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.

21 - Good People by Patmeena Sabit
I think I just read my best book of the year so far. Incredibly unique book told in a unique structure from multiple viewpoints. All the way through you keep changing your mind about the truth, and it is an incredible exploration of Islamophobia, media circuses and immigrant communities. I just got up early today to finish it! Highly recommended

29 The Disappearing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O’Farrell

picked this up in oxfam when I realised it’s one I haven’t read and it didn’t disappoint. Iris gets a call from a mental institution saying she is next of kin for a great-aunt she didn’t know she had, who has been institutionalised for 60 odd years. The story moves between several perspectives, Iris, Esme herself and the dementia ridden mind of her sister Kirsty as the unravelling of their childhoods and subsequent consequences take place

as ever brilliantly written, I boshed through it very quickly but didn’t want it to end. Does Maggie O’Farrell ever write anything not brilliant?!

14. A prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving I was feeling a bit uninspired with books to read so went for a re read and it didn’t disappoint! I first read this maybe 25 years ago and it has always held a place in my heart. But re reading it, it was even better. A very unique book set in New Hampshire in the 1950’s to late 60’s with some parts in the 80’s. It’s about 2 friends growing up together and basically explores fate, belief and if your life is already mapped out and all you do throughout your life has some kind of purpose. Or are you are in control of your own destiny? It’s not a quick read though, at 600+ pages which doesn’t seem too bad but it’s an intense read sprinkled with humour and loveliness too.

I don’t re read many books but i found i really had forgotten most of this one. So glad i went back to it.

@Citygirlrurallife love The disappearing act of Esme Lennox! Have you read Land yet?

@Orangebadger I haven’t - I’m waiting for paperback but very much looking forward to it

26 Wild Dark Shore - Charlotte McConaghy
This is a climate-change thriller set on a sub-antarctic island, the location of a seed-bank being used to preserve the world's plants. The Salt family are caretakers on the island and are packing up the seed-bank due to rising sea levels. The book starts with starts with a body washing ashore. The woman is, remarkably, alive. But who is she? What does she want? And how will the small family living in this wild place react. Do they have secrets of their own?

I enjoyed this book and found it very well-written. It was long-listed for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2026 and is currently available on BBC Sounds in 10 episodes, as it was recently on Radio 4.

Book 19 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke.
DDs have both read this (young adults) and enjoyed it, and I saw the media hype about it and was sucked in. It's satire and quite well done and I zipped through it. Bits were disturbing and bits were funny. Worth a read but I'd have preferred to read it in paperback, there's a reason I never buy hardbacks (as well as the cost) - you bash your nose if you fall asleep when reading them...

Bashing your nose if you fall asleep - that's why I read the Strike books in paperback only!
My book club can't wait for Yesteryear to be published in paperback. We never read hardbacks mainly due to the cost.

18. Fun Home A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel. Graphic novel memoir. Bechdel grows up around the family funeral home business and with rather remote Intelectuals as parents. At uni she realises she is a lesbian only to learn that her father is also gay. Started well but I found myself getting bored by the crowbarred in Proust /Joyce and co references and there was far too much focus on her undiluted arse of a father. I know that's obtuse of me because he and literature are clearly massive influences on the author but it got so repetative.

@PinkOrangeRed hope you enjoy it. I think you'll find it generates plenty of discussion at the book group 😀

@PinkOrangeRed I really loved Wild Dark Shore - I feel like it was quite widely read on this thread last year?

@Philandbill ugh I am NOT fan of Yesteryear, just found it contrived and lazy to be honest and since finding out it basically has had a film deal since before it was written I’m afraid I’m put off by the idea that the book is just a big fat marketing ploy to build an audience for the film. Though it is probably a good book club book and lots to discuss

Book 29: Watching You by Lisa Jewell
Not my favourite book by Lisa Jewell, I found it very slow and back and forth, I didn’t really like any of the characters.

Book 30: The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh
This was the first in a new detective series DC Ffion Morgan, I really enjoyed the characters, found it crazy that literally nearly everyone in the book had a motive for the murder but it kept me guessing!

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
I Found You
Such A Nice Girl
The Couple Next Door
It Could Have Been Her
It’s Not What You Think

Book 20 - Children of Radium by Joe Dunthorne
I loved this, it was one of those unexpected finds in a bookshop when I hadn't actually intended to buy anything but got sucked in.
This is the story of the author's great grandfather who was a German Jew who left Germany in the mid 1930s. It's also about much more than that and was at times eyebrow raising. It made me laugh aloud and also brought a tear toy eyes.
Surprising and highly recommended, I can see why the reviews are so good.

