Becky's Bookish 2026

Hello, everyone. My name is Becky and this is my third year as a member of this group. I'm attempting the same goals I've had previous years and added a new one (Agatha Christie challenge). My main reading goals this year are to spend more time reading (I currently do the majority of it right before bed) and exploring genres that I don't naturally gravitate towards.

I aim to be more social in this group in 2026, so I look forward to chatting with you all. Happy reading!

Goodreads TBR: 719
Physical TBR: 76

The 52 Book Club

6/52

✔ 1. Set In An Ancient Civilization - The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper
2. Kangaroo Word On The Cover
3. Written Without Quotation Marks
✔ 4. Has A Dust Jacket - The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon
5. Featuring A Conspiracy
✔ 6. Title Starts With The Letter "O" - Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
7. Title Starts With The Letter "P"
✔ 8. A Three-Syllable Word In The Title - Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie
9. Featuring A Natural Disaster
✔ 10. Spans A Decade Or More - The Lost Village by Camilla Sten
11. Requires Suspension Of Disbelief
12. A Genre-Defining Read
13. Bookface
14. Includes A Character List
15. Subtitle With A Comma
16. Deus Ex Machina - The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow (Kindle Unlimited)
17. Author's Bio Mentions Their Dog
18. Provokes Strong Emotions
19. A Nosy Neighbour Character
20. Day Of The Week In The Title
21. Written In The 1800's
22. Spotted In A TV Series Or Movie
23. Grumpy Sunshine Trope
24. Uneven Number Of Chapters
25. Includes A Red Herring
26. Title In A Serif Font
27. Two Or More Authors, One Pseudonym
28. From A Series At Least Eight Books Long
29. Set In The Arctic Or Antarctic
30. Author Related To Another Author
31. Author Related To Author In Prompt #30
32. Publisher Starting With The Letter "B"
33. A Standalone Fantasy Novel
34. Inspired By The Top-Grossing Movie The Year You Were Born
There is no Goodreads list for this prompt
35. Character With A Secret Identity
36. Award-Winning Book From Last Year
37. Started On The 26th Of The Month
There is no Goodreads list for this prompt
38. Domestic Fiction
✔ 39. A Book That Cost You Nothing Widow's Point: The Complete Haunting by Richard and W.H. Chizmar
There is no Goodreads list for this prompt
40. Authors First And Last Name Start With The Same Letter
41. A Guide To...
42. Includes A Handwritten Interior Font
43. A Goodreads Recommendation For You
There is no Goodreads list for this prompt
44. Literary Device: Personification
45. Biographical Fiction
46. Non-Fiction About Character In Prompt #45
47. A Diacritical Mark On The Cover
48. Related To The Word "Nemesis"
49. In The 800's Of The Dewey Decimal System
50. Set In A Castle
51. Includes A Map
52. Published in 2026

The Agatha Christie Mystery Challenge

1/70

The Mysterious Affair at Styles 1920
The Secret Adversary 1922
The Murder on the Links 1923
The Man in the Brown Suit 1924
Poirot Investigates 1924
The Secret of Chimneys 1925
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd 1926
The Big Four 1927
The Mystery of the Blue Train 1928
The Seven Dials Mystery 1929
Partners in Crime – Short Stories 1929
The Mysterious Mr Quin – Short Stories 1930
The Murder at the Vicarage 1930
The Sittaford Mystery 1931
Peril at End House 1932
The Thirteen Problems – Short Stories 1932
Lord Edgware Dies 1933
The Hound of Death – Short Stories 1933
Murder on the Orient Express 1934
The Listerdale Mystery – Short Stories 1934
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? 1934
Parker Pyne Investigates – Short Stories 1934
Three Act Tragedy 1934
Death in the Clouds 1935
The A.B.C Murders 1936
Murder in Mesopotamia 1936
Cards on the Table 1936
Dumb Witness 1937
Death on the Nile 1937
Murder in the Mews – Short Stories 1937
Appointment with Death 1938
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas 1938
Murder is Easy 1939
And Then There Were None 1939
Sad Cypress 1940
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe 1940
Evil Under the Sun 1941
N or M? 1941
The Body in the Library 1942
Five Little Pigs 1942
The Moving Finger 1942
Towards Zero 1944
Death Comes as the End 1944
Sparkling Cyanide 1945
The Hollow 1946
The Labours of Hecules – Short Stories 1947
Taken at the Flood 1948
Crooked House 1949
A Murder is Announced 1950
They Came to Baghdad 1951
Mrs. McGinty’s Dead 1952
They Do It with Mirrors 1952
After the Funeral 1953
A Pocket Full of Rye 1953
Destination Unknown 1954
Hickory Dickory Dock 1955
Dead Man’s Folly 1956
4.50 from Paddington 1957
✔ Ordeal by Innocence 1958
Cat Among the Pigeons 1959
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding – Short Stories 1960
The Pale Horse 1961
The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side 1962
The Clocks 1963
A Caribbean Mystery 1964
At Bertram’s Hotel 1965
Third Girl 1966
Endless Night 1967
By the Pricking of My Thumbs 1968
Hallowe’en Party 1969
Passenger to Frankfurt 1970
Nemesis 1971
Elephants Can Remember 1972
Postern of Fate 1973
Poirot’s Early Cases – Short Stories 1974
Curtain 1975
Sleeping Murder 1976
Miss Marple’s Final Cases – Short Stories 1979
Problem at Pollensa Bay – Short Stories 1991
While the Light Lasts – Short Stories 1997

