If your TBR pile is already out of control and you are still wondering what everyone else is reading this holiday season, the answer depends on who you ask. Three big voices are shaping the conversation right now: Amazon’s editors, millions of Goodreads voters, and the critics at the New York Times.
On the retail side, Amazon’s Books editors just dropped their Best Books of 2025 list, with Patrick Ryan’s novel Buckeye in the number one spot. The book follows two Midwestern families in the fictional town of Bonhomie, Ohio, whose lives become tangled after an affair, and Amazon’s team is calling it a compassionate family saga and a Great American Novel level pick.
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The rest of the list is packed with buzzy names, including Taylor Jenkins Reid’sAtmosphere, Ocean Vuong’sThe Emperor of Gladness, and Laila Lalami’s near future techno suspense novel The Dream Hotel.
If you care more about what everyday readers are devouring on their own time, Goodreads just closed voting on the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards, which drew more than 7.5 million votes across 15 categories.
Readers’ Favorite Fiction went to My Friends by Fredrik Backman, a story about four teenagers, a life changing painting, and the way art and memory echo across decades.
Romance powerhouse Emily Henry scored her fifth consecutive Goodreads win with Great Big Beautiful Life, while Suzanne Collins dominated YA fantasy with Sunrise on the Reaping, a Hunger Games prequel centered on a young Haymitch Abernathy.
In other categories, Rebecca Yarros’Onyx Storm took both romantasy and audiobook, V. E. Schwab’sBury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil won fantasy, and John Green’sEverything Is Tuberculosis topped nonfiction.
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Some of those Goodreads winners already have celebrity and media backing. Great Big Beautiful Life is also a Reese’s Book Club pick, with Witherspoon calling it a blend of mystery, romance, and thriller that she promises is impossible to put down.
That kind of crossover, from celebrity club to reader voted award, is usually a good sign that a title will keep popping up in holiday stacks and book club chats.
Then there is the critic side of the equation. On December 2, the New York Times Book Review editors revealed their 10 Best Books of 2025 list, a mix of five fiction and five nonfiction titles chosen from thousands of books they covered this year.
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On the fiction side, their picks include Kiran Desai’sThe Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, Charlotte Wood’sStone Yard Devotional, Daniel Kraus’Angel Down, Daniel Kehlmann’sThe Director, and Jonas Hassen Khemiri’sThe Sisters. Nonfiction selections include Arundhati Roy’s memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me and Sophie Elmhirst’s shipwreck history A Marriage at Sea.
Put all of that together and a few titles clearly have momentum on multiple fronts. Atmosphere shows up both on Amazon’s editors list and on other year end roundups like People’s best books selection.
Sunrise on the Reaping is not only a Goodreads favorite but also appears on best of the year lists from outlets such as Elle, which is a strong signal for holiday popularity.
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny has landed on the Times list and other critic driven rundowns, positioning it as one of the season’s most talked about literary novels.
So if you want to read what other people are actually reaching for right now, you have options.
Follow Amazon’s lead and pick up Buckeye or Atmosphere.
Trust millions of Goodreads voters and grab My Friends, Great Big Beautiful Life, or Sunrise on the Reaping.
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Or let the New York Times steer you toward The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny or Angel Down.
Any one of them will put you squarely in the middle of the conversation this holiday season.
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