Sharing what I’ve read, the squares with purple backgrounds are the books that really stood out to me in their genre and I’m ready to recommend to anyone!

When I started the 52 book challenge nearly 5 years ago, I would not have dreamed I’d be easily reading over 100 books a year. But now, reading is my favorite hobby. I’ve joined some book clubs online and in my town and I’ve read far out of my comfort zone this year. Even if the book isn’t for me, I have a lot of fun reading almost anything. That wasn’t true 5 years ago!

Edited to add the titles and authors:

Row 1 (1–10)
Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan
You Shouldn't Have Come Here – Jeneva Rose
Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss
Triangles - Ellen Hopkins
Dark Matter – Blake Crouch
Beach Read – Emily Henry
The Getaway – Jim Thompson
Yellowface – R.F. Kuang
Earthlings – Sayaka Murata
Lost Lambs – Madeline Cash
Row 2 (11–20)
Anatomy of an Alibi – Ashley Elston
Deep Cuts – Holly Bodger
Half His Age – Jennette McCurdy
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
Rock Paper Scissors – Alice Feeney
Apartment – Teddy Wayne
One of Us Is Dead – Jeneva Rose
Next to Normal – Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt
Set the Record Straight – Hannah Bonam-Young
Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
Row 3 (21–30)
The Winner – Teddy Wayne
She Didn't See It Coming – Shari Lapena
Good People – Patmeena Sabit
Dazzler – Joy Fielding
Cursed Daughters – Ovinkan Braithwaite
Paradais – Fernanda Melchor
One of Our Own – Lucinda Berry
Looking for Alaska - John Green
Best Offer Wins – Marisa Kashino
Party Games – R.L. Stine
Row 4 (31–40)
The Vanishing Half – Brit Bennett
Buffalo Hunter Hunter - Stephen Graham Jones
Disney Adults – AJ Wolfe
This Story Might Save Your Life – Tiffany Chau
Lock Every Door – Riley Sager
Mother Night – Kurt Vonnegut
Seatmate – Cara Bastone
Vanishing Acts – Joshua Grasso
Almost Life – Kiran Millwood Hargrave
All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
Row 5 (41–50)
Burn Down Masters House - Clay Cane
Taylor Swift: By the Book – Rachel Feder and Tiffany Tatreau
The Devil She Knows – Alexandria Bellafleur
Wild Dark Shore – Charlotte McConaghy
The Truth According to Ember – Danica Nava
Dept. of Speculation - Jenny Orfill
The Ending Writes Itself – Evelyn Clarke
Chasing Haze – Piper Rayne
Yesteryear – Caro Claire Burke
The Secret Life of Church Ladies - Deesha Philyaw
Row 6 (51–60)
Julie Chan Is Dead – Liann Zhang
The Rose that Grew From Concrete- Tupac
Audition – Katie Kitamura
Convenience Store Woman- Sayaka Mukata
Murder Bimbo – Rebecca Novack
Heart The Lover – Lily King
Make Me Better – Sarah Gailey
My Sister, the Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Killer Question – Janice Hallett
Anderson in Bloom – Jennifer Dugan
Row 7 (61–70)
11/22/63 – Stephen King
Pot Shot – Laura Piper Lee
Automatic Noodle – Annalee Newitz
Stoner - John Edward Williams
Mary Jane – Jessica Anya Blau
The Hike – Drew Magary
Margo's Got Money Troubles – Rufi Thorpe
Kin – Tayari Jones
Loud – Drew Afualo
Permafrost – Eva Baltasar
Row 8 (71–80)
Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut
Five – Ilona Bannister
The Lowe Job – Grace Alexander
Girl’s Girl – Sonya Feldman
A Children's Bible – Lydia Millet
The Girl I Was – Jeneva Rose
Dante’s Inferno - Paul and Gaetan Brizzi
Blankets – Craig Thompson
Everything Is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts – Ben Reeves
The Wager – David Grann
Row 9 (81–90)
Dissection of a Murder – Jo Murray
Savages – Don Winslow
Emma M. Lion - Beth Brower
Comfort Me with Apples - Catherynne M Valente
Sandwich – Catherine Newman
Confessions – Kanae Minato
Sky Daddy – Kate Folk
One Bad Night – multiple authors
The Intrigue – Silvia Marino-Garcia
The Silent Appeal – Janice Hallett
Row 10 (91–100)
James – Percival Everett
Little Eyes – Samanta Schweblin
Learning - Courtney Bush
Calamity Club – Kathryn Stockett
The Anniversary - Alex Finlay
Railed – Zane E. Stori
Look What the Cat Dragged In – Jason Rekulak
Dungeon Crawler Carl – Matt Dinniman
Etna – Paul Yoon
The Glass Hotel – Emily St. John Mandel

