The Most Popular Goodreads Books of 2026 | My Honest Reviews!
Video Overview & Insights
Hey Booktube, Goodreads came out with their "The Most Read Books of 2026 Reading Challenge so far" (https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/3130-readers-most-read-books-of-the-reading-challenge-so-far?content_type=all) and I thought it would be fun for me to review all the books I've read from each genre. Are the most popular books, the ones I would recommend? What's your review of these books?
I read 4 more books from this list to see if they're worth the hype: https://youtu.be/ygQkwGcA2TQ
Reading The Most Popular Books of 2026: https://youtu.be/ygQkwGcA2TQ
All My Book Recommendations: https://amzn.to/3IBX5It
SPOILER warning: I read Before the Coffee Gets Cold a month ago because someone on Reddit recommended this specific audiobook for non-native English speakers (I used to only read in Chinese). None of these four stories appealed to me, and I can't even rank which one was the weirder one. I hate every single male character in the book. I regret not DNFing it at the scene where that demented guy treated his wife so rudely. Or maybe earlier, in that first story where no one bothered communicating and that girl fell in love with such a cliche. I don't even need to Google the author to know he’s a dude. In the fourth story, that decision of knowing that giving birth would be fatal, yet still going through with it, is... overly praised. I think it is evil of him to depict everyone as being against it, while the woman still decides to sacrifice herself. This is manipulative. The gender dynamics are disgusting. I am a bit scared by how many people rate it high...
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The Wedding People by Alison Espach https://amzn.to/4mjOUn4
Not mentioning the actual plot of wedding people when its so triggering...
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy https://amzn.to/4fwndHC
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall https://amzn.to/4upjK13
BLOOD MERIDAIN
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig https://amzn.to/40L0TSq
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë https://amzn.to/3RRJTIE
"world war 2 is not my favourite"
Same, girl. Same.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah https://amzn.to/4dShfQ6
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid https://amzn.to/45di54j
If “I Who Have Never Known Men” has no haters then I’ve left this Earth 🫠
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah https://amzn.to/3JbCZJy
James by Percival Everett https://amzn.to/45di54j
A box full of darkness was good
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden https://amzn.to/4lR8l6K
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore https://amzn.to/3H1UgEA
Yesteryear was amazing! I wasn't expecting to like this at all. So good!
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides https://amzn.to/40HofZ0
People We Met On Vacation by Emily Henry https://amzn.to/4xwfCzt
Do you have any plans to read All the Devils in Greymont by Angelo Rockwell?
The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez https://amzn.to/4dShfQ6
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry https://amzn.to/4ofYzNB
I totally agree on Freida McFadden! She is not a good writer
Say You'll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez https://amzn.to/4mjGIDe
Funny Story by Emily Henry https://amzn.to/476gMGQ
"MLM romance" and immediately thought of those pyramid schemes. I can just picture it: a Mary Kay hun meets a Herbalife hun and they have a rivals-to-lovers arc while they compete to recruit the same community of people into their downlines.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller https://amzn.to/4obLPaf
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune https://amzn.to/4od9MOF
My friends was so beautiful. Much like his other books he's capable of writing characters that rip my heart out and make me cry for them
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue https://amzn.to/45raOz3
Katabasis by R F Kuang https://amzn.to/3RS2OD4
for Frieda McFadden, in my opinnion, The Housemaid is one of her less enjoyable books. I foudn The Boyfriend and Never Lie to be much more compulsively readable and a bit more realistic, in the off-chance yuo ever decide to giver her one last chance I would pick up one of those books by her instead.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V E Schwab https://amzn.to/4uWnIzm
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke https://amzn.to/49O2gEq
Great video! This was really comprehensive! Yesteryear was overhyped, in my opinion. Loved Midnight Library and really liked The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (especially as someone who loves classic films). The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was really special and moving. The Frozen River was wonderful. Really recommend that one. It stayed with me.
Wuthering Heights the movie is definitely not worth it, haha. But yes, both this book and Frankenstein are classics for a reason and are definitely worth checking out, Frankenstein in particular in my opinion.
