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.

11: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (audio, DNF book a few years ago). Thought I'd give this another try now I've seen and enjoyed the film, much better this time. Although still found there were rather too many minor characters to keep track of.

11. King Worm by T. Fisher. Not a bad read. Avoid if you are squeamish about insects. The ending was disappointing but I liked the stuff about life in the deep South of the US.

14 Hamnet - maybe over written and over hyped not sure

15 Educated by Tara Westover - I did not expect this to turn into a misery memoir. I expected some difficult times from her family but not what it was. It gives me the rage. The abuse, her horrible, horrible parents, both of them, her brother... she was really very nice about them given how awful they are. I can see her relationships with them are complicated but objectively they are truly awful human beings and so selfish. It was very insightful into how people react in abusive relationships but I did not need that in my life.

I have started The Silence of the Girls but I might abandon it. If it is just a rape camp story, I have much better things to do with my time than read it.

Oh I loved Shuggie Bain, All the Light we Cannot See and educated , all 3 in my top books list!

18 The Girls Who Grew Big - Leila Mottley

wonderful book, might be the first time I’ve read a multi-narrative book and completely feel for each character equally and followed it seamlessly. Heartbreaking and soul soothing, highly recommended

@drspouseyes it’s a book the requires you to put it down and have a break every so often. But I thought it was such a beautifully written book, how it captured the love amongst the neglect was pretty amazing.

19 A Family Matter - Claire Lynch

a quick read and heart wrenching story, cantered along but beautifully written

30 The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.
I don't normally read Sci-fi and this was proper sci-fi but I found it really moving and not too gadgety though I think some of it seemed fudged - I'm not sure how the main character wouldn't have recognised Adela, for example.

20 Lost in the Garden - Adam S Leslie
I'm quite partial to a bit of folk horror (The Loney, Ghost Wall) so this sounded interesting, and more so given that it won the Nero book award for fiction in 2024. It's set in an alternative Britain where the dead have become ghosts, it's very hot all the time and the 3 main characters are on a road trip to the forbidden village of Almanby.
TBH I don't really know what I thought of this book. It was an easy read but with a very irritating main character (Heather) and not particularly scary. Very weird and a bit too long.

12: Glasgow Boys by Margaraet McDonald. I started this ages ago and was enjoying it but put it down for some reason (it's been a busy year and my brain is all over the place) but definitely didn't want it to be a DNF. Really enjoyed it, a coming of age story of two teenage boys in care who meet in a home, go their separate ways but whose lives are still entangled as they move towards independent adulthood, a really heartwarming tale, the subject matter is potentially disturbing at times but the author has done a great job of making the most difficult aspects implied rather than explicit.

13: A Storm of Infinite Beauty by Julianne MacLean.

Women's fiction set in Nova Scotia and Alaska (my 2nd Alaska book this year; lots of great descriptions of the glaciers makes me want to go there). Valerie was set away to hide that she was pregnant in the 70s, later became a Hollywood star; Gwen, who curates the museum dedicated to her, investigates the "lost year" that had remained secret. Nicely done; easy read. 4/5

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!

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.

8. 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.

20. 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.

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

@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

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

4. 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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.