National Public Radio (NPR) has released their Books We Love list for 2025. This is NPR’s annual, interactive, year-end reading guide. They compile their list by requesting staffers and trusted critics nominate their favorite books of the year. Then, the editors and producers at NPR Books sit down and select their favorites.
The books on the list fall within a variety of genres such as biographies, book club ideas, and nonfiction as well as the more traditional categories like mysteries and thrillers, and historical fiction.
The Texas Talking Book Program has a good number of the nonfiction titles in our collection. Contact us and we can help you find your next favorite book.
For more information check out the NPR website.
| A FLOWER TRAVELED IN MY BLOOD: THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY OF THE GRANDMOTHERS WHO FOUGHT TO FIND A STOLEN GENERATION OF CHILDREN by Haley Cohen Gilliland (DB 132040 IN PROCESS) |
| A MARRIAGE AT SEA: A TRUE STORY OF LOVE, OBSESSION, AND SHIPWRECK by Sophie Elmhirst (DB 131217) |
| ABUNDANCE by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (DB 128624) |
| ACTRESS OF A CERTAIN AGE: MY TWENTY-YEAR TRAIL TO OVERNIGHT SUCCESS by Jeff Hiller (DB 132547) |
| AVIATOR AND THE SHOWMAN: AMELIA EARHART, GEORGE PUTNAM, AND THE MARRIAGE THAT MADE AN AMERICAN ICON by Laurie Gwen Shapiro (DB 130989) |
| BALDWIN: A LOVE STORY by Nicholas Boggs (DB 131983 IN PROCESS) |
| BLACK IN BLUES: HOW A COLOR TELLS THE STORY OF MY PEOPLE by Imani Perry (DB 130763, LB 0001271) |
| BOOK OF ALCHEMY: A CREATIVE PRACTICE FOR AN INSPIRED LIFE by Suleika Jaouad (DB 131843 IN PROCESS) |
| BREAD OF ANGELS: A MEMOIR by Patti Smith (IN PROCESS) |
| BREAKNECK: CHINA’S QUEST TO ENGINEER THE FUTURE by Dan Wang (IN PROCESS) |
| CIA BOOK CLUB: THE SECRET MISSION TO WIN THE COLD WRA WITH FORBIDDEN LITERATURE by Charlie English (DB 131492 IN PROCESS) |
| CARELESS PEOPLE: A CAUTIONARY TALE OF POWER, GREED, AND LOST IDEALISM by Sarah Wynn-Williams (DB 128587) |
| CHANGE THE RECIPE: BECAUSE YOU CAN’T BUILD A BETTER WORLD WITHOUT BREAKING SOME EGGS by José Andrés (DB 129819) |
| CHOKEPOINTS: AMERICAN POWER IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC WARFARE by Edward Fishman (DB 128110) |
| CLAIRE MCCARDELL: THE DESIGNER WHO SET WOMEN FREE by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson (DB 130793) |
| DAUGHTERS OF THE BAMBOO GROVE: FROM CHINA TO AMERICA, A TRUE STORY OF ABDUCTION, ADOPTION, AND SEPARATED TWINS by Barbara Demick (DB 131346) |
| DEVIL REACHED TOWARD THE SKY: AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE MAKING AND UNLEASHING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB by Garrett M. Graff (DB 132078 IN PROCESS) |
| DESI ARNAZ: THE MAN WHO INVENTED TELEVISION by Todd S. Purdum (DB 130581) |
| DEEP HOUSE: THE GAYEST LOVE STORY EVER TOLD by Jeremy Atherton Lin (DB 131212) |
| EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS: THE HISTORY AND PERSISTENCE OF OUR DEADLIEST INFECTION by John Green (DB 128745) |
| EYES OF GAZA by Plestia Alaqad (IN PROCESS) |
| FATE OF THE DAY: THE WAR FOR AMERICA, FORT TICONDEROGA TO CHARLESTON, 1777-1780 by Rick Atkinson (DB 129522) |
| FEATHER DETECTIVE: MYSTERY, MAYHEM, AND THE MAGNIFICENT LIFE OF ROXIE LAYBOURNE by Chris Sweeney (DB 131862) |
| GIRL ON GIRL: HOW POP CULTURE TURNED A GENERATION OF WOMEN AGAINST THEMSELVES by Sophie Gilbert (DB 130145) |
| GLITZ, GLAM, AND A DAMN GOOD TIME: HOW MAMIE FISH, QUEEN OF THE GILDED AGE, PARTIED HER WAY TO POWER by Jennifer Wright (DB 132076 IN PROCESS) |
| GOLDEN ROAD: HOW ANCIENT INDIA TRANSFORMED THE WORLD by William Dalrymple (DB 129925) |
