The best books of 2026

This list is part of the best books of 2026.

Join 161 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2026

Book cover of 1984

Ali Smith ❤️ loved this book because...

I know it's an old standard, but it feels like it has fresh relevance today, as social media and algoryhtms urge us not to believe what we see or hear. I felt it was important to revisit it now, reading it alongside my teenager, even though it spiked some panicky, sad feelings in me along the way. There is something nourishing about reminding yourself of what have always been greater truths. Including the almost certainty that absolute power corrupts, absolutely.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Emotions 🥈 Thoughts
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By George Orwell ,

Why should I read it?

64 authors picked 1984 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 9, 10, 11, and 12.

What is this book about?

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU . . .

1984 is the year in which it happens. The world is divided into three superstates. In Oceania, the Party's power is absolute. Every action, word, gesture and thought is monitored under the watchful eye of Big Brother and the Thought Police. In the Ministry of Truth, the Party's department for propaganda, Winston Smith's job is to edit the past. Over time, the impulse to escape the machine and live independently takes hold of him and he embarks on a secret and forbidden love affair. As he writes the words 'DOWN WITH BIG…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2026

Book cover of It Starts with Anger

Ali Smith ❤️ loved this book because...

This is James Spooner's follow up to my previous 2024 pick, the High Desert. This follows him through his founding-- and then loosing-- AfroPunk. But more importantly, it makes clear all the reasons his creation of the documentary and the movement were/are critical in the first place. James is a great artist, story teller and truth teller. I appreciate the combo.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Emotions 🥈 Thoughts
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down

By James Spooner ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked It Starts with Anger as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the award-winning filmmaker and graphic novelist comes the untold origin story of the multimillion-dollar AFROPUNK Festival—beginning not with big stages or brand sponsorship, but with one Black kid’s search for belonging in the nineties New York City punk scene

“A memoir that belongs in the canon of punk history. . . . Thrilling.” —Kathleen Hanna, author of Rebel Girl

“Vital. . . . Should live in the archives as both a corrective to misunderstood history, and a manifesto for a path forward.” —Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America

In 1991, fifteen-year-old James Spooner arrives in the…


My 3rd favorite read in 2026

Book cover of I Eat the Stars

Ali Smith ❤️ loved this book because...

This is not an easy read, but it's a necessary one. It's about how to thrive in a world in which the old systems are collapsing. I'll be honest. I can only take chunks at a time. But it's a purposeful, meaningful read so I have to recommend it.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Thoughts 🥈 Teach
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐌 It was slow at times

By Sarah Wilson ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked I Eat the Stars as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From New York Times bestselling author Sarah Wilson comes a deeply moving, wise guide to finding joy and meaning in a world that seems to be falling apart.

Things are not going back to 'normal'. How we choose to live will shape the next era.

"A book for dark times that is filled with light and hope."- Peter Frankopan

It's hard to escape the feeling that something is deeply wrong . . . that life has become precariously off-balance. We are hit hourly with headlines about catastrophic wildfires, unprecedented flooding, record heat waves, collapsing democracies, AI and nuclear threat, rising…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

This Book Should Be Played Loud

By Ali Smith ,

Book cover of This Book Should Be Played Loud

What is my book about?

A vivid, time-warping portrait by a true insider of New York's downtown music scene in the 1990s, capturing a moment when grit, experimentation, and raw creativity collided.
This love letter to the New York City music scene of the 1990s draws on an insider's collection of film photography and stories to trace the pulse of a subculture that thrived on the edges of the mainstream--where punk, noise, indie rock, and electronic sounds blurred into something entirely new.

Layered and collaged by the photographer herself--with the intimacy of a diary, and the chaos of a wall of paste-ups--the book focuses on the in-between moments: musicians hunched over pedals, friends getting drinks after a show, audiences pressed shoulder-to-shoulder in anticipation.

Alongside photographs of key bands of the time--from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion to Cat Power and the Misfits--are ephemera and contributions from protagonists of the indie punk scene: flyers and posters that lined the streets of the Lower East Side; first-hand recollections from musicians and contemporaries. The city itself is a constant presence, grounding the music in a specific urban texture that no longer quite exists.

More than nostalgia for a pre-digital age, this book is a study of impermanence--of scenes that burn brightly and vanish, leaving only echoes behind. It invites the reader to experience not just how the music looked, but how it felt to be there.

Book cover of 1984
Book cover of It Starts with Anger
Book cover of I Eat the Stars

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