This year in particular it feels hard to tell what is really worth buying, watching and reading. Especially as we sink deeper and deeper into our feeds, curated by the ever-powerful capital-A Algorithm.

That’s why the WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times arts and culture desk asked our colleagues to share their favorite new reads of 2025. Our staff of booky nerds (compliment!) cover all the bases of genre, from memoir and nonfiction to sci-fi and semi-autobiographical comics from a local graphic artist.

Did we miss one of your favorite books of the year? Let us know at arts@wbez.org and we may include your response in our weekly Green Room newsletter.

FICTION

“Near Flesh: Stories” by Katherine Dunn

This collection of short fiction is a great introduction to Katherine Dunn’s sometimes off-putting work and cuts to the heart of what’s great about the form. The stories gain traction and momentum as readers progress through the collection.

Each story presents a piercing, disaffected vision of the world before shifting gears, often with a jolt. My favorites that were particularly short: “Fanno Creek” and “The Flautist” are crisp and impress you with how much can be said in only a few pages. Longer stories like “In Transit,” “Rhonda Discovers Art” and the title story “Near Flesh” take you places — they really go there — that will shock you as much as they will make you laugh.

Moving, provocative and smart, this collection has a story of tenderness for even the most alienated among us. — Chase Browning, promotions producer 

“The Wilderness” by Angela Flournoy

“The Wilderness” starts with a Baby Boomer in his last days, reminding us of the U.S. segregation era, and ends with a tragedy of raids on migrants and unhoused people in California. Along the way, family and chosen family relationships evolve in the complex, unanticipated ways that human connections often do. This story is told with intention, dynamic form and wit. — Erin Allen, Curious City host/reporter

“Wanting” by Claire Jia

As someone in their late 20s staring down the impending prospect of entering my 30s, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on all the choices I’ve made in my life and all the choices to come. So, “Wanting” came at the perfect time for me. It’s loosely about two best friends who reconnect after growing up together in Beijing, China, and who drifted away from each other after one moved to the U.S. in high school.

When the latter, a successful lifestyle influencer, gets married and returns to Beijing, drama, envy and many surprises unfold. “Wanting” grapples with themes of friendship, romance and what it means to want what you don’t have. Also, it’s just a really refreshing and genuine take on what life in modern China looks like from an author who grew up in the Chicago suburbs and whose family is from Beijing. — Amy Qin, data reporter

“Katabasis” by R.F. Kuang

There’s a scene when the protagonist of “Katabasis” finds herself navigating a chaotic bazaar where there’s “stalls of writing accoutrements and productivity cures” — all meant to distract a soul from writing. “Hell is a writers’ market,” her guide tells her. As a writer who often laments my life choices, I can attest this is a true statement.

Alice, a doctoral candidate who studies Magick at Cambridge, has to go to hell with her rival to save the soul of their late adviser, whom they both despise but need so they can be successful magicians. This book is heavy on philosophy, maths (they are in England), game theory and other subjects that you never had to think about again after college, which sounds like Hell. But the book also dives deep into themes of identity, ambition, redemption and what you will do for the people you love. — Dorothy Hernandez, assistant features editor 

“What We Can Know” by Ian McEwan

I just travelled to Greece and Turkey, where I visited archeological sites that reminded me that empires can fall and disappear. This dystopian novel is similarly immersed and obsessed with the idea of history, specifically, what we can and choose to know about the past.

“What We Can Know” takes place 100 years from now. Two literary scholars are trying to track down the only existing copy of a legendary poem from 2014. Hunting through the past for this poem leads to them pondering how we are currently living and how our era’s crises — climate change, wars and the rise of technology — had catastrophic consequences for the future. Booker Prize winner Ian McEwen has created a powerful story that forces readers to question how we’re living today and how we’ll be judged by future generations. — Andrea Guthmann, part-time producer

“Loved One” by Aisha Muharrar

“Loved One” reads like a will-they-won’t-they romance, but the reader knows from the jump that they, in fact, won’t, because one of them is dead. Aisha Muharrar’s debut novel follows Julia and Gabe from their whirlwind teenage romance through their thick-as-thieves friendship in adulthood. Finally, after years of platonic companionship, the two finally tip the scales to potential romance. Julia is still figuring out what their hookup may mean when Gabe turns up dead.

