The Stars are Aligned: 2022 Book Recommendations based on your Zodiac Sign

Capricorn: December 21 – January 20

Element: Earth

Character Traits: Responsible, disciplined, mature, dutiful, reserved, pragmatic, level-headed.

Famous Capricorns: Dolly Parton, Edgar Allan Poe, Betty White (R.I.P)

Book: The School for Good Mothers, by Jessamine Chan. 

Release date: Jan 4, 2022

This one is for all the perfectionists out there. Capricorns are motivated by duty and often seek out a pat on the back for a job well done —which is not happening for Frida, a stressed af mom who is having a terrible, very bad, no good day. In her dystopian world, she is faced with a government-imposed correctional institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion. Don’t miss this transgressive debut novel about the perils of "perfect" parenting and motherhood.

Aquarius: January 19 – February 18

Element: Air

Character Traits: Esoteric, independent, rational, contrary, inscrutable, inventors, outcast

Famous Aquarians: Angela Davis, James Joyce, Audre Lorde, Virginia Woolf

Book: The Maid, by Nita Prose. 

Release date: Jan 4, 2022

Like many Aquarians, Molly Gray is not like everyone else. This neurodivergent protagonist may struggle with the complexities of life but she’s damn good at her job as a hotel maid. Work is a place where everything makes sense until that tranquility is upended by–you guessed it–a murder! This “Clue-like, locked-room murder mystery” will appeal to the conspiratorial nature of the Aquarian outsider.

Pisces: February 18 – March 20

Element: water

Character Traits: Dreamy, emotional, imaginative, romantic, fluid, introspective

Famous Pisceans: Victor Hugo, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Anais Nin, Nina Simone

Book: Notes on an Execution, by Danya Kukafka. 

Release date: Jan 25, 2022

Fun fact: The signs of Cancer, Pisces, Scorpio, and Sagittarius account for almost 40 percent of serial killers. So..uh..there’s that. With that in mind, we turn to Kukafka’s “searing portrait of the complicated women caught in the orbit of a serial killer.” Pisces personalities can be hard to pin down because they tend to evade distinction…much like a slippery serial killer eluding capture. They feel their way through life and this book supplies plenty of fodder with suspense, empathy, and compassion.

Aries: March 20 – April 19 

Sign: Fire

Character Traits: Competitive, honest, direct, intense, spontaneous, hot-headed, impulsive

Famous Aries: Charles Baudelaire, Cesar Chavez, Leonardo DaVinci

Book: Manifesto: On Never Giving Up, by Bernardine Evaristo. 

Release date: Jan 18, 2022

The bestselling and Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other, pens a brief memoir of her life, writing, and her manifesto on unstoppability, creativity, and activism. In Manifesto, “Evaristo charts her theory of unstoppability, showing creative people how they too can visualize and find success in their work, ignoring the naysayers,” much like the Aries who does what they want, when they want, and how they want. Go full ram and dive into her world eagerly and without fear.

Taurus:  April 19 – May 20

Element: Earth

Character Traits: Dependable, practical, patient, physical, committed, fears change, stubborn

Famous Taureans: Audrey Hepburn, Karl Marx, William Shakespeare, Malcolm X

Book: To Paradise, by Hanya Yanagihara.

Release date: Jan 11, 2022

In true Taurus fashion, readers have been very patiently waiting for Hanya Yanagihara to release another novel. The themes Yanagihara explored in A Little Life and returns to in To Paradise (love, fear, shame, loneliness) are the same qualities that make us achingly human. That Yanagihara’s writing can so dependably and deliberately break the Taurean bullish heart wide open is just one of the many reasons she is considered a brilliant author for the ages.

Gemini: May 20 – June 21

Element: Air

Character Traits: Intelligent, analytical, inconsistent,  perceptive, versatile, expressive, worried

Famous Geminis: Alan Ginsberg, Prince, Jean-Paul Sartre

Book: Fiona and Jane, by Jean Chen Ho. 

Release date: Jan 4, 2022

There are two sides to every story. Geminis are skilled at showcasing their surface traits, but the Gemini well runs deep and there’s more below the surface. It’s no surprise then that Fiona and Jane, a collection of stories told in alternating voices will be an appealing read for the Twins of the zodiac. Jean Chen Ho's debut book “peels back the layers of female friendship--the intensity, resentment, and boundless love--to probe the beating hearts of young women coming to terms with themselves, and each other, in light of the insecurities and shame that holds them back.”

Cancer: June 21 – July 22

Element: Water

Character Traits: Highly sensitive, layered, moody, guarded, deep, empath 

Famous Cancers: Franz Kafta, Frida Kahlo, Marcel Proust

Book: Reminders of Him, by Colleen Hoover. 

