The best and most surprising Big Book shows of 2025, part two
Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri MillerShow Notes
Big Books and Bold Ideas host Kerri Miller interviews a lot of authors over the course of a year. But some conversations stand out for being especially fascinating, delightfully fun or unexpectedly candid.
Last week, we unveiled three of Miller’s top five favorites from 2025. This week, the final two — plus one surprise.
2025 Best Book Roundups
MPR News staff picks The 43 best books MPR News staff read in 2025
From NPR Hunker down with these 13 mysteries and thrillers from 2025
From U.S. libraries Genre fiction and female authors top most-borrowed lists in 2025
If you want to hear the full episodes, you can find them here:
Misty Copeland at Talking Volumes Catherine Newman Kate DiCamillo
Big Books and Bold Ideas is produced by Kelly Gordon and engineered by Cliff Bentley. Here’s to more great books and more fascinating interviews in 2026.
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More from Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller
Min Jin Lee was disappointed she didn’t get to come to Talking Volumes in 2017 to talk about her novel “Pachinko.” She says that’s probably because it struggled initially. Her editor quit just three months before the book was published. Her husband lost his job the day “Pachinko” was released. And besides The New York Times and USA Today, no media companies would review her book.
To mark the fall member drive, Kerri Miller dips back into three conversations she’s had this year with authors who write about nature — and thus, wrestle with what they see climate change doing to our planet. How do we live richly in the midst of a great unraveling?
Miss Marple rides again in Lucy Foley’s new novel, “Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel.” This time, the beloved spinster sleuth finds herself on holiday, at a glamorous and isolated hotel nestled high in the Swiss Alps — where a body is quickly discovered on the first gondola ride of the day.
Carol Anderson has been sounding the alarm for years.
Have Americans given up a sense of virtue in their political leaders? What does character mean when so-called “authenticity” is prized over moral goodness?