The Best Books of Summer 2025

Maybe you will be reading on the beach this summer. (Clichéd, but for a reason.)

Maybe you will be in a hammock. (We usually find hammocks to be better in theory than in practice, but they’re not bad.)

Or in an Adirondack chair, or on a boat, or on your sofa before everyone else is up or after they’re all in bed. Maybe you’re on your first cup of coffee, or your second dark and stormy, depending on what time it is.

You can take care of all that. The question is, what are you reading? For that, we have you covered. Most readers wait for Esquire’s Big Annual Summer Reading List the way they wait for Christmas or their birthday, and it’s finally here. For summer 2025, we asked the experts we trust most: people who own, manage, and buy books for some of America’s best independent bookstores. These people know every book that’s coming out at every time of year, and they stock their shelves with what they think you’ll love.

So, walk in—virtually, in this case—and allow these book lovers to guide you to your next great read.

Darwin Ellis, co-owner of Books on the Common (Ridgefield, Connecticut)

The Doorman, by Chris Pavone

Behind a modest, unassuming title, Pavone has hidden another stimulating thriller of the same octane as his previous works, including The Expats and Two Nights in Lisbon. A chic, old-style apartment building on Central Park West furnishes the raw material for the action. It holds tenants from the ultrarich to the struggling rich—plus the building staff who are scraping by. An intimate glimpse into the unsung lives of service people in daily contact with plutocrats while living on different strata, until events force a shared moment of existence. An engaging page-turner in the vein of Bonfire of the Vanities with plenty of hints and red herrings to keep readers off-balance.

So Far Gone, by Jess Walter

A book for our times. Walter captures the divisions in our society with a mash-up of family dysfunction, right-wing fundamentalist wackos, Native American sidelining, gun rights, and vigilantism set in the Pacific Northwest. All is seen through the lens of Rhys, a washed-up newspaper reporter, failed husband, and father. After an eventful/destructive Thanksgiving dinner with his daughter and her family, Rhys throws away his cell phone and storms off to live alone in the woods to try to understand it all … until his grandchildren come looking for him. Serious and sad topics masterfully written with inventive humor and a whiff of hope.

Richard Howorth and Cody Morrison, owner and manager of Square Books (Oxford, Mississippi)

Murderland, by Caroline Fraser

Pulitzer prize and National Book Award winner Fraser has outdone herself, and just about everyone else in the true-crime genre, with Murderland. Set mainly in the Pacific Northwest, the book makes a convincing connection between the towering smokestack emissions from mineral smelters and the excessive rate of serial murders in the late 20th century. Fraser bird-dogs the trails of the Green River killer, Ted Bundy, the I-5 killer, the Hillside Strangler, and others, leading the way with splendid research. Look for Murderland to garner Fraser new awards.

Daikon, by Samuel Hawley

What if there were not two but three atomic bombs delivered to the Pacific, and what if one of these bombs found its way into the hands of the Japanese? Hawley’s debut novel takes this startling premise as the framework for a suspenseful tale of love and intrigue set in Japan during the closing days of World War II.

Tracy Taylor, co-owner of Elliott Bay Book Company (Seattle)

The Dry Season, by Melissa Febos

After a catastrophic two-year relationship, Febos decided to take a break: For three months she would abstain from dating, relationships, and sex. She found it more difficult than expected but also began to rediscover the joys of being single. She extended this self-imposed abstinence to a year, which gave her a newfound freedom and a chance to reset her path.

Emperor of Gladness, by Ocean Vuong

We couldn’t be more excited about this new novel from Vuong, one of our most gifted writers and poets today. A young man on the verge of taking his life is stopped by an elderly woman, who is herself in the throes of dementia. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to transform Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community on the brink. It’s the mix of storytelling and magnificent prose that makes this one of the novels we have been anticipating for over a year.

Joe Castro, manager of the Last Bookstore (Los Angeles)

Victory ’45, by James Holland and Al Murray

The latest (and last?) book in Holland’s series about World War II, Victory ’45 tells the story of the end of war in six surrenders between May and September 1945. I love reading about World War II (Band of Brothers is a particular favorite), and I’m looking forward to Holland’s analysis.

David Coupaud, owner of Peregrine Book Company (Prescott, Arizona)

Is a River Alive?, by Robert Macfarlane

You might recognize the author’s name from 2019’s Underland, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Expect Is a River Alive? to be on nonfiction lists this year—and take this as your opportunity to engage with it right away. We sell a lot of science and nature books in our community, and Macfarlane’s accessible, poetic descriptions will transport you along with him to rivers in Canada, India, and Ecuador as he argues that rivers are as deserving of our attention and protection as any living being. The next time you set foot in nature, the sense of awe and reverence he crafts will be right there with you.

Alex Schaffner, community engagement coordinator of Brookline Booksmith (Brookline, Massachusetts)

Salutation Road, by Salma Ibrahim

Literary novels with speculative elements are having a moment, and it’s a moment of ingenuity, intrigue, and beauty. Ibrahim’s writing, sentence by sentence, is textured, original, and worth savoring. She explores immigration and family and, through alternate realities, the way a single change can lead to a totally different life.

Sharing in the Groove, by Mike Ayers

An oral history of jam bands. Music writing is digging in deep to the ’90s and aughts right now, and oral histories of musical movements are wonderful at bringing the community and energy of music to the page. Features bands like Phish, Dave Matthews Band, Blues Traveler, and more.

The Salt Stones, by Helen Whybrow

Whybrow suggests that we need to pay more attention to the world around us, and she does it—very effectively—through writing about sheep farming in Vermont. Spare prose, great storytelling. The ongoing popularity of James Rebanks’s A Shepherd’s Life gives readers a place to go next. Or read it first!

The Great Mann, by Kyra Davis Lurie

I’m all in favor of a Great Gatsby retelling, and this one goes at it by way of a Black man in 1940s Los Angeles. Lurie’s prose is rugged and unflinching and will pull you right along—and, fortunately for us, goes on a little longer than the original.

Michelle Tuplin, owner of Serendipity Books (Chelsea, Michigan)

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, by V.E. Schwab

Lush, Gothic, historical fiction meets fierce, queer longing. Genre defying, this pick has elements for fans of history, fantasy, romance, and literature alike, intertwining three stories across three ages, three continents, and three once-dead women. Cruel and brilliant, this irresistible pick will haunt the reader through the very last page.

From the Esquire Subcommittee on Summer Reading

The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century, by Tim Weiner

A riveting, must-read, deeply reported continuation of Weiner’s Pulitzer prize winner, Legacy of Ashes.

Next to Heaven, by James Frey

… will be the novel on every beach towel this summer, all summer, everywhere. Because sex and murder, yes. And because Frey could always tell a great story.

To Lose a War: The Fall and Rise of the Taliban, by Jon Lee Anderson

From an unimpeachable reporter and unparalleled chronicler of war and revolution, an essential story of Afghanistan.

Fox, by Joyce Carol Oates

Charming but mysterious English teacher … dead body … dogged detective … deep questions about what it means to be human … and Oates. Yes please.

Baddest Man: The Making of Mike Tyson, by Mark Kriegel

Kriegel—grizzled newspaperman, ace ESPN analyst, boxing sage—has written a powerhouse page-turner on the endlessly fascinating former heavyweight champ.