Jeff and Rebecca wrap up the 2025 Holiday Recommendations.
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In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
2 AM at the Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helen Bertino
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr
The Slough House series by Mick Herron
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Jane Harper
Tilt by Emma Pattee
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
The Unveiling by Quan Barry
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Riverman by Ben McGrath
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
Kevin Wilson
People Like Us by Jason Mott
Marie-Helene Bertino
Katie Kitamura
Colson Whitehead
Tom Robbins
Oreo by Fran Ross
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
Something From Nothing by Alison Roman
Start Here by Sohla El-Waylly
Good Things by Samin Nosrat
Six Seasons of Pasta (and/or Six Seasons of Vegetables) by Josh McFadden
Now & Again by Julia Turshen
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Lost Man by Jane Harper
The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
Like a Mother by Angela Garbes
Essential Labor by Angela Garbes
Splinters by Leslie Jamison
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Jonathan Evison
Model Home by Rivers Solomon
Reign & Ruin by J. D. Evans
So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport
The Imposter Cure by Jessamy Hibberd
Life in Three Dimensions by Shigehiro Oishi
The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
Light Years by James Salter
I Married You for Happiness by Lily Tuck
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levitan
Ross Gay
Hanif Abdurraquib
Ada Limon
Sarah Kay
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1:01:31
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1:01:31
The 2025 Holiday Recommendation Show, Part 1
Jeff and Rebecca are back with another holiday recommendation show. Part 2 coming on Monday.
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Subscribe to The Book Riot Newsletter for regular updates to get the most out of your reading life.
The Book Riot Podcast is a proud member of the Airwave Podcast Network.
Discussed in this episode:
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The Book Riot Podcast Patreon
Little Blue Truck
Little Pea by Amy Rosenthal
I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Real Americans by Rachel Khong
A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst
The Lost Man by Jane Harper
Highway 59 series by Attica Locke
Tilt by Emma Pattee
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
Katabasis by R. F. Kuang
The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
We the People by Jill Lepore
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
It’s Only Drowning by David Litt
The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt
The Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
Blob by Maggie Su
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
Matrix by Lauren Groff
The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale
Survivor’s Guilt by Robyn Gigl
Jinx Ballou series by Dharma Kelleher
How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe by Charles Yu
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson
Audition by Katie Kitamura
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
Palaver by Bryan Washington
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
Mr. Ives' Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Winter by Ali Smith
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52:59
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52:59
Books Of The Year Season Peaks
Jeff and Rebecca inhale a slew of best books of the year lists.
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Subscribe to The Book Riot Newsletter for regular updates to get the most out of your reading life.
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Discussed in this episode:
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The Book Riot Podcast Patreon
Book Riot’s Best Books of 2025
National Book Award winners
Shein partners with Alibris to sell books
Lit Hub’s Book Twitter bracket
Libro.fm's top 10 audiobooks of the year
Audible’s best of 2025
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1:01:52
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1:01:52
What is Magical Realism?
Vanessa Diaz is back to talk with Jeff and Rebecca about what magical realism is, where it comes from, and how to talk about it.
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Subscribe to The Book Riot Newsletter for regular updates to get the most out of your reading life.
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Discussed in this episode:
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The Book Riot Podcast Patreon
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriela Garcia Marquez
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Labyrinths or Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar
The Storyteller’s Death by Ann Dávila Cardinal
The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez
Magical/Realism by Angelica Villareal
The Week of Colors by Elena Garro, Megan McDowell (trans.)
The Queen of Swords by Jazmina Barrera, Christina MacSweeney (trans.)
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58:30
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58:30
On Putting Together a Best Books of the Year List
Vanessa Diaz sits in for Rebecca this week and talks to Jeff about the challenges of making a best books of the year list before getting into the news of the week.
Follow the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
Subscribe to The Book Riot Newsletter for regular updates to get the most out of your reading life.
The Book Riot Podcast is a proud member of the Airwave Podcast Network.
Discussed in this episode:
Check out Zero to Well-Read!
The Book Riot Podcast Patreon
Amazon’s best books of the year
David Szalay has won the 2025 Booker Prize for his novel Flesh
B&N’s best book of the Year is Mona’s Eyes
The 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards.
I’m bookmarking this deep dive into the fashion industry’s recurrent interest in literature for knife-and-fork reading this weekend
Reader’s Digest asked three professional designers to pick the best book covers of the year
Kindle translate
Somebody is Walking On Your Grave by Mariana Enriquez
Stolen Crown by Tracy Borman
Devouring Time by Tod Goddard
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Flashlight by Susan Choi
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News in the world of books and reading, including hot industry releases, adaptations, publishing industry events, and more with Book Riot’s Jeff O’Neal and Rebecca Schinsky.
Book Riot is the largest independent editorial book site in North America and home to a host of media, from podcasts to newsletters to original content, all designed around diverse readers and across all genres.
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