Your 2026 in 16 Books
From page-turning thrillers to myth-soaked fantasies and intimate memoirs, these are the books set to shape how we read, feel, and escape in 2026.
Words Gerie Marie Consolacion
Photos courtesy of The New Yorker, GMA, Harry Hartog, Goodreads, and Penguin House
January 24, 2026
A new year always feels like a reset button for readers. Fresh notebooks. Fresh shelves. Fresh excuses to add more books to an already towering TBR. And if 2026 is about anything, it’s about stories that dare to go deeper, stranger, and bolder.
The first half of January invites us to be nostalgic. Since the trend “2016” gained traction on the internet, people have started looking back with fondness—digging up trends from fashion, pop culture, and even book recommendations.
Because being 16 feels a little magical to almost everyone, and because the number itself has strangely grown on people this year, this article brings you 16 books you can’t afford to miss.
Best Books of 2016 by The New Yorker
So ready your TBR list—we’re hopping on a challenge, bookworm.
This year’s lineup delivers it all: buzzy literary fiction, thrillers that keep you up past midnight, fantasy rooted in myth, and nonfiction that feels intensely personal. Whether you read to escape, reflect, or feel a little less alone, these books deserve a spot on your list. Here are 16 must-read titles book lovers will be talking about all year.
True stories and memoir
For readers who love real lives, real stakes, and writing that feels unguarded. These books are perfect companions while sipping your favorite coffee.
The Son of a Dead ’80s Bold Star by Chuck Smith is a deeply personal essay collection about growing up in the shadow of a controversial Filipino celebrity. Smith blends grief, pop culture, and identity with honesty and edge, making this a standout for readers who love memoirs that feel unfiltered and alive.
If you’re a fan of Asian literature, this warm and thoughtful memoir might be for you. Two Women Living Together by Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo is a book that follows two best friends who choose a shared life over traditional marriage. Quietly radical, it reflects on chosen family, work, aging, and the everyday joy of building a home on your own terms.
Big feelings and modern lives
If you still can’t get over Reply 1988, Friends, or stories centered on friendship, ambition, obsession, and the messiness of growing up, maybe this list is meant to find you—and your TBR pile.
The Bad Asians by Lillian Li is a sharp, darkly funny novel about four Asian American friends whose lives unravel after a stereotype-heavy documentary goes viral. It skewers millennial burnout, cultural expectations, and the myth of “making it” with wit and emotional punch.
Spanning a decade beginning on New Year’s Eve 2007, the So Old, So Young by Grant Ginder follows six friends as adulthood reshapes their dreams and loyalties. A moving portrait of friendship, time, and the quiet heartbreak of growing up.
Hooked by Asako Yuzuki is a story of a corporate woman’s fascination with a lifestyle influencer turns unsettling in this chilling psychological novel. Yuzuki exposes the loneliness and hunger beneath curated online lives, making it a compulsive and uncomfortable read.
Thrillers, mysteries, and slightly unhinged
For nights when you swear you’ll read just one chapter and end up finishing the book. If you liked The Silent Patient or The Housemaid, this list is for you.
Memoirs of an Art Forger by Julian Tiongson Jr. is a grieving art restorer plots revenge through a forged masterpiece in this slick, fast-paced debut. Part thriller, part social critique, it’s perfect for readers who love crime stories with brains and bite.
Meanwhile, The Reservation by Rebecca Kaufman set inside a high-pressure restaurant, this mystery turns kitchen chaos into a full-blown whodunit. With stolen steaks, sabotage, and too many suspects, it’s tense, entertaining, and deliciously readable.
200 Monas by Jan Saenz is a book that piqued a reader’s curiosity. It is a story of a student who stumbles into a dangerous underground trade involving rare, pleasure-inducing drugs. What follows is a darkly comic spiral of grief, desperation, and violence that never lets up.
Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami is a gritty noir coming-of-age story set in 1990s Tokyo. When a teenager finds belonging in a seedy bar, the safety she craves quickly turns into danger.
Magics and the world that feel alive
For fans of fantasy where protagonists are fairies, witches, gods—or simply unreachable. Where imagination meets emotional stakes and ancient stories feel brand new.
The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto is a story where a magical train appears to people who feel lost, offering them a chance at something more. When the train is threatened, one woman must fight to save it—and herself. Whimsical on the surface, deeply human at its core.
The Bathala Games by E. Manawari is a YA fantasy rooted in Filipino mythology, where a teen is chosen by a talking cat to compete in a deadly contest run by feuding gods. Action-packed, imaginative, and rich in cultural lore.
Then, Vigil by George Saunders is about a woman who escorts the soul of a climate-destroying tycoon into the afterlife in this bold, strange, and timely novel. Saunders blends moral reckoning with dark humor, creating a story that lingers long after the last page.
The Trojan War retold through unexpected eyes, blending ancient myth with modern inquiry. The Son of Nobody by Yann Martel is an epic yet intimate novel perfect for readers who love history, myth, and philosophical storytelling.
Stories that meets your soul
If you still can’t get over the Before the Coffee Gets Cold trilogy, these stories might be meant to sit with you and your emotions—books that expand your reading world and gently challenge familiar narratives.
Sikodiwa by Carl Cervantes is an essential read for those seeking a deeper understanding of Filipino culture, folk healing, and shared humanity. This book reconnects readers with indigenous knowledge and wisdom often overlooked in mainstream narratives.
The Penguin Book of International Short Story is a sweeping anthology featuring voices from around the world, including Haruki Murakami and Han Kang. Ideal for readers who want to explore global literature one powerful story at a time.
For the straightforwards
For readers looking for books that are not polite. Not predictable. Exactly the point. If you love the rawness of Ocean Vuong or the experimental edge of Anne Carson, this one’s worth your time.
Subtyrannicon by Khavn De La Cruz features a restless, subversive poetry collection that moves between the ordinary and the absurd. This is poetry that challenges, provokes, and refuses to sit quietly on the page.
Ready to annotate?
Gear up your favorite highlighter, sticky tabs, and bookmarks—and log in to Fable, Goodreads, or even your own TikTok to create your first book review. These sixteen books are waiting to resonate with you.
Sixteen books. Sixteen different doors into other lives, other worlds, other ways of seeing. Whether you finish all of them or only find one that stays with you long after the year ends, that’s already a win.
So take your time. Dog-ear the pages. Annotate the margins. Let these stories meet you where you are—and maybe remind you why you fell in love with reading in the first place.
