NYPL releases its best books of 2025 lists

Every year, the New York Public Library undertakes a massive, lovingly intense project: reading thousands of titles across every genre imaginable to determine which books truly defined the year. The result is the NYPL Best Books of 2025—a curated collection across Adults, Teens, and Kids categories that reflects the breadth, ambition, and imagination of today’s publishing landscape.

This year’s lists feel especially vibrant. They span continents and communities, move between the personal and the political, and showcase voices rewriting what storytelling can look like—across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, fantasy, romance, and works that defy categorization entirely. And as always, NYPL’s picks carry the quiet promise that there is a book waiting for everyone.

Below are the full lists by category.

Best Books for Adults 2025

• The Afterlife of Malcolm — Mark Whitaker

• The Appalachian Sea — Steve Scafidi

• The Art Spy — Michelle Young

• Audition — Katie Kitamura

• The Beast in the Clouds — Nathalia Holt

• Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance — Ben Passmore

• Blood on Her Tongue — Johanna van Veen

• The Book of Records — Madeleine Thien

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter — Stephen Graham Jones

• The Burial Tide — Neil Sharpson

• Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance — Joe Dunthorne

• The City Changes Its Face — Eimear McBride

• The Confessional — Paige Hender

• The Country Under Heaven — Frederic S. Durbin

• Dead Girl Cameo: A Love Song in Poems — M. Mick Powell

• Death of the Author — Nnedi Okorafor

• The Devils — Joe Abercrombie

• The Director — Daniel Kehlmann

• Drome — Jesse Lonergan

• Dwelling — Emily Hunt Kivel

• The End Is the Beginning: A Personal History of My Mother — Jill Bialosky

• Fair Play — Louise Hegarty

• A Flower Traveled in My Blood — Haley Cohen Gilliland

• The Forgotten Sense — Jonas Olofsson

• Fresh, Green Life — Sebastian Castillo

• Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love — Samin Nosrat

• Groceries — Nora Claire Miller

• Heartwood — Amity Gaige

• I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness — Irene Solà, translated from Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem

• I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always — Douglas Kearney

• Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children — Noliwe Rooks

• The Jailhouse Lawyer — Calvin Duncan and Sophie Cull

• The Jamaica Kollection of the Shante Dream Arkive — Marcia Douglas

• King of Ashes — S. A. Cosby

• The Last Guy on Earth — Sarina Bowen

• The Living and the Rest — José Eduardo Agualusa

• No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson — Gardiner Harris

• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This — Omar El Akkad

• Perfection — Vincenzo Latronico

• Precious Rubbish — Kayla E.

• Promise Me Sunshine — Cara Bastone

• Stone Yard Devotional — Charlotte Wood

• Terrestrial History — Joe Mungo Reed

• A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke — Adriana Herrera

• The Trouble with Anna — Rachel Griffiths

• The True Happiness Company — Veena Dinavahi

• Turning to Birds: The Power and Beauty of Noticing — Lili Taylor

• Valley of Forgetting — Jennie Erin Smith

• Vantage Point — Sara Sligar

• The Wilderness — Angela Flournoy

Best Books for Teens 2025

• After We Burned — Marieke Nijkamp

• American Spirits — Barb Rosenstock

• Angelica and the Bear Prince — Trung Le Nguyen

• Ban This! — Christina Ellis, Renee Ellis, Edha Gupta, Ben Hodge, Patricia A. Jackson, and Olivia Pituch

• Breath of the Dragon — Shannon Lee & Fonda Lee

• Brewed with Love — Shelly Page

• Deadstream — Mar Romasco-Moore

• Death in the Jungle — Candace Fleming

• Devils Like Us — L. T. Thompson

• Exceptional X-Men Vol. 1 — Eve L. Ewing

• Fight AIDS! — Michael G. Long

• First Love Language — Stefany Valentine

• Flip — Ngozi Ukazu

• Get Real, Chloe Torres — Crystal Maldonado

• Hello Sunshine — Keezy Young

• Honeysuckle and Bone — Trisha Tobias

• The House No One Sees — Adina King

• How to Survive a Slasher — Justine Pucella Winans

• How We Play the Game — Alexis Nedd

• I Wanna Be Your Girl Vol. 1 — Umi Takase

• If We Were a Movie — Zakiya N. Jamal

• The Invisible Wild — Nikki Van De Car

• I'll Pretend You're Mine — Tashie Bhuiyan

• Knucklehead — Tony Keith Jr.

