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Mayra: A Novel
Nicky Gonzalez
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A twisty gothic debut about two former best friends reconnecting at a secluded house deep in the swamplands of Florida.
It’s been years since Ingrid has heard from her childhood best friend, Mayra, a fearless rebel who fled their hometown of Hialeah, a Cuban neighborhood just west of Miami, for college in the Northeast. But when Mayra calls out of the blue to invite Ingrid to a weekend getaway at a house in the Everglades, she impulsively accepts.
From the moment Ingrid sets out for the house, danger looms: The directions are difficult, she’s out of reach of cell service, and as she drives deeper into the Everglades, the wet maw of the swamp threatens to swallow her whole. But once Ingrid arrives, Mayra is, in many ways, just as she remembers—with her sharp tongue and effortless, seductive beauty, still thumbing her nose at the world.
Before they can fully settle into the familiar intimacy of each other’s company, their reunion is spoiled by the reemergence of past disagreements and the unexpected presence of Mayra’s new boyfriend, Benji. The trio spend their hours eating lavish meals and exploring the labyrinthine house, which holds as much mystery and danger as the swamp itself.
Indoors and on the grounds, time itself seems to expand, and Ingrid begins to lose a sense of the outside world, and herself. Against this disquieting setting, where lizards dart in and out of porches and alligators peek up from dark waters, Gonzalez weaves a propulsive, unforgettable story about the dizzying power of early friendship and the lengths we’ll go to earn love and acceptance—even at the risk of losing ourselves entirely.
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Kurryreads\ \ Kerry\ \ • Sep 15 2025
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Sunny's Book Truck\ \ CJ\ \ • Sep 25 2025
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Sunny's Book Truck\ \ CJ\ \ • Aug 15 2025
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[Poll:\ \ Are any of these on your TBR?\ \ Hi nerds,\ \ Last night we held our second installment of the Sunny's Salon—a monthly addition to our event programming that is like a book club with no assigned reading. We kicked off the night by doing a 15 minute reading sprint with some lofi music playing in the background and then went into a larger discussion centered around or Last, Now, and Next. It was so fun hearing about what people were reading or had on their radar (weirdly three people wanted to read Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh next) and seeing where reading taste overlapped and differed. Below you will find 50 (!) book recommendations gathered from the Yuma community.\ \ \ \
- Endling: Set in Ukraine, an eccentric scientist breeding rare snails crosses paths with sisters posing as members of the marriage industry to find their activist mother. As Russia invades, they embark on a wild journey with kidnapped bachelors and a last-of-its-kind snail. This darkly comic novel explores survival, love, and hope in times of encroaching darkness.\ \
- Hot Girls with Balls: In this outrageous and deeply serious satire, two star indoor volleyball players juggle unspoken jealousies in their off-court romance ahead of their rival teams’ first rematch in a year.\ \
- Mayra: An eerie, hypnotic debut about friendship, desire, and memory set against the sultry backdrop of Florida’s swamplands.\ \
- Empire of Pain: A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin.\ \
- Say Hello to my Little Friend: Scarface meets Moby Dick in Say Hello to My Little Friend following a young man’s attempt to capitalize on his mother’s murky legacy—a story steeped in Miami’s marvelous and sinister magic.\ \
- I'll Make a Spectacle of You: This heart-pounding horror debut from Beatrice Winifred Iker takes listeners to Bricksbury University, the oldest and most storied HBCUs in the nation. But as one student is about to find out, a long history comes with a legacy of secrets.\ \ \ \ \
- Before Elvis: In this thought-provoking book, the Black musicians who influenced Elvis Presley's music finally receive recognition and praise.\ \
- Nineteen Minutes: Jodi Picoult pens her most riveting book yet, with a startling and poignant story about the devastating aftermath of a small-town tragedy.\ \
- Pageboy: With this evocative and lyrical debut, Oscar-nominated star Elliot Page captures the universal human experience of searching for ourselves and our place in this complicated world.\ \
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- The Possession of Alba Díaz: When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn’t trust…from bestselling author Isabel Cañas.\ \ \ \ \
- The Colossus of New York: Here is a literary love song that will entrance anyone who has lived in—or spent time—in the greatest of American cities.\ \
- Is Mother Dead: A cat and mouse game of surveillance and psychological torment develops between a middleaged artist and her aging mother.\ \
- The Metamorphosis: This is not just a novel about physical transformation but also a deep reflection on alienation and loneliness.\ \
- Time and Time Again: In this debut YA speculative romance perfect for fans of Rachael Lippincott, two queer, disabled, Jewish teens find themselves stuck in a time loop--and falling love.\ \
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- A Resistance of Witches: As World War II rages around her, a witch abandoned by her coven must journey to find a book of unspeakable power before it lands in Nazi hands.\ \
- Ruthless Vows: The epic conclusion to the intensely romantic and beautifully written story that started in Divine Rivals.\ \
- Tender is the Flesh: Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans - though no one calls them that anymore.\ \
- Our Share of Night: A woman’s mysterious death puts her husband and son on a collision course with her demonic family.\ \
