xoxo, Arielle

This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.

One of my favorite things about a new month is getting excited about all of the fun holidays to celebrate in the days ahead!

Scroll down to see a list of daily holidays, monthly celebrations, and more.

As always, I love getting recommendations to continue my efforts of reading more diversely. Let me know if there’s a book you’ve loved recently that you’d recommend!

Many of the books featured on my blog are received as gifted copies from publishers, all opinions shared are my own.

November’s Holiday List

What did you enjoy celebrating in October? What are you most looking forward to in November?

If you enjoy reading my posts, show your support & let me know you enjoy my work: leave me a comment below, upgrade or gift a paid subscription, or screenshot & share your favorite bits on your Instagram stories and tag me! @TheJoyfulBookBlogger

In Case You Missed It…

Recent bookish posts:

• Celebrating National Buy a Cookbook Day: Cookbooks in my kitchen

• Witchy, Magical, & Paranormal Books I’ve Read and Enjoyed

• A Book Lover’s Guide to Fall Reads

• The Beauty of Blank Bookshelves

Recent notes

• Passing Notes: Mom Life

• An indicator of your passions

Recent weekly updates | highlight vibes

• Oct. 27th: pumpkin carving and organizing my home library

• Oct. 19th: the most delicious chocolate cake recipe

• Oct. 13th: annual pumpkin patch visit, candlelit Barre, & my favorite new storage cart

• Oct. 7th: mini pumpkin patch, September reading, and a beautiful artist find

• Sept. 28th: A new-to-us coffee shop with the cheekiest bathroom decor

• Sept. 21st: Mom wins, fun kid’s craft, and the BEST pumpkin item of the season

• Sept 14th: A recap of attending a cookbook launch event hosted by

If I’ve encouraged you to purchase a copy of any of the books I’ve read, please consider using my affiliate links to help support my blogging costs and reading habits.

Check out all the books I’ve read in 2026 here: ShopMy Shelves

If this post brings you joy, consider offering your support! OR shop through my links through the ShopMy affiliate platform. It’s free to you and I get a small commission when you make a purchase.

With joy from the stacks

Wishing you a week filled with good books, delicious bites, and joyful moments… AND an especially spooktacular Halloween — stay safe, stay spooky, and enjoy all the treats!

xoxo, Arielle

This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.

One of the biggest highlights of this past week was carving a pumpkin and roasting the seeds.

Other highlights this week was making time for a breakfast get together with some friends and starting to get my home office library a bit more organized.

I also started reading The Witches of Cambridge and am pleasantly surprised with how much I’m enjoying the writing style.

🎃 We carved a pumpkin to look like the one from The Little Kitten, then roasted the seeds.

🍪 Made a large batch of chocolate chip cookies (and a few with no chips for the kiddo) and froze a bunch to have on hand.

👩🏽‍🍳 Recipes made this week:

• Fave: A large pot of beef chili

• Fave: A large batch of chocolate chip cookies

• 1st time: A small batch of applesauce oatmeal bars - the consistency was great but they tasted a little too herby

What we’re reading this week

📚 Favorites this week: this set of 4 short PAW Patrol stories that came in a cute carrying case (mom savings tip: Target has a 25% off one item this week). Our kiddo is quickly memorizing stories and delights in reading them to us. Witnessing the level of excitement and pure joy that lights up her face when she reads to us is by far one of the best things about being a parent.

Last week by the numbers:

• 🥘 Recipes made: 2 made, 1 new

• 📖 Finished: 1 novel + 1 short story

• 📦 Book mail received: tons!

• 🚛 Bags of donations to the VAA: 11

• 😴 Middle of the night kiddo snuggles: 1

In case you missed it:

• Fall Reading Guide on Instagram

• Book giveaways on Goodreads

• Halloween is almost here! The October Holiday List was posted. 👻🎃🍁

📲 What to Cook by Caroline Chambers; discovered her Instagram then her Substack. Now following her page for the delicious recipes like this shredded beef.

👩🏽‍🍳 Sur La Table has a new location in the Portland area and my Instagram feed is now filled with foodie bloggers. And hey, I’m not mad about it. I’m excited to discover more recipes and cookbooks to try, and I’m excited about their cooking classes.

Favorite Purchase of the Week

My kiddo had fun helping me put my storage cart together and it looks great in my office! It’s mostly filled with bookish candles on the left and the right has bookmarks, bookish décor, and miscellaneous bookish things.

