🌟 Book Riot’s best books of 2026 so far

July 8, 2026View Online | Join All Access | Listen

 Happy hump day, and welcome to the first Wednesday edition of the Book Riot Newsletter! We’ve got a delightful variety pack for you today, including our best books of the year so far, the latest adaptation news, and a look at the era of smut. Let’s do this!

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THE HEADLINE

The best books of 2026 so far

Here it is, folks: Book Riot’s Best Books of 2026 So Far! We looked back at books published between January 1 and June 30 to choose our absolute favorites, narrowing them down after much consideration (and whispered apologies to the reads that didn’t make the cut). It’s been a great year for books and comics, with releases from some of our greatest living writers and debuts from exciting new voices.

Our favorite literary fiction asks big questions about colonization, resistance, survival, and mortality, as well as about faith, community, and what it means to truly be seen.

Our top nonfiction includes a memoir on mental health and homeschooling, an investigation into a mysterious death from an award-winning journalist, and an exploration of the health costs of the digital age.

Our genre picks are precisely what you’d expect from a Book Riot “best of” list: swoony romances, epic and cozy fantasy, thrilling whodunits, romps in space, and everything in between.

Check out the full list here, and let us know what reads top your list!

A TRUTH UNIVERSALLY ACKNOWLEDGED

Everything’s coming up Austen

Courtesy of Focus Features

Yes, it’s a hot Greek summer, but fall belongs to Austen. Everyone’s anticipating The Odyssey adaptation, but this season has also been heating up with news about upcoming Jane Austen adaptations.

We can’t get enough of her 19th-century bangers, and I don’t see a future that doesn’t involve a thousand more remixes.

The Austen adaptations dominating entertainment headlines are Netflix’s Pride and Prejudice limited series and Focus Features’ Sense and Sensibility film adaptation, both premiering this fall.

Here’s everything worth knowing about these adaptations so we can spend the summer hyping ourselves up in anticipation.

Vogue shared a first look at Georgia Oakley’s Sense and Sensibility, calling it “ravishing.” I will never besmirch my beloved Ang Lee adaptation, but I am so far enjoying Oakley’s less glossy, more gritty view of life with the Dashwoods.

Netflix gave us a peek at Dolly Alderton’s six-part series adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. I fell in love with Austen thanks to the BBC’s 1995 adaptation, and I (and Bustle writer Tatiana Tenreyro) have been an Olivia Colman fan since her days on Peep Show, so they had me at hello.

If S&S stills can’t quell the hunger, you’re in luck. Watch Daisy Edgar-Jones & Co. in the official trailer.

Vanity Fair explores why we can’t quit Mr. Darcy. Anyone who’s watched Colin Firth jump into a pond on loop understands.

If you want to show off in mixed company ahead of the premieres, put these quotes from Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice in your tool kit. I’ll be holding tight to this one: “It is not what we think or feel that makes us who we are. It is what we do. Or fail to do.”

Most importantly, read and reread the books.

TOGETHER WITH THRIFTBOOKS

Welcome to the Kids Book Fair at ThriftBooks!

Fill your shelves with stories kids will love for less. For a limited time, buy 4 or more Kids Deal Books and use promo code KIDSARECOOL at checkout to get each qualifying book for just $2.99.

There’s no limit to how many times you can use this offer, so stock up on favorites, discover new adventures, and keep young readers turning pages. Shop now!

ADAPTATION NATION

The latest page-to-screen news

Big screen or small, there’s no shortage of adaptation news this week.

️ It’s raves all around in the first reviews of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.

 Little House on the Prairie hits Netflix tomorrow. Here’s a sneak peek.

 Tomi Adeyemi has cut ties with the Children of Blood and Bone adaptation, saying she will not see the film and that the process has been “painful.”

‍☠️ Pirate fantasy novel Tempest by Victoria Aveyard has been picked up for TV before it even hits shelves.

 Ali Hazelwood’s Love, Theoretically is headed for a film adaptation produced by Colleen Hoover.

LET’S TALK BOOKS

We need new book discourse

If you’ve been on the bookish internet long enough, you’ve seen the same arguments cycle endlessly, most of which boil down to nitpicking what counts as “real” reading. It’s mind-numbingly boring, especially the 20th time around.

That’s where BookTokker Bailey (@GreekChoir) comes in. She made a video where she recommends new book discourse to argue about, including:

At what point can you DNF and say you read the book? At the 80% mark?

If you reread the book without paying the author again, that counts as stealing.

How many sex scenes does a book need to have to count as spicy? Three?

