📚On Reading In January 2026 (Best of)

Last year I did a post with everything I read in January since it’s always my biggest reading month but right now I am finishing Audies judging, working, back in school, and living in the same world everyone else is so my human bandwidth currently has (barely) enough to put together my favorite reads of January this time.

I’m also a frozen iguana falling out of a tree. Dear my lovely Northerners, please come get your weather—it is misbehaving and does not belong here.

How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo

“Willful misreading is a violence.”

This is the kind of book that I fundamentally feel in my soul as I’m reading it and before even finishing it I want to reread it. I wish I had read it when it was published in 2022, but I could not have read it at a better time than when I did—I needed this book. It rearranged things inside of my body in a way that only makes sense if you’ve ever connected with something that did that to you. The core of this essay collection is an interrogation of our current reading culture but it’s about so much more, as everything in society is interconnected.

I loved that the author narrates the audiobook and I need my reread to be in print because I am going to murder a lot of highlighters.

Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian

My first read of 2023 was Sabrina Imbler’s How Far the Light Reaches, an excellent memoir in essays that left me excited about the truly creative minds that exist in this world. That was the reason that this year I decided my first read of the year was going to be Forest Euphoria. And I selected perfectly, no notes! It’s a beautiful and thoughtful essay collection using nature to explore so many things—from gender to belonging and even Armenian history—in ways that made me pause often to fully absorb Kaishian’s writing.

I loved Aven Shore’s narration on the audiobook.

The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb by Garrett M. Graff

It is an understatement to say that this is a comprehensive oral history of how the atomic bomb was created and then deployed. It is comprised of so many historical documents, diaries, letters etc that the audiobook format using a massive full cast of narrators to bring it all to life makes it impressive. I cried through the entire section “Unleashing the Bomb”.

Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash

This is an entertaining read for fans of the humor and chaotic family vibe that you find in books like Lisa Lutz’s The Spellman Files. It centers on the daughters of the Flynn family as they end up “unsupervised” when their parents are too busy having midlife crises that result in an open marriage (which isn’t really agreed upon by both parties). I’m also a big fan of “surprise there’s crime” in this technically not crime novel.

I inhaled the audiobook which is narrated by Christine Lakin.

Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven

I really liked the setup of this: a family playing fictional versions of themselves on a sitcom in the ‘60s, end up getting their lives upended after an accident. I read this quickly because it has a great voice from the opening page and it was enjoyable. My quibbles come down to it being well written on a sentence level but tipping into too heavy handed when it wanted to deliver certain messages—I wanted the real and the messiness over the perfect bow on top.

If you like dual narrators go with the audiobook format.

The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

Angela Flournoy is such an exceptional writer that my criticism of this novel didn’t diminish my enjoyment of my time spent reading it. It follows five women through decades of their lives and while I truly enjoyed following these women I think there were 2 novels in here. The beginning of the book—a sister relationship destroyed when one withholds the information that their grandfather has chosen to die by assisted suicide—was a novel in its own. And the second novel was one of friendships over decades. Even saying that, this is going to be one of the best novels I read this year.

The audiobook also has excellent narrators: Angela Flournoy, Aja Naomi King, and Ashley Nicole Black.

The Women of Wild Hill by Kirsten Miller

I’m always up for any kind of women out for vengeance and I especially am here when it’s witches. I think a theme in my reading lately is that I want all the social commentary but I want it to feel less “on the nose”. But after reading Miller’s The Change and this novel I’m down for reading her future work.

January LaVoy, who has an impressive catalog, narrates the audiobook.

That’s it for now. Hope you currently have a favorite book or show to recharge with.