I normally read 40-50 books per year, but in 2026 I hit a stretch that send me into overdrive. This spring I hit "Normal People," "The Road" and a few others that made me feel like I haven't about books since I was a kid reading Harry Potter at summer camp. I've been gobbling them up, chasing that sense of wonder and fascination and excitement. The reveal in "Eileen" gave me an intense spine tingle. From there, I stopped being intimidated by the "weirder" titles -- in fact I've been seeking them out -- and stopped procrastinating some of the beloved stuff I've always put off.

What am I missing? I’m really interested to learn about less-known authors and under-appreciated books. Please also let me know if I should check out any smaller publishing presses.

1. A Marriage at Sea - Sophie Elmhirst
2. The Witch Elm - Tana French
3. Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan
4. My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante
5. Nothing to Envy - Barbra Demick
6. The Likeness - Tana French
7. The Happiness Project - Gretchen Rubin
8. Blood Test - Charles Baxter
9. The Fort Bragg Cartel - Seth Harp
10. The Wager - David Grann
11. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
12. In the Garden of Beasts - Erik Larson
13. The Lost Tomb - Douglas Preston
14. River of the Gods - Candice Millard 
15. A Physical Education - Casey Johnston
16. Football - Chuck Klosterman 
17. The Wide Wide Sea - Hampton Sides 
18. My Darkest Prayer - SA Cosby
19. A Children’s Bible - Lydia Millet
20. Normal People - Sally Rooney
21. 1984 - George Orwell
22. Parable of the Talents - Octavia Butler
23. She Rides Shotgun - Jordan Harper
24. Margo’s Got Money Troubles - Rufi Thorpe
25. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
26. The Barn - Wright Thompson
27. Exhalation - Ted Chiang
28. The Mars Room - Rachel Kushner
29. London Falling - Patrick Radden Keefe 
30. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk
31. Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
32. Playworld - Adam Ross
33. Faithful Place - Tana French
34. The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro
35. Murder Bimbo - Rebcca Novack
36. Among Friends - Hal Ebbott
37. The Children Act - Ian McEwan
38. Harlem Shuffle - Colson Whitehead
39. Dinosaurs - Lydia Millet 
40. North Woods - Daniel Mason
41. Dept. of Speculation - Jenny Offill
42. Conversations With Friends - Sally Rooney
43. Yesteryear - Caro Claire Burke
44. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
45. Eileen - Ottessa Moshfegh
46. Clear - Carys Davies
47. How the Dead Dream - Lydia Millet
48. Stoner - John Williams
49. Disruptions - Steven Millhauser
50. Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut
51. James - Percival Everett
52. Pee Wees - Rich Cohen
53. The Shipping News - Annie Proulx
54. Ghost Town - Tom Perrotta
55. The Brothers K - David James Duncan
56. The Vaster Wilds - Lauren Groff
57. My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh
58. Unlikely Animals - Annie Hartnett
59. The Overstory - Richard Powers
60. Atavists - Lydia Millet
61. Without You, There is No Us - Suki Kim
62. All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy
63. Martyr - Kaveh Akbar
64. Death in Her Hands - Ottessa Moshfegh
65. Intermezzo - Sally Rooney
66. Creation Lake - Rachel Kushner
67. Homesick for Another World - Ottessa Moshfegh
68. Paradais - Fernanda Melchor
69. Defending Jacob - William Landay
70. White Noise - Don DeLillo
71. Before the Fall - Noah Hawley
72. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
73. We Had to Remove This Post - Hanna Bervoets
74. Exit Party - Emily St. John Mandel
75. The Glass Hotel - Emily St. John Mandel
76. Lapvona - Ottessa Moshfegh
77. The Hitch - Sara Levine
78. East of Eden - John Steinbeck
79. Rejection - Tony Tulathimutte
80. Sweet Lamb of Heaven - Lydia Millet
81. Pan - Michael Clune
82. In the Days of My Youth I Was Told of What It Means to Be a Man - Tom Junod
83. Going Home - Tom Lamont
84. The Idiot - Elif Batuman
85. A Head Full of Ghosts - Paul Tremblay

