Amazon’s best books of 2026 so far, and the series authors on the list

Amazon’s editors make their picks twice a year, and with their full list for 2026 due later in the year, the mid-year list is a good guide to the books worth catching up on now.

Announced in June, it put Kin by Tayari Jones at number one. The novel follows two motherless girls whose lives take different paths as they come of age in the Jim Crow South.

Three authors from The Recurring Cast made the top 20. Sally Hepworth, the Melbourne writer behind The Mother-in-Law and The Good Sister, is there with Mad Mabel. Maggie O’Farrell, author of Hamnet, is there with Land, and Rainbow Rowell, author of Fangirl and the Simon Snow books, is there with Cherry Baby.

Readers who like suspense will also find Ilona Bannister’s Five, a thriller about five strangers waiting for a train in London, and Eli Raphael’s Night Objects, set at an elite boarding school.

Each book on our author pages has a Buy on Amazon link that takes you to your local Amazon store, whether you are in Australia, the US, the UK, Canada or Ireland.