Ah, the fresh scent of June and my birthday month. There are lots of interesting books for me to consider reading on my birthday. First, though, there are some gifts from last month that weren’t posted in time for my roll-up, even though I said no to all of them!

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Description	Me
BBC Radio 2	Dissection of a Murder, Jo Murray	Thriller	Young barrister defends accused killer against prosecutor husband	NO
	John of John, Douglas Stuart	Literary Fiction	Art-school dropout returns to Hebridean croft, faces devout father	NO
Oprah 2.0	John of John, Douglas Stuart	Literary Fiction	Art-school dropout returns to Hebridean croft, faces devout father	NO

I’ve also been wondering about having more of a Sci-Fi input from SOMEWHERE, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out the video star Elle Cordova (The Grammarian) has her own sci-fi book club. I added all 18 of her choices to my tracker, although I didn’t say yes to QUITE all of them (8 yes although I’ve already read 2 of them + 2 maybe).

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Pick	Description	Me
Elle Cordova	Contact, Carl Sagan	Science Fiction	November 2025	Radio astronomer detects alien intelligence and fights to build a machine to meet them.	YES
	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick	Science Fiction	June 2025	Bounty hunter pursues rogue androids in post-apocalyptic Earth, basis for Blade Runner	YES
	Exhalation, Ted Chiang	Short Stories	April 2026	Nine science fiction stories probing free will, memory, time, and consciousness.	NO
	Hyperion, Dan Simmons	Science Fiction	June 2026	Seven pilgrims travel to face the mysterious Shrike on a doomed world called Hyperion.	NO
	I, Robot, Isaac Asimov	Short Stories	March 2025	Nine stories exploring robot ethics through psychologist Susan Calvin’s career	YES
	If the Dead Belong Here, Carson Faust	Literary Fiction	January 2025	Indigenous girl goes missing; sister unravels family trauma, ghosts, and colonial legacy	MAYBE
	Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro	Science Fiction	August 2025	Solar-powered android watches humans from a store, yearns to be chosen	YES
	Neuromancer, William Gibson	Science Fiction	March 2026	Burned-out hacker recruited for a last-chance cyberspace heist by a rogue AI.	YES
	Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler	Science Fiction	May 2025	Young Black woman survives societal collapse, founds new religion Earthseed	NO
	Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir	Science Fiction	February 2026	Save the world by finding aliens	YES
	Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel	Science Fiction	May 2026	Time-travel detective uncovers a shared anomaly linking lives across five centuries.	YES
	Service Model, Adrian Tchaikovsky	Science Fiction	February 2025	Robot valet accidentally kills his master, wanders post-apocalyptic world seeking purpose	NO
	Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.	Science Fiction	December 2025	POW witness to Dresden firebombing comes “unstuck in time”	NO
	Solaris, Stanislaw Lem	Science Fiction	October 2025	Scientists studying an ocean-planet find it projecting their repressed memories as living people.	NO
	The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin	Science Fiction	September 2025	In a world of world-ending seasons, a woman hunts for her kidnapped daughter across a dying land.	NO
	The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams	Science Fiction	July 2025	Earthman hitchhikes across the galaxy after Earth is demolished	YES
	The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin	Science Fiction	April 2025	Human envoy navigates gender-fluid alien society on ice world to negotiate alliance	NO
	The Power, Naomi Alderman	Dystopian	January 2026	Women develop the ability to electrocute at will; global power structures collapse and invert.	MAYBE

For the remaining book clubs, I’ve generated 107 titles. Combined with the above, that gives another 125 in total for the database, with 27 yes, 22 maybe, and 76 no. Still way too many, and it is time to start weeding clubs too. Not that such moves will help — I’m mostly just dumping ones that don’t generate any YES picks anyway. And I haven’t even posted about the larger best-seller lists I included this month to see what kind of data they would give me. I’ll cover all of that in other posts.

Of the too-many yes votes, I am most looking forward to:

• aliens (Contact, from Elle Cordova’s Sci-Fi list, the Carl Sagan book on which the movie with Jodie Foster was made);
• a fake-dating romance (called Dolly all the Time by Annabel Monaghan and, no, I don’t know why about eight different fake dating romances showed up on my yes or maybe list after I watched the Off-Campus series);
• portals into books (the Astral Library by Kate Quinn);
• a podcaster suspected of murdering their cohost (This Story Might Save Your Life, Tiffany Crum);
• an involuntary time-traveller jumping forward in time (like Kes from Voyager except she jumped backward, this one is the book, The Traveler by Joseph Eckert); and,
• a Greek mythology boarding academy, and I don’t care if it is for middle grade (The Aftermyth, Tracy Wolff).

