I only care about books where women go insane. That's primarily what I read, and what I want to read, and what I write and want to write. This is because I have always wanted to go insane. 

Since becoming a mother in January, I've realized that all I needed to do to go insane was have a baby. 

A baby is a little unit of madness. There is no reasoning with a baby. They are thoroughly dysregulated — digestion, sleep, limb control. They rely on you to shepherd them into the realm of the living. This is how we eat. And this is how we sleep. And this is how we distinguish between day and night. And this is how we receive comfort when we are upset. And this is how we come to know and depend on one another. 

Onboarding someone to human existence would be a tough job if I were in peak condition. But I did it as most mothers do: my brain demented by lack of sleep, my taint in tatters.

Delivery was my first taste of the madness.

After pushing for a couple hours to no avail, the OBGYN on call informed me that my baby was “massive.” This news startled me. At the advice of my OBGYN (who wasn't on call and therefore not present), I hadn't done a third trimester ultrasound because my pregnancy was progressing normally without complications. Up until this moment everything indicated my baby was of average size. 

The doctor added that my baby’s shoulder was stuck on my pelvic bone (this is called “shoulder dystocia” if you want to look it up on TikTok and freak yourself out – no judgment here, it's one of my favorite pastimes). To get the baby out, I’d need either an episiotomy or a C-section, and my pushes in the next ten minutes would determine which. 

Suddenly, the room flooded with people in scrubs. In my memory, I blink and there they were, cluttering the previously empty room. I don't know what their jobs were and how they could help me. They just quietly watched me.

As I mustered all of my energy into each push, my doula, OB and nurse insisted over and over and over with unfailing enthusiasm: “You can do this!” 

Why are you saying that? I thought. What evidence do you have that I can do this? I didn't dare say this out loud.

Now I understand that this is the unhinged contradiction at the heart of motherhood: You are given an impossible task. You are told over and over that you can do it. When you express doubt or anxiety or despair, you risk being pathologized.

My plan was to enter the first weeks of motherhood on the lookout for anxiety and depression. I was determined to scan myself frequently for unrecognizable thoughts and behavior.

As soon as I was thrust into early motherhood, I found this understanding of postpartum anxiety and depression absurd. You know what was insane? The idea that anyone would not feel anxious or depressed in these circumstances. 

My vulva and butthole alternated between aching and burning. Even laughing sent a jolt of pain through my anus. When I told a lactation consultant that I found breastfeeding painful, she cocked her head and asked if I had especially sensitive nipples. I slept in mercilessly short bursts, awoken either by imaginary cries or real cries. My body seemed unable to refresh on this little sleep. To be awake meant brimming with sluggish confusion and dread.

I fantasized constantly about abandoning my life. How would I do it? I pictured jumping in my car and driving far, far away. But I wanted to bring my baby, whom I felt an opioid-level attachment to. I'd bring my baby with me, yes, but, somehow, when I was far, far away from my home, I wouldn't have to breastfeed or stay up all night, and I'd have an entirely new body. 

I can't even come up with a competent fucking fantasy, I seethed to myself.

I was absolutely certain I could not go on. I could not tolerate having milk sucked out of me every 2-3 hours – neither the physical discomfort nor the constricting schedule. I could not spend another hour rocking my baby with no guarantee of relief. I could not function on so little sleep. 

"I'm shocked more babies don't die," I told a friend when he called to check in.

"I mean, that does happen," he said with a nervous laugh.

"Not nearly as often as makes sense to me now," I replied.

Reading the book Matrescence by Lucy Jones was one of my sole comforts.

In it, she writes: "As a society, we just don't seem to be very interested in the actual flesh and bones of the maternal experience. Maternal subjectivity has, until very recently, been almost entirely absent from Western philosophy, literature and culture. I hadn't read about it in any of the core texts in my English literature degree."

I got a MFA in creative writing. None of our assigned short stories or novels addressed motherhood in depth. We were always talking about finding the universal in the specific. Mining life for magical moments that unexpectedly sparked empathy and revealed profound emotional truths. 

None of my life experience from before held a fucking candle to these raw months. I will never be done processing it. I could write about it forever. How has anyone kept silent about this?

