Celestial | Our Sister's Keeper
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Our Sister's Keeper
Jasmine Holmes
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Mississippi, 1927. The groanings are coming.
No town is perfect, but East Cobb comes close. It's a wealthy all-Black Free Town—untouched by white oppression—where ambitious Thea Elliot and her husband plan to make good on their big dreams. Little do they know that the idyllic town teems with ghoulish, walking nightmares . . . that only the women can see.
Marah knows the groanings well. She is one of the carriers—women with the ability to pull traumatic memories from men. Populated by men entirely freed of their pain, East Cobb has flourished, even as the remnants of their memories haunt the town's women. When an unexpected death drives Marah to discover more about her own power, Thea's and Marah's worlds collide. The sisters must confront the rotten core at the heart of East Cobb's prosperity and choose what—and who—will survive the reckoning.
A gripping blend of historical fiction and Southern gothic psychological horror, Our Sister's Keeper is a fierce exploration of Black sisterhood, rage, and resistance.
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Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Jul 16
you can’t trust ANYONE in these books … watch your back.
you can’t trust ANYONE in these books … watch your back.
📚 books mentioned: - That Which Feeds Us by Keala Kendall - Our Sister’s Keeper by Jasmine Holmes - I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea
👗💄: - dress is from Anthropologie, rented from Nuuly - eyeshadow is Blends Artistry Palette from Blend Bunny Cosmetics and The Spring Symphony Palette from Dandy Lion Cosmetics - eye shimmer are single duochromes (Prism and Solar Rush) from Ourbella Cosmetics - eyeliner is 24 Hour Waterproof (Vanilla) from Persona Cosmetics - mascara is Lash Extensions XL from Milani - lip combo is Hablame Lip Liner Pencil (Morado 02) from Aora Mexico and Glow Diamond Tinted Lip Oil (0920) from glow
thank you to Get Underlined and Bindery Books for the gifted copies!
#horrorbooks #scarybooks #disturbingbooks #nycinfluencer #bookstagram @getunderlined @bindery_books @fiercereads @anthropologie @blendbunnycosmetics @dandylionsco @ourbella.us @milanicosmetics @aoramakeup @glowishere
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💭 what was your favorite read from June?
💭 what was your favorite read from June?
i think i read the least number of pages this month, BUT i found some really cool books!
📚 books mentioned: - Our Sister’s Keeper by Jasmine Holmes - Doe by Rebecca Barrow - Her Sharp Embrace by Kate Koenig - (S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi - Our Wicked Gifts by Kathryn Foxfield - Redundancies and Potentials by Dominique Dickey
👗💄: - shirt is from Altar’d State - eyeshadow is The Lord of the Rings Middle Earth Palette from Glamlite - eye shimmer is from Ourbella (Cosmic Siren and Midsummer) - mascara is Badi Lash from Kulfi Beauty - lip combo is Signature Lip Liner (Subconscious) from Merit and ShineOn Lip Oil Jelly (Wild) from Tower28
thank you to Bindery Books, Penguin Teen, Wednesday Books, Versify/HarperCollins, and Get Underlined for the gifted copies!
#readingwrapup #monthlyreads #bookreviews #nycinfluencer #bookstagram @bindery_books @penguinteen @wednesdaybooks @versifybooks @harpercollins @getunderlined @neonhemlock @altardstate @glamlite @ourbella.us @kulfi.beauty
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bloodthirsty doe entities & billionaire families imploding …
my long form June reading wrap up!
6 books
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Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Jun 30
your friend really, really needs to read these books …
your friend really, really needs to read these books …
📚 books mentioned: - Our Sister’s Keeper by Jasmine Holmes - Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado - Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine - Girls Who Play Dead by Joelle Wellington - Canon by Paige Lewis - You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom by Vincent Tirado - Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz - The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar - Open Throat by Henry Hoke - Singer Distance by Ethan Chatagnier - Until the Clock Strikes Midnight by Alechia Dow - Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson - Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino - The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter - Fury by Shirley Marr
👗💄: - shirt is from Hill House Home - eyeshadow is The Lord of the Rings Middle Earth Palette from Glamlite and In A Trance from Colourpop - eyeliner is Vegan Longwear Eyeliner (Ocean) from Pacifica Beauty - shimmer is a single (Enchanted) from Adriana Nichole Cosmetics - mascara is Clean Volume from Merit - lip combo is Suede Matte Lip Liner (Moonwalk) from NYX Cosmetics and Wonder Blading Top Gloss (Holographic) from Wonderskin
thank you to Bindery Books, Sourcebooks Landmark, Simon Teen, Viking Books, William Morrow, Tordotcom, and Tin House for the gifted copies!
#fantasybooks #horrorbooks #scifibooks #nycinfluencer #bookstagram @bindery_books @graywolfpress @sourcebooks @bookmarked @simonteen @vikingbooks @williammorrowbooks @entangledteen @tordotcompub @mcdbooks @tin_house @fiercereads @groveatlantic @fsgbooks @orbitbooks_us @hillhouse @glamlite @adriananicholecosmetics @merit @wonderskin @colourpopcosmetics @nyxcosmetics
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DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jul 19
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The Sunday Prescription: July 19, 2026
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Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Jul 16
you can’t trust ANYONE in these books … watch your back.
you can’t trust ANYONE in these books … watch your back.
thank you to Get Underlined and Bindery Books for the gifted copies!
3 books
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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Jul 14
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Have you started OUR SISTER’S KEEPER?
Get inspired by author Jasmine Holmes speaking on her inspiration and the power of Black women.
