2026 reads: spring into summer
by Alana
2026 continues to be my slowest reading year in a while. I’m trying to read more mindfully, rush less, and note quotes I appreciate. It felt like fighting instinct to slow things down at first, but it’s getting easier. I’ve given myself permission to quit books that aren’t landing, and I’ve put down more books this year than ever before in my life.
Here’s what I read from May to August this year 🙂.
Fiction
Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa
One day inside a nail salon, told from the perspective of the owner. A powerful read about racism, privilege, and agency in those often dismissed as submissive. I read this Giller Prize winner in one sitting because Thammavongsa pulls you along with her strong sense of character voice and the cultural reference points I recognized from growing up mixed race and East Asian in the GTA. Left me wanting more, but not in a way that disappointed.
Recommended on CBC
Heart the Lover by Lily King
I’m a sucker for college stories told in a wistful, backward-glancing voice, and this readable little book hit every emotional note I expected. Even though I sensed early on how it would end, the heartfelt turns of phrase and control of pace as characters fall in and out of love and doubt at all the wrong times impressed me. A quick read suited to fans of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow or anything by Sally Rooney.
Recommended by Melissa
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
A elderly astrology-obsessed animal lover lives on a plateau outside a Polish village. In winter, one of her two neighbours turns up gruesomely dead, surrounded by deer skulls. The murder-mystery meets pastoral-noir that follows is a compelling study in human (and animal) nature.
I devoured this dark story in a few sittings. For you if you enjoy themes of loneliness, friendship, justice, and autonomy, or if you’ve ever thought twice about eating meat.
Tokarczuk is the second Nobel Laureate I read this summer, and even in translation the incisiveness of her writing impresses.
Recommended by Dana
House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk
I liked Drive Your Plow etc so much that I thought “I should read more stuff by Olga Tokarczuk.” Then I read this book and decided “I have read enough by Olga Tokarczuk for now.”
This surreal series of enmeshed vignettes about a town that has changed hands between Germany, Poland, and former Czechoslovakia. Rife with poisonous recipes, collectors of dreams, transgender saints and monks, and wigs containing new identities. A weird little book that reminds me of the kind of supposedly profound lit I read for school.
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
Wow, a tiny depressing story collection that manages to crush all my hope by page thirty-five. What else is new from the king of short ‘n’ sweet heartbreak, John Steinbeck?
This 1933 novella came out before Steinbeck’s more acclaimed works and was originally published as separate stories in various magazines. Despite disparate publishing, the stories form a cohesive peek into the mind of a young boy growing up on a ranch in Steinbeck’s home and favourite setting, the Salinas Valley in California. The Red Pony shows early evidence of the Nobel Laureate’s keen sense of human spirit.
Read from my dad’s collection, part of my ongoing work through all of Steinbeck’s books
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
I’m slowly working my way through all of Elif Shafak’s books and, so far, I haven’t been disappointed. This one brings the streets and smells and sights of Istanbul to life as the drama of theTchakhmakhchian family unfolds. As always, Shafak’s sense of place and her understanding of human hearts - their foibles, generosity, desires, and fears - make for a rich, sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic story grounded in family.
The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter
A delightfully weird speculative fiction look at a future where food is sexualized and taboo, Earth is drowning, and the rich retreat to cities in the sky. Porter’s novel follows a chef-in-training who flees a pseudo-religious/corporate cult and a scholar-turned-grifter running cons on society’s elites.
A commentary on environmental collapse, diet culture, and consumerism. I love when I can’t predict where a story is going and it sticks the landing. I put more books by Porter on hold at the library when I finished this one.
Recommended by Abbey
To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
Watching the Artemis mission this year, I couldn’t help but be annoyed that we were wasting time, energy, and money sending men to space when the planet’s on fire, the income gap is widening, tech bros are running the world pedaling tools of doom, and war is raging.
But then, I’d remind myself that science matters. That the collaboration required for space travel can be unifying and that expanding humanity’s understanding of our place in the universe is a worthy undertaking. I picked up this little book at the right time - it reminded me of all these ideas.
This epistolic tale is told in logs recorded by a space mission funded in a future-earth not so different from our own. What unfolds is a fraught and thoughtful story about discovery, courage, and collectivism. A good fit for fans of 2024 Booker winner Orbital or This is How We Lose the Time War, though Chambers’ book was a little less poetic than both of them.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
I forgot how much I enjoyed Chambers’ Monk and Robot duology, so after reading To Be Taught, If Fortunate, I decided I should read more by her. I picked up this longer novel about a ship that tunnels wormholes for interplanetary travel. It read like a lighthearted Firefly - a motley crew of found family faces danger at every turn on a mission that could change their fates. My least favourite of her books so far, but a heartwarming read you’re looking for cozy sci-fi.
Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
Third and final installment in Heather Facwcett’s cozy fantasy romp through the feywild. A sweet and scary story full of powerful images - trees with dreadful watching eyes, hoards of menacing snails, owls thirsty for blood - and the same rich references to Gaelic and Irish folklore I loved in the other two books. I recommend this trilogy for anyone looking for romantasy a little less horny than ACOTAR and into academia settings.
The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick
A cute tropey novel about a woman who takes a spontaneous trip to Italy to rediscover herself after her marriage falls apart. Full of charm, quirky side characters, and a predictable love story. A sense of sun and ocean and sprawling green hills permeates each page.
Recommended by Cathy
Nonfiction
Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis
An economic analysis of our current moment, couched in instructive metaphor and conversational narrative positioning. Varoufakis has a gift for rendering complex systems intelligible without inaccurate oversimplification. His left-leaning assessment that we are living in a post-capitalist hellscape run by tech elites who profit off of our use of their products was depressing AF. And pretty spot on.
I recommended this almost as incessantly as I recommended Blood in the Machine (which I wrote about in my last book review post). A cogent description of our times that helps us better articulate and combat the mess that we’re living in as hapless tech-serfs.
The 5am Club by Robin S. Sharma
I have never hate-read a book before, but now I understand what that means. I think I picked this up because it was ‘available now’ in Libby, and I like to revel in the superiority of being a morning person. Also, you hear Sharma’s name all the time - I wanted to know why.
This book starts with an analogy/metaphor/parable thing. I thought it would end at some point and jump to the real voice and point, as is the standard recipe for self-help books. But no - the annoying caricatures and implausible nonsense continued. Control your morning, control your life! Join the 5AM club and unlock your true potential! Don’t put off expressing your genius! It read like AI wrote it, but it came out in 2018.
At this point I couldn’t stop - over a million copies of this drivel had been sold! I had to know why!
Well, I couldn’t tell you why. I can just tell you I regret the hours of my life I lost to this book.
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
Snyder released this popular compendium after Trump was first elected. Reading it now, the 20 lessons gleaned from the rise and fall of autocracy throughout the course of the 20th century ring more true than ever. Examples: defend institutions (free press, unions), participate civically, be in community, respect language and literacy, be wary of paramilitaries - the list goes on. A good, quick read to remind ourselves that every day presents opportunities to live in resistance to tyranny.
