Best of 2025: The Books Readers Refused to Let Go
Every year, the industry tells us what should sell.
Every year, readers quietly prove them wrong.
At Unsolicited Press, we don’t publish books to chase trends. We publish books that take risks, tell the truth, and trust readers to engage deeply. Some of these books are loud. Some are quiet. All of them ask something of the reader—and give something back. In 2025, a handful of titles rose to the top. Not because they were overexposed or aggressively marketed, but because readers found them, shared them, and stayed with them.
These are the books that defined the year.
You May Feel a Bit of Pressure by Amy Gallo Ryan
Our most widely read book of 2025 across all channels. This fearless, intimate exploration of infertility, medicine, and bodily autonomy became something more than a book for many readers. It became language where there had been silence. It became company where there had been isolation.
Readers told us they felt seen. They told us they felt steadied. They told us they finally had something to hand to a friend and say, this is what I could not explain. It was our bestseller. But more importantly, it was a lifeline.
Mouth by Kerry Donoghue
Darkly funny. Unsettling. Razor sharp. Mouth does not behave. It does not soften itself. It does not apologize. And readers noticed. This book became a breakout favorite for people hungry for fiction that trusts their intelligence and their discomfort. The kind of book you do not forget reading, even if you wish you could.
Mosaic by Laura Gaddis
A quiet powerhouse. Mosaic built its momentum slowly and honestly through word of mouth, bookstore handselling, and library readers who kept recommending it without fanfare. This book is proof that memoir does not need spectacle to succeed. It needs precision. It needs care. It needs readers who care. Mosaic found them.
Pardon Me for Moonwalking by Patricia Bidar
A lyrical, emotionally resonant collection that readers returned to again and again. This book found its audience and then held them. It was reread. It was gifted. It became a companion text for people navigating grief, memory, and the strange tenderness of surviving. Some books demand attention. This one earned trust.
Body Memory by Meriwether Clarke
A powerful meditation on embodiment, trauma, and survival. Body Memory was frequently recommended and frequently reordered. It moved quietly but persistently through reader networks and personal conversations. It is the kind of poetry that does not end when the last page does. It stays in the body. Readers felt that, and they shared it.
In Wells’ Time by David Loring Nash
A quiet bestseller with remarkable staying power. This is a book that was found slowly, loved deeply, and passed to friends. In Wells’ Time reminds us that some of the most meaningful readerships are built over time, through trust and recommendation, not urgency.
No Place Like by Anna Boorstin
A reader favorite for its emotional depth and sense of place. This book was chosen again and again by readers looking for something that lingers. Something that opens conversations instead of closing them. No Place Like stayed in rotation because it gave readers space to think, feel, and talk together.
These books didn’t succeed because of hype, algorithms, or industry shortcuts. They succeeded because readers trusted them. Because booksellers recommended them. Because someone picked one up and said, this matters. That’s the kind of success we believe in. Thank you for reading with us. Thank you for supporting independent presses. Thank you for choosing books that take risks. Here’s to another year of bold literature!
