Closing out 2025
Goodreads has officially announced its Readers’ Choice Awards for 2025: Swedish author Fredrik Backman took top honors in Fiction with My Friends. Romance powerhouse Emily Henry claimed her fifth consecutive win with Great Big Beautiful Life, and beloved YA author John Green earned the Nonfiction award for Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, his deep dive into the world’s deadliest curable disease. (View Full List here)
But what about the books that resonated most with our Reference team? Since narrowing it down to a single title was a challenge for many of us, I invited everyone to pick a book that left a lasting impression.
Zoe S. (Reference Librarian)
I usually aim to read 24 books every year, but for whatever reason, this year ended up with more DNFs than completed books on my Goodreads shelf. But one title that helped break my malaise was The Feather Detective by Chris Sweeney.
The book follows the remarkable life of Roxie Collie Laybourne, a North Carolina native whose curiosity about the natural world led her from early work in plant ecology to an unexpected and groundbreaking career in taxidermy and ornithology.
While working through college in the 1930s, Laybourne took a job at the North Carolina State Museum of Natural History (much of it unpaid), learning the meticulous craft of taxidermy. She helped create the early “habitat” displays that are now commonplace in natural history museums. Her skill eventually brought her to the Smithsonian, where she restored and cataloged thousands of bird specimens in the National Museum of Natural History’s vast but aging collection. Often the only woman in the room, she fought through sexism, pay inequity, and colleagues who took credit for her work. Yet she persisted, driven by an obsessive passion for scientific accuracy and discovery.
Her career took an unexpected turn after World War II when she joined the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There, her encyclopedic knowledge of feathers (she could identify the distinctive barbs and barbules that function almost like fingerprints on any bird) made her the nation’s first forensic ornithologist. From identifying the birds involved in aviation accidents for the FAA and NTSB to testifying for the FBI in murder trials and wildlife-crime cases, Laybourne carved out a specialty no one knew the world needed until she mastered it.
I found The Feather Detective to be an amazing read because it celebrates a woman who defied expectations and built a career out of curiosity, resilience, and an astonishing attention to detail. Her work has made air travel safer for all of us, and her story is a reminder of how passion and persistence can change the world in ways both unexpected and profound.
Jerry R. (Reference Librarian)
I am drawn to media and art that is able to communicate the many facets of isolation: that feeling of being awestruck by a majestic, lonely world, the desire for connection and others, and the need to exert some form of control over the environment to help navigate the feeling of loneliness. One book this year for me that took that horror of isolation, and that sneaking suspicion that you may not truly be alone, and created a masterful experience of isolation: Exiles (2025) by Mason Coile (a pseudonym for Andrew Pyper, 1968-2025).
Exiles follows a three-person crew sent to Mars for a one-way trip to help make colonization of the planet possible. When they arrive at the facility that was being worked on and maintained by three robots, they find it in disarray, with one of the robots missing. Was it truly the work of an unknown alien species, as reported by the remaining robots? The set-up seems almost a trope, but each page is a wonderful build-up of horror and suspense that leaves you holding your breath with the characters as the landscape of Mars, isolating, inhospitable, and disinterested towards life as we know it, is haunted by this unknown entity attacking the base.
For lovers of horror and those who want to explore the many faces of isolation, Exiles is going to be up your alley. Continual suspense, enjoyable characters, and a setting that exists to feel horrifyingly empty, all add up to a phenomenal horror novel that will leave you with that same discomfort of being alone that stands up alongside some of the classic horror movies and novels.
Miri R. (Reference Associate)
I enjoy Coca-Cola about as much as the next person, but while doing some research earlier this year, I came across For God, Country, and Coca-Cola. I thought the title was intriguingly ostentatious, so I just had to check it out. I normally mix a few non-fiction books into my reading list, though I tend to stick to nature and science. However, this book quickly became my favorite read of the year! Mark Pendergrast provides an incredibly thorough history of the company, going over every detail you could possibly want to know...and more! Using witty wordplay and plenty of puns, his critical review of the history of Coke is outright hilarious at times. Coca-Cola is truly an American company, for better or for worse, and much of its development worked to shape the soft drink industry and capitalism as a whole around the world.
