The entire list of 2026 Read to Learn books!
Books transport us, books open our eyes, and books teach us new things. I equally love fiction and nonfiction. Should books be an escape, absolutely, but I also feel very strongly that if we aren’t also learning new concepts, new perspectives, new information then how can we grow as people.
Each year I compile books that I think hit on relevant, important issues that the world is dealing with, but also some books that teach us about pieces of history that we may have been misinformed about. I have previously shared the titles in quarterly posts but I wanted to be able to pin one post to the top so that others who don’t know about the group can easily find out the info!
So here they are, followed by a super short summary because captions can only be so long (a longer summary of each will be saved to my highlights).
January = Soldiers and Kings: A character-driven look at the human smuggling industry along the U.S.-Mexico border.
February = Making Room: A heartfelt invitation to see and feel the lives of LGBTQ youth who have been cast aside by a society that should be protecting them.
March = Unwell Women: An almost unbelievable history of how medicine has failed women by treating their bodies as alien and other, often to perilous effect.
April = Total Garbage: Explores the widespread wastefulness in daily life, from food to plastic, and its connection to major environmental issues like climate change and pollution.
May =of When Crack Was King: The crack epidemic of the 80s and 90s is arguably the least examined crisis in American history.
June = Undue Burden: Tells personal stories to illustrate the human consequences of the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
July = The Coming Wave: Discusses how the convergence of AI and synthetic biology will change the world we live in.
August = Evil Geniuses: Provides a historical and cultural analysis of how America shifted from a more balanced society to hypercapitalist nation it is today.
September = Democracy in Chains: Learn about the six decades of altering every branch of government to disempower the majority.
October = The Sirens’ Call: Explores how social media and technology exploit our natural need for attention, creating a “distracted age” where focus is fragmented and our sense of agency is diminished.
November = Abundance: America’s current problems stem from a diminished capacity to build and invent, not a lack of solutions from the past.
December = Poverty, By America: Argues that poverty in the US persists affluent Americans, through their financial and policy choices, benefit from systems that keep others poor.
Many of you have alrea told me you’d like to read them all and I could not be more eager to read these titles with you! Now that they’re all listed in one place, let me know if you’d like to read any with the group – all are welcome
Toni Rocchetti is a copy editor helping authors strengthen their narratives, deepen character arcs, and find the story that is already in the draft. She reads 80+ books a year across literary fiction, memoir, and nonfiction — and writes about what she is learning along the way. Work with Toni →