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DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jul 12
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The Sunday Prescription: July 12, 2026
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Ink & Ether\ \ Michelle, The Keeper\ \ • Jul 9
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💭 what was your favorite read from June?
💭 what was your favorite read from June?
i think i read the least number of pages this month, BUT i found some really cool books!
thank you to Bindery Books, Penguin Teen, Wednesday Books, Versify/HarperCollins, and Get Underlined for the gifted copies!
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Sunny's Book Truck\ \ CJ\ \ • Jul 5
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EARLY ACCESS: June Reading Recap + Bookstore Profits
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bloodthirsty doe entities & billionaire families imploding …
my long form June reading wrap up!
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DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jul 5
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The Sunday Prescription: July 5, 2026
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Sunny's Book Truck\ \ CJ\ \ • Jul 2
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[Poll:\ \ July Book Club\ \ \ \ 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 August 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 August pick will ship the last week of July 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 blend of historical fiction and Southern gothic psychological horror, Our Sister's Keeper is a fierce exploration of Black sisterhood, rage, and resistance.\ \ Mississippi, 1927. The groanings are coming.\ \ No town is perfect, but East Cobb comes close. It's a wealthy all-Black Free Town--untouched by white oppression--where ambitious Thea Elliot and her husband plan to make good on their big dreams. Little do they know that the idyllic town teems with ghoulish, walking nightmares . . . that only the women can see.\ \ Marah knows the groanings well. She is one of the carriers--women with the ability to pull traumatic memories from men. Populated by men entirely freed of their pain, East Cobb has flourished, even as the remnants of their memories haunt the town's women. When an unexpected death drives Marah to discover more about her own power, Thea's and Marah's worlds collide. The sisters must confront the rotten core at the heart of East Cobb's prosperity and choose what--and who--will survive the reckoning.\ \ \ \ A year in the life of a family as they strike out into the unknown (aka Vermont), leaving all the comforts of home behind—a rollicking, lyrical novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason, the bestselling author of North Woods and one of America’s greatest living writers.\ \ Miles Krzelewski is a devoted husband, a doting father beloved for his outlandish bedtime stories, and the proud owner of a truffle-hunting dog in a land with no truffles. He is also a bit lost, twelve years late with his PhD on Russian folktales and increasingly haunted by a sense that he’s become a disappointment to his family. So when his wife, Kate, accepts a visiting professorship at a prestigious college in the faraway forests of Vermont, he decides that this will be the year to finally move forward with his life.\ \ But Miles is a man of many enthusiasms, one who possesses, in Kate’s words, a great capacity “to fall in with anyone, anywhere.” And no sooner does he arrive than he finds himself entangled with a cast of characters as colorful as those of any of his folktales, from a ghostly tree surgeon to a scythe-mad biochemist, from a Shakespearean temptress to a photographer of snowflakes obsessed with chronicling, on thousands of index cards, the world’s delusions in an Inventory of Wrong Ideas.\ \ The new friends, the enchanted woods, the histories: sure, no PhD, but all good fun. Until Miles stumbles upon a bizarre—perhaps ridiculous—local legend, which, he soon suspects, might not be just a legend after all.\ \ Joyous, absurd, and life-affirming, Country People is a luminous exploration of marriage and parenthood, the nature of belief and the power of stories, and the ways in which we find connection in an increasingly fragmented world.\ \ \ \ A complex mother-daughter relationship is taken to a new level in this fresh and propulsive novel of family curses, blood-thirsty ghouls, and budding romance set against the Mojave Desert and Las Vegas.\ \ Ellis Karsten spends nights working triage in the ER and days having the same conversation with her mom. The early onset dementia is exhausting, but the real challenge is their curse—Ellis’s family must feed daily on blood, or risk becoming mindless, skinless killing machines. When Ellis’s uncle, who supplies their blood, vanishes, she takes it upon herself to find a new source, aided by a prickly paramedic who’s equal parts unpredictable and intoxicating. But as Ellis fights to balance her bloodthirsty nature with a new relationship, her mom’s impossible demands transform into panicked warnings that a fabled monster, “The Flayed Man,” is stalking them.\ \ As she traverses the desert in search of blood, Ellis risks her safety and her family’s secret, until it becomes clear that her mom is right: something ancient and hungry is hunting them, and it has come for her mom. Blood hunger begins to overtake Ellis, transforming her body into something ghoulish and frightening—exactly what The Flayed Man wants. In the end, she must decide who to trust, what she’s willing to sacrifice, and whether she is worthy of a life, and love, beyond her curse—or if she’s going to succumb to instinct and ravage the world.\ \ \ \ From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a sizzling noir about desire, danger, and greed, in which seduction is the ultimate con.\ \ Handsome con artist Ulises has long charmed lonely women via letters in order to steal their money, but money is hard to come by in 1940s Mexico. Ulises knows his looks won’t last forever, and he’s desperate to get his hands on a real fortune.\ \ He thinks he’s found it when he captivates his newest correspondent, Perla, the owner of a small-town boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But when he meets her, he finds something he didn’t expect. The woman has a niece, Inés, who is as observant as she is desperate to escape her aunt’s household.\ \ When Inés discovers Ulises’s true intentions, she wants in on the scheme. They’ll convince her aunt that Ulises is a great catch, Perla will marry him, and her money will vanish. Easy, fast, and clean. But Perla is not the desperate, silly spinster Ulises imagines. She harbors secrets. And although Ulises does not believe in true romance, Inés is more alluring than he bargained for. Suddenly, a simple plan may become perilously complicated.\ \ Venture into the streets of a small town where a patina of convention and good manners conceals a cauldron of avarice and lust.\ \ Four very compelling choices! Happy voting and remember we are reading Sourland by Ariel Delgado Dixon in July. You never have to buy the book from Sunny's to pariticpate in book club, we just love it when you do.\ \ Love what we do? Become a paid subscriberfor 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.](https://sunnysbooktruck.binderybooks.com/item/MiRxVeAth2VX5T07vcOk/)
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Ghosts! Vampires! Con artists! Oh my.
