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 (#NailedIt). 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.

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. — RJS

Young adult literature really spread its wings in the 2000s.

We saw more attention paid to comics for teen readers, as well as the establishment of awards honoring the best debut YA novels and YA nonfiction. We saw books about shiny vampires and overthrowing authoritarian governments capture the attention of teen readers (and not-so-teen readers), both in print and on the big screen.

Grassroots movements like We Need Diverse Books successfully advocated for greater inclusivity in youth literature, including YA. We Need Diverse Books also helped ensure that “diversity” wasn’t a checkbox but a true call to understand the power of books as windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors.

In reflecting on 25 years of growth, change, and evolution, what stands among the best of YA this century? That all depends upon how you define “best,” of course.

But months of discussions and debate helped us develop an outstanding list of YA books that deserve that honor–even if the list has limitations (as any list does!).

Our picks for the best YA books of the century include:

Among the 45 titles on the list:

➡️ Check out the full roster of titles and prepare to catch up with–or reminisce about–some of the best of young adult literature this century (so far!). — KJ

Book Your Return Trip to Cape Carnage with the follow-up to Brynne Weaver’s New York Times bestseller, Tourist Season.

In Harvest Season, the small town of Cape Carnage is blooming with secrets. But every time Nolan Rhodes digs one up, another grows in its place—and he’s beginning to wonder if Harper is who he thought she was. It’s time to reap what you sow.

It’s a whale of a time for page-to-screen adaptations, and we’re not just saying that because the trailer for Whalefall dropped yesterday. Looks pretty epic!

🍿 Check out Netflix’s new book-to-screen hub to fill your queue while you wait.

De’Shawn Charles Winslow is the author of The Fervent Whites, out this week from One World. Below, he recommends three of his favorite small-town thrillers.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been reading more small-town thrillers. Let me tell you something: they are addictive! Now I understand why people leave bookstores with stacks of them in their arms. Here are a few I’ve loved:

Linda Keir’s Drowning With Others is a brilliant, twisty thriller about the lengths people will go to cover up unsavory pasts and maintain academic prestige. Proud parents Andi and Ian’s eldest daughter follows their footsteps and attends the same prep school they graduated from. They’re thrilled. But when the waterlogged body of a long-missing instructor turns up in a lake near campus, Andi and Ian are worried everyone will learn of dark secrets they’ve been keeping since the 90’s. Read this one with your high school sweetheart—if they’re still alive, that is.

Mary Kubica’s Just the Nicest Couple blew my mind. This novel is about two very different couples that may get a little too close. When one of the husbands goes missing and is found dead, it’s pretty obvious who killed him. Actually, nope! Even the killer is wrong about that! Someone else did it! Get your hands on a copy of this wild ride of a thriller and share it with your married crush.

S.A. Cosby’s unputdownable thriller Razorblade Tears is a must-read for fathers and sons. Ike and Buddy Lee are two slightly reformed ex-cons who would have ripped each other apart in prison. But when their queer sons, Derek and Isaiah, are murdered, leaving behind their little girl, Ike and Buddy Lee won’t rest until justice is served. And we’re not talking about contacting the law. Ike and Buddy Lee want to handle it all on their own. It’s a great, touching, relentless novel—especially if you like a lot of action! 

Historical fantasy imbued with magic and lyricism.

In The Unicorn Hunters, Katherine Arden reimagines the true story of Anne of Brittany, who was the duchess of Brittany from when she was 11 years old in 1488 until her death in 1514.

In a desperate gamble to save her throne, a young monarch arranges a secret marriage, conceals it in the shadows of an enchanted forest, and unknowingly alters the fate of her world.

Perfect for fans of The Bear and the Nightingale, The Unicorn Hunters is a standalone novel inspired by a true story.

Spotify Premium members can enjoy 15 hours of audiobook listening every month. Here are three new queer books, each under 15 hours, for all your Pride listening needs.

🎬 There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood by Rasheed Newson – A backlot fixer investigates the suspicious death of a rising Black closeted actor in old Hollywood

🪼The Jellyfish Problem by Tessa Yang – An investigation into the giant, glowing jellyfish terrorizing a small Maine island turns into the search for a missing friend

🪆Muñeca by Cynthia Gomez – A queer, gothic, Latine read about a working class witch attempting to rescue a cursed heiress in 1960s Oakland

Anthony Aycock is a writer, teacher, and librarian. His newest book, Just Plain Filthy: The Story Behind Book Banning’s Trial of the Century, is out this week from Bloomsbury Academic. Below, he discusses why the 1982 Supreme Court case Island Trees v. Pico is required reading for anyone interested in fighting censorship and book bans.

Book bans, which have been around almost as long as books themselves, have had a resurgence in recent years. In 2025, ALA tracked 4,235 unique titles challenged—the second highest ever. The highest: 4,240 in 2023. 

County governments have legislated new bans, as have states. In March, Congress began considering the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act, which Publishers Weekly calls a “national book ban.”  The U.S. Supreme Court passed up a chance to outlaw book bans when it declined to hear Little v. Llano County last December, leaving in place its 44-year-old ruling in Island Trees v. Pico. 

That case was the first—and, so far, only—book ban dispute ever heard by the high court. It began in 1975, when the board of education of Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 in Long Island, New York removed eleven books from its high school library, junior high library, and twelfth grade English curriculum. The books included classics—Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five—plus lesser-known works like Laughing Boy by Oliver LaFarge. 

Naturally, there was an uproar. There usually is when you take literature out of readers’ hands. Richard Ahrens, president of the school board, defended the ban by calling the books “anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and just plain filthy.” Maybe he thought that would settle the matter. Maybe he thought things would blow over. He certainly didn’t expect seven years later to be standing before nine black-robed jurists, struggling to explain his and his colleagues’ actions. 

Richard Ahrens had not reckoned on Steven Pico.

In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the board should not have removed the books. It did not, however, recognize a constitutional right to read—an oversight that has complicated censorship battles since. The case deserves a slot alongside the court’s most famous disputes: Marbury v. Madison, Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade. Yet, in 2026, it is largely forgotten outside academe. 

Now, I’m afraid, is the perfect time for a refresher. Just Plain Filthy: The Story Behind Book Banning’s Trial of the Century is required reading for librarians, book sellers and buyers, and anyone keen to preserve intellectual freedom. 

A future where immortality may cost your soul

In the world of Matthew Medney and Don Macnab-Stark’s Existence Equation, every 18-year-old must choose: remain mortal on Earth or become immortal and leave emotion behind forever? 

This cinematic coming-of-age epic blends emotional YA storytelling with large-scale philosophical sci-fi to explore identity, technology, love, and what humanity loses in the pursuit of progress. 

If you loved Interstellar, Saga, and The Hunger Games, don’t miss Existence Equation.

Did you know? Styron was asked by the developers of the Port Warwick neighborhood of Newport News, Virginia to help name new streets, so you can find there Herman Melville Avenue, Flannery O’Connor Street, and others.

🌈 Add these must-read new queer books out in June to your Pride TBR!

🌿 Touch grass and explore new ways to extend your perception.

🤫 Get all the insider library knowledge by signing up for Check Your Shelf.

😅 Correction: In Tuesday’s newsletter, we presented a list of Libby’s best most popular books of the year so far that was erroneously labeled as Libro.fm’s list.

Written by Rebecca Schinsky, Kelly Jensen, Vanessa Diaz, Danika Ellis, and Jeff O’Neal. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.

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