26ish books 2026

[Tinkhasflown]

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.

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

I struggled to get into The Great Alone bit of my goodness was I on love with it by the time the characters were in Alaska with all the description.

I'm loving this thread, I've read so much more. I have always loved reading but have struggled to get in to momentum in last few years I just wasn't reading for months on end. The recommendations on here and seeing titles mentioned that's I've bought but then not read had really spurred me on to read. I did see a post suggesting that you'd might not be the best threat as currently ahead of target for 26 in a year but I'm going to keep posting, at least until I get to 26 whenever that may be as I have got so much from this.

@greencrab 26 is just a guide number. You can go over that number or far below it, there are no rules here! We are a welcoming bunch 😊

almost Book 9: What A Way To Go by Bella Mackie - I stopped after 50 pages as I just couldn’t get into it, I really annoyed myself not being able to persevere as my mum and sister are also reading it and absolutely love it. Maybe I’ll come back to it another time, maybe it was too much pressure!

Book 9: It Should Have Been You by Andrea Mara - I really enjoyed this, lots of twists, likeable characters! I read All Her Fault last year and it was such a good read, I’m definitely going to look for more by Andrea Mara.

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

@greencrab
I’ve just bought The Great Alone, looking forward to reading it. Never read any Kristin Hannah.

Kristin Hannah books are amazing! Try 'The Nightingale' next - unbelievable read - you have some many good books to look forward to 😁

You guys…..I still have 12 days of holiday to go and I’ve run out of books 😫

Do you have Amazon Prime? You can download the kindle app to your phone and access free books with prime reading

Winter Garden is a good KH one and not one that gets talked about as much

Thank you @Clairedebear101286
I have The Nightingale on my shelf…not sure what I’ve never read it as I know it has a big following.

Noooooo not Winter Garden, I thought it was awful and I love a lot of Kristin Hannah’s books!

8. A Month In The Country by J.L.Carr. Really short but rather solid. A chap is sent to a remote village to uncover an artwork on a reviously white washed church wall. He gets caught up in village life and makes some friendships. Not sure what I think, I didn't dislike it and it's well written but not sure I'd recommend it exactly. I think it's the hype that left me underwhelmed because it's being tputed as an overlooked classic and I can see why it was overlooked. Maybe it depends on where you are and when you read it.

I started following this post back in January and have been pretty slow off the mark!

1. The Bee Sting, Paul Murray

I thought it was good until the end, which has left me disappointed!

@Scout2016 Have you watched the film version of A Month in the Country? It stars Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh and both are wonderful. And very easy on the eye.

9: On Days Like This by Martin O’Neill (audio). Football memoir by one of the great managers of the last 30 years or so who also played for Nottingham Forest through the unforgettable Brian Clough era. It is all about the football, not much about his personal life, so unlike some footballer’s memoirs I wouldn’t recommend it if you aren’t a fan, but I am and have followed Martin’s career since he managed Wycombe Wanderers where I lived at the time, he performed miracles for that team. Narrated by the author, which I generally like when it’s a memoir, and Martin has such a lovely soothing voice, I have found it interesting, entertaining and soothing all at the same time.

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 after seeing @MargotMoon had read this, it was very nostalgic about things I had forgotten from my teenage years

I'm going away tomorrow so loading up my kindle will try and find the Hris Whittaker book @Everintroverte read as I enjoyed all the colours of the dark (which I think is back on 99p kindle real right now if anyone wants it)

Oh no I haven't. Didn't know there was one! Can see it would easily translate to film. I'm picturing lots of acting via the use of looks and silences...knowing looks, lingering looks, pensive looks, wistful looks, mistrustful looks... And quite yokel but common sense locals to counterbalance the h'educated niche professionals.
I particularly liked the scene where he's sent off on a borrowed bike to give a sermon, and the ones with that forthright teenage girl telling him what's what.
I'll try to find it, thank you.

16. Orbital by Samantha Harvey

I loved this slow, remarkable and yet completely unremarkable story of six astronauts living at the international space station. I read it as an allegory of life. Short but packs a punch; I read it slowly, really savouring it, like a book of poetry.

1. Silence of the girls
2. By Any Other Name - Jodi Picoult.
3. We live here now - Sarah Pinborough.
4. Lone Wolf - Jodi Picoult.
5. We begin at the end - Chris Whittaker
6. Things we do not tell the people we love - Huma Qureshi
7. Names - Florence Knapp.

Loved Names, found it really emotional and intelligently written.

Going back to Jodi Picoult for my next read - the book of two ways

23 Await your Reply by Dan Chaon. Really unusual. I would say I didn't see the twist coming but it was all one big twist.
24 The Authenticity Project by Clare Dooley. I love her books, I think this is the first one. They are quite chick lit but they always have less "perfect" characters as well as the ones who suddenly become beautiful without their glasses and Get Mr Right.

12 - The Death of Us - Abigail Dean
This kept me reading so from that angle it was good, but not life changing and I think I’ll forget it pretty soon.

I haven’t been keeping up with the thread OR my reading (too much doom scrolling lately!!) but just finished book number 8. The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
loaned to me by a colleague and it’s not at all what I would usually choose, being set in early Colonial America and is the story of a young woman trying to survive in the wilderness. It didn’t have me gripped at first so I took almost a month to read it, but by the end i was totally drawn into it, it’s a meditation on life and nature and (amongst the graphic horrors!) is darkly beautiful.

8: The Only Plane in the Sky - The Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M Graff
I'm sure this was recommended on either this thread or the thread about great non-fiction. It is such an interesting book - I have been raving about it to anyone that will listen for the time it has taken me to read it.

Book 13 was Even Dogs In The Wild by Ian Rankin. My first Rebus in aaaaages and I devoured it - not one of the standout ones, but pretty good. I was about halfway through Half of A Yellow Sun but it was just getting so bleak and with the state of the world I needed some light relief so thought a murder novel in Edinburgh would fit the bill....

1. Brain Damage- Frieda McFadden
2. The Housemaid- Frieda McFadden
3. The Assassin's Blade- Sarah J. Mass
4. The Housemaids Secret- Frieda McFadden
5. Not Quite Dead Yet- Holly Jackson
6. The Wives- Tarryn Fisher
7. The Housemaid's Wedding- Frieda McFadden.
8. The Surrogate Mother- Frieda McFadden.
9. Act of Will- Barbara Taylor-Bradford.

Reading the last of the Housemaid series. It is okay but I probably wouldn't read them again. I am not sure if I really rate McFadden's book. I did quite enjoy the sweeping romance of Barbara Taylor-Bradford.

12 Flesh by David Szalay this had largely received positive reviews but I found it very disappointing. The positive reviews have a whiff of the emperor's new clothes about them. It is so sparse as to be almost meaningless, the plot is unbelievable and even more so given that there is no indication about any of the character or traits of the protagonist that could have helped him achieve the life he did. It all seems to be held together by an underlying theme that the protagonist has sex with women he finds physically repulsive because they almost beg him to. The benefits are that it does not have many words on a page and is a short read. Not for me.