What are you reading in 2026?

[jian]

Finished What If Reform Wins by Peter Chappell, a Times political journalist, which is a hypothetical scenario based on the future U.K. general election in 2029. Obviously I can’t say much about it given the ban on political discussion here, but if you’re interested in the issues, then let me assure you it’s well worth your time. It’s well thought out with generally excellent research and explanation, especially good at stating recent real examples to support events in the scenario.

It’s also full of interesting factoids - for instance I didn’t know that the Bristol Channel floods in 1607 were the most serious natural disaster in English history, killing around 2000 people. I personally think Chappell is surprisingly naive and idealistic on a couple of points (probably because he’s a political journalist) but overall, highly recommended.

 

[jian]

I am playing in a Daggerheart/Tumbleweed game, in which my character is heavily inspired by Martin/Matthias.

(Orderborn Jerbeen Warrior following the Call of the Brave, for those who know the setting/system.)

What’s Tumbleweed, may I ask? Daggerheart I recognise, of course.

 

[trappedslider]

so, I did an inter-library loan for The Book of Blood and Roses (The Callisto Chronicles 1) by Annie Summerlee. It was a fun and cute read, I plan to buy a kindle copy if i remember when i have money.

Next up on the ILL list is Detour: A Novel (Detour Series) by Jeff Rake, Rob Hart

 

[gban007]

Finished Night Without Stars by Peter Hamilton - a strong follow on from Abyss Beyond Dreams.
Somewhat bleaker in nature due to results of first book, but with a thread of hope throughout.
I particularly liked the manhunt portion of the book, with a lot of tension throughout, and seeing my favourite character of the commonwealth saga return and be in good form here, while providing good comparison to one of the characters in first volume.
Nice finish as usual, and would recommend these two over the Void Trilogy.

 

[cbwjm]

I'd highly recommend Creativity by John Cleese if you have an hour to spare. A great little read on the creative process.

 

[Umbran]

What’s Tumbleweed, may I ask? Daggerheart I recognise, of course.

"Tumbleweed" may be what autocorrect makes out of "Humblewood" if you aren't paying attention before clicking to post the reply...

 

[Retros_x]

Finished "Snake-Eater" by Kingfisher and it might be the first of hers that didn't really work for me. It was the first of her books where I wasn't really engaged and had to push myself through it. If this would be my first book of her I would probably DNFed it.

I loved the desert setting and the characters were glorious as always, but the protagonist was so damn passive. I understand that was the point and in the end she finally made decisions for herself, but it was so tedious to read how the two supporting characters explain everything to her and do everything for her. I've read a mean review on storygraph that hits it on the nail:

It's something like The Twisted Ones, except not scary and with a wet mop as the main character. Seriously, if you took the main character out of the book and had it just be about the townsfolk that would have been a win. The character's only two personality traits are anxiety and having a dog

And there were so many explanations of the spirits and spirit worlds, a lot of worldbuilding for a pretty simple plot. Honestly I think this would've been much better as a short story or at least a novella. I also did like the moral of the story only in theory: The protagonist thinks that everyone is doing everything for her, but she learns that she was making friends, and that is also not passive, but proactive. This sounds cool in theory - but in practice: she did literally nothing for that. Her new friends almost forced themselves upon her. They just saw a young woman in need and choose to help her, she did literally nothing proactively to build this friendship other than being nice. I did do like the ending though, both her short journey into the spirit world and her confrontation with her husband.

Oh and its definitely not a horror book, despite being marketed as such. Its more cozy with a bit of supernatural mystery. But the mystery is very low stakes.

 

[Kaodi]

After having taken it out of the library over two months ago I finally started reading The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri last night. It is the third book in its series. I made it to around page 40 before giving it up for the night.

 

[Reynard]

Started re-reading A Wizard of Earthsea -- partially because we will be covering it on the Game Master Book Club podcast, and partially because I love it so much.

 

[Parmandur]

Been working my way through "Super Nintendo: How One Japanese Company Helped the World Have Fun" by Kez MacDonald, a UK video game journalist for the Guardian. Very interesting read.

Also inspired by the Guardian, after realizing I only had read 19 of their fairly pretentious "100 Best Novels" list, I'm getting a bunch of the novels on thst list from the library. Particularly looking forward to "Our Mutual Friend" by Charles Dickens, which was recommended by my Senior thesis advisor 20 years ago.