Good morning, Cyberspace! We are continuing the Blogmas fun with another post all about books! Naturally, with 2026 right on the cusp of existence, it’s mandatory for bookworms and dragons alike to take a look into their TBRs and decide which books we’ll definitely read* in the upcoming year…
*we definitely do not change up our TBRs randomly throughout the year at all. nope. never.
As I’ve mentioned in my past two Blogmas posts, I use Storygraph for all of my reading and TBR-ish needs. I used to use Goodreads, but I eventually realized that the layout was a tad too overstimulating for me. The community aspect was great, but I couldn’t help but feel like my reading speed was way too slow when compared with some of the people I followed. They were busting out book after book after book in a single week, and I was puttering along with the same tome for a month. It was a pretty depressing time… But then, my good friend, Phoebe, introduced me to Storygraph! It has all of the tracking features that I loved from Goodreads, but the community aspect isn’t front and center–your reading is! If you have a Storygraph account, I’d love it if you gave me a follow or a friend request! You can check out my Storygraph profile here.
Moving right along… I have a lot of books on my TBR. Some of them are on my physical TBR from books I own and haven’t been able to read yet. Some of them are library finds. Most of them are books I’ve either found online or have been recommended by friends. Either way, my current TBR on Storygraph is over 120 books.
Which naturally means I need to get my butt into gear and start reading some of these. Or–as we will get into in tomorrow’s post–weeding them out of my TBR once and for all.
We’ll talk about tackling my TBR later, but for today, we are focusing on the fun stuff: the books I’m most excited to read in 2026!
BLOGMAS, 2025 – MY MOST ANTICIPATED TBR READS OF 2026
TENDER IS THE FLESH by AGUSTINA BAZTERRICA
I am SO excited to read this book… I first discovered this title while looking through Pagebound book clubs, and while I haven’t really entered the Pagebound world officially quite yet, I am still so excited to read this novel. I waited for it for forever from my local library, and it is FINALLY HERE! Thankfully, I was able to renew it and have a little extra time with it, so I plan on reading this book sometime in January.
Full disclosure: This book is kind of a dystopian tale about cannibalism. Which is….disturbing. But it’s an interesting kind of disturbing, and if you’re interested in learning more about this book, I highly recommend checking out the blurb. (I will refrain from posting it here since it’s really odd and I don’t want to ruin anyone’s appetite…)
THE ONLY ONE LEFT by RILEY SAGER
My friend actually recommended this book to me a while ago, and I am so excited to read it… It’s apparently a horror/mystery combo (the two genres I’ve been getting into lately), which means I’m probably going to love it.
I’ll most likely end up getting this book from the library since I don’t own it and it’s apparently not on Kindle Unlimited (which I’m also currently obsessed with), so the chances of me reading it soon are pretty low. But I’m definitely wanting to read it in 2026, and I believe my friend also enjoyed other Riley Sager books… I’ll have to double check on that one, though…
At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope
Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life
It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything.“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead
As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.
ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS by ALICE FEENEY
This was another book recommended to me by a friend. I can’t remember if this was the one that she said was one of the most awesome plot twist endings she’d read recently, or if that was another book… BUT I AM SUPER EXCITED ANYWAY!
Rock, Paper, Scissors is another mystery/thriller, so I think we can safely assume my reading year is about to be a little wild up in here… I’m lowkey obsessed with psychological thrillers lately.
This book is on Kindle Unlimited, so it’s just a matter of when I want to download it to my kindle and get sucked in…
Think you know the person you married? Think again…
Things have been wrong with Mr. and Mrs. Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family, or even his own wife.
Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts–paper, cotton, pottery, tin–and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after.
Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget.
SIX OF CROWS by LEIGH BARDUGO
This book is, more or less, a nod back to my teenage self. Back in my early days of blogging and reading and of finding who I was in the world of fiction, Bardugo’s books were a constant in the blogsphere. Of course, being the stubborn little punk that I was, I never read them.
And now that has come back to bite me most ungraciously on the rear.
I have been meaning to read Six of Crows for a LONG time now, but I plan on knocking this off my TBR officially in 2026! From a cursory glance, it appears as though there are only two books in the series (not including a novella type thing somewhere in the middle), so I don’t think it will take me too long to get through it….
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. . . .
A convict with a thirst for revenge.
A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager.
A runaway with a privileged past.
A spy known as the Wraith.
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo returns to the breathtaking world of the Grishaverse in this unforgettable tale about the opportunity—and the adventure—of a lifetime.
GOING POSTAL by TERRY PRATCHETT
I have been wanting to read Terry Pratchett’s work for YEARS. Years, I tell you! And the only thing keeping me from it has been my absolute confusion when it comes to how his books are ordered. Ask a simple question like “which book do I start with?” and you’re met with shoulder shrugs and “eh, anywhere is fine, probably.”
MY GOOD SIR. Make this make sense. XD
Thankfully, my friend Phoebe helped me out again and suggested Going Postal as my first Pratchett. As I have nothing to compare it with and literally no other notion of where to start with his works, I’ve decided to trust her blindly and go with it.
I believe this book is already locked and loaded on my Kindle, but it’ll probably take a back seat to some of the other books I’ve already mentioned…
Moist von Lipwig was a con artist and a fraud and a man faced with a life choice: be hanged, or put Ankh-Morpork’s ailing postal service back on its feet.
It was a tough decision.
But he has to see that the mail gets through, come rain, hail, sleet, dogs, the Post Office Workers Friendly and Benevolent Society, the evil chairman of the Grand Trunk Semaphore Company, and a midnight killer.
Getting a date with Adora Bell Dearheart would be nice, too.
Maybe it’ll take a criminal to succeed where honest men have failed, or maybe it’s a death sentence either way. Or perhaps there’s a shot at redemption in the mad world of the mail, waiting for a man who’s prepared to push the envelope…
WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE by SHIRLEY JACKSON
I have been wanting to read this book for a while now. I can’t remember who suggested it to me or where it came from, but it’s been on my TBR long enough–I must read it!
The blurb on Storygraph isn’t the best, but it looks like it’s a dark, murderous tale about a family who has….always…lived in….the castle… (Someone get Penguin on the line. I should be hired for their marketing team.)
I can’t tell if this will be a quick read or one that will take a little more time and thought, so I’ll probably test out the first few pages before fully committing to it when I do go to read it. But I am very excited to finally read something by Shirley Jackson.
Eventually I want to read The Haunting Of Hill House, as well, but I think We Have Always Lived In The Castle is as good a place to start as any!
TALK TO ME, PEASANTS!
I feel like there are so many more books on my virtual TBR that I want to discuss, but these are just some of my most anticipated reads for 2026…
What are you looking forward to reading in 2026? Have you read any of the books on my list? Got any books rotting on your TBR that need to either be read or wed?
Let’s talk all about TBR’s down below! And until next time…
* flings cookies in the air and disappears *
Mackenzie K. Writes 
Talk To Me, Peasants!