Attack of the Best Lists 2025: Amazon's Best Books

This post is part of my year end "Attack of the Best Lists" coverage. To see every post in my "Attack of the Best Lists 2024" coverage [and more backlist best of the year options] you can  click  here.

At the end of last month, I wrote at length about Amazon's 25 Years of Best Books Lists as a Great Conversation Starter.

Today I am back to add Amazon's official 2025 Best Books Portal to my annual Attack of the Best Lists coverage.

Okay, okay, let's not get in an uproar here. Yes, there are reasons to not want to promote Amazon, but you need to understand why these lists are a good resource and how to use them with patrons.

In the case of Amazon, they want to sell books, first and foremost. Their best list is an extension of that. But they also want to show that they can recommend books that are both worthy of being held up in the "best" conversation while also appealing to a wide audience. I think they have done that well with their Top 10 list which you can see here. 

And to make it even easier for you to find the right book for you or for you to buy as a gift for someone, they (like B&N which I discussed here) have ways for you to explore further. As you scroll down you get the editor's person favorites, followed by their person Top 10 lists.
Then you get a whole bunch of categories to browse even more "best" options.
Below that you get other lists including that 25th Anniversary portal plus easy access to the best of the year list from 2024-2020.

Again all of it is here in the Amazon Best Books 2025 Portal

At the very least, make sure you have these books in your collections (in multiple formats) and keep an eye on requests because you may need to add a few extra copies.

I do this Attack of the Bests Lists coverage every year not only to help you stay on top of the lists, but also because I will eventually crunch all the numbers for you as offer my annual Readers' Advisory Year in Review. The last 2 years I have done it for NoveList but this year I am back to PCI webinars. Details on on my presentations page here, but here is the description of what you can expect:

Title: 2025 Readers' Advisory Year in Review
Description: 2025 has moved into our rearview, everyone is eager to jump into the fresh start of 2026, but hold up for just a bit longer. It is important, every year, to take a step back and look critically at the year that was before setting goals or service plans for the next year. Join noted Readers' Advisory expert, Becky Spratford as she walks you through the highlights [and lowlights] of 2025 in Adult Leisure Reading. From the biggest trends, to the authors, titles, and genres that broke through, Becky will break it all down for you, wringing out the best of 2025 to take with us as we plan our service to Adult readers for another new year.

Check if your library offers access to PCI Webinars now. 

And expect more of these posts as I gather all of the info and data I need to make that presentation worth your time.