PolyWogg’s Reading Challenge for 2026: Non-Fiction

PolyWogg’s Reading Challenge for 2026: Fiction

What books am I considering?

Christmas 2025 gifts:

1. The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau + Independent Study + Graduation Day + The Testing Guide
2. Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
3. The Compound by Aisling Rawle
4. Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
5. Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
6. My Friends by Fredrik Backman
7. The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose
8. Nothing Ventured by Jeffrey Archer
9. Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

February 2026 Book club suggestions:

1. Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
2. The Curious Case of the Poisoned Professor, Lucy Connelly
3. Discipline, Larissa Pham
4. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk
5. Fallen Gods, Rachel Van Dyken
6. First Witches Club, Maisey Yates
7. The Harvey Girl, Dana Stabenow
8. It’s Not Her, Mary Kubica
9. The Once and Future Queen, Paula Lafferty
10. One & Only, Maureen Goo
11. The Poisoner, I.V. Ophelia
12. Read Between The Lies, Jesse Q. Sutanto
13. Return of the Maltese Falcon, Max Allan Collins
14. Sibylline, Mellissa de la Cruz
15. So Old, So Young, Grant Ginder
16. A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage, M.K. Oliver
17. Stolen Midnights, Katherine Quinn
18. The Storm, Rachel Hawkins
19. The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow
20. Theo of Golden, Allen Levi
21. The Things We Leave Unfinished, Rebecca Yarros
22. This Book Made Me Think of You, Libby Page
23. This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
24. Two Bodies Are Better Than One, Erica Ruth Neubauer
25. The Unwedding, Allyson Braithwaite Condie
26. Vigil, George Saunders
27. The Widow, John Grisham
28. The Winter Witch, Jennifer Chevalier

Ongoing books

1. Alyson Noel Immortals series (Evermore, Blue Moon, Shadowland, Dark Flame, Night Star, Everlasting)
2. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
3. All’s Fair in Love and the Nuclear Apocalypse by Jacob Horton et al
4. Make: Getting Started with 3D Printing (2nd Edition) by Liza Wallach Kloski and Nick Kloski
5. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters…from a classic list
6. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green…from a classic list
7. Something Wicked by Carolyn G. Hart…from Agatha awards
8. Lost Little Girl by Gregory Stout…from Shamus awards
9. Beat Not The Bones by Charlotte Jay…from Edgar awards
10. The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley…from Edgar awards of sorts, this is book #1 of a two-book series
11. A Case of Loyalties by Marilyn Wallace…this might be hard to find though, from the Macavity list of winners
12. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton…from a classic list
13. Rabbit, Run by John Updike…from a classic list, but frequently referred to by Lawrence Block
14. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James W. Cain…from a classic list
15. Neuromancer by William Gibson…from a classic list, a rare sci-fi style story
16. Still Life by Louise Penny…the first of the series;
17. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid…from the popular seller’s list
18. Next book in the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch
19. Stephanie Plum book by Janet Evanovich;
20. Margaret Atwood – The Blind Assassin
21. Lawrence Block – Writing the Novel: From plot to print to pixel
22. Paulo Coelho – O Alquimista (The Alchemist)
23. William Faulkner – The Sound and the Fury
24. Diana Gabaldon – Outlander series
25. Kazuo Ishiguro – The Remains of the Day
26. Donald Jack – Three Cheers for Me
27. Stuart Kaminsky – A Cold Red Sunrise
28. L Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird
29. Gabriel Garcia Marquez – 100 Years of Solitude
30. George R.R. Martin – Game of Thrones series
31. Vladimir Nabokov – Lolita
32. George Orwell – 1984
33. Paul Quarrington – Whale Music
34. J.D. Salinger – Catcher in the Rye
35. Leo Tolstoy – War and Peace
36. Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez – The Dirty Girls Social Club
37. E. B. White – Charlotte’s Web
38. Lu Xun – Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
39. Richard Yates – Revolutionary Road
40. Carlos Ruiz Zafón – Shadow of the Wind
41. Lu Xun – Diary of a Madman and Other Stories

Update January 15: Canada Reads

1. A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt
2. Celestina’s House by Clarissa Trinidad Gonzalez
3. Crossroads by Kaleb Dahlgren 
4. Everything Is Fine Here by Iryn Tushabe
5. Foe by Iain Reid
6. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid and Game Changer
7. It’s Different This Time by Joss Richard
8. Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang
9. Never Been Better by Leanne Toshiko Simpson
10. Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park
11. Restaurant Kid by Rachel Phan
12. Searching for Terry Punchout by Tyler Hellard
13. Slice The Water by PP Wong 
14. The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor
15. The Hunger We Pass Down by Jen Sookfong Lee

From article on books to give:

1. When You Least Expect It Lorna Schultz Nicholson
2. Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain
3. Byung-Chul Han The Spirit of Hope
4. Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations
5. Byung-Chul Han’s The Burnout Society
6. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
7. Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities
8. Robert Macfarlane’s Is a River Alive?
9. Foster by Claire Keegan.
10. Mother Mary Comes to Me, by Arundhati Roy
11. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
12. Terry Pratchett’s Truckers
13. Sarah Crossan’s Where the Heart Should Be
14. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
15. Sharna Jackson’s High Rise Mystery series
16. Alice Oswald’s Dart
17. Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly
18. Wise Children by Angela Carter
19. Michael Kohlhaas, a slim novella from 1810 by Heinrich von Kleist, translated by Michael Hofmann
20. Sarah Hall’s Sudden Traveler
21. Amos & Boris by William Steig
22. Sam Lipsyte The Ask
23. Rumer Godden Kingfishers Catch Fire
24. Rumer Godden The River
25. Restoration by Rose Tremain
26. Rose Tremain’s Merivel: A Man of His Time, is just as wonderful – if not more so.
27. Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book.
28. Tove Jansson’s A Winter Book
29. Fear of Description by Daniel Poppick
30. Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
31. JL Carr’s novella A Month in the Country
32. The Echoing Grove by Rosamond Lehmann
33. Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
34. Philip Larkin’s The Whitsun Weddings
35. Elizabeth Day One of Us
36. The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono
37. Erin O White’s, Like Family
38. Ultimate Spider-Man by Jonathan Hickman
39. When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson (Jackson Brodie #3/5 — Case Histories #1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

2025 Book Club Books:

1. Homeseeking, Karissa Chen
2. Back After This, Linda Holmes
3. The Dream Hotel, Laila Lalami
4. Moderation, Elaine Castillo
5. Blood at the Root, LaDarrion Williams
6. The Man The Moment Demands, Jason Wilson
7. King of Ashes, S. A. Cosby
8. The Bee Sting, Paul Murray
9. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk
10. Brightly Shining, Ingvild Rishoi
11. Audition, Katie Kitamura
12. The Ten-Year Affair, Erin Somers
13. The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus, Emma Knight
14. Rabbit Moon, Jennifer Haigh
15. The Letter Carrier, Francesca Giannone
16. Heart the Lover, Lily King
17. The Rest of Our Lives, Benjamin Markovits
18. A serial killer’s guide to marriage, Asia Mackay
19. The Favorites, Layne Fargo
20. Atmosphere, Taylor Jenkins Reid
21. The Art Of A Lie, Laura Shepherd-Robinson
22. Dead Lucky, Connor Hutchinson
23. Katabasis, R.F. Kuang
24. The Murder At World’s End, Ross Montgomery
25. King Sorrow, Joe Hill
26. The Shapeshifter’s Daughter, Sally Magnusson
27. This Book Made Me Think of You, Libby Page
28. Jane and Dan at the End of The World, Colleen Oakley
29. Fun for the Whole Family, Jennifer E. Smith
30. Everyone Is Lying To You, Jo Piazza
31. Best Offer Wins, Marisa Kashino
32. Ten Thousand Light Years From Okay, Tracy Dobmeier
33. So Old, So Young, Grant Ginder
34. Count My Lies, Sophie Stava
35. Not Quite Dead Yet, Holly Jackson
36. The Book of Lost Hours, Haley Gelfuso
37. Twice, Mitch Albom
38. After Life, Gayle Forman
39. The Otherwhere Post, Emily J. Taylor
40. Audre and Bash Are Just Friends, Tia Williams
41. Immortal Consequences, I.V. Marie
42. All Night Pharmacy, Ruth Madievsky
43. Maine Characters, Hannah Orenstein
44. Hazel Says No, Jessica Berger Gross
45. The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter, Peter Orner
46. Typewriter Beach, Meg Waite Clayton
47. Theo of Golden, Allen Levi
48. Vigil, George Saunders
49. Yours for the Season, Uzma Jalaluddin
50. Read Between the Lies, Jesse Q. Sutanto
51. Some Bright Nowhere, Ann Packer
52. Once There Were Wolves, Charlotte McConaghy
53. Wild Dark Shore, Charlotte McConaghy
54. Is She Really Going Out With Him?, Sophie Cousens
55. Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride, Will Leitch
56. Too Old For This, Samantha Downing
57. Happy Wife, Meredith Lavender & Kendall Shores
58. One & Only, Maureen Goo
59. The Three Lives of Cate Kay, Kate Fagan
60. Heiress Takes All, Emily Wibberley
61. Stuck Up and Stupid, Angourie Rice
62. The Suspect, Rob Rinder
63. Guilty By Definition, Susie Dent
64. Here One Moment, Liane Moriarty
65. One Perfect Couple, Ruth Ware
66. Baldacci trilogy of the 6:20 Man — The 6:20 Man, The Edge, To Die For
67. Baldacci Strangers in Time
68. Homecoming, Christie Golden // Kate Morton
69. The Afterparty, Ruth Kelly
70. Like Mother, Like Daughter, Kimberley McCreight
71. Nobody’s Fool, Harlan Coben
72. You Are Fatally Invited, Ande Pliego
73. Beth Is Dead, Katie Bernet
74. When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead

Master Sources

• There is a website called The Greatest Books which is a compilation of lists of great books — 2073 titles in total.
• Governor General’s awards (Canadian)
• National Book Awards (American)
• Pulitzer prizes (American)
• Man Booker awards (English-speaking)
• Agatha awards (mystery)
• Shamus awards (mystery)
• Macavity awards (mystery)
• Edgar awards (mystery)
• Hammett awards (mystery)
• Abe Books’ list of Top 100 Fiction Books to Read in a Lifetime
• Radcliffe Publishing’s 100 Greatest Novels
• Modern Library’s Fiction or Non-fiction lists
• BBC’s 100 Greatest British Novels
• Guardian’s 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of All-time or 100 Best Novels Written in English
• Time Magazine’s All-Time 100 Novels
• NY Times Best-Seller list
• Project Gutenberg (United States, Canada)