Book influencer programs

💕Submitted monthly/seasonal requests through:

✨ Putnam (Spring ‘27)

✨ William Morrow Nonfiction

🤞🏼 Ahhhhhh I was accepted into the Putnam’s reader program that I applied for!!!

Book Mail & Growing my TBR

This Week’s New Releases on my TBR

Tuesday, October 27th

• Christmas Trees and Weak Knees | Delacorte Romance

• A Court of Splintered Harmony | Bloomsbury Publishing

• Eight Ways to Say I Love You | Berkley

• The Game Changer (Heated Rivalry) series paperback special editions #1-6 | Carina Press

• Mingle All The Way | MIRA

• The Santa Claus Con | Forever

Watching

📺 Love is Blind, Season 11 - Boston

📺 Best Medicine

📺 Nobody Wants This

🎞️ Practical Magic 2

Things I accomplished last week:

Scheduled a veterans donation pickup

Finish organizing my shelves

Made a few recipes

Upcoming Bookish / Blogging List:

• September Wrap-Up

• Q3 Reading Wrap-Up

• Witchy Wednesday Book List

• November Holidays List

• November New Release Guide

• Winter & Holiday Reading Guide

• Unhaul more books - donate to friends of the library bookstores and LFLs

What’s something that brought you joy this past week?

Random tidbits ✨

xoxo, Arielle

This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.

One of the biggest highlights of this past week was celebrating my husband’s birthday with a cake that I made completely from scratch. It was certainly a labor of love; it took a lot of time and patience, but it turned out incredible. Baking a birthday cake from scratch may just have to be a new family tradition.

The recipe itself was spot on and my only notes on what I’d do differently were in regards to my newbie baker skills. This was by far one of the most decadent delicious cakes I’ve ever eaten and I was incredibly proud that I made it!

Recipe from A Guide to the Kitchen Quadrant: An Unofficial Fourth Wing Cookbook ✨🎂 Shout out to for writing such a fun cookbook - it’s a great pick regardless if you’re a Fourth Wing fan or not!

Last week by the numbers

• 🥘 Recipes tried: 1

• 📖 Books finished: 1

• 🧺 Loads of laundry: too many!

• 👻 New pairs of earrings worn: 6

• 📦 Publisher gifted book mail: 8

• 🛍️ Books purchased: 1 for me + 3 for my kiddo

• 📚 Books un-hauled: 0 but planning a ton this week

• 😴 Middle of the night kiddo snuggles: 0

In case you missed it:

• Fall Reading Guide on Instagram

• Book giveaways on Goodreads

• October is here! The October Holiday List was posted. 👻🎃🍁 Here’s the second half of October.

📲Trying something new. On Sunday we limited tablet screen time to 1 hour and focused more on crafts and activities. Our kiddo asked for the screen a few times but we ended up doing really well without it. More screen-free activities incoming!

💔 The school shooting in Bend on Thursday was absolutely heartbreaking to hear about, both as a person but especially as a mom. It makes me incredibly sad that one of the bravest things a parent does in today’s world is send their children to school. It makes me incredibly angry that there isn’t more being done to help prevent these senseless tragedies. It’s tough to go about my daily life but it’s also a wonderful reminder to embrace life, find joy in the small things whenever possible, and give big hugs to our loved ones each and every day.

💀👻🎃 We got a Halloween gift bag sent to our kiddo from close family with the CUTEST goodies. She got a huge kick out of these candy eyeballs. She loves the fuzzy monster notebook, and especially loves the little purple monster toy.

🧩 Loving screen-free activities. I started a large Halloween bookish puzzle. It’s super cute and fun but a lot harder than I thought it would be!

🐾 I got my first product gifting offer in ShopMy. It’s for a cat food product from Brutus Broth that sounds like something my cats might enjoy, so I’m excited to give it a go.

Favorite Shop Features - because the holidays will be here before you know it and I firmly believe in shopping small whenever possible.

🔖 Annotation tabs from The Tabery

Use my rep code TJBB15 for a discount

👻 My Fall order from Delta Rise Co arrived on Tuesday and I’m in love with it all! I’ve been wearing a new pair every day and they bring me so much joy.

Use my rep code JOYFUL15 for a discount

☕️ Epilogue Book Co launched more bookish decor goodies.

💖 Emily Cromwell Designs launched the cutest Halloween and Fall designs!

