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Spotlight Books for Winter

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Favorite Books for 2025

As 2025 draws to a close, we looked back at the books we’d read to find our favorites. Below is a list of some of the books we loved this year. We hope you’ll use this list to find your next read or to be reminded of books you enjoyed in 2025.

What did we leave off the list? Stop by the Circulation Desk, and let us know about your favorite books from 2025!

Happy reading!
Carrie, Carol, Susan, Leslie, and Alice

Fiction:
Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid. In the 1980’s the first women entered NASA as astronauts. Joan Goodwin has dreamed of going to space, but will the challenges of the space program and the secrets of her personal life foil that dream?
The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff. For generations, the Bright family has kept secrets. Told from three different points of view, their story and their secrets unfold.
Buckeye by Patrick Ryan. This novel begins with a V.E day kiss between two strangers in a small, mid-western town and then follows their interconnected lives for the next five decades.
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. This epistolary novel tells the story of Sybil’s life in letters to and from her friends, family, and even some famous writers.
The Eights by Joanna Miller. In 1920, women were allowed to attend Oxford University for the first time. The Eights (named for their residence hall) are a group of four women who find a bond in being among the first women in a very male institution.
The Elements John Boyne. These novellas, titled Water, Earth. Air and Fire, link intertwined characters and crimes.
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong. Set against a backdrop of trauma, Hai, a teenage addict, Granzina, an elderly Lithuanian immigrant, and Hai’s quirky co-workers from Home Market form an unusual bond.
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar. In a near-future, heat-ravaged Kolkata, Ma, her daughter and father are waiting to join her husband in the United States. The ensuing events make the reader question which character is the guardian and which is the thief.
Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili. Two brothers return to war-torn Tbilisi in search of their father. They follow a series of clues, including clues from fairy tales told as bedtime stories when they were young, to find their answers.
The Heart of Winter by Jonathan Evison. Abe and Ruth have been married for seventy years. This is the story of their marriage and the challenges they face.
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai. A family epic and love story tells the story of Sunny and Sonia as they navigate life in India and The United States, touching on issues of family, race, and a sense of place.
The Names by Florence Knapp. Would your life be different if you had a different name? This book follows the life of a child in alternating chapters as he lives with each of the names his mother, father, and sister chose for him.

Fiction, continued:
The Pretender by Jo Harkin. Historical fiction set in the Tudor period telling the story of Lambert Simnel or Edward, Earl of Warwick.
The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb. Corby Ledbetter is in prison after a tragic accident. In this powerful story, Corby learns about himself, his fellow prisoners and his family.
Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld. Short stories by the author of Romantic Comedy and Rodham. Sittenfeld’s characters are smart, funny, and so very real. (Readers of Sittenfeld’s first novel, Prep, will recognize the main character in the last story.)
Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy. This book captures the all-consuming side of motherhood in powerful prose.
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan. Set in the near future and told in two parts, the story centers around the lost copy of a poem recited by a famous poet at a birthday party for his wife.
When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi. When the moon turns to cheese, what will happen on earth?
Wild Dark Shores by Charlotte McConaghy. A drama unfolds on a remote island near Antarctica where a seed vault protects valuable plant species during a time of extreme climate change.

Nonfiction:
Book & Dagger by Elyse Graham. The history of the OSS, founded at the start of WWII.
Cello: A journey through silence by Kate Kennedy. The story of four cellists, each one facing persecution and danger.
Henry V by Dan Jones. For fans of Tudor England, a biography of Henry V.
The Innermost House by Cynthia Blakely. A Cape Cod memoir.
Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks. The author tells the story of her late husband’s death alongside the story of their relationship.
Paper Girl by Beth Macy. A memoir of family and place and the changes the author discovered when she moved back to the mid-western town where she had grown up.

Kids:
If You Make a Call on a Banana Phone by Gideon Sterer (Picture) What happens when a child makes a call to a gorilla using a banana phone?
Lost Evangeline by Kate DiCamillo (J Fiction ) A fairy tale-like story about a tiny girl.