Our next Special Event Readalong celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Day and related observances across the Americas, such as Day of Indigenous Resistance, and will run from October 12th to November 12th. Check out the Special Events page (in the hamburger menu on the app home page, or click the orange banner on the Discuss page on web) or scroll down to the bottom of this post for more details.

It’s also time for community-voted Quests, inspired by Lists! Every quarter, Royalty members can nominate 1 List (their own or any community List) that would make a great starting point for a Quest. Royalty members will receive a notification today with a link to a form to fill out by EOD September 23rd to nominate. The form will include context about what makes for a great Quest. Folks who join Royalty through September 23rd will receive an email with a link to the form. The entire Pagebound community will then have the opportunity to vote on which 3 nominated Lists will inspire Quests—look out for a future announcement when voting will start!

Book selections for the Indigenous Peoples' Day 2026 Readalong

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (horror) There There by Tommy Orange (literary) We Will Be Jaguars by Nemonte Nenquimo (memoir, alternate title is We Will Not Be Saved) Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (fantasy) The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (scifi/dystopian)

What's a Special Event? Each quarter, we run a short 1 month readalong showcasing diverse voices in literature. Read one of the selections and comment or post in the forum during the Readalong to earn a special badge. Unlike Seasonal Readalongs, you do not earn a sparkly badge for reading all the selections.

Happy reading,

Jennifer & Lucy

In the last week, I've seen a couple comments/reviews/etc that have noted the use of AI on PB, which feels so weird to me because PB advertises itself as an anti-AI site very specifically, so it just seems to clash against the very basic tenants of this app to begin with - especially when most people come here because we don't want AI driven recommendations or reviews.

So just as a very general reminder, the use of AI is destroying the environment at an unprecedented rate because of the electrical and water demands needed to manage the data centers (🔗article from MIT), and that impact is felt unevenly and in many countries that are not actually making up the lion's share of the usage (🔗article from UN). Additionally, AI has been found to lead to lower cognitive ability like critical thinking skill and brain development (🔗article from The Times) and psychosis in individuals who haven't displayed similar symptoms before (🔗NLM research article). Given that some of the benefits of reading are to develop cognitive ability and critical thinking, and since we all sort of need to live on this Earth to survive, all of this really seems maybe a little bit important and alarming to me!

To be honest, I know that posting this isn't going to stop people who are still using AI for basic everyday tasks or change their minds, but I just wanted to get it off my chest after seeing it several times recently. I know that a lot of companies are forcing people to use AI in their work, but when it comes to our hobbies, we have a choice to say no to AI, and PB especially has been a haven from the ubiquitous use of AI everywhere else.

EDIT: if you’re going through and downvoting all the anti-AI comments, how about you look at the links above and educate yourself on AI usage instead? Would be a better use of your time!!

EDIT 2: @vulpix also pointed out several very important points about AI use. This is my paraphrasing, but these are all @vulpix's research btw! First, research has shown how AI has encouraged violence against women and girls (🔗research here) by allowing for roleplaying of these scenarios, literally advising people to commit these acts, and agreeing with misogynistic stereotypes. Second, AI is actively racist in that it's built into the algorithms behind AI (🔗UN article), so when using it to make decisions, it's all based on human stereotypes, biases, and yes, racism, which obviously has real life implications. (This makes me think of that thing that happened when the Fable AI made a very racist comment that essentially blew up Fable...last year? The year before? I forget now.)

I didn't know Sassafras was a nickname/slang term for sassy/overly talkative so I was really confused when I saw she named her cow after a carcinogenic plant 😅. But even now that I know the slang I can't stop thinking about the plant and how it could tie into this books tradwife conversation.

So, Sassafras bark and root was a big ingredient in root beer, a drink that the temperance movement pushed as a healthy alternative to alcohol and one that I personally associate with old fashioned America (I am Canadian so that could be a weird misconception I formed so please tell me if I am wrong lol). But Sassafras has safrole in the roots and the bark, something that studies found to be a carcinogenic and has been banned in Canada and The USA since about the 60's-70's, causing the recipes for root beer to be adjusted to safer alternatives.

And considering the blurb and what it tells us about the book, I think the use of this as the cows name, could be an interesting little call to this selective re-envisioning of the past, and the pushing of this idea of traditional, that the book focuses on. And I will 100% admit that I might be overthinking the cows name but knowing this, I just keep thinking it might be a bit of a tongue in cheek call to this idea of a modern tradwives preaching for this traditional way, all while they are actively benefitting from the protections and freedoms fought for them, and even just the lack of recognizing the ease of modern life and invention that makes their role easier than it would have been for women in the past. Much like root beer, originally made at home in small batches and only lasting a few days, all while being (unknowingly) harmful, and now we have taken away the cancer risk, made it more shelf stable, and it is accessible to buy in many places. Like, time and the way the world has developed made ones options to drink root beer easier and safer, if they choose to drink it. And idk, if that additional tie to the themes here is accidental, but if it was I think it was a great accident 🤷‍♀️😂

Hi boundlings and happy fall!! As we move into spooky season, and as a thriller lover especially, I’m looking for your best recs for thriller/horror books that aren’t paranormal!! I prefer to steer away from those and I find with most lists/quests I have to really sort through to find what I’m looking for, and even then some books can be hit or miss. I can usually do as far as werewolves/vampires but that’s it. I also can do some gore but nothing too extreme (Stephanie Perkins’ There’s Someone Inside Your House is like a perfect example of my limit). Thanks in advance!!

It’s a real shame that the Annihilation movie was only “very very loosely kind of inspired by the unpublished manuscript” because an accurate adaptation would be INCREDIBLE. I can see scenes in my mind, like a combination of found footage, flashbacks, and standard single-camera. If I had a billion dollars and knew jack shit about making a movie, man…

It's impressive how easy it is to read and how fast you can go considering it's a debut novel