October Reading Report:

Finished Reading:

1. Cursed City (Harker Academy #2) by Kate Golden | 💖 Paperback gifted from Berkley | 5/5 Loved it

2. Grim Tidings (#2) by B.K. Borison | Paperback from B&N | 4.75 Loved it

3. Big Bad Wolf (#1) by Laurie Gilmore | Paperback from indie bookstore | 4.5 Enjoyed it a lot

Currently Reading:

📖 Written in Starlight by Sloane Brooks | 💖Paperback gifted from Atria

🎧 Born a Crime by Noah Trevor | Purchased from Audible

📲 The Wednesday Witches Book Club by Sarah Beth Durst | ebook included in Kindle Unlimited

Paused or DNF’ed:

📖 Perilous Enchantment by Sarah Clegg | Hardback gifted from Atria | This reads like a history book, which isn’t something I enjoy.

📖 Giveaways on Goodreads to enter

Top of the TBR:

• Doomsdate by Laura Piper Lee

• Threshing Day by Rebecca Yarros

• Trust Fall by Lynn Painter

• Love Felt Like This by Julie Olivia

• The Lost Guardian by Natalie Hernandez

• Trigger Happy by Meredith Trapp

Book influencer programs

💕Submitted book requests through:

✨ Atria & Atria Romance

This Week’s New Releases on my TBR

Tuesday, October 20th

• The Christmas Competition by Zoe Allison | Berkley

• Now That We Don’t Talk by Rachel Pologe | Berkley

• Our Dark Incantations by Wanda Hellmund | Berkley

• Succubus by Kate Fox | St. Martin’s Press

• Trigger Happy by Meredith Trapp | Atria

Watching

📺 Watched the first 2 episodes of a funny vampire show; it’s silly but it has a great cast and I’m looking forward to more of it.

🎞️ We rented and streamed the latest Spiderman and watched on Saturday for my hubby’s birthday. Our kiddo enjoyed it too.

🗞️ In the news - so many book-to-screen adaptations!

📺 Coming up next: Season 11 of Love is Blind: Boston

Things I accomplished last week:

• I made the chocolate raspberry cake from The Kitchen Quadrant for my hubby’s birthday!

• Scheduled a veterans donation pickup

Recipes I want to try soon:

• Tons of recipes in the new Quickies cookbook from PlantYou!

Personal / House List:

• Deep clean the shower

• Clear off the dining table

• Try a new recipe

Bookish / Blogging List:

• September Wrap-Up

• Q3 Reading Wrap-Up

• Witchy Wednesday Book List

• Unhaul more books - donate to friends of the library bookstores and LFLs

What’s something that brought you joy this past week?

xoxo, Arielle

This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.

One of the biggest highlights of this past week was our annual visit to a local pumpkin patch. I thought the animals were going to be the biggest hit with our kiddo but the true highlight was all of the tractors on the farm - we lost count of how many she got to play on. While there we ate some fresh donuts, enjoyed a cup of hot apple cider, and picked some pumpkins to bring home. It’s one of my favorite seasonal traditions and we all had a great time.

This past week my local Barre3 studio started holding their seasonal candlelit Mindful Flow classes now that the evenings get dark early, and I have it say it’s one of the best things about the Fall season in the PNW.

One more highlight for me was taking a bath for the first time in quite a while — it’s been weeks, maybe even months. There’s nothing quite like sinking into a warm bubble bath with a good book on a cold night. My cats both hung out and napped while I soaked in the tub and it was kind of sweet.

In case you missed it:

• Fall Reading Guide on Instagram

• Book giveaways on Goodreads

• October is here! In case you missed it, the October Holiday List was posted. 👻🎃🍁 Here’s the second half of October.

🗒️ Passing Notes on the joy of middle of the night snuggles — We had one night with a 5am wake up with our kiddo joining us in bed (and thankfully falling back asleep) and it made my heart so happy. I’m glad it hasn’t turned into a daily occurrence and I cherish those extra snuggles.

Favorite Purchase of the Week

🎨 I’ve been wanting to organize my kiddo’s artwork supplies and miscellaneous bits, so I bought this colorful storage drawer set (one of the few things I bought during the Prime Day sales) that now lives in the corner of the kitchen. It’s exactly what I was looking for and it makes the space feel decluttered but fun. I purchased a second one in shades of green for my office to organize my candles, stickers, annotation tabs, bookmarks, and miscellaneous bookish goodies.

Favorite Shop Features - because the holidays will be here before you know it and I firmly believe in shopping small whenever possible. I also have rep codes you can use at a few of these below!

🔖 The annotation tabs from The Tabery continue to be my favorite. I buy the single colors and make my own sets to match my current read.

