26ish books 2026

@LemonPandaCub After slogging through my last book I need a page turner so scrolled back to see what others have enjoyed, so may well be None of this is true next!

Book 13 - Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Took me about 2 months to read. Would not recommend! I wish I could stop reading books that I am not enjoying!

I’ve finished book 11 The Forever Home by Erica James.

Not read any of hers before and will try another. It has a fairly “Chick Lit” type of cover but was a bit darker in places than the cover would suggest and had a couple of points in the plot where it turned and didn’t take the obvious route.

Book 24: I Found You by Lisa Jewell
Another corker, Ive had such a range of emotions reading this and having the different threads come together

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
Daisy Darker
Someone In The Attic
The Tenant
One Click
The Other Side Of The Wall
No One Saw A Thing
Ward D
My Husband’s Wife
The Silent Patient
The Night She Disappeared
The Divorce
Hide And Seek
None Of This Is True

Morning. Book 13 completed.

Push by Sapphire.

This was a quick read as it’s a relatively short novel but my goodness it wasn’t an easy one. At times it felt like it was too much and it’s hard to write about the content and narrative without a trigger warning. It was made into the film Precious which I think won its leading actor an Oscar so some may be familiar with it.

It was part of reading out of my own unread collection and I’ve had it since the Vintage reissue in 2021. I’m glad I read it but couldn’t say I “enjoyed” in the traditional sense.

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 Doer
(12) The Book of Lost Names' by Kristin Harmel
(13) The Room on Rue Amélie by Kristin Harmel
(14) The Names by Florence Knapp

Latest book.....

(15) The Stationary Shop of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

Short Summary
1953, Tehran. In a small shop in a country on the brink of unrest, two people meet for the very first time.

Roya loves nothing better than to while away the hours in the stationery shop run by Mr Fakhri. The store, stocked with fountain pens, shiny ink bottles, and thick wads of writing paper, also carries translations of literature from all over the world. Bahman, with his burning passion for justice, is like no one else she has ever met.

But all around them, as their relationship blossoms, life in Tehran is changing.

Suddenly, shockingly, violence erupts: a coup d'etat that forever changes their country's future, as well as their own.

Marjan Kamali's beautiful novel explores themes of love and loss, and delivers an unforgettable ending.

I enjoyed this book a lot - so glad I have time to read again!

Onto the next!

Happy reading everyone :)

43 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
This is a really unusual teen book which I looked at to see if it was suitable for DD (it might be a bit graphic but it's very funny). I enjoyed it though! It's about a boy who is Indian and lives on a reservation but decides to go to high school in the nearby White town.

14: A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle
Really not sure why I persevered with this one. I enjoyed about the first 1/6th of this book but then I totally went off it. I need to give myself permission to give up if I'm not enjoying it!

15: What I Wish People Knew About Dementia by Wendy Mitchell
Really interesting book written by a woman who has young onset dementia.

13 An Artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro

This is a book I had on my bookshelf from a very long time ago. I’m happy I finally gave it a proper chance. I found it gripping even though not fast paced or particularly eventful. Not an easy read (for me) and too much space was given to things that didn’t go anywhere, when at the same time some things leading to the conclusion of the book were rushed over. It did keep me interested throughout and I read it quickly.

1. The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
2. Life Impossible , Matt Haig
3. Atomic Habits, James Clear
4. The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne, Freya North
5. Thinking 101, Woo-Kyoung Ahn
6. One of Us, Elisabeth Day
7. You’ve Got This, Michaela Dunbar
8. James, Percival Everett
9. Manifest Roxie Nafousi
10. We Are Here, David Nicholls
11. How to Focus, Thich Nhat Hanh
12. True Love, Thich Nhat Hanh

Book 23: None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
I’m glad I had a day off today because I could not put this down, I started it last night and was hooked. Probably the best book I’ve read in years, really well written, I loved the characters and didn’t know who to root for. Didn’t see the end coming and enjoyed the bonus chapter
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
Daisy Darker
Someone In The Attic
The Tenant
One Click
The Other Side Of The Wall
No One Saw A Thing
Ward D
My Husband’s Wife
The Silent Patient
The Night She Disappeared
The Divorce
Hide And Seek

Book 22: Hide and Seek by Andrea Mara
this was such a great read, I didn’t see the twists coming, loved the characters and the ending. It kept the pace even with chapters jumping from present day to 1985

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
Daisy Darker
Someone In The Attic
The Tenant
One Click
The Other Side Of The Wall
No One Saw A Thing
Ward D
My Husband’s Wife
The Silent Patient
The Night She Disappeared
The Divorce

13. The Secret life of bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Such a lovely book despite lots of sadness. Beautiful book that I really enjoyed getting lost in.

