If December is for reflection, January is for ambition — and apparently mine was “read across every possible emotional register.”
I began the year laughing out loud at A Bit Much by Lyndsay Rush, a slim, modern poetry collection that somehow manages to feel like a group text, a therapy session, and a perfectly timed soapbox sermon all at once. From there, I swung hard into the cerebral with The Intelligence Trap by David Robson — a fascinating (if occasionally citation-heavy) exploration of why the “smartest” people among us can be the most spectacularly wrong. Humbling! Clarifying! Slightly ego-bruising!
Naturally, I needed a palate cleanser, which arrived in the form of Kristen Perrin’s How to Solve Your Own Murder, an easy, breezy British mystery that pairs beautifully with tea and a smug sense that you’ve solved the twist before page 200. (You haven’t. But it’s fun to try!). Plus, there are two more books in the series!
Then January asked a great deal more of me. Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre is one of the most difficult — and important — books I’ve ever read. It’s harrowing and unflinching, a stark look at the complex cycles of trauma and abuse that perpetuate through decades and generations.
And yet, amid the heaviness, there was so much light. Allen Levi’s Theo of Golden is — I’m calling it now — one of my top books of 2026. Yes, in January. It’s that good. A tender, warm meditation on faith, community, and the kind of love that shows up in on park benches and coffee shops.
I finally read Loved One by Aisha Muharrar, which I picked up at Beacon Hill Books in Boston on a girls’ trip months ago — a premise-driven novel about friendship, complicated timing, and sudden loss that somehow manages to feel hopeful in the face of grief. It’s sharp and self-aware, but ultimately generous.
And then there was The Correspondent by Virginia Evans — another early contender for best of the year. Told entirely through letters, it introduces us to a wickedly funny, layered septuagenarian whose voice is so precise and cutting yet charming you almost forget you’re assembling her life in fragments. It’s deliciously constructed and deeply human.
All in all: poetry that made me feel seen, nonfiction that made me question my own intellect, mystery for sport, memoir that demanded witness, and two novels I’m already lobbying for a permanent spot on my 2026 favorites shelf.
Without further adieu, here are the rankings for the books I read in January 2026.
Twice by Mitch Albom is up there with Theo of Golden, which I agree is an excellent book.