My May To Be Read Pile – 2026

In 2026, I had originally planned to read at least 52 books. In April I surpassed that goal, despite wrapping up my editing project and traveling across the country for a writing conference for two weeks. I still haven’t decided what my stretch goal will be, but maybe I should set it for 100 books this year.

I have fourteen books planned for May, which is overly ambitious, although I am not putting pressure on myself to finish them all. Once again, I am prioritizing.

So what’s on the Tier One priority list this time? This month I have five books I’d like to finish and one I’d like to at least start.

My fantasy book club is giving us a free pick this month as long as the book is a quest. The Odyssey may be a classic, I think it counts as fantasy, and it definitely meets the prompt. It’s probably one of the original quests, in fact. The new movie is coming out soon and I am also buddy reading the book with a friend in preparation for the movie’s release. This book is my top priority to finish in May in time for my book club meeting.

This fantasy is also a high priority because I have an advanced reader copy. The book releases on June 2 and I need to write a review on release day, so I’ll have to finish it in May. I plan to write a review here on the blog as well. It’s about the adventures of Rose Moriarty, the teen daughter of Sherlock Holmes’s enemy. I think this YA fantasy romp will be a lot of fun.

Fourth Wing is a roaring bestseller and I haven’t read it yet. Mostly because I don’t dip into Romantasy, especially the spicy stuff, that often. I did challenge myself to try to read some more in 2026. So why Fourth Wing? It’s my June fantasy book club pick. It’s a long book, and I may not get through it in time for the meeting if I don’t get started in May (I don’t expect to finish it in May, though). And it was recommended by a good friend of mine. Since spicy Romantasy is not really my genre, it may not be a favorite fantasy read of all time, but I can at least check out what all the fuss is about, and maybe it will surprise me. Plus, there’s dragons.

The Claiming is a YA fantasy that I picked up after meeting the author at the Chanticleer Authors Conference. I love grabbing books there because I enjoy supporting fellow authors whom I’ve met and because many of the books are award winners, including this one. The Claiming has won first place in both the Dante Rossetti YA fiction awards and the Ozma fantasy fiction awards. A friend has also highly recommended it. If I don’t start reading my Chanticleer book stack, I am going to fall way behind, so reading this one will help me tackle it. It’s about an apprentice mage (one of my favorite character types!) and a faerie princess. The two end up bonded due to a botched spell and only a quest will save them. (This is another one I could use for my free fantasy book club pick because it is a quest. I may bring it to the meeting if The Odyssey ends up taking me longer to read than expected.) I expect to write a review on this blog.

I have this thriller on pre-order and it releases on May 26. I try to read every DD Black thriller close to the release date. They come out fast and furious and I don’t want to get behind in these series. I think this is book 13. I think with four fantasies in my top tier, I will need the variety that this thriller is going to offer. It will give me my popcorn read when my brain gets tired. This series focuses on the cases of Thomas Austin, a detective based in Kitsap County in Washington. I love the local color these books include.

This is a nonfiction. According to the description, each moment in our life happens only once, and if we let it slip away, we lose it forever -the meaning of ichigo ichie. Self help is one of my favorite nonfiction genres and I haven’t read as many books in this category in 2026 as I’d typically like. It fits a couple of reading prompts in my challenges, and I am looking forward to some gentle mindfulness wisdom.

Here’s the graphic with the Tier One Covers.

If I get through all of these books, I move on to Tier Two. Tier Two includes four books:

This falls in the mystery/thriller genre and it will help offset all the fantasy in Tier One. The main character is a bit unique for what I typically read. She cleans up for her serial killer sisters, but now she’s expected to kill someone herself by making a man fall in love with her and then murdering him. When she falls for him, it complicates things. If she doesn’t follow through, will her sisters turn on her? This book fits a reading prompt for a serial killer POV for my thriller reading challenge. I may be stretching the prompt a bit, but a reluctant killer appeals to me more than a pro.

I picked this one up because it fits the small town prompt in my mystery thriller reading challenge and it also offers variety after a fantasy heavy Tier One. The premise of this one sounds so intriguing. The victim of the murder received a prediction years earlier that she’d be murdered. She tries everything to prevent it, but dies as foretold. Her niece steps in to solve the murder. I usually enjoy anything with the “fate foretold” trope. Those typically occur in fantasy or lit fic, but finding it in a mystery thriller could be really fun.

