First book of 2026!! I was reallyyyy excited for this one after loving First Lie Wins. It missed the mark for me—too many characters, characters either felt flat or unlikable or underdeveloped, twists didn‘t feel all that surprising to me—but it DID hold my interest on a 10 hr flight where I felt quite sick and listened in one sitting, so that has to count for something!

I‘m so excited to celebrate a GREAT reading year! Honestly felt like a TIE between Artist and the Feast, Wild Dark Shore, and Wedding People, but this one won out for its pure positivity, and how much it still lingered throughout the year.
See any you loved, too??

Thank you thank you thank you @Pigpen_Reads for my #jolabokaflodswap! I opened it early as I‘ll be traveling tmrw! I‘m so excited about this one 🚗🧛🏻‍♂️❤️ Happy Holidays!!
@MaleficentBookDragon Thank you for your caring, expert organization!!

@MaleficentBookDragon @Pigpen_Reads My #jolabokaflodswap has arrived!!! Thank you so much 😱🥳

Just mailed my #jolabokaflodswap package! ‘Tis the season!

@alexus_sb @MaleficentBookDragon
(Photo from Etsy)

Thank you SO much to @monalyisha for making the #auldlangspine matches!! What a labor of love.

Thank you @HOTPock3tt for your list!! I‘m intending to start with the tagged book because I loved the Anthropocene and really admire John Green.. and you and I both loved Wedding People! 🥂

The star of November was The Artist and the Feast, a contender for best of the whole year! Still have 2 slots to fill, though!

Nine beautiful years!! 🥳 Happy Thanksgiving, y‘all!

Traveling for the holidays? Check out our Litsy Favorite Bookstore list for something in the area to explore! And if you haven‘t added YOUR most beloved bookstore yet, please do! We currently have gems from the US, Canada, Ireland, and the UK, but you‘re welcome to add bookstores from anywhere around the world, too!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bhrLSxrlmKcF3aIUlraHGNQ5XedXvextPbfd3RYeQgw/...

Photo: Albertine, French bookstore in NYC!

SO EXCITED SO EXCITED! Check out @monalyisha ‘s post to sign up for this “best of 2025” reading list exchange! And thank you to Alyisha for this true labor of love!

For anyone who loves or lives in NYC (I just celebrated 10 years here!), this is an educational and emotive look at the author‘s experience as an immigrant from India. I expected it to feel like a story rather than an accounting, but once I got over that, it was fine. A worthy love letter to the city—and a hopeful message about starting over.

Adorable and heartfelt! And I desperately want ALL of Elsie‘s black dresses!
I wish this were 5x as long because I‘d love to read more and soak up more of the characters and art.
🧛🏻‍♀️❤️🐺

I AM SO STOKED FOR THIS!!! Just got my journal to support #the52bookclub2026 😍 Thanks @BarbaraBB for introducing me to this super cool challenge and community!

Today I spent a rainy day meandering in the library and got this eclectic #libraryhaul! I asked the librarian, “Is this too much? How many am I allowed?” She said 50 🤣🤣
Planning a Sisters Trip to Rome, so these will come in handy! @LiteraryinPA

A soft pick for me! Quite depressing for a while there, and the whole premise of this particular time travel mechanism bothered me at times, but I really loved the ending. Plus, Mitch Albom is just a beautiful, heart-wrenching writer.

A quick read if you‘re in the mood for a love story 🐘

Every👏🏻single👏🏻line of this book was more perfect and poetic than the one before! I just love when an author makes me want to BATHE in their words. Exciting and pacey—while at the same time feeling like you‘re thoughtfully putting one foot in front of the other as you walk with the characters along the moonlit river. The tension is on point. And the ART!! Felt so real that I had to look up names in my art textbooks to verify they‘re fictional.

Two months to go! #readingbracket
We just had a book club for the tagged book and it was such a fun, lively discussion ❤️ @LiteraryinPA

I really enjoyed this story! Even though it felt sappy and predictable a lot of the time, it also kept me hooked, and I was here for every step of the journey. I‘m so fascinated by this unique collaboration; HIGHLY recommend the audio and its interview with both authors at the end! That made me love the book even more, with so many golden nuggets of wisdom.

“Love is the only thing that can save you.”

