NON FICTION
Book lovers should be making plenty of space in their to-be-read lists – and bank balances. There are some terrific books on their way in 2025. Children of Radium, coming in March, is a distinctly different Jewish family memoir. It’s British author Joe Dunthorne’s lively account of his scientist great-grandfather who wound up doing work for the Nazis.
There’s Alive, an “alternative anatomy” from surgeon Gabriel Weston. And Story of a Murder, a feminist retelling of Dr Crippen, from Hallie Rubenhold, author of bestselling Jack the Ripper book The Five. Midyear sees The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire, by UK science writer Henry Gee, on how humanity is doomed.
In The Ideological Brain, Cambridge neuroscientist Leor Zmigrod posits that our ideologies actually change our neural architecture and cells, and suggests how we can make our thinking more flexible. In Music As Medicine, neuroscientist Daniel Levitin explains the power that music has to improve our health. In The Age of Diagnosis, neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan explores how modern medicine, genetic testing and shifting mental health categories are redrawing the boundaries between sickness and health. Vaccine Nation, by world-leading Australian epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre, examines the history, safety and working of vaccines. From science writer Carl Zimmer comes Air-Borne, a history of the air we breathe. From John Green, a new history of tuberculosis, and a fresh biography of Mark Twain by Ron Chernow.
Arts
In arts, bestselling biographer Sue Roe’s Hidden Portraits tells the stories of six remarkable women who loved Pablo Picasso. In John & PauL: a love story in songs, Ian Leslie offers a new perspective on the love and jealousy between the two main forces behind The Beatles. After her father died, musician and historian Emily MacGregor found music too much, and, in While the Music Lasts, recounts how she found her way back. In Green tells of Louis D Hall’s picaresque horseback adventure through ancient villages in Spain and Italy.
In history, there’s a fascinating new account of ancient Mesopotamia, a new account of Japan during World War II, and new books on Pompeii (by the director of the archaeological site), Stalingrad, and Tudor England. Philippe Sands, author of The Ratline, is back with 38 Londres Street, a chilling story of Augusto Pinochet and a former SS officer. Girl on Girl, out in May, by Pulitzer Prize finalist Sophie Gilbert illustrates how cultural forces have systematically shaped – and warped – women’s relationships with themselves and other women. How To Kill A Witch, by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi, investigates the historic persecution of women as witches.
Biography
In biography, Pope Francis’s Hope is the first-ever autobiography by a sitting pontiff. There’s a memoir from actor Josh Brolin, one by Leeroy Thornhill of The Prodigy, a new bio of soul singer James Brown, and Bowieland, by Peter Carpenter, a quirky psycho-geographic bio visiting the streets and houses where David Jones lived and lurked.
Early in the year is I’ll Never Call Him Dad Again, by Caroline Darian, daughter of Gisèle and Dominique Pelicot, and in March comes The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, by bestselling historian Anne Sebba. Memorial Days, by Geraldine Brooks, recounts the sudden death of her husband. In Is A River Alive?, Robert Macfarlane wonders, in arguments familiar to Kiwis, if rivers should be recognised as living beings in imagination and law. In Source Code former tech boss and now philanthropist Bill Gates tells his origin story. Ocean, by David Attenborough and Colin Butfield, out in May, traverses the oceans from poles to tropics in a quest to find how to save the ocean – and the planet. Waste Wars, by Alexander Clapp, is an investigation into the dark underbelly of the multibillion-dollar global trash trade.
Self-help
Among self-help titles on the way is Protocols, a guide to improving your physical and mental health, by neuroscientist and podcaster Andrew Huberman, and a new Julie Smith book, Open When, on navigating tough moments. Out in April, Oz-UK author and comedian Deborah Frances-White, who grew up in a religious sect, discusses how to talk about the difficult stuff in Six Conversations We’re Scared to Have. Plus there’s a frank and funny guide to menopause and ageing by actor Naomi Watts. Plus there are books on reducing your anxiety, fat loss, changing your diet, how to live a “plain” life of happiness, rest and community, how to sleep better, attention deficit, and climate and capitalism. In Generation Zombie, UK psychotherapist Charlotte Armitage discusses the impact of devices on our children.
Food
Among the many cookbooks on the way are The Apothecary Chef, by Natasha MacAller, which uses beneficial herbs and plants, and Sophie Waplington’s SopH’s Plant Kitchen.
FICTION
Early in the year, Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Romantic Comedy, has a new collection of stories, Show Don’t Tell, skewering marriage and fame. Anne Tyler has Three Days in June, which reportedly may be the octogenarian’s last, in which an imperfect mother of the bride attempts to navigate her daughter’s wedding. Dream Count, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is centred on the lives and loves of four women. Atmosphere: A Love story, an epic novel by Daisy Jones & The Six author Taylor Jenkins Reid, is set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle programme. Jojo Moyes is back with We All Live Here, about a woman on the edge of a breakdown. There’s Katabasis, a “dark academia fantasy” from Yellowface author RF Kuang, and a new Ocean Vuong novel in May, The Emperor of Gladness. Jeanine Cummins, she of the mega-selling American Dirt, has written Speak to Me of Home, a multigenerational family tale. Eowyn Ivey, Pulitzer finalist for The Snow Child, has a Beauty and the Beast reworking in Black Woods, Blue Sky. And Joanne Harris returns to the world of her 1999 novel Chocolat with Vianne.
Most of our favourite thriller writers will be back, including Richard Osman with Thursday Murder Club No 5, Michael Connolly, Lisa Jewell, Shelley Burr, and SA Cosby with King of Ashes. Reese Witherspoon has been co-writing a thriller with Harlan Coben, which will be out in October.
In speculative fiction in March there’s Luminous, Silvia Park’s apparently page-turning thriller about sentient robots in a unified Korea. Rebecca Yarros has a new “Hunger Games meets Harry Potter” Empyrean instalment, Onyx Storm, out in January.
Alongside pallet-loads of romance and romantasy and TikTok sensations, there’s BLOB: A Love Story, Maggie Su’s funny debut about a dropout who discovers a blob she can mould into the perfect man. Expect also Fundamentally, a “laugh-out-loud” novel about Isis brides by Nussaibah Younis.