We asked some of our favorite culture creators and consumers to curate personal best-of lists for 2025; to get ahead on next year’s stack, sign up for Dua Lipa’s monthly book-club newsletter at Service95.
1. Miranda July, All Fours
All Fours features the wildest and most untethered narrator I’ve come across this year. She’s imperfect, uncensored, and completely unashamed, and I loved her for it.
2. Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, The Son of Man (translated by Frank Wynne)
The intensity of this father-son story borders on overbearing, with violence constantly threatening to break the surface. But the precision and beauty of Del Amo’s writing creates a kind of wonder. It’s mesmerizing.
3. George Saunders, Pastoralia
I try and read a George Saunders book every year. This short story collection has everything I admire about his writing—it’s inventive and quirky and has all the humor and humanity that we’ve come to expect from him.
4. Guadalupe Nettel, Still Born (translated by Rosalind Harvey)
Two friends make a commitment to remain child-free forever. One has a change of heart, and her journey to motherhood is far from straightforward. This is a story about the many different ways to be a family, and it made me reflect on what an honor it is to care for someone you truly love.
5. Vincent Delecroix, Small Boat (translated by Helen Stevenson)
This book had a profound impact on me. It tells the true story of the death at sea of 29 migrants attempting to make the journey across the English Chanel. It steadfastly refuses to allow any political spin or offer any kind of judgment.
6. Helen Garner, How to End a Story
I interviewed Helen Garner for my Service95 Book Club and I became obsessed with her. I love her Aussie directness, but she’s also one of the most empathetic people I’ve ever met. She describes these diaries, which detail the collapse of her marriage, as ‘bare-knuckle’.
7. Mark Ronson, Night People
I knew my friend Mark was a genius in the studio, so to find he is also a pretty fine writer is an added joy. Reading this book makes me want to hit the clubs and dance all night.
8. Funmi Fetto, Hail Mary
This collection of nine short stories, all written with warmth and love, follows nine very different Nigerian women as they question their culture, societal expectations, and their faith.
9. Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend
I could easily read My Brilliant Friend every year. It chronicles a lifelong friendship between two girls as they grow into adulthood and late middle age. It is also the story of a city and a country going through momentous change.
10. Tommy Orange, There There
There There follows 12 ‘Urban Indians’ living modern lives in American cities. We meet single parents, filmmakers, recovering addicts, survivors of sexual violence and kids searching for meaning. In short: life in all its complexity. It’s a stunning book, and as soon as you have finished, you’ll want to pick up Wandering Stars, which serves as both prequel and sequel.