book clubbing with the gals (redux)
if you read my q3 reading wrap-up, you may already be aware that 2025 was not a good reading year for me. slogging my way through the ministry of time (only to be smacked square in the face with the secret history, a 2014 tumblr time capsule) did a number on my motivation to continue, as did my ever-growing heap of first semester case briefs. i really only have myself to blame, since i was the one who insisted on adding both books to our 2025 monthly book club list. my subconscious masochistic streak strikes yet again.
i was secretly (just a lil bit) pleased when everyone else admitted to having abandoned the 2025 list after october as well, so we've decided to amend our 2026 list to 8 books total, 2 per quarter. since the only true standouts from last year were the rage of the dragons by evan winter and the fifth season by n. k. jemisin, the second installments for both series were automatic shoo-ins for 2026. we also tried to be more mindful re: distributing similar genres across the year (instead of grouping them together by mood/season), so hopefully we'll actually be able to finish everything without fantasy fatigue by the time december rolls around:
- q1 - the strength of the few by james islington (hierarchy #2) and the heaven & earth grocery store by james mcbride (historical fiction). k initially put the hierarchy series on our radar in 2024, and after deeply enjoying the will of the many, we've all been awaiting the second book with bated breath. combined with m's pick, it's going to be a winter of jameses!
- q2 - broken april by ismail kadare (historical fiction) and the fires of vengeance by evan winter (the burning #2). kadare was a renowned albanian poet and novelist who passed in 2024, and i'm really looking forward to reading more of his work this year.
- q3 - the obelisk gate by n. k. jemisin (the broken earth #2) and a dowry of blood by s.t. gibson (gothic romance). s's pick is supposed to be a sapphic reimagining of dracula's bride(s), and while i haven't had the best of luck with sapphic reimaginings in general, anything less than 300 pages can't be too terrible, right?
- q4 - battle royale by koushun takami (dystopian sf) and sula by toni morrison (historical fiction). as an average enjoyer of high school death games, k's pick is right up my alley (: also, having made it through the american k-12 public education system without reading a single passage of toni morrison, i figured 2026 was as good of a year as any to begin rectifying that.
to make sure that i'll actually get around to reading some of the other books on my tbr, i've gone ahead and placed a few hold requests for physical copies through my local library system. i'm hoping that the tactile satisfaction of flipping pages + the looming pressure of overdue fees will work their magic and have me blazing through these books like a madwoman in 2026:
- the everlasting by alix e. harrow
- the lathe of heaven by ursula k. le guin
- the left hand of darkness by ursula k. le guin
- exquisite corpse by poppy z. brite
- autobiography of red by anne carson
- beware of pity by stefan zweig
- notes of a crocodile by qiu maojin
- the general of the dead army by ismail kadare
- fair play by tove jansson
- the door by magda szabo
- my brilliant friend by elena ferrante
- hinterland: america's new landscape of class and conflict by phil neel
- the wild iris by louise glück
- the tainted cup by robert jackson bennett
- martyr! by kaveh akbar
- some strange music draws me in by griffin hansbury
as well as these holdovers from last year's tbr:
- i who have never known men by jacqueline harpman
- piranesi by susanna clarke
- the book of m by peng shepherd
- bunny by mona awad
- the safekeep by yael van der wouden
honestly, i'll be satisfied if i even manage to get through a third of these. in some ways, i feel like i'm almost cursing myself to not read most of the titles listed above, purely out of a (questionably) well-intentioned desire to inject more spontaneity into my life. maybe putting it on the internet will make me feel more responsible for following through...who knows...
remember to stay curious and support public libraries y'all!
voraciously,
t