Hello book club of /r/bangtan! So uh…BTS is really really back??? We’re all still freaking out over ARIRANG, right? And now we’re loaded with content–guys, Yoongi has made peace with the fact that Namjoon still can’t cut an onion. We’re all struggling to keep up, right? Just me?
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I hope you all enjoyed reading Yellowface by R.F. Kuang with Books With Luv in March. If you got distracted and didn’t finish the book (ahem…not like me), you can always still join the discussion here. Thank you to everyone who had a nice yap about the book and to anyone planning on joining in later~ We love to see it!
We are back with five BTS-adjacent books to choose from: each month our options are based on a group/member song and connected theme. Over the last few years, we’ve concentrated on books that were either seen with or being read by a member, recommended by or for them, or books about BTS and their music. We thought they might be too restrictive on the chosen theme (our boys love themselves some self-help!), so we’ve expanded our options but you may still see them throughout the year as our ult-list is quite long.
This month’s song and theme are: Amygdala & Mental Health
Take a look at April's picks and vote on what we should read next!
Some key dates to remember
(All dates/time are in KST)
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Mar 29, 2026 | Poll opens now – ends Apr 1, 2026 11:59pm |
| Apr 2, 2026 | Voters’ choice book announced |
| Apr 25, 2026 | Books with Luv discussion meeting |
I could spend a lifetime watching you choose our next book
These are the 5 books you get to choose from for the month of April!
| Title | Description | Page Count |
|---|---|---|
| The Vegetarian by Han Kang trans. Deborah Smith (2016) | Before the nightmares began, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary, controlled life. But the dreams—invasive images of blood and brutality—torture her, driving Yeong-hye to purge her mind and renounce eating meat altogether. It’s a small act of independence, but it interrupts her marriage and sets into motion an increasingly grotesque chain of events at home. As her husband, her brother-in-law and sister each fight to reassert their control, Yeong-hye obsessively defends the choice that’s become sacred to her. Soon their attempts turn desperate, subjecting first her mind, and then her body, to ever more intrusive and perverse violations, sending Yeong-hye spiraling into a dangerous, bizarre estrangement, not only from those closest to her, but also from herself. | 208p |
| Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata trans. Ginny Tapley Takemore (2019) | Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction—many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual—and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less. Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at the store for eighteen years. It’s almost hard to tell where the store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action… | 176p |
| Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (2021) | Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls lined with thousands upon thousands of statues. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; and waves thunder up staircases, while rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house. There is one other person in the house-a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known. | 272p |
| A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (2015) | Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time? Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations. | 368p |
| In Limbo by Deb JJ Lee (2023) | (Graphic Novel) Ever since Deborah (Jung-Jin) Lee emigrated from South Korea to the United States, she's felt her otherness. For a while, her English wasn’t perfect. Her teachers can’t pronounce her Korean name. Her face and her eyes―especially her eyes―feel wrong. In high school, everything gets harder. Friendships change and end, she falls behind in classes, and fights with her mom escalate. Caught in limbo, with nowhere safe to go, Deb finds her mental health plummeting, resulting in a suicide attempt. But Deb is resilient and slowly heals with the help of art and self-care, guiding her to a deeper understanding of her heritage and herself. | 352p |
No ad watching or minigame required, let’s practice our voting with the book poll!
Vote for the book you would like to discuss in the next book club!
To vote for the book you would like to discuss in the next book club, CLICK HERE
Please note, it may say “Your Name Will Be Shared” below the poll. To maintain anonymity, don't login to your Canva account, should you have one. That way your name and email will remain anonymous and we will only see the poll response count.
Time to head off Into the Sun
As always, if you have questions or suggestions on how we can make discussions even better please let us know. You can post it here or feel free to reach out to any of our lovely volunteers and mods!
With luv,
Our book club volunteers:
And the r/bangtan Mod Team
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