Use my rep code TJBB15 for a discount

👻 Delta Rise Co listed Halloween and Fall earrings and they’re all SO darn cute. I ordered an embarrassing amount of earrings, so I’ll likely post about these separately when they arrive.

Use my rep code JOYFUL15 for a discount

☕️ Epilogue Book Co launched a 5 star reading review item and it’s perfection!

No code, but lots of sales with a free item

💖 Emily Cromwell Designs launched her Halloween and Fall designs and everything is so cute!!

October Reading Report:

Finished Reading:

1. 📖 Cursed City (Harker Academy #2) by Kate Golden | 5/5 loved it

2. 📖 Grim Tidings by B.K. Borison | 5/5 loved it

Currently Reading:

📖 Big Bad Wolf by Laurie Gilmore 🐺🔥

What we’re reading this week

📚 Picked up a copy of The Little Kitten from our local indie and our kiddo is still loving it!

🐺 I paused reading Big Bad Wolf by Laurie Gilmore so that I could have Grim Tidings by B.K. Borison finished before book club this week; finished it Sunday night, so I’m about to drive back into Big Bad Wolf. I’ve been loving the paranormal witchy fall vibes lately, tis the season!

Book influencer programs

💕Submitted book requests through:

✨ Flatiron

✨ LYX’s Swoon Squad

✨ Page Street Publishing - Nonfiction

✨ Page Street - YA

🤞🏼 Applied for the Putnam influencer program. They’ve got some amazing new titles coming up!

This Week’s New Releases on my TBR

Tuesday, October 13th - Goodreads links below

• An American Girl | Atria

• Entities to Lovers | Berkley

• Love You to Death | Berkley

• I Never Knew You At All | Atria

• Nightcurse | Wednesday Books

• Sitcom | Harper Collins

• Written in Starlight | Atria

Watching

📺 Finished season 1 of Coven Academy. Fingers crossed they sign on for season 2!

📺 Continuing to love Ted Lasso

🎞️ Watched the book to screen adaptation of a Berkley romance - A Knight to Remember

🗞️ In the news - more book to screen adaptions are coming! I’m most excited about Katherine Center’s The Bodyguard. 😍

Joyful Finds

📲 The reaction to this post on threads is one of the reasons why I haven’t deleted the app. I love seeing the positive impact that social media can have - an example here of someone’s bookish dreams and people of the internet showing up!

Things I accomplished last week:

• Make pulled pork

• Deep clean the microwave

• Finish organizing my shelves

Recipes I want to try soon:

• Tons of recipes in the new Quickies cookbook from PlantYou!

• I’m planning to make the chocolate raspberry cake from The Kitchen Quadrant for my hubby’s birthday!

Personal / House List:

• Deep clean the shower

• Clear off the dining table

• Schedule a veterans donation pickup

• Try a new recipe

Bookish / Blogging List:

• September Wrap-Up

• Q3 Reading Wrap-Up

• Witchy Wednesday Book List

• Unhaul more books - donate to friends of the library bookstores and LFLs

What’s something that brought you joy this past week?

xoxo, Arielle

This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.

Sharing this a few days late because my busy season at work started. Sometimes I think to start keeping notes throughout the week, and sometimes I don’t start writing until Monday. Either way, I’ve really been enjoying writing these, so I’d rather share it a little late than not at all.

One of the biggest highlights… Finding a new-to-us café and plant nursery that also had a seasonal tiny little pumpkin patch. Our kiddo had a great time picking our first pumpkins of the season.

In case you missed it:

• Fall Reading Guide on Instagram

• October is here! In case you missed it, the October Holiday List was posted. 👻🎃🍁 Here’s the first half of October.

🐾 Cozy Lily snuggles for all who make it to the end of this post!

🗒️ Passing Notes on the joy of middle of the night snuggles — this past week we had one night with a 4am snuggle. I absolutely love these moments and waking up to see my sleepy kiddo is the best.

☕️ This weekend I got to spend both mornings exactly the way I love: a lazy start to the morning with a cup of coffee and a book in bed with my kiddo snuggled up with me.

👻 Delta Rise Co listed Halloween and Fall earrings and they’re all SO darn cute. Anxiously awaiting my order to arrive soon!

Use my rep code JOYFUL15 for a discount

☕️ Epilogue Book Co listed Halloween items but they also launched a 5 star reading review item. Super excited to get my order!

They’ve been doing lots of 15% sales with a free item on $35+ purchases.

Book influencer programs

💖 I got accepted into the LYX Swoon Squad! Joining a group of only 50, I’m super excited to see what this new program will entail.

