Hello friends!

It is time for our next Runner up Read! 

You may be interested if you are a reader who enjoys piecing together a complex puzzle through detailed accounts and multiple perspectives.

Are you a fan of fiction? What about classical books? Or mysteries? If so, then The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is right for you! This read was selected in September of last year (2025) during the Gutenburg vote and was nominated by u/Amanda39! Thanks for the awesome selection! 😀

This book was selected by the random Wheel of Books that is spun by our beloved mascot, Thor. Let’s watch him spin the wheel! Aww, what a silly boy! He is wearing a donut after a procedure but is doing good! 🐶

What is a Runner up Read you ask?
A Runner up Read is a selection that ALMOST made it to being a selection for the pick of the month (second place to be exact). Who doesn't like a second chance or an underdog getting their time to shine? We do! So, what we have done is compiled a running list of all the second place books, added them to a virtual spinning wheel, and it is spun each time a current Runner up Read is wrapped up!

Storygraph:

"The Moonstone is a page-turner," writes Carolyn Heilbrun. "It catches one up and unfolds its amazing story through the recountings of its several narrators, all of them enticing and singular."

 Wilkie Collins's spellbinding tale of romance, theft, and murder inspired a hugely popular genre-the detective mystery. Hinging on the theft of an enormous diamond originally stolen from an Indian shrine, this riveting novel features the innovative Sergeant Cuff, the hilarious house steward Gabriel Betteridge, a lovesick housemaid, and a mysterious band of Indian jugglers.

Other Books Read by Wilkie Colins on our sub

No Name

The Woman in White

Armadale

(any others I missed?)

Will you be joining us? This book will run towards the end of August.
Please watch for the schedule coming soon!  📚 

https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/?text=Hate+and+other

Fellow crawlers, grab your loot, trust no system messages, and they will not break us! 

W-W-W-W-W- WELCOME CRAWLERS!!!! WE HAVE ARRIVED TO THE RACES OF THE TENTH FLOOR!! 🏁🏎️

I’m thrilled to announce that u/NightAngelRogue, and I (u/Joinedformyhubs) will be your navigators (hopefully my gps app finally loads...) and spokespersons for the tenth floor races.

🔍 What to Expect:

• Absurdity layered over brutality: The classic Dinniman cocktail.
• Whiplash-inducing tone: You’ll be holding onto the oh sh!t handle and feel the genuine emotional weight of the collapse the next.
• The Big Picture: A relentless skewering of what it feels like to have the crew back together again!
• Zero De-escalation: This story only gets bigger, stranger, and more unhinged with every turn of the page.

🗓️ Reading Schedule:

• Week 1: 8/16 -Beginning through chapter 11
• Week 2: 8/23 - Chapter 12 through Chapter 27
• Week 3: 8/30 - Chapter 28 through Chapter 42
• Week 4: 9/6 - Chapter 43 through Chapter 61
• Week 5: 9/13 - Chapter 62 through Chapter 77
• Week 6: 9/20 - Chapter 78 through Chapter 90
• Week 7: 9/27 - Chapter 91 through END (Interlude pt. 3)

Storygraph blurb:

It’s off to the races in the explosive eighth book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.

As chaos and mass panic spread outside the dungeon in the wake of Faction Wars, Carl and Donut find themselves on the tenth floor, where they’re forced to compete in a surprisingly normal set of tasks. Well, normal for the dungeon.

Races. Get from point A to point B, and don’t come in last. After each race, they pick an upgrade for their vehicle and the track gets more challenging. It all seems a little too normal, a little too simple.

Ignore those strange glitches that are occurring with increasing frequency. Don’t listen to those whispers about what’s happening on the mysterious eleventh floor, something the system AI calls A Parade of Horribles. Nobody, not even the showrunners, knows what that means. Just that the AI has ominously dubbed it “a coming-out party for the ages.”

Everything is fine, Crawler. I repeat, everything is fine.

Carl hates that it’s business as usual. The rules of this floor have taken away his agency. That just will not do.

So Carl is planning a party of his own. It’s a plan so dangerous, so insane, he can’t even consult his friends lest the AI put a stop to it. Because if it goes wrong, it’s not just the end of Carl and Donut. No. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been.