I had a friend whose newborn was deemed underweight at one of her first pediatrician appointments. The pediatrician informed her that she'd need to "triple feed" her baby, which means breastfeed the infant every two hours, then bottle feed the baby formula and then pump to encourage her breasts to produce more milk. 

By my estimation, it would take two hours to do all of this – nurse, then give the baby a bottle and then pump – meaning this schedule effectively guaranteed no sleep. It demanded round-the-clock physical and mental labor.  

At the same appointment, my friend had to fill out the Edinburgh survey. I know because I had to at my baby's appointments too. We were asked to rank how much we identified with the following sentences:

I look forward with enjoyment to things. What should I look forward to? I alternated between changing my diaper and the baby's diaper. Nobody could give me a clear answer on when this would change.

I have been so unhappy that I've had trouble sleeping. I wasn't sleeping because my baby wouldn't sleep, and that made me unhappy. My sleep-deprived mind couldn't sort out the causal relationship here. Which came first? The chicken or the egg? The unhappiness or the lack of sleep?

I have blamed myself unnecessarily when things went wrong. This baby depended on me for food, sleep, hygiene, comfort. Was it irrational to have a pronounced sense of culpability? 

I have been able to laugh and see the funny side of things. Sorry, what was funny about all of this? (I actually did find many moments hysterical, like watching my baby stare in amazement at an illustration of just a white circle on a black background, but I blame delirium.)

In Matrescence, Lucy Jones writes, "Why are we sending a high-risk group off the spend an unknown period of time at home alone, where they must look after vulnerable infants and recover from the trauma of giving birth, while burdened with loneliness, lack of sleep, and a shedload of impossible cultural expectations, including the imperative to enjoy every minute of it? Are these the actions of a responsible or functional society?"

When they tell you, “You can do this!”, what they actually mean is, “You have to do this." 

What they should say is, "You have no choice but to reconfigure yourself in such a way that you can do this.” 

I would have told myself, "You're right. You cannot do this. What's being asked of you is unfeasible. Your despair is normal. You have every right to question platitudes, doctors, reality itself. And also, little by little, your brain and body will transform and adapt. The process is unprecedentedly painful and gradual. It will render you unrecognizable. You will run yourself dry of your resilience. You will continue somehow. This is insanity."

It’s not insane that mothers think they can’t do it. What’s insane is that mothers do do it.

Happy pride month, everyone! Last year I featured only queer authors on Rebel Ever After during June. This year... every author on the podcast so far has written a queer romance novel or several! Funny how that happens when your goal is to feature progressive voices in the genre who don't receive as much publishing support as their peers.

There is a flood of phenomenal queer romances coming to shelves in the next few months. Here are some upcoming books written by previous REA guests that you should support. Pre-orders make a huge difference, from helping an author reach best-seller lists to signaling to their publisher that it's worth investing more in marketing and promotion. If you can't pre-order at this time, consider adding the book on GoodReads, requesting that your local library stock the book, or simply sharing this post with a friend.

Cheers queers, and happy reading!

Thank you to everyone who voted for our Q3 book club books! If you are not a member, and are interested in how my book club works, check out the pinned post where I explain it all! The winners and months are going to be:

July: Jade city by Fonda Lee

AugustL The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem

September: Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

If you are a member here on Bindery and want to participate in the Discord server/Discord portion of the book club, but have not gotten into Discord, you can either check your emails from when you Joined as a Bindery member for the Discord invite, or click here to join the channel (there are a few application questions to ensure no bots are getting in!).

Also, for those interested, we will be having our in-person discussion on Sunday, June 7 at 8 PM EST. That runs through th video chat channel on Discord, and would love to have you all there to discuss this really interesting book! If you are seeing this and are not a member, you do need to be a member (free or paid tier) to join in our book club, so join on up!

Finally, remember you can buy books through the links here on Bindery, buy through my Bookshop.org affiliate store, or buy through Pango for used books and get $5 off your first order of $10 or more and it all helps me out! Looking forward to some great reads in the next quarter!

We are officially launching a brand-new monthly author spotlight series on the blog! Every month, we’ll be featuring a new author with an upcoming book.

We are kicking things off with features centered around July, so if you have a book releasing in July or anytime close to it we want to feature you!

