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  • General Recommendations
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Best Books of 2025: Nonfiction

At the end of every year, we look at Best Books of the year lists from newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Publisher's Weekly, Time; book vendors like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Libby; book blogs and websites such as Book Riot, Electric Lit, and Vulture, and many more to come up with the ultimate list. This year, we looked at 30 different Best Books of 2025 lists and gave each title a score that represents the number of lists it made it onto to create the ultimate best of list.

User from Santa Clara County Library

24 items

  • Score: 10
    Book, 2025New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025. — 818.5409 BALDWIN BOGGS
  • A Marriage at Sea

    a True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck

    Elmhirst, Sophie
    Score: 9
    Book, 2025New York : Riverhead Books, 2025. — 910.9164 ELMHIRS
  • Score: 9
    Book, 2025New York, NY : Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC, 2025. — 823.914 ROY
  • Score: 9
    Book, 2025New York : Pantheon Books, 2025. — 599.324 DALTON
  • A Flower Traveled in My Blood

    the Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children

    Cohen Gilliland, Haley, 1989-
    Score: 8
    Book, 2025New York : Avid Reader Press, 2025. — 362.8709 COHEN
  • King of Kings

    the Iranian Revolution : a Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation

    Anderson, Scott, 1959-
    Score: 8
    Book, 2025New York : Doubleday, 2025. — 955.053 ANDERSO
  • Score: 8
    Book, 2025New York, NY : Viking, [2025] — 823.914 BROOKS
  • Black in Blues

    How a Color Tells the Story of My People

    Perry, Imani, 1972-
    Score: 7
    Book, 2025New York, NY : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPulishers, [2025] — 305.896 PERRY
  • Score: 7
    Book, 2025New York : Penguin Press, 2025. — 818.409 TWAIN CHERNOW
  • Murderland

    Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers

    Fraser, Caroline
    Score: 7
    Book, 2025New York : Penguin Press, 2025. — 364.1523 FRASER
  • The Fate of the Day

    the War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780

    Atkinson, Rick
    Score: 6
    Book, 2025New York, NY : Crown, [2025] — 973.3 ATKINSO
  • Girl on Girl

    How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves

    Gilbert, Sophie (Sophie G.),
    Score: 6
    Book, 2025New York : Penguin Press, 2025. — 305.42 GILBERT
  • Score: 6
    Book, 2025New York : Avid Reader Press, 2025. — 070.92 ORLEAN
  • Replaceable You

    Adventures in Human Anatomy

    Roach, Mary
    Score: 6
    Book, 2025New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, [2025] — 617.95 ROACH
  • Searches

    Selfhood in the Digital Age

    Vara, Vauhini, 1982-
    Score: 6
    Book, 2025New York : Pantheon Books, 2025. — 302.231 VARA
  • We the People

    a History of the U.S. Constitution

    Lepore, Jill, 1966-
    Score: 6
    Book, 2025New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, [2025] — 342.7302 LEPORE
  • Score: 5
    Book, 2025New York, NY : Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2025. — 330.973 KLEIN
  • Careless People

    a Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

    Wynn-Williams, Sarah
    Score: 5
    Book, 2025New York : Flatiron Books, 2025. — 302.32 WYNNWIL