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#HOMEBOUND by #portiaelan is a testament to the power of storytelling. This deeply moving @bookofthemonth pick encompasses “centuries of becoming” as a ship’s crew from 2586 attempts to locate the whereabouts of a pair of space travelers who are returning to Earth; they are finally coming home and there are many still who eagerly await them. Meanwhile, in 1983, a computer game featuring an astronaut and her robot companion is left unfinished. It is now up to nineteen-year-old Becks to make something meaningful out of her late uncle’s work. In doing so, she may be able to give others the chance to find a sense of closure when she could not.

For me, this novel begins in the twenty-sixth century where there is no such thing as starships anymore. Humanity no longer looks upward to “throw their luck into the dark”; on this drowned planet of trash islands and wayward lives trying to get by, we’re introduced to a middle-aged ship captain and her ailing mentor. They have a large debt to repay and not much time to do so. Against her better judgment, she agrees to bring aboard passengers. One is an Aye, a sentient creation from the late twenty-first century capable of conserving and managing ecosystems. The Aye brings with it a cascade of memories, including the old but well-known tale of one Lieutenant California Solo and a guardian named Elijah.

I cannot express enough how much I enjoyed this #bookofthemonth add-on. All the perspectives came together so well. I never felt like I was leaving one time period for another; it all had a sense of “no end and no beginning” in that everyone is a part of the same endless search for purpose and community. And I love how we were able to walk through the game and experience #HOMEBOUND for ourselves. Becks once told her uncle that a good game should change the player, leaving them different than the way they went in, and she absolutely achieved that. This debut gave me all the feels; I loved!

This @bookofthemonth pick reimagines the hero’s journey as a “nonbinary epic” set in the 90s. Eighteen-year-old Yara resides in San Voyager and has been chosen by God to slay Dominic, who is not only a Bad Guy but also a bad tipper. On the night Yara leaves home, they pursue a trail of literal pearls of wisdom to the sea where they encounter a talking whale. If you look closely at the cover, that is Yara riding on its back!

Meanwhile, Adrena is a prophet in her mid-thirties who is determined to defeat Dominic first and get back into God’s good graces. Her mother is the true seer, but Adrena has done very well for herself. After she persuades the Good Guys to let her co-lead their army, she must trek into the mall for supplies, facing many fearsome foes along the way, like her past and the siren song of the Skin Care Consultant.

#CANON by #paigelewis is quirky, earnest, and very easy to follow. I deeply appreciate all the signposts along the way, reminding me of where we are and what we are still doing lol. If you’re up for an adventure and things getting weird, then this debut is for you! This #bookofthemonth pick is another early release (so many this year!) and it comes out 5/19/2026.

So excited for my May @bookofthemonth picks! I shared my box to my stories over the weekend but wanted to wish a happy #pubday to HOMEBOUND. This debut is available today! CANON is also a super early release and my current quest. #bookofthemonth #botm

#UNDERWATER by #taramenon engulfs us in a defining girlhood friendship and its subsequent loss. As a survivor, Marissa has often been confronted by others for her misplaced grief; shouldn’t she mourn the mother who abruptly died when she was six years old rather than the demise of a mere friend? But to Marissa, who met Arielle at a critical juncture in her life, a friend was worth more than family ever could be. A friend is a choice and the girls had chosen each other time and again. Although eight years have passed since a devastating tsunami took Arielle away, Marissa still sees her everywhere she goes.

When we meet Marissa in 2012, she is navigating the city of her birth, noting the invasive species that have settled in Central Park. (Readers may draw parallels to the hordes of tourists who descend upon Phuket, where Marissa and Arielle consider home.) It is also the day before Hurricane Sandy is expected to make landfall and Marissa observes the haphazard way that New Yorkers around her are prepping, including herself. Nevertheless, the impending storm unleashes a torrent of painful memories of the last moments the two best friends spent together. Caught in the deluge once more, Marissa is determined to find a way back to the surface for good.

This debut is an ode to the natural world; I don’t think I’ve ever viewed New York City through its flora and fauna before. The Quaker parrots, which originated from South America, build their nests on electrical transformers, and red-eared sliders are a turtle species that started out as a pet. We’re also whisked away to Thailand for half the novel; there is a research island, forests and mangroves, not to mention reefs filled with manta rays, several of which Marissa and Arielle have given names to. I was completely mesmerized throughout; I think readers who enjoy sweeping climate fiction should definitely pick this one up!

#PERMANENCE by #sophiemackintosh is a still life of a city that leaves an indelible mark on its adulterous inhabitants. Devastatingly chic, this novel is about an art history professor and an artist who have been carrying on an affair for eighteen months until they wake up together in an unfamiliar apartment surrounded by their favorite things; a shared space for shared lives. Here they find their wallets filled with gold coins in which they use to pay for perfect meals. Here it appears the only demand is to openly enjoy each other’s company; all those stolen moments stretching on into infinity if they so choose.