We know how exhausting promo weeks can be, which is why our Q&As are 100% written. That means zero Zoom fatigue. Just fun, thoughtful, deep-dive questions sent straight to your inbox for you to answer whenever and in whatever pajamas you want! ☕️📚

How to get involved:

• Authors: Leave a comment below with your book info and release date if you'd like to be featured!

• Know an author? Share this post or tag them in the comments below.

• Readers: What upcoming titles are at the very top of your TBR? Let us know so we can invite those authors to the blog!

❗️If you have any questions, concerns, or need further details, please feel free to reach out to us directly at thepageladies6@gmail.com

#bookblog #authorinterview #bookreleases #booktbr #indieauthors

Happy Monday! For Must Read Monday this week, I'm featuring The Actual Star by Monica Byrne.

This is one of those books where I finished it and just kind of had to stare at the wall for awhile while I processed it.

The Actual Star is a massive undertaking, telling the stories of three sets of people in three timelines each a thousand years apart. We watch as their stories braid, repeat, differ, and merge. I saw elements of Ursula LeGuin, Octavia E. Butler, Simon Jimenez, and more from across decades of sci-fi and fantasy literature in this story (and know I do not invoke these greats lightly!)

Often with multi-timeline books, I find myself wishing to get back to a particular story, but here I felt deeply invested in each timeline, and was on the edge of my seat as the stories came together. It’s quite a feat to make a slow paced, 600+ page novel a page turner.

The worldbuilding is intricate but never bogged down in the details, and it weaves in a little sci-fi, a little fantasy, and a little mystery as you begin to piece together the overarching story.

Everyone has a first Tingle. This was mine! I tried Bury Our Gays and wasn't in the right mindspace so I dnf'd it, and had initially dnf'd this too! But I came back and I'm glad I did! So let's talk about it.

SUMMARY:

Four years ago, an unthinkable disaster occurred. In what was later known as the Low-Probability Event, eight million people were killed in a single day, each of them dying in improbable, bizarre ways: strangled by balloon ropes, torn apart by exploding manhole covers, attacked by a chimpanzee wielding a typewriter. A day of freak accidents that proved anything is possible, no matter the odds. Luck is real now, and it's not always good.

Vera, a former statistics and probability professor, lost everything that day, and she still struggles to make sense of the unbelievable catastrophe. To her, the LPE proved that the God of Order is dead and nothing matters anymore.

When Special Agent Layne shows up on Vera’s doorstep, she learns he's investigating a suspiciously—and statistically impossibly—lucky casino. He needs her help to prove the casino’s success is connected to the deaths of millions, and it's Vera's last chance to make sense of a world that doesn’t.

Because what's happening in Vegas isn't staying there, and she's the only thing that stands between the world and another deadly improbability.

WHAT WORKED (for me!):

• Characterization: I loved Vera's character. I also love her arc very much. I felt it was appropriate and well-structured!

• Pace: This is a borderline thing for me on this one because I do feel like the pace lagged a bit in the middle, but overall the pacing was good!

• Absurdity: LOVED IT. I need a movie version of this movie like stat.

WHAT DIDN'T (for me!):

• All the stats talk. I understand why, but dang. My focus drifted during those sections. I'm not a mathematician!

• The length. I think it could have been a bit shorter to help with the pacing issues I mentioned above.

BUY, BORROW, OR PASS?

I think this is one you can BUY. It's short at like 267 pages, the cover is gorgeous, and it's just enough of a whirlwind of a book to keep you entertained.

I'm eager to read his other two horror novels now, so I'm gonna be getting those as soon as I can. If you've read this one, what were your thoughts? If you haven't and you're looking for absurd horror (definitely different from humorous horror), then I recommend it!

Till next time!

-Ryn

Happy Sunday, mis internet amigxs,

I wanted to kickstart you summer reading with ALL the Latine books on my radar releasing in June, but before that, some book club announcements!

We will be chatting with Natalia Hernandez TOMORROW NIGHT on Zoom! Questions for Natalia are open until 8 PM EST on Discord.

