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Book clubs 2026-09: Dropping the hammer

September 15 2026

For September, I monitored 39 active clubs. Those clubs gave me 74 rows for consideration, representing 60 new books for the database. Of the 60, I said Yes to 9, Maybe to 8, and No to 43.

I also considered Bestseller lists, which generated 116 other titles for possible consideration. Of those I said Yes to 13, Maybe to 10, and No to 93.

This brings the year-to-date totals for 2026 to 1,289 books tracked, with me saying Yes to 19.3%, Maybe to 14.8%, and No to 65.9%. This compares with 2025, where Yes was 28.8%, Maybe 15.2%, and No 56.0%.

I clearly have no willpower (including generally saying yes to cookbooks without much consideration first). But the big change will come next month. All of the retired clubs that I was still gathering for fun and giggles and some low signal-quality ones are now going to be officially dead to me — Stacks, Audacious, Zibby’s, Service 95, Jeselnik, Library Science, and Natalie Portman. For the Best Seller lists (I’m still tickled pink that I shorten that to BS lists in my notes!), is much more massive. They were adding way too much noise and volume for manageability. So I’ve killed

Amazon: Sales Kindle · Sales Print · Sales NF · Read NF
G&M: Bio · Can F · Can NF · Gen · HC F · HC NF · PB F · PB NF
NYT: HC NF · Gen · PB F · YA
Indie: HC NF · PB F · PB NF · YA

I kept Amazon’s Fiction lists (read and sales), NYT HC fiction and advice, and the Indie HC Fiction and General. So I’ll still see big releases, indie releases, and everything Amazon-y.

For my reading this month, I’m hoping to do better, though I’m at mid-month and have only worked through one of this month’s offerings so far. I chose The Ferryman’s Daughter as my Amazon First Reads book of the month and I’m only about 60% of the way through. The plot is awesome, the delivery and writing okay, but there are a bunch of red herrings that don’t fit very well, so I’m really curious to see if the author can stick the landing. It doesn’t seem like a five-star, but if she lands the ending, maybe 4; if not, it’ll likely drop to a 2. There isn’t much middle ground left on this one. I’m also looking forward to Not Quite Dead Yet, as one of the mystery styles where the sleuth is solving their own murder.

And I’m 95% done a major ebook library project, that I hope to blog about soon. Almost 10w of slogging to accomplish something that didn’t need doing. lol I’ll explain when I get there. But hopefully it means more time to read!

Current month — Book clubs

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Description	Me
Amazon First Reads	Always Be My Pumpkin, Linda McEvoy	Romance	Librarian’s fake Halloween romance with returning childhood friend turns real	NO
	Book Club Confidential, Julie Hatcher	Contemporary Fiction	Three friends vow to live boldly as heroines of their own stories	MAYBE
	Death by Misadventure, Jane Bitomsky	Historical Mystery	Elizabethan coroner investigates a mutilated corpse found beneath a village waterwheel	YES
	The Back Bedroom, Gregg Olsen	Narrative Nonfiction	A self-proclaimed prophet’s followers beat a boy deemed possessed to death	NO
	The Daughters of Rosebud, Sonny Buttar	Literary Fiction	Estranged sisters fracture over a life-altering choice in small-town Rosebud	NO
	The Ferryman’s Daughter, Yasmin Angoe	Mystery	Forensic teacher hunts a copycat mimicking her serial-killer father’s murders	YES
	Trust No One, Mary Burton	Thriller	Public defender returns to family estate after cousin’s cyanide poisoning	NO
	Turkey’s Fall Fumble, Wendi Silvano	Children’s	Turkey and friends celebrate the fall festivities	NO
	Watch Her Run, Jennifer Moorhead	Thriller	Runaway influencer wakes captive in a Louisiana swamp cabin	NO
Audacious	Reality TV for Snobs, Ali Barthwell	Nonfiction	Guide to twenty influential reality shows, from Real World to Traitors	NO
Barnes & Noble	Under Story, Chloe Benjamin	Literary Fiction	Antarctic biologist and her ex-husband confront a portal to a parallel world	NO
BBC Radio 2	Agrippa, Robert Harris	Historical Fiction	Agrippa’s rise from commoner to Rome’s mightiest general under Augustus	NO
	Ghost Month, Simon Wroe	Contemporary Fiction	Four strangers await departed loved ones during a supernatural annual Ghost Month	NO
Belletrist	Life of M, Rachel Cusk	Literary Fiction	A stranger writes the biography of a famous, reclusive film star	NO
Black Men Read	Pulling the Chariot of the Sun, Shane McCrae	Memoir	Poet recounts being kidnapped as a toddler by his white grandparents	NO
Book of the Month	Before You Were Anne, Emiko Jean	Mystery	Detective probes a murdered woman’s hidden Japanese past and missing daughter	MAYBE
	Fallow, Sarah Anderson	Literary Fiction	A woman becomes the world’s first in-house corporate surrogate	NO
	If Not You, Ellen O’Clover	Romance	Rival copywriters fall for each other during a monthlong resort-pitch road trip	NO
	Kiss Slay Replay, Rachel Harrison	Horror	A wedding guest relives a massacre in an inescapable time loop	MAYBE
	The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, Deesha Philyaw	Literary Fiction	A megachurch pastor’s wife sees her hidden past explode into public scandal	NO
	The Wretched Divine, Adalyn Grace	Fantasy	A knight allies with a demon to end an angel-demon war	MAYBE
Elle Cordova	The Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu	Science Fiction	Earth encounters an alien civilization amid a virtual game and conspiracy	NO
Everyday Reading	The Lion Women of Tehran, Marjan Kamali	Historical Fiction	Class issues in 1950s Tehran	NO
Good Housekeeping	Under the Falls, Richard Russo	Literary Fiction	Ex-musician returns to hometown for benefit concert; a crime exposes betrayals	NO
Good Morning America	Hawk & Sparrow, Ayana Gray	Romance	Orphan reporter and accused sorcerer fake a courtship to solve a murder	NO
	Under Story, Chloe Benjamin	Literary Fiction	Antarctic biologist and her ex-husband confront a portal to a parallel world	NO
GoodReads Mystery	Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng	Literary Fiction	Chinese-American family unravels after favorite daughter Lydia found dead in lake	NO
	The Redbreast, Jo Nesbo	Crime	Harry Hole hunts a neo-Nazi sniper linked to wartime Norwegian collaborators	MAYBE
Jack Carr	Biological War, Annie Jacobsen	Narrative Nonfiction	Journalistic scenario of a catastrophic biological weapon attack unfolding	NO
Jeselnik	The Glass Hotel, Emily St. John Mandel	Literary Fiction	Siblings’ lives unravel around a financier’s collapsing Ponzi scheme	RETIRED
Katie Couric	Hollow Bones, Jodi Picoult	Literary Fiction	Woman who lost her mother on 9/11 confronts marriage and buried lies	NO
Library Science	East of Eden, John Steinbeck	Literary Fiction	Two families entwine across generations in California’s Salinas Valley	RETIRED
Main Street Reads	A Resistance of Witches, Morgan Ryan	Fantasy	A witch races to seize a dangerous grimoire before the Nazis	NO
	Not Quite Dead Yet, Holly Jackson	Thriller	D.O.A. and gives the victim a week to solve her own murder	YES
	Older, Jennifer Hartmann	Romance	A teenage survivor and a much older man fall into forbidden love	NO
	The Bewitching, Silvia Moreno-Garcia	Horror	Three women across eras face witches in New England and rural Mexico	NO
Mocha Girls Read	Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia	Horror	1950s Mexican socialite confronts ancestral horrors in cousin’s haunted Anglo-colonial mountain mansion	NO
Natalie Portman	Beginning Middle End, Valeria Luiselli	Literary Fiction	Mother and daughter journey to Sicily after a marriage collapses	RETIRED
PBS Books	Hollow Bones, Jodi Picoult	Literary Fiction	Woman who lost her mother on 9/11 confronts marriage and buried lies	NO
Poisoned Pen	A Game of Cat and Killer, Jiro Akagawa; Haydn Trowell	Mystery	A timid detective and his clever cat solve college campus murders	NO
	Apple Pies and Poisoned Lies at the Cider Falls Festival, Traci Hall	Mystery	Returning to her family orchard, Macki investigates a festival baking-contest murder	NO
	Death Writ Large, Susie Dent	Mystery	Oxford lexicographers decode runic graffiti linked to a lecturer’s death	NO
	Nearshore, Steve Hawk	Thriller	A surfer-lifeguard and math prodigy uncover Silicon Valley’s nuclear-terror secret	NO
	Tear the City Down, Andre Hardy	Crime	A San Diego fixer’s photo assignment plunges him into deadly corruption	YES
	The Bookseller, Tim Sullivan	Mystery	DS George Cross investigates a murdered bookseller amid rival dealers	MAYBE
	The Lost Perfumes of Paris, Christine Wells	Historical Fiction	A young perfumer enters a Paris competition to save her family’s business	NO
	The Pirate Queen, Ariel Lawhon	Historical Fiction	Grace O’Malley risks everything to defend her Irish clan against England	NO
	The Sleeping Sisters, Jennifer Givhan	Horror	A mother and a detective collide as desert murders awaken buried horror	NO
Read with Jenna	The Witches of Cambridge, Alice Hoffman	Fantasy	Two 1950s Radcliffe students join a secret witch society as girls vanish	NO
Reader’s Digest	The Women in White, Sarah Pekkanen	Mystery	Carer for an elderly woman uncovers 1960s psychic experiments’ secrets	MAYBE
Reddit	2010: Odyssey Two, Arthur C. Clarke	Science Fiction	Soviet-US crew investigates the Jupiter monolith and derelict spaceship Discovery	YES
	Among the Burning Flowers, Samantha Shannon	Fantasy	Human resilience through gripping, tragic events set in the Priory world	NO
	City of Illusions, Ursula K. Le Guin	Science Fiction	Amnesiac man journeys across alien-ruled Earth to recover his true identity	NO
	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick	Science Fiction	Bounty hunter pursues rogue androids in post-apocalyptic Earth, basis for Blade Runner	YES
	Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges	Short Stories	Labyrinthine tales of infinite libraries and forking, imaginary worlds	NO
	Hungry Ghosts, Kevin Jared Hosein	Historical Fiction	1940s Trinidad farmhand becomes watchman after a landowner vanishes	NO
	Katabasis, R.F. Kuang	Fantasy	Cambridge grad students journey into Hell to rescue advisor	YES
	Parisian Days, Banine	Memoir	Young emigre flees forced marriage for freedom among 1920s Paris artists	NO
	Platform Decay, Martha Wells	Science Fiction	Murderbot must extract a group of humans from a ruthless corporation	YES
	Shattered Gods, Katee Robert	Romance	Hermes seeks revenge when murdered Circe resurfaces alive in Olympus	YES
	Sweet Berries, C.M. Nascosta	Romance	Event planner falls for a charming mothman who watches at her window	MAYBE
	The Blue Castle, L.M. Montgomery	Romance	Misdiagnosed spinster abandons her stifling family to finally live freely	NO
	The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins	Mystery	A cursed Indian diamond vanishes the night it’s inherited	NO
	The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie	Mystery	Poirot investigates the poisoning of a wealthy heiress at an English estate	YES
	The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson	Horror	London lawyer uncovers the deadly secret linking Jekyll and Hyde	NO
	The Trouble With Peace, Joe Abercrombie	Fantasy	A fragile peace collapses into conspiracy, betrayal, and rebellion across the Union	NO
	The Vegetarian, Han Kang	Literary Fiction	A woman’s refusal to eat meat unravels her family	NO
Reese	Big Little Truths, Liane Moriarty	Contemporary Fiction	Monterey mothers face new threats as their children reach high school	NO
Richard & Judy	The Cove, Lj Ross	Mystery	Trauma survivor flees to Cornish bookshop, gets pulled into local murder	NO
Service 95	Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar	Literary Fiction	Iranian-American poet addict’s existential quest through martyrdom and family secrets	NO
Stacks	Brother, I’m Dying, Edwidge Danticat	Memoir	Haitian-American writer mourns her father and uncle amid immigration tragedy	NO
Sunriver	Bel Canto, Ann Patchett	Literary Fiction	Hostage taking, mitigated by music	NO
	House in the Cerulean Sea, Tj Klune	Fantasy	Uptight caseworker inspects an orphanage of magical, dangerous children	YES
	Marble Hall Murders, Anthony Horowitz	Mystery	Susan Ryeland reads a manuscript that encodes clues to a 20-year-old poisoning	MAYBE
TeaTime	Hello, Limerence, Momo Yamaguchi	Contemporary Fiction	Turning twenty-five, Mika chases desire through a Tokyo summer	NO
Zibby’s	Dad, Love Me, Matthew Quick	Memoir	Memoir confronting his aging father’s dementia and their fraught bond	NO
	When Lemons Give You Life, Anna Johnston	Contemporary Fiction	Retired Michelin-star chef secretly cooks in his nursing home kitchen	NO

Table lists all 77 current-month club picks. The 3 marked RETIRED (retired clubs) are shown for completeness and are not in the 74 “for consideration” figures.

