What were our favourite books of the year and what are we most excited to read in 2026? Join the team behind the Ask Penguin podcast to look back at standout titles, memorable podcast moments, and the reading intentions we’re taking into the New Year.



What were the best books of 2025?

Practice a new framework for dismantling racial bias in our society, our workplaces, and ourselves: by learning to detect it as well as people of color do.

How do we combat racism in a world determined to tell us it doesn’t exist?
 
To hold the line against racism, we need to know it when we see it. And as the dominant racial group in our society, White people must take up the charge. The problem, says researcher, DEI leader, and organizational consultant Dr. Evelyn Carter, is that White people haven’t been socialized to detect racial bias in the way people of color do. Racism is more than using racial slurs or overt, hateful speech, and it’s more than unintentional slights; it’s about an entire system that upholds Whiteness as the preferred standard. 
 
Fortunately, detecting it is a skill that can be learned.

Was That Racist? is a re-education, call to action, and practical guide, full of research-backed strategies including how to: cultivate a growth mindset about bias, unlearn colorblindness and practice color consciousness, talk to kids about race and racism – and bring others along for the journey.

At a time when DEI is under coordinated attack, Was That Racist? is the essential toolkit for anyone who believes we all have a role to play in creating a more equitable world.

Was That Racist? by Evelyn R. Carter, PhD read by Evelyn R. Carter, PhD

Leveling up has truly changed Yuuya’s life. In the real world, things have done a complete 180. He’s getting used to his new school and making fast friends—which includes a fluffy companion in the other world. Meanwhile, thanks to his physical prowess and good looks, his popularity is through the roof (though he’s oblivious to this). He’s also finally learned how to use magic! Will it be enough to help him survive fires, assassins, and trials in the wilderness?!

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too, Vol. 2 by Miku read by Curtis Michael Holland

Some secrets should stay behind closed doors…
 
Gemma’s got it all figured out: she has her amazing best friends April and Anna, a high-flying job, and a dating life that’s strictly no-strings-attached. Men fall at her feet – and she walks away from them without a backwards glance.

Max is a jet-setter with zero interest in settling down. Between London and New York City, he’s in a position of power, working at a luxury hotelier. But when he meets Gemma in a high-stakes hotel pitch, their chemistry is instant, electric…and completely off limits. Why? Because Max is Anna’s brother. And Anna has just one rule: don’t even think about her brother.

But the danger zone is Gemma’s favorite place to be. And some things are worth bending the rules for…

The Suite Secret by Tierney Page read by Will H. Watt and Evelyn Rose

From the international bestselling author of The Drowning Woman, a psychological thriller about a couple rocked by infidelity who moves to a villa in Spain’s Costa Brava to rebuild their relationship, only to welcome a pair of visitors who have no intention of leaving.  

Sydney Lowe’s life in New York is shattered when her husband, Curtis, admits to a meaningless affair with a client. Begging for forgiveness and vowing to prove his devotion, Curtis suggests the couple retreat to a remote hilltop house in Spain to repair their marriage.  

High above the Mediterranean, Sydney and Curtis are working on the isolated property and their relationship when a pair of Australian travelers turns up at their door in dire need of help. Lonely for companionship and desperate for free labor, Sydney and Curtis invite the attractive young couple to stay. But as the days pass, dark secrets come to light, the Lowes’ bond is tested, and not everyone will leave the villa alive.

“Robyn Harding is probably among the writers I most recommend, and once again she has excelled herself with damaged and damaging characters wreaking havoc on each other. I loved every page! When can I read the next one?” ―Liz Nugent, internationally bestselling author of Strange Sally Diamond

Strangers in the Villa by Robyn Harding read by Katherine Littrell

In this fast-paced and deliciously witty spy romcom, a single mom finds herself on a mission with the CIA as they attempt to uncover a cult—perfect for fans of Finlay Donovan Is Killing It.

Gabby Greene: Secret agent. Mother of two. Figuring it out as she goes along.

After her divorce, Gabby never expected that she’d be this close to having it all. Spying with a hot handler who’s an expert in after-hours under-the-covers work was not on her current bingo card. But balancing romance, espionage, and school lunches is a job for a magician, not a secret agent. Gabby will just have to keep dreamy Markus at arm’s-length . . .

Easier said than done. Her next mission, should she choose to accept it: Pretend to be Markus’s fiancée so they can infiltrate a Power Couples Retreat to see whether the group is selling national security secrets (in addition to questionable beauty products).

To avert a national crisis, Gabby and Markus will need to look like they’re in love, planning their wedding—and enjoying the honeymoon cottage. Faking a relationship with the perfect man without actually falling for him? Piece of calorie-free cake, right?

Gabby Greene Knows Whodunit by Sam Tschida Read by Mia Hutchinson Shaw

When the FBI turned an Irish mobster into an informant, they corrupted the entire judicial system and sanctioned the worst crime spree Boston has ever seen. This is the true story behind the major motion picture.