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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Jul 1
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Our July Inky Phoenix pick is here!
OUR SISTER’S KEEPER by Jasmine Holmes
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Ezeekat Press\ \ Jaysen\ \ • Jun 30
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Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Jun 30
your friend really, really needs to read these books …
your friend really, really needs to read these books …
thank you to Bindery Books, Sourcebooks Landmark, Simon Teen, Viking Books, William Morrow, Tordotcom, and Tin House for the gifted copies!
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Children of Diaspora\ \ Rae the Reviewer\ \ • Jun 30
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Black ☑️ Southern ☑️ Gothic ☑️
Thank you @bindery_books and @mynameismarines for this wonderful book box of Our Sister’s Keeper by @jasminelholmes 📖
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DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jun 28
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The Sunday Prescription: June 28, 2026
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Ezeekat Press\ \ Jaysen\ \ • Jun 27
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Stardust Books\ \ Joy\ \ • Jun 24
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Join us for our audiobook walk today at 6pm. We meet at the shop, walk around clarkdale and end back
Join us for our audiobook walk today at 6pm. We meet at the shop, walk around clarkdale and end back at the shop. I know it’s a million degrees right now, so I understand if it’s just not for you right now! lol
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DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jun 21
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[Poll:\ \ Do your reading habits change in the summer?\ \ The Sunday Prescription \ \ One reading topic, one week of plans, and plenty of books administered weekly for chronic readers.\ \ Symptoms: Reading in the Summer \ \ Happy Sunday gang, and Happy Father's Day to any of the bookish dads out there! I hope everyone is doing well, and welcome back to my Sunday Newsletter. This week, I've been thinking a lot about summer reading patterns. \ \ As someone who yaps a lot about books online, I hear a lot of feedback about what other people do for reading, and it always fascinates me how different we all are! I have two beach trips coming up this summer, and for me, summer is always a time when I read more. I work from home these days, and the school year means driving kids all over the place, and having a lot of my free time taken up by activities during the school year. So when I get to go on a trip, and during the summer especially, I always wind up reading more. Having less time in the car and less time at teenage kid activities gives me more time to read. In addition, I'm outside working more, so I'm listening to more audiobooks, and generally just consuming more written and spoken stories. \ \ Now when it comes to packing for a trip, I always over do it when it comes to books. For a typical week long beach trip, you will usually find me packing 4-5 books along with my e-reader. As a certified feral mood reader, this gives me plenty of variety. On top of that, I usually find a local beach bookstore and make my way there as well. In terms of what I like to read, this is definitely when I'm going for shorter/less intense stuff. Cozy fantasies like the House in the Cerulean Sea and Tress of the Emerald Sea come to mind (which we're reading right now for our book club!). I of course love it when a book leans into the water, piracy, or hot/desert climates. Which reminds me, I need to start Children of Dune here soon!\ \ However, I hear from other people that when they head into the long, hot days of summer, and go on vacations, they read less. They cite more time in summer/outdoor activities as barriers, and say when they go on vacation they don't want to read more, or are too busy. It does seem an increase in audiobook consumption is pretty well agreed upon, given more time outside, and time spent on road trips in the car. So I'm interested to hear from you all - how does summer change your reading habits? Do you read more or less? Do you read more on vacation? Do you pack a ton of books like some sort of book goblin like me?\ \ The Rx: What I'm Reading and Doing \ \ I did announce this week that I was starting a new Fable Book Club! We will be starting July 1 with Our Sister's Keeper by Jasmine Holmes. The book club is called Dr. Bob's Literary Apothecary, and our goal is to read diverse authors, diverse genres, and try to find diverse books that aren't popping up on your algorithm! I'd love to have you join, we'll do a book a month, and no changes to our usual book club. \ \ In terms of reading, I finished off my reread of Tress of the Emerald Sea, and I just enjoyed it so much. I listened to the Michael Kramer version for the reread as I read it physical last year, and I'm not a graphic audio fan usually, especially abridged versions. I also finished an Arc of Songs of the Dead by Brandon Sanderson and Peter Orullian. More to come on that in a future review. And Today, I'll be finishing up Stoner by John Williams, which is our Dark Travelers monthly pick a book. That has met spellbound at the moment! If you want to read with us you should join up as a Dark Traveler!\ \ I also released this week's YouTube video, which is all about ARC's - what they are and why they exist, what you can do to start becoming an ARC reader, and the major Do's and Don't of reading ARCs. \ \ In terms of what's next, I have a bunch of options and I'm not sure where I'll go for sure!\ \
- A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab - probably next\ \
- Jade City by Fonda Lee - researching for next month's book club!\ \
- The Photonic Effect by Mike Chen - sent to me by the publisher, and sounds cool.\ \
- Valor by John Gwynne - Really want to continue, and my TBB versions should show up soon. \ \
- What Blood Remembers by C William Phillips - probably next on my e-reader. \ \
- Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove - Up next on audio!\ \ \ I also picked up an Assassin's Creed game for the Nintendo Switch, which I'm interested to give a try, and I heard a rumor that I might be getting a sweet Lego set for Father's Day!\ \ Like Discounts and Helping Me out? \ \ Did you know I have a bunch of different affiliate codes? I you head to the link in my bio, you'll see a bunch of affiliate codes. Some of these, like the Flowers and fantasy 10% off, the 15% off TBB regular publishing website, or the Pango books $5 off your first order codes, will save you money! Others, like the Broken Binding special edition code, my Bookshop.org Affiliate, and my wishlist are more just support for me. I also have links to all of my social sites if you're looking to follow elsewhere as well!\ \ Join for free or login](https://docofthedarkarts.binderybooks.com/item/RSKW1H0xzYOUFRxqBpH1/)
