My 2026 in books 📚✨🫶🏻
A running log of every book I read in 2026, and how highly I rate them, in the order I finished them. You can also find me on Goodreads if you’d like to follow along there too!
Last updated: October 6, 2026
My Husband
A sharply-written, unsettling portrait of obsessive love. The narrator is deeply devoted to her husband — perhaps too devoted. Ventura peels back the polished surface of a seemingly perfect marriage to expose the anxiety and control that lurk beneath. It reads quickly and leaves you with an uncomfortable feeling that lingers.
Never Let Me Go
A quietly devastating novel told through the hazy memories of Kathy, who grew up at an idyllic English boarding school. Ishiguro builds dread at a slow, deliberate pace — you sense long before the characters do that something is deeply wrong. The restraint in the writing makes the emotional punch all the more powerful.
Doppelganger
A fascinating blend of memoir and political essay, born from Klein's unsettling experience of being repeatedly mistaken online for Naomi Wolf. She uses that personal irritation as a springboard to examine misinformation, fractured identities, and the way the internet creates distorted mirror versions of reality. It is her most intimate and experimental work — sharp, strange, and uncomfortably relevant.
The Bluest Eye
Morrison's debut novel, and it is devastating. Set in 1940s Ohio, it follows Pecola Breedlove, a young Black girl who wishes for blue eyes — believing they will make her beautiful, lovable, accepted. Morrison writes with lyrical precision about racism, trauma, and the violence of internalized self-hatred. It is a brutal, beautiful, essential book — the kind that stays with you long after the last page.
Sunt o baba comunista
A warmly satirical Romanian novel about Emilia, an elderly woman who misses communism — not out of ideology, but out of nostalgia for stability, routine, and a world she understood. Lungu handles her perspective with humour and genuine empathy, never mocking her. The result is a quietly profound meditation on memory, identity, and what we lose — and distort — when the world we knew disappears.
Lying on the Couch
A novel that pulls back the curtain on the therapy room, following two therapists whose approaches to honesty, boundaries, and the patient relationship could not be more different. Yalom, himself a psychiatrist, brings real authenticity to the ethical dilemmas at play. From blind fury to grief and acceptance, this book showcases the complexity of human minds, as well as the importance of introspection and self-reflection.
Best Offer Wins
A darkly comic thriller about Margo, a woman who has lost eleven consecutive house bidding wars in Washington D.C. and is rapidly losing her grip. Her hunt for an off-market dream home tips into obsession — she stalks the sellers, infiltrates their social circle, and spirals into increasingly reckless decisions. It is a fun, fast read that skewers housing market madness, though it leans more satirical than truly chilling.
Flesh
Szalay takes us on the tumultuous journey that is the life of Ivan, the main character. Ivan goes though troubling experiences which invite conversations and reflection on trauma, repression, and masculinity. The author's dettached and punctual writing style is a mirror for his protagonist's inner world - we often know what happens to Ivan, but don't often feel like we truly know him, like we understand his sufferings and motivations.
Only alive on Sundays
A whimsical book about a girl, Mila, learning to know herself and to stop living her life feeling like an outsider looking in. The author's style is slow-paced, with beautiful word plays and metaphors, trying to instill a sense of tranquility about life into her readers. Mila looks for signs from the universe, and from her own heart, to get over one man, and start anew with another. While her journey is strange and sometimes circuitous, the conclusion brings her closer to herself.
Katabasis
A dark-academia descent into the underworld where two rival scholars must navigate myth, ambition, and grief to retrieve a soul from the dead. Kuang blends classical references with sharp character tension; while the premise is compelling, the pacing occasionally drags, making this a solid but uneven read.
My Name Is Emilia del Valle
A richly told historical novel about Emilia del Valle, a determined young writer who defies social expectations to chase truth and independence. Allende blends family history, political upheaval, and emotional depth into a compelling coming-of-age story that makes you want to get on the next flight to Chile.
Misunderstanding in Moscow
A short but piercing novella about a long-married couple — André and Nicole — who travel to Moscow and find that the distance between them has quietly grown, turning their connection sometimes unrecognizable. De Beauvoir strips the story down to its emotional core, writing about aging, regret, and the slow erosion of intimacy.
The Lost Daughter
While on holiday by the sea, Leda becomes fascinated by a young mother and her daughter. Their presence brings her own complicated memories of motherhood to the surface, in a sharp, intimate novel about love, resentment, and the parts of ourselves we try to leave behind. It is a strange and unsettling book, but Ferrante's incisive writing makes for a dive into womanhood and motherhood that is not sugarcoated to make it more palatable.
Death Row
Talia Kemper is on death row for the murder of her husband, though she insists she is innocent. As her execution approaches, she begins to question what is real, setting off a psychological mystery about guilt, memory, and the truth behind her conviction. I have been wanting to read one of Freida's books in a while, given her incredible popularity on the internet. However, I found the plot twist of this book predictable and the writing quite basic. More specifically about the writing, it felt like things were repeated or over-explained, even though the book is quite short.