All Points West December 2025: Best Books of the Year

Explore the best books of 2025 as read by GVPL staff and recommended by librarian Brooklyn during CBC's All Points West with Jason D'Souza

Updated December 10, 2025
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The animal people choose a leader
Wagamese, Richard
Paper Book
Accompanied by award-winning illustrator Bridget George's luminous artwork, this tradition-steeped story from renowned author Richard Wagamese meditates on the unifying powers of wisdom, kindness and respect with all the visionary clarity of our most essential legends. The unmistakable...
Bury our bones in the midnight soil
Schwab, Victoria
Paper Book
ALL first edition copies will be signed by the author! Signed copies available while supplies last. "Unmissable... Nobody can write like V. E. Schwab" --Jodi Picoult #1 New York Times bestseller * #1 USA Today bestseller * #1...
We Could Be Rats: A Novel
Austin, Emily
Paper Book
Instant Bestseller A moving story about two very different sisters, and a love letter to childhood, growing up, and the power of imagination--from the bestselling author of Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead and Interesting Facts About Space.<...
Slow dance : a novel
Rowell, Rainbow
Paper Book
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From #1 New York Times bestselling author Rainbow Rowell comes Slow Dance--her smartest, funniest, most powerful novel yet  "If you, like me, think thirty-somethings methodically working through their issues...
Bear : a novel
Phillips, Julia
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * From the celebrated author of Disappearing Earth comes a tale of family, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods--"a mesmerizing story about hope, sisterhood, and survival with a truly shocking twist at the end" (People, Book of the Week). ...
Pageboy a memoir
Page, Elliot
Digital file
Stone yard devotional
Wood, Charlotte
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR A WASHINGTON POST TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR A LOS ANGELES TIMES TOP FIFTEEN BOOK OF THE YEAR Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, a novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be good, from the award...
We have always been here : a queer Muslim memoir
Habib, Samra
Paper Book
Samra Habib has spent most of her life searching for the safety to be herself. The men in her life wanted to police her, the women had only shown her the example of pious obedience, and her body was a problem to be solved. A triumphant memoir of forgiveness and family, both chosen and not, We Have...
On the calculation of volume. I
Balle, Solvej
Paper Book
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2024 A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK OF 2024 SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE Tara Selter, the heroine of On the Calculation of Volume, has involuntarily stepped off...
Tomboy survival guide
Coyote, Ivan E.
Paper Book
Ivan Coyote is a celebrated storyteller and the author of ten previous books, including Gender Failure (with Rae Spoon) and One in Every Crowd, a collection for LGBT youth. Tomboy Survival Guide is a funny and moving memoir told in stories, about how they learned to embrace their tomboy past while...
Brownstone
Teer, Samuel
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PRINTZ AWARD A Harvey Award Nominee! An Indie Next List Selection! A Kirkus Reviews Best Book! A Publishers Weekly Best Book! A 2025 CBC Best Children's Book of the Year selection! "Angsty. Awkward. With a scrappy...
The emperor of gladness : a novel
Vuong, Ocean
Paper Book
The instant New York Times bestseller * Oprah's Book Club Pick * Named a Best Book of 2025 by TIME, The New Yorker, USA Today, NPR, People, Christian Science Monitor, Scientific American, and Kirkus Reviews * A 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for...
The husbands : a novel
Gramazio, Holly
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK | AN NPR BOOKS WE LOVE PICK FOR 2024 | A CHATELAINE BEST BOOK OF SPRING 2024 This exuberant debut, praised by Gabrielle Zevin as a "time-bending gem," asks: how do we navigate life, love and...
The library book
Orlean, Susan
Paper Book
A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICK A WASHINGTON POST TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR * A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 "A constant pleasure to read...Everybody who loves books...
The bright sword : a novel of King Arthur
Grossman, Lev
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A New York Times Editors' Choice * The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Magicians Trilogy and "master storyteller" (New York Times) returns with a triumphant reimagining of the King Arthur legend for the new millennium Los...
James : a novel
Everett, Percival
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view * In development as a feature film to be...

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