The Sunday Prescription: June 21, 2026
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Black Girl Nerds\ \ Jamie\ \ • Jun 19
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📚 July Book Club Voting Is Now Open! 📚
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DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jun 14
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[Poll:\ \ Did you finish a book this week?\ \ The Sunday Prescription \ \ One reading topic, one week of plans, and plenty of books administered weekly for chronic readers.\ \ Symptoms: Dealing With a Reading Slump \ \ I have seen a bunch of videos recently that start something like this: "Here are 5 books that are GUARANTEED to get you out of a reading slump!" I know I have also talked to a few content creators recently who are also in reading slumps, and I know a few of you all in Discord have mentioned being in a bit of a slump yourself. And of course, being overly analytical, I've been giving it some thought. \ \ I think the term reading slump gets thrown around quite a bit to describe a bunch of different things, so first allow me to kind of describe to you how I see the reading slump landscape. \ \
- First is a simple "book hangover." This is where you read a book that is so good, or so bad, that it can be tough to find something to make you happy after. Whether it's not meeting expectations after a five star read, or that one star book just crushed your reading spirit, I find these are relatively short lived, and easily solved by rereading a favorite, switching mediums, and picking something short and fun. \ \
- Next is a true reading slump. This happens when you're just not feeling reading, and it lasts for a longer period of time. To me this is more on the order of a week or more. Nothing you are reaching for is striking your fancy, you can't get into anything, you're DNFing or NRNing everything, and you're just not feeling reading generally speaking. We'll talk about this more in depth in a minute. \ \
- Then there's what I would consider something more serious - you're an avid reader, but you're not even interested in engaging. Going to the library or bookstore is a chore, you're not into watching book content, and you have a general malaise about reading overall. This is usually something more serious, like depression (which can cause anhedonia, or a lack of interest in your favorite things), or going through major life events or stressors, or some kind of mental health issue. \ \ \ Obviously, if you are in the throes of option 3, then just don't even worry about reading. Take care of yourself, and whatever you need to do in your life. Option two is usually the one people ask about, and the one that people are referring to when they recommend you a certified slump buster. But if you find yourself in a slump as described above, give it some thought before blindly throwing books at it, and try some other stuff out. Some of my favorite things to do in this situation:\ \
- Read a graphic novel, a comic, novellas, or something super light and easy. \ \
- Reread a favorite, and remind yourself why you love reading. \ \
- Switch mediums - go to an audiobook if you've been doing physical and vice versa. \ \
- Switch genres. Going hard in on fantasy - go pick up a mystery or a lit fic. \ \
- Try a certified slump buster, but don't count on it working all the time. \ \ \ Now last but not least, sometimes you may notice that your slump is because you don't have the time to read, and you're feeling bad about that. or you are being pulled to other hobbies, and that's making you feel bad about reading. As someone with a ton of hobbies, remember that they should be fun. In the summer and fall, I want to be outside more or building in my shop, so I read a bit less physical and do more audio (unless I'm on vacation). If you're feeling other hobbies, back off reading for a bit - the books will always be there for you! And if your goals are stressing you out, remember your goals are made up numbers that you can change at any time!\ \ Let us all know down in the comments if you have any thoughts or tips on reading slumps!\ \ The Rx: What I'm Reading and Doing \ \ There's lots exciting going on right now! In terms of my reading plans this week:\ \
- Reading Stoner by John Williams with the Dark Travelers. Our paid members get together and pick a book for me/us to read each month, and this is what we're doing in June!\ \
- Middlemarch by George Eliot - I'm back on this one. It's a slow read but really good, just needs it's own time!\ \
- Going to be listening to Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove\ \
- Not sure what my next e-book will be!\ \ \ I'm also looking for a good Nintendo Switch game, so if you have recommendations let me know! I also recently hit 25K on Instagram, and as I mentioned before am close to some cool milestones on other platforms including here on bindery, so thank you all so much for all of your support. I have some cool giveaway plans coming up!\ \ Now the big news, you all as my Bindery members are getting an early announcement here! I am going to be starting a Fable bookclub in July. Very importantly, our current book club will not change at all, and is still my main focus! However, I recognize not everyone wants to get into the level of detail of our Discord book club, and I also want to start exploring some more diverse books outside of the SFF realm. So, I'm excited to announce Dr. Bob's Literary Apothecary on Fable! Each month, I'll be picking a diverse book to read. What do I mean by diverse? A few things:\ \
- Diverse authors from all different backgrounds. \ \
- Diverse genres - branching out from Sci Fi and Fantasy. \ \
- Diverse books - finding those hidden gems/less discussed books, not the stuff that's all over social media. \ \ \ Our first book in July will be Our Sister's Keeper by Jasmine Holmes! If you've been looking to try horror, I think this is a great entry point! If you are interested, head on over to the link above and join the Fable book club, and more to come this week!\ \ Like More In-Depth Access? \ \ If you enjoy getting into the details with me about reading, then consider upgrading to The Dark Travelers tier. My Dark Travelers get an exclusive Discord role and channels, a weekly deep dive reading update video, early access to YouTube videos, and each month they get to pick a book for me to read. This can be a book they want to read with me, or something they want me to try for them. It's super fun and a great tight knit group that I really enjoy talking books with, and I'd love to have you part of it! This week I want to welcome our new members: Sarah, Trav, Chelsea, and Lily!\ \ Thank you as always for being here, and I hope you all have a great week of reading!\ \ Join for free or login](https://docofthedarkarts.binderybooks.com/item/a42CnOLT14o7P7Ey6TZz/)