💕Submitted November requests through:

✨ Atria Books

✨ Berkley Romance

✨Dell Romance

🗒️ Man oh man, there’s some amazing new books coming soon!!

What we’re loving this week

📚 Picked up a copy of The Little Kitten from our local indie and our kiddo loves it!

🐺 Finished Cursed City and started reading Big Bad Wolf by Laurie Gilmore. It’s going to be steamy! 🔥

📲 The Bookly App released an awesome update. You can now organize and decorate a bookshelf view of your booklists. Fun reading wrap-up images to come soon!

Target has a Buy Two Get One Free sale on books… here’s what I’d buy:

• Big Bad Wolf by Laurie Gilmore - Target exclusive sprayed edges edition

• Wild Wicked Mate by Laurie Gilmore - Target exclusive sprayed edges edition

• Bonfire & Bliss by Brittanée Nicole

Growing my TBR library

📦 Lots of book mail came last week that I haven’t posted about yet!

📦 Preorders that arrived this week:

💜 Threshing Day by Rebecca Yarros

🥬 PlantYou Quickies cookbook

☀️ Prince of the Sun by Emma Noyes - I ordered a special edition for indie bookstores only, which is absolutely gorgeous!! However, it’s also available in Kindle Unlimited

🗒️ Preorders & orders I’m waiting on:

📚 October book boxes ordered from Aardvark, Allurial, and BoTM.

This Week’s New Releases on my TBR

Tuesday, October 6th

• Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson

• Hollowed Bones by Lucy Smoke

• Mistletoe All the Way by Lauren Blakely

• The Secrets of Everlight by Julie Hall

• The Trimesters of Grief by Katie Rizzo

• Under the Orchard’s Spell by Ann Adams

• You still have yourself by Fernando samalot

September Reading Report:

Finished Reading

1. 📱 A Match Made in Fall by Melissa Baldwin | Not for me

2. 📖 The Pumpkin Vice Cafe by Ellie Alexander | Loved it!

3. 📖 Half City by Kate Golden | Loved it!

4. 🎧 All the Time in the World by Cara Bastone | Enjoyed it

5. 📖 I Hope This Email Finds You in HeII by Mackenzie Reed | Enjoyed it

6. 📖 Between Chapters by Zibby Owens | Loved it

October Reading Report:

Finished Reading:

📖 Cursed City (Harker Academy #2) by Kate Golden | 5/5 loved it

Currently Reading:

📖 Big Bad Wolf by Laurie Gilmore 🐺🔥

Paused for Now:

📱 Summerween by Joss Wood - included on KU, enjoying the cozy spooky spirits small town vibes

🎧 Love at First Latte by Sarah Saville - maybe I’m just not a fiction audio gal

Watching

📺 Coven Academy - honestly loving it

• Vibes: young and angsty, twilight vibes

• Long season with 22 episodes but they’re 20ish minutes

📺 Continuing to love Ted Lasso

Other Joyful Finds

Sharing a reminder to not go crazy on Amazon’s Prime day sales and to shop small when you can, especially for books! Did you know you can support indie bookstores on Bookshop.org if you don’t live close to one?

Online fun finds that brought me joy:

• A beautifully talented artist that made some of the most breathtaking paintings I’ve ever seen. If you’re a fan of Fourth Wing, you’ll want to check this out.

• A unique painting technique.

Recipes I want to try soon:

• Applesauce oatmeal bars from Feeding Tiny Bellies

• Tons of recipes in the new Quickies cookbook from PlantYou!

Personal / House List:

• Deep clean the shower & microwave

• Clear off the dining table

• Schedule a veterans donation pickup

• Make a big pot of chili

• Try a new recipe

Bookish / Blogging List:

• September Wrap-Up

• Q3 Reading Wrap-Up

• Witchy Wednesday Book List

• Donate books to friends of the library bookstores

• Finish organizing my shelves

What’s something that brought you joy this past week?

xoxo, Arielle

This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.

One of my favorite things about a new month is getting excited about all of the fun holidays to celebrate in the days ahead!

I couldn’t be more thrilled that my favorite time of the year is upon us, yet it still somehow boggles my mind that we’re 3/4 of the way through the year. It’s true what they say, the days are long but the years are short.

The ‘ber months are in full swing and I’ve been enjoying some witchy and Fall reads. Bring on the sweater weather, cozy days, fireplace evenings, and soup season!!

