Summer is coming to a close but I’ve still got one or two warm weather reads before I fully settle in for the cooler weather reading season. I’m already getting so excited for scary books, dark academia, all the good fall vibes.

But before we get to that, let’s talk about August! August was my best reading month of the year so far. Partly because of some beach reading time, and a little bit of time stuck in bed because of a neck spasm. But Lili’s #ReadFatPositive readathon and the end of the Petal Pages Summer Reading Bingo were also really great motivators. I ended up completing three books during Lili’s readathon and completed the entire large board for summer bingo. I truly felt like August was closing out just an incredible summer of reading. I felt so connected to books and my local library and the reading community at large. Thanks for reading with me, pals!

Anyways, I struggled a lot putting together my TBR for September - not because I couldn’t figure out what to read but because I couldn’t narrow things down. I want to read everything! I’m excited to see what I end up fitting in this month.

August Reads

August Numbers

📚 total: 10 books
📖 read: 1,825 pages
🎧 listened: 32.55 hours

September TBR

Bella’s Queer Book Recs

In June I participated in a reading raid train and shared a MASSIVE list of queer book recommendations with y’all live on stream and ever since then I’ve been promising to share the list. Well… I’m late, but it’s finally here! Mostly! You can click the title of this section (or this next part) to link to my ever-growing Notion site of queer book recommendations! At the time I’m sharing this post the site does not have 100% of the books I originally recommended, but keep an eye out because I’ll keep adding them to the database over in Notion! The site will allow you to filter by genre, queer identities represented, if I’ve read the book, and more! Enjoy, and please let me know if you add any new books to your TBRs!

Books with Pals

Books with Pals is on hold for September since I’ve got some travel happening this month! We’ll be back soon!

Saint Martin’s Press (SMP) Boycott

Social media influencers who create book content are currently boycotting Saint Martins Press (SMP) in response to their lack of accountability after an employer made harmful zionist, islamophobic, and racist statements. I encourage fellow book-focused influencers to join me in boycotting SMP!

More Book Stuff

You can watch the VOD of recent Books with Bella streams and keep an eye out for future streams on my Twitch channel. If you miss a Books with Bella stream you can catch up on all of them in this YouTube playlist. I also post regularly on my book-focused Instagram and recently also on my book-focused TikTok account.

Great places to get books:

  • Audiobooks: Libro.FM (use my referral code: lfm461686)
  • Free books: use the Libby app to get audiobooks and ebooks for free with your library card
  • Public domain books: use the Project Gutenberg website to view ebooks and digital copies of books in the public domain
  • Digital ARC books for reviewers: NetGalley