Remembering the authors we lost in 2025

As we wrap up 2025, we pause to celebrate the lives and works of many of the authors who left us this year. Explore the legacy of literature they leave behind and remember their lives with the great stories they left us.

Melody Beattie

One of the first major voices in self-help books, Beattie helped shatter the stigma of discussing substance abuse and codependency with her book Codependent No More, which has sold over seven million copies around the world. She died on Feb. 27 at age 76.

Books:

Codependent No More
🎧 Audiobook

The Language of Letting Go
🎧 Audiobook

John Feinstein

A genuinely passionate fan, few writers have brought more clarity and excitement to the world of sports, whether it be his in-depth biographies or children’s novels. Feinstein passed away on March 13 at age 69.

Books:

The Ancient Eight
🎧 Audiobook

Last Shot
🎧 Audiobook

Frederick Forsyth

International thrillers would never be the same after Forsyth introduced the British assassin known as the Jackal. His 24 books have sold over 75 million copies and are still being adapted, including a new TV series of The Day of the Jackal last year. He died on June 9 at the age of 86.

Books:

The Day of the Jackal
🎧 Audiobook

Revenge of Odessa
🎧 Audiobook

Pope Francis

The leader of the Catholic Church was also a prolific writer and the author of several books of theology as well as memoirs. The first Latin American as well as the first Jesuit pope, he passed away on April 21 at age 88.

Books:

Hope
🎧 Audiobook

The Name of God Is Mercy
🎧 Audiobook

Virginia Roberts Giuffre

One of the victims at the heart of the Jeffrey Epstein case, Giuffre spent the final years of her life trying to bring justice for herself and the other people who suffered in this trafficking ring. She died on April 25 at age 41, shortly before the publication of this memoir.

Book:

Nobody's Girl
🎧 Audiobook

Jane Goodall

An environmental activist who first came to fame for her work with chimpanzees, Goodall spent her life working in, advocating for, and writing about nature. She passed away Oct. 1 at 91 years old.

Books:

The Book of Hope
🎧 Audiobook

Seeds of Hope
🎧 Audiobook

Greg Iles

Author of epic-length Southern thrillers, Iles was born in Germany, but he and his novels were always most at home in Mississippi. He died on Aug. 15 at age 65 after a decades long battle with cancer.

Books:

Cemetery Road
🎧 Audiobook

The Quiet Game
🎧 Audiobook

Paulette Jiles

Both a poet and memoirist, Jiles became best known for her historical fiction set in the post-Civil War West, including the National Book Award finalist, News of the World. She passed on July 8 at age 82.

Books:

News of the World
🎧 Audiobook

Chenneville
🎧 Audiobook

Sophie Kinsella

The ultimate chick lit author, Kinsella elevated mainstream women’s fiction in her Shopaholic series. Translated into dozens of languages, Kinsella’s books sold over 45 million copies. She passed away on Dec. 10 at the age of 55.

Books:

Confessions of a Shopaholic
🎧 Audiobook

What Does It Feel Like?
🎧 Audiobook

John MacArthur, Jr.

One of the most influential evangelical Christian preachers in America, Baptist minister MacArthur authored dozens of works on modern life and faith. Those books and his sermons have been translated into over 40 languages. He died on July 14 at age 86.

Books:

Alone with God
🎧 Audiobook

The Gospel According to God
🎧 Audiobook

Fern Michaels

Author of more than 200 romance and thriller novels, Michaels was one of the biggest selling authors in the world, her novels having been translated into 20 languages. She passed on Nov. 12 at the age of 92.

Books:

Smuggler's Cove
🎧 Audiobook

Weekend Warriors

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Considered by many the leading East African novelist, Ngugi was also an academic, dramatist, and political prisoner. Although his early works were written in English, in 1977 he began writing exclusively in his native Gikuyu. He died on May 28 at the age of 87.

Books:

A Grain of Wheat
🎧 Audiobook

Petals of Blood

Baek Sehee

In a South Korean culture not noted for openly discussing mental health, Baek Sehee achieved international fame and bestseller status when she turned her therapy sessions dealing with depression into memoirs. She died on Oct. 16 at age 35.

Books:

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki
🎧 Audiobook

I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki
🎧 Audiobook

L. J. Smith

Turned into the spectacularly popular teen TV drama The Vampire Diaries and its spinoffs, Smith’s novels centered in Mystic Falls enchanted a generation of teens. (And in my case, plenty of adults as well.) She passed away on March 8 at 66 years old.

Books:

The Awakening
🎧 Audiobook

The Initiation
🎧 Audiobook

Tom Stoppard

Stoppard, the Czech-born British playwright, won every significant theater award in his long career, including multiple Tony and Olivier awards, as well as an Oscar for cowriting Shakespeare in Love. This erudite dramatist passed away on Nov. 29 at the age of 88.

Books:

The Real Thing
🎧 Audiobook

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
🎧 Audiobook

Mario Vargas Llosa

Novelist, journalist, and Peruvian presidential nominee, Vargas Llosa also collected a Nobel Prize for his astute observations of modern political life in Latin America. He passed away on April 13 at age 89.

Books:

The Feast of the Goat
🎧 Audiobook

Harsh Times
🎧 Audiobook

James D. Watson

One of the doctors who helped unravel DNA, Watson’s The Double Helix has received praise and criticism since its publication, with the Modern Library calling it one of the ten best nonfiction books of the 20th century. He died on Nov. 6 at the age of 97.

Books:

DNA: The Story of the Genetic Revolution
🎧 Audiobook

The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA

*Title availability may vary.

Remember their lives and stories with these books on the Libby app.