25 Highly-Anticipated Books to Read in 2025

Looking forward to a year of big ideas.

Nonfiction lovers rejoice—this is going to be one heck of a year. From technology to climate action, from psychology to the art of storytelling, 2025 is scheduled to bring groundbreaking books from all kinds of fascinating fields. And this particular list only takes us through May! Read on to discover 25 forthcoming books that we can’t wait to read this year.

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January

Aflame: Learning from Silence

By Pico Ayer

From the bestselling author of The Art of Stillness comes a revelatory exploration of the abiding clarity and calm to be found in quiet retreat. View on Amazon

Against Platforms: Surviving Digital Utopia

By Mike Pepi

A bold and imaginative critique of the hidden costs of digital life—and a manifesto for a better future. View on Amazon

How to Be Enough: Self-Acceptance for Self-Critics and Perfectionists

By Ellen Hendriksen

A clinical psychologist charts a flexible, forgiving, and freeing path through the traps of perfectionism, all without giving up the excellence your high standards and hard work have gotten you. View on Amazon

Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working

By Dan Heath

A revolutionary guide to fixing what’s not working—in systems and processes, organizations and companies, and even in our daily lives—by identifying leverage points and concentrating resources to achieve our goals. View on Amazon

Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future

By Reid Hoffman and Greg Beato

While acknowledging challenges like disinformation and potential job changes, this book focuses on AI’s immense potential to increase individual agency and create better outcomes for society as a whole. View on Amazon

Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart

By Nicholas Carr

With rich psychological insights and vivid examples drawn from history and science, Superbloom provides both a panoramic view of how media shapes society and an intimate examination of the fate of the self in a time of radical dislocation. View on Amazon

February

The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life

By Sophia Rosenfeld

Drawing on a wealth of sources ranging from novels and restaurant menus to the latest scientific findings about choice in psychology and economics, The Age of Choice urges us to rethink the meaning of choice and its promise and limitations in modern life. View on Amazon

Bye Bye I Love You: The Story of Our First and Last Words

By Michael Erard

A beautiful and intimate exploration of first and last words—and the many facets of how language begins and ends—from a pioneering language writer. View on Amazon

Climate Justice: What Rich Nations Owe the World―and the Future

By Cass Sunstein

Invoking principles of corrective justice and distributive justice, a renowned legal scholar argues that rich countries should pay for the climate change-related harms that they have caused, and that all of us are obliged to take steps to protect future generations from serious damage. View on Amazon

The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing

By Mary-Frances O’Connor

A celebrated grief expert, neuroscientist, and psychologist shares a follow-up to The Grieving Brain, this time focusing on the impact of grief—and life’s other major stressors—on the human body. View on Amazon

How to Win at Travel

By Brian Kelly

Turn your wanderlust into reality with expert strategies from the founder of The Points Guy—the leading voice in travel and loyalty programs—with this ultimate resource for everything from leveraging airline and credit card points to planning your dream itinerary. View on Amazon

Memorial Days: A Memoir

By Geraldine Brooks

A heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey towards peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Horse. View on Amazon

Shift: Managing Your Emotions—So They Don’t Manage You

By Ethan Kross

A myth-busting, science-based guide that addresses the timeless question of how to manage your emotional life using tools you already possess—from the bestselling author of Chatter. View on Amazon

Source Code: My Beginnings

By Bill Gates

The origin story of one of the most influential and transformative business leaders and philanthropists of the modern age. View on Amazon

Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird: The Art of Eastern Storytelling

By Henry Lien

An introduction to Eastern storytelling that opens readers’ minds to radically different ways of telling a satisfying story. View on Amazon

March

Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

By John Green

The #1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and passionate advocate for global healthcare reform tells a deeply human story as he illuminates the fight against the world’s deadliest infectious disease. View on Amazon

The Explorer’s Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map

By Alex Hutchinson

The New York Times-bestselling author of Endure returns with a fresh, provocative investigation into how exploration, uncertainty, and risk shape our behavior and help us find meaning. View on Amazon

Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change

By Olga Khazan

Is it really possible to change your entire personality in a year? An award-winning journalist experiments with her own personality to find out—and reveals the science behind lasting change. View on Amazon

The Next Conversation: Argue Less, Talk More

By Jefferson Fisher

The Next Conversation will give you practical phrases that will lead to powerful results, from breaking down defensiveness in a hard talk with a family member to finding your own assertive voice at the boardroom conference table. View on Amazon

When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines

By Graydon Carter

From the pages of Vanity Fair to the red carpets of Hollywood, an acclaimed editor’s memoir revives the glamorous heyday of print magazines when they were at the vanguard of American culture. View on Amazon

April

Hope Dies Last: Visionary People Across the World, Fighting to Find Us a Future

By Alan Weisman

In this profoundly human and moving narrative, the bestselling author of The World Without Us returns with a book ten years in the making: a study of what it means to be a human on the front lines of our planet’s existential crisis. View on Amazon

Like: The Button That Changed the World

By Martin Reeves and Bob Goodson

A riveting, insider’s look at the creation and evolution of the like button, and what it reveals about business, technology, innovation, and us. View on Amazon

The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward

By Melinda French Gates

The Next Day offers guidance on how to make the most of the time between an ending and a new beginning, and how to move forward into the next day when the ground beneath you is shifting. View on Amazon

May

Mark Twain

By Ron Chernow

A Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer illuminates the full, fascinating, and complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American literature. View on Amazon

Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age

By Amanda Hess

A beloved New York Times critic confronts technology’s phantom traumas and seductive idols as they follow her through pregnancy and into her son’s young life, revealing the unspoken ways our lives are being fractured and reconstituted by technology. View on Amazon