Bestsellers

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Description	Me
Amazon Bestsellers	A Court of Mist and Fury, Sarah J. Maas	Fantasy	Traumatized Feyre, now High Fae, drawn to the Night Court’s ruler	YES
	Complete Book of Home Preserving, Judi Kingry; Lauren Devine	Cookbook	400 recipes for canning jams, pickles, and preserving food at home	NO
	Complete Canadian Curriculum Grade 4, Popular Book Company	Nonfiction	Grade 4 workbook covering math, English, social studies, and science	NO
	Cross Check, Chelsea Curto	Romance	NHL assistant coach and rookie player hide a forbidden romance	MAYBE
	Everything Delish, Jamie Milne	Cookbook	100+ simple recipes for confident, crave-worthy everyday home cooking	YES
	First Day Jitters, Julie Danneberg	Children’s	Nervous newcomer dreads her first day	NO
	Greek Out, Maria Koutsogiannis	Cookbook	120 Greek-rooted Mediterranean recipes bursting with sunshine and flavor	YES
	How the Light Gets In, Louise Penny	Mystery	Gamache investigates a woman’s disappearance while besieged within his own department	YES
	L’ Art de conjuguer, Collectif	Nonfiction	Reference dictionary conjugating twelve thousand French verbs	NO
	La societe-chalet, Jerome Blanchet-Gravel	Essays	Essays on risk-aversion and conformism in post-pandemic Quebec and Canada	MAYBE
	Our Class is a Family, Shannon Olsen	Children’s	A classroom where kids feel safe, included, and loved together	NO
	Protocols, Andrew D. Huberman	Self-Help	Science-based protocols for sleep, focus, exercise, nutrition, and personal growth	MAYBE
	The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz, Thomas Geve	Memoir	Child Holocaust survivor’s illustrated testimony of Nazi concentration camp horrors	NO
	The Daddy’s Girl, Sara Cate	Romance	Woman falls for her godfather, her father’s best friend	NO
	The Knave and the Moon, Rachel Gillig	Fantasy	Captive Sybil, now the king’s bride, plots to vanquish him	NO
	True Colors, Maya Alden	Romance	Silent data analyst falls for new CEO amid betrayal and healing	NO
Amazon Sales Kindle	Burn of the Everflame, Penn Cole	Romance	War engulfs Emarion as mortals move to eradicate the Descended	NO
	Face Off, Chelsea Curto	Romance	NHL’s fiery new woman player clashes with the star captain	NO
	Long Shadows (Memory Man Series), David Baldacci	Thriller	FBI consultant Amos Decker investigates a slain federal judge in Florida	YES
	Mac Meyers Needs Me, Helena Hunting	Romance	College fake-dating with her unattainable crush turns into real feelings	MAYBE
	Monstrous Serpent, E.V. Olsen	Romance	College hockey rivals fall for each other	NO
	Nobody Told Me Thrift Shops Sell Stolen Dragon Heirlooms, Lindsey Devin	Romance	Half-dragon shifter and law intern chase his stolen family heirlooms	NO
	Peaks and Promises, Claire Kingsley	Romance	Single mom’s tattooed diner regular shields her from a biker ex	NO
	Play Nice, Rachel Harrison	Horror	Renovating the childhood home her mother swore was possessed	NO
	Savage Truce, Michelle Heard	Romance	Bratva heiress must wed the ruthless pakhan she once knew	NO
	Spark of the Everflame, Penn Cole	Romance	Village girl Diem uncovers secrets in a world ruled by god-descended magic	NO
	The Bones Beneath My Skin, TJ Klune	Science Fiction	Journalist and ex-Marine protect a girl with an extraordinary secret identity	NO
	The Colony, Annika Norlin	Literary Fiction	Burned-out woman discovers a secretive seven-member forest commune in northern Sweden	NO
	The Girl Who Cried Bigfoot, Hazel Marie Wilde	Romance	Woman’s fake Bigfoot hotline for her lodge summons a real Bigfoot	NO
	The Incendiary, Lj Claren	Romance	Ary discovers her past was lies and wields untamed magic	NO
	The Pumpkin Spice Cafe, Laurie Gilmore	Romance	Woman inherits a small-town cafe and starts over in Dream Harbor	NO
	The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides	Thriller	A psychotherapist unravels why a woman shot her husband then stopped speaking	NO
	The Silversmith, Lj Claren	Romance	Orphaned heir with royal magic falls for her forbidden warrior trainer	NO
	Vengeful, V. E. Schwab	Fantasy	Marcella Riggins wields deadly new power over Merit	NO
	What About Us, Kristen Proby	Romance	Injured hockey player and childhood-friend physical therapist rekindle romance in Montana	NO
	Wrong Room, Right Billionaire, Mia Mara	Romance	Naked run-in with an older stranger becomes fake engagement to her boss	NO
Amazon Sales Print	2:00 PM: Building Under Pressure When Success Doesn’t Feel Like Success, Dwight Fraser	Memoir	Building 400 Subway restaurants under relentless pressure, hardship, and family loss	NO
	Absolute Batman Vol. 3: Devil’s Workshop, Scott Snyder	Graphic Novel	Batman faces the fallout after his explosive battle with Bane	NO
	Brooke’s Kitchen, Brooke Ervin	Cookbook	Approachable comfort-food recipes for weeknight dinners, baking, and special occasions	YES
	Collins Robert French Dictionary, Collins Dictionaries	Nonfiction	Bilingual English-French dictionary derived from the Collins Word Web	NO
	Complete Canadian Curriculum Grade 1, Popular Book Company	Nonfiction	Grade 1 workbook covering Math, English, Social Studies, and Science	NO
	Complete Canadian Curriculum Grade 2, Popular Book Company	Nonfiction	Integrated Grade 2 workbook covering math, English, social studies and science	NO
	Complete Canadian Curriculum Grade 3 Complete Canadian Curriculum 3 (Enriched), Popular Book Company	Nonfiction	Grade 3 all-in-one workbook covering math, English, social studies, science	NO
	Cozy Countdown, Coco Wyo	Nonfiction	24 mini advent coloring books of cozy Coco Wyo illustrations	NO
	Dog Man, Dav Pilkey	Graphic Novel	Dog Man foils a Robo Chief and word-erasing villain schemes	NO
	End Times Fascism, Naomi Klein	Nonfiction	Argues today’s fascists welcome ecological collapse rather than preventing it	NO
	Gruffalo Granny, Julia Donaldson	Children’s	The Gruffalo’s mother appears in the deep dark wood	NO
	Little Blue Truck’s Halloween, Alice Schertle	Children’s	Little Blue Truck and animal friends celebrate Halloween in costume	NO
	My First Library, Wonder House Books	Children’s	Ten board books introducing first concepts for babies and toddlers	NO
	Piano Adventures, Nancy Faber	Nonfiction	Beginner piano method teaching notes, rhythm, and sight-reading	YES
	PlantYou Quickies, Carleigh Bodrug	Cookbook	Speedy plant-based recipes, many doable in 30 minutes or less	NO
	Spooky Cutie, Coco Wyo	Nonfiction	Coloring pages of cozy ghosts, grim reapers, and zombie cats	NO
	The Altar of Pergamon, Jonathan Cahn	Thriller	A skeptic’s global quest uncovers dark mysteries of Pergamon’s ancient altar	MAYBE
G&M Can NF	Plants of the Pacific Coast, Jim Pojar; Andy MacKinnon; Leigh Joseph (styawat); Jamie Fenneman	Nonfiction	Field guide to 700-plus coastal plants from Alaska to Oregon	NO
G&M HC F	Delusional, James Patterson; James O. Born	Thriller	Bennett and Trilling chase anti-government bombers across New York and Montana	NO
G&M HC NF	Pardon My Book, Big Cat; Pft Commenter	Nonfiction	Ten-year anthology and guide to the Pardon My Take sports podcast	MAYBE
	Seventy, Ian Brown	Memoir	Journalist chronicles his seventy-first year, refusing to age quietly	NO
	The One Who Broke You Can’t Heal You, Najwa Zebian	Self-Help	Guide to releasing toxic relationship bonds and building healthy ones	MAYBE
	Too Sensitive, Sasha Hamdani; William Dodson	Self-Help	Reframes emotional sensitivity as a responsive nervous system, not a flaw	NO
	Where Do You Feel That in Your Body?, Simone Saunders	Self-Help	Somatic guide to reading your nervous system beyond talk therapy	NO
G&M PB F	Not a Word, Linwood Barclay	Thriller	Man finds his parents dead, then his mother phones alive	NO
	The Black Wolf, Louise Penny	Mystery	Gamache hunts an invisible foe after a terror attack proves diversion	YES
Indie HC F	Blacktail, Scott Hawkins	Fantasy	A wolf avenges his slain mate on her human owners	NO
	Daggerbound (Swordheart), T. Kingfisher	Romance	Disillusioned scholar frees an immortal warrior bound to an ancient sword	NO
	Daggermouth (The Heart Duology), H.M. Wolfe	Romance	Masked presidential heir and mercenary forced into political marriage	NO
	God’s Country, William Kent Krueger	Mystery	Ominous visions shadow Cork O’Connor’s Boundary Waters family trip	NO
	Paper Ghosts, Sarah Addison Allen	Contemporary Fiction	Granddaughter returns to unearth the Wester women’s family secrets	NO
	Scion, James Islington	Science Fiction	Enhanced assassin who kills the immortal confronts her past	NO
	Slewfoot, Brom	Horror	Outcast Puritan widow allies with an awakened ancient forest spirit	NO
	The Birthing Tree, Amanda Peters	Literary Fiction	Mi’kmaq woman returns home to confront long-buried family secrets	NO
	The Disappearers, Marlon James	Literary Fiction	Gay theatre troupe copes with aftermath of a homophobic attack	NO
	The Knave and the Moon (The Stonewater Kingdom), Rachel Gillig	Fantasy	Sybil fights to defeat the king as a mysterious knave rises	NO
	There Is No Antimemetics Division, Qntm	Science Fiction	Agents battle antimemes—ideas that erase memory and identity	NO
Indie HC NF	Ain’t Nobody’s Fool, Martha Ackmann	Biography	The life and times of country legend Dolly Parton	NO
	American Scoundrel, Kai Bird; Susan Goldmark	Biography	Roy Cohn’s ruthless rise from McCarthy to mentoring Donald Trump	NO
	Guinness World Records 2027, Guinness World Records	Nonfiction	Annual compendium of world record-breaking feats and facts	NO
	Homemaking with Babs, Barbara Costello	Nonfiction	Practical cleaning and homemaking routines for keeping a home	NO
	Humble Power, Ethan Willis	Self-Help	How humility multiplies personal growth, connection, and influence	NO
	I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson	Self-Help	Finding joy and meaning amid climate breakdown and dread	NO
	No Prophets, Jared Huffman	Nonfiction	Congressman exposes Christian nationalism’s threat to church-state separation and democracy	NO
	Nobody Broke Your Heart, Jamie Fisher	Biography	Biography of tragic 1990s singer-songwriter Elliott Smith	NO
	Notes to New Mothers, Rebecca Knight (ed.)	Essays	Sixty-five writers capture the raw reality of early motherhood	NO
	Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings, Jared Diamond	Nonfiction	Whether great leaders shape history or circumstances shape the outcome	NO
	Situated, Angela Duckworth	Self-Help	Find the people and places that bring out your best	NO
	The Best Dog in the World, Alice Hoffman (ed.)	Essays	Fourteen authors’ essays on the dogs who shaped their lives	NO
	The Castle, Jon Ronson	Narrative Nonfiction	Investigating the modern crisis of unraveling masculinity	NO
	The Final Solution to the Jewish Question, Dara Horn	Nonfiction	Confronts antisemitism’s myths and charts a path to a shared future	NO
	The Little Frog’s Guide to Hope, Maybell Eequay	Self-Help	Illustrated affirmations and comfort for keeping hope alive	YES
	The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, Jill Lepore	Nonfiction	A historian’s warning against replacing democracy with artificial intelligence	NO
	The Wreck of the Mentor, Eric Jay Dolin	Narrative Nonfiction	Shipwrecked whaleship Mentor’s crew survives among Palau’s Indigenous Micronesians	NO
	This Is About Running. This Is Not About Running., Chris Bennett	Self-Help	Nike’s head coach reframes running as a practice for life’s starts	NO
	Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise, Katherine Rundell	Essays	A spirited defence of reading children’s books as an adult	NO
Indie PB F	A Time of Witches, Madeline Martin	Historical Fiction	Dual-timeline: a 17th-century Suffolk witch trial echoes a modern woman’s haunting	NO
	Back for Blood, Shane Hawk (ed.)	Horror	More Indigenous dark tales of blood, monsters, and haunting	NO
	Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver	Literary Fiction	Appalachian boy endures poverty, foster care, and addiction seeking belonging	NO
	Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury	Dystopian	A book-burning fireman awakens and rebels against censorship	YES
	The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon	Historical Mystery	1789 Maine midwife investigates a body found in frozen river	MAYBE
	The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 2, Beth Brower	Historical Fiction	1883 London: witty Emma Lion’s journals of eccentric neighbours and kin	NO
Indie PB NF	Coming Up Short, Robert B. Reich	Memoir	Robert Reich’s memoir reflecting on his life and America	NO
	Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea, Emily Wilson	Nonfiction	Essayistic journeys through the great works of ancient Greek and Roman literature	NO
	Dark Renaissance, Stephen Greenblatt	Biography	Chronicle of Shakespeare’s dangerous, brilliant rival and his fatal genius	NO
	John & Paul, Ian Leslie	Biography	The Lennon-McCartney relationship that changed the cultural history of the world	NO
	Replaceable You, Mary Roach	Nonfiction	A tour of the engineered and replaced parts of human anatomy	MAYBE
	The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan	Memoir	Amy Tan’s illustrated daily journal of backyard birdwatching and nature	NO
	The Unsettling of America, Wendell Berry	Nonfiction	Critique of industrial agriculture’s damage to land, culture, and community	NO
	What in the World?!, Leanne Morgan	Memoir	A Southern comedian’s humorous take on life’s curveballs and blessings	NO
Indie YA	Our Strange Duet, Erin A. Craig	Fantasy	Soprano Christine caught between Raoul and the masked Phantom beneath the Opera	NO
	The Gods Will Sing Our Song, Autumn Krause	Fantasy	Interned Japanese American teens must free a god from their WWII camp	NO
NYT Advice	Everyday Eats, Alex Snodgrass	Cookbook	Fewer-ingredient, low-stress recipes from breakfast to after-dinner sweets	YES
	Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times, Skye Perryman	Nonfiction	How ordinary Americans can defend democracy and rights in their communities	MAYBE
	The Fast Cookbook, Caroline Chambers	Cookbook	100 complete-meal dinners each made in 30 minutes hands-on	YES
	The Protein Meal Prep Plan, Cassy Joy Garcia	Cookbook	30 weekly plans of high-protein, high-fiber meals from three ingredients	YES
NYT HC F	Daggerbound, T. Kingfisher	Fantasy	A timid scholar frees an immortal warrior from an enchanted sword	NO
NYT PB F	Lights Out, Navessa Allen	Romance	Trauma nurse’s masked online obsession turns dangerous when a stalker emerges	NO
NYT YA	Barbie: Dreamscape, Alex Aster	Fantasy	Left Fateless, Barbie journeys across magical realms to find her destiny	NO
	But I Hate Him, Page Powars	Romance	A perfectionist plots to make his academic rival fall for him	NO

Until the next book…do you see anything that interests you? Or that you have already read?

PolyWogg signature in green with a dark blue quill at the end.

Book clubs 2026-08: Getting back on track in August

August 26 2026

You might have noticed I’m a bit late again this month — I’m working on a big project related to my Calibre database, which has slowed me down; I was hoping to finish it quickly and get back to my book clubs. I didn’t, and it’s still going, but I wanted to get my lists out. I feel like I’m in a better position for September though! 🙂

For August, I monitored 39 active clubs, having retired the Natalie Portman book club. I also killed off the NYT Hardcover Non-Fiction bestseller list — 0 for 18, never once a pick. The remaining clubs gave me 58 rows for consideration, representing 47 new books for the database. Of the 47, I said Yes to 5, Maybe to 5, and No to 37. There were an additional 7 books from July that were catch-ups (late picks not yet revealed at the previous month’s post) — 1 Yes and 6 No.