The Sunday Prescription: June 14, 2026
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DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jun 10
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DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jun 9
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Book Review Tuesday: Our Sister’s Keeper by Jasmine Holmes
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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Jun 9
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Level of excitement for OUR SISTER’S KEEPER: 💯
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DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jun 7
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[Poll:\ \ Should I give Dungeon Crawler Carl another try and read book 2?\ \ The Sunday Prescription \ \ One reading topic, one week of plans, and plenty of books administered weekly for chronic readers.\ \ \ \ Happy Sunday everyone, and welcome to the first installment of The Sunday Prescription, where each week I plan on discussing a bookish topic, my reading plans for the week, and call out some books you all should be checking out! And as always, none of my stuff is written with any kind of generative AI - it's just me rambling!\ \ My Symptoms: DNFing \ \ I've talked a bunch before both here and other platforms about DNFing books, and my general thoughts around that. And, truth be told, I think I have a pretty solid feel for how I handle individual books. But I've had a few experiences this week that have really got me thinking about my approach to a series and whether I DNF that or not. \ \ First, I saw some really interesting reels from C.J.Dennyreads and Sarahdoesbookishstuff\ \ where they discussed the price of admission for reading a series, or the idea that for some series, you need to make it through a book or two before the series "gets good." This is pretty common (Suneater, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Throne of Glass all come to mind). Now generally speaking, I usually give a series one book. One. That's it. My thought is that, if I get to the end of book one, and I absolutely hate the characters, the story, and am severely bored or angry, I should just DNF the series. Stop. Do not pass go. Do not collect any money because I don't get paid to read things I hate. And as I thought about my favorite series, I realized I loved all the book 1's. \ \ Now of course, if I can find some redeeming qualities, or see some light at the end of the tunnel, I'll keep going. However, Both Sarah and CJ made some great points and really got me thinking about this. Then I started listening to The Dragon Republlic, book 2 in The Poppy War Trilogy, and that got me thinking even more. Mild spoilers ahead for The Poppy War in the next paragraph. \ \ I've posted my review of The Poppy War on socials before, and I really struggled with Rin. I think throughout the book, she wreaked havoc on everyone around her, made frustrating decisions (even for someone her age), and showed a tendency to be a sociopath (remember in tactics when she suggested to ruin the ecology of an area of the country for decades and lose tons of civilians in the process just to win one battle? THAT'S A SOCIOPATH!). And by the end, I was like wow, this book is really just about a sociopath who gets too much power and how bad war is - I know how that works as an avid reader of history. \ \ Over the last few months I have been strongly considering DNFing the whole series, because I just thought this was a one note, one theme series, and I didn't find any of the characters interesting or compelling. Just kind of different shades of miserable. However, CJ and Sarah got me thinking about if I'm being too harsh. So I got my Libro audiobook credits, and promptly picked up the Dragon Republic. And wishing the first few chapters, this book is already showing more humanity and nuance for our characters than the entire first book, and has even made Rin redeemable for me. I was floored by how good the first six or so chapters have been. And it's made me think: should I revisit a few series I put down after book one, or start a series I have said I never would?\ \ Now this is not to say I expect every single reading experience going forward to be game changing, and I will still probably DNF some series and avoid others. But it got me thinking about how I might tweak this approach this year. It's even got me thinking about whether or not I should read book 2 of Dungeon Crawler Carl. Let me know what you think in the poll below!\ \ The Rx: What I'm Reading and Doing \ \ Now as you all know, I am a feral mood reader, so my plans always reserve the right to change. However, this is what I'm reading this week:\ \
- Our Sister's Keeper by Jasmine Holmes - this is a Bindery book, and I got an ARC on NetGalley. I'm going to finish the sone up as soon as I hit send on this newsletter. I have LOVED this so far. It is a souther gothic horror that focuses on a black town in Mississippi in the 1920's where the women are forced to bear the men's burdens through a mystical act, leaving the town eerily patriarchal and off. \ \
- You Weren't Meant to be Human by Andrew Joseph White - Buddy reading this with a few of you all (Aiko in particular!), and have loved it so far. Body horror about a trans man in a dystopian world where cults, body horror, and the horror of existence for marginalized communities are explored. \ \
- The Dragon Republic by RF Kuang - Will it turn out I love The Poppy War Trilogy?\ \
- Songs of the Dead by Brandon Sanderson and Peter Ourllian - I was offered this as an ARC last week, and thought it would be cool to check out!\ \ \ I am also excited because I'm approaching 25k on Instagram, 10k on TikTok, 1500 on YouTube, and 250+ here on bindery. The support everyone has shown me in the last year has been tremendous, and I'm working on a cool giveaway to celebrate all of these milestones. So stay Tuned!\ \ Like More In-Depth Access? \ \ If you enjoy getting into the details with me about reading, then consider upgrading to The Dark Travelers tier. My Dark Travelers get an exclusive Discord role and channels, a weekly deep dive reading update video, early access to YouTube videos, and each month they get to pick a book for me to read. This can be a book they want to read with me, or something they want me to try for them. I'm running over to my bookstore today to grab this month's pick, Stoner by John Williams, and we're doing Headlights by CJ Leede in July! It's super fun and a great tight knit group that I really enjoy talking books with, and I'd love to have you part of it!\ \ Thank you as always for being here, and I hope you all have a great week of reading!\ \ Join for free or login](https://docofthedarkarts.binderybooks.com/item/wING2g2ZsTQqWB2Uh8AH/)
The Sunday Prescription: June 7, 2026
One reading topic, one week of plans, and plenty of books administered weekly for chronic readers.