Book club announcements coming up on social media this week, but here is a list of our book club books for the next few months:

• June fiction: And I'll Take Your Eyes Out by A.M. Sosa

• June nonfiction: continue reading Accordion Eulogies by Noe Alvarez

• July Summer School reads:

  • 1 month to read P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance by Vanessa Diaz and Petra R. Rivera-Rideau

  • July - August read: Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer

• August fiction: The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

• August nonfiction: continue reading Cuba: An American History

• October: You Should Have Been Nicer To My Mom by Vincent Tirado

September book club pick poll will be up by the 2nd week of June.

CHISME

You'll be receiving an email this week telling you about an initiative I'm starting in July for Lectores and Libritos members. I'm so excited to finally spill the tea on this!

And finally, for ALL THE JUNE LATE BOOKS ON MY RADAR....be prepared to scroll!

June 2nd

Horror

Muneca by Cynthia Gomez (Audiobook) Adult Horror vivid, surreal gothic about a queer latine working class witch who sets out to rescue a bespelled heiress and loses control of her powers and her heart in the process

YA Fantasy

Their Will Undone by RJ Valideperas (Audiobook) coming of RAGE about an imprisoned girl rescued from certain death by a duty bound soldier, who's forced to choose between becoming a bride or a weapon (forced proximity, political intrigue, dark magic AND dommed love)

Middle Grade

Stream by Aida Salazaar (Audiobook) Dual POV novel in verse about 2 teens sent to Mexico to unplug

Young Adult Contemporary

Monarchs In The Wild by Israel Moya (Audiobook) Young Adult : A teen searches for a way out of his small California town after witnessing a classmate's death

Fantasy

Beneath The Sacred Well by Rocio Carranza: Historical fantasy novella--the Mummy meets Zorro in 1920's Yucatan

Mystery

The Adventure of Juan Planchard by Jonathan Jakubowicz (Audiobook) Wolf of Wall Street meets Scarface

Short Stories

Amarisa's Cooking Pot: Tales of Life in All Its Wonders by Désirée Zamorano: Short Stories from the author of The Amado Women

June 9th

Cathedrals by Claudia Pinero and translated by Frances Riddle

Historical fiction

Cages by Chantel Acevedo: Adult fiction debut from Cuban-Amerian author, Acevedo, follows 1960's zookeeper in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, an exile in 1960's swinging London and a dying man in 1980's AIDS Era Miami.

It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo (Audiobook) Peter Pan x Stephen King's It -- twisted horror retelling of a childhood fairytale set during WWI

Cat Love by Tomas Q. Morin (Audiobook) Notes from an Underground meet Kafka's "The Burrow"

Paperback Release - Queer nonfiction

So Many Stars by Caro DeRobertis (Audiobook)

June 16th

YA Fantasy

The Hero Twins in the Realm of Fright By David Bowles, Charlene Bowles: Fantasy (Tales of the Feathered Serpent #3)

Middle Grade Fiction

Tangled Roots & Wild Dreams by Angela Velez (Audiobook) Love letter to overthinking crafting girlies

YA Novel In Verse

Together We See by Ari Tison (Audiobook) Indigenous murder-mystery set in Costa Rica told in prose and focused on missing and murdered Indigenous peoples

Translated Literary Fiction

Medea Sang Me A Corrido by Dahlia De La Cerda and translated by Heather Cleary and Julia Sanches: A punk revival of Medea as a meddling anti-angel of birth and death

June 23rd

History

Cuba: A Brief History by Sergio Guerra-Vilaboy and Oscar Loyola-Vega (Audiobook)

Translated Fiction

Animal Spiral by Luis Othoniel Rosa and translated by Katie Marya: Puerto Rican translated fiction about the post-colonial birth, life, and death of the collective consciousness known as the Animal.

It's All River by Carla Madeira and translated by Alison Entrekin (Audiobook) Brazillian translated allegory about violence and forgiveness

June 30th

Translated Horror

The Summer of the Serpent by Cecilia Eudave and translated by Robin Myers (Audiobook) A kaleidescopic descent into the small violences and hidden horrors of a sweltering Guadalajaran summer

Romantasy

Cursed Ever After by Andy C. Naranjo (Audiobook) Subversive romantasy fairytale

Anthology (featuring Latine contributors)

These Kindred Hearts: A YA Romantasy Anthology edited by Shari B. Pennants (Audiobook) features Zoraida Cordova, Vanessa Montalban and Angela Montoya!

xo,

Carmen

Friends! Enemies! Everyone in between!

