With 2025 in full swing, a fresh wave of books is set to hit shelves and make their way into your hands—or, more realistically, your ever-growing to-be-read pile that only seems to get taller each year. (Is it just me?)
There’s no such thing as too many great books, but the list of upcoming releases is truly overwhelming. Fiction lovers have a lot to look forward to, with novels by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ocean Vuong, and Emily Henry, along with debut works from Aria Aber and Maggie Su. In nonfiction, expect explorations of everything from the symbolism of the Y2K era to the consequences of commodified attention. And if memoirs are your thing, there’s no shortage of highly anticipated titles, including works by Tina Knowles, Brooke Shields, Haley Mlotek, and Carla Sosenko.
Ahead, we’ve rounded up the most-anticipated reads of 2025 so far. Keep reading to discover them all, and stay tuned for updates throughout the year.
Mood Machine, by Liz Pelly (January 7)
If you’re obsessed with Spotify’s annual Wrapped event, then this new offering from music journalist Liz Pelly deserves a place on your bookshelf. Through more than a hundred interviews with industry insiders, Spotify employees, and musicians, Pelly explores how streaming services and their algorithms have irrevocably changed how we listen to and consume music.
We Do Not Part, by Han Kang (January 21)
In this new English translation of We Do Not Part, by Han Kang, the 2024 Nobel Prize winner in literature, a woman named Kyungha is faced with a strange task at the request of a hospitalized friend. Kyungha must venture to her friend’s home on Jeju Island in the middle of a snowstorm in order to save her beloved pet bird, Ama. The saga blows open the lid on a long-forgotten chapter of Korean history, celebrating the resiliency of life in the face of immense tragedy.
No Fault, by Haley Mlotek (February 18)
After getting married to and then divorcing her partner of 12 years, Haley Mlotek returned to the concept of marriage with more questions than answers. She tinkers away at those curiosities in her debut memoir, which reexamines the purpose of modern divorces. Blending research, reporting, and personal anecdotes, she deftly identifies what links the intimately personal with the macro political in all romantic relationships.
My Name Is Emilia del Valle, by Isabel Allende (May 6)
Bestselling author Isabel Allende has crafted yet another spellbinding narrative in My Name Is Emilia del Valle, a historical novel about self-discovery, ambition, and destiny. In the late 19th century, San Francisco Examiner reporter Emilia del Valle jumps at the opportunity to travel to Chile in order to cover the brewing civil war. But once she arrives, work is only one of her worries, as she begins to unspool the threads between her own identity and the homeland of her unknown father.
I’ll Look So Hot in a Coffin, by Carla Sosenko (May 6)
If you couldn’t already tell from the title, Carla Sosenko is raw, vulnerable, and utterly hilarious in I’ll Look So Hot in a Coffin, in which she explores her relationship to her body as someone born with Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome, a rare vascular disorder that affects blood vessels, soft tissues, and bones. From getting liposuction at eight years old to navigating the thorny rise of Ozempic, Sosenko isn’t afraid to completely bare herself in this candid and celebratory memoir.