It is that time of year again when “best of” lists are everywhere we look. “The Best 25 Movies of ’25” … “Best New Restaurants” … “Best Song of the Year.”
Volunteers with the Tucson Festival of Books decided to twist the concept by half a turn, instead offering a list of best hidden gems; lightly-promoted or less-honored books they came to love, all published in 2025.
“Theo of Golden” by Allen Levi may have been the best feel-good book of the year, featuring a stranger who suddenly appears in a small southern town called Golden. On the walls of the local coffee shop are sketches of local townspeople, drawn by a local artist. When Theo begins buying the prints and giving them to each subject, good things begin to happen. With every exchange, a story is told, a friendship is made, and a life is changed. — Pamela Clarridge
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"New Paltz, New Paltz" by Tucson author Mike Powell is a quietly funny, deeply observant short novel that captures the small moments, missed connections, and gentle absurdities that shape everyday life. The book was published independently through Double Negative Press, yet was included in a “best of” column in The Paris Review. Powell will be a presenter at the Tucson Festival of Books this spring. — Emily Walsh
“The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans has suddenly exploded in popularity, climbing to No. 2 on the bestseller list — eight months after its release. Every morning at 10:30, Sybil Van Antwerp sits down to write letters — to her friends, to her brother, even to Larry McMurtry and Joan Didion. The entire book is made up of those letters and the responses she received back. Together, they tell the story of Sybil’s life. — Kimberly Peters
“I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com” by Kimberly Lemming is a funny, sexy romance novel featuring a woman who is dropped onto another planet and falls in love with two of its creatures. Her sidekick, by the way, is a lion that once attacked her on Earth. Got all that? — Jessica Pryde
“Salt Bones” by Jennifer Givhan is a poetic, mystical mystery that begins when two women disappear from their village on the border near Mexicali. The story threads Latina and Indigenous culture into a family drama, with elements of horror and magical realism stitched in for good measure. — Samantha Neville
“Vera, or Faith” by Gary Shteyngar is a bright, warm-hearted, often-funny family-is-coming-apart story that features 10-year-old Vera, who is half Jewish, half Korean and 100% one-of-a-kind. — Lynn Wiese Sneyd
“The Teacher of Nomad Land” by Daniel Nayeri was the winner of this year’s National Book Award in Young People’s Literature. It is a World War II story set in Iran, where two young brothers have been orphaned when their father is killed in combat. Just 13 and 8, the boys decide to flee, joining the nomadic tribes that befriended their dad. — Kathy Short
“Nightshade” by Michael Connolly was a refreshing break from his long-running Lincoln Lawyer series. Here we meet a new protagonist, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stillwell, and spend time in a new location: Catalina Island off the Southern California coast. When a body is found at the bottom of Avalon Harbor, Stillwell must find whodunit. — Pamela Treadwell-Rubin
“Heartwood" by Amity Gaige centers around an experienced hiker who suddenly goes missing somewhere in the woods in Maine, 200 miles from her final destination. The real story, though, looks at the people who are drawn to the search. — Gay Vernon
“Make Me Commissioner” by Jane Leavy. In the words of David Maraniss, “No one makes me laugh and think and nod my head yes more than Jane Leavy when she is writing about baseball.” — Jack Siry
“The Knight and the Moth” by Rachel Gillig is one of the reasons so many readers are so drawn to the Romantasy shelf these days. Gillig creates a fascinating world with uniquely complicated characters, one of them Sybil Delling — a “Diviner” who has spent a decade in servitude so she can move into the great cathedral. — Betsy Labiner
“The Antidote” by Karen Russell was a finalist for this year’s National Book Award in Fiction. It is set in Dust Bowl Nebraska, where a violent storm has just ravaged a small town that was on the verge of collapse even before the wind started to blow. — Meg Files
“The Devil Reached Toward the Sky” by Garrett Graff is a vivid "first-persons" account of the development, construction, testing and deployment of the atomic bomb during World War II. — Darrell Durham
“Wild Instinct” by T. Jefferson Parker sends Detective Lew Gale in search of a mountain lion that has mauled a rich local developer. The plot thickens when Gale learns the man was dead long before the animal found him. — Bill Viner
“It’s Only Drowning” by David Litt is a true account of a presidential speechwriter — Litt — who became a dedicated surfer at the age of 35. — Lori Riegel
The top stories from Sunday's Home+Life section in the Arizona Daily Star.