I hope you're all doing as best as you can be and taking care of yourselves. It's time to vote for the July book club!

Sunny’s Book Club is a monthly book club highlighting both new releases and backlist titles we love. A virtual discussion is hosted over Zoom on the last Sunday of the month.

A new physical book will be shipped to you (or available for in store pickup) the month prior to when this month’s book club will take place. The July pick will ship the last week of June to ensure you have the entire month to read the book.

The link for sign up is not a subscription service, you opt in on a monthly basis dependent on your interest in that months chosen title. We do however have a recurring book club subscription if you are interested here.

A gripping, propulsive novel about succession, sex, and revenge on a California marijuana farm

“Deliciously written and compulsively readable . . . As the ex-lovers of a missing weed farmer grapple for control of her land and harvest, they contend with the force of her presence and the complexities of their own pasts.”—Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House and Her Body and Other Parties

Sapphire and her farm, Sourland, are fixtures of Northern California’s rugged wilderness, offering refuge to rejects, rebels, and outcasts—anyone willing to work and learn. But the haven Sapphire has built is fractured when she suddenly goes missing, her scorched truck abandoned on a mountain road.

Frankie, a disgraced ballerina and Sapphire’s former girlfriend and right-hand woman, returns to Sourland, claiming ownership of the farm. When she arrives, Frankie finds that Fizz—Sapphire’s most recent lover, an ex–baseball player with a preternatural green thumb—has already begun prepping Sourland for its biggest harvest yet.

As the two grapple for power, the farm’s fate hangs in the balance, and with it, the future Fizz and Frankie each covet for themselves. Past demons and scorned admirers remain hauntingly close, while the specter of Sapphire looms over the farm: in cryptic notes, in bud-tender gossip, in every blade of grass and whorl of smoke.

A brilliantly constructed novel of desire and betrayal, Sourland sparkles with the beauty and grime of the California woods. Dixon’s novel warns that our true nature catches up to us all—no matter how far we run.

“An extraordinary book. It’s a page-turner, full of mystery, but that’s the least of it. The language is dusted with magic. The Children reminded me of Ray Bradbury at his best.” —Stephen King

The haunting new novel from New York Times bestselling author Melissa Albert, in which the estranged adult children of a legendary author, written into their dead mother’s beloved fantasy series, must contend with the vine-like creep of legacy, memory, and magic.

Guinevere Sharpe has two childhoods.

In one, she and her brother, Ennis, live in the wooded shadow of their family's isolated Vermont farmhouse; in the other, the pages of their mother’s world-famous Ninth City books, where their magical adventures have made them household names. In reality, Guinevere's childhood isn't the enchanted idyll her mother’s readers imagine: she and Ennis are growing up near-feral, unwashed and underfed, escaping each day to the wild woods they’ve made their playland. As Edith Sharpe’s books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame—until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith’s series unfinished and her children the sole survivors.

Now an adult coasting on her mother's name, Guinevere is mid-promotion for a ghostwritten memoir when her estranged brother, an artist who has until now spurned his family's legacy, announces an upcoming installation titled, simply, Mother. As rumors swirl around a death connected to his last show, unsettling recollections from Guinevere’s childhood begin to surface. Her public facade starts to crack, forcing her to confront the questions she's spent the last twenty years running from: What really happened the night of the fire? And what dark history lies behind their mother’s fantasy world?

The Children is wise to the mythic weight childhood memories gather over time, and the way our most beloved stories grow up with us. It's for anyone who's ever revisited an old favorite and found its pages cast in a darker light, the line separating magic from reality blurring as we discover the books that once comforted us carry shadows of their own.

The acclaimed, prize-winning #1 New York Times bestselling writer returns with a moving, luminous novel that reminds us of the sweetness and impermanence of life and the power of connection to defy time.

When Daphne Fuller and her husband Jonathan visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they notice an older, white-haired gentleman following them. The man turns out to be Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, who had been married to her mother for a little more than year when Daphne was nine. Now fifty-three, Daphne hasn’t seen Eddie for many years, not since the fateful event that changed the direction of both their lives. Meeting again, time falls away; while their relationship was brief, it had a profound impact on them both, and now that they are reunited, they have no intention of ever being separated again.