Of my maybe list, I would consider upgrading these three to YES if there is time:

• PI investigating father’s hidden life (The Safe Room, Lisa Unger);
• Dead husband left confession of youthful crime (What Remains of You, Kimberly Hensle Lowrance); or,
• A detective helping a client find a missed connection on a plane (The Missed Connection, Tia Williams).

Are there any books you’re looking forward to this month? If you are, DON’T TELL ME! I have too many already 🙂

Until the next book…

Book Club	Title & Author	Genre	Description	Me
Amazon First Reads	A Single Captive Spark, Emberly Ash	Fantasy	Human servant and changeling enemy forced together; magic, betrayal, dark romance.	NO
	A Voice in the Dark, Barbara Nickless	Thriller	FBI profilers hunt an online radicalization predator linked to two family massacres.	NO
	Happier Here With You, Amy Gail Hansen	Contemporary Fiction	Widow discovers WWII family history at Wisconsin farm; food and second chances.	NO
	The Date, T.H. Murdock	Thriller	Acquitted actor joins friends’ road trip; murder follows, echoing his original charge.	MAYBE
	The Delivery, Gregg Hurwitz	Thriller	AI humanoid helper delivered to struggling family turns menacing and dangerous.	NO
	The Museum of Second Chances, Jo Leevers	Contemporary Fiction	Cornwall beachcomber runs quirky museum; lost objects unlock community secrets and her origins.	MAYBE
	The Safe Room, Lisa Unger	Thriller	PI investigates her dying father’s hidden life — surveillance room, weapons, mob cash	MAYBE
	The Sky Beneath Her, Mary Ellen Taylor	Contemporary Fiction	Returns to Outer Banks; WWII shipwreck secrets tied to her drowned mother.	NO
	The Tomorrow Tree, Carolyn Brown	Romance	Woman returns to Texas hometown; second-chance romance beneath a childhood oak tree.	NO
	What Remains of You, Kimberly Hensle Lowrance	Thriller	Widow opens time capsule; dead husband’s youthful crime confession upends her grief.	MAYBE
Audacious	John of John, Douglas Stuart	Literary Fiction	Art-school dropout returns to Hebridean croft, faces devout father	NO
Barnes & Noble	Valley of the Moms, Hannah Selinger	Thriller	PTO mom snaps at queen bee, turns up dead; husband becomes suspect	NO
Belletrist	Hunger and Thirst, Claire Fuller	Horror	Teenage outcast commits violent act to belong; decades later her past resurfaces	NO
Black Men Read	Razorblade Tears, S.A. Cosby	Thriller	Two ex-con fathers — one Black, one white — avenge their murdered married sons	NO
Book of the Month	Main Characters, Bobby Palmer	Romance	London couple’s love story told entirely through friends, flatmates, exes, and strangers	NO
	Nymph, Sofia Montrone	Literary Fiction	Italian girl working at grandmother’s mountain hotel falls for an American woman	NO
	Summer’s Never Over, Darby Bozeman	Thriller	Camp heiress returns to confront a suspicious death and two ex-boyfriends	NO
	The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger	Literary Fiction	Disaffected teenager Holden Caulfield wanders New York after expulsion, railing against phonies	YES
	The Children, Melissa Albert	Fantasy	Children written into mother’s fantasy series confront its dark reality	NO
	The Lowe Job, Grace Alexander	Contemporary Fiction	Lowe family parlays one woman’s political affair into fame, fortune, and chaos	NO
	The Missed Connection, Tia Williams	Romance	Casting agent enlists a detective to find her mysterious seatmate from Paris	MAYBE
	The Shrouded Queen, Ashley Tropea	Fantasy	Slave and princess swap fates during an attack in an ancient-Egypt-inspired world	MAYBE
	Worry Doll, Laura McPhee-Browne	Literary Fiction	Melbourne train encounter ignites an obsessive, mismatched sapphic affair	NO
Everyday Reading	Swim Team, Johnnie Christmas	Middle Grade	Bree conquers fear of water, joins school swim team, uncovers pool-segregation history	NO