Given this is one of my all time favorite films (the Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant version), it’s ridiculous that I haven’t read it yet. My favorite romance is Regency Romance in the Jane Austen style, and this is original Austen. I am picking it up because it’s time to rectify my lapse, and also because I am trying to read good books and watch their film adaptations this year, and it gives me an excuse to rewatch the film.

As noted above, I love self help books. This kind of fits into that genre. I enjoyed reading and watching Marie Kondo in her heyday and I keep an eye out for anything new from her. She really inspired me to declutter my home, even if her method doesn’t entirely work for me. It’s a little too prescriptive. But I find her simplified lifestyle inspiring, and this book looks like I might find more to catch my imagination, and maybe even “spark joy.” In it, Marie looks at her Japanese customs in detail and why they spark joy for her. Things like tea ceremonies and gardening. I’ve been exploring more about Japanese culture and reading from Japanese authors recently (Forest Bathing and We’ll Prescribe You a Cat were recent reads, and Ichigo Ichie is a similar read this month), and this fits in too, so I am looking forward to it.

Here’s the graphic with the Tier Two covers.

Tier Three has four books. All four are books that I will try to start early and pick away at through the month. But they aren’t high priority for challenges, so I am putting them lower down. If they do end up trickling into June, it’s just fine.

As I get closer to launch time for The Appearance of Power, I am trying to fit in books that will give me the information to support a strong launch. This one has been on my shelf for a long time and I haven’t read much in it because I was so far out from launch. I hope to get some helpful tips.

I picked this book up in a sweet little gift shop in Poulsbo, Washington. My mother was a writer and a gardener, and it is exactly the sort of book I would have given to her as a gift. When we traveled, we explored a lot of gardens, and we even did some literary tourism, visiting the home of C.S. Lewis in Oxford. He had a lovely garden. My mother has passed away and I can’t give it to her, so I decided to enjoy this book for myself and savor my memories of her. Many writers were inspired by their gardens besides my mother. This book gives us the stories and the pictures of those spaces. Writers featured include Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Beatrix Potter, Thomas Hardy, Walter Scott, Robert Burns, William Wordsworth, Virginia Woolf, Rudyard Kipling, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Jack London, Edward James, Jean Cocteau, George Sand, and Goethe. I have been reading Jane and Agatha this year, so it’s even more special. I love a gorgeous coffee table book like this, and it will be a wonderful experience paging through it in the spring with a cup of tea.

In keeping with my goal to read more poetry this year to improve my prose, I am picking up this cute little poetry book. A lot of my short fiction writing leans into whimsy, and this one matches that tone. Plus, it has kittens. Cute poems with cute pictures will be a palate cleanser and a delight.

This is my cookbook pick for the month. In 2026 I am on the hunt for healthy recipes to make and to decide if the cookbooks I own are keepers and deserve their shelf space, or whether they are best moved on to someone who will find them more useful. I’ve had this cookbook for a long time because I did the low carb thing a number of years ago. I do tend to feel better with lower carb and/or higher protein recipe picks. This book is a monster, and I have found it intimidating to read and use, but I feel certain there are more gems in here that could become staples in my recipe rotation. It will take a while to read given how thick it is, so if it bleeds into June, so be it. I’ll just look for two recipes to make.

Here’s the graphic with the May Tier Three covers.

I will also mention that in May I will be still be reading on one book started in April, A Writer’s Guide to Active Setting. It has a lot of examples of good technique, and it’s taking a while to absorb the information. I’ll continue to pick away at this one for a while.

That’s all I have planned to read in May right now. We’ll see what gets added. There’s usually something! I am trying to complete the Goodreads Spring Challenge, and a couple more categories will open next month, so I may try to work on some of those books. I just don’t know what they are yet, so I can’t add them to my lists until I do. They could potentially push a couple of Tier Two or Tier Three picks a bit lower down in priority and possibly require rescheduling them, since the deadline for the challenge is June 30 and time will be running out.

If you have a favorite read to recommend for June, or a favorite book challenge for 2026, be sure to comment!

Thanks for reading!

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