\n<\/p>\n
We are a few days past the halfway point of 2026 (we made it!) and I am asking an important, difficult question.<\/p>\n
What is your favorite book you\u2019ve read so far this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n Rules: you may name 1 fiction and 1 nonfiction.<\/em><\/p>\n That is the limit. <\/em><\/p>\n Yes, I\u2019m know. I\u2019m terrible.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Also: the book does not have to be a 2026 book! Any book you haven\u2019t read before is a new book.<\/em><\/p>\n Sarah<\/strong>: I\u2019m the one asking, and here I am thinking, Oof, that\u2019s a tough one,<\/em> because I\u2019ve read some really, really good books and I\u2019m very happy about it.<\/p>\n My favorite nonfiction, hands down, is Like, Follow, Subscribe: Influencer Kids and the Cost of a Childhood Online<\/em> by Fortesa Latifi,<\/strong> because I am not going to stop thinking about the things I learned in this book for ages. I have been thinking about the children of the original mommy bloggers and influencer families for literal decades, and this book confirmed many of my suspicions about exploitation. It also forced me to confront some of my own conclusions and reevaluate them. (Fortesa Latifi was also my guest on the podcast earlier this year.)<\/p>\n Lara<\/strong>: I have read a handful of truly excellent books this year. If I were cheating, I would choose an author, rather than a book. My introduction to CS Harris\/Candice Proctor this year has been glorious. But if you were to really turn the thumbscrews, I would choose Star Shipped<\/em> by Cat Sebastian.<\/strong> That book had me cheering and breathless with joy for the duration! But if the criteria were which book had the strongest impact on me personally, then I\u2019d say Vera Stein is Fine\u00a0<\/em>by Julie Murphy,<\/strong> as Vera and I both have big life changes happening.<\/p>\n Sarah, how badly did I cheat? Oopsy.<\/p>\n Sarah:<\/strong> I\u2019ll allow it.<\/p>\n Amanda<\/strong>: I\u2019ve only had one five star read so far this year and that honor goes to Against a Wall<\/em> by Cate C. Wells.<\/strong><\/p>\n Shout out to Katie for the recommendation. She had previously signed up for After Dark recs and we had a convo via email about Cate Wells and where I should start. She recommended this one with the caveat that it\u2019s kind of an enemies to lovers, bully romance if that is or isn\u2019t my bag.<\/p>\n I also want to mention DiscoDollyDeb\u2019s really great description of Wells\u2019s heroes:<\/p>\n As I frequently assert, her heroes tend to be men who want to do better but often lack the emotional bandwidth to do so without blunders. Wells\u2019s style isn\u2019t for everyone, but, if she hits your sweet spot, she\u2019ll undoubtedly become an auto buy.<\/em><\/p>\n I really appreciated seeing a hero repeatedly try to get the heroine\u2019s attention or try to understand her and her interests. I also thought it had an interesting take on small towns we don\u2019t often see in romance and certainly, though briefly, touched on the socioeconomic issues and racism that lies at the foundation of these communities.<\/p>\n Elyse<\/strong>: My favorite book of the year so far really surprised me: Raising Hare<\/em> by Chloe Dalton<\/strong>. This is a non-fiction book that recounts a period of time during COVID lockdown when Dalton raised a baby hare she found abandoned in her garden.<\/p>\n Dalton raises the hare with the intention that it returns to the wild (it does), but it also repeatedly returns to her home as well. It\u2019s a beautiful memoir of appreciating wild things and allowing them to be wild, but also about her budding awareness of the natural world outside her home. It\u2019s just an incredibly soothing and intimate read that was wonderfully relaxing for my brain.<\/p>\n What about you? What is your favorite book you\u2019ve read this year?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Remember: you can name up to 1 fiction and 1 nonfiction, and it does not have to be a 2026 book!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are a few days past the halfway point of 2026 (we made it!) and I am asking an important, difficult question. What is your favorite book you\u2019ve read so far this year? Rules: you may name 1 fiction and 1 nonfiction. That is the limit. Yes, I\u2019m know. I\u2019m terrible.\u00a0 Also: the book does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11989],"tags":[1602,1450,1606,1283,24636],"class_list":["post-34609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-news","tag-book","tag-favorite","tag-read","tag-year","tag-youve"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/smartbitchestrashybooks.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feature.png",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"POETRY NEWS<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"We are a few days past the halfway point of 2026 (we made it!) and I am asking an important, difficult question. What is your favorite book you\u2019ve read so far this year? Rules: you may name 1 fiction and 1 nonfiction. That is the limit. Yes, I\u2019m know. I\u2019m terrible.\u00a0 Also: the book does…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34611,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34609\/revisions\/34611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}