Last-Minute Christmas Gifts: Newsweek Staff's Favorite Books
Books make wonderful gifts for others. But they are also presents to ourselves-an escape, a distraction or a vacation destination-all readily available on your bedside table or to tuck into your bag for an on-the-go pick-me-up. The fiction and nonfiction books on this list were read and enjoyed by Newsweek staff over the past year. Most were published last year, in addition to a few older favorites. We hope that you find books to enjoy as much as we did-from psychological thrillers, fantasy and literary fiction to politics and memoir, and more. Pick one up for yourself, or share it with a friend or loved one as you look forward to the new year.
Fiction
Literary Fiction
Atmosphere
By Taylor Jenkins Reid | Ballantine Books
Plunge into the pressure cooker of NASA's early space shuttle era and follow Joan Goodwin as she steadily charts her own course. There, she meets Vanessa Ford-she's a steadying gravitational force even when it threatens to pull Joan off course. Her quiet sacrifices and hunger to be exceptional left me feeling courageous and greedier in my own life.
-Cam Medrano, Creative Producer
Crime
The Cut Throat Trial
By S.J. Fleet, The Secret Barrister | Picador
The Secret Barrister's first jump into fiction takes us into the unpleasant world of the U.K. criminal justice system, with three defendants whose argument is that the others did it. It's messy, the characters are flawed (at best) and it builds to a great verdict…but is it the right one?
-Duncan Ross, Global Head of Research
Character-Driven
The Emperor of Gladness
By Ocean Vuong | Penguin Press
Vuong at his most luminous. The novel celebrates joy found in small lives and small moments, even the most grueling and menial tasks. Its portrayal of connection, friendship and found family is both intimate and quietly transformative. Vuong shows how the people we gather around ourselves help build us into who we hope to be. A beautiful, unforgettable read.
-Zahreen Ghaznavi, General Counsel
Family Drama
Flashlight
By Susan Choi | Farrar, Straus and Giroux
What starts as a well-crafted account of 10-year-old Louisa's life builds into a political crescendo that will have you flipping the pages so quickly you might risk a paper cut. Choi manages to pull you under while still buoying your hope in this breath-catching story of an unlikely family, a mysterious disappearance and a suddenly dubious memory.
-Katherine Fung, Senior Reporter
Contemporary Fiction
Flesh
By David Szalay | Scribner
The Booker Prize-winning novel tells the story of Hungarian István in all its carnality. His rags-to-riches journey takes him from his Eastern European homeland to Gulf War battlefields and the gilded streets of Munich and London. Szalay's spare prose makes for a bruising, powerful read.
-Paul Rhodes, Senior Director, Audience and Magazines
Romance
Great Big Beautiful Life
By Emily Henry | Berkley
Henry earns an automatic buy from me: Her unmatched prose, the emotional quality of her main and secondary characters and how everything weaves together are just some of the many things I love about her writing and this book, which also includes some historical fiction undertones. There are two stories told in this novel, neither of which outshone the other.
-Amanda Castro, Live Blog Editor
Coming-of-Age
Great Disasters
By Grady Chambers | Tin House
This beautifully written and deeply moving debut novel focuses on a group of boys who come of age against the backdrop of 9/11. Graham, the protagonist, looks back on his friendships with an introspection that spools the drunken nights, youthful debauchery and thoughtless pranks of boyhood into the tightly coiled adulthoods that await him, Ryan, David, Sam, Caesar, Ben and Neil. Chambers is a much-needed voice in American fiction.
- Katherine Fung, Senior Reporter
Fantasy
The Great When
By Alan Moore | Bloomsbury Publishing
Moore is arguably one of the greatest British authors of our time, and this first visit of a proposed five-part series into the magical, romantic, absurd, fantastical world of "Long London" shows him at his best. The depth of description, use of language and his ability to conjure rich characters inhabiting detailed worlds is amongst the best out there.
-Leon Hill, Deputy General Counsel
Magical Realism
The Last Pomegranate Tree
By Bachtyar Ali | Afsana Press
After being held in a desert prison for 21 years, a Peshmerga fighter in Iraq desperately searches for his son, on a quest guided by memory and myth in this imaginative novel, translated from the Kurdish original. It presents weighty, emotional issues with a deft and poetic touch.
