Some exciting numbers for audiobook fans and indie bookstore supporters in Libro.fm’s annual impact report.

The independent retailer, which became a certified B Corp last year, marked an 80% increase in payouts to its bookstore partners over 2024. Other notable stats:

• 600,000 audiobooks available
• 4,419 bookshop partners in 39 countries
• 22,160 booksellers
• 100 languages on audio
• $55,000 raised during National Library Week in support of public libraries

In their ongoing commitment to defending the First Amendment, the folks at Libro.fm also submitted eight testimonies of support or concern for right-to-read and book ban bills, worked to coordinate more than 500 Banned Books Week read-in events, and partnered with numerous organizations, including the ALA and We Need Diverse Books, to fight censorship and amplify historically excluded voices.

May their efforts continue to succeed. – RJS

🥳 This week, we’re kicking off a year of the Best Books of the Century (So Far) with the release of our first list: Fantasy. Since the start of the 21st century, we’ve seen massive bestsellers like A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, awards-sweepers like The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, groundbreaking epics like The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, and pop culture sensations like Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. All of these books and more unforgettable works of fantasy made the cut.

The point of these lists isn’t to identify our favorite works of the last 25 years, though many of those books appear, but to take a broader approach, considering the books that changed the landscape of a genre or made waves in culture at large, becoming franchises, impacting our understanding of the world, and breaking our brains in the best kind of way.

From the beginning to the end of 2026, we’ll release lists in the following categories on a monthly (sometimes semi-monthly) basis: Fantasy, Romance, Mystery/Thriller, Historical Fiction, Comics, YA, Science Fiction, Adaptations, Children’s, Middle Grade, Nonfiction, Horror, Fiction, Best Overall Editorial Picks.

Go forth! Explore the Best Fantasy Books of the Century (So Far) and adventure into the strange and magical worlds we can’t stop thinking about. – SW

Ready to make 2026 your best reading year yet? We’ve teamed up with our friends at Penguin Random House Audio to give one lucky reader a 12-credit bundle to  Libro.fm! That is a full year of audiobooks (one per month!) waiting to hit your earbuds. Even better?  Libro.fm  allows you to buy audiobooks through your local independent bookstore, so you can support your community while you listen.

✅ Subscribe to the Audio Insider newsletter from Penguin Random House Audio for a chance to win.

Variety is the spice of this month’s big book club picks.

• Read With Jenna: Homeschooled by Stefan Merrill Block: A memoir about what happened after the author’s mother pulled him out of public school to teach him a curriculum she created
• Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club: The Hitch by Sara Levine: Is it cheating for Gay to pick a book she also published? Maybe. But the pitch here is too fun to pass up: a woman tries to exorcise the spirit of a dead corgi from her six-year-old nephew.
• Reese’s Book Club: The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave: Sequel to the thriller (and Apple TV show) The Last Thing He Told Me
• Subtle Asian Book Club: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine: A National Book Award-winning family saga

📚 Check out more selections.

We got a peek at some juicy year-end data from Libby, which delivers ebooks to readers from more than 22,000 (!) public libraries in the U.S., including the 20 most checked-out ebooks of 2025.

The titles in the top 20 have a lot in common: most are fiction; half were chosen at some point by a celebrity book club; many of them came out before 2025; all of them are bestsellers; and there isn’t much diversity, especially within the top 5. The last two points are connected (see: marketing budget).

Here’s a sample of the list:

5. Great Big Beautiful Life Emily Henry – Chosen by Reese’s Book Club, May 2025

4. Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros – The third book in the BookTok sensation Empyrean series

3. The Wedding People by Alison Espach – Chosen by Read with Jenna, August 2024

2. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins – Endorsed by Oprah

1. The Women by Kristin Hannah – Chosen by Reese’s Book Club, March 2024

📋 A look at the full list reveals that most of the books were written by white women, and the two books on the list by non-white authors were by men. Want more diversity in your reading life? Here’s our round-up of the best books of 2025 by BIPOC writers.

Get more of what you love. Join Book Riot All Access today to unlock an exclusive library of deep dives, community features, and the full Read Harder Challenge.

The first 100 readers to sign up for an annual membership will receive a FREE copy of Good Intentions by Marisa Walz—a chilling thriller about a woman whose grief morphs into a predatory obsession. Don’t miss your chance to secure this twisted must-read and gain year-round access to the best of Book Riot. Sign up for an annual All Access membership today!

One way to get a sense of the year in books is to note which authors had the biggest change in sales, not just the most book sales. Circana tracked the authors who saw the greatest increase in absolute numbers of books (not dollar amount or percentage) in several key categories.

It will not surprise anyone who has been paying attention that Mel Robbins saw the single largest jump: going from 200k sold in 2024 to 3 million in 2025.

Here are the other category leaders:

Fiction
❤️ Romance: Rebecca Yarros
🔪 Thrillers: Freida McFadden
🚀 Science Fiction: Matt Dinniman
🐉 Fantasy: SenLinYu
📚 Classics: George Orwell
🧐 Literary Fiction: Shelby Van Pelt
💥 Graphic Novels: Yukinobu Tatsu

Non-Fiction
✉️ Biography: Kamala Harris
💰 Business: Andrew Ross Sorkin
🏛️ Political Science: John Kennedy
🏋 Health/Fitness: Jim Murphy

My new novel  The Hitch is about a sweet little boy whose aunt believes he is possessed by a demon corgi. The Hitch  is a metaphysical comedy about the challenges of raising children, but I was inspired by books about children who’ve truly gone bad. Here are three great books designed to give a parent nightmares.

• The Sailor Who Fell in Grace from the Sea by Yukio Mishima: A fatherless Japanese boy in postwar World War II, Yokohama thinks adults are useless. Then he meets a sailor named Ryuji. Ryuji is different from all the other land-locked losers—until he falls in love with the boy’s mother. The boy and his friends lure Ryuji to an abandoned site and kill him.   
• A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes: In the 1860s, five English children leave their parents after a hurricane destroys their crumbling Jamaican plantation home. Their ship is hijacked by pirates and the children kidnapped. But the kids don’t miss Mom and Dad at all; they acclimate easily to their new immoral life. 
• The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing: A married couple in 1960s suburban London enjoys their traditional domestic life—until their fifth child is born. Goblin-like and weirdly strong, Ben is a terror. When pets start dying, you know this is more than a tale of maternal ambivalence. 

Your favorite sustainable styles are now up to 50% off. 🌿 From the slopes to the sofa, PrAna’s organic cotton and recycled fabrics are built to move with you. Don’t miss the PrAna End of Season Sale—hundreds of styles are marked down for a limited time. Shop the sale today!

🧑‍🍳 Take your kitchen skills up a notch with a live online baking class.** 

📖 Guide your book club to the best picks from 2025.

💞 Bridgerton author Julia Quinn has launched a romance subscription box.

🐉 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is coming back with a new TV adaptation.

🎙️ Don’t miss this interview with the inimitable George Saunders. Read, watch, listen, whatever. You won’t be sorry.

_{**This is a product recommendation from the Book Riot team. When you buy through these links, we may earn a commission.}

Written by Rebecca Schinsky, Jeff O’Neal, Sharifah Williams, Danika Ellis, and Erica Ezeifedi. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.

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