Unabridged: Most Anticipated Books of 2026 with Sara Hildreth and Cree Myles
It's time for a Stacks Unabridged favorite: Our Most Anticipated Books of 2026...at least the first half anyway. I'm once again joined by two of my favorite book people, Cree Myles (All Ways Black) and Sara Hildreth (Fiction Matters), to gush about the books we can't wait to dive into in the first half of the year, sharing our top picks month by month. Plus, we do a little post-mortem on 2025 and set some semi-realistic reading goals for 2026. Get your TBR lists ready—you’ll have a lot of new additions.
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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find what we talked about on Bookshop.org and Amazon.
Cree Myles (Instagram)
Books That Matter (Fiction Matters)
“Ep. 404 The Best Books of 2025 with MJ Franklin and Greta Johnsen” (The Stacks)
James by Percival Everett
Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin
Minor Figures by Brandon Taylor
Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor
“Unabridged: Our Most Anticipated Books of 2025 with Sara Hildreth and Cree Myles” (The Stacks)
Sinners (Ryan Coogler, 2025)
One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025)
“Reading in Public No. 29: The TBR management system that saved my January reading” (Fiction Matters)
“This American Lit Unit 1: Foundations, First Contacts, and A City Upon a Hill” (Fiction Matters)
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
America, América by Greg Grandin
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
Flashlight by Susan Choi
Nonfiction Reading Guide (Unstacked)
Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy
Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy (audiobook)
The Old Fire by Elisa Shua Dusapin translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash
Medium Rare by A. Natasha Joukovsky
Strangers by Belle Burden
“Was I Married to a Stranger?” (Belle Burden, New York Times Modern Love)
Fear and Fury by Heather Ann Thompson
Five Bullets by Elliot Williams
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
Until the Last Gun Is Silent by Matthew F. Delmont
Half American by Matthew F. Delmont
Freedom Lost, Freedom Won by Eugene Robinson
Tom Paine’s War by Jack Kelly
Poor by Caleb Femi
The Wickedest by Caleb Femi
P FKN R by Vanessa Díaz and Petra R Rivera-Rideau
Injustice Town by Rick Tulsky
Friday Night Lights by H. G. Bissinger
Bonfire of the Murdochs by Gabriel Sherman
Succession (HBO)
The End of Days by Chris Jennings
The Mixed Marriage Project by Dorothy Roberts
On Morrison by Namwali Serpell
Kin by Tayari Jones
The Renovation by Kenan Orhan
Brawler by Lauren Groff
Florida by Lauren Groff
Nonviolent by Reverend James Lawson Jr.
The Real Ones by Maya Rupert
Let the Poets Govern by Camonghe Felix
Strange Girls by Sarvat Hasin
Now I Surrender by Alvaró Enrigue
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luselli
Underwater by Tara Menon
El Paso by Jasmine Ulloa
Days of Love and Rage by Anand Gopal
“Syria’s Last Bastion of Freedom” (Anand Gopal, The New Yorker)
Metropolitans by A. M. Gillitz
The Gods of New York by Jonathan Mahler
Dream Facades by Jack Balderrama Morley
The Bachelor (ABC)
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Edge of Space-Time by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Caro Claire Burke (Substack)
Diabolical Lies (Katie Gatti Tassin and Caro Claire Burke)
Honey by Imani Thompson
If This Be Magic by Daniel Hahn
Rasputin by Antony Beevor
Monsters in the Archives by Caroline Bicks
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn
Leave Your Mess at Home by Tolani Akinola
Questions 27 & 28 by Karen Tei Yamashita
Love and Death in the American Novel by Leslie A. Fiedler
The Witch by Marie NDiaye, Translated by Jordan Stump
Vengeance Is Mine by Marie NDiaye, Translated by Jordan Stump
One Leg on Earth by 'Pemi Aguda
Canon by Paige Lewis
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Ghalen by Walter Mosley
A Harlem Wedding by Tiffany L. Warren
As Herself by Frieda Slattery
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Nerve Damage by Annakeara Stinson
Dekonstructing the Kardashians by MJ Corey
The Missed Connection by Tia Williams
On Witness and Respair by Jesmyn Ward
Hunger and Thirst by Clare Fuller
The Typing Lady by Ruth Ozeki
Land by Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Earth 7 by Deb Olin Unferth
Barn 8 by Deb Olin Unferth
Crossroads by Dusty Baker
Pool House by Mary H. K. Choi
The Yahoo Boys by Carlos Barragán
Trash! by Simon Pare-Poupart translated by Pablo Strauss
Checkmate by Ben Mezrich
The Asset Class by Hettie O’Brien
Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead
American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
Monster (Netflix)
Audition by Katie Kitamura
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Cabaret (musical)
“Tomorrow Belongs to Me” by the cast of Cabaret
Connect with Cree: Instagram | Twitter | All Ways Black | Patreon
Connect with Sara: Instagram | Fiction Matters | Novel Pairings | Substack
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