Nothing beats a new book in your hands.
From raw memoirs to electric fiction, 2026 is serving up some unmissable reads.
Here are the best books of 2026 so far.
A Rising Of The Lights – Steve Toltz
The latest drop from Aussie author Steve Toltz is a bit of a sleeper — the kind that sneaks up on you in all the right ways. He follows Rusty Wilson as work, family and reality start to slip, with AI creeping into every corner of his life.
Less laugh-out-loud, more under-the-breath funny, it leans into discomfort without ever feeling preachy.
Messy, human, and quietly warm, it might be Toltz at his most human – and most affecting.
A RISING OF THE LIGHTS
STEVE TOLTZ
Even The Good Girls Will Cry – Melissa Auf der Maur
Even the Good Girls Will Cry sees Melissa Auf der Maur chart her wild 90s rock ride, from Montreal basements to Hole’s eye of the storm.
Packed with backstage stories, encounters with Courtney Love, Billy Corgan, and Dave Grohl, it’s an intimate, unfiltered memoir of a decade defined by grit, angst, and analogue magic.
Poetic, vivid, and brutally honest, Melissa shows what it really meant to be a “good girl” in rock.
EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY
MELISSA AUF DER MAUR
Dark Desert Road – Tim Ayliffe
Tim Ayliffe knows how to write the the kind of thriller that grabs you by the collar and doesn’t let go. His latest gem, folds family trauma, political extremism and outback menace into a story that feels uncomfortably close to the present moment.
Through Kit McCarthy – damaged, dogged and painfully human – the novel asks hard questions about loyalty, belief, and how far we’ll go for the people who share our blood. It’s tense, timely, and deeply Australian, unfolding across landscapes as hostile as the ideologies lurking within them.
Ayliffe proves once again he’s operating at the sharp end of crime fiction with this blistering, unnerving read that keeps you on the edge of your seat till the very last page.
DARK DESERT ROAD
TIM AYLIFFE
Lazarus: The Second Coming – Alexander Larman
Alexander Larman captures the strange alchemy of Bowie’s late career with wit and precision. Lazarus: The Second Coming of David Bowie charts the years when the superstar seemed lost to missteps and fading trends, only to emerge reinvented, fearless, and fully alive.
Through candid conversations with collaborators and insiders, the book reveals the artistry, ambition, and sheer audacity behind Bowie’s return—and the genius that made his final work, Blackstar, a legend in its own right.
LAZARUS: THE SECOND COMING OF DAVID BOWIE
ALEXANDER LARMAN
Half His Age – Jennette McCurdy
Jennette McCurdy – best selling author of I’m Glad My Mom Died – knows how to write a story that’s equal parts shocking and uncomfortably hilarious. Half His Age follows Waldo, a seventeen-year-old bursting with desire, curiosity, and blind ambition, as she becomes obsessed with her creative writing teacher, Mr. Korgy.
Smart, funny, and unsettlingly perceptive, the novel explores sex, class, and the raw ache of being seen. McCurdy delivers a razor-sharp, darkly comic, and deeply human portrait of yearning and obsession.
