2025 WEPL Staff Favorite Reads 

As 2025 comes to a close, we wanted to reflect on some of our favorites of 2025. Over the course of the next few blogs, we will recap our favorite reads, favorite movies and TV shows, what we listened to on repeat, and the games we played. Keep reading to see what our favorite books of this year were- you may find your next read! 

Picture Books 

• Pokko and the Drum by Matthew Forsythe 

Fiction 

• The Briar Club by Kate Quinn 

• Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series by Rick Riordan 

• The Unraveling of Julia by Lisa Scottoline 

• Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry 

• Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros 

• In Death Series by JD Robb 

• Mate by Ali Hazelwood 

• Cash by Jessica Peterson 

• Rose in Chains by Julie Soto 

• God of Malice by Rina Kent 

• Wolf.e by Paisley Hope 

• Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins 

• The Lilac People by Milo Todd 

• Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab 

• Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross 

• We are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter 

• Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez 

• Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix 

• Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman 

• Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree 

• Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes 

• Quicksilver by Callie Hart 

• Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang 

• To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage 

• The Mad Wife by Meagan Church 

• We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin 

• Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley 

• The Women by Kristin Hannah 

• The Jackal’s Mistress by Chris Bohjalian 

• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt 

• The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by  Kristin Harmel 

• Weyward by Emilia Hart 

• The Secret Keeper of Main Street by Trisha R. Thomas 

• Tough Luck by Sandra Dallas 

• The Queen of Fives by Alex Hay 

• The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes 

• This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger 

• The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johston  

• The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis 

• The Jackal’s Mistress by Chris Bohjalian 

• The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict 

• Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy   

• A Tarnished Canvas by Anna Lee Huber 

• The Crowns of Nyaxia Series by Carissa Broadbent 

• Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson 

• Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica 

• One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston 

• Butcher by Joyce Carol Oates 

• Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon 

• The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica 

• Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen 

Nonfiction 

• Make
    
• Lonely Planet Toilets of the World: 100 Strange and Spectacular Thrones, Commodes, Loos, and Latrines by Lonely Planet
  
  
• A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan

• Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown by Candace Fleming 

• Cats of the World by Hannah Shaw 

• Baking Yesteryear : the Best Recipes from the 1900s to the 1980s by  B. Dylan Hollis 

• Deify : a Mythical Solo Role-Playing Game by Allyson D’Antonio 

• Dark and Dramatic Mosaic Crochet by Alexis Sixel 

• American Poison by Daniel Stone 

• There is No Place For Us by Brian Goldstone 

• Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America by Beth Macy 

• The Indie Rock Poster Book by Andy J. Miller and the Yellow Bird Project 

• The Pleasures of Wintering: Winter-Inspired Rituals for Rejuvenation, Serenity, and Joy by Erin Niimi Longhurst 

Graphic Novels 

• Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath 

• Raised by Ghosts by Briana Loewinsohn 

• The Night Mother by Jeremy Lambert 

• Under the Oak Tree: The Comic, Vol.1 & 2 by Suji Kim 

• Critical Role: Smiley Day!: A Good Advice Book from Your Favorite Robot Therapist by Sam Rigel 

• Night School By Svetlana Chmakova 

• Adulthood is a Gift by Sarah Andersen 

Manga 

• Outsiders, Tome 1 by Akira Kanou 

• Yakuza Fiancé Vol. 1-8 by Asuka Konishi