Whistler is a story about two adults looking back over the choices they made, and the choices that were made for them. It’s a story about bravery, memory, the often small yet consequential moments that define our lives, and the endless stream of loss that in time comes for us all. Beautiful in its simplicity, it is ultimately about how love endures, and how the feeling of being known by one other person, even for a short period of time, can change everything.

A vivid, surreal Gothic about a queer, Latine, working class witch who sets out to rescue a bespelled heiress and loses control of her powers and her heart in the process.

It is 1968 Oakland, and Natalia Fuentes has been hearing rumors about the beautiful Violeta Miramontes. The young heiress to Spanish colonial wealth has been left paralyzed by a mysterious illness. But Nati knows a thing or two about witchcraft, and she is certain that this is the work of dark magic.

Armed with a plan to break the spell and earn a handsome reward, Nati works her way into the house as Violeta’s caretaker, and immediately discovers her suspicions are true. But who cursed Violeta? And why?

As feelings between the two women bloom into romance, Nati grows more and more reckless, and is forced to face her own ghosts— ones she hoped would stay gone forever. 

Riveting and richly layered, Muñeca explores how far one will go to save the person they love—even if that means damning themselves. Cynthia Gómez fills her debut novel with moments that chill your bones and warm your heart, a razor-sharp examination of deep-rooted issues that will haunt readers long after the last page is turned.

Four very compelling choices! Happy voting and remember we are reading Canon by Paige Lewis in June, today is your last day to sign up.

Love what we do? Become a paid subscriber for less than a cup of coffee a month. Your ongoing support helps us plan ahead, fund causes we care about, and create meaningful programming for our community.

Every Sunday, I post a walking reading recap over on Instagram where I take my blue heeler Link out for a walk and completely yap about all the books I’ve read that week. 🐾📚

Those videos are usually very chaotic, very unfiltered, and very much me trying to summarize five books before Link decides a squirrel is an immediate emergency.

But because those recaps are more high-level first impressions, I wanted this space to be where I share the slightly longer thoughts. The books that surprised me, frustrated me, taught me something new, made me cry, or completely consumed my brain for a few days.

And this week's reading lineup somehow included:

📱 former child influencers and internet obsession

💀 a saint's skull, folk horror, and the Thirty Years' War

🤖 a lonely AI war machine and the best cyborg dog ever written

🩺 a real-life eighteenth-century midwife solving mysteries

🏖️ complicated sisters, grief, and a beach house full of memories

Let's dive right in.

Tell Your Friends

This was one of those books where I loved the premise more than the execution.

The idea of growing up as content is fascinating to me.

Crystal has spent her entire life being filmed for her family's wildly successful vlog channel. Every milestone, every struggle, every tragedy has become entertainment for an audience. Meanwhile Alyssa has spent years watching from the outside, seeing the Shaws as something almost aspirational.

What interested me most wasn't the thriller aspect.

It was the question underneath it all: Who are you when your identity has been built for an audience?

As someone who works in content, I found that aspect genuinely compelling. The relationship between authenticity and performance online is something we're all navigating to some degree, and this book had the opportunity to explore some really interesting territory there.

Unfortunately, the mystery itself never quite reached the same level. I kept waiting for a twist that would genuinely surprise me or a revelation that would completely reframe the story, but it never arrived.

I also listened to this on audio, and despite having a single narrator, it was often really difficult to tell when the POV had switched between characters. That ended up being surprisingly confusing and pulled me out of the story more than once.

If you're looking for a fast audiobook with influencer culture, parasocial relationships, and internet fame at its center, you'll probably have a good time. Just go in expecting a character-driven psychological thriller rather than a jaw-dropping twist machine.

Bone of My Bone

This one is frustrating because parts of it worked incredibly well for me.

Specifically: the setting.

How have I gone my entire life without learning more about the Thirty Years' War?

An estimated eight million people died. Entire regions were devastated. Communities collapsed. And yet it feels like one of those historical events that rarely gets discussed outside academic circles.

That backdrop ended up being the most compelling part of the novel for me.

The landscape feels haunted long before the horror elements arrive. Everywhere the characters travel, they encounter evidence of what war does to ordinary people. Starvation. Loss. Fear. Desperation.

