The best books of 2026 so far – according to Amazon

Amazon has named the best books of 2026 to date, with Tayari Jones’s novel Kin taking the top spot on a list pitched squarely at summer readers.

The retailer’s “Best Books of the Year So Far” round-up, published on 10 June, was compiled by the Amazon Editors, a team that reads across genres throughout the year and draws the mid-year list from its monthly recommendations.

Kin, a story of two motherless childhood friends growing up in the Jim Crow South, was the rare title to win over the whole panel.

Editorial director Sarah Gelman said the team’s broad range of tastes means it is unusual for a single book to unite everyone, but Kin managed it, describing Jones’s writing as tender and precise. Amazon Editor Erin Kodicek said the novel “sings on every page.”

There is a clear British thread running through the list. The number two pick was Patrick Radden Keefe’s London Falling, is a work of narrative non-fiction tracing how a young boy was drawn into the orbit of Russian oligarchs before ending up in the Thames.

Sixth-placed Land comes from Maggie O’Farrell, the author of Hamnet, and follows a 19th-century mapmaker on a remote Irish peninsula.

Rounding out the top five are Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear, a satirical novel about a tradwife influencer who wakes up in the 1800s; Belle Burden’s divorce memoir Strangers; and Eli Raphael’s boarding-school suspense debut Night Objects.

Amazon said this year’s full list spans literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers, romance, history, non-fiction, memoir, debuts, cookbooks and children’s books by age group.

New for 2026, it has added a Book Club Picks category and the option for readers to follow individual editors whose tastes match their own for monthly recommendations.

Jones joins a roll of previous mid-year number ones that includes Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore, Percival Everett’s James, Ann Napolitano’s Hello Beautiful and Shelby Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures.

The Amazon Editors’ top 10 books of 2026 so far

1. Kin by Tayari Jones – Two childhood friends, both haunted by the loss of their mothers, remain each other’s anchor as their lives diverge in the Jim Crow South.
2. London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe – A non-fiction account of a young boy caught up in the world of Russian oligarchs and found dead in the Thames.
3. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke – A tradwife influencer wakes to find herself in the 19th century, in a sharp novel about motherhood, fame and faith.
4. Strangers by Belle Burden – A memoir dissecting a marriage that unravelled seemingly without warning.
5. Night Objects by Eli Raphael – A teenager searches for belonging at an elite boarding school where secrets and danger build.
6. Land by Maggie O’Farrell – A 19th-century mapmaker, a loyal dog and a mysterious stand of trees on a remote Irish peninsula.
7. American Men by Jordan Ritter Conn – The interwoven stories of four very different men finding ways to thrive amid fleeting opportunity.
8. Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell – A second-chance love story about body image and loss.
9. Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumas – A body-horror page-turner skewering a society obsessed with appearance.
10. Crux by Gabriel Tallent – An unlikely friendship forged through a shared love of rock climbing.

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