The book follows Julia through the throes of grief, confusion about what could have been and attempt to make sense of a world without someone who was once a constant. Muharrar, who is known as a writer and producer on hit TV shows such as “Parks and Recreation” and “Hacks,” proves herself with an expert analysis on grief, the messiness of human relationships, the idea of the one that got away, female friendship and how to carry on after a shocking death. I’ll think about it for a long, long time. — Mary Norkol, general assignment reporter

“Death of the Author” by Nnedi Okorafor

Science fiction is not my go-to genre in literature. “Death of the Author” shattered that for me. It’s a story about humanity, the dangers of AI and robots. But it’s also a novel about a complicated family and love. The book toggles between the present and the future, Nigeria and familiar Chicago. “Death of the Author” breaks genres and shows us Africanfuturism. — Natalie Moore, columnist 

“Fundamentally” by Nussaibah Younis

“Fundamentally,” a book about the deradicalization of ISIS brides, was the funniest book I read this year. Author Nussaibah Younis tackles big topics, religion, radicalization, colonialism, family dynamics, with care and laugh-out-loud humor. The characters are funny, refreshingly unique and relatable. I hope that Younis’ book will continue to spark dialogue around hard questions that sometimes don’t have answers. — Cianna Greaves, senior producer, talk shows 

NON-FICTION

“This American Woman: A One-in-a-Billion Memoir” by Zarna Garg

Zarna Garg was born in India but fled to America after her dad arranged a marriage for her at age 14. She went on to get a law degree, marry a man whom she met by placing a personal ad and have three children. After being a stay-at-home mother for many years, her children encouraged her to try stand-up comedy (spoiler: She is hilarious!).

In 2018, she performed on stage for the first time, and by 2023, she was living her dream and opening for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Her story is truly inspirational, and hearing her read the audiobook gave me the opportunity to really feel all of the highs and lows of her story. — Kate Verrant, assistant general counsel

“Everything is Tuberculosis” by John Green

Before picking up this book, I had very little knowledge about the history of tuberculosis. John Green details the disease’s long (and very surprising) history, from the role it played in the creation of the Stetson hat to its impact on the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and how it affected Victorian beauty standards.

While the detailing of TB’s history is an interesting part of this book, the real impact of this book, for me, was the story of Henry, a child suffering from the disease in Sierra Leone. Henry’s story details the stigmatization of TB, as well as how the lack of resources in poorer countries makes what would be easily treatable in the U.S. a death sentence for many others. “Illness is not only a biomedical phenomenon, but also a constructed one,” Green writes, showing how so much of our ability to survive childhood is determined by the privilege of where we’re born and what we can do to change this. — Phyllis Cha, audience engagement specialist

“Night People: How to Be a DJ in ‘90s New York City” by Mark Ronson

Mark Ronson is an extremely successful, Grammy Award-winning artist, but in his memoir “Night People,” he reminds us that, at his core, he will always be a DJ first. From lugging crates full of vinyl to setting up equipment on a broken table in a random corner of a club, Ronson is a charming narrator guiding us through the chaos and excitement of New York City’s 1990s nightlife scene. It was a special time in music history — one of those “you just had to be there” eras — and Ronson takes us back, reminding us that the best parties and memories often happen after 4 a.m.

I loved this book because some of us are simply night people. We cannot escape the pull of the night and our obsession with music. Ronson also highlights my dear friend DJ Neva, who passed away in 2023, as part of the crew that meant a lot to him. May he rest in peace. — Nudia Hernandez, Vocalo host 

“A Beautiful Shame: One Team’s Fight for Survival in a New Era of College Sports” by Ryan Swanson

“A Beautiful Shame” chronicles the demise of the once-proud University of New Mexico men’s soccer team, and it echoes so much of what we’ve seen transform college sports into in the past few years. The Title IX gender-equity law. Lucrative marketing deals for the most talented young adults. Athletic department scandals and budget crunches at public institutions of higher learning. And transfer portals that send student-athletes pinging across the country for playing time.

This book is a strong reminder that there are dramas surrounding student-athletes and their coaches — and also stories of power and money at our state universities, which are public trusts and vast troughs of taxpayer dollars. That often should be covered by our dwindling bands of local journalists as aggressively as higher-profile levels of government and politics. — Dan Mihalopoulos, reporter

GRAPHIC

“Preparing to Bite” by Keiler Roberts

Evanston artist Keiler Roberts' latest collection of one-page comics finds big laughs in the minutiae of everyday life, though she’ll hit you with the occasional emotionally poignant frame. Mostly, it’s funny scenes with dogs and other family pets. It was all a great, quick escape during a general downer of a year. — Mitch Armentrout, reporter