Photo of a book in front of grassy dunes and a lake in the distance. The book cover is dark green and has a contunuious staircase art. The top of the book shows the author name, R.F. Kuang.

July 2025 Books With Bella

Helloooo reader pals. Reporting back after my first month in ages without a set TBR. My thoughts are…. mixed? I read a little less than usual in June but I think that’s less due to my lack of TBR than the fact that I was SILLY BUSY all month long. I helped out with several Twitch streaming events this past month, and hosted my own major fundraising event (it went fantastic btw) so reading was unfortunately not my top priority!...

July 7, 2025
Photo of Bella sitting in an oversized lawn chair. The chair is brightly painted in blue and green and orange. Bella is smiling and looking up at the camera.

June 2025 Books With Bella

Fun fact I started drafting this post mid-June (already late) and then forgot to even post it until July so… pretend you’re reading this in June! First things first let’s start with the great things - it’s PRIDE MONTH and the Ann Arbor Library’s Summer Game has officially started! Truly my two favorite summer things! In one month! And now for the weirds - I’m in a reading… weird? I’m not calling it a reading slump because I’m still reading every day (and enjoying it, I simply refuse to force myself to read), but I’m struggling to focus on physical books and to work on my monthly TBR....

June 12, 2025
Photo of the book Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry resting on a table next to a water bottle and a green checkered bag.

May 2025 Books with Bella

April went by so quickly and I was in kind of a weird space with reading for the month?? In honor of Emily Henry releasing a new book I actually basically only wanted to read Emily Henry or Emily Henry adjacent books. And then a random nonfiction audiobook from John Green (which I absolutely loved, by the way). I felt super busy in April with my birthday, packing for a trip, and then spending the last few days of the month abroad....

May 9, 2025
Photo of a wooden surface on a white bedsheeet. On the wooden surface is a copy of Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, an iPad with a notes app open, an Apple pencil, and sticky book tabs.

April 2025 Books with Bella

March! My best reading month of the year (so far)!! Has come to a close!!! I didn’t expect it but I somehow had so much motivation to read this month. Between early spring vibes (my favorite time of the year), the readathon I hosted with my pal Bookie, continuing my Hunger Games reading, and the Trans Rights Readathon, there were just so many incredible reasons to read this past month....

April 3, 2025
Photo of Bella's bed showing her cat Tonks, a tabby and white cat, curled up next to a lap desk holding an iPad with a notes app open, an open book, and sticky tabs. Bella's hands are on the book holding it open and grabbing a sticker from the sticky tab sheet.

March 2025 Books with Bella

Oh hey - it’s March! This year is truly rushing by but I’m extra excited to be entering March aka “new Hunger Games month”. Wait I’m getting ahead of myself… February was an awesome month generally but kind of a weird reading month for me? I read a lot of books I really loved, including two from The Hunger Games series, another Kiley Reid book (so good) and a very spicy queer romance ARC from Meryl Wilsner (who also wrote Cleat Cute, a sapphic soccer romance I loved)....

March 7, 2025
YouTube thumbnail style image showing Bella smiling and looking at the camera with her arms up. The background behind her is a bookshelf but it's blurry. The image has the words 'hello booktube, newbie tag'.

February 2025 Books with Bella

Hey readers, it’s February already, can you believe it! January was such a lovely reading month for me. I started the month reading The Poppy War in Texas (which I finished after I got home, I’m not that fast) and ended the month reading Written in the Waters a memoir by National Geographic writer Tara Roberts. Both books made me cry, but I’m a softie so I guess that’s not a huge surprise....

February 6, 2025
Photo taken with a 0.5 lens of Bella standing in the Austin Public Library. She is standing on a wooden walkway and behind her is a big open space with windows, a clock, and colorful glass.

January 2025 Books with Bella

Ahh, happy new year and welcome to another year of reading with me!! 2024 was such an incredible year, I still can’t believe I brought y’all along on my reading journey for the entire year. I spent the last three quarters of the year reading at least a few pages (or minutes) every single day (I’m currently on a 288 day reading streak the day I’m posting this). I’m so proud of myself for doing so much reading but not losing any joy in it!...

January 17, 2025
Image with a dark background and a grid of lots of book covers. There are around 70 books with covers in various sizes and colors.

Books with Bella 2024 Recap

What an incredible year of reading it’s been - and holy crap how cool is it that I can share a year-long recap for the second year in a row!?! 2024 was a phenomenal year of reading, thank you for joining me! Below is the presentation I made and shared on Stream to take you through some of my favorite or standout reads of the year (and some statistics). I’m so excited to continue reading with y’all in 2025!...

January 17, 2025
Photo of a hardcover copy of the book The God of the Woods by Liz Moore resting on a knitted blanket on a bed with a window in the background.

December 2024 Books with Bella

It’s the last month of 2024 and I’m torn on how to feel about that. Year ends are always so mixed for me because I both hate change and also need variety in my life. So on the one hand, I am so excited for a chance to embrace and create some change in my life. New habits, new goals, and new direction. But, on the other hand, that scares me!...

December 6, 2024
Photo of an open book held in front of a fountain with lots of green trees in the background.

November 2024 Books with Bella

Happy November, readers! October was such an incredible reading month for me because I basically all of my reading time was spent in Spain. My partner and I travelled to Madrid, a small town just outside of Madrid, and then to Malaga Spain. And while there I read at least a little bit every day - a lot of that reading I did outside! On our travel day to Malaga, I read an entire book start to finish on the train....

November 30, 2024