2026 Book Challenge

I have fallen in love with Emily St John Mandel’s writing – some of her books (Station Eleven, Sea of Tranquility) come under the sci fi bracket.

I’ve also read more translated fiction this year – some that I’ve enjoyed are Madonna in a Fur Coat, My Husband, Make Me Famous, The Hummingbird, The Reader on the 6.27, and Eurotrash.

For memoir, I really liked Educated by Tara Westover.

Magical Realism: Isabel Allende’s *The House of the Spirits*. I prefer this to Garcia Marquez mainly on the strength of Allende’s character writing.

Classic Mystery: Agatha Christie’s *Death on the Nile*. If I had to choose one novel to encapsulate Christie, this would be it.

Unreliable Narrator (is this a genre?): Kazuo Ishiguro’s *Remains of the Day*. The sort of narrator who doesn’t lie to you so much as completely misunderstand what’s going on. Rarely have I loved a character so much while simultaneously calling them a f***ing idiot out loud due to their blind spots.

The hodgepodge “not sure how to classify it” genre: Bernardine Evaristo’s *Girl, Woman, Other* touches on race, sensuality, class, the immigrant experience, and more. It reads almost as a series of linked short stories — each section from a different view point, but with overlaps between the plots, characters, and experiences. Some of the best characters I’ve read.

Gay coming-of-age: Douglas Stuart’s *Young Mungo*. Yet again one I loved for the character writing. I found myself rooting, hope against hope, for things to turn out well for Mungo. (TW: This book contains more explicit violence, of all sorts, than the other recommendations here).

Warped coming of age, thriller, black comedy:

Deadkidsongs by Toby Litt.

About four boys in a gang in rural England whose war games escalate.