CATS and Kits

January:
ScaredyKIT - Isolated Location - The Lost Village by Camilla Sten
HomeCAT - bathroom - The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

March:
ScaredyKit- Haunted Houses
Colored Cover KIT - Green and/or Greenery

Physical TBR Challenge

1.

Series Challenge

1.
2.
3.
4.

Monthly Read Alouds

January/February - Mystery in Rocky Mountain National Park by Aaron Johnson (3 stars)

Open space

Open space

Enjoy the challenge and your 2026 reading!

Great blessings to you and your reading in the new year.

It’s quite something to see all those Agatha Christies in a list like that! I hope you enjoy them, and all your other 2026 reading!

Good luck with your 2026 reading!

Good luck with your challenges! My goal is to read all the Agatha Christies, too, although I am taking many years to do it.

Good luck with your challenges! I'm a big Agatha Christie fan too!

Good luck with your reading and challenges in 2026! I've been an Agatha Christie fan for decades and still love rereading her books.

>10 DeltaQueen50: Thank you!

>11 lowelibrary: Great blessings to you as well.

>12 Charon07: I didn't realize she had written so many until recently. I really enjoy what I've read of hers, so I thought it would be a fun long-term challenge to read them all.

>13 Tess_W: Thank you! You as well.

>14 MissBrangwen: I'm taking many years, as well. I just recently found out she had written so many, so I thought it'd be a nice long-term challenge.

>15 Cecilturtle: Thank you! I've really enjoyed the few books I've read of hers so far.

>16 VivienneR: Thank you! Good luck to you as well. I'm looking forward to reading lots of Agatha Christie in the future!

I hope you enjoy the Agatha Christie challenge. I had read them all as a young mom and am rereading them as I find them.

>18 lowelibrary: Thank you! Happy New Year to you as well.

Happy reading!

>20 MissWatson: Thank you! Happy reading to you as well.

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten
4 stars

Takes place in a mysteriously abandoned village hours from civilization. A group attempts to make a documentary about the village and its missing inhabitants. Great setting, proper chill factor, and great characters. Had me in anticipation right up to the end. Definitely recommend.

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper
4 stars

"Sold by her mother. Enslaved in Pompeii's brothel. Determined to survive. Her name is Amara. Welcome to the Wolf Den...

Amara was once a beloved daughter, until her father's death plunged her family into penury. Now she is a slave in Pompeii's infamous brothel, owned by a man she despises. Sharp, clever and resourceful, Amara is forced to hide her talents. For as a she-wolf, her only value lies in the desire she can stir in others.

But Amara's spirit is far from broken.

By day, she walks the streets with her fellow she-wolves, finding comfort in the laughter and dreams they share. For the streets of Pompeii are alive with opportunity. Out here, even the lowest slave can secure a reversal in fortune. Amara has learned that everything in this city has its price. But how much is her freedom going to cost her?

Set in Pompeii's lupanar, The Wolf Den reimagines the lives of women who have long been overlooked."

