The Best Books You May Have Missed in 2025
December is a great time to relax with a book, and book clubs, blogs, celebrities and newspapers are releasing their Best Books lists for 2025 – a fun way to find your next book. I love discovering new authors and I find as much time as I can to read. I usually listen to audiobooks on my commute and read during my vacations. With our upcoming Lillian Louise Pharr author event, I’m looking forward to listening to Remain by Nicholas Sparks with M. Night Shyamalan. This is way out of genre for me, but everyone needs some Nicholas Sparks at some point in their reading history. My favorite book for 2025 was Secrets of the Flamingo Café by Joy Wallace Dickinson, a mystery set in 1940s Orlando. If you haven’t found a favorite book this year, we have some ideas for you.
As you turn the pages of this month’s magazine, you’ll see nearly every page includes book covers and descriptions as part of our Best Books of 2025 list. A group of 26 librarians worked to create this “OCLS Best Of” list. They reviewed items in our collection released between November 2024 and October 2025 that you may have missed, highlighting many books that may not have appeared on best seller or celebrity lists or our most checked out titles. I really enjoyed going through the selections and have added several of the titles to my own to be read list. Take a look – I hope you’ll find a book that stands out to you too. And whether you like to hold a printed book, download to an e-reader or listen to audiobooks on your commute like I do, OCLS has a book that fits your needs.
Whether you are an established author or inspired to start writing from looking at this year’s best reads, OCLS has programming all month to support your goals. From writers’ meetups and workshops to networking and career development, your library makes the tools to hone your skills available both in person and online. On December 14, I hope you’ll come to our Local Author Festival at Orlando Public Library to meet, chat with and gain inspiration from published Florida authors across a variety of genres.
December means school is out and winter celebrations are here and Orlando Public Library will host adaptations of two holiday classics for all ages. On December 7, watch as the Central Florida Ballet brings scenes from the holiday classic The Nutcracker to life and on December 20, join us again as Atlantic Coast Theatre performs a musical version of Hans Christen Andersen’s adventurous tale The Snow Queen on the Library Central stage.
Caregivers, continue the learning in December by joining us for winter-themed storytimes at every location. We have activities for every interest to keep kids learning through the winter break.
Thank you for making OCLS part of your life in 2025. We look forward to helping you continue to learn, grow and connect through resources and programming at our 15 locations, online and at outreach events across Orange County in 2026.