Release date: Jan 18, 2022

Let’s be clear, CoHo novels will wreck you. No protective shell will shield a sensitive Cancer from the gut-wrenching, emotional roller-coasters she invents. Cancers are easily weighed down by the troubles of those around them, but they also revel in the uplifting experiences of others. Reminders of Him tells a woman’s story of romance, connection, absolution, and risk. Like the protagonist, Cancers understand that the full emotional spectrum is necessary to build a future out of hope and healing.

Leo: July 22 – August 22

Element: Fire

Character Traits: Warm, creative, vain, brash, charismatic, confident

Famous Leos: James Baldwin, Coco Chanel, Marcel Duchamp

Book: Either/Or by Elif Batuman. 

Release date: May 24, 2022. 

At last, after too long of a wait, we get to the best sign of all [footnote from Bookclubs content editor, Gabriel Sessions]. Either/Or’s publisher sums it up this way: “Selin is the luckiest person in her family: the only one who was born in America and got to go to Harvard. Now it’s sophomore year, 1996, and Selin knows she has to make it count. The first order of business: to figure out the meaning of everything that happened over the summer. Guided by her literature syllabus and by her more worldly and confident peers, Selin reaches certain conclusions about the universal importance of parties, alcohol, and sex, and resolves to execute them in practice—no matter what the cost.” Now that’s what I’m talking about. Selin is a rare example of the shy Leo–who still wants to wring all the joy possible from life in front of hordes of adoring fans but may need a bit of help getting there. Of course, one of the pleasures of reading is learning how great you are.

Virgo: August 22 – Sept 22

Sign: Earth

Character Traits: Perfectionist, critical, particular, self-contained, anxious, productive, chaotic

Book: Young Mungo, by Douglas Stuart. 

Release Date: April 5th, 2022

Virgos may relate to the title character in this brilliant second novel about queer love and working-class families from the Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain. Virgos can sometimes have trouble expressing themselves and hide inside their introverted fortress. Similarly, Mungo works hard to hide his true self from all those around him but dreams of finding a future where he can belong with his friend and lover, James. Stuart weaves “a deeply moving and highly suspenseful story about the dangerous first love of two young men” growing up in an inhospitable, hyper-masculine council estate in Glasgow. 

Libra: Sept 22 – Oct 23

Sign: Air

Character Traits: Social, indecisive, receptive, empathetic, sensitive, needy, adventurous

Famous Libras: Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Rimbaud

Book:  The Lost Dreamer, by Lizz Huerta. 

Release date: March 1, 2022

Libras can be prone to fantasy, and this supernatural YA novel is anything but ordinary and boring. Buckle up for a wild ride with seers and dreamers defiantly resisting a patriarchal state that wants them destroyed. Like Libras, the protagonists, Indir and Saya, are empathetic, receptive, and intuitive, but must hone their supernatural ability to dream the truth while fighting to survive extinction.

Scorpio: October 23 – November 22.

Sign: Water

Character Traits: Probing, complex, popular, manipulative, mysterious, perceptive, 

Famous Scorpios: Marie Antoinette, Albert Camus, Sylvia Plath

Book: The Paris Apartment, by Lucy Foley. 

Release date: Feb 22, 2022

Scorpios are notoriously unafraid of the dark side of life: pain, death, the unknown. This highly anticipated psychological thriller by best-selling author Lucy Foley is the perfect read for the shrewd Scorpio who likes to ask questions and dissect the other’s psyche. In The Paris Apartment, Jess visits her brother in Paris in an attempt to escape her past. But when she arrives, Ben is missing and Jen is left with a curiously swanky flat and a handful of super suss neighbors. Everyone is lying, but like a Scorpio, Jen’s perceptive stinger is scanning, reading, probing, and pushing the right pressure points so she can get to the bottom of her brother’s disappearance. You do not F with a Scorpio.

Sagittarius: November 22 – December 21

Sign: Fire

Character Traits: Friendly, magnanimous, optimistic, explorer, reckless, restless, insatiable, 

Famous Sags: Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, Diego Rivera

Book: The Nineties: A Book, by Chuck Klosterman. 

Release date: Feb 8, 2022

Sagittarians are empiricists who want to understand how the world works; surveyors of the human condition. Sag readers will find a kindred spirit in bestselling author and journalist, Chuck Klosterman as he weaves a smart synthesis of the decade he classifies as the last era that held to the idea of a true, hegemonic mainstream before it all began to fracture. Curl up in your bean bag chair and crank up the Nirvana for this nostalgic, informative read.