The horror isn't simply supernatural; it's historical. That's what stayed with me.

Ironically, the thing I was least interested in was the romance. I found myself far more invested in the folk horror atmosphere, the religious imagery, the relic at the center of the story, and honestly... the villain.

Johanna van Veen creates some genuinely unsettling imagery, and there were moments where I felt completely pulled into the dark fairy tale quality of the narrative.

I just wish the story had leaned even harder into the horror and historical elements because that's where it felt strongest.

Ode to the Half-Broken

This is the book that completely turned my reading week around.

I knew within the first few chapters that it was going to be special.

Not because of the plot, but because of the way it thinks.

Some books tell a story; some books feel like they're having a conversation with you. This felt like the latter.

At its core, this is a novel about loneliness. About grief. About the ways we isolate ourselves after we've been hurt. The science fiction framework is fantastic, but the emotional questions underneath are what made this work for me.

Be is an AI war machine carrying an enormous amount of emotional baggage, and watching him slowly reconnect with the world around him became one of my favorite character journeys of the year.

The found family elements are wonderful, but what I keep thinking about is the recurring theme of hope. The kind that sneaks up on you. The kind that reminds you healing isn't usually one dramatic moment. It's often a collection of small choices to keep showing up.

If your ideal reading experience is sitting on a porch with coffee while highlighting half the book and occasionally staring into space to process your feelings, this is the one.

The Frozen River

I love books that make me curious, and The Frozen River made me curious constantly.

Inspired by the real diary entries of Martha Ballard, an eighteenth-century midwife, this novel offers a fascinating window into a world that often gets overlooked in traditional historical narratives.

What stood out to me most was how much authority Martha possesses despite living within a system that consistently limits women.

She understands medicine, childbirth, and most importantly, her community, and because she moves through so many different households, she becomes a witness to both private and public lives in a way few people can.

The result is a story that feels incredibly immersive. I learned so much about women's rights, reproductive health, legal systems, and everyday survival without ever feeling like I was reading a history lesson.

This is exactly the kind of historical fiction I love: deeply researched, emotionally engaging, and rooted in the lives of people who actually existed.

Down with the Shipmans

There are certain books that feel like summer. Not because they're light, but because they understand nostalgia.

Down with the Shipmans is one of those books.

Three sisters. One beach house. A lifetime of memories packed into every room.

The plot itself is relatively straightforward. After their mother's death, the sisters return home only to learn that their father plans to sell the family beach house.

But the real story isn't about the house. It's about everything the house represents: family history, identity, childhood, and the versions of ourselves that only seem to exist when we're back home.

What I appreciated most was how complicated the relationships felt. Nobody is entirely right. Nobody is entirely wrong. They're simply carrying years of shared history and trying to figure out how to move forward.

The New Hampshire coastal setting adds so much warmth to the story, but beneath that warmth is a very honest exploration of grief and change. Because eventually every family has to answer the same question: How do you hold onto what matters while still letting life move forward?

The Common Thread

The more I thought about these books during my walks this week, the more I realized they were all wrestling with the same idea. Who are we when the things that define us begin to change? A family vlog. A religious calling. A war machine's purpose. A midwife's role in her community. A family home.

Every one of these stories asks its characters to reconsider who they are when the foundations they've relied on start shifting beneath them.

Morning all,

I won't be sharing a weekly reading update this week due to a family emergency. I'll share more in my monthly newsletter tomorrow. Sign up for that here if you are interested: https://shesbecomingbookish.com/subscribe/

Pro Tip: It's a double opt-in process, so be sure to look for the confirmation email to complete the sign-up process.

Thanks for being here and happy reading!

xoxo

c

HI BABES it's that time again, but on the new schedule! Dropping a poll for the video meeting for May's Queer Sports Romance Book Club pick, Smash or Pass. Don't forget there's also a discord channel, so I'll be dropping some thoughts, questions, and word vom there if anyone prefers that form of discussion- feel free to engage! This book kind of blew me away, so...

Also, always feel free to comment with alt times for the days listed!

Sickos! The June votes have finished and we are ready to rock on our June picks for the Fiction & History Sickos Book Clubs.