James “Whitey” Bulger became one of the most ruthless gangsters in US history, and all because of an unholy deal he made with a childhood friend. John Connolly a rising star in the Boston FBI office, offered Bulger protection in return for helping the Feds eliminate Boston’s Italian mafia. But no one offered Boston protection from Whitey Bulger, who, in a blizzard of gangland killings, took over the city’s drug trade. Whitey’s deal with Connolly’s FBI spiraled out of control to become the biggest informant scandal in FBI history.

Black Mass is a New York Times and Boston Globe bestseller, written by two former reporters who were on the case from the beginning. It is an epic story of violence, double-cross, and corruption at the center of which are the black hearts of two old friends whose lives unfolded in the darkness of permanent midnight.

Black Mass by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill read by John Pirhalla with An Introduction Read by Dick Lehr

“A superb biography of a singular life.”–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A Rolling Stone journalist presents the story of the late singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle.

When Justin Townes Earle died of an overdose alone in his Nashville apartment, his death sent waves of grief through the country-Americana music community. The son of alt-country hellraiser Steve Earle had long struggled with mental illness and various addictions. There had been encouraging periods of long-term sobriety and active recovery in his adult life, including the years that led up to his career peak when he released the 2010 masterpiece Harlem River Blues, a career-making album of rambling folk blues set to Southern Gospel.

He sang of cramped Brooklyn apartments and crippling hangovers, about emotional displacement, economic anxiety, and the wandering that characterized his feral, formative years as a rootless kid rambling around Nashville, developing his own unique guitar style and absorbing the musical influences that surrounded him. He was anointed by critics as the next coming of the authentic troubadour. By the time of his death, he’d recorded and released eight albums, creating a striking and original body of work.

Jonathan Bernstein, with the full cooperation of the Justin Townes Earle estate, unravels in these pages a short but incredibly creative life, and reveals the backstories behind Justin’s greatest songs (“Mama’s Eyes,” “White Gardenias”) and what happened when it all fell apart while also capturing a shadow world of the neglected children of Nashville legends who wrestle with the legacies of their hard-living, road-weary, often absent parents.

Justin’s journey to near-stardom is a harrowing story shot through with moments of clarity and promise, including his marriage to his wife Jenn Marie Earle and the birth of their daughter. But what Earle called “the myth”—the idea that one must suffer for one’s art—proved to be too powerful.

This heartbreaking, deeply researched tale is an exemplary music biography.

What Do You Do When You're Lonesome by Jonathan Bernstein read by John Pirhalla

From bestselling author Lisa Graff, this important coming-of-age story follows a thirteen-year-old with a mysterious scar on her face—and a big secret she feels pressured to keep. 

Fallon Little has a secret—and it’s not how she got the enormous scar that divides her face in two.

Thirteen-year-old Fallon has only ever told one person what really happened on the day she got her scar. Why would she? The truth is dark, and Fallon has much brighter things to focus on, like being cast as the lead in the school play, and hanging out with her two best friends, Trent and Kaia. But when Fallon’s uncle Geebie dies, his funeral ignites a wildfire of events that Fallon can’t manage to tamp down. The school play is spiraling out of control, Fallon’s impossible Aunt Lune comes to live with them, and Trent and Kaia might just be so into each other that there isn’t room for Fallon in their friend group any more. And when secrets even worse than the one about Fallon’s scar threaten to come to light, Fallon might not have the strength to keep them buried for much longer.

Through unflinching prose and with a pitch-perfect voice, bestselling author Lisa Graff explores the power of confronting the past as a way to heal in the present in this propulsive and absorbing tour de force.

* “The story’s pitch-perfect tone balances sad and funny moments impeccably….Darkness and light interplay with perfection.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review   * “Graff infuses viscerally rendered realities of lingering trauma with moments of lightheartedness to deliver a meticulously calibrated work about a girl who refuses to be defined by her past.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review 

A Scar like a River by Lisa Graff read by Suzy Jackson

“A comprehensive exploration of postpartum traditions that emphasize the importance of nurturing mothers during their most vulnerable times. From traditional recipes to rituals, this book highlights sisterhood and the need for comprehensive care that honors both the mother and the newborn.”
―from the foreword by Erykah Badu, five-time GRAMMY Award Winner, singer/songwriter, and holistic healer

As a mother, grandmother, and traditional midwife, Shafia M. Monroe intimately knows about childbirth and the fourth trimester. For over forty years, she’s helped thousands give birth, and has taught thousands more how to support birthing parents, all integrating the deep wisdom of African American healing traditions. Long suppressed by the white medical establishment, these practices—such as belly binding, heat, herbs, the lying‑in period, and the “taking‑out‑of‑bed ritual”—are powerful healing tools. Using them, we mother the mother through a healthy postpartum period.

While this framework will be powerful healing for all mothers, the information in this book can save Black mothers’ lives; with African American women disproportionately suffering from maternal mortality and morbidity, there is an urgent need for an embrace of African American postpartum care that surrounds the new mother and her baby with community, love, and protection. Mothering the Mother is a resource for Black women and communities to reclaim their cultural traditions for a healthy postpartum recuperation.

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