My typical reading place and position. Lisa Tuttle’s novella “My Death” was the first read of 2026.
After a year of mostly easy reads in 2024, I sought a better balance in 2025 and read 76 books across genres. I feel satisfied with my mix of literary fiction, fun fiction, and nonfiction.
One of my favorite books as a child was Little Plum by British author Rumer Godden. I picked it up at a Scholastic Book Fair at my elementary school and fell in love with this story of two little girls and their Japanese paper dolls (which have their own lives and dramas). In 2025, I began reading my way through Godden’s adult novels, many of which feature young girls as protagonists. Godden has two main explorations in her books: 1) coming of age and 2) Catholicism. So far, I’ve read The Greengage Summer, The River, The Peacock Spring, and Breath of Air which are all in the first category. Next up is In This House of Brede, about a young widow who enters a convent. I’m fascinated by Godden’s ability to so clearly articulate her characters’ inner lives in quick asides.
I also began reading R.F. Kuang starting with the darkly funny Yellowface and followed by her latest Katabasis, an immersive read about two PhD students who undertake a magical journey to the Underworld. Kuang has a talent for developing sympathetic characters who do terrible things in support of their professional goals.
When I wanted happily-ever-after, I read Katherine Center. I first discovered her years ago with Things You Save in a Fire. This year I read The Rom-Commers, The Bodyguard, Hello Stranger, The Love Haters, Get Lucky, and Everyone is Beautiful. If you are interested in exploring her, I’d start with The Rom-Commers because it’s basically a Hollywood screwball comedy.
Two very different-from-each-other books I loved about women finding their voices were Rhine Journey by Ann Schlee and All Fours by Miranda July. The latter has been divisive, but I was thrilled that July was willing to blow up how we think middle-aged women should act and be.
A game I played in 2025 was “Have I actually read that or do I just think I did?” As an English Lit major and later earning my MFA, I read a lot of classics and seminal literature. I’ve realized that there are authors and books I assume I have read, but have not. Turns out I never read any of James Baldwin’s novels, only his poetry, so I started with Giovanni's Room, a tragic love story between an American and an Italian in 1950s Paris. We read Sula by Toni Morrison for my book club which I was pretty sure I had read, but no. This tale of fraught friendship and generational trauma in a small town is unforgettable.
Nonfiction-wise, I really enjoyed and was infuriated by the situations in American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men who Became America's First Paramedics by Kevin Hazzard (the story of this book is referenced in season one of HBO’s The Pitt) and Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine by Uché Blackstock, MD. In case you didn’t know, our medical system is deeply inequitable.
If you want great literature that is also highly traumatizing, read The Vegetarian by Han Kang, Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling, and Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler. All three are brilliant and challenging and desperately sad so while I recommend the books, I don’t suggest reading them in a two week stretch as I did. I needed a big Katherine Center palate cleanser after that trio.
Other faves this year were Big Chief by Jon Hickey, a political thriller set in the Anishinaabe Nation, Storybook Ending, a sweet love story set in Seattle, by Moira Macdonald, rich people behaving badly in Renée Ahdieh’s Park Avenue, and based-on-a-true-story historical fiction The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon.
For 2026, I will continue my exploration into Rumer Godden and James Baldwin as well as finally tackle Emily Wilson’s 2018 translation of The Odyssey, which has been patiently waiting in my TBR pile for two years. She’s an evocative writer so my goal of 10-15 pages on a mostly daily basis feels both achievable and enjoyable.