-James Debens, Senior Digital Content Editor
Historical Fiction
The Listeners
By Maggie Stiefvater | Viking
There's a little something for everyone in this novel set in a luxury West Virginia hotel just after Pearl Harbor. The Avallon Hotel & Spa is compelled to house detained Axis diplomats until a trade can be arranged for their American counterparts. The inside workings of the Avallon is brought to life, complete with upstairs-downstairs drama, a plucky female general manager, mysterious mineral springs, espionage and some romance to boot-all set against the backdrop of World War II.
-Meredith Wolf Schizer, Senior Editor, Operations
Relationships
Loved One
By Aisha Muharrar | Viking
This debut novel is the story of two women who loved an indie musician and how they reconcile their feelings about him and each other after his tragic and untimely death. Loved One is full of charm and seamless pop culture references as it twists the classic love triangle story, touching on romance, grief, art and the "what ifs" of life.
-Lauren Giella, Senior Reporter
Romantasy
Onyx Storm
By Rebecca Yarros | Red Tower Books
Yarros outdid herself with this one. Onyx Storm is a tempest of magic, betrayal and heart. A gripping, twist-filled plot with soaring dragons and high stakes keeps romantasy lovers hooked. I highly recommend this and the entire The Empyrean series (including Fourth Wing and Iron Flame).
-Daniella Glavan, Senior HR Manager
Social Commentary
Rabbits
By Hugo Rifkind | Polygon
Set in the kilt-wearing echelons of elite, '90s Scottish society, Rabbits immediately propels you into a world of corrosive nostalgia and youthful nihilism-think Trainspotting, if Sick Boy and the gang spent less time doing heroin and more time admiring the lived-in quality of each other's Barbour jackets. Rabbits is sometimes sad, often funny and always brimming with Gaelic nepo-baby mishegoss.
-Sumi Naidoo, Assistant General Counsel
Social Commentary
Rejection
By Tony Tulathimutte | William Morrow Paperbacks
Private Citizens author Tulathimutte's novel moves effortlessly between the absurd and obscene. The book explores the titular theme of rejection through a series of interrelated stories, and the result is a razor-sharp mirror maze of commentary on life and isolation in the digital age.
-Marni Rose McFall, U.S. News Reporter
A Good Cry
The River Is Waiting
By Wally Lamb | S&S/Marysue Rucci Books
I often do what Oprah Winfrey tells me to do, which is why I read this book. Her picks as of late can sometimes be a miss, but wow, not this one. On the one hand, it is a story about a horrible accident that happens because of an addiction, but ultimately, it is about how does one forgive the unforgivable? Corby Ledbetter, the protagonist, broke me and I will never forget him. Frankly, this book should come with a box of tissues.
-H. Alan Scott, Senior Culture Writer
Fantasy
The Rose Field
By Philip Pullman | Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pullman's beloved His Dark Materials trilogy was a life-changing series of books for me in my young teenage years. Now, nearly 30 years after The Golden Compass was first released, the legendary author has brought the dazzling adventure of Lyra Silvertongue to a dramatic conclusion in an epic fantasy reimagining of the ancient Silk Road. A fervently imaginative, awe-inspiring read.
-Alfred Joyner, News Director
Friendship
Soon Come
By Kuba Shand-Baptiste | Dialogue Books
In beautifully written prose and inspired by her own upbringing and background, Shand-Baptiste's debut novel explores the culture, history and experience of the Caribbean through relationships forged in a tiny West London restaurant. Anyone from London will find this especially appealing.
-Sirena Bergman, Editor, Life & Trends
Science Fiction
What We Can Know
By Ian McEwan | Knopf
Set in 22nd-century Great Britain ravaged by climate change, a scholar, Thomas Metcalfe, searches for a lost, mythical poem from the 21st century. The dystopian novel by the author of Atonement reflects on the nature of civilization and the electronic detritus of our present-day lives.
-Andrew Turnbull, Creative Director
Thriller
When I Was Ten
By Fiona Cummins | Pan
An incredibly gripping and emotional read. The story of the Carter sisters is haunting, heartbreaking and utterly compelling. Layered secrets, childhood trauma and shocking revelations kept me invested throughout. A powerful, unforgettable thriller that stayed with me long after finishing.
