Best Reads of 2025

Jim's top picks that every bookworm should have devoured by now. A mix of recent releases and timeless titles that hit different this year. Whether you're catching up or looking for your next obsession, this list has you covered.

Published March 7, 2026

1

Project Hail Mary

by Andy Weir

5/5

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission — and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself are finished. Problem is, he doesn't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment.

2

Lessons in Chemistry

by Bonnie Garmus

4/5

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. In 1960s America, when she's reluctantly becomes the host of a cooking show, she uses it as a platform to teach chemistry to housewives across the nation.

3

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

by Gabrielle Zevin

4/5

Sam Masur and Sadie Green meet as children in a hospital gaming room and bond over video games. Years later, they reunite and create a groundbreaking video game together, launching them into fame. But as the game world evolves, so does their complicated relationship in this sweeping novel about creativity, love, and identity.

4

Demon Copperhead

by Barbara Kingsolver

5/5

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is a modern retelling of David Copperfield. Born to a teenage single mother in a single-wide trailer, Demon navigates foster care, poverty, and the opioid crisis with fierce wit and resilience. A Pulitzer Prize winner that illuminates forgotten America.

5

The Psychology of Money

by Morgan Housel

4/5

Doing well with money isn't necessarily about what you know. It's about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money.

6

Klara and the Sun

by Kazuo Ishiguro

4/5

Klara is an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities who, from her place in the store, watches the behavior of those who come to browse and the passersby outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro crafts a haunting meditation on love, consciousness, and what it means to be human.

7

Piranesi

by Susanna Clarke

5/5

Piranesi's house is no ordinary building. Its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls lined with thousands of statues. Within it are an ocean, clouds, and tides. Piranesi lives there, cataloguing its wonders. But when messages begin to appear, he must unravel the mystery of who he is and how he came to be there.

8

The Midnight Library

by Matt Haig

4/5

Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, where she can live as many other lives as she wishes.

9

The House in the Cerulean Sea

by TJ Klune

4/5

Linus Baker is a by-the-book caseworker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. When he's sent to a mysterious orphanage on a remote island to evaluate six dangerous magical children and their enigmatic caretaker Arthur, Linus must decide whether to follow the rules or follow his heart.

10

Atomic Habits

by James Clear

5/5

A revolutionary system for getting 1 percent better every day. James Clear reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.