I have learned so much from this book, not only about Coca-Cola, but about the world’s various revolutions, wars, and social movements. I have gasped, laughed, and quoted more from this book than any other this year, by a wide margin. Don’t let the somewhat dense text scare you off – with frequent page breaks and entertaining factoids throughout, it is more approachable than you’d expect. For God, Country, and Coca-Cola is well worth diving into, regardless of whether you consider yourself a die-hard Coke fan, part of team Pepsi, or simply someone who enjoys pop culture and history.
Cindy F. (Reference Associate)
Of all the books I read this year, I'd have to go with Frieda McFadden's, The Locked Door. True to McFadden’s psychological thriller genre, this novel is another chilling story about a successful surgeon, Nora Davis, who must confront her father’s murderous past when a copycat killer starts murdering her patients. As the title suggests, Nora grew up having a locked door in her home where horrifying things were discovered. The book skips back and forth between Nora’s teenage years and the present. Years ago, Nora was too curious as to what dear old daddy kept behind the locked door, only to discover the unbelievable. To really throw you off, the author walks you through many incidents in Nora’s past that seem to show that those psychopathic tendencies reside in Nora as well.
Again, McFadden proves that she is the reigning queen of psychological thrillers with this book. Even with all the evidence mounting, you find yourself pulling for this woman to finally put the past far behind her…but can she run quickly enough? The book keeps you guessing until the very end, and then she wraps up the story completely and satisfyingly.
You really wish you could hate these creepy stories, but the quick pace and irresistible premise keep you hooked to the very end.
Steve F. (Reference Librarian)
The book I read this year and enjoyed the most was James by Percival Everett. This book is a powerful retelling of the novel "Huckelberry Finn" from the perspective of Jim, an enslaved man in pre-Civil War Missouri. The novel presents themes of racism, freedom, and survival as James and Huck travel down the Mississippi River. Along the way, they meet a cast of characters, including con artists, drifters, and other enslaved people. I especially appreciate the novel's focus on the resilience and humanity of the enslaved peoples of the American South, as well as a surprise or two toward the end of the novel, which go a long way to supplement Twain's original work.
Cathy R. (Reference Librarian)
Such an amazing little book! At only 147 pages, it is by far the shortest book I have read this year, yet it contains so much hope, kindness, humor, and found family. The story takes place on Panga’s moon, a world shaped by a remarkable event centuries earlier when robots gained awareness, set down their tools, and walked into the wilderness. Since then, humans and robots have had no contact. The robots have become almost mythical.
This changes when Dex, a nonbinary traveling tea monk, feels called to leave their familiar route through Panga’s agrarian communities and journey into the wilderness in search of an abandoned monastery. There, Dex meets an unexpected companion, a robot named Mosscap. As the two travel together, their friendship deepens, and they begin to explore a profound question: what do people need? The answer proves to be as varied and complex as the people they encounter.
In the end, the heart of the book may be found in Mosscap’s gentle insight:
“You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to just exist in this world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live.”
Perhaps that is what humans truly need most... to exist in the world, marvel at it, and simply live.
Cathy H. (Reference Librarian)
Did you know that typewriters (those artifacts of the past) are not only sentient but also retain everything that’s ever been typed into them? At least, that’s true for Olivetti, Beatrice Brindle’s faithful typewriter and “protector of memories.” After years of working alongside Beatrice, Olivetti has stored an entire lifetime of her thoughts, stories, and secrets. But ever since she brought a sleek new laptop into the house, he’s been gathering dust.
Everything changes when Olivetti is suddenly sold to a pawn shop, and Beatrice goes missing. Her disappearance leaves the Brindle family shaken, especially her 12-year-old son, Ernest. When Ernest meets Quinn, the dumpster-diving daughter of the pawn shop’s owner, Olivetti breaks the sacred Code of the Typewriter and types back to Ernest for the first time, the trio sets off on a quest to find Beatrice.
Charming and full of warmth, Olivetti is a story about family, communication, overcoming adversity, and the power of memory—and how even the dustiest relics of the past can help bring people back together.
Want more recommendations?
Our staff loves to help readers discover their next great book. Many branches even feature staff-pick displays (like Southgate, pictured above), or you can always request a personalized reading list tailored to your tastes. Connecting readers with stories they’ll enjoy is one of the best parts of our job.
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