I also considered Bestseller lists, which generated 150 other titles for possible consideration. Of those, I said Yes to 23, Maybe to 14, and No to 113.

This brings the year-to-date totals for 2026 to 1,096 books tracked, with me saying Yes to 20.5%, Maybe to 15.6%, and No to 63.9%. This compares with 2025, where Yes was 28.8%, Maybe 15.2%, and No 56.0%. I’m getting slightly more picky, but nowhere near the numbers I hope to get down to eventually.

Previous month’s catch-up

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Pick	Description	Me
BBC Radio 2	The Leveret, Anna Goldreich	Literary Fiction	July 2026	Grieving couple’s rural fresh start unravels; a wild hare fills the void	NO
	Time to Burn, Ellery Lloyd	Thriller	July 2026	Filmmaker documents time-travel tourism and chases a rogue traveler through history	YES
Good Morning America	Country People, Daniel Mason	Literary Fiction	July 2026	A doting father with a truffle-hunting dog in truffle-less land	NO
Jewish Book Council	Judy Blume: A Life, Mark Oppenheimer	Biography	July 2026	Biography of Judy Blume, champion of free speech in children’s literature	NO
	The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom, Talya Jankovits	Historical Fiction	July 2026	A Hasidic woman finds unexpected meaning in an unremarkable life	NO
Service 95	Free, Lea Ypi	Memoir	July 2026	Growing up in Stalinist Albania before and after communism’s collapse	NO
Zibby’s	Forty Love, Jane Costello	Romance	July 2026	Widowed single mom joins tennis club, chasing an old crush	NO

Current month — Book Clubs

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Description	Me
Amazon First Reads	Dreams of Earth and Sky, Shirley Perez West	Historical Fiction	1845 California ranchero’s daughter fights to save her family’s rancho	NO
	I’ve Got a New Complaint, Laurie Notaro	Essays	Brutally, hilariously unfiltered essays on being middle-aged-plus today	YES
	In the Killer’s Sight, Mike Omer	Thriller	K-9 officer hunts a serial killer who took her niece	NO
	Philippa Flynn’s Year of Panic and Piracy, Jacqueline Firkins	Contemporary Fiction	Burned-out professor and ex-cover model write romance in inherited seaside house	NO
	The Black Orchid, Loreth Anne White	Thriller	Nine guests on a luxury Aegean cruise with a killer aboard	NO
	The Getaway, Kieran Scott	Thriller	Three couples trapped in a Hamptons estate as secrets turn deadly	NO
	The Last Harbinger, Jeff Wheeler	Fantasy	Dragoon escorts a princess to save a kingdom from war	NO
	The Summer Between Us, Jennifer Probst	Romance	Former surf champion trains single father’s daughter in Hawaii	YES
Audacious	The Simp, Roshan Sethi	Literary Fiction	Unemployed actor lies into a job assisting an absurd Hollywood family	NO
Barnes & Noble	Sunlight Finds You, Laura Moriarty	Historical Fiction	1949 Florida teen’s romance triggers decades of secrets and betrayals	NO
BBC Radio 2	The House That Eats the Dead, Max Doty	Horror	Family’s dream home hides an insatiable hunger devouring the living	NO
	The Scandalous Ladies Football Club, Frances Quinn	Historical Fiction	1897 London schoolteacher forms Britain’s first women’s football team	NO
Belletrist	Girl’s Girl, Sonia Feldman	Literary Fiction	Three teenage best friends’ bond unravels after an unexpected kiss	NO
Black Men Read	A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines	Historical Fiction	A teacher visits a Black man condemned in 1940s Louisiana	NO
Book of the Month	Heart of Glass, Jennifer Hillier	Thriller	Serial killer recants confession; former friends confront the truth	NO
	Hello, Limerence, Momo Yamaguchi	Contemporary Fiction	Turning twenty-five, Mika chases desire through a Tokyo summer	NO
	In Cold Blood, Truman Capote	Nonfiction	True account of the 1959 Clutter family murders in Kansas	NO
	Meet Me in the Garden, Nina LaCour	Literary Fiction	A woman makes a shattering choice to save her family	NO
	Return to Sender, Stephanie Parente	Romance	Sisters road-trip to deliver an undelivered love letter	MAYBE
	The Poison Daughter, Sheila Masterson	Romance	Poison-kissed assassin married to the one man immune to her	MAYBE
	The Three Graces of Pearl Street, Elizabeth Wellington Rollins	Literary Fiction	Three generations of one family reckon with its complexities	NO
Elle Cordova	The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick	Science Fiction	Alternate history where the Axis powers won World War II	NO
Everyday Reading	No Purchase Necessary, Maria Marianayagam	Middle Grade	Sri Lankan boy wins million-dollar candy-bar prize, faces moral dilemma	NO
Good Housekeeping	Alan Opts Out, Courtney Maum	Literary Fiction	Burnt-out ad executive renounces manipulative capitalism after botching a milk pitch	NO
Good Morning America	Take What You Can, Naima Coster	Contemporary Fiction	Two best friends navigate motherhood between Brooklyn and southern France	NO
	The Hardest Ones to Fool, Christina Li	Young-Adult	Girl secretly dating three people investigates her best friend’s murder	MAYBE
GoodReads Mystery	Caller Unknown, Gillian McAllister	Thriller	Texas vacation kidnapping forces mother to commit crime to save daughter	NO
	The Perfect Son, Freida McFadden	Thriller	Mother fears her charming teenage son harmed a missing classmate	MAYBE
I Care About Books	Theo of Golden, Allen Levi	Literary Fiction	Stranger buys drawings, gives them to citizens	YES
Jack Carr	Empire of Ashes, James M. Scott	Nonfiction	Narrative history of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki	NO
Jeselnik	Little Eyes, Samanta Schweblin	Literary Fiction	Anonymous users worldwide inhabit robotic pets that spy on strangers’ lives	RETIRED
Jewish Book Council	A Time to Gather, Bruce Feiler	Nonfiction	Global exploration of rituals and how gatherings restore human connection	NO
	Remember to Eat and Other Stories, Meryl Ain	Short Stories	Linked stories of a Jewish mother and daughter across generations	NO
Katie Couric	Night Objects, Eli Raphael	Thriller	Grieving teen at elite boarding school joins secret society; murder follows	NO
Library Science	Repetition, Vigdis Hjorth	Literary Fiction	Norwegian novelist revisits a traumatic sixteenth year and family’s terrible sacrifice	RETIRED
Main Street Reads	Her Hidden Fire, Cliodhna O’Sullivan	Fantasy	Servant uses her magic to fake her master’s abilities	YES
	Rules for the Summer, Meghan Quinn	Romance	Candy-shop owner falls for her posh new summer neighbor	NO
	Sing Down the Moon, Robert Gwaltney	Literary Fiction	Cursed island girl seeks escape from a tree that sings the dead	NO
	The Franchise, Thomas Elrod	Fantasy	Actor challenges a studio’s immersive fantasy-world film franchise	NO
	The One Day You Were My Husband, Rosie Walsh	Thriller	Woman’s abducted first husband resurfaces twelve years after their wedding	YES
Mindy’s Book Studio	How to Ruin a Wedding, Elba Luz	Romance	A professional wedding saboteur fake-dates a charming client	MAYBE
Mocha Girls Read	The Book of Negroes, Lawrence Hill	Historical Fiction	Abducted African girl endures slavery in the American South	NO
Natalie Portman	Silent Spring, Rachel Carson	Nonfiction	Influential environmental classic that spurred tighter environmental regulations	RETIRED
PBS Books	Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir	Science Fiction	Save the world by finding aliens	YES
Read with Jenna	Sunlight Finds You, Laura Moriarty	Historical Fiction	1949 Florida teen’s romance triggers decades of secrets and betrayals	NO
Reader’s Digest	The God of the Woods, Liz Moore	Mystery	Kids disappear years apart at summer camp	MAYBE
Reddit	A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle	Young-Adult	Children tesser across dimensions to rescue a missing scientist father	YES
	Do They Hear You When You Cry?, Fauziya Kassindja	Memoir	Togo teen flees genital mutilation, seeks asylum, jailed in America	NO
	Flesh, David Szalay	Literary Fiction	Detached Hungarian István’s life from housing estate to London elite	NO
	Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, Nam-joo Cho	Literary Fiction	Korean woman’s life exposes systemic misogyny and institutional gender oppression	NO
	London Falling, Patrick Radden Keefe	Narrative Nonfiction	Family investigates teen son’s mysterious death in London’s criminal underworld	NO
	The Books of Jacob, Olga Tokarczuk	Historical Fiction	Charismatic 18th-century Jewish messiah figure roams Poland and Europe	NO
	Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™, Rebecca Roanhorse	Science Fiction	Native worker’s virtual-reality Indian Experience job and identity are stolen	NO
	Yesteryear, Caro Claire Burke	Historical Fiction	Fake rustic farmhouse influencer wakes up in real farmhouse life	MAYBE
Reese	The Wild Beneath, Kelly Anderson	Literary Fiction	Tsunami destroys her village; sailboat-raised teen navigates grief, love, and magic	NO
Service 95	Lost Lambs, Madeline Cash	Literary Fiction	Dysfunctional family pulled into billionaire criminal conspiracy by paranoid teen	NO
Stacks	Fish Tales, Nettie Jones	Literary Fiction	Free-spirited Black woman pursues pleasure across 1970s New York and Detroit	NO
Sunriver	Storm Warning, James Byrne	Thriller	Dez Limerick must crack a locked-down Arctic facility to rescue a friend	NO
	The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune	Fantasy	Uptight caseworker inspects an orphanage of magical, dangerous children	YES
TeaTime	Beginning Middle End, Valeria Luiselli	Literary Fiction	Mother and daughter journey to Sicily after a marriage collapses	NO
Zibby’s	Dad, Love, Me, Matthew Quick	Memoir	Memoir confronting his aging father’s dementia and their fraught bond	NO

Table lists all 61 current-month club picks. The 3 marked RETIRED (retired clubs) are shown for completeness and are not in the 58 “for consideration” figures in §1.

