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A running ranking of the year's best books


The Best Books of 2025…So Far: Live!
A running tally of the books that I have reviewed this year, updated and reranked after each book that I finish.

Greg Barlin
6 days ago5 min read


What Kind of Paradise
★★★★★ A girl grows up in a remote cabin in Montana with just her father, whose distrust of technology and government grows with each passing year.

Greg Barlin
May 303 min read


Broken Country
★★★★★ A small town, a love triangle, a murder, and a trial form the foundation of this twisty, emotional novel set in mid-1900s England.

Greg Barlin
May 224 min read


You Are Here
★★★★★ A sweet and heartfelt story about finding love when you least expect it, told with a distinctly British cheekiness and sense of humor.

Greg Barlin
May 152 min read


The Anxious Generation
★★★★★ A thoroughly researched exploration of the rise in mental illness among Gen Z, paired with several suggestions for how we can fix it.

Greg Barlin
May 114 min read


The Wishing Game
★★★★★ A teacher's aide who dreams of adopting a young boy from her school competes in a contest for the sole copy of a reclusive author's new book.

Greg Barlin
Apr 253 min read


Sunrise on the Reaping
★★★★★ Collins returns to give us the origin story of Haymitch Abernathy in a way that might make this the best Hunger Games novel to-date.

Greg Barlin
Apr 153 min read


Throwback
★★★★★ Goo's sweet time travel tale sees a 17-year-old from 2025 transported back to 1995 to try to help her own mother win homecoming queen.

Greg Barlin
Apr 144 min read


Wild Dark Shore
★★★★★ When a woman washes ashore on a remote island, the lone family living there nurses her back to health. But both parties have secrets...

Greg Barlin
Apr 123 min read


Dead Money
★★★★★ Kerr's mature and tightly-plotted debut follows the murder investigation of the founder of a fictitious tech company in San Francisco.

Greg Barlin
Mar 83 min read


Dirtbag Queen
★★★★★ Sparked by a viral obituary, this unlikeliest of memoirs introduces us to the crazy Corren family and their larger-than-life mother.

Greg Barlin
Feb 84 min read


Onyx Storm
★★★★★ The most anticipated book of 2025 mostly delivers, as author Yarros continues the Empyrean series and Violet Sorrengail's evolution.

Greg Barlin
Feb 35 min read


Foster
★★★★★ A quick 50-page read, the story of a young girl who is delivered by her father to stay with a family in a neighboring town in Ireland.

Greg Barlin
Jan 262 min read


The Best Books of 2024
My "Best Books of 2024", ranked #1 through #67.

Greg Barlin
Dec 31, 202417 min read


Lost Man's Lane
★★★★★ Set in 1999, a coming-of-age story about a high schooler who finds himself embroiled in a supernatural missing persons investigation.

Greg Barlin
Dec 30, 20244 min read


James
★★★★★ More than a retelling of "Huck Finn" from the point of view of Jim, this is a brilliant treatise on race and slavery in 1860s America.

Greg Barlin
Dec 29, 20244 min read


All the Colors of the Dark
★★★★★ Whitaker delivers another masterpiece of character development while tackling several tough topics -- a challenging but uplifting read

Greg Barlin
Dec 28, 20245 min read


The Mayor of Maxwell Street
★★★★★ Skillful dialogue and prose adorn this debut that combines a love story with the search for a mysterious gangster in 1920s Chicago.

Greg Barlin
Dec 27, 20245 min read


The Will of the Many
★★★★★ A truly excellent start to a trilogy about an orphan who infiltrates an Academy for societal elites in order to uncover a conspiracy.

Greg Barlin
Dec 26, 20243 min read


Open
★★★★★ Among the best autobiographies I have read, Andre Agassi shares an honest account in vivid detail of his life in tennis (and beyond).

Greg Barlin
Dec 25, 20244 min read
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