The tendency of Marie Kondo, the queen of that movement, to cut out the most important pages of her favorite books and jettison the rest “inadvertently prophesied the future of the novel,” Rothfeld writes,

WWB staff members on their favorite translated books of the year and the 2025 titles they're most excited about.

This year’s best books mattered because they offered refuge from the wheels grinding in our heads,” writes Dwight Garner in a piece in which the Book Review’s three staff critics look back on their years in reading.

What’s the best and worst book that you read this year? Did it have amazing character development or did the storyline move at a snail’s pace? I want to know all about what made it so amazing or why you didn't read it past chapter two.