Welcome to Episode 252, where we share LISTENER TOP TEN READS of 2025! In past years, there hasn’t been much of a spread between the first and second place books on the list. But this year there is a 15-point spread between the first and second books! As usual, the first-place book was a novel, but the second-place book was nonfiction—a first ever for that. Usually, nonfiction doesn’t show up until well into the list’s mid-teens. Thanks to everyone who shared their top tens– you help grow our TBR lists! Reminder that we have a Top 10 shelf on our Bookshop.org page for purchase and for you to learn more about each of the books.

We also talk about our 2026 Reading Intentions. These are often works in progress, which is a good thing, because after recording, we both realized we had forgotten a couple of intentions.

It had been a longer-than-usual time span since we last recorded a regular episode, so we had some catching up to do in our “Just Read” segment, which includes:

BETH IS DEAD by Katie Bernet
PRACTICAL MAGIC by Alice Hoffman
A BACKWARD GLANCE by Edith Wharton
BODYWORK: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos
POSTMORTEM and BODY OF EVIDENCE by Patricia Cornwell
THE AUTHOR WEEKEND by Laura Zigman (release date 5/5/2026)
A TANGLE OF OBSIDIAN by Lydia M. Hawke
THEO OF GOLDEN by Allen Levi

We had some wonderful Couch Biblio Adventures, but we also managed to get out into the world. Emily visited Slackline Press in Branford, Connecticut, and Davoll’s General Store in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where she saw Catherine Newman in conversation with Emily Franklin. Chris was in Huntsville, Alabama, and visited The Snail on the Wall bookstore, named after Virginia Woolf’s short story, “The Mark on the Wall.” She also checked out the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library.

Happy listening, take care of yourself, and stay safe out there. Until next time, we wish you lots of Happy Reading!