The 10 best books of 2025 so far, according to the Amazon Books Editors

By Charlotte McConaghy

Shot from a cannon in the dark, Wild Dark Shore is a novel that hooks you from the start and doesn’t let you go until the last page; it will leave you breathless, wide-eyed, and in awe of the extraordinary power of fiction, which is why we named it the Best Book of the Year So Far. Charlotte McConaghy first hit the literary scene with her novel Migrations, which we named the best fiction book of 2020—and, just like her debut, her third novel ensnares you in a brilliant vortex of family, grief, climate change, and nature. With taut pacing that ratchets up the tension with every chapter, McConaghy unfurls the mystery of why a father, his three children, and a strange woman battered from a shipwreck find themselves on a remote island off the coast of Antarctica, where the air “is thick with the spirits of the dead.” They are alone, and they stay in this inhospitable place: “When I think about leaving ... I almost can’t breathe, but staying here is killing us.” By turns haunting and tender, the story is narrated by each of the island’s inhabitants, revealing heart-breaking betrayals, sacrifices, violence, kindnesses, and the madness and comradery that isolation can bring. McConaghy’s exquisite gift is that she creates characters that you know you shouldn’t trust with your whole heart, but you do anyway. The result is a gutting, magnificent story of the lengths individuals will go for the people and causes they care about. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor

By S. A. Cosby

With his typical mix of nail-on-the-head gravitas (“Gangsters are just CEOs who work the streets”) and morally flexible go-getters, S.A. Cosby’s King of Ashes starts out as a Southern riff on The Godfather, but it quickly goes both wider and deeper, both in its tormented family drama and in the even higher stakes that the anointed son faces (I’d like to see Michael Corleone up against two psycho-sadist gangster brothers named Torrent and Tranquil; two words: garden shears). To fans of Cosby’s four previous novels, this latest masterwork will come as no great surprise. If you’re new to Cosby, though, read this book and catch an author mid-flight as he ascends to become one of the greatest American crime writers ever to do it. —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor

By Gardiner Harris

There is perhaps no brand more trusted than Johnson & Johnson, which is why this story that accuses the company of blatant lying and law-breaking is so shocking and devastating. Gardiner Harris’s eye-popping exposé will make you shake with rage and incredulity—and never look at baby powder or Tylenol the same way again. And that’s just the beginning. Through impeccable, never-before-revealed research, Harris also details routinely prescribed medicine that disfigures children, a drug dubbed “Miracle-Gro for cancer” that kills more people than prescription opioids, and staggering tales of “massive piles of money” used for bribes, kickbacks, and aggressive, misleading marketing to consumers and the FDA. Just as readers will be appalled by the villains, they’ll also be inspired by the brave whistle-blowers who put their careers, and possibly even lives, on the line to protect people from top-selling drugs that have contributed to the deaths of more than two million people (and counting). No More Tears is a page-turner: remarkable reporting, a narrative that hooks you from the start, and a story that demands to be told, and shared, with everyone you know. —Lindsay Powers, Amazon Editor

By Ocean Vuong

Ocean Vuong’s (On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous) sophomore novel begins with a young man’s suicide attempt being interrupted by an octogenarian with severe dementia. Grazina saves him, and Hai saves her, becoming her caregiver and confidante, and unlikely friend. The Emperor of Gladness brings the unseen in society to the fore—people with nothing, who owe each other nothing, and yet they inherently understand something that so many of us do not in this increasingly divisive world: “Life is good when we do good things for each other.” That is why this quote, lifted from Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, and bequeathed to the disappearing but ever-wise Granzina, provides such a timely and powerful refrain to a story that oozes compassion and grace. If Vuong wasn’t already dubbed “the patron saint of the lonely” (I don’t think Saint Rita would mind), The Emperor of Gladness would earn him the moniker. —Erin Kodicek, Amazon Editor

By Suzanne Collins

Sunrise on the Reaping reminded me how I felt when I first read The Hunger Games—completely sucked into the story from the first page to the last, and dying to talk about it with other readers. This is the thrilling backstory of the 50th Hunger Games and Haymitch Abernathy, the drunken former victor from District 12, who was Katniss and Peeta’s mentor. Suzanne Collins’s cinematic novel is a popcorn read with a kernel you want to chew on, about the ripple effect of implicit submission, and so much more. Collins has outdone herself with the features and creatures of Haymitch’s Games, and his fellow long-shot tributes are underdogs with grit and wit. High-stakes action, ambiguous motives, emotionally haunting characters, and a mind-blowing ending—I think this is one of Collins’s best. Perfect for anyone looking for a fast-paced, ferociously entertaining read, Sunrise on the Reaping will stick with you in the very best way. —Seira Wilson, Amazon Editor