1. Big Words by Rioghnach Robinson

2. A Court of Splintered Harmony by Sarah J. Maas

3. Eight Ways to Say I Love You by Amanda Elliot

4. Entities to Lovers by Mallory Marlowe

5. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid - special paperback editions books 1-6

6. Love You to Death by Jenna Levine

7. The Santa Claus Con by Lauren Kung Jessen

8. Succubus by Kate Fox

9. Trigger Happy by Meredith Trapp

10. Under the Orchard’s Spell by Ann Adams

Scroll down to see a list of daily holidays, monthly celebrations, and more.

As always, I love getting recommendations to continue my efforts of reading more diversely. Let me know if there’s a book you’ve loved recently that you’d recommend!

At no cost to you I may receive a commission for items purchased through links. Many of the books featured on my blog are received as gifted copies from publishers, all opinions shared are my own.

October’s Holiday List

What did you enjoy celebrating in September? What are you most looking forward to in October?

If you enjoy reading my posts, show your support & let me know you enjoy my work: leave me a comment below, upgrade or gift a paid subscription, or screenshot & share your favorite bits on your Instagram stories and tag me! @TheJoyfulBookBlogger

In Case You Missed It…

Recent bookish posts:

• A Book Lover’s Guide to Fall Reads

• The Beauty of Blank Bookshelves

Recent notes

• Passing Notes: Mom Life

• An indicator of your passions

Recent weekly updates | highlight vibes

• Sept. 28th: A new-to-us coffee shop with the cheekiest bathroom decor

• Sept. 21st: Mom wins, fun kid’s craft, and the BEST pumpkin item of the season

• Sept 14th: A recap of attending a cookbook launch event hosted by

• Sept. 8th: A new Substack find and a delicious recipe tried from Feeding Tiny Bellies

• August 31st: Dahlias galore!

• August 24th: Book club event

• August 17th: Book mail & mini reviews

Recent book reviews:

• Review: The Book Witch

• Review: She’s Up to No Good

• Review: Maybe a Note Would Help

• Review: The Ordeals

• Review: Dessert Can Save the World

If I’ve encouraged you to purchase a copy of any of the books I’ve read, please consider using my affiliate links to help support my blogging costs and reading habits.

Check out all the books I’ve read in 2026 here: ShopMy Shelves

Friendly reminder that a paid subscription costs less than a latte once a month. If this post brings you joy, I’d appreciate if you would offer your support!

With joy from the stacks

xoxo, Arielle

This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you.

One of the biggest highlights… I’m seeing yellow and red everywhere I go, because Fall has quickly creeped up on us. It’s my favorite time of the year and the changing leaves on the trees is calming and gorgeous. It whispers of the cooler days that are coming soon. I’m looking forward to fireplace season and making my favorite soups and stews. Cozy evenings with a bowl of soup and a chunk of toasted sourdough on the side are the best.

In case you missed it:

• Fall Reading Guide on Instagram

🤧 This weekend I took a nasal flu shot and I got mild reaction symptoms afterwards. Feeling a bit under the weather at the moment but hopefully will feel better soon.

🐾 Cozy Lily snuggles for all who make it to the end of this post!

🗒️ Passing Notes on the joy of middle of the night snuggles

👩🏽‍💻 Typing up mom highlights from this past week led to more than a blurb, so there’s a full post coming soon. Once I start typing the words tend to flow quickly, so there may be more of that coming in general.

🛍️ Carter’s: Made a rare trip to shop in the store with my kiddo. We mostly shop online these days, so going into a physical store is somewhat of a novelty. She had fun picking out a few new things and did really well with narrowing down and making choices; for example I explained that we didn’t need to buy 5 sets of pajamas (4 piece, 2 pair sets) and that she had to choose one set. It goes without saying the dinosaurs won every elimination round. She’s currently going through a dinosaur phase and it’s really fun to see what excites her.

We went to a fun café this weekend for the first time. Nice cozy setup and they had some of the cutest and cheekiest décor. I had a delicious grilled cheese with a bowl of tomato soup - it’s the ultimate cozy comfort meal for me and if it’s on the menu, there’s a good chance that’s what I’m ordering.

Afterwards we drove past a huge park that looked nice and decided to stop there to let our kiddo play for an hour. Getting the zoomies out is important for a 3 year old and getting some outdoor time is great for all of us, something we should all do more often.

👻 A Halloween care package from my hubby’s mom for our kiddo arrived this weekend. She always sends some festive clothes, activities, and books for holidays, which is always appreciated and fun.

