Please or to access all these features

What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

26ish books 2026

985 replies

Tinkhasflown · 01/01/2026 16:26

A shiny new thread for 2026.

All welcome and note 26 is just a number. Everyone can set their own target and you are welcome here even if you only read 2 books a year.

I personally count the larger novel style books I read to my children and audio books I listen to. Others don't and there are no rules.

I look forward to all your suggestions again this year.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
Pigtailsandall · 05/05/2026 19:29
  1. So thrilled for you by Holly Bourne

An easy read, given to me by a friend but I didn't really care for it. Certain segments went on and on and I skim-read a lot. The characters were all lifted from SATC, even up to the names in some cases, and I found the attempt for humour to be quite tragic at times. Probably my least favourite read of the year so far.

MonkeyTennis34 · 05/05/2026 13:58

@Yuja
Although I love all of Amor Towles’s books, Rules of Civility is my favourite.

Yuja · 05/05/2026 12:17

MonkeyTennis34 · 05/05/2026 11:31

@Yuja
Another huge fan of the Lincoln Highway here.
Loved all the characters. Have you read The Rules of Civility?

No I haven’t yet - it’s on my list. I can only imagine I will love it based on how much I love both Gentleman in Moscow and Lincoln Highway. Did you like it?

MonkeyTennis34 · 05/05/2026 11:31

@Yuja
Another huge fan of the Lincoln Highway here.
Loved all the characters. Have you read The Rules of Civility?

Yuja · 05/05/2026 09:51

13 - The Lincoln Highway - Amor Towles I absolutely loved this - the characters are brillianty portrayed, vivid and memorable and the storytelling is exceptional. I couldn’t stop reading yet never wanted it to end. I adored A Gentleman in Moscow by the same author and this book comes close to matching its brilliance! Defo my book of 2026 so far and it would take a lot to beat it!

Illbefinejustbloodyfine · 04/05/2026 13:58

Ive been a bit awol, reading has dropped off somewhat. Im curreny reading I who have never known men. Its take a little bit of getting into but Im really enjoying it. I can't see a happy ending happening!

LemonPandaCub · 03/05/2026 17:48

Book 11: Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
I quite enjoyed this although I guessed part of the twist quite early on which is unusual for an Alice Feeney book as she usually plays some blinders with crazy twists imo.

2026 books so far:
then she was gone
beautiful ugly
the intruder
the shadowman
the family upstairs
Rock Paper Scissors
The Family Remains
The House we Grew up in
It Should Have Been You
Dont Let Him In

EnchantedDays · 03/05/2026 11:56

13: Down Cemetery Road by Mick Herron. I'm a big fan of the Slough House books, this is the first in his previous series. The start was a bit unconvincing and the whole thing somewhat far-fetched but it did grip me and I rattled through it, will follow on with the next in the series.

ItWillBeDone · 03/05/2026 11:52

I can finally add another one!

  1. The Bee Sting, Paul Murray
  2. The Outsider, Stephen King

I found the Outsider a bit too strange for me. Want to find something a bit more light hearted for my next read.

Clairedebear101286 · 03/05/2026 08:20

Morning :)
Books read so far:
(1) The French for Christmas by Fiona Valpy
(2) The Outside Boy by Jeannie Cummins
(3) Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
(4) All the Broken Places by John Boyne
(5) A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
(6) Crooked Branch by Jeannie Cummins
(7) Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell
(8) Never Lie by Frieda McFadden
(9) All Her Fault by Andrea Mara (Audio book)
(10) The Locked Door by Frieda McFadden
(11) All the Light We Cannot See by By Anthony Doerr

Latest book

(12) The Book of Lost Names' by Kristin Harmel

Description taken from goodreads

Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?

As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears.

An engaging and evocative novel reminiscent of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Alice Network, The Book of Lost Names is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil.

It was a nice easy read - enjoyed it!

Happy reading everyone :)

MargotMoon · 02/05/2026 13:11

Just forced myself to finish The Ministry of Time. I thought it was a great idea badly executed. The writer seemed more interested in constructing artful sentences than thinking about the plot. I just couldn’t get into it, unfortunately.

drspouse · 02/05/2026 10:01

I don't mind airport/chick lit when I'm in the right mood.
No 31 The Husbands which sounds rather like The Names, but not devastating. By Holly Gramazio. A young woman finds husbands keep coming out of her attic. Every time she gets a new husband her life changes in other ways. Funny but quite thought provoking.

MonkeyTennis34 · 02/05/2026 09:09

The Correspondent is ok. Bit of an airport/chick lit book for me. It was a book group choice so I did finish it but for me, it lacked depth.

drspouse · 02/05/2026 09:05

I have both The Correspondent and The Names on my TBR list. Nobody has told me The Correspondent is amazing, at least!

Citygirlrurallife · 02/05/2026 08:21

20 The Names - Florence Knapp

utterly devastating book following three versions of the lives of a family depending on the name the mum chooses to register of her baby son. Just stunning in every way

MammaGnomes · 01/05/2026 19:46

16 The Family - Mario Puzo

a book club read that I wouldn’t normally pick up. It’s a novel written by the author of the godfather about the Borgia Family in renaissance Italy. I found it a pretty hard, grim read to be honest. We met for book club last night and those that finished it (not many) agreed.

