We are back! It's a new year ,and we start with a delicious mix of books (and genres). Join us in our first episode of 2026!

Subscribe to our Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠messy_margins_pod⁠⁠⁠⁠

Write us a letter: verymessymargins@gmail.com

Books (in order of appearance):

Lessons from cats for surviving fascism by Stewart Reynolds

Clown girl by Monica Drake

The Party by Tessa Hadley

Wind and truth by Brandon Sanderson

Pip by Freya North

Red white royal blue by Casey McQuiston

Blood over bright haven by M. L. Wang

It's definitely all-caps-worthy: We did it! Let's dive into the whole reading year, and damn, what a journey it was! We talk about the books that have moved us the most, surprising reads as well as huge disappointments, talk about whether some books motivated us to learn new skills, and so much more...

You may want to have pen and paper ready: A ton of recommendations is coming your way!

Subscribe to our Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠messy_margins_pod⁠⁠⁠

Write us a letter: verymessymargins@gmail.com

Books (in order of appearance):

Series:

Stormlight archives by Brandon Sanderson

Mistborn Saga by Brandon Sanderson

The Rebus books by Ian Rankin

DS Cross series by Ian Rankin

Perfect remains series by Helen fields

Standalones:

Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Duncker

Dreams of the future by Siri Hustvedt?

The emperor of gladness by Ocean Vuong

Summer at Mount Asama by Masashi Matsuie

Small things like these by Claire Keegan

Wellness by Nathan Hill

Dueling with O-sensei by Ellis Amdur

A bookshop of one‘s own by Jane Cholmeley

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton

I am glad my mom died by Jennette McCurdy

Love letters by Virginia Woolf and Vita Slackville-West

Five days in memorial by Sheri Fink

The way home, life without technology by Mark Boyle

So late in the day by Claire Keegan

Sunrise on the reaping by Suzanne Collins

Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata

Convenience store woman by Sayaka Murata

Katabasis by R. F. Kuang

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

Lessons in chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

The ministry of time by Kaliane Bradley

The fortune man by Nadifa Mohamed

Anna O by Matthew Blake Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

Notes of an execution by Danya Kukafka

Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

Deacon King Kong by James McBride

Lamb by Christopher Moore

Ripeness by Sarah Moss

The Body keeps the score by Bessel van der Kolk

Ask the dusk by John Fante

The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Red and hope by Kelley Skovron

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

Gideon the ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Book of lives by Margaret Atwood

Toschka went to London and came back with books. A lot of books. And maybe Rina has broken her own "book-buying ban" too?

Subscribe to our Instagram: ⁠⁠messy_margins_pod⁠⁠

Write us a letter: verymessymargins@gmail.com

Books (in order of appearance):

Ballet shoes by Kendall Feaver (playtext) and Noel Streatfeild (novel)

Neverland: The Pleasures and Perils of Fandom by Vanessa Kisuule

Beyond Black by Hillary Mantel

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston

Gay's The Word | The UK's Oldest LGBT+ Bookshop

A bookshop of one's own by Jane Cholmeley

This much is true by Miriam Margolyes

Love in a Time of Politics by Katherine Zappone

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart

Villette by Charlotte Brontë

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

The secret life of plays by Steve Waters

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

The left hand of darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Elements by John Boyne

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Even dogs in the wild by Ian Rankin

Rather be the devil by Ian Rankin

In the house of lies by Ian Rankin

The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

The long Mars by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

Clown girl by Monica Drake

Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson

The storm of echoes by Christelle Dabos