January Reading 2026

My January 2026 reading is courtesy of a sickness and a winter storm.

January turned out to be a great reading month for me, but not for a good reason. I got sick the first week of January. It hit my respiratory system hard and flared my asthma and other health issues.

Just as I was starting to feel better, the winter storm hit. We got snow and sleet, and I did not leave the house for several days.

The good thing about being sick and snowed in, though, is that I read seventeen books in January. I think that might be a record reading month for me. Or at least a record since I have been an adult.

My goal for the year was to read 150 books, so January got me off to a great start.

I also have a goal for 2026 to read one YA book a month and to listen to one audiobook each month. In January, I read two YA books and listened to one audiobook, so I accomplished that goal as well.

Two of the books I read were five-star reads, which made me so happy after a not so great reading year in 2025.

I do feel like my January reading really shows the wide range of books that I read.

Of the seventeen books that I read, six were nonfiction, and eleven were fiction.

My fiction reading included mystery, historical fiction, romance, literary fiction, and YA.

For nonfiction, I read history, true crime, a book about food, and several Christian books.

I really do read a wide range of topics and genres.

Now for what I read!

I am sharing a few thoughts on each book; you can click the book title for a full review.

Fiction

How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny. Book nine in the Inspector Gamache series was a five star read for me. I loved this one. I think it might be my favorite so far in the series.

The Off-Limit Rules by Sarah Adams. This rom-com was not for me. You can read my full review of The Off-Limit Rules here to see why.

Winterset by Tiffany Odekirk. This is a clean romance book that I enjoyed.

Summerhaven by Tiffany Odekirk book review

Summerhaven by Tiffany Odekirk. This is another clean romance book by Tiffany Odekirk that I enjoyed.

Theo of Golden book by Allen Levi review

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. This was a five-star read for me. I can see why this was on so many best books of 2025 lists.

The Bookshop On the Shore by Jenny Colgan

Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny. This rom-com set in Scotland was a fun read. It is also a book about books, but it is also about so much more than books.

To Love A Lady by Gabrielle Meyer book review

To Love a Lady by Gabrielle Meyer. This Gilded Age romance is another clean romance I enjoyed.

A Most English Princess by Clare McHugh. I enjoyed this historical fiction about Queen Victoria’s daughter, though there were a few things I didn’t love.

Nonfiction

The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson book review

Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson. This book about the Civil War was a slow read for me, but I am so glad I read it. Erik Larson does such a great job of bringing history to life.

Home Cooking by Laure Colwin book review

Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin. I loved this book of essays about food, published in 1988.

The Spinach King by John Seabrook. This book is part history, part true crime, and part family drama. I had no idea that a book about vegetables and how they are grown and processed would be so interesting.

YA

Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell. This is actually a middle-grade historical fiction book, but I think it reads more like YA, so I am putting it on my list of YA for the year. It was on my list of YA books to read this year.

The Inheritance Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. This is book one in The Inheritance Games series. My daughter Grace, who is a teacher, recommended this series to me, so I decided to give it a try. I loved it. I can see why so many adults enjoy this series. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

Audiobooks

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I haven’t read this book in years, so the audio was a fun way to reread it. I think I enjoyed it even more this time.