Melanie

📚 26 for 2026 & 2026 reading goals 📚 The 26 books I want to read in 2026. Hopefully I will stick to the list this year. I am really going to try this time and I tried to make a list that has a bit of everything. Fiction and nonfiction, a book from every continent, romance, lit fic, translated fiction, historical fiction, horror, thriller, fantasy, books by bipoc authors, classics, books that I am planning to buddy read with people, books from authors I've read before and books from new-to-me authors. Please let me know if you've read any of these books and which ones I should prioritize. My 2026 reading goals: - read 125 books - complete my 26 for 2026 - keep on diversifying my reading. I will try to read from at least 9 countries that I haven't read from before (will post these later this month) - be more intentional with the books that I buy. I really want to shrink my physical TBR - write more reviews I set some goals every year, because i just like to make goals, make list and plan stuff for the new year. It makes me excited. But, if I end up not achieving a goal that doesn't matter to me. After all, we are just here to have fun and read books QOTD: Which books from this list should I put on my January TBR? Do you have any reading goals?

🌎 Reading around the world: 2026 🌍 In November I used a random country generator to pick out 6 countries that I am going to read from in 2026. If the generator landed on a country I've already read from I spun the wheel again. The 6 countries are: The democratic republic of the Congo, Iraq, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Bolivia and Lesotho. Later, I asked on my story which countries you wanted me to read from, and Indonesia and Nicaragua got the most votes, so I added those to the list. Last but not least, I had a Rwandan book on my shelves that I really want to read, so that is the 9th country on my list. Here are all of the books that I picked out for my Reading around the world challenge for 2026: 🇨🇩 - The democratic republic of the Congo: How dare the sun rise 🇸🇦 - Saudi Arabia: Girls of Riyadh 🇲🇦 - Morocco: Living in your light (recommended by @oliveandowlbooks ) 🇷🇼 - Rwanda: All your children, scattered 🇮🇩 - Indonesia: Apple & Knife (recommended by @rosaareads ) 🇱🇸 - Lesotho: Chaka 🇳🇮 - Nicaragua: Selected writings by Ruben Dario 🇧🇴 - Bolivia: Fresh dirt from the grave 🇮🇶 - Iraq: Frankenstein in Baghdad I am so excited to read these. And I'm not gonna lie, I don't know if I can finish The selected writings by Ruben Dario in a year, because it is one of the biggest books I've ever seen in my life, but I want to read multiple stories from the book in 2026 QOTD: Have you read from any of these countries before?

🇵🇸🤍 Palestinian literature 🤍🇵🇸 @thegreenlibrary_oslo is donating money for every post containing a Palestinian book with the hashtag #supportpalestinianliterature to doctors without borders. Please check out her post for more details. My post contains Palestinian books that I read and loved (slide 1) and Palestinian books that are still on my tbr (slide 2) Read and loved: 🇵🇸 Evil Eye - literary 🇵🇸 Enter ghost - literary 🇵🇸 Forest of noise - poetry 🇵🇸 Letters from Gaza - nonfiction/poetry/stories 🇵🇸 Rifqa - Poetry 🇵🇸 The moon that turns you back - poetry 🇵🇸 Squire - graphic novel 🇵🇸 The eyes of Gaza - memoir 🇵🇸 A river dies of thirst - poetry 🇵🇸 The arsonists' city - literary/historical (not set in Palestine) 🇵🇸 The Palestine laboratory - nonfiction 🇵🇸 Against the loveless world - historical 🇵🇸 Perfect victims - nonfiction 🇵🇸 Salt houses - historical 🇵🇸 Mornings in Jenin - historical 🇵🇸 The coin - literary 🇵🇸 The sea cloak - short stories 🇵🇸 Minor detail - literary 🇵🇸 A woman is no man - literary 🇵🇸 Palestinian walks - nonfiction 🇵🇸 They fell like stars from the sky - short stories 🇵🇸 The blue between sky and water - historical 🇵🇸 The beauty of your face - historical/literary 🇵🇸 Things you may find hidden in my ear - poetry 🇵🇸 Recognizing the stranger - nonfiction/essay (I know Elias Khoury isn't Palestinian, but the book is set in Palestine and many Palestinians view him as an honorary Palestinian) QOTD: What is your favorite book by a Palestinian author? Please let me know in the comments

📚 2026 so far 📚 Here are all the books I've read so far this year. There are 2 books not pictured, because I don't have physical copies. Those are Antarctica and Cockroaches. The last slide are my favorites of the year so far. I have read 59 books this year and 7 of them were 5⭐️ reads. 2 books were re-reads: Perfect victims and Anne of Green Gables. I'd say it's been a pretty successful reading year so far! With lots of buddy reads and lots of new favorites QOTD: How is your reading year going so far?

