On this episode, past guests of Books with Betsy and I share our favorite books of 2025! Listen to hear about lots of great 2025 books and the excellent backlist we got to this year.
Books mentioned in this episode:
Betsy’s Best Categorically (books that…):
Shocked me:
It’s Not the End of the World by Jonathan Parks-Ramage
Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell
Made me Cry:
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Are You Happy? By Lori Ostlund
Underrated:
Fundamentally by Noussaibah Younis
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
Recommend Widely:
There is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone
Isola by Allegra Goodman
Hard to Recommend:
King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby
Flesh by David Szalay
Made me Think About my Life Differently:
Uzumaki by Junji Ito
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa
Books Highlighted by Guests:
Deedi Brown:
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
Telephone by Percival Everett
Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara
Francisco Rafael Peralta-Cerda:
Grace and Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman
Displacement by Kiku Hughes
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Chloe Waryan:
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Woodworking by Emily St. James
Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
Jess Abra Sandy:
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Don’t Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews
Soft Science & Other Poems by Franny Choi
Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
Shakia Perry:
Issac’s Song by Daniel Black
King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby
Zeal by Morgan Jerkins
Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan
Chelsey Stone:
The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd
Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé
Deirdre Harrison:
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself by Lisa Marchiano
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Chirri & Chirra: The Snowy Day by Kaya Doi & Yuki Kaneko
The Red Fruit by Lee Gee Eun
Red Sled by Lita Judge
Jordan Hernandez:
This is Your Mother by Erika J. Simpson
The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley
Loca by Alejandro Heredia
Liv Hoselton:
Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green
A Noble Madness: The Dark Side of Collecting from Antiquity to Now by James Delbourgo
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Leah Rachel von Essen:
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon
