Ep 409 – Most Anticipated Books for May and June + Cures for Book Hangovers!

Episode notes

Brea and Mallory talk about their most anticipated books for May and June! Plus, they give out book hangover cures. Email us at readingglassespodcast at gmail dot com!

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Stack the Shelves

Spring Readathon
May 18th!

Books Mentioned –

The Day the World Stopped Shopping by J.B. MacKinnon

Why I Love Horror edited by Becky Spratford

May

Decolonizing Language by Ngugi W. Thiong’o
Nonfiction, modern African literature, post colonial literary criticism

And the Trees Stare Back by Gigi Griffis
YA horror, Soviet Russia, historical, “came back wrong”

Eliza, from Scratch by Sophia Lee – YA rom-com, cooking, high school, Korean food

The Lost Queen by Aimee Phan – YA fantasy, magic, sisters, Vietnamese lore, past lives

Titan of the Stars by E.K. Johnson – YA sci fi horror, space, aliens, Mars, trapped on a spaceship

Death in the Cards by Mia P. Manansala – YA mystery, tarot, teen detective, vanished girl

You and Me on Repeat by Mary Shyne – YA rom-com graphic novel, time loop, friendship

Home Has No Borders by Sona Charaipotra and Samira Ahmed – Short story collection, YA, South Asian writers

The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei – Historical fiction, Singapore, family saga, sisters

My Name is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende – Historical fiction, 19 century, Chile, San Francisco, female writer sent to cover civil war

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong – Literary fiction, chosen family, friendship between elderly woman and the young man she saves

My Friends by Fredrick Backman – Literary fiction, 25 year saga about four friends in a seaside town

The Tenant by Freida McFadden – Thriller, man rents a room to a woman who is not what she seems

The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North – Thriller, serial killer, criminal profiler solving case he survived as a child

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh – Fantasy, dark academia, sapphic romance

Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle – Urban fantasy, NYC, chef who can taste ghosts

Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan
Sci fi, eco-fiction, flooding, artist bonding with elderly woman who remembers the city’s history

The Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve – Sci fi, mystery, technology that lets you visit the most pivotal moment of your life for one hour

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling – Historical horror, sapphic erotica, cannibals, medieval, surreal

Never Flinch by Stephen King – Horror, next Holly book

Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan – Third in Skyland series

The Love Haters by Katherine Center
Contemporary romance, swimming, cynicism, Key West

The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
Romantasy, divination magic, gothic, hot knight

A Fate Forged in Fire by Hazel McBride
Romantasy, Celtic inspired, magic, dragon riding, hot prince

Bad Friend: How Women Revolutionized Modern Friendship by Tiffany Watt Smith
Nonfiction

Mark Twain by Ron Chernow
Nonfiction

Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang – Literary horror, friendship, technology that enhances empathy

Forest Euphoria by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian – Nonfiction, queerness in wildlife and nature

Fake Work: How I Began to Suspect Capitalism is a Joke by Leigh Claire la Berge – Nonfiction

So Many Stars: an Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color by Caro de Robertis
Nonfiction

Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan
Literary fiction, trans protagonist, love, betrayal, “allure of bougie domesticity”

And They Were Roommates by Page Powars – Queer YA romance, trans protagonist, boarding school

Gay the Pray Away by Natalie Naudus
Queer YA romance, cult, small town, secret love

Summertime by Yigit Karaahmet, translated by Nicholas Glastonbury
Queer thriller, Turkey, “the Birdcage but by Patricia Highsmith”

When Devils Sing by Xan Kaur
YA horror, Southern gothic, small town, vanished teen

Of Earthly Delights by Goldy Moldavsky
YA horroromance, contemporary gothic, family secrets, mysterious garden

Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson – Literary fiction, funny, family road trip

Gingko Season by Naomi Xu Elegant – Literary fiction, finding yourself after a heartbreak, friendship

The South by Tash Aw
Gay literary fiction, family, summer, small town, secret love

The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis – Cozy fantasy, magic school in New England, werewolf protagonist

June

The Mercy Makers by Tessa Gratton – Romantasy, forbidden love, forbidden magic, political intrigue

A Far Better Thing by H.G. Parry – Fantasy, fairy revenge, historical, French revolution

