Happy Sunday, mis internet amigxs,

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

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

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

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

• June nonfiction: continue reading Accordion Eulogies by Noe Alvarez

• July Summer School reads:

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

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

• August fiction: The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

• August nonfiction: continue reading Cuba: An American History

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

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

CHISME

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

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

June 2nd

Horror

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

YA Fantasy

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

Middle Grade

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

Young Adult Contemporary

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

Fantasy

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

Mystery

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

Short Stories

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

June 9th

Cathedrals by Claudia Pinero and translated by Frances Riddle

Historical fiction

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

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

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

Paperback Release - Queer nonfiction

So Many Stars by Caro DeRobertis (Audiobook)

June 16th

YA Fantasy

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

Middle Grade Fiction

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

YA Novel In Verse

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

Translated Literary Fiction

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

June 23rd

History

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

Translated Fiction

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

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

June 30th

Translated Horror

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

Romantasy

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

Anthology (featuring Latine contributors)

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

xo,

Carmen

Happy Sunday, mis internet amigxs!

I'm thrilled to announce that we'll be chatting with Natalia Hernandez, author of our May book club selection, Asiri and the Amaru on Monday, June 1st at 8:00 PM EST. The Zoom invite is below!

If you're wondering why I didn't say our chat was in lieu of weekly sprints, it's because sprints have been moved to a monthly schedule as I work on some other initiatives. Our schedule now is the second Monday of the month, meaning our next official Discord sprint session is Monday, June 8th at 8:00 PM EST.

Be on the lookout for future announcements and changes to our Bien Leidos schedule coming up very soon.

If you have questions for Natalia, there is a thread on Discord open through May 31st for you to drop our questions.

As always, the chat link below is for Bien Leidos Bindery members only. DO NOT SHARE THIS LINK WITH OTHERS:

Topic: Bien Leidos Author Chat: Natalia Hernandez
Time: Jun 1, 2026 08:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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Meeting chat link
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Meeting ID: 880 8976 3992
Passcode: 211986

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Join by SIP
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Happy Tuesday, mis internet amigxs!

I hope everyone had a relaxing Decoration, i.e., Memorial Day and that those that had a 3 day weekend truly enjoyed the additional time off.

Before I begin with book club reminders, I have seen the violent footage form Delaney Hall yesterday (tw: police violence), that lead to friends being attacked an a US Senator, Andy Kim, being pepper sprayed for trying to provide oversight of the facility. I feel like I have run out of words to describe the horrors I see everyday in this country, but I will continue to witness and help where I can. Currently, I am trying to find mutual aid to donate to for protestors. I've reached out to friends who were there this weekend and am waiting to hear back from them. If you know of any, please feel free to comment them below so that I can share and amplify.

AUTHOR CHAT

Our author chat with Natalia Hernandez is coming up on Monday, June 1st at 8 PM EST. The private Zoom link to attend is here. The conversation will be recorded for those who miss it. If you are joining, PLEASE REMEMBER TO TURN OFF YOUR CAMERA AND MICROPHONE.

There is still time to read the book! I read it in 2 sittings this weekend. It is a quick and fun cozy romp that I highly recommend. It's on Kindle Unlimited for those with subscriptions.

JUNE BOOK CLUB

I can't believe June is right around the corner. Our fiction read is And I'll Take Out Your Eyes by A. M. Sosa, a debut following a queer Chicano’s cannon-shot into adulthood amidst familial turmoil and the suffocating violence of Stockton, California in the early 2000s.

We're also still reading our May nonfiction pick through the end of June, Accordion Eulogies, a memoir of music, migration and Mexcio that is also a micro-history of the accordion.

July book club polls for both fiction and nonfiction will be up this week!

As we look out for the rest of the year of book club:

• In August, we'll be reading The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (fiction pick)

• October's fiction pick is You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom by Vincent Tirado

Community support

Building community through Bindery is how I can make a difference in publishing and continue to push for more Latinx representation in publishing. If you are looking to support my work, there are 2 paid tiers that provide crucial monthly financial support to keep my work going.