🤍 Hope is a verb 🤍 The amazing @dan.devours.words and @kieranjanebooks have come up with a new campaign called #hopeisaverb . It is a fundraiser for some great causes & they also have reached out to some creative creators and together they give away some great prizes to people who donate and/or make a post They asked us to put some hopeful books together in a post and use the hashtag #hopeisaverb to spread awareness. And if you can, also to donate to one of the causes they picked for this campaign. They will match all donations!! (Up to $1500,-!) Please check out their post(s) for more information. Here is my stack of books that gave me hope, but there is also another book that I immediately thought of when I saw this and that is "This is also a love story" by Sally Hayden. I pre-ordered it, haven't read it yet, but it sounds like THE book we all need in times like these. So please go check that out too. Dan and Kieran, thank you so much for being the hope we all need. You guys always have the best fundraisers and truly make bookstagram a better place 🤍🫶🏼 QOTD: Who is joining? I would love to see all of your hopeful books!

❤️ Yearning Book Recommendations ❤️ One of my absolute favorite things in a book is yearning. I just can't get enough of it. These books all contained yearning and I loved all of them Please fill the comments with more recommendations, because I am always looking for more QOTD: Have you read any of these?

📚 New books 📚 I found all of these at the second hand section of my local bookstore. Let me know which ones I should prioritize. I do need to put myself on a book buying ban now, because I just have too many books on my tbr 😅 QOTD: What is the last book you bought?

☀️ Summer hopefuls ☀️ I know it's early, but I just got so excited going through my tbr and looking for books that I am excited to read in June, July and August. This is a mix of new releases, books that look perfect to read in summer and books that I am just really excited to finally read. How many of these have you read? Are some of these also on your summer tbr? QOTD: What are you looking forward to reading this summer?

Almost life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave 5⭐️ I love a sapphic love story and this one was perfect. Set mostly in Paris, starting in the 1970s, we follow two students: one from France, one from England, who meet on the stairs of the Sacre Coeur. And from there on we follow them for the rest of their lives. This book is for all the yearners. It was achingly beautiful and really immersive. I haven't cried like this over a book in a while. It was messy (in a good Sally Rooney kind of way), passionate, full of yearning, and it constantly asked the question "what if..?" The setting is perfect. Both girls love reading, Erica wants to be a writer and Laure is an art student. Paris is THE perfect backdrop for this story. The city feels like a main character. It is alive, full of art, people smoking and drinking. There were some great conversations about being gay in the 70s and 80s. There is an amazing friend group. There are conversations about art and literature, about the meaning of friendship, about gay rights. I've seen lots of reviews say that if you loved Sunburn, you might love this one too, and i completely agree. This was a perfect book for and I have been craving something similar ever since I finished it. QOTD: Have you read this? Or is it on your tbr? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments

📚 Book recommendations: if you liked this, try this 📚 A few days ago I asked on my story what kind of posts you wanted to see and lots of people requested this one. I am always a little nervous (because what if people don't agree with me?), but here we are. I really liked all of these books Have you read any of these? Do you agree? Or are you picking up any of these after seeing these recommendations? Please let me know 🤍🫶🏼

☀️🌷 April wrap up 🌷☀️ April was finally being able to read outside again, enjoying the sun and going for walks. It was spending time with friends and family, going to a restaurant and visiting a castle. It was celebrating my niece's third birthday. It was eating strawberries and gelato, going for walks on the beach and feeling healthier than I've been in months. It was being disappointed in our fertility journey again and it was visiting the beautiful tulip fields. It was working in our garden and cuddling with Ginger. Reading wise it was an interesting month. I read the worst book I've ever read, DNFed 2 books and reread a favorite. I found a new favorite book and had some amazing buddy reads! And somehow 50% of my reads were non fiction this month. The books I read: ♡ Almost life - 5⭐️ (new favorite!) ♡ Perfect victims - 5⭐️ (reread) ♡ The serviceberry - 4.5⭐️ ♡ Cockroaches - not rated ♡ Notes of a native son - 4⭐️ ♡ My friends - 4⭐️ ♡ A thousand mornings - 4⭐️ ♡ The secret garden - 4⭐️ ♡ Beautiful world where are you - 3.75⭐️ ♡ The god of the woods - 3.5⭐️ ♡ The only one left - 3⭐️ ♡ I want to die but I want to eat tteokbokki - 3⭐️ ♡ Getting lost - 2⭐️ ♡ This book will bury me - 1⭐️ DNF: Reading Lolita in Tehran (107 pages read) DNF: Girl dinner (26 pages read) Stats: Books read: 14 Pages read: 3,866 DNF: 2 Rereads: 1 Buddy reads: 7 books Most read genres: literary, memoir, historical Countries read from: 8 (France, Ireland, Libya, Palestine, Rwanda, South Korea, UK, US) Fiction: 50% - 7 books Nonfiction: 50% - 7 books Average rating: 3.6⭐️ Favorite book: Almost life Favorite character: Laure from Almost life QOTD: What was your favorite book of April?

📚☀️ May Hopefuls ☀️📚 May has been my best reading month for 3 years in a row now, so how fun would it be if that happens again this year? These are the books that I will be choosing from in May. Can I read all of them? Probably not. But hopefully we'll find a lot of gems. May is #readafricamonth so I have put 6 African books on this list. I also have a lot of buddy reads planned in May that I am very excited for! If you want to join #readafricamonth please check out @readsandart post(s) about it, because she is organizing it 💕 QOTD: What book are you most excited for to read in May?