Good Housekeeping	Whistler, Ann Patchett	Literary Fiction	Woman reunites with ex-stepfather after decades; both haunted by shared long-buried memory	NO
Good Morning America – Adult	Dolly All the Time, Annabel Monaghan	Romance	Single mom fake-dates wealthy scion in seaside Rhode Island; feelings become real	YES
GoodReads Mystery	It’s Not Her, Mary Kubica	Thriller	Murder in a cabin, missing kid	YES
	We Used to Live Here, Marcus Kliewer	Horror	House-flippers let in a stranger claiming the home; his family won’t leave	NO
Jack Carr	The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel, Douglas Brunt	Narrative Nonfiction	Alfred Nobel’s nephew built Russia’s petroleum empire; the Revolution erased it	NO
Jeselnik	A Children’s Bible, Lydia Millet	Literary Fiction	Twelve contemptuous children flee their drunken vacationing parents into apocalyptic climate chaos	NO
Jewish Book Council – Fiction	Like Wafers in Honey, Leah Eskin	Historical Fiction	Italian-Jewish family flees 1943 Pitigliano; Holocaust survival, recipes across timelines	MAYBE
Jewish Book Council – Nonfiction	Milena and Margarete, Gwen Strauss	Narrative Nonfiction	Forbidden love between two women in Ravensbrück concentration camp	NO
Main Street Reads – Banter	The Mountains We Call Home, Kim Michele Richardson	Historical Fiction	Packhorse Librarian Cussy Lovett unjustly imprisoned, finds new calling in Kentucky prison	MAYBE
Main Street Reads – Fantasy	The Astral Library, Kate Quinn	Fantasy	Library with portals into beloved novels	YES
Main Street Reads – Kids	Harper Sharp: Kid Detective, Jarrett Williams	Middle Grade	Fifth-grade detective Harper unravels plot threatening his school’s Inventors’ Fair	NO
Main Street Reads – Romance	Seek the Traitor’s Son, Veronica Roth	Dystopian	Enemy soldiers Elegy and Rava share prophecy of one’s victory	NO
Main Street Reads – Thriller	This Story Might Save Your Life, Tiffany Crum	Thriller	Survival podcaster goes missing, cohost is suspect.	YES
Mindy’s Book Studio	Two Lives with You, Lauren Ho	Contemporary Fiction	A chance for a do-over to see life without partner	MAYBE
Mocha Girls Read	These Ghosts Are Family, Maisy Card	Historical Fiction	A man’s stolen identity ripples through a Jamaican family across three centuries	NO
Poisoned Pen – British	I, Spy, L.M. Kemp	Thriller	Ex-spy mother is dragged back into espionage with her four-year-old in tow	MAYBE
Poisoned Pen – Cozy	Murder Most Delicious, Danielle Postel-Vinay	Mystery	American sommelier’s Paris reboot ends when her celebrity chef boss is poisoned	NO
Poisoned Pen – Crime	Storm Warning, James Byrne	Thriller	Dez Limerick must crack a locked-down Arctic facility to rescue a friend	NO
Poisoned Pen – Historical	A Perfect Hand, Ayelet Waldman	Historical Fiction	Scheming lady’s maid falls for the valet next door in 1880s England	NO
	Butterfly Games, Kelly Scarborough	Historical Fiction	Fourteen-year-old Swedish countess falls for the crown prince amid palace intrigue	NO
Poisoned Pen – Mystery	Daughters of the Sun and Moon, Lisa See	Historical Fiction	Three Chinese women survive anti-Chinese violence in post-Civil War Los Angeles	NO
	My Name Was Gerry Sass, Tiffany Hanssen	Thriller	Dead Iowa hitman narrates from purgatory while his daughter hunts his killers	MAYBE
	The Traveler, Joseph Eckert	Science Fiction	Man begins involuntarily leaping forward in time in ever-doubling intervals	YES
Poisoned Pen – Romance	The Summer Share, Jenn McKinlay	Romance	Two strangers discover they’ve co-inherited the same Outer Banks beach house	MAYBE
PolyWogg	City of Intellect, Nicholas B. Dirks	Narrative Nonfiction	Berkeley’s ex-chancellor recounts crises, argues for reforming the university	NO
	Empire of AI, Karen Hao	Nonfiction	Investigative exposé of OpenAI’s rise and AI’s hidden costs	NO