And now, May 26th Latine Releases...

LITERARY FICTION

Pretend You're Dead, I'll Carry You by Julián Delgado Lopera (Audiobook)

MIDDLE GRADE

The Chismosas Only Book Club by Laekan Zea Kemp and Illustrated by Heidi Moreno (Audiobook)

Five Days at the Hotel Adams by Hailey Alcaraz (Audiobook)

YOUNG ADULT

How to Love You When You’re Gone by Gabriela Gonzales (Audiobook)

We Could Be Anyone by Anna-Marie McLemore (Audiobook)

PICTURE BOOK

Finding My Wave by Alexandra Katona and illustrated by Sara Palacios

xo,

Carmen

Carmen

Happy Friday, mis internet amigxs,

It's finally time to vote for our July book club picks!

We're about to begin reading our June pick, And I'll Take Your Eyes Out by A.M. Sosa, and continue reading our nonfiction selection, Accordion Eulogies by Noe Alvarez, so I wanted to help you get your books together. Now hear me out...

BIEN LEIDOS SUMMER SCHOOL

I've been on a massive nonfiction kick recently, finishing In The Shadow of Liberty and starting America, America by Greg Grandin, a CHONKY text on a history of the New World focused on both North and South American history including their parallels, differences and how their histories often crossed over each other, especially after the United States was formed. I also have a history of Iran coming up for my local Bitchalante Book Club and Salon with my friend Erin here in Tampa.

With that said, what if our July theme is SUMMER SCHOOL and we do a DOUBLE NONFICTION READ?

Two books I've been wanting to tackle are:

• Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer because of the Trump administrations threat to the island as well as the rolling blackouts due to the heightened

• PFKnR: How Bad Bunny Became The Global Voice of Puerto Rican Restance by Vanessa Diaz and Petra R. Rivera-Rideau (this would be a re-read for me on audio so I could better annotate my personal copy)

My poll today is just if you like this idea and the books for July and which book will be the official pick (1 month to read) and which will be the nonfiction read (where you get 2 months to read) OR if you don't like summer school, then which book will be the non fiction read for July - August.

I'll check results on Saturday, May 30th and if you don't like this idea, I'll go back to the drawing board for the fiction pick.

Looking forward to seeing the results of this poll!

xo,

Carmen

Happy Wednesday, mis internet amigxs!

My original post disappeared, so here I am recalling as much as I could from the original text...needless to say, this isn't a comprehensive overview of the weekend, but more why it's the best bookish vibe of the year in my opinion. If you have any questions, then please drop them in the comments!

I spent the weekend at a book even like no other, created by book content creators FOR book content creators, where we have NUANCED bookish conversations that we started online. In-person panels discuss the hard questions and we always get to interact with Q&A at the end. It's called BookNet Fest. This past weekend, we discussed everything from anti-intellectualism, book bans, hobbies, our favorite tropes, overconsumption and so much more.

I've attended 5 BNF's because Marines and Sam put on a spectacular and thoughtful event every single year and it just gets better every year. I'm always blown away by the intimacy of the event.

Obviously, I attend for the panels, but it's the people that keep me coming back year after year. And this year, I got to see even more book friends AND, most importantly, SO members of Bien Leidos Book club. Hanging out wit Angie, Zuki, Nani, Michelle, Allison, and G all weekend was delightful and we had the BEST dinner at Disney Springs. I really hope this is the start of a tradition.

I cried on all 3 of my panels:

• The Things We Do For Fun

• The Book Community As Courtroom

• Creating In The Attention Economy

The entire weekend was so gentle and affirming. It filled my bookish heart and mind to see and interact with so many bookish friends, ESPECIALLY getting to spend so much quality time with Bien Leidos Discord members who I chat with online so often but we live so far away from one another. It was treasured moment after treasured moment.

This year, I FINALLY attended Prom, which was such a delightful way to end the weekend.

Overall, I said "I love you" approximately 1,000,000 times last weekend and all I want to is go back...Dates for next year aren't confirmed yet, but you better believe I will be there. Who's down?

Until 2027,

Carmen