Clare L. Deming

Every year I feel like my Goodreads to-be-read list contains many of the same books as the previous year. I tend to roll over the ones that I didn’t get to, thus producing a constantly growing pile (mostly virtual, at least). For 2026, I mercilessly pruned that list to reach a (somewhat) reasonable number. I prioritized books that I already owned as well as some stand-alones and series that I’ve already started. I have included my book club picks for at least the beginning of the year.

I also try to set my Goodreads challenge to a number that is a stretch for me, since it IS a challenge, after all. For this year, I set that to 72 books. I reached that number by thinking about how many books I can read in a month. I’m planning to average one a week and two audiobooks a month – so that is 6 books a month, or 72 for the year.

To accompany that, I was able to narrow my Goodreads to-be-read shelf down to 83 books. I KNOW that’s more that the goal of 72 books, but since all of this is fluid throughout the year, it doesn’t matter all that much. You can see all of my current picks in the graphic below:

For series that are longer than trilogies, I’m continuing to read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, and hopefully getting back to the rest of the Dune books by Frank Herbert (paid links).

Some of these are continuations of series that I’ve already started. A few are NetGalley ARCs that I’ve already received, and others are books I’ve recently acquired. That brings me to a new rule I’m making for 2026 in an attempt to further prune my to-be-read list: I cannot acquire more books than I have read in the previous month minus one. So if I read six books in January I am not allowed to buy, borrow, request, or otherwise acquire more than five in February. Ideally it will be even fewer than that.

What books am I most excited about reading in 2026?

• The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow – I have read several reviews of this book where readers compared it to the author’s earlier work, The Ten Thousand Doors of January. I loved that book and expect this new release to be spectacular. You can pick up a copy here (paid links).
• Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman – I was not aware of this series until the past few months, but people seem to love it. I already picked up a copy of the first book, and you can get one here (paid link).
• Quicksilver by Callie Hart – This book was recommended to me by a couple of friends and they keep asking if I’ve read it yet. We usually like the same types of books, so I’m excited to start this one. You can get a copy here (paid link).
• Alchemised by SenLinYu – I wasn’t aware of the phenomenon around this book until its release, but received a gorgeous copy through my FairyLoot subscription. This is a looooong book (1040 pages), but I often love the detail and intricate storylines in such a hefty novel. Pick up a copy here (paid link).
• The Tapestry of Fate by Shannon Chakraborty – This is the sequel to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi which was one of my favorite reads of 2023. You can find a review of that book here. The new book is due out May 12, 2026 and I ordered the prettier UK edition (cover featured above) from Waterstones, which you can also find here.
• Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkis Reid – This is more of a mainstream book, but the main character is an astronaut, thus my interest. It has also hit the bestseller lists and I’ve never read anything by this popular author, so I figured this is a good one to jump into. You can find a copy here (paid link).
• A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab – This is the next book in the Shades of Magic series. I recently finished the first book – A Darker Shade of Magic – and named it one of my favorites for 2025. You can get a copy of the first book here and the second one here (paid links).

What books am I reading in January?

I started Slow Gods by Claire North and An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon both in the last few days of December. Slow Gods is a science fiction stand-alone that I received for review courtesy of NetGalley, and An Echo in the Bone is the next for me in the Outlander series and is an audiobook.

I’ve been home sick all week this week and needed to jump into something lighter, so I read Swordheart by T. Kingfisher already, finishing it yesterday. Both The Will of the Many by James Islington and Exit Strategy by Martha Wells are for upcoming book club discussions. Detour by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart is another NetGalley ARC which I need to get to since it releases in a few days.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is the collection of George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg stories, which I have never read. The upcoming HBO series of the same name starts on January 18, 2026. I purchased a copy of this at New York Comic-Con because GRRM was doing a free signing and this is one of the shortest books on my list of the month.

The last two books for January are ones off my “most excited to read” list above. Somehow I ended up with nine books on this list for the month after trying to set a goal of six per month. I don’t expect I’ll get through all of them, but I’ll let you all know next month!

What reading goals do you have for 2026? Do you plan out your reading ahead of time? Or do you just start whatever book grabs you in the moment? Let me know in the comments!