The Books You Need to Read in 2025

2025 is shaping up to be another truly incredible year for books. In fiction, Daisy Jones and the Six’s Taylor Jenkins Reid weaves a gripping new novel boasting a celestial backdrop, whilst Nobel Prize winner and author of The Vegetarian Han Kang returns, and we finally get the answer to Iron Flame’s cliffhanger in Rebecca Yarros’ Onyx Storm. Non-fiction sees Philippe Sands bring the same forensic intelligence he displayed in his award-winning East West Street to a riveting true tale of dictators and war criminals, Underland’s Robert Macfarlane move from land to water in his exploration of rivers, and Dr Julie Smith follow up Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? with an essential collection of tools for difficult times. In children’s books, Katherine Rundell delivers the spellbinding sequel to the Waterstones Book of the Year-winning Impossible Creatures, A.F. Steadman sets up a spectacular showdown in the final instalment of the Skandar series, and Suzanne Collins transports us all back to Panem for a pulsating prequel to The Hunger Games.