But the city of impermanence is unforgiving and not the paradise it appears to be. When Francis and Clara are thrust back into their real lives, they find that no time has passed and their absence has gone unnoticed. Everything is unchanged but they are no longer the same. In truth, the yearning in this breathtaking novel isn’t only for one another, but for the person they were before they ever met. Francis and Clara make several return trips (always leaving in anger and coming back contrite) even as living all their lives with “one foot in and one foot out” proves unsustainable.

The city of impermanence serves its purpose. There are few who never go back to the real world anymore. Francis is alarmed by this but satisfied to come and go even though the toll to do so becomes greater. Clara cannot live without Francis but knows deep down that this isn’t her grand love story after all. It is a hard but worthy endeavor, to find a state of #PERMANENCE to settle your one life in. Thanks so much to @barbbookedup for sending me this ARC. This gorgeous, speculative novel celebrates its #pubday today.

Just wanted to share a #bookstack of all the @voguemagazine recommended reads I’ve gotten to so far this year! I’m glad they were readily available through my book box subscriptions. #voguemagazine #bookofthemonth #botm #aardvarkbookclub

German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer inspires the title for this vivacious and prickly @bookofthemonth pick about the life and irreverent times of Sonia Imre in her human dilemma to cultivate intimacy before ultimately withdrawing from its thorniness. #PORCUPINES by #franfabriczki follows Sonia and her daughter, Mila, on a field trip with the Mount Washington Elementary School orchestra in 2001. It is a week-long ordeal, and as Sonia and the other more willing chaperones usher twenty-something fifth graders from Los Angeles to San Francisco, readers are treated to various flashbacks of Szonja and her older sister, Rina; from a childhood spent in the foreign ministry to their contentious reunion in the United States in the early 90s.

The Imre children grow up with little acknowledgement of their Jewish faith. For Szonja, enthusiastic about life, it is no matter. For Rina, six years older than Szonja, it is a notion she can’t quite dispel. She marries an Orthodox Jewish man, which estranges her from her family. In 1989, Szonja arrives in Los Angeles for a summer trip before she begins university back in Budapest. In her sister’s household, she observes how rigid Rina has become. At the same time, Szonja agrees to take Hebrew classes and meets a cherished, lifelong friend. This friend has piqued the interest of present-day Mila. She decides to orchestrate (pun intended) a meeting in San Francisco so she can get answers to her many questions, including the identity of her father. Hilarity ensues!

This is one heartfelt and funny debut. I enjoyed breezy Sonia and how she barely interacts with the people around her. No one knows anything about this single mother except for the time she threw Mila a birthday party and received calls about smoking in front of the children (she went outside!), leaving children unsupervised (she needed a cigarette!), and alcohol in the birthday cake (trifle with rum sauce!). It was 1996, y’all! This #bookofthemonth pick also celebrates its #pubday today. I think those who found themselves on the cusp of adolescence at the turn of the millennium will love this #voguemagazine recommended read.

#YESTERYEAR by #caroclaireburke is a “grand performance of womanhood” as played by traditional American woman Natalie Heller Mills. It begins with discipline, which is why Natalie accomplishes everything she sets out to do! She marries into a wealthy political family and has her first child at twenty. Natalie doesn’t take to motherhood, but she knows it’s her duty. In fact, she is already planning for the next child. Her husband, Caleb, alas, doesn’t take to employment or any sort of purpose. He appears to not understand his duty at all! The good wife that she is, Natalie recalls that Caleb has always wanted to be a cowboy or an actor. She purchases a farm where they cosplay at homesteading until it becomes clear that she and her “piece of sh!t pioneer husband” have no idea what they’re doing.

Natalie’s next challenge is to find a source of income. She creates an Instagram account but is unable to gain any traction for a few years until she goes viral on a podcast. When we meet Natalie, she has two nannies, a producer, and five children with another one on the way. She has millions of followers who adore her for being “exhausted and beautiful”, for spreading good Christian values as a mother, wife, and influencer. This @bookofthemonth pick is a divine blend of satire and suspense. When Natalie wakes up freezing and dirty in 1855, she doesn’t know why her children don’t look like her children, why her husband is suddenly a “hardened Christian man”. In the endless days to come, Natalie must confront all the lies that have made up her small and narrow-minded life and learn absolutely nothing from it!

This is a glorious debut! Natalie is a horrible woman, but I found her weirdly relatable and very entertaining. It was easy for me to live vicariously through all her disparaging internal and external dialogue just as it was satisfying to see people finally stand up to her. I’ve been hyped up for this #bookofthemonth pick for months and I’m glad I can share my thoughts on it during #pubweek. I had so much fun with this one and I think many of y’all will too!

#CLUTCH by #emilynemens goes beautifully “off book” from the moment we’re dropped into numerous group chats sans any introduction. I appreciate that we aren’t playing catch up, that there is an air of anticipation even as Bella, Carson, Hillary, Reba, and Gregg find themselves mired in middle age. I have become wary of friend group novels because while there may be unlikeable characters, we as readers should still care some sort of way about them. And it’s important to also convey that the characters themselves care about one another too, and not because they all attended the same college twenty years ago.