- Heart of Darkness: The story is narrated by Charles Marlow, recalling his obsessive quest to locate the ivory trader Kurtz, who has become ensconced deep in the jungle managing a remote outpost. As he ventures further and further down the Congo, Marlow finds himself and his surroundings become increasingly untethered.\ \
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- The Summer I Turned Pretty: As the summer seasons pass, Belly has to choose between two brothers who love her…and she’ll have to break one of their hearts.\ \
- Releasing 10: A devastatingly raw, achingly beautiful love story that will rip your heart out and patch it back together.\ \
- Tropic of Orange: Irreverently juggling magical realism, film noir, hip hop, and chicanismo, Tropic of Orange takes place in a Los Angeles where the homeless, gangsters, infant organ entrepreneurs, and Hollywood collide on a stretch of the Harbor Freeway.\ \
- Atmosphere: An epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.\ \
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- Black Salt Queen: Filled with passion, romance, betrayal, and divine magic, Black Salt Queen journeys to a gorgeous precolonial island nation where women—and secrets—reign.\ \ \ \ \
- American Scare: A vital exposé for both our history and our present day, American Scare tells the riveting story of how the Florida government destroyed the lives of Black and queer citizens in the twentieth century.\ \
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- Ship Fever: The elegant short fictions gathered hereabout the love of science and the science of love are often set against the backdrop of the nineteenth century.\ \
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- You Weren't Meant to be Human: Alien meets Midsommar in this chilling debut adult novel from award-winning author Andrew Joseph White about identity, survival, and transformation amidst an alien invasion in rural West Virginia.\ \
- Bright Young Women: Don’t miss this “breakneck thriller” that examines “our culture’s obsession with serial killers and true crime” ( Harper’s Bazaar) as it follows two women on the pursuit of justice against all odds.\ \
- The Changeling: With a new introduction by Karen Russell, the 40th anniversary edition of The Changeling is a visionary fairy tale and a work of mythic genius by one of our best writers.\ \
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Bien Leidos\ \ tomesandtextiles\ \ • Jul 22 2025
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[Good morning, internet amigxs and welcome to the first installment of weekly Latine book releases here on Bindery! The interface here is a little different and I'm on a bit of a learning curve for the interface, so please bear with me as I transition! I will say, the formatting on here so much more aesthetic and makes it clearer to understand, so I hope you enjoy the new format, too!\ \ A reminder that a week from today I'll be in conversation with THE Aiden Thomas on July 29th at 6PM EST on Instagram Live. We did some reading sprints this weekend in preparation over on Discord, so if you haven't joined us, what are you waiting for?\ \ Speaking of Discord, we're currently running a poll to pick out the November Bien Leidos book club pick. If you're interested in having a say, please head over to the #polls channel on Discord by end of day today. You can find our August - September picks already announced here (social media announcement for August coming up this week).\ \ And now on to our Latine book releases this week, starting with the BOOK OF THE WEEK...\ \ \ \ Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan (Book | Audiobook) gripping retelling of Persephone and Demeter in the Mexicali borderlands from the author of River Woman, River Demon. I'm eagerly anticipating my copy so I can read it.\ \ SPEC FICTION \ \ Echoes and Embers: Speculative Stories by Pedro Iniguez (Book) Released 7/15!!!! Short stories for lovers of science fiction and fantasy weaving Latinx themes and pulp stylings.\ \ GOTHIC \ \ \ \ Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez (Book | Audiobook) Cuban a twisty gothic debut about two former best friends reconnecting at a secluded house deep in the swamplands of Florida\ \ LITERARY FICTION\ \ \ \ The Tilting House by Ivonne Lamazeras (Book) Literary historical fiction of two estranged sisters with a complicated past and an acrimonious present reunite in 1990s Cuba to confront the riddle of family amid the scars of political upheaval.\ \ NONFICTION \ \ So What If I'm a Puta: Diaries of Transness, Sex Work, Desire by Amara Moira, Edited by Amanda de Lisio and Translated by Bruna Dantas Lobato (Book) Essay collection that looks at trans workers in Brazil.\ \ \ \ Everyone Leaves/Todos Se Van by Wendy Guerra (Book | Audiobook) Available in both English and Spanish (Book | Audiobook), CNN's Wendy Guerra details her coming of age under the Castro regime through journal entries.\ \ PICTURE BOOK \ \ Diego Fuego the Firefighting Dragon by Allison Rozo & Rafael Rozo |Illustrated by Vanessa Morales (Book) Based on cover and them alone--a firefighting DRAGON?!?! How cute is this?\ \ PAPERBACK RELEASE \ \ Pink Slime by Fernanda Trias (Book | Audiobook) I reviewed this book last year after Silvia Moreno-Garcia recommended it in her newsletter and I was NOT disappointed. A dystopian novel-in-translation that's more timely nor more than ever.\ \
Some of you have asked about the illustration I'm using on here, so I'm working on a post about the artist and our collaboration. I'll have it up later this week!\\
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**xoxo, Carmen**\\
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I was absolutely blessed by the bookstore gods this week when these galleys (physical ARCs) arrived in my hand. Please hold while I try to speed read 3 of these before their indie next deadlines and going semi-feral over new Olivie Blake.
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