Couldn‘t put it down! I loved every minute of this charming British mystery. Jam-packed with humor and interesting characters, this newest from Hallett kept me guessing til the end!! I haven‘t read all of her other books, but now I‘m motivated to do so because I adore the format (all told in letters, emails, texts, and interviews that reveal the story bit by bit).
…..But it does NOT make me want to join a pub trivia team 😅
@LiteraryinPA Thanks!!

Exquisite! Moving! Poetic! Healing! 🥹

@ChaoticMissAdventures Thanks for the motivation! I‘m really excited about my #10BeforeTheEnd list: a nice mix of genres and lots of new releases. Bring it on!

Highly recommend! I heard lots of hype about this book over the summer at my NYU Publishing Institute, and it didn‘t disappoint. The audio narration is especially expressive and satisfying hearing the inner workings of this semi-deranged MC‘s mind. I‘ve never looked to buy a house, so I can‘t relate, but I‘m sure it‘d be even better if you shared that angst. Thanks to Libro for early access!!

I can‘t believe it‘s almost October!!
Also noticing an interesting water/ocean theme 🤔 and I wonder what will ultimately go up against The Wedding People!
#readingbracket #readingbracket2025

How often does a favorite book get turned into an OPERA? At the MET, no less?! They did a phenomenal job adapting this beautiful, tragic, sweeping story. The visual effects were especially unique. It‘s been years since I read this so I forgot how completely gutting it is, but the heightened emotionality was definitely well-suited for opera.

My goal for these 6 days is to finish the 3 books I‘ve started:
🏴‍☠️ Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi
🎨 The Lost Masterpiece
🦄 Impossible Creatures
… And perhaps start a new one!
#TurnThePage @Bookwormjillk

Why did I wait so long to read this?? Really well done. The characters felt complex and real. The conflicts were nuanced and probing. I couldn‘t put it down!

Words cannot describe how incredible this is. Believe the hype!! I‘m glad I knew practically nothing going into it, so I won‘t say too much, only that by the end it wrecked me in the best possible way.
Gorgeous writing—in style, plot, and language—and something that will stick with me for a long time.
Cinematic storytelling… I know this will be turned into a brilliant, star-studded film… and I won‘t want to see it because the book is too good 😭😄

This one‘s hard to review because some of the short stories I really enjoyed, and some had me very bored. In general, I like sci-fi that reads more like fantasy, and am less drawn to “hard sci-fi” that gets in the weeds with theoretical and technological descriptions of the science. Many of the stories in this collection felt like they were written by different people because of how much the styles varied.

A MASTERFUL conclusion to the trilogy that has now risen to the top of my all-time favorites!!

Sorry in advance to all the people I talk to in the next year who will get sick of hearing me preach about it 😄 “All rejoice!”

Confession: This was on my to-do list for 3 years. Now I‘m so excited to see it GROW as Littens add to this list of our fave bookstores around the world. If you‘re traveling, you can use the list to see if there‘s a cool bookstore you‘d like to visit!🗺️🤓

Please add YOUR faves! Thanks to all who contributed 3 years ago… happy exploring!

SHOUTOUT to my sister who opened a new bookstore THIS YEAR!! Bookish Notions- Media, PA!! 🥳 @LiteraryinPA

This sequel to Scythe definitely held up to the first and went even deeper into the exquisite world-building. The second half really picked up and had my heart pumping! Being in the “mind” of this Supercomputer/Cloud/Divinity was really thought-provoking and I remain in awe of Shusterman‘s creativity. Highly recommend this series!! I‘m excited for whatever the third bk has in store.

Incredible writing, incredible story, and especially incredible audio narration! Gripped me from start to finish. Many people feel it doesn‘t go far enough, but I disagree—I think its strength IS how close to our reality it is. By giving just a HINT of dystopia while mostly resembling our world (and voyeuristic, consumerism reality tv as it exists now), the messages hit that much harder. Restrained AND brimming with tension in all the right ways.

Devoured this! Wow. Now I need all my friends to read it so I can unpack all of the major philosophical points! This was a perfect blend of thought-provoking, let-me-chew-on-this and easeful, getting-lost-in-a-good-book vibes. It‘s such a big concept (a world of immortality) but Shusterman has an answer for everything. I loved the characters and I‘m so excited to see where the series takes them!

