The Books I Read in 2026
An ongoing, and periodically updated, list of what I am reading over the course of 2026
The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli
Loved Ones by Aisha Muharrar
Good Inside: A Practical Guide to Resilent Parenting Prioritizing Connection Over Correction by Becky Kennedy
Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life by Shigehiro Oishi
The Hurting Kind: Poems by Ada Limon
The Satisfaction Cafe by Kathy Wang
Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen
This Sweet Earth: Walking with Our Children in the Age of Climate Collapse by Lydia Wylie-Kellermann
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason F. Stanley
We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets
Cape Fever by Nadia Davids
Middle Spoon by Alejandro Varela
Playful: How Play Shifts Our Thinking, Inspires Connection, and Sparks Creativity by Cas Holman
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro
Hysteria by Jessica Gross
Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know by Joseph Romm
The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
Woman Without Shame: Poems by Sandra Cisneros
The Compound by Aisling Rawle
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele
If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
I’m Afraid of Men. by Vivek Shraya
How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder by Nina McConigley
Discipline by Larissa Pham
Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux
The Culture Map: Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures by Erin Meyer
How To Keep House While Drowning by K.C. Davis
The Anxious Person’s Guide to Non-Monogomy: Your Guide to Open Relationships, Polyamory and Letting Go by Lola Phoenix
The Summer War by Naomi Novik
The Eternal Forest: A Memoir of the Cuban Diaspora by Elena Sheppard
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
Eradication: A Fable by Jonathan Miles
Son of the Morning by Octavia E. Butler
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Climate, Psychology, and Change: Reimagining Psychotherapy in an Era of Global Disruption and Climate Anxiety by Steffi Bednarek
The Parents’ Guide to Psychological First Aid: Helping Children and Adolescents Cope with Predictable Life Crises by Gerald P. Koocher
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
Let the Poets Govern: A Declaration of Freedom by Camonghne Felix
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
Sula by Toni Morrison
Night Watch: Poems by Kevin Young
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
Why Brains Need Friends: The Neuroscience of Social Connection by Ben Rein
Foreign Fruit: A Personal History of the Organge by Katie Goh
Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhhà Lai
Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal by Mohammed El-Kurd
Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics by Olùfémi O. Táíwò
Grape Juice by Eliza Dumais
Buenas Noches, Luna by Margaret Wise Brown
Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
Last Night in Brooklyn by Xóchitl González
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans
For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran’s Women-Led Uprising by Fatemeh Jamalpour
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
The Position of Spoons: And Other Intimacies by Deborah Levy
The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel
How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks
Self-Help from the Middle Ages: What the Seven Deadly Sins Can Teach US About Living by Peter Jones
Morsel by Carter Keane
Jazz by Toni Morrison
Dogs of Summer by Andrea Abreu López
Jazz Daughter of the Mountains: poems of heartbreak & homecoming by Fatimah Asghar
Making Art and Making a Living: Adventures n Funding a Creative Life by Mason Currey
Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion by Gabrielle Stanley Blair
Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
Jazz The Faerie Isle: Tales and Traditions of Ireland’s Forgotten Folklore by Síne Quinn
Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger by Lama Rod Owens
Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash
An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
How Great Ideas Happen: The Hidden Steps Behind Breakthrough Success by George Newman
So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan
Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket
This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum
Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Human by Kimberly Lemming
First Summer by Ekin Oklap
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation by Camonghne Felix
A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa
The Life of Violet: Three Early Stories by Virginia Woolf
The Science of Scaling: Grow Your Business Bigger and Faster Than You Think Possible by Benjamin Hardy
If you’re interested in supporting local bookstores through your purchasing power, please consider shopping these picks through this link:
https://bookshop.org/lists/read-in-2026-sydney-conroy-s-reads
(this has the added benefit of supporting me as well, as it is an affiliate link, which allows me to educate and share more work than can be free)