Shelf Awareness Announces Its Best Books of 2025

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Audio By Carbonatix

10:00 AM on Friday, December 5

The Associated Press

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 5, 2025--

Shelf Awareness, the trusted publication of the indie bookselling community, proudly announces their Best Adult Books of 2025 from more than 1,000 titles reviewed this year. This list of 10 works of fiction and 10 works of nonfiction reflects the newsletter's pride in championing commendable writing, books with striking prose, distinctive premises, and captivating author voices. With close to one million subscribers who include booksellers, librarians, publishing industry professionals, and consumer book lovers, Shelf Awareness's mission is to support independent booksellers and help them thrive. Shelf Awareness partners with more than 400 independent bookstores to provide expert and effective marketing services on their behalf--all free to the stores.

Fiction  

Audition by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead) 

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga Press) 

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab (Tor) 

The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis (Holt) 

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller (Europa Editions) 

Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith (Bloomsbury) 

An Oral History of Atlantis by Ed Park (Random House)

Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park (Dundurn Press) 

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (And His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine (Grove) 

When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén, transl. by Alice Menzies (Vintage)

Nonfiction 