A mid-year reading chat

Goals! Favorites! And a mild amount of readerly angst!

The year is almost halfway done and I wanted to take a moment here to reflect on my 2026 reading intentions, some of the books I’ve loved most this year, and how I’m feeling in general.

I must caveat all of this with the fact that I haven't yet read some of my most anticipated books of the year, including the new Maggie O'Farrell and new Kennedy Ryan. I’ve also been meaning to read more of Sherry Thomas's backlist for the last three months…At times, I’ve had a vague feeling that I’m not reading what I really want to be reading, despite the fact that I could very easily change this! So in the second half of the year, I’m planning to simplify my monthly reading challenges and take another look at how I manage my library holds. For the rest of the summer, I want to focus on reading from my overflowing shelves and use the library to get titles for my book club and one nonfiction book a month that piques my interest.

My reading goals for this year are:

1. Read one Women's Prize winner a month: I’m at five so far, including two of my very favorite reads from this year, and I’m planning on rounding out June with Small Island by Andrea Levy. This has been a resounding success and one of my best sources of literary fiction reads this year, alongside the Fiction Matters book club.

2. Continue my streak of averaging one nonfiction book a month: I’ve read six nonfiction books in six months, four and three quarters of which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. (You could easily skim the 1990’s and 2000’s sections of Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller and be thoroughly satisfied.) I’ve largely been approaching nonfiction through other readers’ recommendations and I’ve appreciated having that extra layer of screening before I pick up a particular title.

3. Read books by authors from 20 different countries: So far, I’ve read books by authors from nine different countries. (Denmark, Italy, The Philippines, Cyprus, India, South Africa, Ireland, France, and Argentina.) I’ve mostly been approaching this project by finding something in a bookstore that looks interesting and this has worked about 50% of the time? Of course, reading books that I don’t like can be illuminating but I’ve found that so far, the international literature I didn’t enjoy as much mostly reaffirmed what I know about my reading taste. It might be time to add an extra layer of curation to this reading goal…

4. Embark on more reading projects: I’ve discovered that these work best when I give them both a time limit and a specific number, like reading four historical romances set outside 19th-century England last month. I love when the books I read are in conversation with each other and I already have plans for a July of sci-fi romance.

5. Be better about reading books when I purchase them and read my shelves: This is a bit of a mixed bag? I think I’ve gotten a little bit better at it but in the second half of the year, I’d like to tackle my shelves in earnest, both by weeding books that no longer appeal to me and by reading some of the titles that have been waiting patiently on my shelves for years.

6. Read more of the Vorkosigan Saga: I’ve read four novels and three novellas in Lois McMaster Bujold’s sweeping space opera series and although I fear it’s not the most fascinating content for me to gush about how much I enjoy the series each month, it’s the perfect dose of sci-fi in my reading life. I’ve been reaching for one of these whenever I feel myself teetering on the verge of a reading slump and want something to sweep me up and captivated.

7. Read more series: This goal has mostly been fulfilled by the Vorkosigan Saga, although I started The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion last month and have a strong suspicion that I’ll be finished with the series by the end of the year. I’ve also very much been enjoying Mick Herron’s Slough House series.

8. Read more older romances and classics of the genre: Middling results so far, I think? I’d like to prioritize reading more Sherry Thomas, Loretta Chase, and Cecilia Grant for the rest of this year, as well as a Mary Stewart novel or two and maybe another Nora Roberts. I’ve already adored reading Jeannie Lin’s Lotus Palace mysteries, discovering Cecilia Grant, and dipping back into Julie James. I know for a fact that my romance reading life is better when I read a healthy amount of backlist.

My favorite reads of the year so far:

• No Matter What by Cara Bastone

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

• The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn

• A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant

• Happy Ending by Chloe Liese

• The Jade Temptress by Jeannie Lin

• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

• Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian

• How to Be Both by Ali Smith

• The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri

Let me know how you’re feeling about your reading life and some of your mid-year favorites in the comments!

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Currently reading: And Then There Was the One by Martha Waters, an absurdly charming romantic mystery set in interwar England.

Recommendations, miscellany, and little bits of joy:

• I’m lucky enough to live in a restaurant with several excellent Italian restaurants and now I can add Provini on 8th Ave, and their stellar Parmesan creme brulee, to the list. I had the nicest dinner there with a friend this week, tucked into a corner booth.

• La Cage Aux Folles at City Center, with Wayne Brady and Billy Porter, which was a tremendous amount of fun.

• Checking two items off my NYC bucket list last weekend: a Major League baseball game and a visit to Coney Island!