Emily Henry is a fun romance authors (Beach Read and Book Lovers are also my favorites by her!) Abby Jimenez is another. They both had books recently adapted into a movie or a tv show respectively too so it makes sense lots of people would be reading them, plus they were really popular before. I like Carley Fortune a lot too (Every Summer After, One Golden Summer).
Before the Coffee Gets Cold was a very cozy series. Not life changing but like comfort food in book form.
Project Hail Mary was great but as someone who is not a scientific expert, there were parts that got much too detailed that I needed to skim, haha.
The Long Walk, both the book and the film, are very intense and disturbing but also really well done. Man's Search for Meaning, also really intense, understandably, but I'm glad I read it. Same for The Radium Girls.
Circe by Madeline Miller https://amzn.to/3GZm903
The Will of the Many by James Islington https://amzn.to/3QmE6KB
American Dirt was one of my favorite books this year.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi https://amzn.to/45tqkuk
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson https://amzn.to/40L14wV
Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are equally gross when viewed as a romance, but only the latter claims to be one.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir https://amzn.to/45ccbjI
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman https://amzn.to/4uYAEF8
Wild dark shore was great. Broken country i couldn't finish. Boring. Any book by Hannah is good. Seven husbands on my tbr. Frozen river i liked. McFadden not for me. The god of woods i liked. The silent patient was my best last year. It's not her i liked. I prefer mystery and thrillers. Thanks for the info.
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman https://amzn.to/46ACF10
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch https://amzn.to/4lTFC1r
Yesteryear is wild. Yes, it’s satire, but it’s also psychotic. The craziest thing I’ve read in years. You have been warned.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley https://amzn.to/3QmWEua
The Martian by Andy Weir https://amzn.to/4v2UfnK
Hated the housemaid too
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak https://amzn.to/3HeIA18
We Used to live Here by Marcus Kliewer https://amzn.to/4l1zy5y
I’ve read a lot of the ones you mentioned other than the romance category. I read Funny Story and enjoyed it. I agree Wuthering Heights should definitely not be in romance. It was disturbing but I felt it was worth the read. I’ve loved all of the Fredrik Backman books that I’ve read. I loved My Friends. I am just waiting for Anxious People from the library.
I quite liked Remarkably Bright Creatures and Broken Country. I loved The Midnight Library, James and Nightingale. I also really enjoyed The Frozen River, Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Piranesi, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Will of the Many, Hail Mary, The Martian, and Crying in the H Mart. I thought Ministry of Time was okay. I wasn’t thrilled about I Who Have Never Known Men at the time but it has stuck with me so in retrospect, I would agree it’s worth the read. I enjoyed God of the Woods and I thought Silent Patient was okay. I have read the Fourth Wing books and some of the ACOTAR series and I agree with your opinion about Fourth Wing. A few of the others you mentioned are on my TBR.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley https://amzn.to/4fkhenc
Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica https://amzn.to/4oimhZq
I like your take on Wild Dark Shore and Remarkable Bright Creatures. Yay for a new subscriber!
Bunny by Mona Awad https://amzn.to/4feRSH1
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix https://amzn.to/45tKyUE
Do you have any plans to read All the Devils in Greymont by Angelo Rockwell?
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L Peck https://amzn.to/3SpmluE
Long Walk by Stephen King https://amzn.to/3QmDPY5
We Used to Live Here annoyed the bejeesus out of me. There were several pointless things, like the cabin. I almost DNFd that book. I agree with Lisa Jewel - I gave her a fair shot by reading 2-3 of her books, but her writing style annoyed me, too. lol Her stories are predictable and poorly written. I will not read anymore from her. (Same for Hoover and McFadden.)
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy https://amzn.to/4l4TTae
Educated by Tara Westover https://amzn.to/4lR9tY2
Love your channel
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner https://amzn.to/3U4rPZu
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Greene https://amzn.to/3QqOtwU
I love to read biographies and non fiction. I picked up a copy of Walking Dutchy, and couldn’t put it down. This needs to be a Netflix series
Atomic Habits by James Clear https://amzn.to/4mjcD6U
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl https://amzn.to/4uktfyI
I read Strange Pictures. I wouldn't bother, personally. It's an interesting concept but just not very good writing, in my opinion. It is really short though so you could finish it in one day or even one sitting if you are so inclined.