Bestsellers

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Description	Me
Amazon Read NF	Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey	Memoir	Actor’s memoir of life lessons drawn from decades of diaries	NO
	The Laws of Human Nature, Robert Greene	Self-Help	Guide to decoding human behavior and mastering emotional self-control	NO
Amazon Sales F	Just for the Plot, Meghan Quinn	Romance	Baseball player falls for his sister’s best friend and neighbor	YES
	Murdle, G. T. Karber	Mystery	One hundred murder-mystery logic puzzles solved by deduction	YES
	Threshing Day, Rebecca Yarros	Fantasy	Thirteen companion stories set in the Empyrean dragon-rider world	YES
Amazon Sales Kindle	An Object of Beauty, Steve Martin	Literary Fiction	Ambitious art dealer’s rise and fall in Manhattan’s fine-art market	NO
	Chasing Hope, Mads Rafferty	Romance	Brother’s best friend helps Evie rebuild while she hides a secret	NO
	Circe, Madeline Miller	Fantasy	Banished sorceress Circe forges her power across Greek myth	YES
	Claimed, Shona Knight	Romance	Escaped lab survivor finds safety with five protective alphas	MAYBE
	Colt, Jessica Peterson	Romance	City girl falls for a widowed Texas ranch foreman	NO
	Death Row (Alibis collection), Freida McFadden	Thriller	Death-row wife spots her supposedly dead husband among the visitors	NO
	Don’t Say Mafia, C.R. Jane	Romance	Las Vegas cocktail waitress relentlessly pursued by obsessed mafia boss	NO
	Haunting Adeline, H. D. Carlton	Romance	Stalked novelist uncovers her family home’s secrets and a trafficking vigilante	NO
	Picture This, Devney Perry	Romance	Longtime crush on best friend’s older brother reignites at wedding	NO
	Problematic Summer Romance, Ali Hazelwood	Romance	Grad student falls for brother’s older best friend at Sicilian wedding	NO
	Somewhere Beyond the Sea, TJ Klune	Fantasy	Arthur defends his island orphanage of magical children and found family	YES
	The Art of Almost Losing It, Alina Jacobs	Romance	Fake-dating romcom born from a fabricated boyfriend and a kidnapping	NO
	The Biggest Ideas in the Universe, Sean M. Carroll	Nonfiction	Accessible physics of space, time, and motion using real equations	YES
	The Fall Affair, Vi Keeland	Romance	Corporate New Yorker inherits a Tuscan vineyard and falls for its winemaker	NO
	The Intruder, Freida McFadden	Thriller	Woman alone in a storm-struck cabin finds a girl at the window	NO
	The Last to Drown, Noelle W. Ihli	Thriller	Whitewater rafting trip haunted by killings from seven years earlier	NO
	The Love Wager, Lynn Painter	Romance	Two dating-app friends bet on who finds love first	YES
	The Tenant, Freida McFadden	Thriller	Jobless man’s charming new tenant threatens to expose his secrets	NO
	The Wrong Brother, Sierra Voss	Romance	Woman seduces ex’s Bratva billionaire brother for revenge, gets pregnant	NO
Amazon Sales NF	1,000 Places to See Before You Die, Patricia Schultz	Nonfiction	A traveler’s life list of 1,000 destinations worldwide to visit	YES
	Hop dans le wok!, Christina Potvin; Quy Tam Vo	Cookbook	Nearly 100 accessible authentic Asian home recipes from YouTube creators	YES
	The Day After, Brian Tyler Cohen	Nonfiction	A progressive playbook for wielding power in a post-Trump America	NO
	What Happened Yesterday, Matt Sturniolo	Memoir	Sturniolo Triplet YouTuber’s memoir of loss, therapy, and viral fame	NO
Amazon Sales Print	A Court of Forgotten Melody, Sarah J. Maas	Fantasy	Seventh ACOTAR book; crumbling alliances face Koschei the Deathless	YES
	A Court of Splintered Harmony, Sarah J. Maas	Fantasy	Sixth ACOTAR book; Koschei the Deathless threatens the Fae territories	YES
	A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas	Fantasy	Huntress dragged into a lethal faerie court after killing a wolf	YES
	A Court of Thorns and Roses Paperback Box Set (5 books), Sarah J. Maas	Fantasy	Complete five-book box set of Feyre’s faerie romantasy saga	NO
	Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving, Judi Kingry	Cookbook	400 tested recipes for safe home canning and preserving	NO
	Brain Damage, Freida McFadden	Thriller	Brain-injured doctor reconstructs fragmented memories to name her attacker	NO
	Merriam-Webster’s French-English Dictionary, Inc. Merriam-Webster	Nonfiction	Bilingual French-English reference with 80,000+ entries and Canadian French	NO
	Pardon My Book, Big Cat	Nonfiction	Tenth-anniversary collection from the Pardon My Take sports podcast	NO
	Pokecology An Illustrated Guide to Pokemon Ecology, Pikachu Press	Nonfiction	Illustrated guide analyzing Pokemon ecologies using Pokedex data	NO
	The Killer Isn’t June, Sloane Pryce	Mystery	Logic puzzle: eliminate 46,000 cruise-ship suspects to find June’s killer	YES
	The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah	Historical Fiction	Two French sisters resist Nazi occupation during World War II	NO
	Throne of Glass Paperback Box Set, Sarah J. Maas	Fantasy	Complete eight-book box set of the bestselling assassin fantasy series	NO
G&M Can F	The Matchmaker’s Cottage, Kat Sloane	Romance	B&B owner reunites with childhood sweetheart amid celebrity matchmaking scheme	NO
	You’ll Love It Here, Natalie Sue	Contemporary Fiction	Woman loses job, becomes reluctant superintendent among nosy neighbours	NO
G&M Can NF	21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act, Bob Joseph	Nonfiction	Guide to the Indian Act’s impact and Indigenous reconciliation in Canada	NO
	A Nation of Tinkerers, Michael Rancic	Nonfiction	History of Canadian electronic music from 1945 to 1985	NO
	I’m Going to Break Your Heart, Chantal Kreviazuk; Raine Maida	Memoir	Rock musician couple chronicle their marriage, fame, and therapeutic journey	NO
	Trash!, Simon Pare-Poupart	Memoir	Montreal garbageman’s two decades in waste, blending memoir and social critique	NO
G&M HC F	Asha in Her Garden, Anita Rau Badami	Literary Fiction	Matriarch uproots India-to-Montreal life, tending a symbolic century-old garden	NO
	Cool Machine, Colson Whitehead	Literary Fiction	Harlem fence Ray Carney risks one last heist in 1980s New York	MAYBE
	My Person, Tea Mutonji	Literary Fiction	Twenty-year friendship fractures when one woman wants to unknow the other	NO
	Steelborn, Taylor J. LaRue	Fantasy	Notorious thief and cursed immortal warrior on a curse-breaking quest	NO
	The Butcher Legacy, Alaina Urquhart	Thriller	Forensic pathologist Wren Muller hunts a pastor linked to a caged killer	NO
	The True Meaning of Love, Danielle Steel	Romance	Ukrainians’ lives upended by Russia’s 2022 invasion	NO
	Under the Falls, Richard Russo	Literary Fiction	Ex-musician returns to hometown for benefit concert; a crime exposes betrayals	NO
G&M HC NF	Tell It to the Water, Donna Morrissey	Memoir	Newfoundland family memoir of love, grief, and a father’s return to hope	NO
	The Little Frog’s Guide to Life, Maybell Eequay	Self-Help	Affirmations and life lessons from the internet’s beloved mushroom frog	MAYBE
	The Story of Your Life, Kathryn Jezer-Morton	Nonfiction	How social media reshapes the stories we tell about our lives	NO
	What Happened to Liberal Democracy?, Daron Acemoglu	Nonfiction	Nobel economist argues for working-class liberalism to renew shared prosperity	NO
G&M PB F	Getting Away with Murder, Shari Lapena	Thriller	A couple plots to murder a wealthy relative for inheritance	NO
	Let’s Kiss and Tell, Joss Richard	Romance	Sex columnist and reporter fake-date and catch real feelings	YES
	Meet Me in Paris, Kristin Harmel	Contemporary Fiction	Nine Americans’ lives intertwine over one week in Paris	NO
	The Secrets We Hide, Karin Slaughter	Thriller	Sisters investigate a brutal small-town Georgia double shooting	NO
	You’ll Be Sorry, Lisa Gardner	Thriller	Newlyweds move into a lodge scarred by a vanished family	NO
Indie HC F	A Tender Age, Chang-rae Lee	Literary Fiction	Korean immigrant boy’s 1976 summer-camp reckoning with childhood trauma	NO
	A Trade of Blood, Robert Jackson Bennett	Fantasy	Detectives investigate a murder that could ignite a canton war	NO
	Dreamland, Olivie Blake	Fantasy	Aspiring actress enters a cursed Hollywood dynasty’s blood-soaked estate	NO
	Etna, Paul Yoon	Literary Fiction	Ex-military dog journeys homeward across a war-torn country	NO
	Ransom, Daniel Silva	Thriller	Retired spy Gabriel Allon hunts a missing billionaire’s vanished wife	NO
	Reliquary, Hannah Whitten	Horror	Woman at fiance’s island estate wake uncovers monstrous family secrets	NO
	Sea of Charms, Sarah Beth Durst	Fantasy	Sea-faring supply runner strikes a fake-dating deal amid revolution	YES
	Sunrise, Tea Obreht	Literary Fiction	Three timelines converge on a mysterious Wyoming ghost town	NO
	The Amateur, Chris Bohjalian	Thriller	Golf prodigy’s fatal accident spirals into scandal and courtroom reckoning	MAYBE
	The Lion & the Deathless Dark, Carissa Broadbent	Fantasy	Bounty hunter and vampire prince hunt gods in eternal darkness	MAYBE
Indie HC NF	1929, Andrew Ross Sorkin	Narrative Nonfiction	Narrative history of the 1929 Wall Street crash	NO
	A Walk in the Wood, Joseph Parent	Self-Help	Mindfulness meditations guided by Winnie the Pooh	NO
	Beyond the Prescription, Lucy McBride	Self-Help	A patient’s framework for navigating modern healthcare	MAYBE
	Catch the Devil, Pamela Colloff	Narrative Nonfiction	Con artist’s fake jailhouse confessions sent innocent men to death row	NO
	Enshittification, Cory Doctorow	Nonfiction	Why digital platforms decay and how to fix them	YES
	God Doesn’t Relapse, Matt Grace	Memoir	Memoir of addiction, redemption, and faith after decades of destruction	NO
	How Lucky Am I, Christian Watson	Self-Help	Illustrated Mr Skelly explores life’s ups, downs, and quiet meaning	NO
	On Courage, Julia Angwin; Ami Fields-Meyer	Nonfiction	How to be a dissident in an age of fear	NO
	Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, Samin Nosrat	Cookbook	Mastering good cooking through salt, fat, acid, and heat	MAYBE
	Separation of Church and Hate, John Fugelsang	Nonfiction	Comedian reclaims the Bible from fundamentalists, fascists, and religious frauds	NO
	The Book of Alchemy, Suleika Jaouad	Self-Help	A guide to journaling as creative practice and life meditation	NO
	The Creative Act, Rick Rubin	Self-Help	Creativity reframed as a way of being for everyone	YES
	The Cruelest Game, Matthew Futterman	Narrative Nonfiction	Reported access inside today’s pressured professional tennis stars	NO
	The Little Frog Sticker Book, Maybell Eequay	Nonfiction	700+ stickers of the Little Frog and woodland friends	MAYBE
	The Little Frog’s Guide to Self-Care, Maybell Eequay	Self-Help	Affirmations and life lessons from the internet’s mushroom frog	MAYBE
	The Nerd Reich, Gil Duran	Nonfiction	How Silicon Valley oligarchs wage war on democracy	NO
	This Is The Plan, Ben Wikler	Nonfiction	A people-powered plan to defeat MAGA and save democracy	NO
	This Land is Your Land, Beverly Gage	Narrative Nonfiction	A road trip through U.S. history	NO
	Triage, Claudia Rankine	Nonfiction	Two friends’ decades-long bond amid grief, violence, and collective loss	NO
	You Won’t Get Free of It, Rachel Aviv	Essays	Seven reported essays on mothers and daughters	NO
Indie PB F	Butter, Asako Yuzuki	Literary Fiction	Reporter obsessed with a cook suspected of killing lonely men	NO
	Devil, Sierra Simone	Romance	A man’s obsession becomes a year-long bargain with a ruined woman	NO
	Devotions, Mary Oliver	Poetry	Career-spanning selected poems celebrating nature and mindful attention	NO
	Devour Me, Emily Rath	Romance	A witch, wraith, and mortal entangle on a New England island	NO
	East of Eden, John Steinbeck	Literary Fiction	Two families entwine across generations in California’s Salinas Valley	NO
	Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry	Western	Retired Texas Rangers drive cattle 3,000 miles to Montana	NO
	North Woods, Daniel Mason	Historical Fiction	Centuries of inhabitants pass through one New England forest house	NO
	Piranesi, Susanna Clarke	Fantasy	A man inhabits an infinite labyrinth of tides and statues	NO
	Sunburn, Chloe Michelle Howarth	Literary Fiction	Secret first love between two girls in 1989 rural Ireland	NO
	Taiwan Travelogue, Shuang-zi Yang	Historical Fiction	Japanese novelist tours 1938 colonial Taiwan with her Taiwanese interpreter	NO
	The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones	Horror	Vampire Western reckoning with the 1870 Marias Massacre	NO
	The Midnight Library, Matt Haig	Literary Fiction	A library between life and death offers her unlived lives	YES
	The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller	Historical Fiction	The Trojan War retold through Patroclus, Achilles’s companion and lover	NO
	The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Volume 1, Beth Brower	Historical Fiction	Emma returns to 1883 London facing eccentric relatives and mysteries	NO
Indie PB NF	A Dumb Birds Field Guide to the Worst Birds Ever, Matt Kracht	Nonfiction	Humorous field guide ranking fifty of the worst bird species	NO
	A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn	Nonfiction	American history told from ordinary people and grassroots movements	NO
	A Philosophy of Walking, Frederic Gros	Nonfiction	Philosophy of walking, from Thoreau and Nietzsche to Rousseau and Kant	NO
	Baldwin, Nicholas Boggs	Biography	Biography of James Baldwin told through four formative loving relationships	NO
	Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott	Nonfiction	Warm, no-nonsense guide to writing and the writing life	MAYBE
	Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner	Memoir	Korean American memoir of food, grief, and losing her mother	NO
	Educated, Tara Westover	Memoir	Memoir of escaping a survivalist Idaho family through education	NO
	Forest Euphoria, Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian	Nonfiction	Mycologist celebrates queerness and fluidity across the natural world	NO
	Hidden Potential, Adam Grant	Self-Help	Science-backed guide to unlocking overlooked potential through character and learning	MAYBE
	How to Hide an Empire, Daniel Immerwahr	Narrative Nonfiction	Narrative history of America’s overseas territories and hidden colonial empire	NO
	How to Kill a Witch, Zoe Venditozzi; Claire Mitchell	Nonfiction	Scotland’s 150-year witch hunts and could they happen again	NO
	Just Kids, Patti Smith	Memoir	Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe as young artists in New York	NO
	King of Kings, Scott Anderson	Narrative Nonfiction	How the U.S. missed the 1979 Iranian Revolution against the Shah	NO
	Salt, Mark Kurlansky	Nonfiction	How salt shaped civilization, trade, war, and human history	NO
	The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green	Essays	Essays reviewing facets of the human-centered planet on five-star scale	NO
	The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron	Self-Help	Creative-recovery program built on morning pages and artist dates	NO
	The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson	Narrative Nonfiction	1893 Chicago World’s Fair architect and a serial-killer’s murder hotel	NO
	The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America, Matt Kracht	Nonfiction	Snarky humorous field guide mocking fifty common North American birds	NO
	The Fort Bragg Cartel, Seth Harp	Narrative Nonfiction	Drug deaths, overdoses and murder among Fort Bragg’s Special Forces	NO
	The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus	Essays	Philosophical essay on the absurd and living without inherent meaning	NO
	The Salt Stones, Helen Whybrow	Memoir	Vermont shepherd’s memoir of Icelandic sheep, farm, and family cycles	NO
	The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion	Memoir	Didion’s account of grief after her husband’s sudden death	YES
	Upstream, Mary Oliver	Essays	Essays on nature, wonder, and the writing life	NO
	World Travel, Anthony Bourdain; Laurie Woolever	Nonfiction	Posthumous travel guide blending Bourdain’s commentary with practical trip logistics	NO
Indie YA	Death Card, Jasmine Smith	Fantasy	New Orleans witch befriends the stranger fated to murder her	YES
	The Gilded Blade, Jennifer Lynn Barnes	Young-Adult	Hawthornes and players face centuries-old secrets and mind-bending puzzles	MAYBE
	The Giver, Lois Lowry	Dystopian	Boy inherits a controlled society’s suppressed memories, then flees	MAYBE
	The Iliad, Gareth Hinds	Graphic Novel	Graphic-novel retelling of Homer’s Trojan War epic	NO
NYT Advice	Cooking con Omi, Omi Hopper	Cookbook	Love letter to Puerto Rican home cooking in 100 recipes	YES
	Everyday Hallelujah, Phil Wickham; Matt Litton	Nonfiction	Finding deep joy through everyday acts of worship in Scripture	NO
	Never Worry About Money Again, Jesse Mecham	Self-Help	Spend money well by asking what each dollar is for	NO
	The Courage to Be Disliked, Ichiro Kishimi; Fumitake Koga	Self-Help	Adlerian psychology taught through a philosopher and young man’s dialogue	NO
	Unbreakable Courage, Max Lucado	Nonfiction	Facing anxiety and chaos with the courage of Elijah	NO
	What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking: Make It Fast, Caroline Chambers	Cookbook	100 complete meals in 30 minutes hands-on time	YES
NYT HC F	Daggermouth, H. M. Wolfe	Dystopian	Enemies-to-lovers dystopian romance in a masked surveillance state	NO
	The Unknown, Riley Sager	Thriller	Actress on a cursed Vermont island where women vanish	NO
NYT PB F	Adversary to the Villain, Hannah Nicole Maehrer	Fantasy	Villain’s assistant Evie faces a prophecy naming her the threat	NO
	Bonfire and Bliss Bookstore, Brittanee Nicole	Romance	Bookstore owner and returning author fake-date through a cozy fall	YES
	Insatiable, Leigh Rivers	Romance	Obsessive dark romance between Kade and the woman he watches	NO
	The Wedding People, Alison Espach	Literary Fiction	Divorced woman crashes a stranger’s wedding at a Newport hotel	MAYBE
NYT YA	Bridget & Gabe Are Not Okay, Lex Croucher	Romance	Queer Arthurian sequel following life after happily ever after	NO
	Rootbound, Margaret Owen	Fantasy	Rapunzel and Eugene uncover political intrigue at a neighboring kingdom’s ceremony	NO
	Thornbird, E. Kennedy	Thriller	Serial killer’s daughter becomes a suspect in a small Tennessee town	NO
	Wings of Reverie, Anna Bright	Fantasy	Frost fairy and dream-talent sparrow man battle dark magic in Winter Woods	NO

Every month, I keep thinking the # of bestseller items are going to drop considerably as so many titles stay on the lists for so long, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Until the next book…

Book clubs 2026-07: The noise drowned me out

August 22 2026

I worked on the list of books for July back in July, even though I wanted to just sit on the back deck and read all summer. I’d have invited you over, but, well, (shaking Kindle), “Book!”. But life got away from me, and I never did post the July list.

