Reading, reading and reading (Or: Everything I read in the first half of 2026)
One of my big goals for 2026 was to read more. As a kid/teen I devoured books. I'd read anything I could get my hands on. This year I wanted to read like that again.
So I set myself what I thought was a reasonable goal - read 35 books this year.
Turns out I wasn't nearly ambitious enough. We've just hit the halfway mark and I have already read 35 books. So maybe I'll try to hit 70? Anyway. Here's everything I've read so far this year, if you care.
1. Finding My Way - Malala Yousafzai Rating: 4.5/5 | Finished: January 2nd
First book of the year and I loved it. You probably know Malala as "the girl shot by the Taliban", but this version of her story explores entering university and finally confronting how her experiences have shaped her mind and life.
2. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell Rating: 4.25/5 | Finished: January 6th
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Agnes's life is shaped by loss. She loses her parents, and suspects she is losing her husband, William. But it is the loss of their son, Hamnet, that changes everything for her.
3. Burial Rites - Hannah Kent Rating: 4/5 | Finished: January 10th
My first Hannah Kent book. Based on a true story, the book tells the tale of Agnes, the last person to be executed in Iceland. A convicted murderer, Agnes is sent to work on a small family farm to await her death. Over time her story slowly comes out.
4. The House in the Cerulean Sea - TJ Klune Rating: 5/5 | Finished: January 15th
This book delivers exactly what it promises - heartwarming fantasy. A ministry case worker is sent to investigate an orphanage housing magical children. What unfolds is a story of love, hope and acceptance.
5. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte Rating: 3/5 | Finished: January 25th
Yes, I did finally read this because the movie was coming out. Yes, I did hate the movie. The book is essentially awful people doing awful things to each other - not the greatest love story of all time. But it has some ahead of its time commentary on race and class.
6. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin Rating: 4/5 | Finished: February 2nd
Sam and Sadie meet in the hospital. Their friendship is instantaneous and completely built around video games. A fight unravels it all until, as college students, their worlds collide again as they come together to make a blockbuster game that changes everything for them.
7. Julia - Sandra Newman Rating: 3.5/5 | Finished: February 11th
I don't recommend this unless you have read, and enjoyed, 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' by George Orwell. This book doesn't stand alone well (and my book club tore it to shreds), but I did enjoy it. As expected, this tells the story of Julia.
8. Cat + Crazy (volume 1) - Wataru Nadatani Rating 3.5/5 | Finished: February 21st
Cat manga! This was a lot of fun. I have the second volume on my bookshelf and also Wataru Nadatani's other manga, Cat + Gamer, which I'm very keen to read.
9. Break Room - Miye Lee Rating 3.25/5 | Finished: February 23rd
A reality competition show brings together a bunch of strangers whose coworkers have voted them as the people they'd least like to share a break room with. My second book by Miye Lee! I loved the concept, but felt it wasn't quite fleshed out as well as it could be. A short and fun read.
10. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier Rating 5/5 | Finished: February 26th
An unnamed heroine falls madly in love with Maxim de Winter and after he proposes she is whisked away to his estate, Manderley. But at Manderley not all is at it seems and she can't help but feel the ghost of his late wife Rebecca is still walking the halls. This was amazing and Hannah if you're reading this - thank you!!
11. Love, Just In - Natalie Murray Rating 3.5/5 | Finished: February 27th
I think I rated this so highly because it was easy and I finished it in 24 hours. It should've been lower. Read this for book club and I just had so many problems with it - especially knowing the city it's set in. Why is this apparently very athletic main character ubering a walk of approx. 200m all the time?
12. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley Rating: 3.5/5 | Finished: March 12th
Frankenstein is out to create life, but the life he creates is, in his view, monstrous. Haunted by the monster of his own creation, Frankenstein's life is torn apart by his choices. This is genre-defining and I love it for that. Hate it because I think Frankenstein is a bit of an idiot. Anyway, thanks again Hannah!!