Thankfully, we transcend tired, “saccharine” scripts and emerge with something wholly unique and memorable with #CLUTCH; this isn’t a novel about women balancing careers and children, deeply disappointing spouses, or even trying to maintain friendships with someone that has a fundamentally different life pursuit from their own. #CLUTCH is about reaching the fifth decade of life and finding everything on the line. There is “competition”, but no one is “canon”; to put it another way, the women are still in that six-legged race from orientation week, and the hurdles are coming fast. Can everyone cross another finish line, or will the “infinite variables” of their individual lives bring them crashing down?

Thanks so much to @booksencouraged for sending me this book and organizing our buddy read! Being able to pause and discuss really puts a lot of things into perspective, namely that you will absolutely survive your “major planetary realignment” when it occurs. These five friends go to pieces, but how wonderful it is when they realize they have the “wherewithal” and “agency” to put themselves back together once more even as it’s the hardest thing they have to keep doing over and over again. I got teary-eyed leaving the group chat but come away invigorated and ready to embrace the “pileups” that will inevitably arrive in my own life.

This @aardvarkbookclub pick gave me serious vertigo. There is Birdie Chang, who was only nine years old when Calvin Boyer divided her life into Before Calvin Birdie and After Calvin Birdie. Despite ample evidence, including a secretly recorded video, Birdie’s case is the only one that gets thrown out. Then there is Linzie King, a former reality TV star who has published a memoir of her abuse at the hands of the same man. It is hailed as a reclamation of the self, but we quickly learn that Linzie entrusts every part of her life to handlers, who have done her horribly. And finally, there is Mary-Beth, Calvin’s mother, who has stood by her son since the day he was born. Her greatest wish is to take her beautiful boy far away from those who harm him…as well as from those he might harm. Her devotion, unnervingly, pulls at our heartstrings.

We are further unsteadied by jumps and gaps in the timeline, where perspectives can be separated by a mere day. #WHIDBEY by #tkiramadden opens on a ferry where a stranger offers to kill a man. In another timeline, in the Florida swampland, the man has been murdered. By the end of the novel, it doesn’t matter who did it. I think fans of Hitchcock will appreciate this #aardvarkbookclub pick, which celebrates its #pubday today. The suspense is staggering and resolutions, absolutely heart-rendering. As we fully grasp “what kind of person” Calvin Boyer is, it is made emphatically clear that while lives can be ruined, they can also, at great cost, be returned. This title first came to my attention as a #voguemagazine recommended read; it’s a tremendous debut that deserves all the hype.

This @bookofthemonth pick is about “motherless girls who grew into motherless women” and how that impacts the core of a person. Niecy and Annie are cradle friends who began their lives in rural Louisiana with the same shared loss, but while Niecy is the daughter of a dead mother, Annie’s mother is alive GodKnowsWhere doing GodKnowsWhat. This contrast sends the girls onto different life trajectories filled with peril, sisterhood, and adventure.

When Niecy’s mother is killed, her aunt comes back home to raise her. Seventeen years of sacrifice meant that Niecy’s one job was to live up to her potential. She would go to college in Atlanta, get married, and most importantly, never return to Louisiana. Niecy accomplishes this to great aplomb but loses herself to get there. Similarly, Annie’s path is also a one-way trip, but with an impossible destination: to find her mother. This fixation leads Annie to Memphis where she discovers that a good man isn’t enough to overcome the absence of motherlove.

#KIN by #tayarijones is a precarious coming-of-age story of two young women; one who can “be straightened where she is bent” while the other “could never be upright”. I was particularly struck by this comparison and how foreboding it would prove to be. And while I thought this #bookofthemonth pick leaned more historical than literary, I still recommend for all the “downhearted” girlies.

It is the year 2000 and fifteen-year-old Dilo AKA #HUSTLEBABY has perpetual acid reflux from managing household finances. While her mother and aunt rely on part-time gigs and pyramid schemes, Dilo sells contraband at school. To truly get by, however, the family has fine-tuned a shoplifting operation that somehow includes three-year-old Maysha. At novel open, the foursome is about to be evicted unless they can come up with five grand in the next two months. Enter mother Mary, a snake cast from paradise into the cold clime of Scarborough, who implores them all to find Jesus. They find Mark instead.

This ferocious novel by #priyaguns may feature impulsive characters and a hard-hitting plot, but I was most blindsided by the moments of sudden clarity; when Dilo realizes she is more capable than the grown-ups in her life...and revels in it. There is a moving passage about how an apple may not fall far from the tree, but if it was taken across an entire ocean, then it simply wouldn’t be the same apple anymore. It’s no wonder a waste man like Mark can come into their lives so easily, and with his suspiciously high returns on investment, the family of four dare to dream of doing something beyond just surviving.

Well! I didn’t plan on reading this summer release right away, but after taking in the first few pages I ended up finishing the whole thing! I love it when a book sneaks up on me like that. At once a tidy time capsule and yet very applicable to current events, this one is perfect for every millennial and resistance fighter out there. Thanks so much to @doubledaybooks and @netgalley for providing an eARC for review. #HUSTLEBABY comes out 7/14/2026.