(As shared on #LibFaves25) This was a top read for the year. Fantasy with so many twists - I loved it. I'm not even mad that it looks like a long wait for the sequel as this will be a fun one to reread (did the author signal some of those twists and I just missed the clues or... 🤔) 📚
Covers of 57 books read this year.
Total of 57 books read in 2025, 18 fiction and 39 non-fiction (11 fewer than last year!).
My top non-fiction recommendations are:
▶ When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World by Jordan Thomas
...
#LibFaves25
Some of my favorite adult fiction books that I read in 2025: Greenteeth, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Long Live Evil, Lone Women, Shady Hollow, True Biz and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.
And, lastly, some of my favorite adult fiction that I read in 2025. #LibFaves25
Some of my favorite adult graphics that I read in 2025: Once Upon a Time at the End of the World, Vicarious, The Dissident Club, Ginseng Roots, I Want to Be a Wall, Takahashi from the Bike Shop, The Nice House by the Sea and The Jellyfish.
Some of my favorite adult graphic novels that I read in 2025. #LibFaves25
Some of my favorite kid and teen books that I read in 2025: A World Worth Saving, This Place Kills Me, Murder at the Museum, Everything We Never Had, Cat Man, Lu and Ren's Guide to Geozoology, Sea Legs and Hunger's Bite.
Some of my favorite children and teen books that I read in 2025. #LibFaves25
Some of the favorite adult nonfiction that I read in 2025: Cue the Sun, Children of Radium, Papyrus and Bluff.
And a few more favorite adult nonfiction that I read in 2025 #LibFaves25
Some of my favorite nonfiction books that I read in 2025: Life After Cars, One Day Everyone Will have always been against this, The Third Reich of Dreams, Actress of a Certain Age, There is no place for us, Strangers in the Land, Gentlemen of the Woods and Once Upon a Tome.
Here are my Favorite Adult Nonfiction Books of 2025 #LibFaves25
I already miss checking #LibFaves25 every day. Check the thread for the spreadsheet of all posted entries! #ReadAdv #Booksky 📚
Ah! Just realized the reason this didn’t get tallied in the final #libfaves25 list is because I didn’t use the correct hash tag. Sigh.
Is there a version of the #libfaves25 spreadsheet that I might be able to read on a Mac? I don’t know what .ods is, but nothing happens when I try to open it.
Salt Green Death
#Libfaves25 Honorable Mention:
SALT GREEN DEATH by Katarina Thorsen
This work of #GraphicMedicine is a masterpiece of archival research and the very way it is drawn highlights those efforts.
Dense, definitely not for the novice comics reader, but well worth the effort.
Daedalus is Dead
#Libfaves25 Honorable Mention:
DAEDALUS IS DEAD by Seamus Sullivan
This slim book grabbed me and wouldn't let me go. How reliable is a grieving, eternally tormented mind after all? A book I enjoyed so much that I picked up a signed copy at a bookstore to replace the ARC I got at ALA Annual.
A grid of 8 book covers: Will there Ever be Another You by Patricia Lockwood Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin Listen to Your Sister by Neena Viel Mask of the Deer Woman by Laurie L. Dove Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce
Here are my #libfaves25 honorable mentions!
It was *soooo* difficult to narrow my favorites down to 10 titles. I struggled between a few, and kept flip-flopping. Titles and authors in the alt text!
It Rhymes with Takei cover
#Libfaves25 Honorable Mention:
IT RHYMES WITH TAKEI by George Takei, Steven Scott, Justin Eisinger, and Harmony Becker
Some of you know that I am feeling... frustrated with memoir as a major focus of comics right now. So when I say that IT RHYMES was one of my favorites, you KNOW it's great.
Yesterday, was a bit much but I wanted to share. #libfaves25
Book cover for “The Ferryman and His Wife.” An abstract figure of a red headed woman in the foreground but it is translucent over a scene of a boat in the water.
Day 10 #libfaves25: THE FERRYMAN AND HIS WIFE by Frode Grytten. It’s just beautiful and has stuck with me since I finished it back in June!
The cover of The Hong Kong Widow features a headless figure clad in a black and red short-sleeved floral dress.
