Hot Takes, Top Reads of 2026, and the MMCs We Actually Hate

#001: In this episode of The Everygirl Book Club podcast, Lauren and Garri share the books that made them lifelong readers, their evolving reading phases, and how BookTok shaped (and later sharpened) their tastes. They discuss mood reading, cringe in romance, DNFing, and their auto-buy authors. They share their all-time favorite reads as well as their 2026 highs and lows (so far). They swap current reads and audiobook habits, deliver hot takes (including loving Silver Elite despite the hate, disliking Crescent City, and Garri’s case against Fourth Wing’s Xaden), and answer member-submitted recommendation requests. Finally, they reveal and contextualize The Everygirl Book Club's summer picks—Let’s Not Go Overboard Here, Love By the Book, and Both Can Be True—plus a bonus read, A Good Person, and close with the LITigation segment, defending unlikable main characters and pushing back on the idea that “all romantasy is the same.”

Chapters

• 00:46 Read Receipts
• 06:24 Book Taste Explained
• 10:58 Auto Buy Authors
• 15:31 All Time Favorites
• 21:28 2026 Highs and Lows
• 25:41 Current Reads
• 27:29 Hear Me Out
• 36:41 Listener Prescriptions
• 42:41 Summer Book Club Picks
• 53:21 LITigation

Books Mentioned

1. Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
2. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
5. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
6. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
7. Normal People by Sally Rooney
8. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
9. Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang
10. The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young
11. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
12. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
13. Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood
14. One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig
15. The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
16. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
17. Heart of the Lover by Lily King
18. Into the Blue by Emma Brodie
19. Retro by Jessica M. Goldstein
20. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower
21. Habits of the Sea by Shea Ernshaw
22. Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
23. Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter
24. Songbird of the Sorrows by Braidee Otto
25. Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas
26. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
27. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
28. Silver Elite by Dani Francis
29. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
30. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
31. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
32. With All My Haunted Heart by Isabel Stirling
33. Happily Ever Afterlife by Emma R. Alban
34. Wayward by Blake Crouch
35. Happy Place by Emily Henry
36. June Baby by Shannon Garvey
37. Let's Not Go Overboard Here by Erica Hendry
38. Love by the Book by Jessica George
39. Both Can Be True by Jessica Guerriri
40. A Good Person by Kirsten King

Enjoy the episode? Like and follow The Everygirl Book Club Podcast, leave a rating and review, and share the episode with a fellow reader. Then, join the conversation on Instagram @theeverygirlbookclub for monthly book picks, book recommendations, reading challenges, and more.

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