The Book Review: 100 Notable Books of 2025
Here they are!
Books
November 25, 2025

Dear readers,

Why delay good news? Here are our 100 Notable Books of 2025, chosen by the staff of the Book Review.

Next week, on Tuesday, Dec. 2, we’ll announce the year’s 10 Best Books. (Place your bets now!)

Until then, there’s plenty to love among our Notables. If you’re feeling daunted, here is a shortcut to the list, sorted into helpful categories. And in any case, be sure to check off which books you’ve read or want to read, all resulting in handy, downloadable lists. And then bug your loved ones for theirs — these make for great shopping lists!

See you next week and happy reading.

— Joumana

100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2025

RECENT BOOK REVIEWS

The sepia image portrays a couple seated on the deck of a ship; a woman is smiling, the man looks ahead benevolently.

via Christine Kuehn

nonfiction

A Secret Defined Her Life. She Had No Idea.

In the thrilling “Family of Spies,” Christine Kuehn tells the story of learning the darkest of secrets.

By Sylvia Brownrigg

This is the cover of “Best Offer Wins” by Marisa Kashino

fiction

She’ll Do Anything to Land Her Dream House. No, Really: Anything.

For the obsessed protagonist of Marisa Kashino’s darkly comic debut novel, “Best Offer Wins,” real estate is blood sport.

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The illustration features round portions of 12 book covers and one black-and-white author photo on an ice blue background.

The New York Times; author photo by Marlayna Demond

These Holiday Romance Novels Are Pure Magic, With a Dash of Spice

The best-selling author B.K. Borison recommends sweet and sexy reads that capture the cozy magic of the season.

By B.K. Borison

A 1992 color photograph of Jessica Mitford shows an older woman in a blue and gray plaid shirt, sitting on a wooden chair covered with an orange blanket.

Denis Jones/Evening Standard, via Shutterstock

Nonfiction

Reintroducing Jessica Mitford, the Activist With a ‘Concrete Upper Lip’

Carla Kaplan’s biography “Troublemaker” focuses on the fierce political commitments of the journalist best known for “The American Way of Death.”

By Alexandra Jacobs

An early-17th-century painting shows a large church with many people outside it.

Bridgeman Images

Nonfiction

Shakespeare Becoming Shakespeare, With Help From His Working-Class Peers

The title of Daniel Swift’s book “The Dream Factory,” about the creative and capitalist conditions of Elizabethan drama, tellingly evokes the commercial aspirations of old Hollywood.

By Ed Simon

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