The Book Pages: Your 2026 reading plan, plus 10 new books out this week
What’s the plan – you do have one, right?
No, not one for your estate or your budget or your life choices – sure, fine, do those too – but considering the purview of this newsletter, I’m asking about your reading plan in 2026.
At a time when many have already abandoned their New Year’s resolutions, regular readers of this newsletter, I know, remain serious about their reading goals and tracking them. You’ve told me so when I’ve written about wanting to read more while being resistant to keeping a log of what I’ve read. (I’m complicated, OK?)
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Last year, realizing that resistance was futile, I did try harder to document my reading and – wouldn’t you know it? – I ended up reading more last year than ever before. So … you guys were right, thank you. (Another benefit of keeping tabs? Looking at my list from the first weeks of 2026, I realize I’d already completely forgotten about a book I’d enjoyed just two weeks ago.)
Back to the present, what’s the plan for 2026? Will you be reading more fiction or books in translation or poetry – or taking part in more community-based reading activities? Like, say, heading out to a real-world “Heated Rivalry”-inspired event or two? (Yes, the hockey romance was a book first, and the author loves the adaptation, so we’re counting it.)
Are you going to wade into the fast-moving swirl of current events? If so, you might pick up Elizabeth Buchanan’s “So You Want to Own Greenland? Lessons from the Vikings to Trump,” which offers a brisk, informative look at the island’s long history and interactions with outsiders, from Erik the Red’s lost settlements to the current administration’s interest there.
Buchanan, a “polar geopolitics expert who co-founded the polar warfare program at West Point” and was head of research for the Royal Australian Navy, manages to balance a deep understanding of the island with a penchant for pop culture references, including “Sex and the City,” Andre the Giant and James Blunt.
Possibly, as the 40th anniversary of the Challenger disaster is Jan. 28, you might want to get a copy of the award-winning “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space” by Adam Higginbotham (who also wrote the excellent “Midnight in Chernobyl”).
I’m working my way through this one in between other reading and am stunned at its deep research and compelling narrative, especially as I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to revisit the devastating moment when the world watched on TV as the space shuttle’s seven crew members, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, died as Challenger came apart less than two minutes into the flight.
If you’re going to be reading more new fiction, this is a good time to start. There are some intriguing reads hitting stores this week.
New books from George Saunders (“Vigil”), Poppy Kuroki (“Passage to Tokyo”), Thrity Umrigar (“Missing Sam“), Nikesha Elise Williams (“The Seven Daughters of Dupree”), Lynn Cullen (“When We Were Brilliant”) and Don Winslow (“The Final Score ”) are among new ones in stores next week.
A selection of new nonfiction releases includes Mike Pitt’s “Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island,” Austin McCoy’s “Living in a D.A.I.S.Y. Age: The Music, Culture, and World De La Soul Made” and Brooke N. Newman’s “The Crown’s Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery in the Americas.”
And I just got a copy of “Nicola Griffith: She Is Here,” which collects essays, poems and short stories by the author. The slim volume is from PM Press, which got its start in California before relocating to New York in 2022. I’ve already mentioned how much I like her recently reissued Aud Torvingen crime thrillers, and Liz Ohanesian interviewed her about her novel “Menewood,” so I’m looking forward to checking out this collection.
So what’s the plan? To keep hitting the books, that’s what.
Thanks, as always, for reading.