As I mentioned in June, some book clubs don’t post at the start of every month, so when I do my curation, I invariably miss some updates from delayed announcements. Last month, I curated before four clubs made five book announcements involving trickster gods, amnesiac ghosts, and a sniper. Sounds like a good mix. 🙂

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Pick	Description	Me
BBC Radio 2	Mrs. Dickens, Emily Howes	Historical Fiction	June 2026	Kate Hogarth’s marriage to Charles Dickens unravels amid his fame	NO
	The Girl with a Thousand Faces, Sunyi Dean	Fantasy	June 2026	Amnesiac ghost talker in Kowloon confronts a demon from her past	MAYBE
Good Morning America	Goldenborn, Ama Ofosua Lieb	Fantasy	June 2026	Ghanaian girl bargains with trickster god to catch a magical killer	YES
Oprah 2.0	Little Wonder, Sophie Chen Keller	Literary Fiction	June 2026	Chinese delivery worker searches for her lost piano-prodigy son	NO
Sunriver	The Fallen Man, Tony Hillerman	Crime	June 2026	Retired Leaphorn and Chee link a skeleton to a sniper shooting	YES

For the rest of the month, I added 69 new book club rows, with 66 distinct titles across those rows (with 7 from a previous month plus 3 duplicates within the month for an addition of 59 books to the database). I was more aggressive, though — I only said yes to 18, maybe to 8, and a whopping 43 were no. 🙂 (Including duplicates, of course). That sounds great, right? Except, cough, well, it was actually the highest yes rate of the year. Oops. 🙂

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Pick	Description	Me
Amazon First Reads	Fields of Asphodel, Callie Rowland	Romance	July 2026	Cursed daughter of Hades kidnaps her god-of-death groom	YES
	John Grebble Is Gone, Peter James	Thriller	July 2026	A man wakes to find himself declared dead and erased	YES
	The Oxford Detective Society, Faith Martin	Mystery	July 2026	Biographer probes a 1960s music icon’s mysterious death	YES
	Where Her Secrets Lie, Katie Tallo	Thriller	July 2026	Kickboxing grandmother battles an Ottawa crime boss and her past	YES
Book of the Month	Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt, Ben Reeves	Literary Fiction	July 2026	Death lives as an ordinary man and is embraced by neighbors	YES
	The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe	Narrative Nonfiction	July 2026	Test pilots and the Mercury Seven astronauts of America’s space race	YES
Elle Cordova	House of Suns, Alastair Reynolds	Science Fiction	July 2026	Immortal clones roaming the galaxy are hunted by a hidden enemy	YES
Good Morning America	Goldenborn, Ama Ofosua Lieb	Fantasy	June 2026	Ghanaian girl bargains with trickster god to catch a magical killer	YES
	Ruinous Ends, I.V. Marie	Fantasy	July 2026	Six former pupils fight for the afterlife’s fate at Blackwood Academy	YES
GoodReads Mystery	The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson	Thriller	July 2026	Journalist and hacker probe a wealthy family’s decades-old disappearance	YES
I Care About Books	Mind’s Eye, Douglas E. Richards	Science Fiction	July 2026	Amnesiac man with brain implant reads minds while hunted by assassins	YES
Reader’s Digest	The Bookbinder’s Secret, A.D. Bell	Historical Mystery	July 2026	Oxford bookbinding apprentice uncovers a deadly fifty-year-old secret in books	YES
Reddit	The Mystery of the Blue Train, Agatha Christie	Mystery	July 2026	American heiress murdered aboard the Blue Train; Poirot investigates	YES
Richard & Judy	Nash Falls, David Baldacci	Thriller	July 2026	FBI recruits businessman to bring down a global crime network	YES
	The Widow, John Grisham	Thriller	July 2026	Lawyer has secret rich client, but ends up looking guilty	YES
Sunriver	My Friends, Fredrik Backman	Literary Fiction	July 2026	Four friends’ life-changing summer hidden in a world-famous painting	YES
	The Brothers McKay, Craig Johnson	Mystery	July 2026	Sheriff Longmire hunts a hated rancher’s killer among four sons	YES
	The Fallen Man, Tony Hillerman	Crime	June 2026	Retired Leaphorn and Chee link a skeleton to a sniper shooting	YES

2026 so far

Total books tracked in 2026	881
Active curation clubs in 2026	37
Poly YES	191 (22%)
Poly MAYBE	151 (17%)
Poly NO	539 (61%)
Signal (YES + MAYBE)	39%

The full July club list

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Description	Me
Amazon First Reads	A Heartbeat at My Feet, Kristin Judd	Romance	Betrayed wife flees to Italy’s coast and finds new love	NO
	Dead Girls Tell No Tales, Carissa Ann Lynch	Thriller	Writer and teen bond over stories of missing girls turning real	NO
	Fields of Asphodel, Callie Rowland	Romance	Cursed daughter of Hades kidnaps her god-of-death groom	YES
	How to Ruin a Wedding, Elba Luz	Romance	A professional wedding saboteur fake-dates a charming client	MAYBE
	John Grebble Is Gone, Peter James	Thriller	A man wakes to find himself declared dead and erased	YES
	No Light But the Stars, Lindsay Jayne Ashford	Historical Fiction	Two Cornwall women three centuries apart bound by forbidden love	MAYBE
	Ransom, Leslie Wolfe	Thriller	Seductive socialite accused of murder as her secrets unravel	NO
	The Oxford Detective Society, Faith Martin	Mystery	Biographer probes a 1960s music icon’s mysterious death	YES
	When She Was Ours, Anna Nordberg	Literary Fiction	A wedding-night accident and a mother’s secret promise haunt sisters	NO
	Where Her Secrets Lie, Katie Tallo	Thriller	Kickboxing grandmother battles an Ottawa crime boss and her past	YES
Audacious	Pool House, Mary H.K. Choi	Literary Fiction	Mother and daughter rent out home, live in glass pool house	NO
Barnes & Noble	The Shampoo Effect, Jenny Jackson	Contemporary Fiction	Nepo-baby writer falls for a local in a Massachusetts beach town	NO
BBC Radio 2	It Could Have Been Her, Lisa Jewell	Thriller	Returning a lost dog leads Jane back to a house of horrors	NO
Belletrist	Voyagers, Meg Charlton	Science Fiction	Two former ‘alien abductees’ reunite as a mysterious Signal threatens Earth	NO
Black Men Read	Crusade for Justice, Ida B. Wells-Barnett	Memoir	Anti-lynching crusader recounts her life fighting racial injustice	NO
Book of the Month	Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt, Ben Reeves	Literary Fiction	Death lives as an ordinary man and is embraced by neighbors	YES
	Games, Anna Maria Volkova	Literary Fiction	Grad student’s darkly erotic affair with older Wall Street banker	NO
	In Stormy Weather, Chelsea Curto	Romance	Rival storm-chasing meteorologists fall for each other during hurricane season	NO
	Learning, Courtney Bush	Literary Fiction	A daycare teacher’s single Monday guiding three-year-olds in New York	MAYBE
	Pretty Dead Things, Kelsey Cox	Thriller	Secrets surface when a Texas beauty pageant turns deadly	NO
	The Great Wherever, Shannon Sanders	Literary Fiction	Woman inherits Tennessee farm watched over by four ancestral ghosts	NO
	The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe	Narrative Nonfiction	Test pilots and the Mercury Seven astronauts of America’s space race	YES
	The Shampoo Effect, Jenny Jackson	Contemporary Fiction	Nepo-baby writer falls for a local in a Massachusetts beach town	NO
	The Winged Game, Sophie Kim	Romance	Disgraced magical-sport star fake-dates the rival who ruined her career	NO
Elle Cordova	House of Suns, Alastair Reynolds	Science Fiction	Immortal clones roaming the galaxy are hunted by a hidden enemy	YES
Everyday Reading	Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, Jennifer Armstrong	Narrative Nonfiction	Shackleton’s crew survives Endurance trapped in Antarctic ice	NO
Good Housekeeping	Land, Maggie O’Farrell	Historical Fiction	Father and reluctant son map post-Famine Ireland in 1865	NO
Good Morning America	Ruinous Ends, I.V. Marie	Fantasy	Six former pupils fight for the afterlife’s fate at Blackwood Academy	YES
GoodReads Mystery	The Couple Next Door, Shari Lapena	Thriller	Couple’s baby vanishes while they attend a neighbor’s dinner party	NO
	The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson	Thriller	Journalist and hacker probe a wealthy family’s decades-old disappearance	YES
I Care About Books	Mind’s Eye, Douglas E. Richards	Science Fiction	Amnesiac man with brain implant reads minds while hunted by assassins	YES
Jack Carr	Skyring Water, Beau L’Amour; Louis L’Amour	Thriller	Cold War race for 30 tons of Nazi gold, 1961	NO
Jeselnik	Savages, Don Winslow	Crime	Laguna Beach pot dealers battle a Mexican cartel over kidnapped lover	NO
Katie Couric	Someone Else’s Husband, Kimberly McCreight	Thriller	Park Avenue wife’s husband arrested for murdering his mountain-trek mistress	NO
Library Science	Élisabeth, Eric Rohmer	Literary Fiction	Summer house guests flirt and swim during a 1939 heatwave	NO
Main Street Reads	Beneath Still Waters, Linny Mack	Romance	Burnt-out scientist and guarded ex-Navy SEAL face danger and slow-burn desire	NO
	Harmless Women, Rebecca Sharpe	Thriller	Grifter and her wealthy target end up on the run together	NO
	She Drinks the Light, Yasmin Angoe	Young-Adult	Teen uncovers family’s deadly secrets to save her island	NO
	The Unicorn Hunters, Katherine Arden	Fantasy	Duchess Anne of Brittany plots a secret wedding amid a unicorn hunt	NO
	Yesteryear, Caro Claire Burke	Historical Fiction	Fake rustic farmhouse influencer wakes up in real farmhouse life	MAYBE
Mocha Girls Read	One Leg on Earth, ‘Pemi Aguda	Horror	Inexplicable force haunts pregnant women as Lagos builds on reclaimed land	NO
Natalie Portman	Reflections in a Golden Eye, Carson McCullers	Literary Fiction	Desire and tragedy among soldiers and wives on a Southern army base	NO
Read with Jenna	The Shampoo Effect, Jenny Jackson	Contemporary Fiction	Nepo-baby writer falls for a local in a Massachusetts beach town	NO
Reader’s Digest	The Bookbinder’s Secret, A.D. Bell	Historical Mystery	Oxford bookbinding apprentice uncovers a deadly fifty-year-old secret in books	YES
Reddit	Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor	Fantasy	Nigerian-American albino girl discovers magic among the Leopard People	NO
	Call Us What We Carry, Amanda Gorman	Poetry	Poems on history, identity, and healing after a global pandemic	NO
	Ferdydurke, Witold Gombrowicz	Literary Fiction	Man wakes in a schoolboy’s body, infantilized across three milieus	NO
	North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell	Literary Fiction	Margaret Hale moves from rural south to industrial northern Milton	NO
	The Devils, Joe Abercrombie	Fantasy	Friar conscripts monsters and mercenaries to stop a warlord threatening the empire	MAYBE
	The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot	Literary Fiction	Brilliant Maggie Tulliver chafes against the narrow bounds of Victorian provincial life	NO
	The Mystery of the Blue Train, Agatha Christie	Mystery	American heiress murdered aboard the Blue Train; Poirot investigates	YES
	Where the Sidewalk Ends, Shel Silverstein	Poetry	Whimsical children’s poems and drawings of imaginative, fantastical worlds	NO
Reese	A Founding Mother, Stephanie Dray; Laura Kamoie	Historical Fiction	Abigail Adams shapes a young republic while John rises to power	NO
Richard & Judy	A Particularly Nasty Case, Adam Kay	Mystery	Grieving doctor suspects murder as his colleagues start dying	NO
	Boleyn Traitor, Philippa Gregory	Historical Fiction	Jane Boleyn spies and survives betrayal in Henry VIII’s court	NO
	Nash Falls, David Baldacci	Thriller	FBI recruits businessman to bring down a global crime network	YES
	Summer Island, Kristin Hannah	Contemporary Fiction	Estranged daughter returns to care for her famous radio-host mother	MAYBE
	The Secret of Secrets, Dan Brown	Thriller	Langdon races through Prague to save Katherine Solomon and the secret of human consciousness	MAYBE
	The Widow, John Grisham	Thriller	Lawyer has secret rich client, but ends up looking guilty	YES
Stacks	Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo	Narrative Nonfiction	Families struggle to survive in a Mumbai airport slum	NO
Sunnie Reads	The Winged Game, Sophie Kim	Romance	Disgraced magical-sport star fake-dates the rival who ruined her career	NO
Sunriver	My Friends, Fredrik Backman	Literary Fiction	Four friends’ life-changing summer hidden in a world-famous painting	YES
	The Brothers McKay, Craig Johnson	Mystery	Sheriff Longmire hunts a hated rancher’s killer among four sons	YES
TeaTime	The Waves, Virginia Woolf	Literary Fiction	Six friends’ soliloquies traced from childhood to old age	NO

Bestsellers

Bestsellers: 69 (across 19 sub-lists from Amazon, G&M, Indie and NYT)
YES: 17 (see below)
MAYBE: 9
NO: 43

Here is the list I said YES to, after removing all the books that were already in a club.