7 books
5
Tattooed Bibliophiles\ \ Zee\ \ • Jun 5
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\ \ OK listen, I can't keep up with this every week Tuesday releases shit, I missed all of May and I just realized it. I'm doing my best dahling, this is a hobby and nobody pays book influencers. And I don’t think you understand how long it takes to format these damn things with all the book pics, because I did it and copied it in here and lost it all, and that your attention span is already almost gone without a picture to distract your brain. I'm working on a really interesting article about the death of booktok, and I don’t want to suck more time away from that. You should watch out for it. (Hint hint)\ \ So I'm going to do a big slog into every month instead, tell you what's coming, give you a chance to get those preorders in and SUPPORT THOSE AUTHORS! So what's coming out this month? Well NOT Alecto the Ninth, my lamentatious lyctoral league.\ \ By genre:\ \ SPACE OPERA\ \ \ \ Recursion: Germinal Book 2 by Aric McBay (AK Press, indie) - June 9 – A pacifist society on a tiny green planet is invaded by Colonizers. I’ve had book 1 sitting on my shelf, because I cannot pass up fiction by AK Press, and I definitely need to pick up book 1 this week. It would be greeeeeeat if I could put down my phone and read a book. It’s summer and the kids need wifi free time too, so I guess I’ll be figuring out how to set up parental controls on the router this week, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay\ \ \ \ The Forgetting Navigations by Marlee Jane Ward (Interstellar Flight Press, indie) - June 9 – Our main character has eMoTiOnAl dAmAgE from being abandoned in a lifepod in space. A freight hauler rescues her and they bond over tea. Then the past comes a knocking, as it does in stories. This may be more of a litfic in space thing, but it’s honestly hard to tell without reading. I feel like Space Opera implies more action, but subgenres are not a science, so you will have to judge a book by it’s description.\ \ \ \ The Sixth Nik by Daniel Kraus (Simon & Schuster/Saga Press) - June 2 – In a bioship capable of reacting to a crew’s every need, a nine year old cultist with a brain enhancement investigates a planet infected with a plague. The crew also includes an assassin, an engineer who has been jigsawwed together with surgeries, an addict medic, and a “nonmodded” captain who doesn’t like the nine year old, this has all the makings of a found family space opera.\ \ POST-APOCALYPTIC\ \ \ \ Earth 7 by Deb Olin Unferth (Graywolf, and Indie Press) - June 9 – Kind of a romance between a woman raised in a pod in the ocean and a woman who may or may not be a robot. But also earth is now a charcoal briquette and everyone has gone to Mars except a handful of holdouts trying to construct a molecular collection of Earth stuff for people to eventually repopulate. And what the hell is a soul globule? You’ll have to read Earth 7 to find out.\ \ \ \ The Withers by Lee Upton (Regal House Publishing) - June 23 – I mean kinda dystopian but also kind of a thriller, this is a post epidemic book where scars from the disease are called withers. A woman is living with the surgeon who saved her and his preggo wife, in a world where organ traffickers roam the streets. They have to fight to protect the woman and her fetus, and they’re calling this a “Grimm’s fairytale” like story.\ \ SPECULATIVE / LITERARY SCI-FI\ \ \ \ Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim (Macmillan/Tor) - June 2 – Imagine you immigrate to a new country. But the rule is, you get cloned, and only the clone gets to go and you have to stay. You’re cut in two, and you can keep in touch with your other self or not. The MC of this book does not, until she’s called back to Korea for a funeral. She doesn’t know that her original self plans to switch places with her. Obviously, this is a deep dive into the psychological effects of immigration. Do you love the Doppelgängers trope?\ \ \ \ Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Macmillan/Tor) - June 2 – Genetically engineered animals do the work while humans relax in the sun. A racoon is hired to track down a very important mouse. Why is the mouse important? It has something everyone wants. A familiar story if told about humans, but I’m interested to see it told from animals perspective. I’ve never read an Adrian Tchaikovsky book, any of my scifi besties want to give me some opinions on whether I should?\ \ \ \ Our Sister's Keeper by Jasmine Holmes (Bindery/Mareas Books, indie) - June 9 – In a fantasy retelling of a 1920’s era all-Black free town, women known as “carriers” pull traumatic memories from men so that the town is populated with men free of their pain, while the remnants of the past haunt the women. In a world where we expect Black Women to save us all, this book is an exploration of what it’s like to live with that expectation.\ \ \ \ Voyagers by Meg Charlton (HarperCollins) - June 16 – a signal arrives from the edge of the solar system in a first contact story. While everyone on earth loses their collective shit, Alex’s old wounds are opened, because two decades ago, she and her friend Ana were abducted at age six. After which followed a media frenzy no child should endure, especially not after some trauma like that. Ana went on to be an advocate for the abducted while Alex tried to move on and forget. But now they are drawn back together in a story about friendship, family, and truth. \ \ \ \ A City Dreaming by Maurice Broaddus, Book 3 in the Astra Black series (Macmillan/Tor) - June 30 – This series follows a young political leader, a woman in an elite military unit, and a captain of a starship, who are all part of the Muungano empire, a coalition of city states that stretches from Old Earth to Titan, in their quest to form an empire free of endless wars and oppression. This Afrofuturist spec fic series deserves a lot more press than it gets. Come on Tor, do better in your promotion!!!