Books To Add To Your 2026 Reading List

Hope your 2026 is starting well! Hopefully you’ve had time to reflect on highlights, lessons, and other relevant thoughts as 2025 ended.

In the midst of your 2025 highlights, how many books did you read?

Admittedly, my reading rate slowed down this year due to a number of factors. Not making excuses. Other priorities have taken more of my time, and it was my choice to not read as much. For what it’s worth, I’ve had to be much more selective in what books to devote attention to. So without further ado, here are five books for you to consider (non-affiliate links):

Rogue Lawyer, John Grisham - The best parts of this book are the humor and crazy stakes that John takes the protagonist through.

Camino Island, John Grisham - Not used to John writing a heist novel. He does it well! (Though a friend said the sequel wasn’t as good.)

Reset, Dan Heath - While Switch was more about motivating at the individual level, this book focuses more on studying and leveraging systems. You’ll love the examples he shares, which include self-motivated dialysis patients and saving a defunct library.

The Art of Spending Money, Morgan Hausel - Morgan does a great job leaving you with more questions than answers, as evidenced by the previous book from him I mentioned last year. This book gets you one step closer to actual application, which will involve a lot more experimentation than you might feel comfortable trying. Which is exactly the point. Fail fast, fail cheap.

Working, Robert Caro - I didn’t learn about this author/historian until I read about how his work was respected by so many high profile leaders and inspired the GM of the Oklahoma City Thunder to “turn every page” in his process, which led to an eventual championship. His memoir mentions some gritty examples of political leverage that you might not like - but are rich with valuable lessons if you’re willing to study them.

If you’ve read any of these or have your own suggestions to share, feel free to comment below!