Adult Battle of the Books 2025

A first-generation Ivy League art history student uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death. Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, this book is a witty examination of power, love, art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite.

When Agatha Paul started her visiting professorship at the University of Arkansas she intended to write a book on marriage. The more she gets to know her students, though, the more Agatha realizes that their lives and conflicts—especially their relationship to money—are much juicier writing topics. Eavesdropping, making up stories for Teen Vogue, and bribing a resident assistant are just a few of the outrageous things that happen as Agatha slides deeper into her new obsession.

After moving to a ruined mansion with her father, Sana becomes obsessed with the history of the estate, including a mysterious death that occurred a hundred years ago. Meanwhile a djinn, also concerned with the mysterious death, haunts the mansion and Sana’s every move.

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams only to find the project she’ll be working on involves a recently established government ministry gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. But then… six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.