As 2025 comes to a close, all of us here at the library like to look back at the books we’ve read in the past year. Good and bad, short and long, fiction and nonfiction, it’s always interesting to assess our reading journeys in the rear-view mirror. We asked staff to choose the books that made the most impact or loved the most. View the whole list on our catalog – or check out each staff member’s recommendations to inspire your new year reading goals.
Tart: Misadventures of an Anonymous Chef by Slutty Cheff. An anonymous and unabashed chronicling of the realities of working in the high stakes, fast-paced London restaurant world. It brims with heartfelt honesty and humor about being a woman in the industry and shares the emotional highs and lows of the author’s journey towards being a successful (and happy) chef.
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. A fast-paced and fictional queer love story about some of the first women astronauts accepted to the Space Shuttle program in the 1980s. This book dives into some of the challenges women face both personally and professionally, and explores the intersection between love, gender, ambition, and the narrow definition of professionalism that existed in a male-dominated career.
Raiders of the Lost Heart by Joe Segura. A fun and flirty Indiana Jones-esque romance featuring a strong female lead in male-dominated industry. It takes you on archaeological adventures to wild Mexican jungles in search of ancient Aztec remains, with the romance-required happy ending.
Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang. A fast-paced psychological thriller set in the toxic world of social media influencers. The story seemed predictable at first, but the ending brought more of a twist than I expected.
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One by Kristen Arnett. Queerness, clowning, and Florida. Enough said.
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor. This book was amazing and also honestly, a bit indescribable. There is a book within a book and the protagonist is a Nigerian-American female author who is wheelchair-bound and writes a bestselling novel about robots in the future. The story blends elements of science fiction with literary fiction in a way that feels natural and unforced.
Allison, Circulation Staff
Private Rites by Julia Armfield. Bleak, wet, lesbians.
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. I have a phobia of anything happening under the sea; this was haunting and beautifully devastating.
The Mean Ones by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne. Atmospheric, creepy, maniacal, irresistibly tense.
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker. Gory, scary, well-executed social commentary surrounding Asian Americans during the onset of the pandemic.
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder. My top read this year. I loooove beastly women. We NEED to scrounge around more. Turning Nightbitch into a dog made her more human. I loved this book for its reflections on the inherent horrors and wonders experienced by birth-givers and its (bewilderingly correct) insistence that not enough consideration is given to the nature of creating new humans and subsequently caring for them.
Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg. This had a gripping and confounding point of view.
Trust Kids! Stories on Youth Autonomy and Confronting Adult Supremacy edited by carla joy bergman. There were a couple truly profound essays in this collection that presented ideas I’d never come across before. “The Children of Children” by Stacey Patton was particularly astute.
My favorite fiction books were some of the more popular ones this year! Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy, My Friends by Frederik Backman, and Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall.
My favorite nonfiction reads were Ocean: Earth’s Last Wilderness by David Attenborough and Colin Butfield and Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie by Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty. They were so well researched while still being easy to read, digest, and learn from. Some of the content was heavy of course (climate change, very fun topic), but there were plenty of stories of hope mixed in that made for a good balance. I also really enjoyed one called All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley, where he writes about his experience working as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Such a fascinating perspective on life and art, and a really interesting job!
Stacy, Circulation Staff
Hands down, I have to go with The Husbands by Holly Gramazio. I was hooked from the first page to the last. I found myself laughing out loud so many times my family thought I was losing my mind! I never wanted this book to end. I would recommend it to absolutely anyone who just wants to sit back and laugh and not have to think too much or too deeply.
Kloie, Circulation Staff
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. It was a very chilling book with great complex characters. It had me on the edge of my seat until I discovered the upsetting twist.
We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin
Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley
Rental House by Weike Wang
True Biz by Sarah Nović
I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Angelica and the Bear Prince by Trung Le Nguyen
Olivia, Youth Services Staff
Funny Story by Emily Henry. This is a romantic comedy about a children’s librarian who ends up living with the ex-boyfriend of her ex-fiancé’s new girlfriend. It actually was what inspired me to look into being a children’s librarian!
Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner
The Favorites by Layne Fargo (a must-read for fans of winter olympics ice skating!)
Tartufo by Kira Jane Buxton
First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison
I See You’ve Called in Dead by John Kenney
Too Old for This by Samantha Downing
The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective by Jo Nichols
The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage
Heartwood by Amity Gaige
A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst
Abbey, Cataloger
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab. I enjoyed the magical plot and numerous historical settings of the novel. Plus, the main character’s inability to form meaningful human connections made me even more appreciative of my own loved ones.
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. This page-turner kept me guessing, and I loved the setting of the summer camp in the Adirondacks.
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. Thanks to her rich descriptions, I always feel immersed in Kristin Hannah’s novel settings, and this depiction of 1970s Alaska does not disappoint.
Amy, Adult Services Manager, Librarian
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. I knew this book was going to tear my heart out and that Haymitch’s story would be tragic. I had no idea just how bad it was going to be. It was heartbreaking, yet tied together so many things that happened in the Hunger games trilogy beautifully. If you read it, make sure you have a box of Kleenex handy.
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. This was a delightfully violent bit of escapism with more than a touch of dark humor. Competent people put in an extremely dangerous environment and (mostly) overcoming the challenges is my jam. A great start to a fun ongoing series.
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. This was a hopeful, cozy science-fiction novella about found family and delicious food. The near-future setting in San Francisco recovering from a Civil War is intriguing, but it’s the way the characters support each other that really brings the charm. It’s an absolute mood booster.
Sugar Shack by Lucy Knisley. The third graphic novel in Knisley’s Peapod Farm trilogy is a satisfying conclusion to this middle grade series drawn in part from Knisley’s own childhood. Seeing these characters grow and learn to navigate their blended family, their new life on a rural farm, and the challenges of getting older will appeal to readers young and old.
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett. You won’t be able to read this one until February 2026, but as a librarian sometimes we get to read books before they are published and I can’t wait until more readers can enjoy this historical fantasy novel about a woman whose dreams of saving the stray cats of Montreal is continually derailed by the antics of wizards.
Michael, Adult Services Librarian
Two books I enjoyed this year focus on LGBTQ+ life during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the 2017 historical novel The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and the 2025 nonfiction book Sick and Dirty: Hollywood’s Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness by Michael Koresky. During this period of harsh censorship and oppression, marginalized people still found ways to make great art, and their stories help us better understand our history and current times.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Prophecy by Eleri Drake
Never the Roses by Jennifer K. Lambert
Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry
The Irresistible Urge to Fall for your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley
The Games Gods Play by Abigail Owen
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis
Quicksilver by Callie Hart
The Highlander’s Unexpected Proposal by Heather McCollum
Duke Gone Rogue by Christy Carlyle
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker
Penance by Eliza Clark
Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife by Hetta Howes
What Hunger by Catherine Dang
Sky Daddy by Kate Folk
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Happy reading in 2026! We hope these favorites spark your next great adventure in books. Don’t forget that you can view the whole list here.