I'm a sucker of good prose. What book(s) would you suggest me based on my taste?

All my 2026 reads so far! I’ve never made a tier list like this before but it’s making me wonder if I’m too generous/random with my ratings. Currently reading Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark.

1. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 10/10
   
2. We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida 7/10
   
3. Luster by Raven Leilani 10/10
   
4. Speedboat by Renata Adler 8/10
   
5. The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton 10/10
   
6. The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig 8/10
   
7. Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados 7/10
   
8. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters 9/10
   
9. All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu 8/10
   
10. Butter by Asako Yuzuki 4/10
    
11. The Wall by Marlen Haushofer 10/10
    
12. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi 10/10
    
13. Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou 7/10
    
14. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov 8/10
    
15. How to Be Both by Ali Smith 7/10
    
16. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson 7/10
    
17. Passing by Nella Larsen 9/10
    
18. Loca by Alejandro Heredia 6/10
    
19. East of Eden by John Steinbeck 9/10
    
20. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert 9/10
    
21. Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner 10/10
    
22. Sula by Toni Morrison 10/10
    
23. White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi 7/10
    
24. Big Swiss by Jen Beagin 8/10
    
25. The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim 7/10
    
26. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons 9/10
    
27. The Postmortal by Drew Magary 8/10
    
28. The Lamb by Lucy Rose 6/10
    
29. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer 8/10
    
30. Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys 9/10
    
31. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides 2/10
    
32. Discontent by Beatriz Serrano 8/10
    
33. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado 8/10
    
34. Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor 10/10
    
35. The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares 10/10
    
36. On Beauty by Zadie Smith 6/10
    
37. A Double Life by Flynn Berry 5/10
    
38. The Reformatory by Tananarive Due 10/10
    
39. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 9/10
    
40. Carrie by Stephen King 9/10
    
41. Salem’s Lot by Stephen King 7/10
    
42. The Ruins by Scott Smith 6.5/10
    
43. Come Closer by Sara Gran 9/10

This is my second experience with James Baldwin, having previously read The Fire Next Time, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I have to say, I think Baldwin might be my favorite prose writer of any author I've encountered. His writing is simply beautiful, and Giovanni's Room only reinforced that opinion. He does not miss. 

That said, this is a very different work. It’s about a man in Paris who is in a serious relationship with a woman, begins an affair with a man. It’s a very short but heartbreaking  tragedy about love, shame, identity, and the destructive consequences of denying your true self. It’s about the confrontation between who we are and who we think we are, or who we think society wants us to be. 

There is a keen examination, in particular, of just how much people are willing to sacrifices for the promise of stability and respectability. That tension between the lives characters really want and the ones society expects of them, is this constant background against the whole work. Baldwin writes this beautifully, as only he could. There's a great deal of psychological depth packed into a relatively short work, and Baldwin manages to communicate it with extraordinary elegance. This is a classic for a reason. 