The Art Thief by Michael Finkel https://amzn.to/458MpwW
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari https://amzn.to/4lXBRba
Have you put M.L. Wangs new book on your TBR? Its on her website. If you're subscribe to her newsletter you can download a copy! I'm still in the middle of Wind and Truth but I'm planning to read it next!
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore https://amzn.to/45byxlI
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Do not read My Husband's Wife. That book is horrible. The suspension disbelief needed for this book is off the charts.
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Are you saying triller or thriller?
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You need to read woman it's so good!!!
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You def gonna hate half his age😂
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Thank you for the video. I loved The Wedding People!!
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Well I've read all the romantasy category except for mate. I read bride last year and tried other ali Hazelwood... she's just not for me. I really wanna read we used to live here cuz u always recommend it. I personally think everyone needs to read tender is the flesh. We really are not that far away from that world being a possibility. When nectarine Nero announced we were doing a meat desl with Argentina my sister and I both texted each other being like omg tender is the flesh and we joke about ground turkey being sus irl everytime we cook it. Also i read careless people. I loved it! The chapter though with her talking about her traumatic births gave me heart palpitations cuz it was intense. I couldn't put it down and now everytime i see the zuck I imagine him throwing a fit about not getting to wear hoodie and jeans. Those people did her dirty while she was pregnant. Glad she left Facebook.
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I enjoyed this video! I like the pace of how you introduced so many books in quick succession. Also, imo the Psychology of Money is such a practical yet thought-provoking read. It was a pretty quick read and I captured several takeaways.
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Love your videos always and have been following for years, but rarely write 😅
But just wanted to share with this group that M. L. Wang is giving her new sapphic fantasy ebook out for free via her newsletter for Pride month 🌈
Figured both you and lots of people here would be interested in that 🤗
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Vanity Mirror https://amzn.to/3Y1RDbu
I would love to hear what the trope in Before the Coffee Gets Cold was that you weren't a fan of!
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Macrame Plant Hanger https://amzn.to/4gHdzQw
Psychology of money is worth the read
Plant https://go.magik.ly/ml/23is7/
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Strangers (memoir) was SOOOO good!! I'm halfway through Careless People on audio and enjoying it.
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I really liked The Song of Achilles, but I loved Circe. The way Madeleine Miller depicts feminine rage, loss, and injustice really resonated with me.
The Wager is not at all my usual sphere of interest when it comes to history, but I bought it for my Dad as a gift (he loved the Aubrey and Maturin series and now devours anything from the age of sail). He loved it and encouraged me to read it, so I have borrowed it to take away on holiday with me. It’s by the same author as Killers of the Flower Moon.
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I'd love to see your reaction to the new Wuthering Heights movie, it would be super entertaining 😂
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If you read Quicksilver I will be looking forward to your review 😂
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Jane Eyre is not a romance either!
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100% AGREE about The Great Alone. The start was excellent, and then she lost me.. I know i am in the miniority by Addie La Rue did not work for me.. Love your Videos and your feline squad
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they recently announced that apple tv will make movies out of the mistborn books, perhaps thats why people are picking the books up again :)
More User Perspectives
I will never understand how anyone could read the twist in Hidden Pictures and not hate that book, but it's a great tool for knowing when someone isn't safe to be around if they recommend it to me, since it's so popular
@ginnybair2533i remember feeling the same way about before the coffee gets cold what was the trope that put you off?
@chloe-mariegriffiths3729I also loved Circe more than Song of Achilles, but I chopped that up to already being very familiar with Achilles and Patrocles due to taking a college course on death/afterlife rituals and depictions.
@Lan..I should check the list and see how many I have read to date. I agree with you on Katabasis. People harsh in their reviews mainly because she's an academic which is unfair IMO. There is nothing complex or pretentious about the book. You don't need an advance degree or be an academic to understand it. It is a fun read with a world based in academia. There are many other fiction writers with advance degrees but are not judged as harshly as Kuang.
@beautynscience2010Might be an unusual recommendation but everyone i know that read it loved it- you should absolutely try the witchstone by Henry Neff. Great pacing/world traveling curse breaking trope with a mild horror/discomfort element for the curse. Lazlo the demon really sells the book as a really compelling sleezy/clever character.
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