The Best Books of 2025 According to Our Readers

Book Summary

Joan is content with her quiet life as a physics and astronomy professor at Rice University in Houston. Then, she sees an ad that changes her life. NASA is looking for the first women scientists to join the Space Shuttle program. After being selected from a pool of thousands of worthy applicants, Joan began training in the summer of 1980.

As she trains with her new team, they become unlikely friends, and Joan finds a new passion for life. She also begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Book Summary

After a teenage heartbreak, Beth marries a kind, gentle farmer named Frank, and they build a beautiful life together. Years later, Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog that is attacking sheep on the farm, and then they learn that the dog belonged to Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager, who has just returned to town. From that moment forward, nothing will ever be the same again.

Gabriel, now a famous author, has returned to his hometown with his young son. The child reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s orbit, the past is no longer in the past. Secrets and jealousies resurface, and tensions rise throughout the village. Beth will have to decide between the life she has and the life she once wanted.

Book Summary

One spring, Theo, an 86-year-old Portuguese man with a gentle manner and a past he won’t discuss, arrives in the town of Golden, Georgia. A chance stop at a coffee shop introduces him to a display of ninety-two framed pencil portraits of local residents. Compelled by the faces on the wall, Theo begins purchasing the drawings one by one, then tracking down each subject to return their portrait.

As deliveries multiply, Theo befriends the shop’s regulars, the artist behind the sketches, and a widening circle of townspeople whose lives intersect in unexpected ways. Meanwhile, curiosity about his identity and motives spreads through Golden, and Theo’s careful routine is tested by practical obstacles, community skepticism, some eager to help, others wary, and the risk of being discovered.

Book Summary

Katarina didn’t have the family support or funding usually required to make it to the Olympics, but she knew becoming an Olympic figure skater was her destiny. When she has an instant connection with Heath, who was in the foster system, their chemistry and determination make them a formidable duo on the ice. Skating is the perfect escape from their difficult lives. The childhood sweethearts turn into crowd-favorite champions in the cut-throat world of ice dancing.

Their story takes a terrible turn after a shocking incident at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Ten years later, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Kat and Heath and promises to uncover the truth about their final skate. Kat initially wants nothing to do with the documentary, but more than that, she doesn’t want anyone else to tell her story. It’s finally time to share everything, and the truth may be even more shocking than her fans anticipate.

Book Summary

Cora has a nine-year-old daughter and a brand new baby son. Her husband is a respected doctor in the community, but to Cora, he is a terrifying and controlling presence. After a huge storm, Cora sets out to register her son’s birth. Her husband expects the infant to be named after him, but when the registrar asks Cora for the name, she hesitates.

Can a name change the course of your life? This novel spans 35 years, following three alternate versions of Cora’s life for her young son, each shaped by her choice of name.

Book Summary

Margaret, Viv, and Bitsy appear to have it all by the standards of the early 1960s, but “all” doesn’t feel like enough to them. They live in a brand-new “planned community” in Northern Virginia and feel guilty and confused that they aren’t satisfied with their supposedly idyllic housewife lives.

Things begin to change when the three women form a book club with their artsy new neighbor from Manhattan, Charlotte. Together they read Betty Friedan’s controversial new book, The Feminine Mystique. For the first time, each of these women realizes that they are not alone in their dissatisfaction or their longings.

Their lives are forever altered. The book may be the start of it all, but it’s their bond of sisterhood that helps them find the courage they each need to navigate the rapidly changing world and see themselves in a new light.

Book Summary

Dominic Salt is the caretaker of Shearwater, a tiny island near Antarctica which is home ot the world’s largest seed bank. The island was once full of researchers, but as a result of rising sea levels, Salt and his three children are now the last inhabitants of the island, working to pack up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground.

Although they are surrounded by natural beauty, the island’s isolation has taken its toll on each of the Salt children: 18-year-old Raff, who is suffering his first heartbreak; 17-year-old Fen, who spends her nights on the beach among the seals; and 9-year-old Orly, who is obsessed with botany. As they prepare for their future, Dominic can’t help looking toward the past, and the loss that drove his family to Shearwater in the first place.

During one of the worst storms the island has ever seen, a woman washes ashore. As the family nurses Rowan back to life, their feelings toward her shift from suspicion to affection. The feeling is mutual as Rowan begins to fall for the Salts, but she’s not telling them the whole truth about how she wound up on Shearwater. When she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic has dark secrets of his own.