A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek – Queer YA fantasy, sapphic Swan Lake retelling

A Magic Deep and Drowning by Hester Fox – Historical romantasy, Dutch Golden Age, Little Mermaid retelling

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab – Queer spec fic, immortality, romance

Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell – Historical fantasy, Hercules retelling, funny and sweet

I Think I’m in Love with an Alien by Ann Aguirre – Romantiscifi, space, rom-com

The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery by Clarence A. Haynes – Queer fantasy, ghosts, funny, magical past

The Lady, The Tiger, and the Girl Who Loved Death by Helen Marshall – Fantasy, circus, mystery, dark magic, revenge

The Palace of Illusions by Rowena Miller – Historical fantasy, Paris, 1900s World’s Fair, magical clockmaker

The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Older – Sapphic cozy space mystery, third in series

A Girl Walks into the Forest by Madeleine Roux – Fantasy, journey through evil forest, monsters

The Beautiful Maddening by Shea Ernshaw – YA contemporary romantasy, family love curse, magic tulips

The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King – Queer fantasy, magic, memories contained in pencils, lost connections across time and space

Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon by Annie Mare
Queer romantiscifi, sapphic, two women in different worlds trying to find the right timeline to be together

Meet Me at the Crossroads by Megan Giddings – Sci fi, mysterious doors to new worlds, sisters

Best of all Worlds by Kenneth Oppel
YA spec fi thriller, survival story

The Two Lives of Faven Sythe by Megan O’Keefe – Sci fi, missing person search uncovers galaxy-wide conspiracy, space opera

Pearly Gates by Bonnie Solomon – Queer cozy funny fantasy, drag queen protagonist in after life, found family

Ecstasy by Ivy Pochoda – Horror, Greek tragedy retelling, female empowerment

Strange Houses by Uketsu, translated by Jim Rion
Japanese mystery horror, disturbing architecture

This Princess Kills Monsters by Ry Herman – Queer fantasy, high fantasy, magic princess on a quest, fairytale satire

Work Nights by Erica Peplin – Queer literary fiction, young woman in love triangle, NYC

Girls Girls Girls by Shoshana von Blanckensee
Queer Jewish new adult literary fiction, 1990s road trip from NYC to San Francisco

These Heathens by Mia McKenzie
Queer new adult historical fiction, 1960s Atlanta, queer Black community, civil rights movement

If I Told You I’d Have to Kiss You by Mae Marvel – Sapphic romance, if Mr. and Ms. Smith was gay

Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski – Queer literary fiction, bisexual protagonist, woman risking it all for a second chance at first love

A Rare Find by Joanna Lowell – Sapphic historical romance, archaeologist teaming up with childhood enemy

Ready to Score by Jodie Slaughter – Sapphic contemporary romance, spicy, small town, Texas football

It’s Not the End of the World by Jonathan Parks-Ramage
Cli-fi thriller, queer, family saga, near future sci fi

What is Queer Food? How We Served a Revolution by John Birdsall
Nonfiction

El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott – Thriller, all woman pyramid scheme, Detroit, crime, female friendship, power

The Dark Library by Mary Anna Evans
Gothic historical thriller, family secrets, dark academia

The Farmhouse by Chelsea Conradt – Horror, family moves to a creepy house in the middle of nowhere, corn!!!!!

Worth Fighting For by Jesse Q. Sutanto – Mulan reimagined as a contemporary romance

Someone Knows by Vi Keeland – Thriller, sexy, English professor has a dark past come back to haunt her, murder, affair

The Compound by Aisling Rawle – Dystopian thriller, Lord of the Flies meets Love Island, reality TV

Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady
Contemporary romance, rivalry between two managers at the same bookstore

Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman
Cozy mystery, murder on a Parisian river cruise

The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick
Spec fic, what if there was a scientific cure for heartbreak

King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby
Crime thriller, family drama, Southern, inspired by The Godfather

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater – Historical romantasy, 1940s Appalachia, luxury hotel, magic

With a Vengeance by Riley Sager
Historical horror, trains, murder, 1940s midwest America

The Primal of Blood and Bone by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Sixth in the Blood and Ash series

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid – Historical romance, 1980s, NASA, astronauts

The Dry Season by Melissa Febos – Celibacy memoir