Our 2025 reading list just got significantly longer, courtesy of Chicago’s literary experts. Every year since 1999, the librarians at the Chicago Public Library (CPL) have sifted through a heap of the year’s most exciting new releases to curate their definitive Best Books of the Year ranking. The result is a highly selective and essential cultural syllabus that immediately places you on the city’s literary cutting edge.
The lists span three main categories—kids, teens and adults—that cover a swath of genres ranging from memoir and manga to sci-fi and books in Spanish. All titles are available through the library’s catalog, with many offered as e-books, audiobooks and accessible editions. These titles are already flying off the shelves, so place those holds now or pick up a copy of your own from one of Chicago's many bookstores.
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Here are some of the best books of 2025 according to the Chicago Public Library:
10 best books for adults
Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Flashlight by Susan Choi
Flesh by David Szalay
A Flower Traveled in My Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliland
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Woodworking by Emily St. James
10 best fiction books for teens
All the Noise at Once by Davis, DeAndra
And the River Drags Her Down by Jihyun Yun
Blood & Breath by Qurratulayn
Breath of the Dragon by Shannon Lee
Everything Is Poison by Joy McCullough
The Golden Boy's Guide to Bipolar by Sonora Reyes
Honeysuckle and Bone by Trisha Tobias
I Am the Swarm by Hayley Chewins
If I Could Go Back by Briana Johnson
The Leaving Room by Amber McBride
10 best fiction books for kids
Amina Banana and the Formula for Friendship by Shifa Saltagi Safadi
Amina Banana and the Formula for Winning by Shifa Saltagi Safadi
At Night, They Danced by Victoria Scott-Miller
Ava Lin, Super-duper Happy by Vicky Fang
The Big Mess and Other Stories by Greg Pizzoli
A Book of Maps for You by Lourdes Heuer
Earl & Worm #1: The Bad Idea and Other Stories by Greg Pizzoli
Brianna Banana, Helper of the Day by Lana Button
The Face in the Mirror and Other Scary Stories by Max Brallier
A Fairy Finds Her Song by Bea Jackson
Read more year-end rankings from the Chicago Public Library—including CPL librarians’ personal favorites of 2025 and the best libros en español—here.