Recs if you like On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous...

Need a gift for your extremist family member, but they already have a red baseball cap AND a Don't Tread on Me shirt? Were you told "Don't bring up politics at family dinner" and need some safe books to discuss instead? Well we have a full menu for you to choose from! Each just for fun book comes with our guarantee: No real world political messages under the 100% fictional plot! 😉 (Taking Recommendations!)

Are you currently not crying to the point of vomiting, but you want to be? Need to conduct a science experiment to find out if you are in fact the ugliest crier in all of Pagebound? Well, do I have the list for you! Brought to you by the fine, very sad, folks of Pagebound! These books have been frequently suggested or upvoted in PB club posts about sad books! Suggestions in any genre, and extra tissues, are welcome!

Fiction & nonfiction books that explore the complexities and traumas of mother-child relationships or in which such relationships play a central role. While many books on this list are what I’d classify as including “mommy issues” there are others that are more about the different perspectives and nuances of the mother-child (often specifically mother-daughter) relationship. Some books center the child, some the mother, some both.

Suggestions are welcome.

books featured in the cozy video game “tiny bookshop”

Books that illustrate some aspect of the immigrant experience - in fantasy, or in the real world; in childhood, or in old age; in history, or in the modern day. (work in progress - recs welcome!)

If we are going to do Qwordy's the Hardest Reading Challenge You'll Ever Do 3.0 - we should probably get some Pagebound badges along the way! I'm specifically going to be adding books from Quests and readalongs that go past the July start date and match at least one of these title prompts: Periodic Table, Familial Terms, Rainbow of Words (also Joseph's coat), Numerical Titles, Titular Counting 5+, Pun in the Title, and First & Last Name in the Title. Recommendations welcome!

pink, sophisticated & sometimes fatale <3 curating the personality of my aspirations (added some essential nonfic & poetry!)

Aka Dua Lipa’s reading list. Everyone’s fave popstar on permanent holiday with a massive list of books to read, and she always seems to have incredible recommendations.

I am not part of Service95 or affiliated with Dua Lipa. I am just a fan curating this list based on the @service95bookclub IG account 💋

books with characters who are in their 20s (and trying to figure out their 20s). primarily but not exclusively lit fic.

these books explore queer space and time, rejecting hetero temporality and spatiality across fiction, non-fiction, drama, and poetry. inside, you’ll find genderqueer immortals, spirits dipping in and out of linear reality, and queer meditations on bodies and aging. recommendations, as always, are very much welcome.

| 2026 | verity: october 2 sense & sensibility: october 16 sunrise on the reaping: november 20 dune messiah: december 18

| 2027 | children of blood & bone: january 15 the nightingale: february 12 beach read: may 7

| 2028 | cinder: november 3

Intergenerational Stories

Books that take place across and tell the stories of at least two generations, exploring history, politics, culture, generational patterns, and trauma. Mostly focusing on families.

Please give more recs if you have any! (Twenty-three fiction, two non-fiction so far)

An on-going attempt to track Asian authors in my Interested/TBR (and hopefully Finished) categories. Books are generally fiction/lit fic/fantasy with some memoirs. Authors span West to East Asia, the Asian diaspora, and mixed-race folx.

A mix of reader favorites and editorial picks from The New York Times—100 books that defined the 21st century.

Queer books and books written by queer authors that are featured in the indie game "Tiny Bookshop", a cosy bookstore management life sim by the studio Neoludic

recs from @leahsfigtree and @emmareadstoomuch on substack + personal recs

novels where reality bends and distorts, both narrators and memories deceive, and the truth becomes slippery. these stories blur the line between what is real and what is imagined, between fact and fiction, until we are unable to distinguish truth from the author’s own fabrication. a blend of autofiction, historical fiction, and “non-fiction fiction.”

as always welcome to suggestions !