i’m not having a great reading year so far

a mid-year reading check in

My biggest mid-year reading update is that I’ve had zero five-star reads this year. Zero!

Maybe I’m just being extra picky this year, or I’ve been reading the wrong books. Or my taste is changing. Or maybe I’m just getting more discerning as I get older. Who knows?

I’ve had a few 4-4.5 star reads that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, but none have given me that five-star, new favourite feeling.

If you’ve had any five-star reads this year, please let me know in the comments as I clearly need some recommendations!

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Here’s how my reading year has been going:

How many books I’ve read this year

Lately I’ve been avoiding mentioning numbers when it comes to reading because it always creates some kind of discourse that I don’t want to be part of, but so far I’ve read 42 books.

Usually I would’ve read 50 or so by now (I average about 100 books a year), but I’m on track to hit about 80 books at this pace, which I’d be happy with.

My favourite book of 2026 so far

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

I put off reading this for years because I thought it’d be too depressing. Then I ended up reading it while sick in bed, potentially one of the most depressing experiences, but it was exactly the kind of engrossing novel I needed. As Tracy Chevalier once said, from Goodreads loading screen fame: ‘I have consistently loved books that I’ve read when I’ve been sick in bed.’

Shuggie Bain is an incredibly compelling and immersive book, full of well-crafted, complex characters and an almost painful rawness, which is what makes it so realistic and harrowing. It actually reminded me a lot of the Jacqueline Wilson books I read as a child—the exploration of poverty and its devastating effect on families, but above all, the core of the story centres on a child’s unwavering love for their mother.

Honourable mention: Strange Girls by Sarvat Hasin

Two of my favourite book sub-genres are 1) campus novels 2) books about codependent female friendships, and this novel has both! Hasin perfectly captures the claustrophobic, all-consuming nature of female friendships in your youth and the university setting made me feel so nostalgic. Strange Girls was one of those books I was drawn to whenever I had a free moment.

The best sequel I’ve read

I haven’t read any sequels this year. If you have any literary fiction series recommendations, please let me know because there’s nothing I love more than buying a book box set.

New release(s) I haven’t read yet, but want to

John of John by Douglas Stuart

Seeing as Shuggie Bain is now a favourite of mine, reading Douglas Stuart’s newest release feels like natural progression. A lot of people have been predicting this could appear on the Booker Prize 2026 longlist, so I should try grab it from the library before then.

Lovers XXX by Allie Rowbottom

I’ve been seeing this all over my Instagram feed and I am not immune to some new-book-release FOMO. It’s set in 1980s Los Angeles following two friends who work at a strip club and then in the porn industry, and then one of them goes missing. What more could you want?

The most disappointing book I’ve read

Kala by Colin Walsh

This was disappointing because I did genuinely believe I’d like it. It started off fairly strong, but I quickly lost interest. The writing style was melodramatic to the point of becoming trite, the actual thriller/mystery element was quite cliché, and it was all dragged out far too much.

For a literary thriller to work, the characters and the writing need to be interesting enough on their own, and sadly that wasn’t the case here.

The most surprising book I’ve read

Clara and Christina by Andrew Cunning

This was surprising as I hadn’t heard anything about this book before reading someone’s review of it on Instagram. It follows an academic, Clara, who is interviewing an acclaimed novelist, Christina, for the monograph she intends to write on her. The novel is largely made up of their conversations, digging into many debates of the literary world.

I just loved how original and intelligent this book was. As someone who misses dissecting and analysing novels the way you do in school/university, this book was perfect as essentially you are eavesdropping on two characters doing exactly that. I was nodding my head in agreement to so many of their discussions, and also considered points I hadn’t before. In summary, I love a big brain book!

Honourable mention: Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly

I haven’t really shut up about this book since I read it, but I just wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I did. And isn’t that feeling exactly why we read!

Kingfisher is a perceptive, funny, and tender novel, and at no point while reading it did I know where it was headed. The humour and emotion is expertly balanced, and through the cast of characters and their relationships to one another, Kelly examines what we owe the people in our lives, and the tension between expectation and what we are willing to give. Like with all the books I read on my Kindle and end up loving, I now need to buy a physical copy.

Favourite new author

Susannah Dickey

I read Tennis Lessons by Susannah Dickey a few years ago, and read both Common Decency and her newest release Into The Wreck this year - and really liked all of them. My favourite thing about Dickey’s writing is how intelligent and witty it is. She’s able to examine relationships and human idiosyncrasies so astutely that it makes you realise you’ve never had an original thought in your life.

Newest fictional crush

I haven’t read any romance books this year and the men in the books I’ve been reading have been quite awful, so no crushes to report.

Newest favourite character

Shuggie from Shuggie Bain elicited a maternal instinct in me that I didn’t know I possessed. At so many points while reading that book, I just wanted to give him a big hug and tell him that everything would be ok.

I also thought Eddie from Ann Patchett’s newest novel Whistler was just a lovely man and I really enjoyed reading about him.

A book that made me cry

None this year! I famously don’t cry at books, I’m more likely to cry at a film/show, but even that is rare. It takes a lot for this cold heart to thaw. The last book to make me cry was The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke, which I read last year. In a masochistic way I’m looking forward to seeing what book will take the crown.

A book that made me happy

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Now before you click off and think I’m insane, I will acknowledge that ‘happy’ is not the right word to use here. This book is full of awful people doing awful things, however it is probably the most entertaining book I’ve read in a long time. And being entertained makes me happy!

Most beautiful book

Lonely Mouth by Jacqueline Maley

I absolutely love the cover of this, it’s just a shame I didn’t love the book as much as I wanted to.

The books I want to read by the end of the year

I haven’t read many 2026 releases this year, so I’d like to pick up a few more. Here are some books coming out later in the year that I’m excited about:

Switzy by Emma Cline (10 Sept) - I’ve loved every book that Emma Cline has written. This one sounds a bit different for her, but that’s exciting.

Stations by Louise Kennedy (24 Sept) - I really enjoyed Kennedy’s debut novel Trespasses and its TV adaptation, so I’ll be reading everything she writes from now on.

American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee (29 Sept) - I’m a huge Pachinko fan and this was one of my most anticipated books of 2026, so you can imagine my excitement when 4th Estate Books sent me an advanced copy! It is a tome of a novel though, so I’m saving it for when I have a bit more time.

Partita by Barbara Kingsolver (6 Oct) - I fell in love with Kingsolver’s writing after reading Demon Copperhead last year, and I’m on a mission to read more of her backlist. But of course I have to read her newest release too.

How is your reading year going? Are you close to your reading goal already or found any new favourites? Or have you just been picking up duds? Let me know in the comments 💌