How can it already be time for our last round of 2025 staff picks? It seems like just yesterday we were gearing up for a year of great new releases. The bad news: we won’t be doing another traditional set of staff picks post until next year. The good news: our booksellers are far from done helping you find fantastic new reads! Take our annual holiday catalog, for instance. It features all of our favorite books of the year, plus some fun bookish merch items. And if you want to keep up with all things Parnassus and get weekly recs in your inbox, sign up for our email newsletter! As always, tomorrow will be our children’s and young adult staff picks post. We’ll see you again in February!

A sprawling, epic Polynesian tale. Follow intertwined plotlines and islands bound together by fate and tradition. Intelligent, well-researched, and beautifully executed, this was a standout favorite of mine this year.

British writer Penelope’s real trip to Mexico in 1952 to claim an inheritance she desperately needed, only to find several others had the same idea. Vivid setting, characters, this novel will resonate with historical fiction fans….I loved it!

Another hit by Brandon Taylor! Wyeth is an artist in New York City struggling with his artistic purpose until he meets Keating, an ex-Jesuit similarly struggling with his inner ethos. Do you like art? Did school mess up how you observe and internalize the world around you? Then read this book.

Want to read a locked train car mystery with a “didn’t see that coming” plot twist? This is it. Agatha is an author whose husband sends her on a first-class train ride as a present, giving her time away to write. Or so he thinks. She has other plans until the train breaks down in a storm and a passenger is murdered.

Members of the prestigious sorority House have everything: beauty, success, and most importantly, a seat at the table. But there’s more to the House’s members than meets the eye… Fans of Yellowjackets and psychological thrillers will absolutely devour this book (no pun intended). After all, you have to love the food.

Also loved by Rachel & Abigail!

You know the feeling of being reincarnated across lifetimes and doomed to live out the same fate with the lady knight you fell in love with? Maybe this time you could end the cycle? Maybe you won’t be doomed by the narrative? Maybe your suffering will finally be worth something?

Also loved by Katie!

This novella focuses on a few residents at the Biedermeier Hotel. Holidays change one thing: available work, Broadway show ushers or Nutcracker costume helpers. One resident starts a male escort service for women in social clubs, Daughters of the American Revolution to Mayflower Society. Add in sky high phone bills, a jewelry theft, and estranged family members. A delightful holiday read transporting you to 1964 NYC.

From cult favorite Mark Z. Danielewski, Tom’s Crossing is a western odyssey unlike anything you’ve ever read. Concerning the fate of two children and the horses they steal to save from slaughter, what follows is a carefully constructive narrative in which no good deed goes unpunished. Sweeping, brutal, staggeringly immersive, and practically mythical in nature, Tom’s Crossing is a genuine epic for our times.

Latronico perfectly captures the dark comedy of trying to grow up in modern world: every step forward is met with a sense of guilt and two steps back; vacations that you’re determined to love but only leave you more tired in the end; a dead end job with a cool title and no security; and of course, a lot of very fashionable coffees along the way.

A tragic time-loop of gender nonconforming love versus the violent greed of fascism. Holding this book is like holding a beating heart– fascinating, terrifying, and life altering.

Also loved by Raegyn & Katie!

Great acts of love are measured in the lengths we go to to inconvenience ourselves for others. Palaver follows a Texas-born son estranged from his Jamaican immigrant mother as he searches for queer found family in Tokyo. An unannounced reunion in Japan just before Christmas sets the mother and son’s heartbreak and healing into motion. Longlisted for the National Book Award.

The Scottish Highlands. A crumbling castle. Rival book hunters. A house with secrets. Puzzles. A hidden treasure. It’s all here and it makes for a charming story.

This is the story of a man who lives with his mother in an apartment in Beirut trying to get some much needed privacy, but it meanders across continents and decades to paint a portrait of the loving, frustrating, complicated relationship between mother and son. It’s hilarious! It’s heartbreaking! It’s a National Book Award finalist! It’s written by my former professor, but I’d still love it even if it wasn’t!

Sophie Hannah brings Hercule Poirot back, and Agatha Christie would be pleased. 1923. New Year’s Eve. Poirot and Inspector Catchpool arrive at a Greek island where each resident shares a resolution, including one that predicts a murder. Poirot came to look after another resident whose life was threatened. Will that guest be next? Will Poirot and Catchpool be able to solve one murder before another happens?

How can you begin to understand your mother, especially when she’s gone? Gish Jen is back with a gut-wrenching novel that blends fact and fiction to grapple with her relationship with her mother. Equal parts scathing, funny, and painfully sympathetic, this is a must read.

Also loved by Genevieve!

If the Pink Panther movies could be turned into a graphic novel set in outer space, this is it. Inspector Clouseau is Vega who has to retrace his steps to find his keys so he can go home to Earth. He goes back to the planets he visited to see what he did to them. A comedy and a satire, this book has a message to tell, but it does it in a humorous way.

Her first published work since Go Set a Watchman, dive into this collection of Lee’s fabulous essays and short stories. Some previously published, some new, all fantastic. A perfect early Christmas pick for the Southern lit fic fan in your life.

Also loved by Ella!

A sweeping and engaging chronicle of Black-owned bookstores and their revolutionary roles in American culture and history. Adams expertly traces the timeline of their roots and resilience, and includes photos, references, and interviews with the people who ignited the spark. This is required reading for all.

This book was like sitting down for a warm cup of tea and listening to Sue Monk Kidd tell stories about writing, family, love, and how to live a beautiful life. My heart needed this book, especially now. I know I will revisit it again and again.

Also loved by Abigail!

Deep and powerful, this collection of the infamous Persian mystic’s work is just as moving as the element the title refers to.

