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Staff Favorites: Best of 2025

by Public Service Associate Juliana

I love compiling this list. Even though the internet is inundated with lists around this time, I still really love this one. It’s full of character and personality, highly specific and individual based on our tastes and preferences. Out of those of us who submitted responses, we had zero overlap! No one favorited the same book, film or album as someone else.

That means there is so much to explore here. Our interests range from nature documentaries to culinary memoirs, comedy tv series to fantasy romance, atmospheric music to alternative metal, and many things in between.

We here at BPL hope you find something new for yourself in the following selection and that you have fun exploring what we enjoyed this year!

Owen

Novel

  • Fun for the Whole Family by Jennifer E Smith. This one was really good for a few reasons, the split perspective done right, the really thoughtful interactions between the four main characters and their relationships as siblings, and also just for the aesthetic pleasure of watching these adults get stuck in a snowstorm and think about ruining their lives.

Documentary Film

  • Every Little Thing dir. by Sally Aitken. Beautiful and moving documentary about Los Angeles hummingbird rehabilitator Terry Masear. The documentary treats its subject much as she treats hers, as something delicate and special, filled with stunning images of the hummingbirds she cares for, and injected with Masear’s own gallows humor about the ephemerality of life.

Album

  • Eusexua – FKA Twigs. FKA Twigs has never been so back on this truly exciting release. She is at her most creative, most original and most experimental in this album, and the accompanying music videos are just as much to die for. I’m highlighting the title track and also Striptease as the best songs on the album.

Honorable mention to Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s memoir Far from Home. I can’t say I care much for Murkowski herself or her politics, but she does offer an interesting and fairly novel insight into the politics of wild Alaska and gives the same treatment to Washington D.C. that I would probably give to Anchorage.

Jen

Nonfiction/Memoir

  • Non-Fiction was all I read in 2025. Just keepin’ it real. HA! See what I did there? The book? How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love and Plenty by Bonny Reichert. It is a culinary memoir about the author’s relationship with her Holocaust survivor father through the lens of food. It’s a slow burn, but well worth it. 

TV show

  • Without a doubt. The Studio. It is the funniest. It is the swearingest. It is a breakneck-speed, homage-laden, fun-fueled comedic delight. And it is simply the best show TV had to offer in 2025.

Album

  • Debí Tirar Más Fotos – Bad Bunny. Resoundingly my favorite record of 2025. As a tried-and-true punk rock Gen-Xer, this record would not be my typical jam. But I was all like, why are people being a little extra about this Bad Bunny character and his upcoming halftime show, I’d better investigate. Turns out THE KID IS A PHENOM. Such fun! Such positivity! Such joyousness! Bad Bunny’ll make you shake your boom-boom and make you a happier person while listening. Which is, frankly, what we can all use right now. 

Hannah

Novels

Nonfiction/Memoir

  • Carpet Diem by George Bradley caught my eye with the pun, pulled me in with the patterns, and was an interesting look at one person in this human world.  

TV Show

Albums

  • From the Pyre – The Last Dinner Party, if you need something atmospheric.
  • Skeletá – Ghost for the catchy and theatrical things you may hear me humming.

Juliana

Novel

  • Counting Backwards by Binnie Kirshenbaum. This is the second novel I’ve read by Kirshenbaum. I found it completely absorbing and maximally devastating. And I loved it.

Movie

  • Train Dreams dir. by Clint Bentley. I cried as the credits rolled. This is such a lonely and beautiful movie. Next on my list is to read the novella of the same name that the movie is based on by Denis Johnson.

Album

Josh

Nonfiction/Memoir

Movies

  • Sinners. Not in 100 years would I have guessed I needed a movie about vampires playing blues music set in 1932 Mississippi. I’m mostly allergic to musicals and horror films, but this movie highlights the music without taking the viewer out of the story (think O Brother, Where Art Thou?) and it’s not over-the-top gory. 10 out of 10!
  • One Battle After Another. Another absolute banger by Paul Thomas Anderson. The chase scenes are so intense that, at one point, I felt relief when someone was caught and tased. 
  • Phoenician Scheme. Out of all of Wes Anderson’s films, this one feels the most like Looney Tunes to me, which warms my heart!
  • Minecraft. My kids love Minecraft. I love Jack Black. There’s really nothing else to say.

Albums

  • Bleeds – Wednesday. These guys just have an old-school indie rock feel to them that can slide into americana all the way to punk rock.
  • For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) – Japanese Breakfast. The title says it all: this is music for melancholy brunettes (& sad women).

Gabrielle

Novels

  • Silver Elite by Dani Francis. Great dystopian fantasy romance. Keep ya on the edge of your seat kind of book. Sorry if I annoyed anyone talking about it incessantly. 
  • Enchantra by Kaylie Smith. Fantasy romance and book 2 in a series. Was pleasantly surprised that this book held its own to the first book. Love a good enemies-to-lovers romance.

Nonfiction

Albums

  • Space of the Heart – GoldFord. Described as soulful pop. Love every song on this EP.
  • Even in Arcadia – Sleep Token. Alternative Metal. Amazing blend of genres and impressive musicality. 
  • Portal – Balu Brigada. Indie pop. I prefer the funkier songs but still enjoyable.
  • Pressure – Julia Wolf. Been listening to “In My Room” on repeat and will continue to do so until I hate it. 