	Flesh, David Szalay	Literary Fiction	Detached Hungarian István’s life from housing estate to London elite	NO
	Global Higher Education in Times of Upheaval, Simon Marginson	Nonfiction	Scholar analyzes global higher education amid geopolitics and decolonization	NO
	Higher Education in China, Gerard A. Postiglione	Nonfiction	Surveys China’s vast state-directed higher education system and 2035 ambitions	NO
	Higher Education, State and Society, Lili Yang	Nonfiction	Compares Chinese and Anglo-American higher-education traditions and the public good	NO
	Oblivious, Elaine Dewar	Narrative Nonfiction	Investigates Canada’s segregated Indian hospitals and settler obliviousness	NO
	Peak Higher Ed, Bryan Alexander	Nonfiction	Futurist forecasts decline and possible futures for US higher education	MAYBE
	Perfection, Vincenzo Latronico	Literary Fiction	Millennial expat couple chase a perfect Berlin life, find ennui	NO
	Success Factors of Innovative Universities, Dara Melnyk	Nonfiction	Doctoral study of success factors at three innovative universities	NO
	The Pivot, Robert J. Bliwise	Narrative Nonfiction	Journalist traces Duke University’s pandemic response through campus-wide interviews	NO
	The Synthetic University, James L. Shulman	Nonfiction	Argues shared cross-institutional services can curb higher education’s rising costs	YES
PolyWogg – To be read	A Far-Flung Life, M.L. Stedman	Historical Fiction	1958 outback Australia: a truck accident shatters a sheep-station family across generations.	NO
	A Montreal Cook, Lesley Chesterman	Cookbook	Award-winning Montreal chef shares 90+ recipes celebrating the city’s food culture.	YES
	All’s Well, Mona Awad	Horror	Chronic-pain theater professor staging Shakespeare makes a Faustian bargain with strange men.	YES
	Apple, David Pogue	Nonfiction	Illustrated 50-year history of Apple: origins, near-death, Jobs’s return, and Tim Cook’s empire.	YES
	Cut to Black, Rod Black; Jim Lang	Nonfiction	Canadian sportscaster Rod Black’s 40-year memoir: Blue Jays, figure skating, and 9/11 live.	NO
	Fever Dream, Elsie Silver	Romance	Bull rider joins a reality dating show to save his ranch; falls for the location consultant.	NO
	Girls Just Wanna Have Sun, Rachel Lacey	Romance	Woman at lakefront vacation risks rekindling a sapphic romance with the one that got away.	YES
	I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Iain Reid	Thriller	Woman on road trip to meet boyfriend’s parents secretly plans to break up with him.	NO
	Keeper of Lost Children, Sadeqa Johnson	Historical Fiction	Post-WWII Germany: three interconnected lives tied to real Brown Baby Plan	NO
	Lights Out, Jenni Fletcher	Young-Adult	Broke university student agrees to fake-date an F1 bad boy to fix his reputation.	MAYBE
	Oh My Affogato!, Donna Ghorbanpoor; Daphne Ang	Young-Adult	Teen plans an Italy trip to win back her situationship; friendship secrets complicate everything.	NO
	One Hot Summer Wedding, Falon Ballard	Romance	Woman attends estranged friend’s Costa Rica wedding; forced proximity with the bride’s brother.	YES
	Recursion, Blake Crouch	Science Fiction	Detective and neuroscientist race to stop a memory-distorting epidemic unraveling reality.	YES
	S’more of You, Tessa Bailey	Romance	Camp counselors nurse an eight-year mutual crush through pranks and rivalry.	YES
	Save a Horse, Keep the Cowboy, Jessica Peterson	Romance	Country music star returns home; faces the cowboy who chose his ranch over her.	YES
	Summer Staycation, Sarah Grunder Ruiz	Romance	Neurodivergent woman in Florida finds grounding with a travel blogger over one weekend.	YES
	Summer Thaw, Rebecca Jenshak	Romance	Woman thaws toward a charming hockey player over one summer encounter.	YES
	The Aftermyth, Tracy Wolff	Middle Grade	Girl sorted into the wrong house at a Greek mythology boarding academy; fate has other plans.	YES
