Our go-to book expert, Traci Thomas of The Stacks podcast, talks with host Scott Tong about a few of her top picks for the best books of 2025.
Traci Thomas’s best books of the year
Fiction
- “Hunchback” by Saou Ichikawa translated by Polly Barton
- “Dominion” by Addie E. Citchens
- “Middle Spoon” by Alejandro Varela
- “The Grand Paloma Resort” by Cleyvis Natera
- “Sunrise on the Reaping” by Suzanne Collins (YA)
- “This Thing of Ours” by Frederick Joseph (YA)
- “Stag Dance” by Torrey Peters
Nonfiction
- “One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” by Omar El Akkad
- “The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990” by Jonathan Mahler
- “Things in Nature Merely Grow“ by Yiyun Li
- “Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People” by Imani Perry
- “Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism” by Eve L. Ewing
- “There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America” by Brian Goldstone
- “A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children” by Hayley Cohen Gilliland
- “Sad Tiger” by Neige Sinno translated by Natasha Lehrer
- “The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders” by Sarah Aziza
Poems and essays
- “The People’s Project: Poems, Essays, and Art for Looking Forward” edited by Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith
- “Scorched Earth” by Tiana Clark
Cookbooks
- “Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love” by Samin Nosrat
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
Copyright 2025 WBUR