Cleaning up book club lists for January to April
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????