As storms gather force over the island, will they be able to trust one another enough to work together protect the precious seeds before it’s too late?

Book Summary

Corby loves his wife Emily dearly, but new fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction all put a strain on their relationship. And that’s before he causes a tragedy that tears his family apart. Corby is sentenced to prison, and life on the inside is brutal. But he also witnesses small acts of kindness and finds kinship with a prison librarian who sees the best in him and in some of his fellow inmates, including his big-hearted cellmate and a troubled teen in need of a role model.

Are mercy and reconciliation possible, and can his crimes ever be forgiven by those he loves?

Book Summary

Ryan and Lillian Bright were deeply in love when they married and became parents to baby Georgette. But they were also keeping secrets from one another. As the years pass, Georgette comes of age, watching the highs and lows of her parents’ marriage and becoming best friends with the boy next door.

Later, after a shocking blow tears the family apart, teenager Georgette tries to distance herself from reminders of her parents. But an unexpected email changes what she thought she knew about her mom’s past. Ultimately, she’ll have to decide what she wants to do with this information and how she should move forward in her life.

As you follow the Bright family history from the 1970s to 2019, there are a few flashbacks in the early chapters, but the majority of the book is a linear timeline. The years are clearly denoted for each chapter. Instead of one character narrating the whole book or alternating narrators, you’ll find that the first half of the book is told from Lillian’s perspective before her daughter takes over for the next 40%. One final narrator then tells the last 10% of the story.

Book Summary

Bo is 89 and still living at home with his beloved elkhound, Sixten, to keep him company. He also receives daily visits from a care team, but otherwise, it’s a quiet and lonely life. His wife is still alive, but is in a care home with Alzheimer’s. He has a son, Hans, but their relationship is rocky.

When Hans decides that Bo can no longer care for Sixten and that his beloved pup must be rehomed, Bo vehemently disagrees. The threat of losing Sixten makes Bo take stock of his own life and relationships, especially with his own father, who was not a loving man.

Book Summary

This is the story of two marriages and one stolen kiss that changes everything for all four individuals.

Growing up with a physical disability was challenging at times for Cal Jenkins, but it affected him most when it prevented him from serving in WWII. Cal’s wife, Becky, has a spiritual gift that allows her to help family members connect with those they’ve lost. Margaret Salt struggled her whole life with questions about why her birth mother abandoned her. Felix, her husband, is serving on a Navy ship in the Pacific Theater when Margaret receives a concerning telegram.

We follow the lives of Cal, Becky, Margaret, and Felix through the post-war years and beyond. Set against the backdrop of some of the most transformative decades in modern America, the consequences of a long-ago moment of passion creates ripple effects through the next generation of both families.

Book Summary

Alfie Logan is eight when he discovers a strange gift: if he touches his body and says “twice,” he can rewind a moment and live it again. The catch is unforgiving, though, because his second attempt becomes permanent. Every do-over reshapes what comes next.

Decades later, Alfie is old, sick, and sitting in a Bahamas police station after a casino accuses him of cheating on roulette. To prove he isn’t a con man, he tells the detective how the power followed him from boyhood into adulthood: the shortcuts he took, the risks that backfired, and the lessons he learned when “fixing” a choice only created new problems.

Book Summary

This poignant novel takes you into the life of Denny Voss, a thirty-year-old man who lives with his Nana-Jo and his best friend, George, a blind Saint Bernard. He has a job with his cousin, who lives next door, picking up roadkill for the city. Denny just barely misses the cut-off of being officially “developmentally challenged,” but struggles to clearly communicate and recount stories succinctly. And that difficulty has led to some problems for him, including his recent arrest for the murder of a mayoral candidate in his small Minnesota town.

As Denny awaits his trial, he works with a court-appointed therapist. It takes many sessions (and most of the book) for the therapist to get the full story of Denny’s three arrests over the past year without Denny shutting down. Along the way, you’ll also be trying to figure out if Denny was involved in the murder. Plus, you’ll laugh as certain things are revealed, you’ll be angered by the way he is treated, and your heart will melt with some of his stories.

Book Summary

Frederick was born 82 years ago, and ever since, he has approached life with a huge heart full of kindness. But now, he’s desperately lonely, broke, and on the brink of homelessness. Then, he’s mistaken for grumpy Bernard from a local nursing home. As long as the real Bernard doesn’t show up, Fred has warm meals in his belly and a roof over his head.

