New year, new TBR: What to read in 2026!!!
Happy To Be Here
Greta Johnsen
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 2 January 2026
⏱️ 25 minutes
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Summary
Book Riot’s Liberty Hardy and NPR’s Andrew Limbong share some of the books they’re most excited to read this year. (Here's the full list of books, along with about 20 others!)
SHOW CREDITS
Creator and host: Greta Johnsen
Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg
Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal
Show art: Mac Maclean
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Happy to Be Here, the show for recovering perfectionists and the |
| 0:09.3 | perpetually curious about what to read, eat, watch, think about, and delight in wherever |
| 0:13.5 | you might happen to be. |
| 0:15.7 | I am your host, Greta Johnson, and I am so excited that you are here. |
| 0:20.5 | We are now officially in 2026. It is a whole new |
| 0:24.1 | year. I have a feeling it's going to be a dumpster fire, at least based on 2025. I feel like |
| 0:31.4 | the optimistic way of saying this is that we're going to be in for a wild ride either way. |
| 0:36.8 | But I am excited to report that it does look like it will be a great year for books. |
| 0:42.6 | And in today's episode, I am talking to two of my favorite readers about the books we are |
| 0:46.4 | most excited to read this year. |
| 0:48.1 | And before we get started, just a quick note, I have written down the full list of these |
| 0:52.7 | titles we're going to discuss, along with at least a dozen others because I couldn't help myself. |
| 0:58.5 | They're in today's newsletter. |
| 1:00.2 | So you can find that if you just like Google Gretagram or you can go to Greta M. Johnson at substack.com. |
| 1:07.6 | Okay, so here with me today is the wonderful and voracious Liberty Hardy who hosts book riots, |
| 1:13.6 | All the Books Podcast and reads many, many books every year. Liberty, hello. |
| 1:18.0 | Hello. Thank you for having me back or a new back. I don't know, what should I say. |
| 1:23.6 | Yeah, new back. New back. New back totally works. Also here is the host of NPR's Book of the Day podcast, Andrew Limbong. Andrew, hello. Yo, what's up? What's up? Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on. Liberty, how many books did you read in 2025? A little over 600. Good. God, damn. Sorry, am I allowed to curse? Golly. Sorry. Yes, you are allowed to curse, Andrew. |
| 1:45.5 | We're doing whatever we want. Yeah, that's fucking nuts. Um, Andrew, do you know what your count is at |
| 1:52.0 | these days? Uh, I, not that. I know, right? 60. That's many books in a month, you know? |
| 2:00.8 | I thought I was doing good, too. Now I'm feeling. You are doing good. I really, I don't's 60. That's many books in a month, you know? I thought I was doing good too. Now I'm feeling. You are doing good. Really, I don't do anything else. Yeah. Well, yeah. So I'm very excited to talk to you about 2026 books, partly because, I mean, like, I feel like we shouldn't lean too far into the farce of like a new year. Everything will be new and different and better than |
| 2:18.2 | last year because it has to be right. But I do kind of feel that way with the books. Like I don't, |
... |
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