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
(15) The Stationary Shop of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
(16) Her Husband's Lover by Patricia Crouch
(17) Here One Moment by Liane Moriarity
(18) The New Neighbours by Claire Douglas
(19) Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell
(20) One Day by David Nicholls
(21) Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Latest Book....

(22) My Brother's Secret by Maggie Hartley

Description taken from amazon....

'They made me do it, it wasn't my fault!'
When three brothers come to live with Maggie, she knows that it's going to be challenging. They are all already struggling with rejection after their dad abandoned them, their mum having died several years before.

While four-year-old Billy is a delight, eleven-year-old Keegan is quiet and withdrawn, and teenager Cooper is a whirlwind of destruction. His behaviour at school is disruptive and Maggie struggles to get through to him, especially when he's in danger of being expelled.

But when a shocking discovery turns everything on its head, Maggie begins to realise that what she believed to be true is completely wrong.

Danger is lurking, but is it too late for Maggie to help?
From Britain's best-loved foster carer, a new and emotional true story of bonds, brothers and family.

Flew through this - foster carers give so much in society and are not recognised enough for all their hard work!

Onto the next,
Happy reading everyone. 😀

I really enjoyed this one too, it caught my eye in a bookshop window. Very thought-provoking.

@EnchantedDays Hurrah, a fellow reader of 0this. I'm trying to persuade DH to read it. It's not like the usual 'person writes about family history book' at all. The writing style is great and the content very thought provoking. I wanted to hear more about Elizabeth (great great aunt) and the great grandmother.

Yes, it's a while since I read it (listened to it on audible) but I remember thinking I'd like to know more about various aspects.

30 Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia

picked this up because initially looking for a different pick for book club then decided actually I wanted to pitch something else but read this on my own. I don’t usually go for gothic and I assumed there would be more horror. Definitely it has the subject matter of horror but I don’t know if this is true of the gothic genre of a fault of the writer there just wasn’t a build up of tension and fear that I would have expected. The main character was one of those sassy women who get things done b it she didn’t really change and grated me a little. I enjoyed it enough to finish it though and would give it a 2.5 maybe 3 out of 5

Book 31: I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
this was a library reserve so it pushed itself to the top of my TBR pile!
I loved the story although it was heartbreaking in places. The surprise of who the narrator was in part 1 was a shocker, and the 2nd narrator forcefully embedding themselves into the story in part 2 fit with his character and made me dislike him even more. I didn’t really enjoy the side story of the detectives and the DI’s family, it felt like it slowed the story and didn’t add anything. Absolutely clincher of a twist at the end!
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
I Found You
Such A Nice Girl
The Couple Next Door
It Could Have Been Her
It’s Not What You Think
Watching You
The Last Party

I've kind of lost my reading mojo I think (so much going on, kids home from school, house in a tip due to renovations and in the middle of sorting my mother's funeral) . I have a couple of things out on Kindle from the library and don't really fancy going any further with either of them.
Might try and find something a bit lighter as we are going on holiday at the end of the week. Really need a break!

So sorry for your loss @drspouse

@drspouse so sorry for your loss. Sounds like you need a good deal of me time.

22 - The God of the Woods - Liz Moore
This was available through prime reading on my kindle and one I had thought about reading for a while. I found it very well written - enjoyed the multiple viewpoints and shifting timelines but I often enjoy these types of structures, and I thought that aspect was well handled. I’m not usually one for mysteries but this one was layered well, and I didn’t guess before the end so from that perspective it was also enjoyable. I loved the setting in upper New York State which also happened to be the setting of the last book I read and makes me keen to visit the area one day.
I found the conclusion a bit implausible - particularly the actions of the policewoman. And one of the characters I felt was not really needed and was unlikely to have behaved the way he did. But that aside it was a solid read and it kept me hooked for a couple of days.

19. Capital by John Lancaster. I very much bought into the premise of this and was engrossed. The backbone is a fancy street in London and the novel takes up the storylines of several characters who either live or work there, including an elderly widow, rich banker and his wife, Pakistani shop owners, young footballer and his dad brought over from Senegal by a rich club, a Zimbabwean traffic warden who lives in a hostel, Hungarian nanny, Polish builder... you dip in and out of each character's circumstances over around a year and I did care what happenedyo all of them. Well, the banker's wife was horrible but fascinating in an awful way.

Another angle linking them is that the residents start receiving anonymous postcards stating "we want what you have" and it seems there's a campaign building against them. That's intriguing enough and worked, but it wasn't necessary as a plot device and it's not a thriller or crime novel.

Usually in these type of books I'm tempted to skip backand forth to see what happens to my favourite characters but this flowed really evenly despite being nearly 600 pages.

I’m so sorry for your loss and hope you get to relax a little on holiday

@Scout2016 I loved Capital too. Have you read A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks? It follows a group of Londoners over a week and their stories gradually link up. It's excellent.