If I had to distill its central message into a single sentence, it would be this: You cannot run from yourself.

Started reading seriously in August, had a book I was reading prior over the last several months, so anyhow I started this in August. I don’t think I’ll get to 52 but we will see

My third Franklin and when I saw it on the discount shelf I had that instant feeling of ‘this book is mine now. I may be a different person after going through it. No one can take it away.’

Small town. Cop alone against everything that small town life can throw at you. Everyone knows everyone. One diner. Everyone has some long history with you and him and her. Hard to hide. Memories that bear down on you like a meteor with you just touching the wrong hand, hearing the wrong voice. The characterizations of Silas and Larry in this small landscape are supremely skilled. We all know that kind of friend, that kind of loss, the puzzlement of time gone so quickly by. Why did we miss that time with that person?

And in this book lies the most impressive drawing of an outsider, a misunderstood young man living his life like he deserved it all. Not racism, though we have racism here. Just the wrong moments just kept driving him into a further isolation and silence. And no one had the courage to reach out.

Not a book easily forgotten. 

How are ya'll creating your tier lists? I'm familiar with tiermaker, but is there a particular template that has a huge catalog of new and classical book covers already on it? Are are you manually adding the images yourselves?

i'm on my third time through a comfort read and i know i'm supposed to be working toward 52 but honestly it's hard to let go of something that just hits different. wondering if other people have this problem or if i'm just procrastinating on finishing my tbr pile.

I can see why people seem to love or hate this book.
If you don’t enjoy 80s pop culture, video games, and/or role playing games like dungeons and dragons, there’s not much left to keep you entertained.
This book is almost entirely consumed with these things. Lucky for me, I enjoy all those things so I loved it.
I had already seen this movie, but this story is actually very different and I really enjoyed both. As expected, there were parts of each I much preferred over the other, but overall I thought it was a lot of fun.

My only real complaint is how much smaller of a role the Back to the Future DeLorean had in the book, as it is THE most iconic car of the 80s. Obviously.

But seriously, many of the pop culture references in the book are more abstract and less mainstream than what was in the movie, which I can’t say is surprising.

Is the 2027 list out yet? I can’t find it. I’m done with the 2026 list. Wondering on any mini challenges for holidays?

Happy to discuss these and hear your (wrong) opinions ;)

I have some books in progress at the moment that I’m really enjoying so far!
The Wager
The Lincoln Highway
The Worst Hard Time

I try to keep a mix of fiction and nonfiction going! I know this isn’t as many books as others are able to read but this year I made an international move AND it’s the most I’ve read in years, so I’m very proud of 2026!

top 5:

Hamlet - A reread. A project for next year is to get a good chunk of Shakespeare covered as I've only read a few of his works. Every time I read Hamlet though something completely new pops up that I hadn't noticed. This was the Norton Critical edition which helped introduce me to a lot of new readings and interpretations.

Temple of the golden pavilion - I read the sailor who fell from grace with the sea a year or 2 ago and came away thinking it was a little overhyped. I appreciated it enough but found it disappointing. This however I found one of the best character studies I have ever read. Loved the descriptions of architecture, and philosophizing on beauty. Strangely enough I read this in February but in May another temple in japan, The Reikado Hall, burned down which after reading this book so near to when it was destroyed I felt a little uncanny about the situation.

The Trail - Everyone told me this was going to be a drag but I absolutely loved it, sure it dragged in parts but I found the ending to be utterly annihilating.

Beowulf - What really sold me on Beowulf was the christian pagan anxiety that was being played out by the scribe attempting to fit it into a christian narrative that doesn't suit it well. As if the text is about to tear apart unable to sustain itself, but that tension seems to resolve and work itself into the experience of the book. the only comparison I can make is how the degrading on the film Nosferatu actually enhance the experience of watching that film.