In my head, Kate Baer is my wise older sister who isn’t afraid to be honest with me about womanhood, motherhood, and the human experience. In each poem, Baer leads us to a door, and despite our own expectations of what’s on the other side, every door opens to a mirror. Over and over, Baer’s words lead us back to ourselves. It somehow feels like a surprise every time.

Also loved by Abigail!

To hunt and to be hunted. To haunt and to be haunted. This quiet, contemplative work by Kieron Walquist asks readers to consider how rural space, culture, and politic impact the queer body. Focusing on the ever-looming violence, addiction, and desires found in our familiar American landscapes, Walquist breaks heavy topics wide open, yet their stunning language leaves you feeling punched in the gut.

If you’ve ever been online, well – bad news, friends. It’s not good. Your information is now very much not-private. Learn the terrifying ways that companies/conglomerates/cartels(?) gather and exploit your personal data to further their financial (world domination) goals. And why things are getting SO much worse.

From the acclaimed chef and author of Blood, Bones & Butter (read that if you haven’t already!), this new memoir takes a more in-depth look into Hamilton’s unconventional childhood, complex family dynamics, and personal highs and lows. Raw and compelling, and beautifully written.

Take a trip back a few millennia and see how our ancestors lived. Experiential archeologists give us this opportunity! Across centuries and continents – learn how cultures thrived, died, and adapted. Fascinating adventures await!

Atwood takes us through her life starting with her childhood living with nature in remote Canada. This early life gave her space to draw and write poems; the book is full of these plus photos. People that she met became pieces of the characters in her novels. She is generous in her sharing and you will want to read or reread her amazing collection.

It’s all happening! This memoir is an honest, unmerciful, and unflinching look at Cameron Crowe–both the man and the music that made him. Crowe’s powerful and whip-smart writing will leave his stories of the 1970s stuck in your head like all those sticky tunes that raised us. Plus, you will never look at the color turquoise again without wanting to weep. Thank you, Cameron, for being the same kind of uncool as me.

Tempting inspiration for vegetable-forward dishes from author of Tenderheart. I could cook these creative, well-balanced, and clearly written recipes every night. This volume is perfect for spicing up dinner routines.

Let’s round out our spooky season with this beautiful re-release of The Gilda Stories, originally published in 1991. This sapphic vampire novel kicks off in 1850s Louisiana when Gilda escapes slavery and finds freedom amongst the “blood sharers” in a brothel and spends the next 200 years looking for love, freedom and a place to call home. This book is SO good and a fantastic part of the horror cannon.

A classic story of a human girl trapped in a fae world, competing in deadly trials to gain her freedom and falling in love with fae royalty along the way. A steamy romantasy that is perfect for fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses and Fourth Wing.

This is THE witch book! Reading this will haunt your mind for years to come. P.S. You’ll never see jam the same way…

I love this strange little vibey book. A newly-wed and newly-unemployed woman and her husband move next-door to her in-laws in the Japanese countryside where she is confronted with loneliness and spirits of all kinds.

Every now and then an advanced reader’s copy comes along (those paperback editions that arrive for reviewers and booksellers months and months before the real book comes out) that goes around the backroom of Parnassus like wildfire. One bookseller is reading while another bookseller in waiting with her hand out. This is the way it’s been for the new Lily King novel Heart the Lover. We devoured it, we loved it, we stayed up late to finish so that we could pass it along to the next person in line. I lent my copy (which had already been read by a half a dozen people) to a friend who was going away for the weekend. She came back saying she’d read it twice in three days. When I asked for my copy back, she couldn’t give it to me. She had told another friend about it and that friend had begged for the book. She would read it so fast! She would return it immediately! And she did. And she loved it. Everyone loved it. Because this is a book about being in love, about losing yourself and then struggling to reclaim yourself again. The magic is that it’s written by Lily King, in whose hands love and sex and heartbreak are made into art. I love Lily for this (and really, I love Lily for many reasons), that she gives us the books we want to read and makes them better than we could ever have imagined.

Find a comfortable chair. Once you start, you’re not going to want to get up until you’ve finished.

Enjoy.

Ann Patchett

More about our First Editions Club: Every member receives a first edition of the selected book of the month, signed by the author. Books are carefully chosen by our staff of readers, and our picks have gone on to earn major recognition including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Plus, there’s no membership fee or premium charge for these books. Build a treasured library of signed first editions and always have something great to read! Makes a FABULOUS gift, too.

Julia Song, CEO of Starlight Cosmetics, is at the height of her career. Then why does she feel like such a failure? Maybe because she’s thirty and single, with a terrible track record at dating. And in the eyes of her Korean family, that is just unacceptable. It never really bothered her–that is until her beloved grandmother drops the bomb that she is sick and her dying wish is for Julia to get married. Impossible. So in a moment of weakness, Julia asks her family for help. Set her up on three dates to help her find The One. But it will never work–Julia is undateable. If only there was a coach for that…

Tae Kim knows about the weight of familial expectation. He’s currently unemployed, living in his parents’ basement to care for his ill father. Sure, he’s become somewhat of a fix-it man for the Korean community around town, but that’s not a real job. And the pressure to get his life together is getting to be too much. So when the Julia Song–his childhood crush–asks for his help, it may be just the distraction he needs. He’ll do whatever it takes, even coach her for these three dates. Problem is, the more time they spend together and the closer they get, the more Tae wonders if anyone is good enough for Julia…including him.

The Love, Parnassus box is a monthly subscription box for romance readers curated by the experts at Parnassus Books. Each month you will receive a first edition book (which is sometimes signed), a letter from the author, a custom sticker, and a bookmark to track your reading. The Love, Parnassus selection will focus on debut and new-to-you romance authors. Set up a subscription for yourself or buy a gift membership for your favorite romance reader for 3, 6, or 12 months.