👻 Festive picks we loved: Halloween foam craft kit from Target | and this one looks cute for older kiddos | Glow in the dark temporary tattoos stay on really well!

📚 New Books we LOVE: The Skelton and the Cat | Princess Truly: I Am A Super Girl!

🦖 My sister recently started making custom stained glass décor. She’s very talented and her artwork is absolutely beautiful. She made a beautiful dinosaur for my kiddo and it looks gorgeous in the window.

👻 Delta Rise Co listed Halloween and Fall earrings and they’re all SO darn cute. I may have gone overboard and I’m so excited to wear them all!

Use my rep code JOYFUL15 for a discount

☕️ The Fall and Halloween coffee mugs from Target are the CUTEST! I treated myself to a few new ones this year.

The pretty green It’s Fall Y’all looks like it was already sold out but here’s a few of my other new favorite mugs: Cats & bats print | Witchy toad Cozy Season

🛍️ Our kiddo is going through a dino phase and we had fun at Carter’s. Bonus tip - almost everything is 50% off right now.

Her new favorites: dinosaur socks | purple cozy dinosaur zip-up onesie

I attended a monthly book club event at a local bookstore and had a great time. It’s nice to see some of the same faces and chat about books and reading. It’s such a lovely way to spend an evening once a month and it’s invigorating to rediscover something that fills my cup and brings me joy. As a full time working mom with a toddler, it’s hard to make time to socialize at this stage of my life.

Top of the TBR

I’ve started making a top of the TBR for October and November. I prefer to mostly read witchy and magical books in October and then the ones with Fall vibes in November. Here’s what I’ve set aside so far.

Growing my TBR library

📚 I purchased 3 books after book club: 2 for my kiddo and 1 for me. The Little Kitten and The Greatest Bedtime Story Ever for her and Big Bad Wolf by Laurie Gilmore for me. 🔥🐺

📦 Lots of book mail came last week Most notable was the entire set of special sprayed edge books of the House of Night (4 book) series!!

📖 I Preordered two books coming out soon:

🥬 PlantYou Quickies cookbook

💜 Threshing Day by Rebecca Yarros

📚 I also preordered my December Allurial box

This Week’s New Releases on my TBR

Tuesday, September 29th

• Cursed City (Harker Academy #2)

• House of Night (4 books, sprayed edges)

• Ms. American Dream (NF)

• The Pumpkin Vice Café

• Trust Fall

• Twelve Loves of Christmas (Anthology)

• Spellstruck

September Reading Report:

Finished Reading

1. 📱 A Match Made in Fall by Melissa Baldwin | Not for me

2. 📖 The Pumpkin Vice Cafe by Ellie Alexander | Loved it!

3. 📖 Half City by Kate Golden | Loved it!

4. 🎧 All the Time in the World by Cara Bastone | Enjoyed it

5. 📖 I Hope This Email Finds You in HeII by Mackenzie Reed | Enjoyed it

Currently Reading

📖 Between Chapters by Zibby Owens: I’m reading a few chapters at a time to savor it. I’m absolutely loving it and know this will be going on my Recommended Reading list.

📱 Summerween by Joss Wood - included on KU, enjoying the cozy spooky spirits small town vibes

Paused for Now

📱 An unlikely coven - I purchased an ebook copy but I got distracted by my physical spooky season read and this one wasn’t drawing my attention much. I started reading SummerWeen and am more engaged.

Watching

🎞️ Best of The Best - loved this movie!

🎞️ The Love Hypothesis - I loved this adaptation and thought the casting was great.

In the News

The Cornell 7 is a story that broke my heart, and I’m glad that the posts that have come through my feed about it have been in advocacy against that kind of unforgivable behavior. This post from Jennifer Weiner on Instagram is thoughtful and aligns with how I’m feeling about it.

Joyful Finds

I discovered that one of my favorite artists illustrated the covers of a magical book series. Promptly added all to my TBR and plan to order copies of them all soon!

Recipes I want to try soon:

• Crispy roasted garlic potatoes from Sonara Kitchen

• Applesauce oatmeal bars from Feeding Tiny Bellies

This Week’s Personal / House List:

• Laundry!!

• Deep clean the shower

• Clear off the dining table

• Schedule a veterans donation pickup

• Make a big pot of chili

• Try a new recipe

This Week’s Bookish / Blogging List:

• September Wrap-Up

• Q3 Reading Wrap-Up

• Witchy Wednesday Book List

• Donate books to friends of the library bookstores

• Finish organizing my shelves

What’s something that brought you joy this past week?

xoxo, Arielle

This post may contain affiliate links at no cost to you.