• Legendary Frybread Drive-In — edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith

• Loudmouth — Deborah Heiligman

• Needy Little Things — Channelle Desamours

• On the Wings of La Noche — Vanessa L. Torres

• One of the Boys — Victoria Zeller

• Our Infinite Fates — Laura Steven

• Ours to Tell — Eldon Yellowhorn & Kathy Lowinger

• Rebis: Born and Reborn — Irene Marchesini

• The Red Car to Hollywood — Jennie Liu

• Say a Little Prayer — Jenna Voris

• The Scammer — Tiffany D. Jackson

• The Secret Astronomers — Jessica Walker

• Silenced Voices — Pablo Leon

• Somadina — Akwaeke Emezi

• Spacewalking with You Vol. 1 — Inuhiko Doronoda

• The Swans of Harlem — Karen Valby

• Tall Water — S. J. Sindu

• That Devil, Ambition — Linsey Miller

• They Bloom at Night — Trang Thanh Tran

• This Moth Saw Brightness — A. A. Vacharat

• Tiger Slayer — Ruby Lal

• Truth Is — Hannah V. Sawyerr

• The Unexpected Consequence of Bleeding on a Tuesday — Kelsey B. Toney

• When Devils Sing — Xan Kaur

• White Lies — Ann Bausum

• You and Me on Repeat — Mary Shyne

Best Books for Kids 2025

• Ablaze: The Story of America's First Female Smokejumper — Jessica Lawson

• Akeem Keeps Bees! — Kamal Eugene William Bell

• Algunos y los otros — Dipacho

• All the Blues in the Sky — Renée Watson

• Amina Banana and the Formula for Friendship — Shifa Saltagi Safadi

• And There Was Music — Marta Pantaleo

• Angélica y la güira — Angie Cruz

• Another Word for Neighbor — Angela Pham Krans

• Are You a Friend of Dorothy? — Kyle Lukoff

• Beansprout — Sarah Lynne Reul

• Before I Lived Here — Stacy S. Jensen

• Benny on the Case — Wesley King

• Bienvenida a casa, Esmerelda — Daniela Ramirez

• Billions to Burn — Taylor Banks

• The Black Mambas: The World's First All-Woman Anti-Poaching Unit — Kelly Crull

• Brianna Banana, Helper of the Day — Lana Button

• Broken — X. Fang

• Buscando a Ahmed — Jesús Ballaz

• Cabin Head and Tree Head — Scott Campbell

• Carousel Summer — Kathleen Gros

• Cat Nap — Brian Lies

• Cosas pequeñas y extraordinarios — Daniela Arroio & Micaela Gramajo

• Creaky Acres — Calista Brill & Nilah Magruder

• Dad Rock Dragon Quest — Joan Reardon

• Dancing with Water — Gwendolyn Wallace

• Deeply Dave — Michael Grover

• El libro de magia de una joven bruja — Soledad Romero

• El mejor mal día de mi vida — Marianna Coppo

• El Niño — Pam Muñoz Ryan

• Every Monday Mabel — Jashar Awan

• Everybelly — Thao Lam

• Faith Takes the Train — Kesi Augustine

• Filo's Butterflies — Litea Fuata

• Firefly Song — Colleen Paeff

• Fireworks — Matthew Burgess

• The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice — Amy Alznauer

• For a Girl Becoming — Joy Harjo

• Free Piano (Not Haunted) — Whitney Gardner

• Freedom Celebration: A Juneteenth Party — Angela Dalton

• The Freedom Seeker — Ruchira Gupta

• The Grimmelings — Rachael King

• Halfway to Somewhere — Jose Pimienta

• Hermanas, llueva o truene — Nelly Buchet

• Higher Ground — Tull Suwannakit

• Hilwa's Gifts — Safa Suleiman

• How Sweet the Sound — Kwame Alexander

• How the Word Is Passed (Adapted for Young Readers) — Clint Smith & Sonja Cherry-Paul

