We have had a spectacular year on You Are What You Read with some of the greatest writers in the world! Thank you all for joining us every week, for your comments and reviews, and for joining us on the road. We have loved meeting you and hearing your thoughts. This holiday season, we are highlighting some of your favorite guests from 2025. Here to join us, is our dear friend Jake Morrissey. Jake is the Executive Editor at Riverhead Books at Penguin Random House. Jake works with bestselling and award-winning authors, including Daniel H. Pink, Anne Lamott, James McBride, Priya Parker, Michele Harper, and Marlon James, with whom he cohosts the podcast Marlon & Jake Read Dead People. Today, we take a look back on some of our favorite books from this year…the best in fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks, and the books we are looking forward to in 2026. 

Titles mentioned in this episode: 

Fiction: 

Audition by Katie Kitamura

Colored Television by Danzy Senna

The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

Among Friends by Hal Ebbott

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Nash Falls by David Baldacci

The Unraveling of Julia Lisa Scottoline

Whatever Happened to Lori Lovely by Sarah McCoy

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

My Grandma and Grandpa Rock! by Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo

Dangerland by Eric Singer

Skylark by Paula McLain

It Girl by Allison Pataki

Waiting for Dawn: Living with Uncertainty Marisa Renee Lee

The Viper by Brad Meltzer 

The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave

The Award by Matthew Pearl

The Hollywood Fix by Richard Kirshenbaum

Nonfiction:

I Said Yes to Everything by Lee Grant

Before You Fly Away by Christina Geist

Heart Life Music by Kenny Chesney

Waiting on the Moon by Peter Wolf

When It All Burns by Jordan Thomas

The American Revolution and the Fate of the World by Richard Bell

We Did It, Kid by Anthony Hopkins

The Art of Spending Money by Morgan House

l1929 by Aaron Ross Sorkin

Cookbooks: 

You Can Make This! 

Lidia’s The Art of Pasta 

Italian Snacking by Anna Francese Gass

Cooking with Nonna by Rossella Rago

My Harvest Kitchen by Gesine Bullock-Prado

The Delmonico Way by Max Tucci 

Shows: 

Oedipus

The Mousetrap

Oratorio Films:Hamnet

Knives Out

Frankenstein 

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