The cover of Run for the Hills depicts a red car driving down a country road with a chicken running behind it. A boy leans out the rear car window to film the chicken, while three adults sit in the other seats in the car.
The cover of Helm depicts a large tornado-like windstorm in black ink against a green background.
The cover of The Mad Wife depicts a 1950s housewife leaning against her sink and smiling widely for the camera. Her eyes are covered by a black rectangle.
#LibFaves25 honorable mentions, focusing on books that haven't been mentioned so far!
THE HONG KONG WIDOW by Kristen Loesch
RUN FOR THE HILLS by Kevin Wilson
HELM by Sarah Hall
THE MAD WIFE by Meagan Church
Also wanted to say, we did our best to catch all the books mentioned, but I know there were a couple glitches with the hashtag not updating right away sometimes, so sorry if we missed anyone’s vote! #LibFaves25
Cat Nap by Brian Lies Broken by X. Fang Aggie and the Ghost by Matthew Forsythe The Witch in the Tower by Júlia Sardà Troubling Tonsils! by Aaron Reynolds Dory Fantasmagory: Center of the Universe by Abby Hanlon The Strongest Heart by Saadia Faruqi All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson I Am the Swarm by Hayley Chewins The Leaving Room by Amber McBride Death in the Jungle by Candace Fleming Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley
And I stuck to adult titles for my main list because it would be impossible for me if I integrated kids and teen stuff, too, but here are just a few of my favs for honorable mentions #LibFaves25
Can't Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan Gaysians by Mike Curato Rules for Ruin by Mimi Matthews Female Fantasy by Iman Hariri-Kia The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica It Had to Be Him by Adib Khorram A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst Woodworking by Emily St. James A Mouthful of Dust by Nghi Vo Flesh by David Szalay The Summer War by Naomi Novik
Believe it or not, even this was not all my 5 star reads this year. So many good books!! My honorable mentions for #LibFaves25
Book Cover for Irvin Weathersby Jr.’s In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Spaces
Book Cover for Imani Perry’s Black in Blued: How a Color Tells the Story of My People
Book cover: Rachel Gillig’s The Knight and the Moth
Book Cover: Jonathan Van Ness & Julie Murphy: Let Them Stare
#LibFaves25 Thank goodness for honorable mentions!
IN OPEN CONTEMPT and BLACK IN BLUES have become a pair in my mind and transformed my thinking
LET THEM STARE is my YA standout for being authentically oneself
THE KNIGHT AND THE MOTH is a propulsive “Princess saves herself” and others
The tallying is over, but the fun doesn't have to stop! Keep using the hashtag today to mention your honorable mention titles-- those books you loved that didn't quite make your top 10. #LibFaves25
And here is the incredible spreadsheet full of awesome book recommendations to make your TBR explode! Happy reading, everyone! #LibFaves25 docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
#LibFaves25. Gold ribbon: The Correspondent, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, and One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. Silver ribbon: Wild Dark Shore. Bronze ribbon: The Incandescent, My Friends, and The Names
Drum roll please... the books have been tallied and with over 500 total votes and more than 350 unique titles mentioned, the favorite books of #LibFaves25 are:
#LibFaves25 My Honorable Mentions
There were SO many great books this year!
THIS PLACE KILLS ME: A GRAPHIC NOVEL by Mario Tamaki and illustrator Nicole Goux
ONE DAY, EVERYONE WILL HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AFAINST THIS by Omar El Akkad
UNDER THE NEON LIGHTS by Arriel Vinson
I have not forgotten my last #libfaves25 pick! WOOING THE WITCH QUEEN by @stephanieburgis.bsky.social was a perfect comfort read #booksky #romance
Sometimes a novel just pulls me in with its pure, immersive storytelling and WOODWORKING by Emily St. James (Crooked Media Reads) was like that. I loved the characters and their relationships like a TV show I wanted to keep going. I got the best responses from recommending this.
#LibFaves25 Day 10
Cover of The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis. Background is a painting of green hills with three large, lean dogs—one black and white, one black, and one white and brown.
It’s a tale as old as time in THE HOUNDING, my Day 19 and final #Libfaves25 pick. Man thinks girl should smile more. Girl ignores man. Man accuses girl and her sisters of witchcraft. This book was a whole vibe and I enjoyed it start to finish.