13. Legends & Lattes - Travis Baldree Rating: 4/5 | Finished: March 14th
A cozy fantasy book! The stakes are always low-ish and the relationships are beautiful. A book that feels like a warm hug. This was a book club read and probably my first proper cozy fantasy book - I loved it. Follows an orc who leaves her gang to start a cafe.
14. Girls: Generation Z and the Commodification of Everything - Freya India Rating: 1/5 | Finished: March 17th
Honestly, my bad for not researching the author more. I saw this and thought it sounded right up my alley. Highlights some genuine issues I have lived through. Unfortunately avoids confronting root causes and instead blames commodification of girlhood on divorce, sex education including non-heterosexual sex, trans folk for existing and tries to argue that medication for mental health isn't necessary.
15. Return to the DallerGut Dream Department Store - Miye Lee Rating: 4.25/5 | Finished: March 21st
This is the sequel of a book I read last year, The DallerGut Dream Department Store, and I loved it. The book, as the title suggests, returns to the store as we see the main character, Penny, learn more about her role in the dream world.
16. Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb Rating: 4.5/5 | Finished: March 26th
Man, this was brilliant. Have wanted to read Hobb for a while and I've forced myself to not devour the whole series at once. A lot of world building, but I love this about high fantasy. Follows the story of a bastard, Fitz, who is thrust into the life of the nobles as it is revealed he is the son of Prince Chivalry.
17. The Good People - Hannah Kent Rating: 4.75/5 | Finished: April 4th
Nora Leahy is left with the sole care of her grandson, Micheal, after the death of her daughter, followed closely by the death of her husband. But Michael isn't a "normal" child and Nora turns to the good folk for help. I loved this book and I think Kent is just an excellent writer.
18. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky Rating: 5/5 | Finished: April 5th
Charlie starts high school shortly after losing his best friend. He finds it hard to fit in, until he finds Sam and Patrick. This coming-of-age story explores his fight with his mental health as he tries to find his place in the world. Thank you Hannah again for letting me borrow this.
19. The Wedding People - Alison Espach Rating: 4/5 | Finished: April 9th
Phoebe's life unravels when her husband leaves her for a coworker. So she goes to a hotel with the goal of ending her life, but instead finds herself thrust into the middle of a week-long wedding party. This was a book club read and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would!
20. A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness Rating: 4/5 | Finished: April 14th
A monster keeps visiting Conor at night. It wants him to tell the truth, and it won't leave him alone until he does. This book was a fairly quick read and it tore me apart. Think I sobbed for the entirety of the last third of the book.
21. The Ministry of Time - Kaliane Bradley Rating: 3/5 | Finished: April 19th
The British government have worked out how to bring people from the past into the present. Each time 'expat' they bring into the present is assigned a 'bridge' - a civil servant who lives with them and helps them adjust to their new life. I thought the concept of this book was brilliant. The execution was sadly just not quite there.
22. Everything Is Beautiful and Everything Hurts - Josie Shapiro Rating 4.75/5 | Finished: April 20th
I loved, loved, loved this book. Mickey's father leaves her when she is an infant, and her mother raises her and her siblings alone. Mickey is dyslexic and finds everything hard until she finds running and her life is changed forever. I just couldn't put this book down.
23. Green Dot - Madeleine Gray Rating: 2.5/5 | Finished: April 25th
Hera starts her first "adult" job and she hates it. That is until she meets Arthur, and their affair lights up the world of her boring office job. Unfortunately, I just really didn't like this book. I do want to read Gray's other book, 'Chosen Family', though, and see if it's just this one I don't like.
24. Artemis - Andy Weir Rating: 3/5 | Finished: April 29th
Jazz is a smuggler. Getting things in and out of Artemis - the world's only lunar colony - is how she makes a living. But one insanely high-paying job brings her operation to a grinding halt and leaves her life on the line. I loved Weir's other books but I hate that the first time he writes a female main character he has to sexualise her in her own internal monologue as well as through the other characters. I hope he never writes another female again if he's going to write them like this.
