11 Books That Made Both PEOPLE Picks and Amazon’s Books of the Year

‘Broken Country’ by Claire Leslie Hall

Hall’s novel, a March 2025 PEOPLE Pick that was also chosen for Reese’s Book Club follows Beth, whose past comes back to haunt her in a tight-knit village full of history. Amazon editor Abby Abell called Broken Country “a family drama that is also a love story and a mystery, with shocking twists.”

‘The Emperor of Gladness’ by Ocean Vuong

Vuong’s novel, a May 2025 PEOPLE Pick, “shows the profound ways in which love, labor and loneliness form the bedrock of American life,” per a synopsis. The story “oozes with compassion and grace,” Amazon editor Erin Kodicek said. It was also chosen for Oprah’s Book Club.

‘Katabasis’ by R. F. Kuang

Kuang’s dark academia tour-de-force, and one of PEOPLE’s Best Books of the Summer, sees two graduate students make the treacherous journey to hell to rescue their professor’s soul. Abell dubbed the novel as “destined to become a modern classic.”

‘Atmosphere’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Set in the 1980s space program, Reid’s novel traces “the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits,” per a synopsis. This June PEOPLE Pick was also chosen as a Good Morning America Book Club pick and Amazon editor Kami Tei called the novel a “testament to resilience” and an exhilarating tale.

“Atmosphere pushed me to learn about astronomy, and to go outside and look up at the night sky,” Reid told PEOPLE, at the time of the book’s release. “There is, for me, something really close to magical about standing in my backyard and looking up and seeing Orion’s Belt … It gives such a beautiful sense of how the world is turning in both a literal way and a metaphorical way.”

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan

Buckeye follows the lasting impact through generations of a extramarital kiss shared between two people at the end of World War II. “You’ll root for their happiness, cry out for their pain and forget that this is just a novel,” said Amazon editor Al Woodworth. One of PEOPLE’s reviewers called it “mesmerizing.”

‘Paper Girl’ by Beth Macy

Macy’s memoir, also a Fall 2025 PEOPLE pick, traces her decades rooted in her hometown of Urbana, Ohio, and the author’s unshakable “feeling that her town had dramatically hardened.” Amazon editor Lindsay Powers called the memoir a “one-day read [that] will stir you to action.”

PEOPLE’s reviewers considered the book an “incisive and illuminating look at what happens to people who feel abandoned as the world marches on.”

‘Replaceable You’ by Mary Roach

The queen of pop-sci nonfiction returns with an exploration of replaceable body parts, from implants to veneers that was also chosen as a PEOPLE September pick. “This is science with a sense of humor and a wild read you don’t want to miss,” said Seira Wilson, an Amazon editor.

‘The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny’ by Kiran Desai

In Desai’s novel that was also chosen as a September PEOPLE Pick, two young people fall into each other’s orbit after a long rift, caused by their respective grandparents tried to matchmake them. Woodworth called the tale a “richly layered and rewarding read.”

‘The Book of Guilt’ by Catharine Chidgey

This dystopian novel set in an alternate universe where nobody won World War II meets triplets at an orphanage where “every day they must take medicine to protect themselves from a mysterious illness to which many of their friends have succumbed,” per a synopsis. Abell called the novel “breathtaking and haunting, with a sinister undertone” and PEOPLE considered it “strange and lovely.”

‘Heart the Lover’ by Lily King

King’s novel, also a September PEOPLE pick, explores a college love triangle complicated by friendship, love and ambition — and decades later, the implications of those transformative bonds. “Witty and wise, this affecting tale is further proof that King is one of the queens of contemporary fiction,” said Kodicek. PEOPLE called it “bittersweet, astutely observed and thoroughly engaging.”

‘Cursed Daughters’ by Oyinkan Braithwaite

In Braithwaite’s novel, which became a Read With Jenna book club pick and a November PEOPLE Pick, a young woman has to grapple with a family curse and fend off rumors she’s the reincarnation of her dead cousin, per a synopsis. “This is a must-read for anyone who loves family sagas with a supernatural twist,” Tei said.