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Description	Me
Amazon Read NF	The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey	Self-Help	Powerful lessons in personal change through seven principle-centered habits	YES
Amazon Sales F	The Love Hypothesis, Ali Hazelwood	Romance	PhD student fake-dates a moody professor to convince her friend	YES
Amazon Sales Kindle	A Great Reckoning, Louise Penny	Mystery	Old map leads Gamache to a dead professor at the Surete academy	YES
	Never Lie, Freida McFadden	Thriller	Snowed-in couple uncovers a missing psychiatrist’s deadly taped secrets	YES
	Patient 7, Sabrina Wade	Thriller	Taped patient predicts murders as psychiatrist’s ex-wife hunts truth	YES
	The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid	Historical Fiction	Aging Old Hollywood icon reveals her life’s secrets to an unknown journalist	YES
	Verity, Colleen Hoover	Thriller	Writer hired to finish injured author’s series uncovers her chilling manuscript	YES
Amazon Sales NF	The Best Recipes in the World, Mark Bittman	Cookbook	More than 1,000 international everyday dishes to cook at home	YES
Amazon Sales Print	Meditations, Marcus Aurelius	Nonfiction	Roman emperor’s private Stoic reflections on virtue and self-discipline	YES
	The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas	Literary Fiction	French adventure novel of imprisonment and elaborate revenge	YES
G&M Can NF	A History of Canada in Ten Maps, Adam Shoalts	Narrative Nonfiction	Canada’s story told through ten explorers’ historic maps	YES
Indie HC F	Villa Coco, Andrew Sean Greer	Literary Fiction	Young archivist assists an eccentric widow at her crumbling Tuscan villa	YES
Indie PB F	The Someday Garden, Ashley Poston	Romance	Gardener at a Maine estate finds a man trapped in secret garden	YES
Indie PB NF	A Resistance History of the United States, Tad Stoermer	Narrative Nonfiction	Retells U.S. history through overlooked resistance movements since colonial times	YES
NYT Advice	Umma, Sarah Ahn; Nam Soon Ahn; America’s Test Kitchen	Cookbook	Korean mom and daughter share 100 family recipes and kitchen wisdom	YES
NYT HC F	Rocket’s Red Glare, James Patterson; Matt Eversmann	Thriller	Ex-Special Forces operators respond when presidential campaign is interrupted by murder	YES
NYT YA	The Heirs, Faridah Abike-Iyimide	Mystery	Five prodigy siblings investigate their billionaire father’s murder	YES

The full bestseller list

This is the list of all “new-to-me” books after removing ones already considered.

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Description	Me
Amazon Read F	The Butcher’s Masquerade, Matt Dinniman	Fantasy	Crawlers battle in jungle Hunting Grounds as tourist hunters enter game	MAYBE
Amazon Read NF	Regime Change, Maggie Haberman; Jonathan Swan	Nonfiction	Inside account of the first year of Trump’s second term	NO
	The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey	Self-Help	Powerful lessons in personal change through seven principle-centered habits	YES
	The Daily Stoic, Ryan Holiday; Stephen Hanselman	Self-Help	366 Stoic meditations with commentary, read one page per day	NO
Amazon Sales F	One Golden Summer, Carley Fortune	Romance	Photographer returns to lake town, falls for the boy she photographed	NO
	Seeking Persephone, Sarah M. Eden	Romance	Impoverished woman weds a scarred, ill-tempered duke to save family	MAYBE
	Tempting Venom, Rina Kent	Romance	Two hockey rivals’ violent rivalry becomes an addictive enemies-to-lovers romance	MAYBE
	The Love Hypothesis, Ali Hazelwood	Romance	PhD student fake-dates a moody professor to convince her friend	YES
Amazon Sales Kindle	A Great Reckoning, Louise Penny	Mystery	Old map leads Gamache to a dead professor at the Surete academy	YES
	Into the Fading Twilight, Catherine Cowles	Romance	Captivity survivor chases adrenaline while a protective single dad guards her	NO
	Just for the Summer, Abby Jimenez	Romance	Two cursed exes fake-date to cancel out their breakup curses	NO
	Locked In, Katelyn Taylor	Romance	Reality-TV contestants must fall in love to win a wedding	NO
	Love, Mom, Iliana Xander	Thriller	Daughter investigates whether her thriller-author mother’s fatal accident was really murder	NO
	My Emergency Contact is a Wolf Shifter, Roxie Ray	Romance	Guarded woman lists a wolf shifter as her emergency contact	NO
	Never Lie, Freida McFadden	Thriller	Snowed-in couple uncovers a missing psychiatrist’s deadly taped secrets	YES
	Patient 7, Sabrina Wade	Thriller	Taped patient predicts murders as psychiatrist’s ex-wife hunts truth	YES
	Shattered Promises, Linzvonc	Romance	Betrayed wife and cheating husband navigate divorce toward redemption	NO
	The Boyfriend, Freida McFadden	Thriller	Woman fears her perfect new boyfriend is a serial killer	NO
	The Five-Star Weekend, Elin Hilderbrand	Contemporary Fiction	After her husband’s death, a food blogger gathers four friends in Nantucket	MAYBE
	The Housemaid, Freida McFadden	Thriller	Maid for a wealthy family uncovers deadly household secrets	NO
	The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid	Historical Fiction	Aging Old Hollywood icon reveals her life’s secrets to an unknown journalist	YES
	Verity, Colleen Hoover	Thriller	Writer hired to finish injured author’s series uncovers her chilling manuscript	YES
	Vows of Blood and Deception, Aria Ashbrook	Romance	Rose reclaims her magic and title amid court intrigue and vengeance	NO
	Web of Vows and Vengeance, Aria Ashbrook	Romance	Stripped of magic, an underdog enters a brutal tournament against her enemy	NO
Amazon Sales NF	Cancel Me If You Can, Dave Portnoy	Memoir	How Portnoy built Barstool Sports, refusing critics who tried tearing him down	NO
	Complete Canadian Curriculum Grade 5, Popular Book Company	Nonfiction	Grade 5 workbook covering math, English, social studies, and science	NO
	Complete Canadian Curriculum Kindergarten, Popular Book Company	Nonfiction	Kindergarten workbook covering math, English, social studies, science, and arts	NO
	How the Earth Works, Michael E. Wysession; The Great Courses	Nonfiction	48 lectures on Earth’s geologic forces, earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis	NO
	My First Learn-to-Write Workbook, Crystal Radke	Children’s	Pen control, line tracing, and letter practice for young children	NO
	The Best Recipes in the World, Mark Bittman	Cookbook	More than 1,000 international everyday dishes to cook at home	YES
	The Hunger Code, Jason Fung	Self-Help	Reset your body’s fat thermostat to curb hunger and lose weight	NO
	The Jeeves Collection, P.G. Wodehouse	Short Stories	Omnibus of comic tales featuring valet Jeeves and Bertie Wooster	NO
Amazon Sales Print	Bob Books – Set 1, Bobby Lynn Maslen	Children’s	Phonics beginning readers introducing children to first sight words	NO
	Complete Canadian Curriculum Grade 6, Popular Book Company	Nonfiction	Integrated Grade 6 workbook covering math, English, science, social studies	NO
	Forgotten Home Apothecary, Nicole Apelian	Nonfiction	250 natural herbal remedies for common ailments, organized by body system	NO
	Heartstopper, Alice Oseman	Graphic Novel	A gay schoolboy and a rugby player fall in love	NO
	Love You More, Emily Giffin	Contemporary Fiction	Engaged NYC doctor’s high-school love resurfaces, forcing a reckoning	MAYBE
	Meditations, Marcus Aurelius	Nonfiction	Roman emperor’s private Stoic reflections on virtue and self-discipline	YES
	The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas	Literary Fiction	French adventure novel of imprisonment and elaborate revenge	YES
	Warriors Graphic Novel, Erin Hunter	Graphic Novel	Epic Clan adventure about rivalries, destiny, and a brave new warrior	NO
G&M Can F	Meet Me at the Lake, Carley Fortune	Romance	Fern reunites with Will nine years after a missed rendezvous	MAYBE
G&M Can NF	A History of Canada in Ten Maps, Adam Shoalts	Narrative Nonfiction	Canada’s story told through ten explorers’ historic maps	YES
	The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, Cory Doctorow	Nonfiction	Provocative guide to reclaiming life from exploitative AI	MAYBE
G&M HC F	Under the Oak Tree Volume 3, Suji Kim	Romance	Maxi flees the monastery to reach Riftan on the battlefield	NO
	Weddings, Danielle Steel	Romance	Wedding-dress designer and her daughters question love and commitment	NO
G&M HC NF	The God Test, Robert Wright	Nonfiction	AI as an evolutionary force posing a spiritual and political reckoning	MAYBE
G&M PB F	The Housemaid’s Wedding, Freida McFadden	Thriller	Millie faces death threats on her wedding day to Enzo	NO
Indie HC F	Villa Coco, Andrew Sean Greer	Literary Fiction	Young archivist assists an eccentric widow at her crumbling Tuscan villa	YES
Indie PB F	The Someday Garden, Ashley Poston	Romance	Gardener at a Maine estate finds a man trapped in secret garden	YES
Indie PB NF	A Resistance History of the United States, Tad Stoermer	Narrative Nonfiction	Retells U.S. history through overlooked resistance movements since colonial times	YES
	Is a River Alive?, Robert Macfarlane	Narrative Nonfiction	Journeys to rivers in Ecuador, India, Canada exploring their aliveness	NO
	Murderland, Caroline Fraser	Narrative Nonfiction	Links Pacific Northwest serial killers to toxic smelter pollution	NO
Indie YA	The Odyssey, Gareth Hinds	Graphic Novel	Odysseus battles monsters and storms on his long voyage home	MAYBE
	The Summer of Broken Rules, K.L. Walther	Romance	Grieving teen joins family assassin game at Martha’s Vineyard wedding	NO
NYT Advice	Always Remember, Charlie Mackesy	Self-Help	Four friends weather a storm, finding hope amid grief and fear	NO
	Shift Your Life, Joshua Giles	Self-Help	Break free from survival mode into your God-given calling	NO
	The King Is Coming, John Bevere	Nonfiction	A call to prepare spiritually for the return of Christ	NO
	Umma, Sarah Ahn; Nam Soon Ahn; America’s Test Kitchen	Cookbook	Korean mom and daughter share 100 family recipes and kitchen wisdom	YES
NYT HC F	Rocket’s Red Glare, James Patterson; Matt Eversmann	Thriller	Ex-Special Forces operators respond when presidential campaign is interrupted by murder	YES
	Thrilling Tales of Modern Men, Danny McBride	Short Stories	Ten stories probing fragile masculinity in modern American culture	NO
NYT HC NF	Communion, J. D. Vance	Memoir	Vance recounts his conversion to Catholicism and return to faith	NO
	Courage Can Save Us, Rye Barcott	Nonfiction	Ten veteran leaders confront courage and polarization in public life	NO
	The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, Walter Isaacson	Nonfiction	How Jefferson, Franklin and Adams crafted the Declaration’s second sentence	NO
	The U.S. Constitution, Melissa Murray	Nonfiction	Annotated, accessible guide to reading the U.S. Constitution today	NO
	View from the East Wing, Jill Biden	Memoir	Former First Lady recounts her four years in the White House	NO
	When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi	Memoir	Neurosurgeon confronts mortality after a stage IV lung cancer diagnosis	NO
NYT YA	A Prince Among Pirates, Katie Abdou	Romance	Runaway nobleman joins a pirate ship and falls for its captain	NO
	The Heirs, Faridah Abike-Iyimide	Mystery	Five prodigy siblings investigate their billionaire father’s murder	YES
	The Secret World of Briar Rose, Cindy Pham	Fantasy	Queer Sleeping Beauty retelling about grief, escapism, and dreaming	NO

Dropping a Club: Jeselnik

I’m slowly weeding clubs and sources from consideration, starting with those that don’t contribute to my “YES” column. They may be great books, but they are not right for my tastes.

Jeselnik’s Book Club is on the chopping block this month. It’s still in my list above, as is Library Sciences, but they become automatic retireds in the future.

Titles suggested (all time)	7
YES picks	0
Unique-YES (YES titles no other club surfaced)	0
Signal	0%

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Pick	Description	Me
Jeselnik	A Children’s Bible, Lydia Millet	Literary Fiction	June 2026	Twelve contemptuous children flee their drunken vacationing parents into apocalyptic climate chaos	NO
	Dept. of Speculation, Jenny Offill	Literary Fiction	April 2026	Wife navigates marriage, motherhood, and infidelity in fragmented prose	NO
	Mother Night, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.	Literary Fiction	March 2026	Nazi on trial in Israel	NO
	Paradais, Fernanda Melchor	Literary Fiction	February 2026	Mexican housing complex, two teenagers spiral into violence	NO
	Savages, Don Winslow	Crime	July 2026	Laguna Beach pot dealers battle a Mexican cartel over kidnapped lover	NO
	Stoner, John Williams	Literary Fiction	May 2026	Quiet bildungsroman of Missouri farm boy turned English professor	NO
	The Getaway, Jim Thompson	Thriller	January 2026	Heist-gone-wrong couple flees law toward mythical Mexican refuge El Rey	NO

Until the next book…

It’s not you, it’s me: my first book-club breakup

June 12 2026

I have over 40 general book clubs that I follow, with several having sublists / groups. My intent when I started was to see what was out there and get out of my reading comfort zone, at least insofar as I would see what was on offer. I combed through 2025, and the first six months of 2026. I have considered WAY too many books, that is clear.

But not only am I considering too many, some of the clubs almost seem like nothing but noise for me. Take this month’s demotion — Library Science, run by Kaia Gerber and Alyssa Reeder. I have been tracking their chosen titles for 10 picks over the last 18 months. Ten picks and ten solid no responses from me. I didn’t opt for ANY of them.

Ruins, Child by Giada Scodellaro (April 2026)
I Want to Show You More by Jamie Quatro (February 2026)
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (January 2026)
Make Sure You’re Around After You’ve Gone by David Lowery (January 2026)
Nymph by Stephanie LaCava (October 2025)
The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig (September 2025)
Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan (June 2025)
Early Thirties by Josh Duboff (March 2025)
The Wickedest by Caleb Femi (February 2025)
Set My Heart on Fire by Izumi Suzuki (January 2025)

None of them were “bad” books; they were simply not for me. They have a clear editorial bent, but the signal they are strongly laying down is not one I am picking up. Which means it isn’t simply “noise”, it’s just not the right signal for me. And so I bid adieu to the club. I fear I’m leaning a little too commercial in my old age, but there is only so much time for reading…

Yet I wonder…Have you read any of those ten books? Did I miss anything amazing?

Bestseller lists 2026-06: Round up the usual suspects

June 11 2026

I feel like I’m having an old gangster movie flashback sequence where maybe Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney or Edward G. Robinson are talking to some wiseguys, see, and they’re gonna listen, see. I went all in this month, see, casing every joint, err, bestseller list in town. Get the lay of the land, see. That’s just the way it is. You wanna make something of it? I didn’t think so.

Because I did, I did go all in. I had been doing some picking and choosing of bestseller sublists from the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, and an Indie association list. But there is Amazon too, see, and I can’t stop yammering like a wiseguy, cuz I want the whole racket.

When I consider a book on a bestseller list, the idea is to see which books the clubs haven’t covered or, alternatively, that many of the clubs chose books that weren’t on bestsellers lists to give other authors visibility. So unless **I** read the bestsellers lists to see what’s there, I theoretically won’t know about them other than through social media, displays in stores, etc.

I have a different approach to the BS lists (I swear I did not make that acronym up, others use it too!), in that if a book on a BS list is already in the database with a club, I just drop it. I don’t add it and label it an overlap, the way I do in my book club lists.

