December is the month of “best-of” reading lists designed to celebrate literary excellence and guide readers toward meaningful reads, serving both as a reflection on the year in books and an invitation to discover new favorites for the year ahead.
What books did Whatcom County Library System (WCLS) library staff love most this year? Several of our favorite reads from 2025 are highlighted below; find the complete list by visiting wcls.org and searching lists for WCLS Staff Favorites 2025.
For readers who love a good character-driven novel, Mary Kinser, WCLS Collection Development Librarian, says that “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans is character-rich, funny and tender. Sybil Van Antwerp is a 70-something retiree with a lifelong letter-writing habit. She writes to everyone: her best friend, her neighbor, even a customer service rep and several famous authors. The more we read Sybil’s letters, the more we know her in all her messy realness — opinionated and prone to holding a grudge, yes, but also deeply human and longing to connect. This quiet story proves that each life is remarkable in its own distinct way.” Evans’ debut has been longlisted for several awards and has been a real word-of-mouth bestseller this year.
For an epic love story Jodi Picoult described as “part ‘Wuthering Heights’ and part ‘Daisy Jones & The Six,'” Jonathan Jakobitz, Blaine Library manager, suggests Layne Fargo’s 2025 novel, “The Favorites,” “a work of contemporary fiction that follows the careers of ice dancers Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha from childhood sweethearts, to Olympic skaters, to bitter rivals, and everything in between. It is a novel written for the reality television generation, where viewers have learned to luxuriate in watching celebrities commit faux pas, act badly and seek contrition.” Jonathan says he started out disliking almost every character in “The Favorites,” “but like any good addictive reality television program, by the end, I did not want the story to stop.”
For nonfiction readers, WCLS nonfiction selector Emma Radosevich recommends Cory Doctorow’s “Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It” “to anyone who says the Internet ruined everything — or at least, that it used to be more fun than it is now. Enshittification — a cheeky term coined by the author to describe platform decay — answers questions like: Why is it so hard to find what I want online? Why do I need a subscription for everything now? And why does even my vacuum cleaner have an app? Cory Doctorow is a science fiction writer and digital rights activist; here, he tackles a bleak topic with imagination and optimism for the Internet’s future.”
My favorite read this year would make a great gift for the nature-lover on your list. The 52 seasonal essays in “The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year” by Margaret Renkl read like a devotional to the natural world. Renkl is an especially gifted observer, taking joy in the flora and fauna with whom she shares her suburban backyard as well as feeling sorrow and grief at the ways climate change, chemical toxins and loss of habitat are observably impacting her small ecosystem. Each essay is accompanied by original artwork by Renkl’s brother, Billy Renkl, making this book a luminous feast for the eyes and heart.
Check out the WCLS Staff Favorites 2025 list to find dozens more library staff suggestions, and we look forward to seeing you in the library soon to hear about the books you have read and loved. Happy reading!
Lisa Gresham is the collection services manager for the Whatcom County Library System, wcls.org.
(Originally published in Cascadia Daily News, Saturday, December 20, 2025.)