Lariat Adult Fiction List

Here are recommended fiction titles for adults from the 2026 Lariat List! The Lariat List features outstanding fiction titles for adults, published within the current and previous year, that are simply a pleasure to read! That's it. That's the criteria. The Lariat List is selected by a committee of Texas librarians and is one of 10 reading lists from the Texas Library Association. Visit txla.org/reading-lists for the full list and lists from previous years.


Updated January 13, 2026
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Culpability
Holsinger, Bruce W.
Paper Book
Oprah's Book Club Pick * New Yorker Best Books of 2025 * 2026 Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlist * Kirkus Best Books of 2025 * Real Simple Best Books of 2025 * Washington Post Noteable Fiction 2025 * NPR's 2025 "Books We Love" * "I was riveted until the very last shocking...
SALT BONES : a novel
GIVHAN, JENNIFER
Paper Book
In this gripping retelling of Persephone and Demeter in the Mexicali borderlands, three Mexican-American women from a haunted family must find the truth about the missing girls from their small Southern California farming community-before the danger can find them first. At...
Wild dark shore
McConaghy, Charlotte
Paper Book
An ENTHRALLING new novel from the NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon. Dominic Salt and his...
Whyte Python world tour : a novel
Kennedy, Travis
Paper Book
'A rock-n-roll thrill ride... Heavy Metal icon Rikki Thunder's satirical memoir is sweeter than Cherry Pie and better than a prescription from Dr. Feelgood! You need to read it' Ernest Cline -- It's Los Angeles, 1986, and metal rules the world. For aspiring...
The favorites : a novel
Fargo, Layne
Paper Book
To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession. NATIONAL BESTSELLER * An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice "Part...
Broken country : a novel
Hall, Clare Leslie
Paper Book
" A love triangle unearths dangerous, deadly secrets from the past in this thrilling tale perfect for fans of The Paper Palace and Where the Crawdads Sing. "The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him."<...
Atmosphere : a love story
Reid, Taylor Jenkins
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK * From the author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go...
Back after this : a novel
Holmes, Linda, (Radio talk show host)
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of Evvie Drake Starts Over and Flying Solo, a podcast producer agrees to host a new series about modern dating--but will the show jeopardize her chance at finding real love? "Romantic, smart, and exactly the book...
The Book of Lost Hours: A GMA Book Club Pick (a Novel)
Gelfuso, Hayley.
Paper Book
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK! For fans of The Ministry of Time and The Midnight Library, a sweeping, "astounding debut" (Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author) novel following two remarkable women moving between postwar and Cold War...
Bury our bones in the midnight soil
Schwab, Victoria
Paper Book
The correspondent : a novel
Evans, Virginia
Paper Book
A National BestsellerA LibraryReads April PickNamed a Good Housekeeping (UK) Most Anticipated DebutMost mornings, Sybil Van Antwerp sits down to write letters -- to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she wants to take, to Joan...
The dream hotel
Lalami, Laila
Paper Book
* LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025 * * A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK MARCH 2025 * 'A gripping, Kafkaesque foray into an all-too-plausible future' JENNIFER EGAN'So cleverly conceived, so relevant, that everyone should read it and...
Harlem rhapsody
Murray, Victoria Christopher
Paper Book
In 1919, as civil unrest grips the county, in a flourishing part of New York City called Harlem, something special is stirring. Here, the New Negro is rising and Black pride is evident everywhere... in music, theatre, fashion and the arts. And there on stage in the center of this renaissance is...
The human scale
Wright, Lawrence
Paper Book
In this sweeping, timely thriller, a Palestinian American FBI agent teams up with a hardline Israeli cop to solve the murder of the Israeli police chief in Gaza--from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower and The End of October. "A layered tale of...
I see you've called in dead : a novel
Kenney, John
Paper Book
Julie Chan is dead : a novel
Zhang, Liann
Paper Book
TRN
The names
Knapp, Florence
Paper Book
Tomorrow - if morning comes, if the storm stops raging - Cora will register the name of her son. Or perhaps, and this is her real concern, she'll formalise who he will become. It is 1987 and in the aftermath of a great storm, Cora sets out with her nine-year-old daughter to register...
Promise me sunshine
Bastone, Cara
Paper Book
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'Beautifully devastating' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'Astonishingly warm, funny, reassuring, and soul-satisfying' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'Oh my heartstrings!' ...
The road to tender hearts : a novel
Hartnett, Annie.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A darkly comic and warm-hearted novel about an old man on a cross-country mission to reunite with his high school crush--bringing together his adult daughter, two orphaned kids, and a cat who can predict death--by the beloved author of Rabbit Cake and Unlikely...
The stolen life of Colette Marceau
Harmel, Kristin
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Kristin Harmel, the New York Times bestselling author who "is the best there is at sweeping historical drama" (Kelly Harms, author of The Seven Day Switch), returns with an electrifying new novel about two jewel thieves, a...
This book will bury me : a novel
Winstead, Ashley
Paper Book
What kind of paradise : a novel
Brown, Janelle
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * A teenage girl breaks free from her father's world of isolation to discover that her whole life is a lie in this "absorbing and well-crafted" (The Washington Post) novel from the New York Times bestselling author...
When the moon hits your eye
Scalzi, John.
Paper Book
New York Times bestseller John Scalzi flies you to the moon with his most fantastic tale to date: When the Moon Hits Your Eye The moon has turned into cheese. Now humanity has to deal with it. For some it's an...
Witchcraft for wayward girls
Hendrix, Grady
Paper Book
"Superb ... a perfect horror for our imperfect age." - The New York Times AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER They were never girls, they were witches . . . . They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who...
You deserve to know
Thompson, Aggie Blum
Paper Book
A brand new suspense novel from "the master of the suburban scandal" (Samantha M. Bailey), Aggie Blum Thompson. Neighbors Gwen, Aimee, and Lisa share more than playdates and coffee mornings on their tranquil street in East Bethesda. They confide their deepest secrets, navigate...

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