By Leila Mottley

I would like the receipts, please. I just cannot comprehend how a writer in her early 20s could pen a novel imbued with such insight and wisdom, but maybe Leila Mottley (Nightcrawling) is just an old soul. I’m so grateful to be a recipient of that wisdom as well, because, quite frankly, I judged a book by its cover. Now, mind you, it’s an objectively fine cover, but as someone who is not a mother, I wasn’t sure that reading about three teen moms in the Florida Panhandle would be my jam. And how apropos, when this a novel very much about judgment: these women have been judged by their families, by society, even by each other, and yet they could care less about your preconceived notions—they have friendships, found family, and big dreams to tend to and pursue, things that will not be waylaid by anyone’s preconceived notions of how they should live their lives, and raise their children. The Girls Who Grew Big is a banner example of what the best fiction can do: put us in other people’s shoes, challenge our thinking, and expand our empathy. Mottley has once again proven to be one of the youngest (allegedly), and most talented authors writing today. —Erin Kodicek, Amazon Editor

By Geraldine Brooks

This memoir will gut you—then put you back together again. Alternating chapters between the immediate aftermath of Geraldine Brooks's husband’s sudden death, and three years later when she actually takes time to grieve, Memorial Days is emotional, pragmatic, and filled with the keen observations of this literary luminary’s broken heart. In some ways, this is a portrait of love—a remarkable marriage between two Pulitzer Prize winners (one nonfiction, the other fiction), who revel in each other’s intellectual pursuits; chasing stories across the world and then ultimately deciding to build a family on the small island of Martha’s Vineyard. It’s also a story of the day-to-day demands incurred when a spouse dies—the paperwork, muddling through insurance, projecting strength for loved ones and children. And then, of course, it’s about how society does not allow for grief—and so, Geraldine Brooks (Horse, March, People of the Book, Year of Wonders) sets out to release it by bringing her husband’s journals to a small island off her beloved Australia. There, she attempts to free “that howl has become the beast in the basement of my heart.” Yes, Memorial Days is filled with sorrow, but also the enduring joie de vivre of her late husband, the heart-expanding truth of what love and adoration can offer. A book that belongs on the shelf next to Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor

By Jakob Kerr

Silicon Valley insider Jakob Kerr gives readers a lot to love here: a fintech-locked room-murder mystery (a limited access elevator narrows the suspect list to C-suite executives), a booby-trapped will left by the murdered billionaire CEO, two reluctant investigative partners, and a powerful venture capitalist who is not about to see his investment buried along with that CEO. Standing at the nexus of all that is our heroine, Mackenzie, a she-David among Goliaths, a wily fixer for the venture capitalist, and a lady with more than a few tricks up her sleeve. She may be a newbie investigator, but she sees more than she says, and she’s forgotten more about how this tech enclave works than her arrogant FBI partner will ever learn. Breathtakingly fleet of foot, with a twist at the end you only think you see coming, Dead Money is a devilishly clever whodunnit that never lets up until it coldcocks you with a killer last line. —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor

By Taylor Jenkins Reid

Taylor Jenkins Reid, known for her blockbuster Amazon Editors’ Picks, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones and the Six, delivers another winner with Atmosphere. This heart-wrenching and exhilarating journey to the cosmos masterfully captures both the thrill of space exploration and the complexities of human connection. The opening sequence hooks readers from the start with its pulsing excitement, action, and drama, and it doesn’t let up as the narrative offers a glimpse into the future, before shifting back in time. We meet Joan, a budding astronaut in the 1980s, an era when women were just breaking into the space program, and follow her as she manages relationships and friendships, complex family dynamics, and personal self-discovery. There is so much to love about this thrilling book—like how Joan and her fellow astronauts, Griff, Vanessa, and Lydia, are portrayed with such depth and relatability—they stay with you long after reading the final page. Meticulous details of the astronauts’ training and missions are so immersive, readers will feel like they’ve joined NASA. Atmosphere is a testament to resilience, and how far we'll go to chase our dreams, even when those dreams seem as distant as the stars. —Kami Tei, Amazon Editor

By Tina Knowles

Matriarch by Tina Knowles is one of the buzziest celebrity memoirs of the season—but to assume it’s garnering attention only because the author is Beyoncé’s mother is doing this extraordinary memoir a serious disservice. Yes, there are heart-warming tidbits of a shy young girl that only a mother could offer, and, she does spill a little tea of her daughter’s fame and personal life—even the story of how Beyoncé got her name will quite possibly gut you. But it’s truly so much more than that. Knowles is a force to be reckoned with, whether in the classroom at her Catholic all-girls school, roaming the neighborhood with her vast cadre of cousins (read: best friends), starting her own hair salon, ceaselessly supporting her children (and not just Beyoncé and Solange, but Kelly Rowland too), and navigating a husband and a world that hasn’t always seen her value. In reading this book, it’s impossible not to feel taken under Knowles’s wing, because in sharing her story, she opens her heart and mind, offering insight into her strengths (and weaknesses) that make it almost inevitable that she would raise two girls that would reshape American music—and culture. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor