Hi everyone, we're excited to share the 4 selections for the Summer Readalong, running June through August AND 5 selections for the Pride Special Event in June! We announce Readalong titles a month in advance to give everyone time to place library holds. Head to the Seasonal Readalong page & Special Events page to see 2 badges, the full list of selections, and add the books to your TBR (on the app via the More/hamburger menu on the Home tab, on desktop via the Discuss page).

SUMMER READALONG:

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross: A romantasy based on Scottish mythology, it has limited sexual content with a heightened focus on world-building that leans cozy, making it a great entry point for those who don't typically read romantasy. The protagonists defy the typical archetypes, which makes it fresh for veteran romantasy readers too!

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali: Set in 1950s Tehran, this historical fiction book follows two girls, Ellie and Homa, whose fierce childhood friendship is tested by class divides, betrayal, and the upheaval of the Iranian Revolution.

The Empress of Salt & Fortune by Nghi Vo: A feminist high fantasy set in an empire reminiscent of imperial China, this Hugo Award-winning novella is short but powerful.

The Stranger by Albert Camus: A classic of twentieth-century literature originally published in French, this is the story of an ordinary man drawn into a senseless murder in Algeria. It explores the philosophy of Absurdism.

PRIDE:

Last Pride was our very first Special Event, and this Pride marks 1 full year of quarterly Special Events! The goal of these is to encourage diverse reading, and while we have loved how the PB community has embraced these events, we also recognize their quarterly cadence makes it impossible for us to recognize all the voices we would like to each year.

Choosing the Special Event for summer was quite difficult for us; PB is a thriving queer & allied space that absolutely should celebrate Pride, but also as an American company, we very much wanted to celebrate Juneteenth as well (for our international friends, Juneteenth is the official celebration of the emancipation of enslaved people in the US). We ultimately decided to make this a Pride event, since we have such a large international community and Juneteenth is a US holiday. However, we feel strongly about recognizing and celebrating Juneteenth, which leads to the following:

1. Next year in 2027 we will have a year-long limited time Main Quest hosted by Pagebound with the express purpose of promoting diverse reading. With this Quest, we can promote all the voices that are not highlighted in a quarterly Special Event.

2. For this Pride, we recognize Juneteenth and the intersectional nature of justice with Harriet Tubman Live in Concert. If you are looking to recognize both holidays this Readalong, we highly recommend this pick! Authored by Bob the Drag Queen, this is an alternate history where Harriet Tubman pairs with a gay hip-hop producer to create a Hamilton-esque Broadway musical about her life.

BONUS: We have a new Limited Time Quest launching today: Sourcebooks Summer of Swoon featuring 6 romcoms running May through August. Check back later this afternoon to see the book list! Hint: 2 of the books have giveaways that just dropped 👀

Excited to read with everyone in the coming months!

Happy reading, Jennifer & Lucy

We have a very very exciting announcement: stats are live on the Pagebound app on iOS and Android! (web coming soon). Please make sure you're on the latest version of the app :)

This has been a long time coming as we've released smaller features to gather reading data: format tracking, page/minute totals, daily reading updates, and streaks. Now, you can see that data visualized on the Stats tab of your profile!

The top section shows your Monthly Stats, and the bottom section shows your Annual Stats. Next month, you will also see your Monthly & Yearly wrap-ups on this tab.

Royalty members have enhanced stats and extra graphs. If you're not Royalty and are curious to see the extra stats, head to a Royalty member's profile to check it out :)

This is just the beginning; we will be adding onto and improving stats, especially as we gather series and genre data. I am so thrilled to share this V1 with everyone now!

If you find your stats do not look correct, make sure all your data is filled in correctly:

• You can edit your daily pages read & minutes listened by clicking the streak widget on your home page to access Reading History.
• Edit format, total pages, and total minutes by clicking your Read Dates. On the last screen of the "edit read dates" flow, you can add/edit that info.

As a little bonus on the Reading History screen, you also see the pages read or minutes listened each day per book.

We hope you all enjoy this new facet of Pagebound! A big thank you to everyone for making this such a special community, and a special thank you to our Royalty members for making Pagebound possible with your support.

We'll be back tomorrow with some Readalong and Quest announcements!

Happy Reading, Jennifer + Lucy

This is the first time in a while that I've read something remotely descriptive. Mostly world-building descriptive, but not pretentious description. It's slightly noticeable compared to other books I've read lately.

"when I started to pay attention to the title and who wrote it, it felt as if I'd stepped into a whole new wondrous world where authors and readers are connected by stories"

This part made me think about how I choose books. Paying attention to authors and titles does make it feel like there’s a bigger world behind each book, not just something to finish and move on from.

I’m thinking about resurrecting some DNFs ⚰️ but changing the format. For example I DNF’d the Song of Achilles audiobook 2 hrs in but am thinking to try the ebook instead now. Some of the books on my list are just so loved I wonder if they are worth another go. Has this method worked for anyone? 📚