This book is the reason I do reading challenges. I would not normally have picked this book from fear of it being too dark/depressing. Instead, I found themes of resilience and friendship and truly enjoyed the complexity of the characters. (Don't get me wrong, it was still sad.) I won't be continuing the series, but I'm glad I picked this one up.

The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon
4 stars

"When social worker Jax receives nine missed calls from her older sister, Lexie, she assumes that it’s just another one of her sister’s episodes. Manic and increasingly out of touch with reality, Lexie has pushed Jax away for over a year. But the next day, Lexie is dead: drowned in the pool at their grandmother’s estate. When Jax arrives at the house to go through her sister’s things, she learns that Lexie was researching the history of their family and the property. And as she dives deeper into the research herself, she discovers that the land holds a far darker past than she could have ever imagined.

In 1929, thirty-seven-year-old newlywed Ethel Monroe hopes desperately for a baby. In an effort to distract her, her husband whisks her away on a trip to Vermont, where a natural spring is showcased by the newest and most modern hotel in the Northeast. Once there, Ethel learns that the water is rumored to grant wishes, never suspecting that the spring takes in equal measure to what it gives."

This is the second McMahon book I've read recently, and I've gotta say she writes some spooky stuff. Another book recommendation from my favorite librarians at my local library. I'm so lucky to have them; they make me feel less weird for enjoying horror reads so much.

Sidenote: Starting the year off strong with multiple 4-star reads. Either I'm being too generous, or I've gotten lucky so far. I may need to revisit my rating system soon.

Very fortunate to have 4 books in a row that you enjoyed so much. I should be so lucky!

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
3 stars

"Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing fourteen gray wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but Aggie, too, unmade by the terrible secrets that drove the sisters out of Alaska.

Inti is not the woman she once was, either, changed by the harm she’s witnessed—inflicted by humans on both the wild and each other. Yet as the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love. But when a farmer is found dead, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn’t make the kill, then who did? And what will Inti do when the man she is falling for seems to be the prime suspect?

Propulsive and spell-binding, Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves is the unforgettable story of a woman desperate to save the creatures she loves—if she isn’t consumed by a wild that was once her refuge."

I enjoyed the wolf aspect of the story and the close relationship of the sisters, but that was about it. Could have done without the romance (and I usually love romance) and the murder mystery. I think if the author had chosen one of the two to flesh out more I would have enjoyed it better.

Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie
4 stars

"Considered by critics one of the best of Agatha Christie’s later novels, and a personal favorite for Christie herself, Ordeal by Innocence is a psychological thriller involving crimes from both past and present.

According to the courts, Jacko Argyle bludgeoned his mother to death with a poker. The sentence was life imprisonment. But when Dr. Arthur Calgary arrives with the proof that confirms Jacko’s innocence, it is too late—Jacko died behind bars following a bout of pneumonia. Worse still, the doctor’s revelations reopen old wounds in the family, increasing the likelihood that the real murderer will strike again."

I really enjoyed this one. Kept me guessing throughout and was surprised at the end.

Widow's Point: The Complete Haunting by Richard and W.H. Chizmar
4 stars

"Longtime residents of Harper's Cove believe that something is wrong with the Widow's Point Lighthouse. Some say it's cursed. Others claim it's haunted.

Originally built in 1838, three workers were killed during the lighthouse's construction, including one who mysteriously plunged to his death from the catwalk. That tragic accident was never explained, and it was just the beginning of the terror. In the decades that followed, nearly two dozen additional deaths occurred in or around the lighthouse including cold-blooded murder, suicide, unexplained accidents and disappearances, the slaughter of an entire family, and the inexplicable death of a Hollywood starlet who was filming a movie on the grounds.

The lighthouse was finally shuttered tight in 1988 and a security fence was erected around the property. No one has been inside since. Until now.

Told across two harrowing incidents from 2017 and 2025, those who enter the Widow's Point Lighthouse searching for supernatural proof and the next big thing find themselves cut off from the outside world. And although no one has recently stepped foot inside the structure, they are not alone.

In this remarkable collaboration, father and son writing team, Richard and W.H. Chizmar combine forces to tell a terrifying ghost story that will make you think twice about what's waiting for you in the dark."

I was excited to learn that found footage horror stories exist in book format. This was a fun and spooky read. Another excellent recommendation from my library ladies.