\ \ \ \ The Moon Papers by Emmalea Russo (Arcade Publishing, Skyhorse) - June 30 – A controversial arts collective is going to launch a second moon from the Mojave Desert into Earth’s atmosphere in a project they are calling Moon 2. I am deeply concerned, but the book is coined as raucous, psychedelic, and humorous, which I am translating as publisher speak for, they think it’s funny as shit. But the description isn’t, so someone isn’t doing marketing properly. IDK, I need a preview to see if it’s any good.\ \ \ \ The Young Die Old by Nguyễn Bình Phương with Khải Q. Nguyễn (translator) (Major Books, indie) - June 30 – This may be more of a fantasy, but in my searches for sci-fi it keeps popping up so the author must have filed it this way somewhere. Two feuding families fight for control of a buried treasure, but there reality blurs with hallucination, as spirits, doppelgängers, and collective guilt haunt the living. A society grapples with the aftershocks of war, repression, and silence, with a generation of children who age prematurely under the weight of unspoken histories. You won't find this one on Amazon, and hells yeah, fuck Bezos! You can find it here.\ \ TIME TRAVEL\ \ \ \ The Traveler by Joseph Eckert (Macmillan/Tor) - June 2 – at 7:51am, Scott Treder slips forward through time 24 hours. And every day, he slips again, losing double the amount of time each time slip. And while everyone ages normally, he doesn’t. His son ages beyond him. Years pass by in his marriage. It’s giving Click with Adam Sandler. I wonder how different it will be. Yall, this cover sucks. Nobody is going to buy this book based on this cover, what are you doing Tor???\ \ \ \ Retro by Jessica M. Goldstein (Penguin Random House/Ballantine) - June 23 – An out of work actress takes a job as a time travel tour guide at a company called Retro, taking wealthy tourists on vacations to historical hot spots. She loves it, thrilling in the romance of an office crush and a 1937 private eye pursuing her. But slowly she notices some strange things happening to her memory and her relationships outside of Retro, and escaping into the past was never really an escape at all. I am wildly interested to see if this speaks to the escapism we justify with Netflix and doom scrolling and romance reading in the present.\ \ ROMANCE\ \ \ \ Moss'd in Space by Rebecca Thorne (Macmillan/Bramble) - June 30 – from the author of A Pirate’s Life for Tea comes this cozy sci-fi romance about a starship captain who purchases a ship covered in Moss with an organic computer inside with a snarky attitude who loathes it’s builder because the immortal alien abandoned it. NGL, snarky AI’s in ships used to be my jam, but the way I’ve been feeling about real AI may change my enjoyment of them.\ \ \ \ Plastic, Prism, Void by Violet Allen (LittlePuss Press, indie) – May 19 (shut your mouth, I missed this one and it deserves attention. It's pride month and this cover deserves praise alone, and that's before I've touched the book! Sue me. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.) Trans enemies to lovers in which a magical girl-gone-bad and a renegade mech pilot must find a way to stay on a date forever...even if it means destroying the world.\ \ THRILLER\ \ \ \ The Other by Annie Neugebauer (Shortwave Publishing, indie) - June 9 – this is a Book 2 Outsiders Sequence, which is a novella series. I’ve never read a novella series but I think I could get into that! Ten people head out on a backpacking trip, but the first night eleven set up camp. Everyone remembers everyone else. Who is the extra? That’s the premise of the first book. This one is about a couple on an outdoor retreat who meet their doppelgangers.\ \ \ \ Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer (Macmillan/Tordotcom) - June 2 – An out of work OBGYN who has gotten publicly crucified for offering abortion care is kidnapped by a cult to help birth their babies. And she gets kidnapped on page friggin 10. If you’ve been in a slump this one’s for you, I read it in a single sitting, and I have 3 kids at home for the summer while I’m trying to run a business. I generally don’t DO that. Crazy, seat of your pants, worth a read.\ \ \ \ Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay (HarperCollins/Morrow) - June 2 – So this semi professional gamer gets a nepotism job piloting a man in a vegetative state across the country, Weekend at Bernie’s style. He has an AI implant in his head and she can control his body using a cell phone. But he’s not dead. He’s living this grotesque hellscape where he doesn’t remember who he is or why there’s a rabbit tattoo on his arm. Their stories intertwine and they end up fugitives. Noooo, I didn’t give the plot twist away – it was right there in the book description!\ \ ANTHOLOGY\ \ \ \ Ring Shout on Saturn by Sheree Renée Thomas (Third Man Books, indie) - June 9 – Afrofuturist short stories that range from a prophet building a starship (very Noah’s Arc) to alien sisters navigating human complexities. And that cover? That’s an AMAZING cover and I’m here for it. This is actually book2 of the three book The Root and Sky series, but they're all short stories so there's no reason you can't go ahead and preorder this one, read it, then get the rest!\ \ \ \ And an honorable mention to Lovecraft: Selected Stories, one of the Chiltern Classics being released on June 9. If you want to know more about my obsession with this set, read this. Or don't. Sometimes I'm convinced I'm living in a silo and nobody is reading any of this anyway. Either way, it's good practice writing, no?\ \ See you next week. Because I'm still writing blogs, they just won't all be book lists of upcoming stuff. I need creative time as well as research time to feed my soul AND brain! (But not AI. Never that.)\ \ — Zee\ \
