When I started setting reading challenges for myself, I began with “12 in 12,” in which I read 12 books within the 12 months of the year. Last year, I read 25 books for 2025. Naturally, my goal for 2026 is to read 26 books. These reading challenges forced me to set aside time for mindful reading and greatly helped me explore diverse literature, the kinds of novels that are so impactful that you reread them over and over. Here are five of the best books I read from 2025 that need to be on your to-read list for 2026 (if they weren’t already).
- Babel by R.F. Kuang
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This book was so engaging that I had to put it at the top of the list. Recommended to me by about five different friends, I knew I had to read Babel, especially after I read Kuang’s bestselling novel Yellowface and loved it. Babel did not disappoint! I firmly believe that it has something for everyone. Action-packed, educational, and thought-provoking, one of my favorite aspects of this book was just how much I learned while reading it (did you know that “goodbye” is a contraction of the phrase “God be with you”?) Aside from super cool facts about language, you learn a lot about history and how the two are inherently intertwined.
Babel focuses on a young boy named Robin Swift as he studies translation at the University of Oxford in the early 19th century. I don’t want to give too much away, as I think this is a book you definitely have to enter blindly, but I will say to be prepared for the emotional rollercoaster that awaits you. This is definitely a book I plan on reading again at some point, because it was just that good.
- A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
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Chances are, if you’re a bookworm today, then you likely went through a Percy Jackson stage, where you were obsessed with Greek mythology, owned a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, and went to the library devouring every single book in every series that Rick Riordan created.
If you fall into that category, A Thousand Ships is bound to captivate you in the same way. Haynes brilliantly retells the tale of the Trojan War while incorporating the perspectives and untold stories of many of the women involved. Some of these women include Hecabe, the queen of Troy and wife of King Priam; Cassandra, one of King Priam’s daughters and a prophetic priestess of Apollo; and Iphigenia, King Agamemnon’s eldest daughter, who was killed by her father as a human sacrifice. After reading this book, I feel as if I now know the story of the Trojan War in its true entirety—not only the battles of Achilles and Hector or the affair of Helen of Troy and Paris—but also the stories of the women who were treated as slaves when Troy fell, the women whose children were lost to war, and the women who accepted their merciless fates.
@WandsworthLibraries via YouTube - If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
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This was the first novel I read by Baldwin, and it made me want to read all his other works. Tish, the nineteen-year-old narrator growing up in Harlem, New York, is the pregnant fiancée of her childhood friend Fonny. After Fonny is imprisoned for a crime that he did not commit, the bulk of the novel details the obstacles that both families must overcome as they embark on a journey to free him.
I devoured this book within a matter of days, and added Baldwin’s other novels, Giovanni’s Room and Go Tell It on the Mountain, to my to-read list shortly afterwards. It is an emotional journey, with an ending that is realistic, hopeful, and heartbreaking all at once. As a testament to the novel’s power, If Beale Street Could Talk was adapted into a 2018 film starring KiKi Layne and Stephan James as Tish and Fonny.
@ANNAPURNA via YouTube - The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
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If you have ever read a novel by Morrison before, then you must know that this will not be a light read. This is perhaps the heaviest read on this list, but you will not regret it. I picked up this book after learning that it is frequently banned across the country, which just made me want to read it even more. Morrison, the first Black woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, stated that she entered a “long period of…a kind of melancholy” after finishing The Bluest Eye, and I understand why.
Focused on a young Black girl named Pecola Breedlove, The Bluest Eye details the severe psychological consequences of internalized racism, sexual violence, generational trauma, and financial poverty, among other topics. As a reader, I similarly went through a melancholic period after finishing this novel; it made me think about how I reject or perpetuate conventional beauty standards and the unspoken psychological toll of normalized racism. Buckle up: this is definitely a novel that will stick with you long after you’ve finished it.
- Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
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You have definitely seen this book at nearly every Barnes & Noble you’ve visited since its publication, and for good reason, too. Martyr! was a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award and shortlisted for the 2025 Gregor von Rezzori Prize. In other words, I started this book with extremely high expectations, and Akbar did not disappoint. Some chapters left me mulling over their content for days afterwards, and I have still been unable to shake one quote in particular from seeping into my daily thoughts. The book focuses on a recovering alcoholic and writer as he journeys to New York to discuss martyrdom with an artist dying from cancer.
One of my favorite aspects of this book is the protagonist’s poetry about famous martyrs, which is sprinkled throughout. While some names were familiar, I was largely unfamiliar with many of the martyrs mentioned, and I loved learning about them as I read. If this book has been on your to-read list for some time, let this article be your sign to finally pick it up. After all, it wasn’t named a must-read novel by TIME for nothing.
It can feel difficult to make time for reading with a busy school schedule. However, I am a firm believer that it is possible with the right books. These were books I simply could not put down once I started, and I cannot rave about them enough!