After two rounds of voting and twelve books to choose from, the Fiction Sickos will be reading:

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

This is an ambitious and unique standalone, adult fantasy story that ranks among my all-time favorites regardless of genre. This is very much an all-or-nothing type book, but I've found that the people who are able to find their footing early on typically consider it top tier stuff. The reason it can be difficult to get into at first comes down to the 2nd person POV and the storytelling device it uses to make it a story within a story. It's f'n brilliant but it does take getting used to. My advice: don't do this as audio only, at least at first. The best way is to immersion read it (physical + audio) or go straight eyeball reading.

The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.

But that god cannot be contained forever.

With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom—and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined.

This will be a re-read for me but I haven't read it in a few years so I'm pretty jazzed up to give it another go and discuss it with y'all!

The History Sickos will be reading:

And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts

This barely edged out Carthage Must Be Destroyed (which I'll probably be re-reading later in the month anyway), and was a suggestion from our comrade Whimsical Judge Theo. I know nothing about it other than the subtitle so here's what's labeled on the tin:

An international bestseller, a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and made into a critically acclaimed movie, Shilts' expose revealed why AIDS was allowed to spread unchecked during the early 80's while the most trusted institutions ignored or denied the threat. One of the few true modern classics, it changed and framed how AIDS was discussed in the following years.

As always, the discussion forums for these are in our Discord and to unlock those channels you'll need to be at the Sicko plus tiers.

OTHER STUFF...

• I recently reviewed Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents on YouTube

• A Complement of Scoundrels' Kindle version is on sale for $3.99

• We believe we've found the perfect audiobook narrator for A Complement of Scoundrels, will update when I can there

• Hoping this is the week I can announce the second acquisition for our Kist Reads publishing imprint

• Monday Updates will be back tomorrow

• Expect some history content regarding my read of Empire of the Steppes soon

Hi Wanda! You've asked for a book recommendation — I am here to give you three!

Thank you for requesting. Please come back and let me know how you feel once you get the chance to read them. If anyone else would like a book recommendation, keep reading and I'll show you how!

The first two recommendations are in the thriller genre. This was instantly what my mind went to when wanting something easy to read but keeps your attention. Ironically, I've read all of these via audiobook and HIGHLY recommend you do the same as well. But no worries, these stories are so good that if you want to read physical or on ebook, it will still get the job done.

The last one, I'm sorry, but it's apart of a 7-book series which... isn't finished yet, but if you end up really liking the first one at least you can continue the journey. The 5th book will be releasing in November of this year!

Now if you are wanting a book rec from me, here's how:

With a day left in AANHPI Heritage Month, I wanted to share some more of my favorite AANHPI reads to continue the celebration all year long! 🫶🏼

• The Missing Magic of Sparrow Xia by Leia Ham - A captivating, witty, and magical middle-grade fantasy with stunning illustrations that explores family, friendship, and the weight of expectations. (Leia will join me for an Instagram live on June 12th to discuss and celebrate TMMoSX! We hope you join us. 🥳)

• The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee by Saki Kawashiro (translated by Yuka Maeno) - A hopeful, entertaining, and cozy novel of food, love, and the power of friendship inspired by the author’s own breakup story.

• Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei - An emotional, sea-swept SFF novel of sisterhood and salvation set in Earth’s future after an ecological disaster.

• Prodigal Tiger by Samantha Chong - A cinematic, sweeping YA contemporary fantasy with ghosts, Malaysian folklore, and friends-to-lovers romance.

• Shim Jung Takes the Dive by Julia Riew - A whimsical, heartfelt middle-grade fantasy with Korean folklore and captivating adventure set in an underwater kingdom.

• Midnight, at the War by Devi S. Laskar - An emotional, thought-provoking novel following a journalist set soon after 9/11.

• Dinner with an Astronaut by Leroy Chiao with Victoria Bruce - An entertaining and informative memoir of Leroy Chiao, one of the first Asian American astronauts, filled with witty anecdotes and thoughtful insight into space exploration.

• Morbid Curiosities by S. Hati - An addictive, creative, and emotional YA thriller set in San Francisco with a haunting STEM dark academia atmosphere.

Happy AANHPI Heritage Month!

Thank you to HTP Books, Fierce Reads, Mariner Books, Epic Reads, Macmillan Audio, Crown Publishing, and Scholastic Press for the free review copies!