25. Royal Assassin - Robin Hobb Rating: 4.25/5 | Finished: May 4th
The second Hobb book! Picks up where the first one left off and is another absolutely brilliant read. I found the pacing struggled a little in this one, but I love the characters and that kept me really invested. I've just ordered the third book from a book store and I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival.
26. How to Stop Time - Matt Haig Rating: 3/5 | Finished: May 9th
Tom doesn't age like normal people. He's been alive since the witch trials but he barely looks a day over 40. All he wants now is a normal life, but he can't shake off the pressures of the Albatross Society or stop his search for the daughter he knows he has out there somewhere. To me this was another time-travel-esque book with a cool premise, but fell a little short for me.
27 & 28. Faebound & Cursebound - Saara El-Arifi Rating: 3/5 | Finished: May 15th
Lumped these two together because I read them both in about 48 hours. Set in a world where humans and fae are extinct, Yeeran is a general in an elven army. Exiled for a decision that results in her troops being slaughtered, her world is split open when she discovers the fae aren't gone after all. These books were okay. Very easy reading and a pretty easy world to understand, but nothing groundbreaking.
29. Yellowface - R. F. Kuang Rating: 4/5 | Finished: May 19th
A book club read that I loved. June Hayward is a very average author who is best friends with literary darling, Athena Liu. When Liu dies suddenly, June finds her unpublished manuscript on Chinese labourers and decides to publish it, passing it off as her own.
30. Talking At Night - Claire Daverley Rating: 3.5/5 | Finished: May 21st
Rosie is a good kid. Will is not. The two are brought together when Will befriends her brother, Josh. A tragedy tears them apart and for decades afterward they continue to dance around the peripheries of each others lives.
31. The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie Rating: 3.75/5 | Finished: June 1st
The first in a fantasy series, this book is heavy on world and character building and pretty low on plot. But it does set up a really interesting world where the stories of characters from warring nations are about to collide. I will be continuing with this series soon!
32. The Ten Year Affair - Erin Somers Rating: 2.5/5 | Finished: June 2nd
I started this before 'The Blade Itself' but took a pause to get that one finished for book club. Then I came back to this. It's the story of a couple who are happily married, just not to each other. Their affair lives in another dimension until the timelines converge and their families are pulled into the suddenly very real connection. This was just very slow for me and not as emotional as I expected it would be.
33. Great Big Beautiful Life - Emily Henry Rating: 4.5/5 | Finished: June 6th
Margaret Ives, heiress to the Ives media empire, disappeared from the public eye decades ago. When an up and coming writer, Alice, uncovers where she is hiding, Margaret offers her the chance to write her story - the true story. But there's a catch. Alice has to beat out a Pulitzer-prize winning writer, Hayden, for the job. EmHen usually writes in a more romcom style and this was a step into a more contemporary fiction style and I loved it.
34. Babel - R. F. Kuang Rating: 3/5 | Finished: June 18th
Robin Swift is taken from Canton after the death of his mother and is thrust into the very white world of England in the 1800s. Sent to study at Oxford's Royal Institute of Translation, Robin has dreams of becoming a master silver-worker until a return to his homeland unravels the friendships he has built and his view of the world. I loved the concept and the characters, but found the first 3/4 so slow and then the final 1/4 so fast.
35. The Lovers - Yumna Kassab Rating: 2.5/5 | Finished: June 20th
Brought this book because the cover was stunning. A mistake. It tells the story of Jamila and Amir, a couple who come together and fall apart and try to find their way back again. It had some really beautiful prose but it's non-linear timeline was needlessly confusing at time and it was also just boring.
36. The Green Mile - Stephen King Rating: 4/5 | Finished: June 27th
Not Stephen King's scariest or most thrilling read, but perhaps one of his most immediately captivating books. I loved this book. Focuses on a guard and an inmate on death row where people aren't always what they seem. Loved the characters (King does a great job of making you feel for people, even if they aren't good people) and loved the story.
So, that's everything I have read so far in 2026! I've also been tracking my reading in a reading journal, where I make my own little spread with a design based on the book and jot down my thoughts on it, which has been really fun so far.
.. Let's see how many I get through in the second half of the year.
