I am not a binge watcher. I spend 11.5 months of the year functionally forgetting about the concept of movies, until I watch a really good one and then am forced to walk around like a time traveler asking passersby if they’ve heard about this film thing. I’m bad at discovering music, so I mostly just listen to different playlists made of the same 100 songs.
All of my “media consumption” (read: perusal of art) is spent chasing books I can’t put down.
There is quite literally nothing like the feeling of reading a novel so wonderful it prevents you from doing anything else (until you’ve finished it and entered the corresponding depression).
These are 15 that have put me in that space this year.
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The Likeness by Tana French
Finished August 13
I read In the Woods for a (forthcoming) Substack post and was so caught up in it — at first because it was a perfect thriller and then because it was pissing me off so badly it made me sick — that I had no choice but to immediately place a library hold for the sequel.
The inexplicable wait for this 15 year old backlist follow-up is the only thing that allowed me to read anything else. Mysterious and propulsive and eerie enough that I shied away from reading home alone after dark, while so unputdownable that I did it anyway.
I Want You to Be Happy by Jem Calder
Finished July 23
This first came across my desk because Leah mentioned Calder’s works remind her of Sally Rooney’s, and Leah is one of the few people I would actually believe that from. She was right!
In the long wait between Rooney releases, this scratched the itch (sorry, what a gross expression), which almost nothing ever does. It’s a bit more over the top, but dwells on the same big questions.
Famous Men by Julie Buntin
Finished July 18
I tried to make this book last as long as I could, but once I passed the halfway point I sat down and spent a weekend day reading it all. That was the most I could do.
Reading a #MeToo book in 2026, and especially a #MeToo book that feels like a completely fresh, unique perspective on this topic we’ve all read so much about, was discombobulating. That is a compliment.
Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Finished July 12
This voice! Oh man. If you took Selin from The Idiot and made her almost a 1:1 opposite — bubbly, outgoing, careless, speaking whatever comes to her mind — but kept the plot exactly the same, you’d end up with Catalina. Both book and protagonist.
I could not get enough of it.
Girl’s Girl by Sonia Feldman
Finished June 27
I didn’t know they made summer reads this perfect.
This made me nostalgic for a season I never had, a sparklier, more reflective, brilliant teenage summer surrounded by friends, playing Sims, taking pictures for Instagram. Or maybe not quite nostalgic — it made me feel truly content, as if I’d lived it and now I can do so, through its pages, again and again.
Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung
Finished June 22
This is a series of ghost stories, and also one larger ghost story. It’s smooth and readable and compelling, one interesting and unique tale after another, all united by a spooky-building narrative that also provides thematic interest.
I think ghosts are one of the most interesting topics out there, and it’s a relief that an author I like is substantiating that belief.
Whistler by Ann Patchett
Finished June 3
I did not want this book to end. I also did not want to stop reading it.
That’s the impossible balance at the crux of every new favorite book, and the bittersweet feeling of it is why I love reading so much. Every day since I finished this I’ve thought, should I reread Whistler? Right now I’m thinking, absolutely yes.
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Finished May 26
Generally how I read, as outlined in this borderline insane post, is by alternating chapters in anywhere between 6 and 10 current reads. But if I have one standout, a book I’m especially enjoying, then sometime in the evening I’ll give up and just sit down with that favorite.
I looked so forward to that time every day with this novel, each night for a week until, tragically, I’d finished it.
Devotions by Lucy Caldwell
Finished May 12
This slim volume of eight stories made me tear up several times. This was, of course, deeply disturbing to me. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep crying over how lovely and subtle they were or run far away — but before I knew it, I’d finished.
Then I thought I would have liked to keep going.
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe
Finished April 9
I read pretty much every day of my life, in planes and trains and automobiles or wherever else I may have to, wheeled or not — but even I may have drawn the line at my honeymoon.
Unfortunately for my newly minted husband, I picked up my first Patrick Radden Keefe while he napped. I was very supportive of all mid-day sleep opportunities from then on.
Under Water by Tara Menon
Finished March 16
This book alternates between two timelines: the island childhood of two best friends, one of whom is lost in the devastation of the Indian Ocean tsunami; and the present-day life of the survivor, in the hours before Hurricane Sandy hits New York City.
Both are atmospheric and haunting, and I couldn’t stop until I knew what’d happen to both versions of our protagonist.
Strange Girls by Sarvat Hasin
Finished March 3
If you have ever gone through a breakup with a best friend, you know that even the most toxic and lengthy end of a romantic relationship cannot compare to that particular upending turmoil.
This book gets it too.
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Finished February 11
BookTok has made very few points, but this is definitely one of them.
Very little happens in this book, and the writing is deceptively simple, and yet the two combine into a one of a kind story, one that feels suspenseful and emotional and lush. I have to thank the app for that.
The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams
Finished January 26
A generational family saga is one of my very favorite subgenres, but this one was on expert mode.
Its chapters are not chronological, nor are they connected in any immediately obvious way, and the jumps between timelines and characters made it unbelievably difficult to track their stories and connections to each other. And yet eventually it just clicks, and from then on it’s nothing but wonderful.
Discipline by Larissa Pham
Finished January 18
This book felt like it contained two books, and I only found one of them really unputdownable.
The first half of this is rich and stimulating and dialogue-laden, following an author on book tour in the vein of Rachel Cusk’s Outline trilogy. The second half suddenly veers into time spent with the older, more powerful man whose behaviors inspired the book. Still, I read quickly, trying to see if we’d return to the first part and what had brought us to the second, and overall enjoyed the sum.
Heart the Lover by Lily King
Finished January 14 (reread)
If I had my druthers — which I guess, to be fair, I do — I would recommend this book in every Substack post I ever write.
I just think it has something for everyone. It’s emotional, romantic, reflective, sad, nostalgic, literary, thematically rich. I loved everything about it and couldn’t put it down either time I read it.
Now I want to read it again.
There is nothing better than finding a book that makes you forget everything else you were supposed to be doing.
"Book Tok has made very few points, but this is definitely one of them."
I laughed out loud for a solid minute, and then again while making tea a short while later, and yet again while posting this.
Thank you.