	The Caretaker, Marcus Kliewer	Horror	Broke woman accepts a Craigslist caretaking job at a strange house; rites must be followed.	NO
	The Chambermaid’s Key, Genevieve Graham	Historical Mystery	1929 Toronto hotel chambermaid uncovers a gangster’s murder on the eve of the Crash.	NO
	The Hike, Drew Magary	Fantasy	Businessman stranded in a surreal, deadly wilderness hunts the mysterious “Producer” to escape.	MAYBE
	The Last House on Needless Street, Catriona Ward	Horror	Boarded-up house, unreliable narrators — man, girl, and cat — hide a stolen child’s truth.	NO
	The Rainshadow Orphans, Naomi Ishiguro	Fantasy	Misfit outcasts in a corrupt city unite around a stolen dragon pearl to defy an emperor.	NO
	The Underwearwolf, Gideon Sterer	Middle Grade	Boy ignores the warning on magic underwear, transforms into a werewolf under the full moon.	NO
	Unsettling Salad!, Aaron Reynolds	Middle Grade	Two junk-food-loving critters forced to eat a salad; the broccoli bites back.	NO
	Villain, Natalie Zina Walschots	Science Fiction	The Auditor escalates her campaign to dismantle the superhero industry from within.	MAYBE
Read with Jenna	The Children, Melissa Albert	Fantasy	Children written into mother’s fantasy series confront its dark reality	NO
Reader’s Digest	Good Joy, Bad Joy, Mikki Brammer	Contemporary Fiction	Eighty-something Joy breaks rules with terminally-ill best friend Hazel	NO
Reddit – Discovery	Gilead, Marilynne Robinson	Literary Fiction	Dying preacher writes his son about faith, grace, and an old wound	YES
Reddit – Evergreen	The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky	Literary Fiction	Three brothers clash over murder, money, and God in 19th-century Russia	MAYBE
Reddit	George Eliot: The Last Victorian, Kathryn Hughes	Biography	How George Eliot’s scandalous private life shaped Victorian England’s greatest female novelist	NO
	Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng	Contemporary Fiction	Secrets collide in planned suburban Shaker Heights when a free-spirited artist arrives	NO
	No Name, Wilkie Collins	Literary Fiction	Illegitimate sisters stripped of their inheritance; Magdalen schemes obsessively to reclaim it	MAYBE
	The Devils, Joe Abercrombie	Fantasy	Friar conscripts monsters and mercenaries to stop a warlord threatening the empire	MAYBE
	The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai	Historical Fiction	AIDS devastates 1980s Chicago; a survivor searches Paris for her estranged daughter	NO
	The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot	Literary Fiction	Brilliant Maggie Tulliver chafes against the narrow bounds of Victorian provincial life	NO
Reddit – World	I’m Not Going Anywhere, Rumena Buzarovska	Short Stories	Macedonian women flee poverty abroad, finding new forms of desolation	NO
Reese	A Pair of Aces, Marie Benedict; Victoria Christopher Murray	Historical Fiction	Black prosecutor and Manhattan madam unite to bring down Lucky Luciano	NO
Service 95	Having Spent Life Seeking, Kae Tempest	Literary Fiction	Ex-prisoner Rothko returns to hometown, reckoning with their past	NO
Stacks	The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho	Literary Fiction	Andalusian shepherd crosses the Sahara chasing prophetic dream of buried treasure	NO
Sunriver – Fiction	Inland, Tea Obreht	Historical Fiction	Frontierswoman and ghost-haunted outlaw converge in drought-ridden 1893 Arizona	NO
Sunriver – Mystery	The Fallen Man, Tony Hillerman	Mystery	Leaphorn and Chee link decade-old Ship Rock skeleton to fresh sniper killing	MAYBE
TeaTime	Mare, Emily Haworth-Booth	Literary Fiction	Childfree woman facing early menopause finds unexpected obsession caring for another’s horse	NO
Zibby’s	The Burning Side, Sarah Damoff	Contemporary Fiction	Family saga from alternating views after devastating house fire	NO