I heard about this thanks to Graciella (@grapies_bookstagram), who offered these suggestions for more book discourse:

Genres are spoilers and the signs should be covered up in bookstores.

Does listening to the book as you’re reading it physically count as reading it twice at the same time?

We should call physical books p-books to match e-books.

I would love to see some fresh discourse in bookish spaces, so I humbly offer a few of my own:

Bookish influencers should record themselves reading every book in real time to prove they aren’t lying about how many they’ve finished.

Romance novels should be at least 50% dialogue.

Scenery descriptions are unfair to those of us with aphantasia and should be replaced with illustrations.

I look forward to seeing these get taken out of context and enter the discourse in earnest. (It’s already happening in Bailey’s comments section.) Hopefully adding them to the mix will prevent me from hearing “audiobooks don’t count as reading” for at least a few weeks., DE

TOGETHER WITH THE CAMEO PRESS

A sweeping, morally complex love story that will stay with you.

New from the bestselling author of Beyond the Moon, The Many Seas to Guernsey is a story of forbidden love, a crisis of faith, and a choice that costs everything.

In the last golden years before Europe erupts into WWII, a young English writer and a German Roman Catholic priest-in-training meet by chance on the small British island of Guernsey, and are drawn into a forbidden, all-consuming love. Then history and duty intrude, forcing them to choose between complicity and courage in a fight for truth, freedom, and each other.

Now available on Kindle Unlimited and wherever books are sold.

MAKE IT SPICY

The era of smut

These days, some of the bestselling and most popular books are romantasy, but not just any romantasy, the girls want spice! Shadow daddies, hot fae, fated mates, and morally gray characters. ️

This is evident in the units a couple of the biggest romantasy series have moved:

Sarah J Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series has sold more than 75 million (!!) copies

Rebecca Yarros’s 2025 release, Onyx Storm, was the biggest adult book release in both the UK and the US

The subgenre is so poppin’ in the UK that 30-year-old Starlin Marot was able to open up the country’s first romantasy bookshop.

She did this by running romantasy book pop-ups all over the country and raising £30,000 (roughly $40,000) from said pop-ups.

The result? A bookstore with shelves that are labeled things like “Monster Smut,” “Unhinged,” and “LGBTQ.”

This bookstore is the latest in a trend that seems to favor indie bookstores and even holds space for specialty indie bookstores. We’ve pondered whether we’re in an age of indie bookstores given the comeback we’ve been witnessing. Short answer: we are.

Not only that, but romance and romantasy need respect put on their names, because they are some of the biggest sales drivers making this resurgence possible., EE

REAL ESTATE

You can own your own library!

Many book lovers dream of owning and curating an expansive home library.

But how many book lovers dream of owning an actual library and calling it home?

Good news if you’re in the market: you can own your very own former Carnegie Library right now.

There are currently two on the market for you to choose from, and while both will need some work, they’re both fairly priced and offer plenty of opportunity to get totally nerdy.

 Kendallville, Indiana’s first public library is on the market.

Built in 1913 and one of the original Carnegie Libraries, this building served as the town’s public library until 1968.

Since, it’s been a number of things, including a law firm, vintage clothing store, and an art gallery.

For $250,000, you can own this piece of history (& yes, it has lots of the original touches from the library inside and out!).

Here’s the complete listing, with tons of photos.

 The former Neligh, Nebraska public library is currently listed for $369,000, after a recent $25,000 price cut.

It operated as a library from 1883 to 1929, and in the 2000s, it was transformed into a private residence.

Many of the classic library architectural features remain throughout. The curved entryways and wood throughout are drool-worthy!

Here’s the complete listing.

Never fear: both Kendallville and Neligh still have operating libraries.

Like many facilities built during the Carnegie era, library growth fueled the need for a new space.

While not all Carnegie Libraries are worth preserving for a myriad of reasons, these two are fine examples of being well-cared for and worthy of new use., KJ

TOGETHER WITH BOOK RIOT ALL ACCESS

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Erin Morgenstern, born July 8, 1978

Did you know? Morgenstern wrote the first draft of what would become The Night Circus over several subsequent National Novel Writing Months.

CRITICAL LINKING

You are now free to roam about the internet

錄 Dive into the deep history of Gone With the Wind.

 Get inspired to keep a reading journal.

‍♀️ Test your knowledge of literary quotations about America.

 Roll your own game night with bookish Guess Who?

 Hear what we really think about Yesteryear.

END NOTES

Written by Rebecca Schinsky, Danika Ellis, Vanessa Diaz, Erica Ezeifedi, Kelly Jensen, and Jeff O’Neal. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.

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