That sounds great, and on some sublists, I can skip up to half of the books because I’ve already considered them. But then I turn around and expand the coverage, see, and I’m back being a wiseguy.

This month, I added Amazon’s lists for Kindle (29), Fiction (6), NF (10), Most read fiction (8), most read nonfiction (9), and print combined (22). For the G&M, I expanded to seven sublists — Biography (9), Canadian Fiction (3), Canadian Nonfiction (4), Hardcover Fiction (6), Hardcover Nonfiction (5), Trade Paperback Nonfiction (10), and Trade Paperback Fiction (4). For the Indies, I am now tracking Hardcover Fiction (3), Hardcover Nonfiction (5), Bestsellers general (6), Trade Paperback Fiction (2), Trade Paperback Nonfiction (4), and Young Adult (12). Finally, I have five for the NYT — Hardcover Fiction (3), Hardcover Nonfiction (5), Trade Paperback Fiction (4), Young Adult Hardcover (3), and Advice/How-To/Self-help (9).

Yep, that’s a lot to consider, although it’s inflated by the first month, when bestseller sublists generate a lot of titles I haven’t seen before, while subsequent months drop to potentially fewer than 5 per sublist. That’s a total of 181 books, saying yes to just over a quarter of them (48), and maybe to another 1/5th (36). Or a whopping 46% to the positive side, if you’re playing along at home and don’t have a calculator. I’ll trim these in future months. In my limited defence, many of the additions included long-running bestsellers like the Harry Potter series, and others that I have read long ago. I’d guess about 20 of them are previously read, but they show up as YES for now.

For the YES group (48), I mentioned in my previous post that there are a lot of fake-dating plots — mostly because Elle Kennedy is so popular right now with her Off-Campus and related series, and I kind of like them. Shut up, real men can read romances. Heck, I’ll read the back of a cereal box too, doesn’t make me a nutritionist. I’m not defensive, YOU’RE defensive. 🙂 Anyway, here’s my list of books in the yes that most interest me:

30 yo virgin makes a checklist to change her status (Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It, Brooke Averick);
Detective with total recall (The Fallen, David Baldacci);
Detective on Catalina Island (Ironwood, Michael Connelly); and,
A logic puzzle with 18 clues to filter 50K suspects? (The Killer Isn’t Alice, Iris Starling).

For the MAYBE group (36), 17 are romances…but that first one? Hmm…plus another I might upgrade.

Librarian and a dragon (Nobody Told Me Dragons Use Libraries, Lindsey Devin)
Magical train revisits life (The Midnight Train, Matt Haig)

So, gents and dames, guys and dolls, that’s all they wrote this month, see…don’t be a wiseguy.