In my last post, I noted that I’m monitoring 40+ book clubs for “new to me” titles to consider putting on my TBR pile. There is an inherent challenge that I’m saying yes or maybe to between 15-20% of the titles, which is WAY MORE BOOKS THAN I CAN READ. I’ll have to trim those down.

In the meantime, I realized that the various book club announcements are not set for the first of the month for every club. Some don’t even announce on a schedule — just randomly, some day during the month. That triggers my OCD and analytical annoyance genes. Which means when I review, say, the books for January, not all the books are out. And then I do February, and might miss late announcements from January when I only review the February announcements. And so on for each subsequent month. I can miss titles.

I say to myself (while rubbing my hands together with an evil laugh), I can use AI to go back and find those gaps so I don’t have to worry about it myself. Here are the books I missed earlier this year.

Backfill: The lost books of the month club

Total: 89 rows across January-April that never appeared on a monthly options post. Poly mix: 9 YES, 20 MAYBE, 60 NO. Oh, look, I’m almost to a full third. Sigh.

January 2026

27 rows

YES:

• The Briar Club, Kate Quinn

MAYBE:

• Zed Moonstein Makes a Friend, Lance Rubin
• Bonded By Thorns, Elizabeth Helen
• Anxious People, Fredrik Backman
• Crow Mary, Kathleen Grissom

Book Club	Book title & author	Brief Description	Yes/no for me
Audacious	The Hitch, Sara Levine	Aunt babysits nephew claiming dead corgi’s soul possesses him	NO
BBC Radio 2	The Poet Empress, Shen Tao	Famine-village girl wields forbidden poetry magic in Azalea Dynasty palace	NO
Belletrist	Lost Lambs, Madeline Cash	Dysfunctional family pulled into billionaire criminal conspiracy by paranoid teen	NO
Black Men Read	Reel, Kennedy Ryan	Director and rising actress romance during prestige Black history film production	NO
Everyday Reading	The Briar Club, Kate Quinn	Boarding-house women bond around widow during McCarthy-era Washington	YES
Good Housekeeping	Lost Lambs, Madeline Cash	Dysfunctional family pulled into billionaire criminal conspiracy by paranoid teen	NO
Good Morning America – Adult	Skylark, Paula McLain	Dual timeline Paris: 1664 asylum prisoner and 1942 Nazi resister psychiatrist	NO
Good Morning America – Young Adult	The Swan’s Daughter, Roshani Chokshi	Truth-singing swan helps prince judge brides in fairytale court	NO
Jack Carr	The Most Dangerous Game, Richard Connell	Hunter becomes prey on a deranged general’s island	NO
Jeselnik	The Getaway, Jim Thompson	Heist-gone-wrong couple flees law toward mythical Mexican refuge El Rey	NO
Jewish Book Council – Nonfiction	The Art Spy, Michelle Young	French art curator spied on Nazi looting at Jeu de Paume museum	NO
Library Science	Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell	Agnes, Shakespeare’s wife, loses son Hamnet to plague in Elizabethan Stratford	NO
	Make Sure You’re Around After You’ve Gone, David Lowery	Ghost stories anthology curated and introduced by filmmaker David Lowery	NO
Main Street Reads – Banter	Amity, Nathan Harris	Emancipated siblings journey to reunite while pursued through post-Civil War Mexico	NO
Main Street Reads – Kids	Zed Moonstein Makes a Friend, Lance Rubin	Lonely boy creates AI best friend with unintended consequences in MonoTown	MAYBE
Main Street Reads – Romance	Bonded By Thorns, Elizabeth Helen	Bookworm bargains with four cursed fae princes in Beauty-and-the-Beast retelling	MAYBE
Main Street Reads – Thriller	Haven’t Killed in Years, Amy K. Green	Serial killer’s hidden daughter stalked by copycat leaving body parts on doorstep	NO
Mocha Girls Read	Anxious People, Fredrik Backman	Failed bank robber takes apartment-viewing hostages, secrets and lives intertwine	MAYBE
Natalie Portman	Strange Pictures, Uketsu	Nine childlike sketches hold clues to interconnected Japanese murder mysteries	NO
Read with Jenna	Homeschooled, Stefan Merrill Block	Memoir of isolation under unconventional Texas mother’s unregulated homeschool	NO
Reese	The First Time I Saw Him, Laura Dave	Sequel: Hannah and stepdaughter Bailey on the run again as Owen reappears	NO
Service 95	Night People, Mark Ronson	Memoir of Mark Ronson’s ’90s New York DJ years before fame	NO
Stacks	Girl on Girl, Sophie Gilbert	How early-aughts pop culture turned millennial women against themselves and each other	NO
Sunriver – Fiction	Crow Mary, Kathleen Grissom	Inspired by true story of Crow woman who saved Nakota women from massacre	MAYBE
Sunriver – Mystery	Return to Sender, Craig Johnson	Walt Longmire goes undercover as mail carrier to find missing colleague linked to cult	NO
TeaTime	The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath	Esther Greenwood’s mental breakdown and psychiatric treatment in 1950s New York	NO
Zibby’s	The Gallagher Place, Julie Doar	Family-secrets: Marlowe returns to Dutchess County land for old unsolved murder	NO