The Iliad - having read the Odyssey a few years ago (and honestly not liking it much) I decided to tackle them together this time. appreciated the Odyssey a lot more this time around but the Iliad I found to be the better of the two.

Upcoming (in order of how excited I am for them):

Rebecca

House of leaves

The tempest

news from nowhere

Picture of Dorian grey

Comments appreciated

Didn’t pick this one myself and normally wouldn’t have. I read Red Rising, The Poppy War, Hyperion, the whole Dark Tower run, books where the plot is always bearing down on people. This has almost none of that, and I liked it more than I expected. The anthology structure gives each crew member their own chapter without the story needing them for anything bigger, and it turns out I don’t need the pressure to care. I need the writing to earn the people. Would read it again. Curious whether others who mostly read plot-heavy stuff had the same reaction.

Curious how everyone handles this. I’ve been doing a mix of physical, ebook, and audio and I’m not sure whether finished audiobooks should go into my main yearly count or if I should keep them separate.
Some people say “a book is a book” no matter the format. Others feel like audio doesn’t count as reading the same way, especially if you’re multitasking. A few track them in their own category.
What do you do? And does it matter to you how actively you’re listening?

The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley
I read My Phantoms earlier this year and really enjoyed her writing style and how she told the story. Although The Palm House was longlisted for the Booker Prize, I think it is the lesser of the two. Neither tells a traditional story, and that is fine; however, I felt that The Palm House glossed over areas that should have been explored further. Spoiler and content warning for what follows: For example, the main character is the victim of grooming and is filmed without permission during the act, but this is remarked on so casually it is somewhat alarming. If I felt that this trauma played other parts in the tale, then I would understand. Maybe I didn't read deeply enough or I am missing something, but I couldn't see how this was ever addressed in the novel, unless it is the narrator's continual lack of close attachment to others. I guess I was just troubled by how casually the narrator brushed this off

As in My Phantoms, Riley is deft at writing dialogue. I will probably continue to explore more works by this author.

Cockroaches by Scholastique Mukasonga
Almost by accident, I've ended up reading all of her oeuvre that is available in English. I think her best work is the fictional Kibogo and the memoir Barefoot Woman. Cockroaches is a memoir that deals directly with the trauma of the genocide in Rwanda. For most of the book, Mukasonga assumes an emotionally detached tone when writing about the trauma, as if she is afraid of confronting the horror directly. When she finally addresses the trauma with emotional language, the effect is surprisingly devastating. Not an enjoyable read, but I'm very glad I read it. Her body of work as a whole serves as a remarkable memorial to those who died and to those who survived.

The Getaway by Jim Thompson
I began reading the novel picturing Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw, having seen the movie a few times in my youth. As I read more and more, and Thompson's darkness creeps into the work more and more, I no longer pictured McQueen or McGaw as the two main leads. The ending of the book is shocking and seemingly comes out of nowhere, but in retrospect it seems inevitable. My favorite Thompson novel so far. (In addition to The Getaway, I've read The Killer Inside Me, A Hell of a Woman, and After Dark, My Sweet.)

Nevermind and Bad News by Edward St. Aubyn
Nevermind is a dark dark novel populated with, at best, horrible people, and at worst, a monster. I was horrified to learn he based it on his own life. What kept me reading was his writing style and his brutal, dark wit. Bad News, which focuses on addiction, was horrifying in a different way but lacks the sharp writing that kept me reading Nevermind. I'm on the fence about whether to continue reading the series or to stop here.

The Damsel by Richard Stark
This is the first of the four Grofield novels. I guess you could read these sequentially; however, I'd recommend reading them where they appear in the Parker series. You can find where the Grofield novels occur in the Parker timeline here: https://violentworldofparker.com/the-parker-novels/

The Grofield novels are somewhat more lighthearted and more humorous than the Parker novels, but as usual, it's hard to go wrong with Richard Stark. Good stuff.