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Pick	Description	Me
Amazon Bestsellers – Best Seller Kindle	Bad Boy Era, Amy Daws	Romance	June 2026	Matchmaker falls for her best friend’s grumpy Irish rugby-star twin	NO
	Because I Killed Him, Edith Birde	Romance	June 2026	Disgraced low-citizen falls for the cousin of the man she killed	NO
	Between Tides & Thunder, Leena Kazak	Romance	June 2026	Healer princess bartered in marriage to an enemy storm-wielding commander	NO
	Binding 13, Chloe Walsh	Romance	June 2026	Bullied transfer student and a rugby star fall in love	MAYBE
	Caught Up, Liz Tomforde	Romance	June 2026	Pastry chef nannies for single-dad MLB pitcher over one summer	MAYBE
	Crown Me Yours, Liv Zander	Romance	June 2026	Cursed queen must wed and kill the god of Death	NO
	Desk & Deception, Wren Shaw	Romance	June 2026	Makeup artist makes her cheating lawyer fiancé grovel for forgiveness	NO
	Frozen Heart, Neva Altaj	Romance	June 2026	Caretaker enters arranged marriage with an obsessive older crime boss	NO
	In Her Own League, Liz Tomforde	Romance	June 2026	First female MLB team owner falls for her arrogant field manager	NO
	Just Playing for Keeps, Lauren Blakely	Romance	June 2026	Dating coach fake-dates the grumpy hockey star who saved her	MAYBE
	Love Song, Elle Kennedy	Romance	June 2026	College junior falls for the older musician who rejected her	YES
	Mile High, Liz Tomforde	Romance	June 2026	Arrogant hockey star clashes with flight attendant on team’s plane	MAYBE
	My Forever Girl, Laura Pavlov	Romance	June 2026	Childhood best friends become lovers when she returns home single	MAYBE
	Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo	Fantasy	June 2026	Ghost-seeing dropout polices the occult secret societies of Yale	MAYBE
	Nobody Told Me Dragons use Libraries, Lindsey Devin	Romance	June 2026	Orderly head librarian fated to a crash-landed dragon alpha	MAYBE
	Paper Rings, Brittanee Nicole	Romance	June 2026	First female NHL goalie coach falls for her single-dad star player	MAYBE
	Possession, Cassidy Vale	Romance	June 2026	Billionaire boss claims his collapsed assistant as his wife	MAYBE
	Quicksilver, Callie Hart	Romance	June 2026	Thief with secret alchemy powers is dragged into a Fae war	NO
	Shattered by the Currents, Nyssa Kathryn	Romance	June 2026	Woman fleeing a dangerous ex falls for her SEAL protector	MAYBE
	The Better Brother, Kai Lesy	Romance	June 2026	Jilted woman’s revenge deal with her ex’s Bratva half-brother turns real	NO
	The Dixon Rule, Elle Kennedy	Romance	June 2026	Cheerleader fake-dates the hockey-player neighbor she despises	YES
	The Graham Effect, Elle Kennedy	Romance	June 2026	Olympic-hopeful hockey player makes a deal with her grumpy rival	YES
	The Poison Daughter, Sheila Masterson	Romance	June 2026	Poison-kissed assassin married to the one man immune to her	MAYBE
	The Raven Scholar, Antonia Hodgson	Fantasy	June 2026	High Scholar hunts a killer among seven throne contenders	MAYBE
	The Right Move, Liz Tomforde	Romance	June 2026	NBA captain fake-dates his sister’s best friend and new roommate	MAYBE
	The Teacher, Freida McFadden	Thriller	June 2026	Math teacher and student circle a student-teacher affair scandal	MAYBE
	Vicious Devil, Michelle Heard	Romance	June 2026	Desperate woman’s deal with a mafia boss hides a marriage clause	NO
	Ward D, Freida McFadden	Thriller	June 2026	Medical student fights to survive a locked psych ward overnight	NO
	Wilful Cruelty, Rhys Dylan	Mystery	June 2026	Warlow probes a street killing and a manufactured haunting	MAYBE
Amazon Bestsellers – Best Selling F	Crown Me Dead, Liv Zander	Romance	June 2026	Gravedigger bargains to seduce and bury a cursed immortal king	NO
	Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, Dr. Seuss	Children’s	June 2026	Second-person rhyming verse on life’s journey through ups and downs	NO
	The Divorce, Freida McFadden	Thriller	June 2026	Spurned wife’s obsession with husband’s girlfriend curdles into deadly vengeance	NO
	The Fallen, David Baldacci	Thriller	June 2026	Total-recall detective Decker probes bizarre murders in a dying town	YES
	The Final Target, Nora Roberts	Romance	June 2026	Debut novelist becomes the obsession of a dangerous stalker fan	NO
	The Legacy, Elle Kennedy	Romance	June 2026	Four novellas revisit Off-Campus couples three years after graduation	YES
Amazon Bestsellers – Best Selling NF	A Dictionary of Color Combinations, Various	Nonfiction	June 2026	348 historical Japanese color-palette combinations from 1930s designer Wada	NO
	Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, Lindsay C. Gibson	Self-Help	June 2026	Therapist’s guide to healing from distant, rejecting, self-involved parents	YES
	Cozy Corner, Coco Wyo	Nonfiction	June 2026	Adult-and-kids coloring book of cozy, relaxing interior scenes	NO
	Don’t Believe Everything You Think, Joseph Nguyen	Self-Help	June 2026	Mindset guide arguing our thinking is the root of suffering	NO
	Fraiche and Simple, Tori Wesszer	Cookbook	June 2026	Dietitian’s 100+ make-ahead family recipes with eight-week meal plans	YES
	Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl	Nonfiction	June 2026	Psychiatrist’s Auschwitz account and his theory of finding meaning in suffering	NO
	Murdoku, Manuel Garand	Nonfiction	June 2026	Sudoku-style logic puzzles framed as illustrated mini murder mysteries	NO
	Murdoku Volume 2, Manuel Garand	Nonfiction	June 2026	Sudoku-style murder puzzles with a time-travel twist across eras	NO
	The Kids’ Book of Paper Love, Irene Smit; Astrid van der Hulst	Nonfiction	June 2026	Children’s paper-craft projects to fold, cut, collage, and share	NO
	The Killer Isn’t Alice, Iris Starling	Nonfiction	June 2026	Non-narrative logic puzzle: 18 clues filter 46,600 murder suspects	YES
Amazon Bestsellers – Most Read F	Fury Bound, Sable Sorensen	Fantasy	June 2026	Newly crowned queen and her direwolf face war and betrayal	MAYBE
	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling	Fantasy	June 2026	Second year: a hidden chamber’s monster petrifies Hogwarts students	YES
	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling	Fantasy	June 2026	Final book: Harry hunts Voldemort’s horcruxes in a wizarding war	YES
	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling	Fantasy	June 2026	Fourth year: Harry forced into the deadly Triwizard Tournament	YES
	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling	Fantasy	June 2026	Sixth year: Harry probes Voldemort’s past; Dumbledore falls	YES
	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling	Fantasy	June 2026	Ministry denies Voldemort’s return; Harry forms a secret defence group	YES
	Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling	Fantasy	June 2026	Orphaned boy discovers he’s a wizard, begins schooling at Hogwarts	YES
	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling	Fantasy	June 2026	Third year: escaped prisoner Sirius Black and the dementors	YES
Amazon Bestsellers – Most Read NF	Can’t Hurt Me, David Goggins	Memoir	June 2026	Navy SEAL’s rise from abuse and obesity through brutal self-discipline	MAYBE
	How To Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie	Self-Help	June 2026	Classic principles for likability, persuasion, and winning people over	YES
	Never Split the Difference, Chris Voss; Tahl Raz	Nonfiction	June 2026	FBI hostage negotiator’s tactics applied to everyday business negotiations	MAYBE
	Nobody’s Girl, Virginia Roberts Giuffre	Memoir	June 2026	Trafficking survivor’s account of Epstein abuse and her justice fight	NO
	Stop Letting Everything Affect You, Daniel Chidiac	Self-Help	June 2026	Strategies to stop overthinking, emotional reactivity, and self-sabotage cycles	YES
	The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene	Nonfiction	June 2026	Amoral strategy manual distilling power tactics from history and Machiavelli	YES
	The Mountain Is You, Brianna Wiest	Self-Help	June 2026	Why we self-sabotage and how to break the patterns	YES
	The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel	Nonfiction	June 2026	Nineteen essays arguing financial success depends on behavior, not intelligence	NO
	The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Mark Manson	Self-Help	June 2026	Counterintuitive argument for caring less and choosing values deliberately	YES
Amazon Bestsellers – Print Combined	100,000 Whys – The Big Journey for Curious Kids, Rayan Yale	Nonfiction	June 2026	Kids’ encyclopedia of big questions and fascinating answers across topics	NO
	Absolute Batman Vol. 1, Scott Snyder	Graphic Novel	June 2026	Reimagined origin: a Batman with no wealth, mansion, or butler	NO
	Back to Basics, Abigail Gehring	Nonfiction	June 2026	Illustrated guide to homesteading skills: cabins, livestock, canning, crafts	NO
	Cozy Cuties, Coco Wyo	Nonfiction	June 2026	Relaxing all-ages coloring book of cute animals and cozy gardens	NO
	Cozy Friends, Coco Wyo	Nonfiction	June 2026	All-ages coloring book of cute animals in cozy everyday scenes	NO
	I Love Dad with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle	Children’s	June 2026	Father’s Day picture book honoring dads with Carle’s caterpillar critters	NO
	I’m Going to Kindergarten!, Andrea Posner-Sanchez	Children’s	June 2026	Little Golden Book on an excited child’s first kindergarten day	NO
	InvestiGators: Weather or Not, John Patrick Green	Graphic Novel	June 2026	Gator detectives Mango and Brash investigate the city’s milk-water mystery	NO
	It’s Time to Say Goodnight, Wonder House Books	Children’s	June 2026	Board book guiding toddlers through a cozy bedtime wind-down routine	NO
	Just A Few Things I Love About You Dad, Erin Larkin; Kathleen Larkin	Nonfiction	June 2026	Fill-in-the-blank keepsake journal with twenty prompts celebrating dad	NO
	Just Me and My Dad (Little Critter), Mercer Mayer	Children’s	June 2026	Little Critter and his dad go camping and fishing outdoors	NO
	KPop Demon Hunters, Random House	Graphic Novel	June 2026	Graphic-novel retelling of Netflix’s film: K-pop trio battles demon boy-band	NO
	Le coupable n’est pas Léa, Zoe Ash	Mystery	June 2026	Solve Professor Duval’s murder via thirteen clues, thousands of suspects	NO
	Le coupable n’est pas Marie – Tome 1, Zoe Ash	Mystery	June 2026	Interactive whodunit puzzle: ten clues, 20,000 suspects, one culprit	NO
	Love You Forever, Robert Munsch	Children’s	June 2026	A mother’s lullaby spans her son’s whole life and beyond	NO
	Murdle Volume 1, G. T. Karber	Nonfiction	June 2026	100 grid-logic murder-mystery puzzles solved by deduction with Deductive Logico	NO
	The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle	Children’s	June 2026	A caterpillar eats through the week, then becomes a butterfly	NO
	This Summer Will Be Different, Carley Fortune	Romance	June 2026	Tourist and local rekindle a forbidden romance across PEI summers	MAYBE
	What Can I Say?, Catherine Newman	Nonfiction	June 2026	Illustrated kids’ guide with scripts for tricky social situations	NO
	Why a Daughter Needs a Dad, Gregory E. Lang	Children’s	June 2026	Rhyming picture book celebrating the father-daughter bond	NO
	Why a Son Needs a Dad, Gregory E. Lang	Children’s	June 2026	Rhyming picture book celebrating the father-son bond	NO
	Your Body Remembers What You’re Trying to Forget, T. Klein	Self-Help	June 2026	Somatic guide mapping 122 physical symptoms to their emotional roots	YES
Globe & Mail – Biography	Keeping My Sisters’ Secrets, Beezy Marsh	Biography	June 2026	Three sisters survive poverty and war in 1930s working-class London	NO
	Lightfoot, Nicholas Jennings	Biography	June 2026	Canada’s folk-pop troubadour: his songs, romances, and battle with alcohol.	NO
	Reckless Daughter, David Yaffe	Biography	June 2026	Music critic’s portrait of Joni Mitchell’s life, loves, and songs.	NO
	Recovery, Russell Brand	Self-Help	June 2026	Comedian reframes the twelve-step program as a guide for all addictions.	YES
	Seven Fallen Feathers, Tanya Talaga	Narrative Nonfiction	June 2026	Deaths of seven Indigenous students expose Thunder Bay’s systemic racism	MAYBE
	Stronger, Jeff Bauman; Bret Witter	Memoir	June 2026	Boston Marathon bombing survivor’s recovery and identifying the bomber	NO
	The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, Amy Schumer	Memoir	June 2026	Comedian’s candid essays on family, relationships, sex, feminism	NO
	The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls	Memoir	June 2026	Journalist recounts her chaotic, poverty-stricken childhood with dysfunctional, nomadic parents.	NO
	What Happened, Hillary Rodham Clinton	Memoir	June 2026	Clinton’s personal account of losing the 2016 presidential election.	MAYBE
Globe & Mail – Canadian Fiction	Every Summer After, Carley Fortune	Romance	June 2026	Second-chance lakeside romance with the boy next door, years later.	NO
	The Goal, Elle Kennedy	Romance	June 2026	Hockey player and driven law student collide over an unexpected pregnancy.	YES
	Wildwood, Elinor Florence	Contemporary Fiction	June 2026	Single mother inherits a remote Alberta farm, surviving a year off-grid.	NO
Globe & Mail – Canadian NF	Clock In, Emily Durham	Self-Help	June 2026	Recruiter’s no-nonsense guide to job hunting, networking, and career growth.	YES
	The High Road, Hank Idsinga	Memoir	June 2026	Toronto homicide detective recounts hunting killers, including Bruce McArthur.	NO
	The Injury Guide, Erin Boynton	Self-Help	June 2026	Orthopaedic surgeon’s guide to healing pain and moving freely for life.	YES
	The Myth of Normal, Gabor Mate; Daniel Mate	Nonfiction	June 2026	Physician argues modern culture’s trauma and stress drive chronic illness.	NO
Globe & Mail – Hardcover Fiction	A Parade of Horribles, Matt Dinniman	Fantasy	June 2026	Carl and Donut survive deadly dungeon races while plotting an insane gambit	YES
	Ironwood, Michael Connelly	Thriller	June 2026	Catalina Island detective partners with LAPD cold-case unit on linked mysteries	YES
	Our Perfect Storm, Carley Fortune	Romance	June 2026	Lifelong best friends collide at her wedding weekend, forcing long-avoided feelings	YES
	The Ballad of Falling Dragons, Sarah A. Parker	Romance	June 2026	Romantasy sequel: warrior queen and king race to prevent world-ending moonfall	NO
	The Gate of the Feral Gods, Matt Dinniman	Fantasy	June 2026	Carl and Donut battle across deadly biomes capturing castles for the stairwell	YES
	The Last Mandarin, Louise Penny; Mellissa Fung	Thriller	June 2026	Mother-daughter pair decode global cyberterror plot threatening US-China stability	NO
Globe & Mail – Hardcover NF	Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I’ve Cried About, Isabel Klee	Memoir	June 2026	NYC twentysomething fosters rescue dogs while navigating love, loss, and belonging	NO
	Suicidal Empathy, Gad Saad	Nonfiction	June 2026	Evolutionary psychologist argues misapplied empathy is driving Western civilizational decline	NO
	Take Me to Your Leader, Neil deGrasse Tyson	Nonfiction	June 2026	Astrophysicist explores alien biology, physics, and first-contact etiquette with humor	YES
	The Book of Birds, Robert Macfarlane; Jackie Morris	Nonfiction	June 2026	Lyrical portraits of fifty endangered birds, paired with Morris’s watercolour illustrations	NO
	This Is Me, Hayden Panettiere	Memoir	June 2026	Heroes and Nashville actress recounts Hollywood trauma, addiction, abuse, and lifequakes	YES
Globe & Mail – Trade PB Fiction	The Calamity Club, Kathryn Stockett	Historical Fiction	June 2026	Depression-era Mississippi women band together in an audacious scheme for survival	NO
	The Deal, Elle Kennedy	Romance	June 2026	Student tutors a hockey star for a fake date; feelings complicate things	YES
	The Mistake, Elle Kennedy	Romance	June 2026	Hockey player pursues the girl he wrongly dismissed; she makes him earn it	YES
	The Score, Elle Kennedy	Romance	June 2026	Campus womanizer meets his match in a no-nonsense pre-med student	YES
Globe & Mail – Trade PB NF	99, Wayne Gretzky; Kirstie McLellan Day	Memoir	June 2026	Gretzky weaves his career with hockey’s history and its heroes.	YES
	Elon Musk, Ashlee Vance	Biography	June 2026	Biographer traces Musk’s rise through PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX.	NO
	Homo Deus, Yuval Noah Harari	Nonfiction	June 2026	Historian predicts humanity’s future: data, AI, and the quest for godhood.	NO
	Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain	Memoir	June 2026	Chef exposes the drugs, chaos, and underbelly of professional restaurant kitchens.	NO
	Leonardo da Vinci, Walter Isaacson	Biography	June 2026	Leonardo’s art and science, reconstructed from thousands of pages of notebooks.	MAYBE
	Red Notice, Bill Browder	Memoir	June 2026	American financier’s fight against Russian corruption after his lawyer’s murder.	NO
	Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari	Nonfiction	June 2026	Big-history survey tracing humankind from cognitive revolution to modern civilization	MAYBE
	Shoe Dog, Phil Knight	Memoir	June 2026	Nike’s founder recounts building the company from a $50 startup.	NO
	The Innocent Man, John Grisham	Narrative Nonfiction	June 2026	Wrongful death-row conviction in a 1982 Oklahoma murder case	YES
	The Silk Roads, Peter Frankopan	Narrative Nonfiction	June 2026	Sweeping world history retold from the East and its trade routes.	NO
Indie Bestsellers – Hardcover Fiction	Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It, Brooke Averick	Romance	June 2026	Anxious almost-thirty virgin’s checklist quest to finally find love	YES
	The Midnight Train, Matt Haig	Fantasy	June 2026	Dying bookshop owner revisits his life aboard a magical train	MAYBE
	We Burned So Bright, TJ Klune	Literary Fiction	June 2026	Elderly married couple’s last road trip before a black-hole apocalypse	MAYBE
Indie Bestsellers – Hardcover NF	All We Say, Ben Rhodes	Nonfiction	June 2026	American identity traced through fifteen historic speeches, Franklin to Trump	NO
	America, U.S.A., Eddie S. Glaude	Nonfiction	June 2026	How America’s milestone anniversaries mask its unreckoned racial history	NO
	Here Where We Live Is Our Country, Molly Crabapple	Narrative Nonfiction	June 2026	The Jewish Bund’s rise, fall, and vision of diaspora solidarity	NO
	Make Believe, Mac Barnett	Nonfiction	June 2026	Kidlit author argues children’s books deserve serious artistic respect	YES
	The Land and Its People, David Sedaris	Essays	June 2026	Comic essays on travel, aging, and a jaded Duolingo bot	MAYBE
Indie Bestsellers	1984, George Orwell	Dystopian	June 2026	Citizen rebels against Big Brother’s total surveillance in totalitarian Oceania	YES
	Animal Farm, George Orwell	Literary Fiction	June 2026	Farm animals overthrow their farmer; pigs corrupt the revolution into tyranny	YES
	Lord of the Flies, William Golding	Literary Fiction	June 2026	Schoolboys stranded on an island descend from order into savagery	YES
	Mistborn: The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson	Fantasy	June 2026	Street thief joins Allomancer’s heist to topple an immortal god-tyrant	MAYBE
	The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank	Memoir	June 2026	A Jewish teenager’s diary while hiding from Nazis in Amsterdam	MAYBE
	The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson	Fantasy	June 2026	On storm-wracked Roshar, war rages as ancient knightly magic returns	YES
Indie Bestsellers – Trade PB Fiction	Angel Down, Daniel Kraus	Historical Fiction	June 2026	WWI soldiers find a fallen angel in No Man’s Land	NO
	Bromantasy, Maire Roche	Romance	June 2026	Two oblivious bros fall in love on a dragon quest	NO
Indie Bestsellers – Trade PB NF	Communion, bell hooks	Nonfiction	June 2026	Feminist examination of women’s search for love under patriarchy	NO
	Empire of AI, Karen Hao	Nonfiction	June 2026	Investigative exposé of OpenAI’s rise and AI’s hidden costs	NO
	The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben	Nonfiction	June 2026	A forester reveals how trees communicate and live socially	NO
	Things in Nature Merely Grow, Yiyun Li	Memoir	June 2026	A mother’s radical-acceptance memoir after losing both her sons	NO
Indie Bestsellers – YA	Behind Five Willows, June Hur	Romance	June 2026	Joseon-era book transcriber falls for the banned author she copies	NO
	Betting on You, Lynn Painter	Romance	June 2026	Teen waterpark coworkers fake-date while betting on others’ romances	MAYBE
	If He Had Been with Me, Laura Nowlin	Romance	June 2026	Childhood best friends drift apart; unspoken love ends in tragedy	NO
	Nothing Like the Movies, Lynn Painter	Romance	June 2026	College athlete plots rom-com gestures to win his ex back	MAYBE
	Rolls and Rivalry, Kristy Boyce	Romance	June 2026	Color guard captain’s D&D campaign sparks romance with rival drummer	NO
	The Book Thief, Markus Zusak	Historical Fiction	June 2026	Death narrates a book-stealing foster girl’s life in Nazi Germany	YES
	The Faraway Inn, Sarah Beth Durst	Fantasy	June 2026	Heartbroken teen helps run great-aunt’s Vermont inn hiding magical secret	MAYBE
	The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton	Literary Fiction	June 2026	Greaser teen Ponyboy navigates class warfare between greasers and Socs	YES
	The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky	Literary Fiction	June 2026	Introverted freshman navigates friendship, trauma and first love through letters	MAYBE
	The Summer of Second Chances, K. L. Walther	Romance	June 2026	Gap-year teen retraces grandmother’s Martha’s Vineyard summers, finds romance	MAYBE
	To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before the Graphic Novel, Jenny Han	Graphic Novel	June 2026	Teen’s five secret love letters get mailed, upending her love life	NO
	Young World, Soman Chainani	Thriller	June 2026	Teen elected US President becomes murder suspect amid global youth revolution	NO
NYT Bestsellers – Advice/How-To	18 Days in Heaven, Gabe Poirot	Memoir	June 2026	Pastor’s near-death testimony of an 18-day coma heaven encounter	NO
	Atomic Habits, James Clear	Self-Help	June 2026	Building good habits and breaking bad ones through tiny changes	YES
	Birth Vibes, Jen Hamilton	Self-Help	June 2026	Labor and delivery nurse’s guide to empowered, self-advocating childbirth	NO
	Dig In!, Erin O’Brien	Cookbook	June 2026	Food influencer’s stress-free weeknight recipes rooted in Mexican heritage	YES
	Make Your Bed, William H. McRaven	Self-Help	June 2026	Navy SEAL admiral’s ten life lessons from grueling training	MAYBE
	Money Unlocked, John Lee	Self-Help	June 2026	Self-made millionaire’s strategies for building wealth and passive income	YES
	Spain My Way, Jose Andres; Sam Chapple-Sokol	Cookbook	June 2026	Spanish chef’s collection of beloved home-country recipes and stories	YES
	The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, Charlie Mackesy	Self-Help	June 2026	Illustrated fable: a boy, mole, fox and horse share life wisdom	NO
	Unreasonable Hospitality, Will Guidara	Self-Help	June 2026	Eleven Madison Park co-owner’s leadership lessons on exceptional hospitality	NO
NYT Bestsellers – Hardcover Fiction	26 Beauties, James Patterson	Mystery	June 2026	Detectives hunt dozens of missing young women in San Francisco	NO
	Broken Dove, Dani Francis	Romance	June 2026	Double agent torn between rebellion and love in dystopian war	NO
	The Shippers, Katherine Center	Romance	June 2026	Woman woos her first crush at a sister’s cruise-ship wedding	MAYBE
NYT Bestsellers – Hardcover NF	All American Patriotism, Rachel Campos-Duffy	Nonfiction	June 2026	Patriotic stories, photos, and documents marking America’s 250th anniversary	NO
	How to Rule the World, Theo Baker	Memoir	June 2026	Student journalist exposes power and excess at Stanford University	NO
	Liar’s Kingdom, Andrew Weissmann	Nonfiction	June 2026	Former prosecutor’s case for laws against political lying	NO
	The Case for America, Bret Baier	Nonfiction	June 2026	Journalist’s argument defending America’s founding ideals at its 250th	NO
	The Education of a Senator, Lamar Alexander; Jon Meacham	Memoir	June 2026	A senator’s six decades in politics across ten presidencies	NO
NYT Bestsellers – Trade PB Fiction	Rules for the Summer, Meghan Quinn	Romance	June 2026	Candy-shop owner falls for her posh new summer neighbor	NO
	Score, Kennedy Ryan	Romance	June 2026	Second-chance romance between a screenwriter and a musician	NO
	The Daisy Chain Flower Shop, Laurie Gilmore	Romance	June 2026	Unlucky florist fake-dates a newcomer to lift a shop curse	NO
	The Knight and the Moth, Rachel Gillig	Romance	June 2026	Diviner and a knight quest through a gothic, faith-bound kingdom	NO
NYT Bestsellers – YA Hardcover	Better Than the Movies, Lynn Painter	Romance	June 2026	Rom-com-obsessed teen enlists her next-door nemesis to win her crush	MAYBE
	Storm Breaker, Nisha J. Tuli	Dystopian	June 2026	Climate-ravaged New Manhattan academy; storm-wielding girl hides lethal secret	NO
	Us Dark Few, Alexis Patton	Romance	June 2026	Wrongly jailed girl, ruthless prison captain, dystopian enemies-to-lovers	NO

The PolyBlog

My view from the lilypads

Category Archives: Lilypad Reviews

Book clubs 2026-09: Dropping the hammer

Current month — Book clubs

Bestsellers

Book clubs 2026-08: Getting back on track in August

Previous month’s catch-up

Current month — Book Clubs

Bestsellers

Book clubs 2026-07: The noise drowned me out

2026 so far

The full July club list

Bestsellers

The full bestseller list

Dropping a Club: Jeselnik

It’s not you, it’s me: my first book-club breakup

Bestseller lists 2026-06: Round up the usual suspects