🎮 DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL: BOOK 8 STAT SHEET 🎮
📘 A Parade of Horribles — Matt Dinniman
🧙‍♂️ Genre Class: LitRPG / Dark Fantasy / Corporate Apocalypse Satire
📍 Dungeon Level: We Are Off to the Races
👁 POV: First-Person (Donut survives. Carl survives emotionally? TBD.)
⚔️ Combat Intensity: ██████████ (10/10)
🩸 Gore Factor: █████████░ (9/10)
😂 Gallows Humor: ██████████ (10/10)
💔 Emotional Damage: ████████░░ (8/10)
📢 Unhinged System Messages: Constant

💬 Discussion Tags:

Use spoiler tags when talking about specific scenes or reveals — not everyone levels up at the same pace!
Example: >!spoiler text here!<

⚔️ Join the Crawl:

Whether you’ve been following since Floor One or are jumping in fresh, come ready for boss fights, meta-humor, and the kind of chaos only Carl and Donut can deliver.

Let’s dive into the dungeon together!
Dungeon crawlers by night, book clubbers by day. Let’s get literary! 🎮📚👑

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Carl's Doomsday Scenario

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

The Gate of the Feral Gods

The Butcher’s Masquerade

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

This Inevitable Ruin

Marginalia

BUCKLE UP PASSENGER PRINCESS, WE ARE GOING FOR A RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome, r/bookclub readers, to our first discussion post for Morning Glory Milking Farm! Today we are diving into the first half of the book, covering Chapters 1 through 9. Something that I always enjoy about smut is that it typically explores different levels of issues. In the first section of the book it is clear that the themes are about academic achievement, economic survival, boundaries within a job, and more. I can’t wait to discuss this first section with you all! 

Schedule 📅
Marginalia  🖋️

Hello readers! 📚

We’re excited to announce our upcoming read: The Devils by Joe Abercrombie, a cynical, dark fantasy centered on the friction between religious righteousness and necessary brutality. Ideal if you prefer medium-paced, character-driven stories with a raucous tone, gritty action, and a blend of grimdark violence and sharp, irreverent humor.

Synopsis:

Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.

Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.

Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it's a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.

We’ll be reading and discussing the book over 6 Saturdays, breaking it up into manageable sections. 

📅 Reading Schedule 

Week 1 June 20
📖 Part I Beginning - Empress or Death

Week 2 June 27
📖 Part II Least Worst Choices - In Circles

Week 3 July 4
📖 Nothing but the Trust - Part III the Current Set of Enemies 

Week 4 July 11
📖 Our Heavenly Calling - Pride

Week 5 July 18
📖 Our Latest Last Stand - Part IV Not Nothing

Week 6 (Final Discussion) July 25
📖 The Sword and the Book - Saint Tabitha’s Day (End)

Happy reading, and see you Saturday, the 20thth of June! 💥📖⛪

“In the heat of it... in the absolute, scorching heat of battle, one learns who they really are. What they really want. One faces their greatest fears, yes, but worse, much worse, one oftentimes also faces their greatest desires laid bare. For me, they are the same, and it is my devastation. Stab, stab, stab.”

Welcome to the FOURTH discussion of the 9th floor, Crawlers!! FACTION WARS!!! 9th Floor! Let's go! The fighting continues!

🐾😼 Discussion of Chapter 28 through Chapter 40. 👑

HERE. WE. GOOOOOOO!!🎭⚔️ 

Faction Wars! The battle is on! After

📍 You Are Here: Chapters 28 - through Chapter 40

📅 Schedule in case you forget how to keep track

🖊️Marginalia to prevent spoiling yourself

🗺 The Faction Wars map

🧠 Difficulty Level: LETS GET CRAZY!!!!!!! 🎶

💥 New Achievements Unlocked:

• 💀 Crazy Lady Alert!!! What is Agatha up?!?!!?!
• 🍿Dino-mite!!  Tina enters the battlefield!!!
• 🔥 Attack on the Base!! Sabotage!?!? Attack on the Princess Posse base!!
• Bonus! -  Robots everywhere!!!

Bonus! Bonus! - F*ck*!!!*

Hello friends!

It is time for our next Runner up Read! 

