The best books of 2025

This list is part of the best books of 2025.

Join 1,210 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2025

Book cover of The Covenant of Water

Rick Skwiot 👍 liked this book because...

Despite its length (some 750 pages) and its ambling pace (not nearly as well-structured as Verghese's previous novel, Cutting for Stone), I was engaged by the convincing portrayal of 20th century rural India and its customs and class structure.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Immersion 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐌 It was slow at times

By Abraham Verghese ,

Why should I read it?

55 authors picked The Covenant of Water as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SUBJECT OF A SIX-PART SUPER SOUL PODCAST SERIES HOSTED BY OPRAH WINFREY

From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret

“One of the best books I’ve read in my entire life. It’s epic. It’s transportive . . . It was unputdownable!”—Oprah Winfrey, OprahDaily.com

The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2025

Book cover of A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II

Rick Skwiot ❤️ loved this book because...

A gritty inside look at World War II espionage and the would-be American debutante who became key in organizing the French Resistance.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Story/Plot 🥈 Immersion
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Sonia Purnell ,

Why should I read it?

17 authors picked A Woman of No Importance as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Chosen as a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by NPR, the New York Public Library, Amazon, the Seattle Times, the Washington Independent Review of Books, PopSugar, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, BookBrowse, the Spectator, and the Times of London

Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best Biography

"Excellent...This book is as riveting as any thriller, and as hard to put down." -- The New York Times Book Review

"A compelling biography of a masterful spy, and a reminder of what can be done with a few brave people -- and a little resistance." - NPR

"A…


My 3rd favorite read in 2025

Book cover of The Alice Network

Rick Skwiot ❤️ loved this book because...

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Story/Plot 🥈 Immersion
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By Kate Quinn ,

Why should I read it?

10 authors picked The Alice Network as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In an enthralling new historical novel from national bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women-a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947-are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption. 1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

The Bootlegger's Bride

By Rick Skwiot ,

Book cover of The Bootlegger's Bride

What is my book about?

The Bootlegger's Bride dramatizes the birth, demise, and rebirth of a family, from Prohibition through the Great Depression, World War II, and beyond. It depicts a first-generation American’s ruthless rise as a teenage bootlegger, a romantic love story, how war ultimately tears this family apart, and an orphan’s coming-of-age quest. A desperate suicide and two murders figure importantly, the first fueled by greed, the second by revenge.

My book recommendation list

Book cover of The Covenant of Water
Book cover of A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Book cover of The Alice Network

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