Looking for 12 books for 2026

[ChiaraMontague]

I’m looking for recommendations! Last year I got my mum 12 novels for Christmas with the idea that we would read one each month. It has been really lovely to have this little book club going and I’d like to do the same thing for 2026.

This year we’ve read:

• The Satsuma Complex
• For Thy Great Pain, Have Mercy on My Little Pain
• Winchelsea
• The Pillars of the Earth
• Crooked Heart
• Wrong Place, Wrong Time
• Restoration
• Demon Copperhead

Currently reading:

• The Dutch House

And we’ve got these ones still to come:

• The Bee Sting
• The Marriage Portrait
• Last One at the Party

My mum has enjoyed them all but her absolute favourites so far were Demon Copperhead and Crooked Heart. Her least favourites were The Pillars of The Earth and Restoration (I feel a bit guilty as I’m the one that REALLY loves historical fiction, although DM did absolutely love Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell series).

I’ve got a few ideas so far from browsing threads on here, but would love to get some more recommendations.
She reads very widely and enjoys all genres. Older books aren’t necessarily a no-go but there will be a greater chance that she’s already read them. I’ll also avoid sequels to popular books that she’s already read as she’ll probably pick those up herself, so I’m avoiding the latest Robert Galbraith, Richard Osman, Philip Pullman, Bob Mortimer, Ben Aaronvitch etc.
These are the ideas I’ve got so far:

• Caledonian Road
• Getting Away
• American Dirt
• Daisy Jones & The Six
• Our Man in Havana
• Notes on an Execution
• A Place of Execution
• The Sympathizer

Will have a think, what a lovely idea!

Chris Whittaker books are good.

New Ian mcEwan book, " what we can know " is just out and good.

Where the Crawdads Sing - I read it in one sitting. Totally gripping and beautiful. Half blind by the end!!!!

I would have added The Marriage Portrait but you have it.

The List of Suspicious Things

Immaculate Conception and/or Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang my best two this year

Also Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

One of my past favourites is The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August by Clare North

Have a look at any of those

in the last year I loved -
the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo Taylor Jenkins Reid
the nightingale Kristen Hannah
the idea of you Robbine Lea
weyward Emilia hart
follow you home Mark edwards
after the end Claire Macintosh
the death of Mrs westerway Ruth Ware
here one moment Lianne Moriarty

My favourite books so far this year include:

North Woods by Daniel Mason (it is based on a plot of land in America and each chapter features the people over the years who lived there - it is a mixture of history and story telling and I loved it)

Bad Fruit by Ella King (toxic relationship and inter-generational trauma in a British/Singaporian family - much more enjoyable than that sounds!)

Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll (theIRA plot which ended with the Brighton Bombing)

Night Swimmers by Roisin Maguire (set in Northern Ireland during Covid, a troubled father takes his deaf son to stay in a cottage by the sea - beautiful in so many ways)

I've just finished reading The Artist by Lucy Steeds which I enjoyed very much:

"The year is 1920. The place is a remote farmhouse in Provence, home to the reclusive painter Edouard Tartuffe and his niece, Ettie. Into this strange, silent house walks a young journalist hoping to write an article about Tartuffe. But the more he entangles himself in the peculiar household, the more Joseph's curiosity grows . . .

Ettie cooks and cleans for her uncle. She prepares his studio, scrubs his paintbrushes, and creates the perfect environment for him to work. She has never gone further than the local village. She is sharp-eyed and watchful. But beneath her cool exterior, Joseph senses something simmering. Ettie, Joseph and Tartuffe circle each other throughout the hot, crackling summer, until finally they collide."

Glasgow boys by Margaret McDonald
Vianne by Joanne Harriss
The secret collector by Abigail Johnson
My friends by Fredrik backman
Poor by Katriona O’Sullivan

just a few books that stayed with me during the year.

What a lovely idea.

American Dirt a very long book. Maybe worth considering.

Lady in Waiting - Anne Glenconner, about Lady Glenconner life, the good, bad and ugly, her links to royalty etc. Fascinating book.

Conclave or other books by Robert Harris - if you do decide to include a historical fiction among the twelve. Well written books.

Woman in the Photograph - Stephanie Buckland - fictional story set during twentieth century but incorporates many key features in feminist movement. Interesting book and she’ll probably remember alot of the events.

Thanks so much for all the recommendations so far, lots to add on to my own wish list as well as thinking what to buy for DM!

I've just finished The Book of Guilt by the NZ writer Catherine Chidgey. Really enjoyed it.

Following to mark my place will catch up properly later what a lovely idea! I'm currently reading There are Rivers in the Sky which I think my own Mum would also enjoy. I've read American Dirt and would also recommend that, I found it very memorable.

Here one moment by Liane Moriarty is hands downs the best book I’ve read so far this year.

Covenant of water was an excellent read.

Agree , Covenant of Water
Fresh Water for Flowers
First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Shrines of Gaiety
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Whalebone Theatre
Shy Creatures
Glassmaker of Venice .

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

An alternative version of King Lear, from the older daughters' perspective. Set in the American midwest in the 1980s. Won the Pulitzer Prize

The Land In Winter is a quiet, still read. Very well written and fits your brief, I'd say.

This sounds just up my street too! Will add to my reading list - thanks

@ChiaraMontague if that's Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans then it's a trilogy and they are all wonderful.

Agree with the Night Swimmers- a really lovely book.
I'd add A Month in the Country by JLCarr. It's only a short book but not a word is wasted and it is a beautiful evocation of post WW1 England.
Was going to say anything by Ann Patchett but notice you've already got the Dutch House.
Elizabeth Stroud- Olive Kitteridge.
A Fortnight in September- RC Sherriff

Books I have loved this year which might appeal to another Lissa Evans fan are
A Family Matter by Claire Lynch
Tilt by Emma Patte
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

I loved Hagstone by Sinéad Gleeson too but it gets a bit gothic hammer horror, so might not appeal.

If you like retellings of classics then This Motherless Land by Nikki May is an enjoyable read and apparently a take on Mansfield Park. (Not really an Austin fan so can't comment on that aspect.) Set between Lagos, London and a country house sonewhere in England. Quite a few Dickens type coincidences and misunderstandings, but more plausible.

One of the best books I read last year was “What you are looking for is in the library.” It’s a Japanese book - each chapter is a stand alone story. Only the librarian appears in every chapter. It’s about the power of books to change your life. It took me a chapter or two to get into and understand but then it was far far too short! I wanted it to last longer than it did.