17 A court of Frost and Starlight- Sarah J Maas

book 4 in the ACOTR series and my least favourite so far. It was a short one and someone I spoke to about it described it as more of an epilogue to the next one. To me it felt like it wasn’t really needed but I might change my mind when I read the next one.

18 The Correspondant - Virgina Evans

I was expecting great things from this of the back of all the amazing reviews I’ve seen recently and I was really disappointed, it just didn’t blow me away like most people claim.

2026 reads
I’ve bolded my favourites so far

  1. What a Way to Go - Bella Mackie
  2. All the Colours of the Dark - Christopher Whittaker
  3. The Briar Club - Kate Quinn
  4. The Names - Florence Knapp
  5. None of this is True - Lisa Jewell (audio)
  6. A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J Maas
  7. James - Percival Everett
  8. Daisy Darker - Alice Feeney
  9. Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir (audio)
  10. A court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J Maas
  11. A Good Girls Guide to Murder - Holly Jackson
  12. A court of wings and ruin - Sarah J Maas
  13. The Cut Throat Trial - The Secret Barrister (audio)
  14. Daisy Jones and the six - TJR (audio)
  15. Fourteen days - various authors
  16. The Family - Mario Puzo
  17. A court of Frost & starlight - Sarah J Maas
  18. The Correspondent - Virginia Evans
u3ername · 30/04/2026 22:16
  1. The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne by Freya North

This is the first book I’ve read written by this author. I knew of Freya North but wasn’t too interested until I found out she lives very local to me. My town was mentioned a few times in the story which was part of the appeal for me.

I’d have been ten years younger than the main character, Eadie, who was a teenager in the eighties, but reading about her growing up in that period brought up a lot of nostalgia. There were moments that I found very emotional and teared up. However, there were bits that I found repetitive or irrelevant.

I really liked the writing style, overall, and could tell how much work has been put in to describe factual things in so much detail.

Overall, I’m happy I picked it up and couldn’t not finish it.

MonkeyTennis34 · 30/04/2026 10:37

@greencrab
I loved We Begin at the End and All the Colours of the Dark.
Waiting with anticipation for Chris Whitaker’s next offering.

MammaGnomes · 29/04/2026 22:16

Illbefinejustbloodyfine · 29/04/2026 22:12

@MammaGnomes I so wanted to love Daisy Jones but I couldnr get through it. Maybe i should try again on audio?

@Illbefinejustbloodyfine I wasn’t sure at first but as the story went on and the emotion came through in the voices I couldn’t stop listening. It’s been made into a series too I believe, I think I’ll give it a watch

Illbefinejustbloodyfine · 29/04/2026 22:12

@MammaGnomes I so wanted to love Daisy Jones but I couldnr get through it. Maybe i should try again on audio?

MissyB1 · 29/04/2026 21:49

Orangebadger · 29/04/2026 21:17

  1. Instructions for a heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell

This is the fifth book of O’Farrells that I have read. I have absolutely loved all the others but this one really fell short for me. I did not really enjoy any of the characters at all and the story itself was quite bland. Beautifully written as ever but a disappointment tbh.

That’s interesting as this is my favourite of her books.

Pigtailsandall · 29/04/2026 21:39
  1. Dominion by Addie E Citchens. This is one heck of a book and possibly my favourite this year. The language, the similes, the sense of place, the character archs...it's all there. It's a wonderful book. I predict it will win the Women's prize this year.
Orangebadger · 29/04/2026 21:17
  1. Instructions for a heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell

This is the fifth book of O’Farrells that I have read. I have absolutely loved all the others but this one really fell short for me. I did not really enjoy any of the characters at all and the story itself was quite bland. Beautifully written as ever but a disappointment tbh.

greencrab · 29/04/2026 18:04

1.One of us by Elizabeth Day.
2.The Backpacking Housewife by Janice Horton.
3.The Hike by Lucy Clarke
4.Postcards from a stranger by Imogen Clark
5.Introducing Mrs Collins by Rachel Parris
6.Remarkably bright creatures by Shelby van Pelt
7.Sleeping Tiger by Rosamund Pilcher
8.When the cranes fly south by Lisa Rizden
9.A midlife holiday by Carry Hanson
10. Nesting by Rosie O'Donnell
11. I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou
12. Ripeness by Sarah Moss
13. Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
14. The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah
15.Slags by Emma Jane Unsworth
16. We begin at the end by Chris Whittaker. I started this on holiday and then didn't read at all for weeks before really getting into it and deciding over a couple of days. A real emotional rollercoaster book like All the colours of the dark.

u3ername · 29/04/2026 14:55

3) Atomic Habits by James Clear

I had read this book a while ago but even though I remembered I liked it I didn’t really remember the practical advice. I took notes this time!

Swipe left for the next trending thread