You may be interested if you are a reader who is drawn to reflective contemporary fiction exploring the friction between rigid societal expectations and the fierce complexities of motherhood. Ideal for those who prefer medium-paced, character-driven narratives with a sterile suburban aesthetic, emotional tension, and an exploration of class, secrets, and artistic identity.

Are you a fan of contemporary fiction? That explores generational traumas? Or perhaps an emotional read is what you are keen for at this moment. If you answered yes to any of these, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng just might be perfect for you! This read was selected in January of this year (2026) during the BIPOC vote and was nominated by u/rige_x! Thanks for the awesome selection! 😀

This book was selected by the random Wheel of Books that is spun by our beloved mascot, Thor. Let’s watch him spin the wheel! Aww, what a silly boy! He is really excited after his long walk! 🐶

What is a Runner up Read you ask?
A Runner up Read is a selection that ALMOST made it to being a selection for the pick of the month (second place to be exact). Who doesn't like a second chance or an underdog getting their time to shine? We do! So, what we have done is compiled a running list of all the second place books, added them to a virtual spinning wheel, and it is spun each time a current Runner up Read is wrapped up!

Storygraph:
"To say I love this book is an understatement. It's a deep psychological mystery about the power of motherhood, the intensity of teenage love, and the danger of perfection. It moved me to tears." --Reese Witherspoon

"Extraordinary . . . books like Little Fires Everywhere don't come along often." --John Green
From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives.

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned--from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren--an enigmatic artist and single mother--who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town--and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood--and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

Will you be joining us? This book will run after The City of Brass wraps up mid June.
Please watch for the schedule coming soon!  📚 

Welcome to the FIRST discussion of the 9th floor, Crawlers!! WELCOME TO FACTION WARS!!! WELCOME TO THE 9th Floor! Let's go!

🐾😼 Discussion of BEGINNING through Chapter 8. 👑

HERE. WE. GOOOOOOO!!🎭⚔️ Carl and Princess Donut are beginning Their JOURNEY on the 9th Floor of the World Dungeon..

📍 You Are Here: Chapters 1 - through Chapter 8

📅 Schedule in case you forget how to keep track

🖊️Marginalia to prevent spoiling yourself

🧠 Difficulty Level: SKY ROCKETING HIGHER AND HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHER 🎶

💥 New Achievements Unlocked:

• 💀 Big Boss!!! In Less Than 56 Hours!!!
• 🔥 Get!  In Loser We Are Going Ceasefiring!!
• 🍿Boss Battle!!
• Bonus! -  How Many Crawlers Can We Get to Join Our TEAM??????
• Bonus! Bonus! - Show me your Celestial L00T

Hi everyone!

We are excited to start our journey into the Daevabad Trilogy with The City of Brass. By S.A. Chakraborty. This Historical Fantasy with a twist of Mythology will set the mood with adventure that is both tense and dark. The characters I am excited to read about are a defiant healer, a legendary warrior, and a prince caught between his family and his conscience.

Storygraph blurb:
>!Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of eighteenth-century Cairo, she's a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trades she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, and a mysterious gift for healing—are all tricks, both the means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles and a reliable way to survive. !<

>!But when Nahri accidentally summons Dara, an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior, to her side during one of her cons, she's forced to reconsider her beliefs. For Dara tells Nahri an extraordinary tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire and rivers where the mythical marid sleep, past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises and mountains where the circling birds of prey are more than what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass–a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound. !<

>!In Daevabad, within gilded brass walls laced with enchantments and behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments run deep. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, her arrival threatens to ignite a war that has been simmering for centuries. !<

>!Spurning Dara's warning of the treachery surrounding her, she embarks on a hesitant friendship with Alizayd, an idealistic prince who dreams of revolutionizing his father's corrupt regime. All too soon, Nahri learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences. !<

>!After all, there is a reason they say to be careful what you wish for . . .!<

Schedule: 📜

1. May 13th: The Six Tribes of the Djinn - Nahri (5)
2. May 20th: Ali (6) - Nahri (11)
3. May 27th: Ali (12) - Nahri (16)
4. June 3rd: Ali (17) - Ali (23)
5. June 10th: Nahri (24) - Epilogue

u/Amanda39, u/NightAngelRogue, and I (u/Joinedformyhubs) are looking forward to reading this with everyone! We will see you May 13th!