Recs if you like Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude...

Shorter books (under 200 pages) that are part of at least one quest. Many are also in the public domain, making them easily accessible when you want to grind for that next badge.

Books recommended by musician Lucy Dacus, a solo artist and member of the band boygenius. Pulled from her goodreads list.

an invitation to pause, to breathe, to notice and adore the little things around you. (recs welcome and do not have to be nature-themed)

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.

Poetry written by Black and/or African writers! Emphasis on intersectionality.

not food related, not the prettiest covers ever (though some of them definitely are), just book covers I want to eat 👅

a sampling of some of today’s most quintessential poetic voices

lyrical and evocative, to be at one with nature

an ongoing list :)

books that are like a breath of fresh air or based in nature, or are full of exuberance, sweetness, mischief, long ramblings, and childlike fun

Get the full experience with these poetry collections that have been 1) adapted to audio and 2) narrated by the poet.

This is a list that consists of poetry from a variety of different authors on a variety of different topics. Hopefully, there’s something here for everyone!

Or, “Books that Ross Gay alludes to, mentions, talks about in Inciting Joy.” Please let me know—especially with the poetry collections—if I've misattributed something.

books of poetry