January 2026 Monthly Wrap Up -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

January 2026 Monthly Wrap Up

Now that I'm "all-but" retired, I've been reading more. I've also been clearing out and reorganizing all my cupboards and closets. I hope the reading continues and the compulsion to clean up fades. 

Here’s my January wrap-up list. Have you read any of these? 

• A Weed Among the Flowers by Graham Greene, in a miniature special edition. I wrote about it here. 

• Hiroshima by John Hersey, a must read but horrifying. My first TBR 26 in '26 book.

• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, a funny, interesting memoir about the Appalachian Trail.

• The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster includes three novels: City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room. Well done but not my cup of tea.

• Put on by Cunning by Ruth Rendell is book 11 of her Inspector Wexford series, confusingly included in an omnibus with books 2, 3, and 4.

• An Unkindness of Ravens by Ruth Rendell, book 13.

• A Severed Wasp by Madeleine L’Engle is a hidden backlist gem from the author of A Wrinkle in Time. I wrote about it here. 

• Afterward by Bristol Vaudrin. This debut novel offered a wry take on the aftermath of personal trauma. Here's my review.

• The Mysterious Disappearance of Marsha Boden by Rosy Gee is a clever new cozy mystery set in Shropshire. My review is in the works. 

• Message from Málaga by Helen MacInnes. I’ll count this Cold War thriller about chasing Cuban spies through Spain as my Spain book for the 2026 European Reading Challenge. It's not too late to join!

• The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene, the first readalong with a "Going Greene" group on Instagram.

NOT PICTURED: Books I read with my ears, as an ebook, borrowed, or mislaid.

• Clown Town by Mick Herron, the latest in his Slow Horses series.

• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans is as good as the buzz says. I loved it, especially back to back with A Severed Wasp! I wrote about it here. 

• The Speaker of Mandarin by Ruth Rendell, Wexford book 12. An interesting mystery that begins with Wexford's trip to Communist China. Parts haven’t aged well!

• The Eleventh Hour by Salman Rushdie was an excellent collection of five stories and a perfect book club pick.

• The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarty. Pure fun.

• My Friends by Frederik Backman is enormously popular but not for me. The whole theme of "we're the cool ones who really understand art and everyone else is stuffy, pretentious, or fake" put me off with it's reverse-elitism. Surprisingly, my book club ladies disliked it even more than I did.

• Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane was a delight. I'm so glad I finally read it. 

What were your January standouts?