February 2026

6 rows

YES:

(none)

MAYBE:

• Six Days of the Condor, James Grady

Book Club	Book title & author	Brief Description	Yes/no for me
BBC Radio 2	Keeper of Lost Children, Sadeqa Johnson	Post-WWII Germany: three interconnected lives tied to real Brown Baby Plan	NO
	Saoirse, Charleen Hurtubise	American in Donegal hides stolen identity; art-world fame threatens to expose her	NO
	Witch Trial, Harriet Tyce	Edinburgh jury trial of two teen girls claiming witchcraft for classmate’s murder	NO
Jack Carr	Six Days of the Condor, James Grady	CIA analyst survives office massacre, runs from his own agency	MAYBE
Mocha Girls Read	Rhythm and Design, LongTemple	Black romance — architect + gospel musician find love grounded in faith	NO
Reese	In Her Defense, Philippa Malicka	Libel trial — TV star’s daughter, predatory therapist, and the witness who knows	NO

March 2026

4 rows

YES:

• Deviant, Callie Hart

MAYBE:

(none)

Book Club	Book title & author	Brief Description	Yes/no for me
Jack Carr	The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth	Anonymous assassin meticulously plans to kill Charles de Gaulle.	NO
Jewish Book Council – Nonfiction	Antisemitism, an American Tradition, Pamela S. Nadell	History from New Amsterdam to present	NO
Main Street Reads – Romance	Deviant, Callie Hart	Low-level mobster draws the line at trafficking in girls, with spice	YES
PBS Books	Salvation of a Forsyte, John Galsworthy	Dying Forsyte recalls his one chance at love	NO

April 2026

Yeah, there were huge gaps in my April list. I don’t know what happened there. Oh, wait, yes, I do. The gaps were about why I started this list. I wanted to see which books people were reading that I hadn’t heard of before. The ones that perhaps didn’t make the bestseller lists. And yet I realized I hadn’t checked whether the lists overlapped. So, I added Globe and Mail, NYT, and Indie bestseller lists. 42 new rows from bestseller lists. A gap of a different sort.

52 rows

YES:

• The Summer Guests, Tess Gerritsen
• The Astral Library, Kate Quinn
• The Night We Met, Abby Jimenez
• Between Two Fires, Christopher Buehlman
• A World Appears, Michael Pollan
• How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay, Jenny Lawson
• Red Rising, Pierce Brown

MAYBE:

• The Names, Florence Knapp
• We Are All Guilty Here, Karin Slaughter
• Gone Before Goodbye, Reese Witherspoon; Harlan Coben
• Saint of Thieves, Dana Haynes
• The Simple Guide to ADHD Regulation, Jenna Free
• Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, Matt Dinniman
• Starside, Alex Aster
• The Keeper, Tana French
• The Gales of November, John U. Bacon
• Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman
• The God of the Woods, Liz Moore
• A Walk in the Park, Kevin Fedarko
• The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, Matt Dinniman
• If Only I Had Told Her, Laura Nowlin
• The Sun and the Starmaker, Rachel Griffin

