Book clubs on their favourite reads for 2025 and 2026 picks
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Friday Night Bookish Lyme Founder, Shanique ‘Shanz the Book Fairy’ Sinclair.
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Jameika Johnson, founder of Chapters JA.
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Alice Feeny’s ‘My Husband’s Wife’ will be released on January 27.
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‘Smallie’ is written by Barbadian-Jamaican author Eden McKenzie-Goddard and will be released on May 28.
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‘Here Comes the Sun’ by Jamaican novelist Nicole Dennis-Benn
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘Purple Hibiscus’.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2006 novel, ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, is a top pick to read this year from Chapters JA Founder, Jameika Johnson.
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Reneé Wallace, co-founder of The Novel Chicks.
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'No Longer at Ease' by Chinua Achebe is on the reading list for 2026 for Chapter JA's Jameika Johnson.
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Shanique ‘Shanz the Book Fairy’ Sinclair’s favourite read for 2025 is 'Sweetness in the Skin' by Ishi Robinson.
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The Novel Chicks co-founder, Reneé Wallace's favourite read of 2025 is Nanda Reddy’s coming-of-age novel, 'A Girl Within a Girl Within a Girl'.
As readers refresh their to-be-read lists, we’re looking back at favourites from local book clubs, along with the books and authors whose new releases they’re anticipating in the new year.
Reneé Wallace, co-founder of The Novel Chicks, is anticipating a thriller novel from British journalist-turned-author Alice Feeny titled My Husband’s Wife, slated to be released January 27. Feeny is also the author of the book His and Hers, currently streaming as an adaptation on Netflix. Additionally, Wallace has her eyes on the May 28 release of Smallie by Eden McKenzie-Goddard.
Wallace’s favourite read from last year is Nanda Reddy’s coming-of-age 2025 novel, A Girl Within a Girl Within a Girl. “It’s a story about resilience that shows the human nature for survival and transformation, and I love stories about hardships, especially with favourable outcomes”.
For Chapters JA founder Jameika Johnson, her best read for the past year was Here Comes the Sun by Jamaican novelist Nicole Dennis-Benn, which she describes as a heavy, but realistic piece of literature. “It spoke directly about some of the trauma that women in Jamaica and women overall are forced to deal with and the impact our culture has on that … [There were] well-developed characters and the themes were also prominent,” said Johnson.
Shifting the genre for her 2026 read, Johnson will be focusing a lot on African literature. Her current top picks include Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, both by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, as well as No Longer at Ease by another Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe.
Friday Night Bookish Lyme’s Founder, Shanique ‘Shanz the Book Fairy’ Sinclair’s top book for 2025 is Sweetness in the Skin by Ishi Robinson. As a curator of her own literary community, Sinclair appreciated the book’s ability to tackle complex societal layers. “It looks at big dreams and how that can be affected by cultural nuances like social status [and] colourism.”
Whether revisiting powerful stories from last year or looking ahead to new releases, and if these to-be-read lists are any indication, 2026 promises a year of thoughtful, necessary, and unforgettable reads.
ruth-ann.briscoe@gleanerjm.com