As is traditional with microblogging, book-loving librarians, we voted on our favorite reads of the year, this time on BlueSky. There were more than 500 votes cast and more than 350 unique titles mentioned! Many thanks to all who participated.

Every single vote cast is in this spreadsheet for your TBR pleasure! If Open Document format doesn’t work for you, try this Excel version. Bookshop.org links are provided below in case you want to order a few of these. May we also suggest your local public library or independent bookstore?

Tying for the gold with 7 votes each:

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

Taking the silver with 6 votes:

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Our bronze winners with 5 votes each:

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
The Names by Florence Knapp

Thanks to our organizer Jenna and our daily compilers, Jane, Mara, Matthew, Jess, Jennifer, Janet, PJ, Dan, and Jenna for the wrapup on the final day and compiling the final count.

Our December GalleyChat occurred on December 3, at our new home on BlueSky. Here are the links to the chat and the Edelweiss catalog where you can request and download DRCs.

To read the full chat, log in and search the platform by #ewgc.

EarlyWord GalleyChat, December 2025. The EWGC spreadsheet is now on this website instead of Google, and includes links to title records in Edelweiss and series information.

December 2025 Edelweiss catalog.

Our next GalleyChat is scheduled for Thursday, January 8, from 4 to 5 p.m. EST on BlueSky (virtual cocktails at 3:30 p.m. EST). This is a change from our usual schedule due to New Year’s Day.

The next LibraryReads deadline is January 1, for books publishing in February.

Please give special attention to our lists of diversity titles for 2025 and also for 2026.