- *\ \ If you liked this and want more of whatever THIS is (unhinged book analysis, barely contained rage at the state of the world, and occasional Tamsyn Muir references and em dashes that I will never apologize for) consider subscribing for $5/month. Every cent goes to people who actually need it, because I have a day job and a cause, not a brand deal. This is my middle finger to Big 5 publishing, dressed up as a book blog. Come hold it up with me.](https://tattooedbibliophile.binderybooks.com/item/Qz2POvbnW0wbEMBxdWvR/)
6/3/26 - New Sci-fi Titles This Month
19 books
Stardust Books\ \ Joy\ \ • Jun 4
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7 books
5
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37
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\ \ Hello loves! Today I want to share a "guest" post that felt really meaningful from our dear friend, Marines with MAREAS here on Bindery. Like many of us, Mari found herself in high emotion watching the space exploration news this week and her perspective of that experience touched me.\ \ MAREAS is also releasing an incredible book this spring, Our Sister's Keeper. In this post, she shares some updates on that title and why this release is so meaningful. I thought you'd appreciate it as much as I did. Be sure to give Mari a follow and check out her Bindery, as well!\ \ Love to you all!\ \ xx, Meg\ \ \\\___________________________________________________________________\ \ Hi friends,\ \ Last night, while cuddled up on my couch in my messy apartment, I cried watching a livestream.\ \ The crying part is not super unusual for me, to be honest. I cry at commercials, at the endings of books, at strangers' reunion videos that the algorithm decides I need to see. I cry when I'm happy or sad or mad or frustrated or otherwise processing big emotions.\ \ But anyway, the point is that last night, I was watching the Artemis II livestream, and I completely lost it the moment they came back around from the dark side of the moon and reestablished contact with Mission Control.\ \ If you haven't been following along, there are human beings in space right now, and they have traveled further from Earth than any humans have ever been before. That's emotional enough, but they also keep saying things from up there about Earth and about humanity and about what it looks like to see this whole messy planet from that distance, and it's wrecking me.\ \ \ \
You are special, in all this emptiness. This is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe. You have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together.\ \ There is something about watching humans do the audacious, watching them be collaborative and hopeful in the middle of everything that's happening down here. Call them the light and dark sides of the moon: what we are capable of when we try, and what we are capable of doing to each other when we decide some people don't deserve the oasis. The cost of all of that, too—who gets to explore, who funds it, and whether that is money well spent while other things burn. (That last argument always gets complicated when you look at what else the money is being spent on, but I digress.)\ \ The last time I cried, before the astronauts, it was about Our Sister's Keeper by Jasmine Holmes, which just so happens to have some of these same themes.\ \ Our Sister's Keeper is set in East Cobb, Mississippi, a wealthy all-Black free town, meant to be untouched by white oppression. Thea Elliot and her husband Kid arrive with big dreams and find something that looks, at first glance, like everything they could have hoped for. But the town is haunted by ghoulish, walking nightmares that only the women can see.\ \ Marah is a carrier: a woman with the ability to pull traumatic memories directly from men. East Cobb has flourished because women like her make it possible for men to live free of their pain.\ \ It is, I think, one of the most precise and devastating explorations of what community costs (and who pays) that I have ever read. It is also a love letter to sisterhood. It is about audacity and collaboration. Jasmine writes with such tenderness, even in the horror. Especially in the horror, actually.\ \ And while its final pages did indeed make me cry, the last time I cried about OSK, it was because it became real that people would have it in their hands soon.\ \ See, the thing about acquiring a book is that you fall in love with it mostly alone, and then you spend months holding it while you wait for the rest of the world to catch up.\ \ Which brings me to the news: Our Sister's Keeper has been chosen for Aardvark's April box, which means you don't have to wait until the June 9th pub date. You can have it right now. And not just early; This is an exclusive hardcover edition, the only way to get this book in hardback.\ \ \ \ Aardvark is a monthly subscription box. They do a genuinely fantastic job of curating a diverse list and are a blast to follow on social media. And if you are new to Aardvark, you can use my code MAREAS to get Our Sister's Keeper for $4 (in the US). It's an unmatched deal, truly, and I hope you take advantage of it!\ \ Meanwhile, pictures are flooding in of people receiving their copies, and every single one makes me cry a little. (See above re: my whole thing with crying.)\ \ If you've already gotten yours, I want to see it. Tag me. Show me where you're reading it—on your couch, on your commute, in a patch of sunlight on the floor. Show me the oasis you made for it.\ \ And if you haven't yet: the code is MAREAS, the deal is $4, and the book is waiting for you.\ \ Finally, if you see me around and I'm weepy, it's either about the astronauts or about this lovely reading community.\ \ Thank you, always.\ \ ♥️\ \ Marines\ \ \ \ Join for free or login](https://cozyquill.binderybooks.com/item/ZDxmFhK81lWwGuE4HLtD/)
space has got us in our feels 🚀
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14
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the dark side of the moon and other things that have made me cry
1 book
23