Book 27 of 2026: MAD PRAIRIE by @katemcintyre.bsky.social. Toto, we are in Kansas and it is very weird. Loved these connected short stories—the novella was a particularly good (and bizarre) depiction of grief.
Becky Robison
Book 26 of 2026: BEAUTYLAND by Marie-Helene Bertino. Is our narrator an alien sent to Earth to fax observations about our planet to her extraterrestrial superiors? It doesn’t really matter—she’s human regardless, and that is beautiful.
Becky Robison
Book 25 of 2026: HUNCHBACK by @ssaaoouu.bsky.social, translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton. Darkly funny, subversively erotic, tough as nails novel about a severely disabled woman’s bargain with her incel caretaker. Messed up (complimentary).
Becky Robison
Book 24 of 2026: ANARCHISM AND OTHER ESSAYS by Emma Goldman. Originally published in 1910 but uncomfortably relevant to the present day. You can tell she was a good public speaker; it’s easy to get swept up in her arguments without thinking—though I agree with much of what she said anyway.
Becky Robison
Book 23 of 2026: EDUCATED by Tara Westover, narrated by Julia Whelan. Finally got around to this bestseller. It was harrowing, for sure. Trigger warnings for basically everything. I thought it was a little too long? But overall, glad I listened.
Becky Robison
Book 22 of 2026: HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE by Andreas Malm. Ironically listened to this while driving hundreds of miles across state lines. At least I was driving a hybrid? Found it really inspiring.
Becky Robison
Book 21 of 2026: PERFECTION by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes. If you want to feel uncomfortable as a cosmopolitan millennial with a computer job, this is the novel for you! It’s mercifully short (complimentary). I enjoyed it.
Becky Robison
Book 20 of 2026: BLACKASS by @aibarrett.bsky.social. I’ve had this answer to Kafka’s Metamorphosis on my shelf for years, and I’m glad I finally got around to it right before its sequel comes out, apparently! It’ll be interesting to see what Furo Wariboko, aka Frank Whyte, is up to these days.
Becky Robison
Book 19 of 2026: THE BURNOUT SOCIETY by Byung-Chul Han. It took me 3 days to read this 50-page book. Interesting ideas if you can manage the linguistic obstacle course. I like his theory that we’re living in an age of auto-exploitation & bosses like it, but I think allo-exploitation can coincide!
Becky Robison
Book 18 of 2026: WE SHOW WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED by @clarebeams.bsky.social. It’s been a while since I read a short story collection, and I really enjoyed this volume of quietly weird tales. “World’s End” and “All the Keys to All the Doors” were particular favorites!
Becky Robison
Book 17 of 2026: A DEATH DOULA’S GUIDE TO A MEANINGFUL END by Jane K. Callahan. I was already proud to call Jane a friend, but I’m especially proud after reading her book. A must-buy for everyone who’s going to die someday. (That’s you.)
Becky Robison
Book 16 of 2026: GALÁPAGOS by Fátima Vélez. Wild to read this fever dream of a book about a group of wayward artists slowly dying of AIDS while I have a literal fever. Bravo to Hannah Kauders for the translation—this nearly periodless novel must have been a doozy!
Becky Robison
Book 15 of 2026: CONVENT WISDOM by Ana Garriga & Carmen Urbita, read by Aida Reluzco. Even as an ex-Catholic, I have a great admiration for nuns and would rather take advice from them than from most people. This is also a charming book about the authors’ friendship.
Becky Robison
Book 14 of 2026: HARRIET TUBMAN: LIVE IN CONCERT by Bob the Drag Queen. Considering the premise, it’s amazing how weird this funny little novel *isn’t*. It’s so earnest—I was along for the ride from the first sentence. The audiobook version has two songs at the end!
Becky Robison
Book 13 of 2026: CREATION LAKE by Rachel Kushner. I love books where narrators get knocked off their high horse. This novel, with its for-hire spy who infiltrates a leftist commune in France, is a great example.
Becky Robison
Book 12 of 2026: HAPPY DEATH CLUB by @naomiwesterman.bsky.social. A charming series of essays about death and grief. Very fun. Right up my alley.
Becky Robison
Book 11 of 2026: JAWBONE by @monaojedaf.bsky.social. Had the pleasure of rereading this for the @horrorbookstore.bsky.social book club. Just as surreally terrifying as the first time around. A modern horror masterpiece. 🤍 🐊 🦷
Becky Robison
Book 10 of 2026: THE ROUND HOUSE by Louise Erdrich. This is the second novel of Erdrich’s I’ve read, and it was absolutely engrossing—but the subject matter is brutal. Narrated by a 13-yo Ojibwe boy whose mother is attacked. Trigger warnings for basically everything.
Becky Robison
Book 9 of 2026: WOLF IN WHITE VAN by @themountaingoats.bsky.social. I first read it about a decade ago, but something called me to re-read it now. Maybe it’s that the bleak violence of today’s world makes escape in a game seem appealing. But it’s not escape, just another layer of reality.
Becky Robison
Book 8 of 2026: THE NEW LIFE by Tom Crewe. A queer historical fiction in which nearly every character is forced to make impossible choices they’d never be forced to make had they lived a century later. Our existence in the new life (or something closer to it) makes the novel more hopeful.
Becky Robison
Book 7 of 2026: LE PLONGEUR by Stéphane Larue. It’s been forever since I read a book in French, but I figured my recent trip to Montreal was a good excuse—especially because this novel is a romp through Montreal’s drug- and booze-fueled restaurant scene from the perspective of a new dishwasher.
Becky Robison
Book 6 of 2026: THE FAMILIAR by Leigh Bardugo. Thought this was going to be a vampire novel. It is decidedly not! More of a historic romantasy, which isn’t my fav genre, but Bardugo is a competent author, so it worked.
Becky Robison
Book 5 of 2026: HOWLS FROM THE DARK AGES, edited by P.L. McMillan and Solomon Forse. Gory short horror stories that take place in the medieval period. What more could you want? Let’s go, creepy monks!
Becky Robison
Book 4 of 2026: THE GENTLE ART OF SWEDISH DEATH CLEANING by Margareta Magnusson. I’d read excerpts of this before, but never the whole thing. It is…adorable? The cutest book I’ve read in ages. And tremendously useful, of course! Makes me miss my grandparents, though.
Becky Robison
Book 3 of 2026: THE VILLAGE LIBRARY DEMON-HUNTING SOCIETY by C.M. Waggoner. At first I thought this was going to be a typical cozy mystery—and then it wasn’t typical at all, which I very much appreciated.
Becky Robison
Book 2 of 2026: BABEL by @rfkuang.bsky.social. I literally just spent five straight hours finishing this book because it was so good. You must read it. I insist.
Becky Robison
Book 1 of 2026: PRIVATE RITES by Julia Armfield, narrated by Hannah van der Westhuysen. The post-death bureaucracy horror novel of my dreams! Plus climate change horror! Plus zealotry horror! I loved it. 📚👀
