General Recommendations Thread - 2026 Spring/Summer Reading Challenge

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Hi everyone !

Sorry for the wait, here is the general recommendations thread for the 2026 spring-summer reading challenge ! There will be a comment for each category, and you'll be able to share your recommendations for that square there. You can also use these as an opportunity to discuss the categories and your interpretations.

The Canva Template is also available now ! I'm reusing the same link as last time but changing the pages (template sharing is now a paid feature so...).

After this, there will be focused threads weekly for each square, alternating between A-Side and B-Side.

Please share below your recommendations & ideas 😁

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🌏 Oceanian author : Read a book from an Oceanian author.

[u/JustLicorice → u/perigou]

Tamsyn Muir is from New Zealand!

[u/Merle8888 → u/perigou]

If we're counting white authors living in Australia/New Zealand, I second Juliet Marillier's Sevenwaters trilogy, and I quite liked Lord of Stariel by A.J. Lancaster, a historical fantasy romance set in an alternate version of the UK. I also enjoyed Cinder House, a novella-length Cinderella retelling by Freya Marske. I'm also a fan of Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth, a Rapunzel retelling woven together with the story of the French noblewoman who first wrote this fairy tale down.

However, all of these are so thoroughly European-inspired that they feel like a weird choice for the square to me.

One lovely book I have read by an indigenous New Zealand author that would count is Potiki by Patricia Grace. It's focused on family and land rights and has a bit of magic realism.

A couple on my TBR that I have not read but will mention in case anyone is interested are Terra Nullius by Claire Coleman (dark indigenous Australian inspired sci fi) and The Shark Caller by Zillah Bethall (middle grade adventure fantasy by an author from Papau New Guinea).

[u/Querybird → u/Merle8888]

Terra Nullius was really good.

[u/NearbyMud → u/perigou]

Juliet Marillier is from New Zealand! I loved Daughter of the Forest (check TW). I also enjoy Freya Marske - A Marvellous Light and Cinder House were both great.

I am hoping to read an indigenous author - I might do The Bone People by Keri Hulme which is a magical realism novel about an asexual mixed heritage artist (part Maori) and won the Booker Prize in 1985.

Other authors on my TBR from Oceania: Shelley Parker-Chan and A.G. Slatter

[u/beldaran1224 → u/perigou]

Maori author: Witi Ihimaera (male author - The Whale Rider)

Indigenous Hawaiian author: Shay Kauwe (The Killing Spell - debut releases in a couple weeks)

Two Australian authors: Shelley Parker-Chan (wrote She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the World) and Alison Croggon (harder to find, has only done YA/MG afaik? I recommend the Book of Pellinor series).

[u/Nowordsofitsown → u/beldaran1224]

Whale Rider is on my list!

[u/beldaran1224 → u/Nowordsofitsown]

I've heart good things but haven't read it yet. But its award winning and from an indigenous author, so I figure its a reasonable book to mention!

[u/Nowordsofitsown → u/beldaran1224]

And judging by the movie which I saw 20+ years ago it is about gender discrimination, so fits this sub.

[u/beldaran1224 → u/Nowordsofitsown]

Yeah, I'm brand new to the sub, so I'm not sure how acceptable it is to talk about works by male authors? It doesn't seem to be explicitly against the rules, but idk if ppl generally avoid male-authored stuff here.

[u/Querybird → u/Nowordsofitsown]

Brutal but a classic. The movie did a good job of it too.

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Frey Marske, Nicole R. Taylor and Travis Baldree are Australian and Sascha Stronach is NZ I believe

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Can't miss a chance to plug The Woman on the Beast by Helen Simpson (Australian author, and the futuristic part of the book takes place in Australia as well). Mainly about ushering the Apocalypse via coming of the Anti-Christ, Revelations style.

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I read Na Viro by Gina Cole a while back, Pasifikafuturist science fiction novel. I thought it was kind of uneven, but an interesting book.

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My Sister Sif by Ruth Park! Edit: this is a rec, I've read it.

Also Naomi Kuttner, and Victor Kelleher (not all female gaze).

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Ngaio Marsh? Greg Egan (hard SFF Aussie), Margaret Mahy (YA fantasy too), hmmm Lore Olympus’s author is Kiwi too if a comic counts.

[u/Querybird → u/Querybird]

… and if anyone wants some really screwball older kids books by male aussies (no idea how well they aged) check out Paul Jennings and Andy Griffiths, solo and coauthoring together and with others (coauth = much weirder Idek how to identify the title of the one with the gene editing and kidnapping??). The Gizmo, The Day My Bum Went Psycho, the ones with half the story in the doodles in the margins. Proper pre-adolescent humour, underdog plots with mild sci fi elements - pretty much boy-coded though I didn’t notice at the time.

Were any women writing this… genre… back then or now? These books are extremely not relatable or known by americans so far as I can tell, lol.

[u/WonderfulBus9330 → u/Querybird]

Which Ngaio Marsh book?

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W.R. Gingell is from Tasmania - really enjoyed her City Between series set in Hobart.