The Reader's Room

Our best books read in 2025

Many of the major book sites have released their top books of 2025 so we figured our panel would share their favorite reads of the year. While our lists do contain many books published in 2025, they are not exclusive to 2025 but rather the best books we read during the year.

Here are the top 5 books that each of our panel members read in 2025.

2025 Booker Shortlist: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

Last but not least is The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. You can read our short reviews here: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. The novel made it onto three of our predictions lists with Nicole, Lisa, and myself predicting it would make the shortlist. The Booker judges had this to say about the book…

‘At its heart, this book is about Sonia and Sunny’s love, but it is also an expansive novel that encompasses several other characters and concerns. It is an intimate story about two people finding a pathway to love and each other. Read it if you are looking for a truly unforgettable epic, one rich in meditations about class, race, nationhood and the titular loneliness.’   

What does our panel think of the odds of this book being this year’s winner? Keep reading to find out

2025 Booker Shortlist: The Rest of our lives

Next up is The Rest of our Lives. You can read our short reviews here: The Rest of our Lives. The novel made it onto 0 of our predictions lists. The Booker judges had this to say about the book

‘When Tom Layward’s wife cheated on him, he stayed for the children but promised to leave when his youngest turned eighteen. Twelve years later, Tom drops his daughter off at college, but instead of driving back to New York he heads west. What follows is a remarkably satisfying road trip full of strangers, friends, and self-discovery. It’s clear author Ben Markovits has spent time teaching. This novel speaks like a much-loved professor, one whose classes have a terribly long waitlist. It’s matter of fact, effortlessly warm, and it uses the smallest parts of human behaviour to uphold bigger themes, like mortality, sickness, and love. The Rest of Our Lives is a novel of sincerity and precision. We found it difficult to put it down.’ 

What does our panel think of the odds of this book being this year’s winner? Keep reading to find out

2025 Booker Shortlist: Audition

Next up is Audition by Katie Kitamura. You can read our short reviews here: Audition. The novel made it onto 4 of our predictions lists with all by Lisa predicting it will make the shortlist. The Booker judges had this to say about the book…

‘This novel begins with an actress meeting a young man in a Manhattan restaurant. A surprising, unsettling conversation unfolds, but far more radical disturbances are to come. Aside from the extraordinarily honed quality of its sentences, the remarkable thing about Audition is the way it persists in the mind after reading, like a knot that feels tantalisingly close to coming free. Denying us the resolution we instinctively crave from stories, Kitamura takes Chekhov’s dictum – that the job of the writer is to ask questions, not answer them – and runs with it, presenting a puzzle, the solution to which is undoubtedly obscure, and might not even exist at all.’

What does our panel think of the odds of this book being this year’s winner? Keep reading to find out

2025 Booker Shortlist: Flashlight

Next up is Flashlight by Susan Choi. You can read our short reviews here: Flashlight. The novel made it onto 2 of our predictions lists, with only Tracy and Anita predicting it would make the shortlist. The Booker judges had this to say about the book…

‘Flashlight is a sprawling novel that weaves stories of national upheavals with those of Louisa, her Korean Japanese father, Serk, and Anne, her American mother. Evolving from the uncertainties surrounding Serk’s disappearance, it is a riveting exploration of identity, hidden truths, race, and national belonging. In this ambitious book that deftly criss-crosses continents and decades, Susan Choi balances historical tensions and intimate dramas with remarkable elegance. We admired the shifts and layers of Flashlight’s narrative, which ultimately reveal a story that is intricate, surprising, and profound.’

What does our panel think of the odds of this book being this year’s winner? Keep reading to find out

2025 Booker Shortlist: Flesh

Now that the shortlist has been announced, our panel will be providing some additional thoughts on each of the shortlist nominees. First up is Flesh by David Szalay. You can read our short reviews here: Flesh. The novel made it onto 4 of our predictions lists with everyone except Anita predicting it would make the shortlist. The Booker judges had this to say about the book…

David Szalay’s fifth novel follows István from his teenage years on a Hungarian housing estate to borstal, and from soldiering in Iraq to his career as personal security for London’s super-rich. In many ways István is stereotypically masculine – physical, impulsive, barely on speaking terms with his own feelings (and for much of the novel barely speaking: he must rank among the more reticent characters in literature). But somehow, using only the sparest of prose, this hypnotically tense and compelling book becomes an astonishingly moving portrait of a man’s life”

What does our panel think of the odds of this book being this year’s winner? Keep reading to find out