• I Dance — Diana Rañola

• I Want You to Know — Mona Damluji

• The Ink Witch — Steph Cherrywell

• Instante — Roger Ycaza

• The Interpreter — Olivia Abtahi

• Junius Leak and the Spiraling Vortex of Doom — Allan Wolf

• Kahoʻolawe: The True Story of an Island and Her People — Kamalani Hurley

• Kickturn — Brie Spangler

• La charla — Alicia D. Williams

• Las plumas: no son sólo para volar — Melissa Stewart

• The Last Ember (The Aerimander Chronicles, Book 1) — Lily Berlin Dodd

• The Last Resort — Erin Entrada Kelly

• Lazos salvajes — Laura Camón

• Los pantalones de Luisa — Susanna Isern

• Los viernes comemos churros — Jenny Alvarado

• Make a Pretty Sound: A Story of Ella Jenkins — Traci N. Todd

• Mariam's Dream — Leila Boukarim

• Martín Parlanchín — Carmen Mateo

• Masks — Margaret Rae & Brian Nathanson

• Mi abuela es una bruja — Mayra Cuevas

• The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls — Judith Rossell

• Millie of the Manor — Karina Evans

• Miss Betti, What Is This? — Lela Nargi

• My Name Is Jem — Olivia Muscat

• Nearly Exactly Almost Like Me — Jennifer Bradbury

• Never Silent — Setsuko Thurlow & Kathy Lowinger

• Nightmare Hunter (Maxwell Dark, Book 1) — Brady Smith

• Nightsong — Sally Soweol Han

• The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli — Karina Yan Glaser

• No más señora Mimí — Meg Medina

• Nunu and the Sea — Isabella Kung

• Ochún y yo — Adiba Nelson

• Of the Sun — Xelena González

• Old Blue Is My Home — Lita Judge

• Ollie in Between — Jess Callans

• On Guard! — Cassidy Wasserman

• Para que tú llegaras — Claudio Aguilera

• Pine Cone Regrown — Elisa Boxer

• A Place for Us — James Ransome

• Please Pay Attention — Jamie Sumner

• The Queen Bees of Tybee County — Kyle Casey Chu

• Ratnip: Lost and Found in the City — Cam Higgins

• Return to Sender — Vera Brosgol

• Safe Crossing — Kari Percival

• Say Something, Poupeh Babaee! — Haleh Massey

• Scarlet Morning — ND Stevenson

• Schoolbot 9000 — Sam Hepburn

• A Sea of Lemon Trees — María Dolores Águila

• The Secret of Honeycake — Kimberly Newton Fusco

• Seven Skies All at Once — Ted Kooser

• Shark Girl — Kate Beaton

• A Skeleton in the Closet — Claire Hatcher-Smith

• Sleep Here, Wake There — Caio Zero

• Smoke & Mirrors — Rosalyn Ransaw

• Speak Up, Santiago! — Julio Anta

• Squid in Pants — Kaz Windness

• The Summer of the Bone Horses — Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve

• Sword of the Champion (Dragonforged, Book 1) — Eric Lide

• Tres tigres tiquismiquis — Edu Flores

• The Truth About the Tooth Fairy — Leah Cypess

• Turtles Heading Home! — Liza Ketchum, Phyllis Root, and others

• Tíos y primos — Jacqueline Alcántara

• Un cuento a medias — Luciana De Luca

• Unboxing Libby — Steph Cherrywell

• The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest — Aubrey Hartman

• The Unlikely Aventuras of Ramón and El Cucuy — Donna Barba Higuera

• Valiant Vel — Jerrianne Hayslett

• We Dig Fossils — Alliah L. Agostini

• We Go Slow — Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie

• We Leap Together — Christopher Silas Neal

• Whale Eyes — James Robinson

• What if We… — Vivienne Chang

• The World Entire — Elizabeth Brown

• Worm Makes a Sandwich — Brianne Farley

• Xolo — Donna Barba Higuera

• ¡Es mío! — Klara Persson

• ¡Viva el aguacate! — Taltal Levi

• ¡¿Ropa vieja para la cena?! — Nathalie Alonso