I loved this book also - also learnt so much about a period of history that I knew very little about.

With my exam marking finally done and the end of the school year upon me I cannot wait to get back into reading!

Aim for this summer is to be much more productive, enjoy my reading and less dom scrolling rubbish on my phone!

Happy reading everyone

Claire :)

20 The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
I loved this book, I couldn't put it down. It was set in the Great Depression in the USA and has a theme of poverty, prejudice and survival. Great book.

• The tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
• James by Percival Everett
• The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden
• As long as the lemon trees grow by Zoulfa Katouh
• To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee
• I am I am I am by Maggie O’Farrell
• Lord of the flies by William Golding
• The midnight library by Matt Haig
• All the broken places by John Boyne
• Cilka’s journey by Heather Morris
• The outside boy by Jeanine Cummins
• How to stop time by Matt Haig
• All her fault by Andrea Mara
• Dominion by C J Samson
• The light between oceans by M L Stedman
• A better life by Lionel Shriver
• The husbands by Holly Gramazio
• Small pleasures by Clare Chambers
• The list of suspicious things by Jennie Godfrey
• The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Book 12 - Heartburn by Nora Ephron
This was excellent, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's very much of its time - 1970s Washington and New York - and it's funny as well as sad. Nora Ephron was so sharp and witty and insightful. Thoroughly recommend.

42 Missing Sam by Thrity Umrigar. I picked this as the "least worst option" from a Goodreads list but ended up really enjoying it. It's part mystery, part gentle love story, part cultural memoir. It's also set just before COVID so has that feel of "everything will be fine oh no it won't help!" panic stations.

Book 21: The Divorce by Freida McFadden
A typical Freida book, easy to read but not my favourite of hers, most of the characters were not very likeable so it was hard to root for anyone, with a last minute curve ball. It was recommended to me by someone so just goes to show how different everyone’s tastes and perceptions are!

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
Daisy Darker
Someone In The Attic
The Tenant
One Click
The Other Side Of The Wall
No One Saw A Thing
Ward D
My Husband’s Wife
The Silent Patient

15 Yesteryear - Caro Claire Burke
I wasn’t sure if I would like this as quite a lot of recently hyped books have not been for me. But, I really enjoyed this - I found it interesting and very original, and I was impressed by the twist and ending.

9 The Party by Tessa Hadley

A 115 page novella about two sisters coming of age. The first half seemed to take forever to get into but once it got going, I sped through it.
Never read anything by this author before but I liked her writing style so might check out some of her other work.
3 stars out of 5

1. The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
2. The Marriage Portrait* - Maggie O’Farrell
3. The Safekeep* - Yael van der wouden
4. The Coral Bones - EJ Swift
5. The List Of Suspicious Things - Jennie Godfrey
6. Hex - Thomas Heuvelt
7. Demon Copperhead* - Barbara Kingsolver
8. I’m Glad My Mom Died - Jenette McCurdy
9. The Names - Florence Knapp
10. The Wall - Marlen Haushofer
11. Penance -Eliza Clark
12. Bloody Awful in Different Ways* - Andrev Walden

Haven’t caught up with this thread in ages and so many good reads being noted but I’ve been much slower than I’d planned. Going to keep going though and try to stick to reading from my own stock of books. * = particular favourites so far.

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.
17. Until Next Weekend by Rachel Marks
18. Two Lives Together by Lauren Ho
19. What will people say by Sahaj Kohli
20. Strangers by Belle Burden
21.Yesteryear by Caro Burke
22. Table for one by Emma Gannon
23. Tilt by Emma Patte
24. The court of thorns and roses by Sarah Maas
25. We are here by David Nicholls

I went through my to be read list and took inspiration from @u3ername and read this which worked well as I was on long train journey to and from a couple days away hiking in Devon.

I also loved this! Brought back memories of those times.

19 The list of suspicious things by Jennie Godfrey

I loved this book. Set in 1979 when Margaret Thatcher came into power and the Yorkshire ripper was on everyone's minds. It's about a girl who wants to solve the ripper case by suspecting all the men she comes across. But the book isn't about that at all, it's about the trials of living in the 70's when domestic violence, racism, abuse and emotional neglect were part of every day life. It's so relatable. I loved the mention, all the way through, of all the music I listened to as a teen.

Beautifully written, and like most books, it got better as it went along.

23…..Counterfeit - Kirstin Chen

bookclub pick, not what I’d usually go for, only bothered because of bookclub, it was fine, I’m not bothered about chick lit so while it wasn’t atrocious it was def not something I’d choose to read and pretty forgettable

27. To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf

Part of my large TBR; I read this in French in high school but I remembered barely nothing of t. It did come back to me somewhat. It is a challenging book but I've always loved her stream of consciousness writing.