I‘m so excited for #14books14weeks!
@Liz_M @LiteraryinPA

This book captivated my heart and soul. And the ILLUSTRATIONS!!! Jaw-droppingly stunning. Every book needs illustrations like these!! Found family, early 1900s New York, queer romance, merpeople, the music of the sea… this story had it all! 🌊🎨🗽🎡🧜‍♂️ Characters leapt off the page, the romance was larger-than-life, and the writing itself was so poetic and grounded at the same time. Please read it!!!! It will become your most treasured book 🥹

Pure delight! I was in love with Nate Bargatze already, but this made it even more clear why he is such a gem. And for someone who joked a lot about not being a reader and not writing a “real” book, he is legit a great author! ❤️

You know the saying, “show, don‘t tell” in writing class? IMO, this book was “no show, ALL tell.” The plot felt lacking and the way in which characters were revealed was really unsatisfying to me. It would‘ve been a pan except that the audio was read beautifully and the ending was far more interesting than the rest of the book. Still, sadly I wouldn‘t recommend. Even tho I love flowery descriptions of the sea, they weren‘t enough to redeem it.

Okay, this is my least favorite of her books but Emily Henry still ALWAYS makes me cry at the end!

Fantastic! Started on audiobook and really enjoyed the narrator, then finished in print. The MC is deeply flawed but she knows it, and that makes her story all the more fun. The thriller part was also so well done and had my heart RACING in the last chapters. Highly recommend!!

(Photo is Hating Game but review is for tagged book, ISRGOWH)
The main PRO of this book: it‘s set in Bath! I went there last summer, so reliving it was dreamy ❤️
Other than that, I was disappointed after loving The Good Part. Premise made it sound like the MC would consider multiple men, but it was VERY obvious from day 1 who the main love interest was. What ensued was a lot of “he‘s perfect, let me invent bogus obstacles,” and I‘m not about that.

A friend whose book recs I always trust gave me this, and she was right once again. It‘s a very realistic portrayal of couples, friends, and families who find themselves politically divided.
At first I couldn‘t stand most of the characters, and I couldn‘t envision a happy ending for any of them. But luckily I stuck with it—the action picks up and the end was very well done.

The beginning was gripping. The middle dragged a lot for me, and the MCs felt too slow on the uptake. But the last 2 hours were gripping again and I was on the edge of my seat. I thought I had it figured out but was totally surprised! This was my first by McAllister so I‘d totally read more in the future.
Also, LOVED the narrator. Thanks @LiteraryinPA for the rec!!

A must read for any fan of Schitt‘s Creek! 😭😭❤️🥳

I read so many books this month, but Wedding People was still the winner! Some of the others might pop up in the bonus spaces ☺️
I had fun making this bracket template - feel free to use if you like it!

This novella broke my heart and mended it, back & forth, to & fro. Language as vivid, poetic, and shimmering as the river itself. It‘s a fantasy based on a murder ballad, grounded in nature and the bond of two sisters. I don‘t like murder ballads, but I did love this.
Gem Carmella is a stunning narrator. Since this book is so much about music, audio is the way to go. However, you‘ll miss the illustrations.
Thanks to libro.fm for early access!

What an enlightening, poignant, layered memoir! I enjoyed every step of it and learned a lot. Ever since reading True Biz and watching CODA, I‘ve craved more stories about experiences within Deaf communities. This was even more than I expected, because it‘s also just so well-written (with flashbacks and family stories interwoven), which is never a given for a celebrity‘s story. For sure want to check out Nyle‘s suggested resources!

This book was EVERYTHING!! 😍😍😭😍😍
At times darkly hilarious, witty and biting, at times heartfelt and piercing, in either case this writing was so hard-hitting and cut deep into my thoughts and my soul. It was simultaneously a genius universal social commentary and an intimate portrait of these very unique characters. I was cheering them on!!
I aspire to be this good of a writer 🥹
And once again, Helen Laser on audio was sensational👏🏻👏🏻

A delightful, beautifully-illustrated graphic novel about middle schoolers being sent to save the day in outer space as NASA interns! Outlandish? Yes. Fun and heartwarming? Also yes!! And written by IRL astronaut Leland Melvin!

WOAH NELLY!! This was an intricately-woven mystery that had me guessing til the very end. Really satisfying and really clever. The author set a hard task for herself with bouncing back and forth amongst sooo many timelines, but it totally worked. The hype is real!!!

I wanted to love this, and it started out SO strong! Normally the issue I find with audiobooks is I like the story but not the voices—this was the opposite! I am in AWE of the talented voice actors but the story has really fizzled out for me, and/or doesn‘t have a clear plot. Maybe a problem of too many shifting perspectives? #allhailthebail