2026 Lariat Reading List Announced

The goal of the Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List is to highlight outstanding fiction that is “simply a pleasure to read.” To that end, a committee of librarians from the Texas Library Association annually selects 25-30 outstanding fiction titles.

2026 Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List 

• Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballantine Books / Penguin Random House) *
• Back After This: A Novel by Linda Holmes (Ballantine Books / Penguin Random House) *
• The Blackbirds of St. Giles by Lila Cain (Dafina/ Kensington Publishing)
• The Book of Lost Hours: A Novel by Hayley Gelfuso (Atria Books / Simon & Schuster)
• Broken Country by Claire Leslie Hall (Simon & Schuster) *
• Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab (Tor Books / Macmillan)
• The Correspondent: A Novel by Virginia Evans (Crown / Penguin Random House) *
• Culpability by Bruce Holsinger (Spiegel & Grau) *
• The Dream Hotel: A Novel by Laila Lalami (Pantheon/ Penguin Random House)
• The Favorites: A Novel by Layne Fargo (Random House / Penguin Random House)
• Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray (Berkley / Penguin Random House)
• Hollow Out the Dark by James Wade (Blackstone Publishing)
• The Human Scale: A Novel by Lawrence Wright (Knopf / Penguin Random House) *
• I See You’ve Called In Dead by John Kenney (Zibby Media) *
• Julie Chan Is Dead: A Novel by Liann Zhang (Atria / Simon & Schuster)
• Make Your Way Home: Stories by Carrie R. Moore (Tin House / Zando Publishing)
• The Names: A Novel by Florence Knapp (Pamela Dorman Books/ Simon & Schuster)
• Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis (Hillman Grad / Zando Publishing)
• The Once and Future Me: A Novel by Melissa Pace (Henry Holt & Co/ Macmillan)
• Promise Me Sunshine: A Novel by Cara Bastone (Dial Press / Random House) *
• The Road to Tender Hearts: A Novel by Annie Hartnett (Atria Brooks / Penguin Random House)
• Salt Bones: A Novel by Jennifer Givhan (Mulholland Books / Hachette)
• The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau: A Novel by Kristin Harmel (Gallery Books / Simon & Schuster)
• This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead (Sourcebooks Landmark / Sourcebooks)
• What Kind of Paradise: A Novel by Janelle Brown (Random House / Penguin Random House)
• When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi (Tor Books / Macmillan)
• The Whyte Python World Tour: A Novel by Travis Kennedy (Doubleday / Penguin Random House)*
• Wild Dark Shore: A Novel by Charlotte McConaghy (Flatiron Books / Macmillan) *
• Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix (Berkley / Penguin Random House) *
• You Deserve to Know by Aggie Blum Thompson (Forge Books / Macmillan)