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A running ranking of the year's best books


The Best Books of 2025
A running tally of the books that I have reviewed this year, updated and reranked after each book that I finish. Explore the latest reviews and discover hidden gems with insights from BarlinsBooks, your literary companion for top new releases.
Greg Barlin
18 hours ago12 min read


The Correspondent
★★★★★ An innovative character study in which an aging woman's life story is revealed through the letters she writes and receives from a myriad of people.
Greg Barlin
2 days ago4 min read


The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest
★★★★★ A children's book about life's most difficult subject—death—told with compassion, humor and grace at a level on par (or above) any adult literature.
Greg Barlin
3 days ago4 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
4 days ago4 min read


Atmosphere
★★★★★ Filled with tragedy, perseverance, and love, the novel focuses on the fictional first women in the NASA space program in the early 1980s.
Greg Barlin
5 days ago4 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
6 days ago4 min read


King of Ashes
★★★★★ Edgy, violent, and dark, Cosby's latest sees a successful money manager sucked into working for a sadistic gang in order to save his brother.
Greg Barlin
7 days ago4 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
Dec 203 min read
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