| THE HARDER I FIGHT THE MORE I LOVE YOU: A MEMOIR by Neko Case (DB 126981) |
| HELEN OF TROY, 1993: POEMS by Maria Zoccola (DB 128014) |
| HISTORY OF WE by Nikkolas Smith (IN PROCESS) |
| HOW TO SHARE AN EGG: A TRUE STORY OF HUNGER, LOVE, AND PLENTY by Bonny Reichert (DB 126900) |
| I REGRET ALMOST EVERYTHING: A MEMOIR by Keith McNally (DB 130596) |
| I’LL TELL YOU WHEN I’M HOME: A MEMOIR by Hala Alyan (DB 132033 IN PROCESS) |
| IS A RIVER ALIVE? by Robert MacFarlane (DB 130287) |
| JOHN AND PAUL: A LOVE STORY IN SONGS by Ian Leslie (DB 128704) |
| KILLING FIELDS OF EAST NEW YORK: THE FIRST SUBPRIME MORTGAGE SCANDAL, A WHITE-COLLAR CRIME SPREE, AND THE COLLAPSE OF AN AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOOD by Stacy Horn (DB 132001) |
| LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA: THE EDUCATION OF AN ARTIST by David Pollack-Pelzer (IN PROCESS) |
| LITTLE BOSSES EVERYWHERE: HOW THE PYRAMID SCHEME SHAPED AMERICA by Bridget Read (DB 129165) |
| LORNE: THE MAN WHO INVENTED SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE by Susan Morrison (DB 127333, BR IN PROCESS) |
| MEDICINE RIVER: A STORY OF SURVIVAL AND THE LEGACY OF INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOLS by Mary Annette Pember (DB 129679) |
| MEMORIAL DAYS by Geraldine Brooks (DB 127658, BR 26364 IN PROCESS, LB 0001491) |
| MOOD MACHINE: THE RISE OF SPOTIFY AND THE COSTS OF THE PERFECT PLAYLIST by Liz Pelly (DB 127671) |
| MOTHER EMANUEL: TWO CENTURIES OF RACE, RESISTANCE, AND FORGIVENESS IN ONE CHARLESTON CHURCH by Kevin Sack (DB 130279) |
| MOTHER MARY COMES TO ME by Arundhati Roy (IN PROCESS) |
| MURDERLAND: CRIME AND BLOODLUST IN THE TIME OF SERIAL KILLERS by Caroline Fraser (DB 129808) |
| NIGHT PEOPLE: HOW TO BE A DJ IN ‘90S NEW YORK CITY by Mark Ronson (IN PROCESS) |
| NOTE TO JOHN by Joan Didion (DB 129704, LB 0005725) |
| NOTHING MORE OF THIS LAND: COMMUNITY, POWER, AND THE SEARCH FOR INDIGENOUS IDENTITY by Joseph Lee (IN PROCESS) |
| ONE DAY, EVERYONE WILL HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AGAINST THIS by Omar El Akkad (DB 127850, LB 0001346) |
| PLACE OF TIDES by James Rebanks (DB 131482) |
| POETS SQUARE: A MEMOIR IN THIRTY CATS by Courtney Gustafson (DB 130250) |
| RAISING HARE: A MEMOIR by Chloe Dalton (DB 128243) |
| SECRET HISTORY OF THE RAPE KIT: A TRUE CRIME STORY by Pagan Kennedy (DB 126467) |
| STRATA: STORIES FROM DEEP TIME by Laura Poppick (DB 131355 IN PROCESS) |
| TECHNOLOGICAL REPUBLIC: HARD POWER, SOFT BELIEF, AND THE FUTURE OF THE WEST by Alexander C. Karp (DB 127331) |
| THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US: WORKING AND HOMELESS IN AMERICA by Brian Goldstone (DB 128877) |
| THINGS IN NATURE MERELY GROW by Yiyun Li (DB 130140) |
| TONI AT RANDOM: THE ICONIC WRITER’S LEGENDARY EDITORSHIP by Dana A. Williams (DB 130950) |
| THE TRAGEDY OF TRUE CRIME: FOUR GUILTY MEN AND THE STORIES THAT DEFINE US by John J. Lennon (IN PROCESS) |
| UNFIT PARENT: A DISABLED MOTHER CHALLENGES AN INACCESSIBLE WORLD by Jessica Slice (DB 129934) |
| WAITING ON THE MOON: ARTISTS, POETS, DRIFTERS, GRIFTERS, AND GODDESSES by Peter Wolf (DB 130506) |
| WATER MIRROR ECHO: BRUCE LEE AND THE MAKING OF ASIAN AMERICA by Jeff Chang (IN PROCESS) |
| WE THE PEOPLE: A HISTORY OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION by Jill Lepore (IN PROCESS) |
| WHEN THEH GOING WAS GOOD: AN EDITOR’S ADVENTURES DURING THE LAST GOLDEN AGE OF MAGAZINES by Graydon Carter with James Fox (DB 128116) |
| WHO IS GOVERNMENT? THE UNTOLD STORY OF PUBLIC SERVICE by Michael Lewis (DB 127994, LB 0005774) |
| YOU DIDN’T HEAR THIS FROM ME: (MOSTLY) TRUE NOTES ON GOSSIP by Kelsey McKinney (DB 128250) |