Denise is a middle-aged mom who works at the care facility while struggling with a crumbling marriage and other challenges that have zapped her joy. She vowed never to let a man deceive her again, making her suspicious of Fred since Bernard would never be as kind as he had been.

Book Summary

Frances “Frankie” McGrath is a 21-year-old nursing student who has been raised by her conservative parents to always do “the right thing.” But when her brother ships out for Vietnam in 1965, she begins to change her views of right and wrong. Frankie impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows her brother to Vietnam. As she tends to the green and inexperienced young men who have been sent to fight the war, she is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction. Returning home to a changed America doesn’t prove to be any easier.

While The Women is the story of Frankie going to war, it also shines a light on the story of all women who risk everything to help others. The publisher describes this book as “a novel of searing insight and lyrical beauty” that is “profoundly emotional” and “richly drawn.”

Book Summary

In Abbot Falls, Maine, three unlikely people are about to have their lives changed forever after connecting at a bookstore. Violet is only twenty-two but was just released from prison after nearly two years for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher. Harriet is a retired English teacher who runs a book club at the prison. Frank is the handyman at a bookstore, and he had a complicated marriage to the woman Violet killed.

When Violet, Harriet, and Frank run into each other at the bookstore, they begin to learn about seizing second chances and the power of books to change lives.

Book Summary

In 1950s Tehran, Ellie lives a privileged life. However, her whole world changes when her father unexpectedly passes away, and she and her mother must move to a tiny home downtown.

On her first day at her new school, Ellie meets Homa, a kind, brave, and passionate girl who becomes her best friend. They spend all their time together learning to cook, playing games, and wandering the Grand Bazaar.

But then Ellie’s life flips again when she’s given a chance to return to her privileged life and attend the best girls’ high school in Iran. Over time, her thoughts of Homa fade, and she embraces her bourgeois life. When Homa suddenly reappears, the course of both of their lives is changed forever. The rising political turmoil in the country complicates things even further.

Book Summary

Beverly is on the local school board and her archrival Lula has turned into a local celebrity as she’s been on a mission to rid the public libraries of all “inappropriate” books—none of which she’s actually read.

To counteract the “pornographic” books housed in the local library, Lula starts a little library in her front yard, full of “worthy literature.”

At night, Beverly’s adult daughter, Lindsay, sneaks over to Lula’s little library and replaces the books but swaps the dust covers. Suddenly, Our Confederate Heroes actually contains Beloved and The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette turns into The Girl’s Guide to the Revolution.

As Beverly and Lula’s rivalry intensifies and they run against each other to replace the mayor, the townspeople who have been changed by borrowing books from Lula’s library begin to reveal themselves. Everyone from the postman to the prom queen has something to say, ultimately forcing Lindsay to confess.

Book Summary

All the Colors of the Dark blends literary fiction, mystery, and romance as it follows the characters from their teen years in 1975 into adulthood.

In Mont Clare, girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family, Misty, is targeted, an unlikely hero emerges in Patch, a local boy with one eye. He saves her, but the rescue leaves heartache in its wake.

Once close-knit, Mont Clare is changed forever. The trauma experienced by Patch, his friend Saint, and Misty shadows them for decades, driving choices you may not agree with and setting up twist after twist. The result is a sweeping, suspenseful story about love, loss, and the long reach of a single night.

Book Summary

For years, Phoebe has dreamed of visiting the iconic Cornwall Inn in Newport, Rhode Island. She had looked forward to shucking oysters and sailing into the sunset with her husband. But instead, she arrives alone and plans to stay in the inn’s most expensive room for one night.

As it turns out, Phoebe is the only guest at the inn who is not a part of a big wedding party. The bride, Lila, thought she had accounted for every possibility in her effort to host the perfect wedding, but she couldn’t have predicted Phoebe’s arrival.

Phoebe and Lila are complete opposites, but sometimes chance meetings turn into the most unexpected friendships.

Book Summary

Briarwood House is an all-female boardinghouse in Washington, D.C., where secrets hide behind white picket fences. It’s 1950 when the mysterious widow Grace moves into the attic room. She throws dinner parties for her new friends, including a beautiful English wife and mother, a police officer’s daughter who is involved with a gangster, a baseball star frustrated by the end of the women’s league after WWII, and a woman who threw herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare. 

While Grace’s dinner parties are healing to the women, she also has her own secrets…and there may be an enemy within the group.