Recs if you like Ghostroots: Stories...

weird girl books with a Black woman protagonist! recommendations very welcome, hoping to spotlight some lesser known titles!

this is your reminder to read books by Black authors all month, all year, every year— not just during Black History Month. it’s crucially important to be able to diversify your reading and your bookshelves. expand your mind, your perspectives, your knowledge, and your taste. if you don’t know where to start, here are some recommendations!

This list was generated from a post on pagebound club on Juneteenth in 2026. I opted to not try and make this list comprehensive but just to document the community recs from that day - however, if you have more books to recommend please comment in the forum! Prompts from the original post will be in the comments. Note: prompts asked for books by Black authors, not only those from/books set in the US. See comments section for more discussion.

I can't be the only one who want to remember all the books without jumping around in a video, right?

Is it fantasy? Horror? Magical realism? Sci-fi? Litfic? It's best not to ask questions.

For people who want to dip toes in Nigerian literature.

Let's get weird!! 💫

aka most of the horror I read. Titles on this list are low on gore, body horror, or anything else you'd consider "scary" in the traditional sense. Instead, they focus on atmosphere and eerie vibes to create a horror experience that doesn't need to be shocking to be effective.

I love horror and I'm really interested in seeing how the genre shows up in different countries and parts of the world. I am making a list of all the books I have currently collected that take place in countries other than the United States, England, Canada, and Australia. I will add as I find more. Currently, there is just one book per country. For those with more, I tried to add less commonly known books. The current countries included in the list: Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Columbia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Germany, Greenland, France, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Motswana, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, The Philippines, Poland, Russia, Scotland, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Uruguay, Wales

short story collections by a single author in a variety of genres. recommendations welcome!

The house is a character in the book?! chef's kiss

what gab smolders read in 2025 as per her book talk video! horror + in tier order from most to least liked by her:

★ S TIER: from "night shoot" to "old country"

★ A TIER: from "what stalks the deep" to "listen to your sister"

★ B TIER: from "the long walk" to "the gathering"

★ C TIER: from "banquet for the damned" to "model home"

★ D TIER: from "3 streets" to "my darling dreadful thing"

★ F TIER: from "basilisk" to "survivor song"

A list to help those who aspire to read from authors outside the typical areas. I will be creating different list for different regions. I will also list the countries currently found in the list. Be sure to check out the other lists! Note: The countries are not perfect as some countries are classified differently, so I did my best.

Current Countries: Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Motswana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe

These Diverse Baseline Challenge was created by @bookish.millennial & @themargherita.s (on instagram). In 2025, the goal is to read 1 book by a racialized author each month. This challenge is meant to encourage readers to try genres they historically don’t reach for, find new-to-them racialized authors, and to encourage reflection on our reading habits.

This is a mix of recommendations by the challenge organizers and myself.

Horror has a bit of a reputation. You know: blood, slashers, and ✨️please traumatise me before bedtime✨️

But it can be eerie, atmospheric, funny, emotional, empowering, unsettling and beautifully weird❤️

This is an ongoing, beginner-friendly, breaking-the-horror-stereotype-kinda list for anyone who doesn't want to immediately throw the book across the room!

There is always the possibility of triggers. Never push yourself through something that makes you feel too uncomfortable!

Lots of love

A reference for people who want to easily add these books to their TBR

A list of short story collections and anthologies to feast on.