In Progress:
Legs by Kennedy Williams
Inshallah, Madonna, Inshallah by Miljenko Jergović
You'll Enjoy It When You Get There by Elizabeth Taylor
Message from the Shadows by Antonio Tabucchi

Piranesi — Susanna Clarke
Heart the Lover — Lily King
The Calamity Club — Kathryn Stockett
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow — Gabrielle Zevin
The Glass Castle — Jeannette Walls
Lost Lambs — Madeline Cash
The Great Alone — Kristin Hannah
Slewfoot — Brom
The Road to Tender Hearts — Patrick Ryan
The Safekeep — Yael van der Wouden
Big Swiss — Jen Beagin
Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir
A Court of Mist and Fury — Sarah J. Maas
Hamnet — Maggie O’Farrell
Tender Is the Flesh — Agustina Bazterrica
Flowers for Algernon — Daniel Keyes
The Silent Patient — Alex Michaelides
The Wedding People — Alison Espach
A Dowry of Blood — S. T. Gibson
A Thousand Splendid Suns — Khaled Hosseini
The Nightingale — Kristin Hannah
A Court of Thorns and Roses — Sarah J. Maas
Lessons in Chemistry — Bonnie Garmus
The Briar Club — Kate Quinn
Carmilla — J. Sheridan Le Fanu
The Names — Florence Knapp
Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances — Glenn Dixon
The Lost Weekend — Charles Jackson
A Court of Silver Flames — Sarah J. Maas
Almond — Sohn Won-pyung
A Court of Frost and Starlight — Sarah J. Maas
A Court of Wings and Ruin — Sarah J. Maas
Circe — Madeline Miller
Station Eleven — Emily St. John Mandel
Never Let Me Go — Kazuo Ishiguro
Migrations — Charlotte McConaghy
I Who Have Never Known Men — Jacqueline Harpman
Sunburn — Chloe Michelle Howarth
Zodiac Academy: The Awakening — Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti
My Year of Rest and Relaxation — Ottessa Moshfegh
Society of Lies — Lauren Ling Brown

Finished 7 books in the last couple of weeks.

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due : \*\*\*\*\* Star read. What do you do when the entire system is against you? That's the question I kept asking myself throughout this book. It's heart wrenching and beautifully written. Highly recommended!

The Perfect wife by Blake Pierce : \*\*\* Star read. Pretty meh and the standard flair of the husband being the a\\\*\\\* hole.

Steinbeck and Reed Trilogy by Jess Lourey-

The Taken Ones, The Reaping and The Laughing Dead- \*\*\*\*\* Star read. Excellent Series. I happened upon this author in my kindle unlimited recommendations and could not put it down. Evangeline Reed is my new favourite FMC.

Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay : \*\*\*\* Star read, this was my first Alex Finlay and I really enjoyed it. The story was a tad predictable but the characters were well fleshed out and engaging. I will certainly read more by this author.

Looks Closer by David Ellis : \*\*\*\*\* Star read, Absolutely mind blowing. I stayed up till 2 in the morning to finish this one. The story does not just rely on the twist with the plot keeping you on your toes throughout. Highly recommended!

In the Shadow of Eight is a heartbreaking and traumatic story, but Collin Gosselin tells it with such eloquence and honesty. His writing is incredibly moving, and the way he puts such painful experiences into words is remarkable. This is not an easy story to read, but it’s an important one. I admire his courage in sharing his experiences and telling his story in his own words. A powerful and unforgettable read.

I went to my local bookstore a week ago and bought a new bunch of books for the next couple months.

Currently on count 45/52 books so these will definitely spill over into next years 52 book challenge.

like i swear i read bad books in two days but the second i pick up something i'm genuinely invested in, suddenly i'm on page 3 after an hour because i keep stopping to sit with sentences. is this just me or does quality hit different