Book Club	Book title & author	Brief Description	Yes/no for me
BBC Radio 2	Love Lane, Patrick Gale	Aging Canadian homesteader reconnects with his English family across generations	NO
Book of the Month	Porcupines, Fran Fabriczki	Hungarian single mother + daughter chase American Dream after Berlin Wall fall	NO
PBS Books	Wilding, Isabella Tree	Couple rewilds Sussex farm; native species return in abundance	NO
PolyWogg – To be read	Villette, Charlotte Bronte	Lucy Snowe teaches at French boarding school, confronting love and isolation	NO
Richard & Judy	The Names, Florence Knapp	Three alternating timelines for one boy based on the name his battered mother chose	MAYBE
	We Are All Guilty Here, Karin Slaughter	Two teenage girls vanish in small town; officer faces personal cost	MAYBE
	The Cove, L.J. Ross	Trauma survivor flees to Cornish bookshop, gets pulled into local murder	NO
	The Summer Guests, Tess Gerritsen	Retired CIA agents in Maine investigate missing summer-tourist teenager	YES
	Deadline, Steph McGovern	TV reporter’s family kidnapped mid-live-interview by political conspirators	NO
	Gone Before Goodbye, Reese Witherspoon; Harlan Coben	Disgraced combat surgeon takes secret job, becomes fugitive when patient vanishes	MAYBE
Sunriver – Fiction	Supersonic, Thomas Kohnstamm	History of a Seattle neighbourhood through the years	NO
Sunriver – Mystery	Saint of Thieves, Dana Haynes	Organized vigilante team take on the bad guys	MAYBE
Globe & Mail – Canadian NF	Even the Good Girls Will Cry, Melissa Auf der Maur	Bassist’s rock history	NO
	Lessons From a Lifetime, David Suzuki; Ian Hanington	Suzuki retrospective	NO
	Miracle, Michael Calvin; Naftali Schiff	Kids who survived Auschwitz	NO
	Out of the Sky, Matti Friedman	WWII Jewish parachutists drop into Nazi Europe; Hannah Senesh’s mission	NO
	The Simple Guide to ADHD Regulation, Jenna Free	Tips, tools for ADHD adults	MAYBE
Globe & Mail – Hardcover Fiction	Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, Matt Dinniman	Carl and Donut survive level two of the alien-run dungeon reality show	MAYBE
	Judge Stone, James Patterson; Viola Davis	Alabama judge oversees doctor’s felony trial after abortion on raped teen	NO
	My Husband’s Wife, Alice Feeney	Artist returns home to find another woman claiming her husband and life	NO
	The Astral Library, Kate Quinn	Library with portals into beloved novels	YES
	The Night We Met, Abby Jimenez	Right person, wrong time	YES
Indie Bestsellers – Hardcover Fiction	Between Two Fires, Christopher Buehlman	Black Death France: knight escorts orphan girl through supernatural apocalypse	YES
	Starside, Alex Aster	Magic has to be claimed, not inherited	MAYBE
	The Keeper, Tana French	Old Irish feud and murdered girl	MAYBE
Indie Bestsellers – Hardcover NF	A World Appears, Michael Pollan	The nature of consciousness	YES
	How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay, Jenny Lawson	Lawson’s tips and tricks for mental illness	YES
	One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad	Rapidly changing world	NO
	The Best Dog in the World, Alice (ed.) Hoffman	Writers and their dogs	NO
	The Gales of November, John U. Bacon	The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald	MAYBE
Indie Bestsellers – Trade PB Fiction	Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman	Coast Guard vet and cat navigate alien-run dungeon reality show	MAYBE
	Game On, Navessa Allen	Enemies to lovers, dark romance	NO
	I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman	Women imprisoned underground	NO
	Red Rising, Pierce Brown	Miner on Mars starts revolution	YES
	The God of the Woods, Liz Moore	Kids disappear years apart at summer camp	MAYBE
Indie Bestsellers – Trade PB NF	A Walk in the Park, Kevin Fedarko	Walk length of Grand Canyon	MAYBE
	Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer	Botany and Indigenous teachings	NO
	I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy	iCarly star’s memoir of overbearing mother and child-actor trauma	NO
	On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder	Resisting authoritarianism	NO
	Raising Hare, Chloe Dalton	Relationship with nature	NO
	The Art Thief, Michael Finkel	Stealing art prolifically	NO
	The Demon of Unrest, Erik Larson	Biography before Civil War	NO
NYT Bestsellers – Hardcover Fiction	The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, Matt Dinniman	Carl and Donut face a subway system packed with monsters	MAYBE
NYT Bestsellers – Hardcover NF	Stand, Cory Booker	Political call to action	NO
	Stripped Down, Bunnie XO	Podcast rags to riches story	NO
	The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt	Smartphones and kids mental health	NO
	You with the Sad Eyes, Christina Applegate	Memoir of acting career and adjusting to multiple sclerosis	NO
NYT Bestsellers – YA Hardcover	A Stage Set for Villains, Shannon J. Spann	Cursed teen infiltrates Playhouse of immortal Players in deadly competition	NO
	Divine Rivals, Rebecca Ross	Rival journalists in magic realm	NO
	If Only I Had Told Her, Laura Nowlin	Road not taken	MAYBE
	The Sun and the Starmaker, Rachel Griffin	Elemental magic with girl lead	MAYBE
	Wings of Starlight, Allison Saft	Enemies to lovers and a forbidden bond	NO

Okay, now it’s time for May. I’m sure I showed WAY more rigour, right? RIGHT????