The following titles from our browsing collection and audiobook collection represent books & audiobooks frequently checked out by members of our reading community in the past year. Additionally, a few ZSR librarians and staff members wanted to share their favorite books (& audiobooks) from 2025. And, we’d love to hear from you—share your favorite titles from the past year in the comments below!

Browsing Books with Most Checkouts of 2025

• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
• The Women by Kristin Hannah
• Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

Frequently Checked out Browsing Books of 2025

• Fourth Wing (The Empyrean #1) by Rebecca Yarros
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
• Co-intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick
• Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
• More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI by John Warner
• North Woods by Daniel Mason
• Ready for My Closeup: The Making of Sunset Boulevard and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream by David Lubin
• Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell
• Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
• Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
• The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• The Hunter by Tana French

Top 10 Audiobooks of 2025

• Onyx Storm (The Empyrean #3) by Rebecca Yarros
• The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley
• The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
• The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
• The Women by Kristin Hannah
• I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue
• Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams
• Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson, PsyD
• The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
• The Wedding People by Alison Espach

** A very special thanks to Carol Cramer for gathering the checkout statistics to help us compile this list of books!

ZSR Staff Favorites of 2025

Kyle Denlinger, Digital Pedagogy & Open Education Librarian

• North Woods by Daniel Mason
• My Friends by Fredrik Backman
• The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture by Wendell Berry

Elizabeth Ellis, Teaching Librarian

• The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
• Heart the Lover by Lily King
• Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
• The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
• Rules for Ruin by Mimi Matthews

Craig Fansler, Preservation Librarian

• Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King by Preston Lauterbach

Colleen Foy, Research & Instruction Librarian – Science

• The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
• Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket
• The First to Die at the End by Adam Silvera
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• The One by John Mars
• Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
• The Queen of Sugar Hill by ReShonda Tate
• No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister
• My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
• The Women by Kristin Hannah

Patrick Ferrell, Collection Maintenance Specialist

• Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser
• The Games War: a Moscow Journal by Christopher Booker
• Life in Russia by Michael Binyon
• Beyond the Wall: A History of East Germany by Katja Hoyer

Joy Gambill, Research & Instruction Librarian

• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelly Van Pelt
• The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah

Jemma Johnson, Research Support Assistant

• An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
• Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
• Real Self-Care by Pooja Lakshmin

Amanda Kaufman, Learning & Instructional Services Librarian

• Byung-Chul Han: A Critical Introduction by Steven Knepper, et al.
• Empire of AI by Karen Hao
• Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow
• Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant
• Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson
• One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

Steve Kelley, Head of Continuing Resources and Database Management

• Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
• Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
• Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist
• The Blessing Way; Dance Hall of the Dead; Listening Woman by Tony Hillerman
• The Strain; The Fall; The Night Eternal by Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan

Morgan Ritchie-Baum, Business & Social Science Librarian

• The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens by Nicola Clark
• Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
• Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice
• World War Z by Max Brooks
• The Roommate by Rosie Danan
• Heartwood by Amity Gaige
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
• Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
• Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
• The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
• The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
• The Society of Unknowable Objects by Gareth Brown
• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
• Weyward by Emilia Hart
• The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
• The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery by Siddhartha Kara
• The Nine: The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany by Gwen Strauss
• Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
• The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith
• The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee
• The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman

Sandy Rodriguez, Associate Dean

• Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas
• Feminist Killjoy Handbook: The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way by Sara Ahmed
• Imagination: A Manifesto by Ruha Benjamin
• Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
• Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein
• The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet by Jeff Goodell
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
• The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks

Kathy Shields, Research & Instruction Librarian – History & Social Sciences

• Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush
• James by Percival Everett, read by Dominic Hoffman

Roz Tedford, Director for Research, Instruction, and Outreach

• Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of our Deadliest Infection by John Green
• Murder Before Evensong by Richard Coles

Meghan Webb, Instruction & Outreach Librarian

• Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
• The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris

Hu Womack, Instruction & Graduate Student Support Librarian

• My Beloved: A Mitford Novel by Jan Karon
• Something to Look Forward To by Fannie Flagg

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