Happy Timezone!

The results are in and Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard has been selected for our May readalong!

Some reminders: • This is an unofficial readalong, meaning, there is not a badge awarded for participating - but participating will get you closer to a quest badge! • A readalong means mostly just knowing that a bunch of people are reading the same book as you at roughly the same time. • Use the book forums to engage in specific discussion about the book, and use this forum to discuss engaging with the quest, or bigger picture thoughts that come up not specific to the book.

We'll "officially" run this readalong in the Month of May, 2026, but feel free to start early, join late, and in general go at your own pace! I'll personally plan on starting around May 1st, as library holds allow.

I hope you'll join us! Happy reading!

Good morning and happy Monday boundlings! ☀️🌷

I just came upon a Substack Post about Original Thoughts and why we nowadays often feel like we don't have these anymore. This definitely resonated with me but also made me think about PB and its influence on my thinking about things at the same time.

Among other things the author mentions how we often just consume books, videos, reels etc. and immediately rush to the comments, to the reviews, and to what other people have to say about this piece of media instead of thinking first about how we genuinely feel about it.

Now you could ask, how is PB different? And imo it really encourages our own thoughts and reflections in many ways. Firstly, engagement with the users is genuine and long texts and posts are encouraged and actually engaged with - so we are not forced to keep our text to a minimum of words to get attention.

Secondly, high quality posts are also encouraged, and while there are books that are very popular, the forums of many books are relatively empty. I, personally, am always more motivated to write a good & interesting post with my reflections in an empty forum which makes me reflect in a way that I probably wouldn't have before PB. And, thirdly, recommendations and reviews make me reflect on why specifically I like / dislike a book. Since here, people actually engage, are actually amazed at what I write or might disagree, I want to be specific, and not only say "yeah it was super good/bad".

In general I would say that PB is definitely encouraging me to train my "having-our-own-thoughts muscle" and I hope many of you feel the same! 🧠🧐💡 The substack article was super interesting, so maybe some of you wanna read it too and I'd be happy to hear about your thoughts and opinions!

[edited due to typos😑]

Happy Sunday! Voting for our May readalong ends in about 12 hours, at 10pm PDT Sunday. Check out the post here!

Tomorrow morning I will make a post with the winner! 🌿🍄🌲🌿🍄🌲🌿🍄🌲

Hopefully this makes sense to everyone and helps them find books they would like to read. ( there is nothing I hate more when thrillers and murder mysteries are conflated as being the same thing).

I will use three detective descriptors Police detective- active member of the police Amateur detective- someone who is not professionally a detective ( often has other job) Private detective- not a police detective but still solves crimes as only employment.

Honkaku mystery- meaning orthodox, original or authentic focusing on puzzle based mystery often based on Golden age of murder mystery aka Agatha Christie or John Dickinson Carr with elaborate solutions and locked rooms often featuring

Social school- more thrillers. challenges social order ( has something to say about social issues)

Shin honkaku - new orthodox mysteries had a re-emergence in the 80s.

1928- Beast in the Shadows by Edogawa Rampo. Blends murder mystery and thriller and started its own genre of erotic grotesque- main character investigates crime as an amateur.

1948- the tattoo murder by Akimitsu Takagi, murder mystery, mix of amateur and police detectives. Honkaku

1951-the Inugami curse by Seishi Yokomizo, murder mystery and private detective. Honkaku ( author is considered the greatest of the original Honkaku authors) my favourite author but his plots are crazy.

1958- Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto- murder mystery with some social school elements it’s also a train mystery. ( Seichō Matsumoto is considered the founder of the Social School)

1959- the black swan mystery by Tetsuya Ayukawa murder mystery with some social school elements Also a train mystery and police detectives

1963- the lady killer by Masako Togawa- blend of thriller and murder mystery follows amateur detective ( lawyer). Social school

1981- the Tokyo Zodiac murders by Soji Shimada- amateur detective and murder mystery soft launch of Shin Honkaku mysteries( lots of data to go over)

1989- The decagon house murders by Yukito Ayatsuji murder mystery and launched Shin Honkaku mysteries back to main stream. Amateur detective. Homage to and then there were none.

1995-the man who died seven times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa- murder mystery with time travel elements somehow light hearted. Main character tries to solve murder while in time loop.

1997- Out- by Natsuo Kirino a dark thriller and part of the social school mystery. Would you help your coworker if she killed her husband?

2005- The Aosawa murders by Riko Onda- murder mystery with multiple POVs. Police detective and others as a multi timeline exploration occurs, part of shin honkaku but is more literary in nature. ( book within a book)

2005- the devotion of suspect X- a murder mystery Howdunnit- combination of police detective and amateur, part of shin honkaku.

2005- Bullet train by Kotaro Isaka- Assassins on a train( there is nothing else to say it’s definitely not a murder mystery though it’s just fun).

2022- Strange Pictures by Uketsu- amateur detective and murder mystery. Slight horror elements. Lots of diagrams and pictures to analyse.

2023- my grandfather the master detective by Masateru Konishi- short stories solved by a young teacher and her grandfather suffering from dementia.the closest we have to cozy crime from Japan and it includes both a murder case and the stalking of the main character. Slight romance that leaves you wanting the author to hurry up and write the sequel he is supposedly writing.

I asked this question months back, and the answers were absolutely brilliant, so I thought it would be fun to ask again!

If you were dropped into the book(s) you are currently reading, where would you be and what would you be doing?

I wait at least a day usually. 🙃 I need to let things settle in my brain.
Also, because I mainly read at night, I'm old (turned 39 recently lol), and only write reviews on my laptop.

I have seen a few posts about lists lately: asking about everyone's favourite lists, the lists we have saved, etc. User created lists are one of my favourite featuresof PB, so today I wanted to put a bit of a spin on the "favourite lists" question and ask list curators directly: what's the list you are most proud of, out of the ones you've created? I know this can feel a bit like picking a favourite child 😂 But I'm very curious to hear what lists curators hold dearest. I'll drop my own answer in the comments as well, let's find some new favourites! 👀

Happy book birthday to When The Forest Breathes by Suzanne Simard, which released yesterday! If my library wait times and the subsequent large order of additional copies purchased this morning are any indication, this is an exciting new release!

I was devastated to find out that Simard was just in my area and I barely missed seeing her. If you are a fan, or want to attend more bookish events, I encourage y'all to check out her very robust book tour! (link) In particular I am super jealous of Boundlings in New York, who have an opportunity to see both Simard AND Zoe Schlanger (author of The Light Eaters) on the 9th! (link) If you happen to be in the area and go, please let us know how it was!!

ALSO can you believe we've crossed over 1,000 quest members??? Thanks for joining us - I am so so glad y'all are here!!

And since we're all here, let's chat readalongs! My previous post about suggesting a readalong book didn't get much traction, so I've curated a few titles for y'all to vote between, and those able and interested can join me for a readalong in May! If you would like to suggest readaong books for the future please do so. I'll post each book title & a blurb in a comment below - please upvote which book you are most interested in, and which ever book has the most votes by 10pm PDT, Sunday April 5th will be our pick!

Again, excited y'all are here. I hope y'all are enjoying your regionally appropriate season!!