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs (MJ, 62:46)

5. Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “I love an unlikable woman, especially one paired with other factors—whether she’s Black, disabled, queer. I’m like: yeah, bitch, do it.” – Traci (42:11)
• “If you’re writing a memoir, pens down, babe. Pencils down. It’s over.” – Traci (08:10)
• “No, this is—people are gonna read this and think, ‘No.’ … Give it a chance. It is a great book. Capital-G Great.” – MJ on We Do Not Part, (22:45)
• “This is the book that shatters the myth that if you work hard, you’ll be fine.” – Traci on There Is No Place For Us (39:04)
• “Eve is your favorite writer’s favorite writer.” – Traci (33:13)
• “All the books are fine. My question will be in five years, will any of us remember any of the books on this list?” – Traci (86:20)

Important Timestamps

• 00:00 – Opening banter, restating no consensus this year
• 04:51–14:41 – The year in reading, DNFing, and reading classics
• 16:07 – First picks (Greta: Good Things by Samin Nosrat)
• 18:11 – MJ’s cerebral literary fiction trend
• 23:33 – Traci’s “favorite read,” Gods of New York
• 28:07 – Greta’s second pick, Original Sins by Eve L. Ewing
• 34:42 – MJ: There Is No Place for Us and the homelessness crisis
• 41:27–51:54 – Hunchback, and the curveball/vibes vs plot debate
• 52:58 – Greta: Sinkhole short stories pick
• 55:32 – MJ: Lonely Crowds and “modern Sula” comparison
• 57:58 – Traci: One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against Us as the urgent book of 2025
• 69:04–73:31 – Panel agrees on Things in Nature Merely Grow as #10 pick, memoir standards, and reflection on bad vs good memoirs
• 74:26 – Anticipating 2026: a stacked year of “big names” returning
• 77:22–81:26 – Early 2026 recommendations: Taylor Jones, Colson Whitehead, Ann Patchett, Emily St. John Mandel, Tana French, Patrick Radden Keefe, Mary H.K. Choi, and more
• 83:21 – Greta launches new podcast Happy to Be Here, for “recovering perfectionists and the perpetually curious”
• 84:39 – MJ on the annual struggle of crafting the NYT’s Best Books list

Tone and Language

• Conversational, candid, irreverent and enthusiastic.
  The episode is full of friendly jabs, inside jokes, playful accountability, and genuine affection. Panelists praise, challenge, and tease each other.
• Frequent swearing and slang: “Who fucking knows?” “Yeah, bitch, do it.”
• Engaged with both book nerdery and cultural criticism; panelists aren’t snobbish about genre or form.

Episode Takeaways

• This year’s Top 10 list is proudly eclectic, spanning cookbooks, journalistic nonfiction, high-concept literary fiction, debuts, memoirs, and short stories.
• The past year lacked an obvious “book of the year,” leaving space for individual taste and bigger swings.
• The conversation is as much about the process, personal reading evolution, genre trends, and community as it is about the final list.
• 2026 promises a return to “blockbuster” releases from big-name authors, fueling hope for a more consensus-shaping literary year.

The Stacks’ 2025 Top 10 Books

1. Good Things – Samin Nosrat
2. We Do Not Part – Hong Giong
3. Gods of New York – Jonathan Mailer
4. Original Sins – Eve L. Ewing
5. There Is No Place For Us – Brian Goldstone
6. Hunchback – Sao Ichikawa
7. Sinkhole and Other Inexplicable Voids – Lena Crow
8. Lonely Crowds – Stephanie Wambugu
9. One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against Us – Omar El Akkad
10. Things in Nature Merely Grow – Yiyun Li

For full book links and extras, visit thestackspodcast.com or the show’s social channels, as they plan to release longlists and runners-up.