What KC couldn't stop reading last year
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Winter is for reading, those bitterly cold days beckoning a good book and a cozy couch, and the most popular books of 2025 are in thanks to our local libraries.
The big picture: These annual roundups tell us what local folks are reading — and they give us great ideas for our own lists this year.
Zoom in: These are the most checked-out books at the Kansas City Public Library in 2025.
- Fantasy: "Onyx Storm" by Rebecca Yarros
- Romance: "Great, Big, Beautiful Life" by Emily Henry
- Literary fiction: "My Friends" by Fredrik Backman
- Horror and thriller: "The Crash" by Freida McFadden
- Historical fiction: "Atmosphere" by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Nonfiction: "Careless People" by Sarah Wynn-Williams
- Young adult: "Sunrise on the Reaping" by Suzanne Collins
Zoom out: KCPL's list also includes "best of" choices, voted on by readers and staff surveys.
- Mid-Continent Public Library's massive Best of 2025 compilation includes categories like kids, teens, audiobooks and graphic novels.
- And the staff at Rainy Day Books, whose owners tell Axios they collectively read 1,000 titles a year, released a list of their 2025 favorites.
Abbey's picks
The books that stuck with me last year all had a slightly offbeat confidence and something to say.
🕯️ "Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead" by Emily Austin: A darkly comic novel about anxiety, grief and pretending you're fine. It's sad, very funny and unsettling in a way that feels honest.
📖 "Friends of Dorothy" by Sandi Toksvig: A sharp, funny history of queer life in Britain, told with humor and warmth. It's the kind of book that teaches you something without ever feeling like work.
🧙 "Everyone in Town Knows Your Mother Is a Witch" by Rivka Galchen: A slim, clever novel set during a 17th-century witch trial that uses wit and restraint to show how fear and gossip spiral. It's quick, smart and surprisingly modern.
Travis' picks
The books I rated the highest on Goodreads last year were "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel — an apocalyptic book set after a pandemic kills most of the population — and "Shark Heart" by Emily Habeck, about a woman and her husband who is turning into a shark.
- If I'm being honest, the book I got most invested in was "Wind and Truth," the fifth book in Brandon Sanderson's "Stormlight Archive" series.
- It's incredibly long and unwieldy, and there are apparently five more to come, but I just couldn't put it down.
We want to know: What should we put on our reading list this year? Reply to this email and tell us.