The Most Read Books on Goodreads This Week

I never get tired of the hilarious titles of Kimberly Lemming’s books. Blair has been kidnapped in a spaceship and brought to an alien planet (where dinosaurs still exist). As if that isn’t enough, she then learns she’s expected to mate with the king of the planet as part of an alien research program. Let the punching commence! —Liberty Hardy

In this Gen Z coming-of-age novel, we follow Rishi, a “burnt-out youth climate activist, she used to want to save the world, but now she just wants to have gay sex.” When the COVID pandemic hits, she ignores online college in favor of forming a farm collective with her friends. As you might expect from a bunch of queer college students in a small space, the relationships between them get very complicated very quickly. I love mess. —Danika Ellis

Theo of Golden has been dominating the bestseller lists for many, many weeks now, so it’s no surprise to see it on the Goodreads Most Read list. It’s a feel-good novel about Theo arriving at the town of Golden and learning the stories of its inhabitants. It was read by almost 15,000 users this week and has a 4.4 average rating.

In this 2025 thriller, 81-year-old Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is trying to live a quiet life in the suburbs, but when one of her neighbors turns up dead, all eyes turn to her. When Elsie was 14, she was Mad Mabel, the youngest convicted murderer in Australia. Now, with the help of a couple of podcasters, she’s ready to tell the story in her own words. Almost 15,000 users read it this week, and it has a 4.4 average rating.

This turned out to be the sleeper hit of 2025: it has kept growing in popularity, seemingly just from word-of-mouth recommendations. Katie Couric also named it the first pick for her new book club. It’s about a woman who has written letters daily her whole life. When someone from her past writes back, she has to reevaluate a painful period in her life and find a way to forgive. This was read by 17,000 users this week and has a 4.4 average rating.

This is the newest book from the author of The Help. The Help was a huge bestseller, made into a blockbuster movie, but it received a lot of criticism for its use of stereotypes of Black people and white saviorism, as well as its historical inaccuracies. This criticism didn’t prevent Stockett from snagging a lucrative book deal for her new novel, however, and it looks like it hasn’t hurt its sales. The Calamity Club was read by 27,000 users this week and has a 4.6 average rating.

At the top of the list this week is Yesteryear, which came out in April. It’s one of several buzzy tradwife novels out this year. In this one, a tradwife influencer wakes up one day in the time period she’s been romanticizing, and real-life homesteading turns out to be much more difficult—and dangerous—than it looks on Instagram. Yesteryear was read by 43,000 users this week and has a 3.9 average rating.