Best Books - January to June 2026
Looking back at the last six months, I have read a lot of nonfiction. A lot. Two stand out books took my breath away: Man’s Search for Meaning and Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice from Dear Sugar.
I was also sucked into an anti-AI rabbit hole (where I still happily reside) and read and read and read about artificial intelligence, technology, and the ways in which the internet is getting worse for everyone.
But when I wasn’t ranting and raving – in my own head, of course – I discovered for the first time Claire Keegan and her wonderful novellas. I also read both George Saunders and Gabriel Tallent’s newest novels. Ada Limon’s poetry was also a new and delightful surprise.
Finally, I was fortunate enough to be a committee member for the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative Translated Young Adult Book Prize. What an honor! And what a lot of reading! While my favorites didn’t win, I’ve listed them here in case you are interested in adding books in translation into your classroom library.
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
I finally read this classic and I am so happy that I did. It’s harrowing and uplifting, shocking in the brutality inflicted on others and beautiful in the mundane humanity found in everyday interactions. If you don’t know it, this is Frankl’s memoir of his time in Nazi concentration camps. But it’s also about his theory of logotherapy and how we find meaning in our lives. I dog-eared something like every other page because his insights into life are that consistently profound.
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed
This book is a collection of 10+ years of advice columns in The Rumpus by “Sugar,” the pseudonym of author Cheryl Strayed. I could not put it down. I also read it before bed which probably wasn’t the best idea as I felt gut-punched by some of the letters asking for advice and heartbroken in how the author responds. Her responses are tender and warm, firm and direct, beautifully written and fully human. Just don’t read it before bed.
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna
This was the first of several books about technology I read and I cannot recommend it enough! I had vague feelings about artificial intelligence, but not the language or the precise arguments for why it felt wrong to me. This book gave me that and so much more. The authors demystify what AI actually is and how to reclaim what matters. I realize my own cognitive biases here and that I am reading texts that reflect my already held personal beliefs. Still. This is good!
Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow
This would have been a wonderfully entertaining read if it wasn’t so depressing. Doctorow’s tone is biting and sarcastic. I laughed so many times as he takes down big tech and how they ruin their own products, on purpose. But it’s also sad. The internet had – and still has – so much potential. If only we could harness it.
The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms our Kids’ Learning – And How to help Them Thrive Again by Dr. Jared Cooney-Horvath
This was the third of the technology books on my reading list. It was less academic than The AI Con and not as funny as Enshittification, but it was still an important read. How much have 1-1 laptop programs actually enhanced learning in schools? Not much, the author argues, with data to prove it. And yet we spend millions of dollars pumping technology into even the youngest of grades. Why? Cooney-Horvath says enough is enough and this is his manifesto declaring a stop to the intrusion of iPads and laptops in schools all over the world.
Small Things Like These and Foster by Claire Keegan
I haven’t read prose this succinct and this beautiful in a long time. Keegan’s stories are short – are they novellas, short stories, something else? But the emotional weight and revelations, especially at the very end of each of them make them such a worthwhile read. You won’t be disappointed by either!
Crux by Gabriel Tallent
I laughed so hard reading the widely inappropriate dialogue and text messages between the two main characters in this stunning novel. Dan and Tamma are high school seniors, thinking about the future in a down-and-out rural town in California. Tamma is this gritty, wild, full-hearted character who you root for throughout. Dan’s doing his best to excel at school, to pick himself up by his bootstraps, so to say, to make a better life for himself. Both love rock climbing and are best friends because of it. But the rock climbing and bouldering they do is dangerous, often extremely risky, and very difficult. There’s a whole lot more to the story, but if you want a novel about sports or friendship or the choices we make in life, this novel is perfect for you!
Vigil by George Saunders
I was hoping to like this book more than I did. It’s good. Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December are better. Still, only Saunders can pull off this type of inventive plotline where an oil executive, responsible for climate disaster, is on his death bed while an angel or spirit visits him trying to get him to repent for his past actions in destroying the planet. I enjoyed how the spirit flits in and out of his body and mind, trying to get the main character to genuinely reflect and look back on the life he has lived.
Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón
I’ve never read Limón’s poetry before and I am so happy I’ve now read a bit of her work. And talking to a colleague, he’s introduced me to even more of her poetry from her other collections. This collection revolves around the speaker grappling with a sense of place (New York City versus rural Kentucky) and her new found love. It was the endings of the poems, in particular, that made me pause and sit with the final thought being presented by Limón.
The Global Literature in Libraries Initiative “strives to raise the visibility of world literature for adults and children at the local, national and international levels.” Here are three of my favorite short-listed books.
Beasts by Ingvild Bjerkeland
What a fun, fast read. Two characters – a teen (Abdi) and his little sister (Alva) – are being hunted down by “beasts” of an unknown origin. The novel is full of apocalyptic death and destruction, but the novel shines because you end up caring so much about both main characters and you want to see them survive. Will they escape these horrifying and terrifying creatures?
The History of World War II: A Graphic Novel of the 20th Century’s Defining War by Arnaud de la Croix and Vicente Cifuentes
What an incredible feat to tell the story of World War II in graphic novel format and with such depth. The opening also reminded me of Watchmen in terms of the style and presentation of each panel and particular scenes. Highly engaging and very thorough!
Movies Showing Nowhere by Yorick Goldewijk
The novel centers on Cato, the main character, coming to grips with not having a mom in her life. She dies when Cato is born, and it’s just her and her dad now. But it’s such a sad existence, and they are both mourning the loss more than a decade later. As the novel progresses, a time-travelling adventure unfolds – in a cinema of all places – and this changes the course of her life.
You can find the entire shortlist here: https://glli-us.org/2026/04/02/announcing-the-shortlist-for-the-2026-global-literature-in-libraries-initiative-translated-young-adult-book-prize/. And the winning novel, Self-Portrait, was beautifully written.