1. Aries Moon - “Beartooth” by Collan Wink
Two brothers living on the edge of Yellowstone take on a dangerous, illegal scheme to save their family's land and the decision permanently alters their relationship. It's a tense novel about survival, loyalty and how one bad choice can quickly spiral out of control.
2. Taurus Moon - “Go as a River” by Shelley Read
Set on a Colorado peach farm in the 1940s, this novel follows a young woman whose life is upended by a chance encounter, then by a flood that reshapes her town and her future. It's a slow-building, deeply sensory story about land and loss across decades.
3. Gemini Moon - “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir
A lone astronaut wakes up with no memory, tasked with saving humanity from an extinction-level threat. Told with constant problem-solving and dry humor, it's a fast-moving sci-fi thriller that never slows down. Plus, with the movie out now, you can watch it after you finish the book.
4. Cancer Moon - “Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage” by Belle Burden
Burden's memoir traces the slow unraveling of her marriage during the pandemic, and the reckoning that followed with what she'd given up for a partnership that had ceased to be. It's a deeply vulnerable, heart-wrenching account of domesticity and the idea that we never really know anyone, not even the person we married.
5. Leo Moon - “Heap Earth Upon It” by Chloe Michelle Howarth
Four orphaned siblings arrive in a small 1960s Irish town under mysterious circumstances, taken in by a wealthy couple whose kindness gradually turns into obsession. Told through multiple unreliable narrators, it's a gothic, atmospheric novel about family secrets and a past that refuses to remain buried.
6. Virgo Moon - “Fruit Fly” by Josh Silver
A washed-up author will do almost anything to reclaim her relevance in this sharp, darkly funny novel about ambition, jealousy and stolen likeness. It's precise, cutting and provides an interesting glance at the ethics of writing stories that don’t belong to the author.
7. Libra Moon - “The Lamb” by Lucy Rose
A young girl grows up in an isolated cottage with her mother, believing their household's dark secrets are simply part of ordinary life, until a stranger arrives and shakes things up. It's a gothic, folklore-inspired novel about love, hunger and the blurred lines between devotion and possession.
8. Scorpio Moon - “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” by Stephen Graham Jones
A vengeful, immortal figure hunts down the descendants of the men who slaughtered his people, in a horror novel that ties vampirism directly to the violence of American colonization. It's unflinching and does not shy away from generational rage.
9. Sagittarius Moon - “The Dream Hotel” by Laila Lalami
A woman is detained by an algorithm that claims her dreams predict she'll commit a crime she hasn't committed yet, in this near-future novel about surveillance, reminiscent of other books such as “1984.”. It's a slow-burn dystopia that hypothesizes much control people will accept before they push back.
10. Capricorn Moon - “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck
Steinbeck's sprawling multi-generational saga follows two families across decades in California's Salinas Valley, wrestling with legacy and the biblical influence of good and evil passed down through fathers and sons. It's a long, but meaningful novel that is also being adapted to a TV show that will premiere on Netflix October 1.
11. Aquarius Moon - “Yesteryear” by Cairo Claire Burke
A tradwife influencer wakes up trapped in what looks like an 1850s pioneer version of her own life, unsure if it's a hoax or something stranger. Comical in a dark way and unpredictable, it's a sharp retelling of a modern phenomenon plaguing social media.
12. Pisces Moon - “Flashlight” by Susan Choi
When a father disappears during a walk on the beach and his young daughter is found alone, the aftermath unravels a family's history across countries and decades. It's a dreamlike novel that moves fluidly through memory, identity and unspoken family secrets.