-Carrie Bremner, Art Director
Nonfiction and Memoir
Breasts: A Relatively Brief Relationship
By Jean Hannah Edelstein | Hachette Mobius
Three essays-"Sex," "Food" and "Cancer"-chart Edelstein's relationship with her breasts, from being ogled and groped as a young woman to her breastfeeding struggles as a new mom to her cancer diagnosis. Humorous, heartfelt and oh-so relatable.
-Rheana Murray, Essays Editor
Sports
Expensive Basketball
By Shea Serrano | Grand Central Publishing
Today's sports landscape is filled with minutia, numbers and gossip. But Serrano focuses on something everyone can understand: "expensive" basketball players and magic moments they created. This book is about the feelings and fandom that make the game all worthwhile.
-Joe Kozlowski, Sports Team Lead
Pop Culture
Fahrenheit-182
By Mark Hoppus and Dan Ozzi | Dey Street Books
Hoppus' memoir charts his journey from unhappy child of divorce to beloved frontman of the rock band Blink-182. He shares stories from a time when pants were baggy, MTV was king and pop punk ruled the airwaves. But what makes the book really special is when Hoppus opens up about battling anxiety, his relationship with bandmate Tom DeLonge and fighting cancer.
-Jack Beresford, Senior Life and Trends Reporter
By Michael J. Fox | Flatiron Books
Emmy winner Fox shares his journey being Family Ties' Alex P. Keaton by day and Back to the Future's Marty McFly in by night. In 1985, Fox worked double-duty shooting the country's top TV show at the same time as what would become the most legendary sci-fi film. Where we're going, we don't need roads.
-Bill Saha, Marketing Strategist
The Hour of the Predator: Encounters With the Autocrats and Tech Billionaires Taking Over the World
By Giuliano da Empoli | Pushkin Press
A harrowing picture of a new world that is unforgiving and unbound by liberal restrictions of yore. One that is shaped by said predators, portrayed with wit and precision. Eye-opening and…not entirely hopeless.
-Yannick Demoustier, Senior Digital Content Editor
Leadership
Little People Big Dreams: Oprah Winfrey
By Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara | Frances Lincoln Children's Books
In my mom era, I've discovered these memoirs geared toward kids. They've got beautiful illustrations and tell inspiring stories of industry leaders in a way kids can understand and adults enjoy. It's a great way to introduce kids to people who have changed the world!
-Jenni Fink, Senior Editor, National News
The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir
By Edmund White | Bloomsbury Publishing
Edmund White's final book is the perfect swansong to his career as the unofficial laureate of gay America. White recounts over 60 years of his experiences set against the context of changing attitudes. As bold and fierce as anything he's ever written, it's a reminder of a life well and truly lived.
-Ben Kelly, Senior Audience Editor
Travel & Folklore
Monsterland: A Journey Around the World's Dark Imagination
By Nicholas Jubber | Scribe
Monsterland fuses travel writing, folklore and history to explore why monsters endure. From Mexico's wailing La Llorona to Japan's ogre-like Shuten-dōji, Jubber shows how such tales reflect local fears, desires and moral codes. Evocative and sharply observed, the book argues that monsters are not relics of superstition, but mirrors of collective memory.
- Michael Hirst, Deputy Publishing Editor
True Crime
Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers
By Caroline Fraser | Penguin Press
Reading Murderland's relentless violence became something of a mystical exorcism for me to free the world from toxicity. Fraser shows that the same hubris, greediness and disregard for life exists behind accidents occurring on Washington's bridges, industrialists' smelter operations and Ted Bundy's killing rampages.
-Giulia Carbonaro, Senior Housing Reporter
True Crime
A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America
By Trymaine Lee | St. Martin's Press
Pulitzer Prize-winner Lee casts his critical eye toward the outsized role that gun violence plays in the lives of African Americans-including his own family-in a book that is part memoir and part cultural critique.
-Jennifer H. Cunningham, Editor-in-Chief
Who is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service
By Michael Lewis | Riverhead Books
A collection of essays that highlight the crucial-yet often unrecognized-work of public servants to counteract negative stereotypes of government. The book uses in-depth profiles to reveal how essential, behind-the-scenes service contributes to the well-being of society.
-Andrew Serulneck, Editorial Intern
Newsweek
This story was originally published December 22, 2025 at 5:00 AM.