The Amazon Editors have revealed their Best Books of the Year So Far for 2026 with a Top 20 list that, though it features a wide variety of genres, is disappointingly low on diversity.
Tayari Jones’s Kin claims the #1 spot (#nailed it). The literary-commercial crossover hit of 2026 so far follows the diverging paths of two motherless girls coming of age in the Jim Crow south. Look for it among award nominees later in the year.
- 🔎 London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe—The GOAT of contemporary investigative journalism unmasks the oligarchs and criminals running London’s underworld.
- 💬 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke—A tradwife wakes up in 1855 (or does she?) in this book club favorite that launched a thousand thinkpieces.
- 💔 Strangers by Belle Burden—The year’s buzziest divorce memoir proves there’s not a tax bracket that can protect you from heartbreak.
- 🔪 Night Objects by Eli Raphael—Privilege, power, secrets, and grief collide following a murder at a swanky boarding school in the Pacific Northwest.
Other highlights include Land by Maggie O’Farrell, John of John by Douglas Stuart (my personal fave of the year to date), Crux by Gabriel Tallent, Famesick by Lena Dunham, and Transcription by Ben Lerner.
New this year are the Amazon Editors’ best book club reads, featuring many of the titles from the main list along with Ann Patchett’s Whistler and conversation-sparking nonfiction like Why We Click by Kate Murphy and The Other Side of Change by Maya Shankar.
See the whole top 20 along with genre-specific lists for romance, mystery/thriller/suspense, nonfiction, children’s, and more.
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