Kelly

Well, I have been reading a LOT of romance, so here you go.

Novels

  • What If You Fall for Me First by G.F. Miller. I’m always on the lookout for romance books I can give tweens and this one fits the bill perfectly. Yes, I already asked Heidi to order it, as well as the first book in the series, Not If You Break Up with Me First. Imagine The Duff if it was set in middle school. It’s adorably cute. Kitten sweaters and all 
  • Come As You Are by Dahlia Adler. I read this teen book in one day maybe two days and then I went back and reread all of the scenes with the two main leads because their chemistry is just *chef’s kiss*. 
  • Any Trope but You by Victoria Lavine. I’m not gonna lie, if you don’t like the main character, you won’t like this book. But there’s a lot of other things to love like the scene where she trips and sprains her ankle, so he has to carry her down a mountain, meeting the man of her dreams by literally jumping into his arms because she saw a moose (did I mention this is set in Alaska?), and you know, a sizzling sauna scene. Also, both main characters are the primary caregivers for family members, and I loved that this was a major part of the story. If you don’t like romance, I’d still read it because of the well-written relationship between the main character and her sister–think of The Notebook if it had been about two sisters–happy tears.

Albums

  • EPIC the Musical – Jorge Rivera-Herrans. I’m cheating a little bit because it originally did not come out in 2025, but there is a new complete collection 3 LP set that you can pre-order and –checks the website– is already SOLD OUT. Nooooooooo that was gonna be my Christmas present. Anyway, I put this musical about The Odyssey up there with other greats like Les Mis, Hamilton, and Phantom of the Opera. Every song on here truly is epic, and I am OBSESSED -IWYFILWYOAOAIDCHWOWNMHLIBYMDTMYNTSPAIBWWPWWPWWWOFY (IFYKYK)
  • K Pop Demon Hunters Soundtrack. I mean how can I not add this. 

Movies

  • The Accountant 2. It is just as good as the first one. Two Wolff brothers mean double the trouble, double the fun, and double the sarcasm (Brax has enough for both of them). My favorite scene is them both sitting on top of Christian’s trailer in lawn chairs and Christian’s brother, Brax gives him a hard time (as brothers do) about putting on sunscreen and eventually chucks it across the lot.

Debbie

Novels

  • Tilt by Emma Pattee. A slim but powerful book about Annie, a heavily pregnant woman, caught up in everyday worries, who is in IKEA picking out a crib when a massive earthquake hits. It’s both a journey across the city to find her husband, and a journey within.  
  • The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. A great historical horror novel with an interesting twist on vampires that I did not see coming!  Not to mention that the novel brought to light some real horrors from history.  

Movies

  • Eddington dir. by Ari Aster. A darkly funny look at how the pandemic made a lot of us crazy.  Great performances and a sharp message!
  • Mickey 17 dir. by Bong Joon Ho. The director of Parasite is back with a fun, sci-fi social satire that touches on issues of identity and class struggle, all while being a gonzo sci-fi adventure!
  • Weapons dir. by Zach Cregger. My favorite scary movie of the year. It had so many interesting twists, genuinely terrifying moments and strong visuals. But not for the faint of heart – there is one scene I wish I could un-see.
  • Ocean with David Attenborough was one of my favorite documentaries of the year!  Beautiful visuals and also a strong message about the real challenges facing the ocean, but ultimately hopeful on how everyday people can change things for the better.

Beth

Novels

  • A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar. A dystopian novel set in near future Kolkata following two characters as they navigate the despair, fear and urgency that accompanies climate induced famine. Majumdar writes her characters with such compassion that, despite their sometimes cruel and selfish choices, there is no villain or hero, but simply two characters desperately struggling to protect and take care of their families in a dangerous and uncertain world. 

Nonfiction/Memoir

  • Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy. Roy is one of my favorite writers and her first memoir is full of conviction and vulnerability as she explores her life, in particular her very complicated relationship with her mother. I listened to this on audiobook, and Roy’s wonderfully soothing, articulate voice – one I could listen to read a phone book – accentuates the beauty and poetry of her writing.

Television

  • The Rehearsal (Season 2) As a fan of everything that Nathan Fielder creates, the second season of The Rehearsal is the most absurd, chaotic, inventive and over the top stunt he’s pulled off. What other comedian would get a commercial pilot’s license – with a 737 rating – for a TV show? 

Albums

  • Man’s Best Friend – Sabrina Carpenter. I wasn’t sure how Carpenter would follow up Short n’ Sweet, which in my opinion was (near) pop perfection, but Man’s Best Friend is even more campy, playful and laugh out loud funny than its predecessor. Dance parties highly encouraged!
  • The Life of a Showgirl – Taylor Swift. A little indie project that you might have missed as it flew under most people’s radar, The Life of a Showgirl is a skip-less 12 track album that is pure, unapologetic fun from start to finish. Honestly, even if the rest of the album were duds, “Father Figure” alone would be enough to make it my favorite of the year.