One of the biggest highlights of the past week was… a mom win: it always takes at least 5-7 minutes longer to leave the house with a toddler. It finally occurred to me to build in a few extra minutes to my recurring alarms and we managed to get out on time for our weekend activities on Saturday and Sunday. It did wonders for my anxiety levels!

Easy meal: Pulled a frozen pack of carnitas that we made and froze a few weeks ago for tacos this week. It was nice to have a super easy low-effort delicious homemade meal.

Bookish unhaul success: this past week I unloaded more books than I brought home!

Inexpensive and fun DIY project with the kiddo inspired by Pinterest: we used a bunch of old broken crayons to melt down into fun crayon shapes. We made a bunch of princess and dino crayons. Other than making a little bit of a mess, it was simple and brought my daughter so much joy. We packaged up some of the princess ones for her friend’s birthday to go along with the present we bought.

Favorite purchase of the week:

Chobani Pumpkin Spice creamer from our local Safeway. I had a friend recommend it and I was VERY excited to confirm that it is in fact more pumpkin-y and not at all spicy. Absolute pumpkin perfection - exactly what I was hoping for. Hoping they don’t sell out before the season is over because I want this in my coffee until Thanksgiving!!

Other new favorite finds:

I had two makeup products from Benefit in my September Ipsy mailer and I’m in love! Brow gel in medium and bad gal mascara.

Although I unloaded more books than I brought in this week, I requested quite a few upcoming releases from the publishers. I need to work on unloading more books - planning to drop some off at local LFLs and friends of the libraries too.

New books out this week on my radar: Tuesday, September 22nd

• Between Chapters by Zibby Owens

• Damned If I Do by Alexandria Bellefleur

• Kiss of the Black Flame by Helen Scheurer

• So It Grow by Andie Burke

• Well Versed by Jen DeLuca

• When Forever Falls Apart by Kat T. Masen

September Reading Report:

Finished Reading

1. 📱 A Match Made in Fall by Melissa Baldwin | Not for me

2. 📖 The Pumpkin Vice Cafe by Ellie Alexander | Loved it!

3. 📖 Half City by Kate Golden | Loved it!

4. 🎧 All the Time in the World by Cara Bastone | Enjoyed it

5. 📖 I Hope This Email Finds You in HeII by Mackenzie Reed | Enjoyed it

Currently Reading

📖 Between Chapters by Zibby Owens

Binge-watched Crew Girl on Netflix. Highly entertaining and I hope they renew for a second season. Shows like this one really make me wish they’d bring back 20 episode seasons.

Watched the new Supergirl movie on tv. I enjoyed it but was glad that I waited instead of paying extra money to stream it early.

Anticipating seeing Practical Magic 2. I haven’t gotten out to see it yet but hopefully soon!

Still watching and loving Ted Lasso. One of the few shows that actually makes me happy that they slow release them. A little bit of Ted Lasso every week is something fun to look forward to.

What’s something that brought you joy this past week?

One of the biggest highlights of the past week was that I had the opportunity to attend an event as a VIP for the launch of The Kitchen Quadrant: The Unofficial Fourth Wing Cookbook by . The event was fantastic and I’ll be sharing a separate post all about it because I’m running out of room in today’s newsletter!

I ended up with an extra copy because I also preordered it, so let me know if I should run a giveaway for my extra copy.

Fun fact: my name is in print in the acknowledgements because I was part of the recipe tester team!!

• We finally decorated our house for Halloween! Our kiddo loves Halloween as much as we do and had the best time helping us put everything out.

• We went to a wine membership pick-up party this weekend. It’s always fun to try their wine and food pairings and bring home a case of wine. Proud mama that our kiddo is starting to be better behaved when we go out and we managed to have a nice time together.

Favorite purchase from the past week:

• I recently got back into puzzles and treated myself to a large lazy Susan puzzle board. It’s made such a big difference for puzzling and I think it was worth the splurge.

• My husband experimented and made stovetop popcorn with garlic and salt - it got a little burnt towards the bottom but it was absolutely delicious and we’ll definitely be experimenting more.

• While I’m mentally in fall mode, I’m still clinging on to summer dinners. We’ve been doing Caprese salads and I love how easy and delicious they are. That said, I’m almost ready for soup season! If you have a favorite soup or stew recipe, let me know in the comments!

Finished Reading in September

1. A Match Made in Fall | Not for me

2. The Pumpkin Vice Cafe (Out Sept. 29th) | Loved it! Great fall cozy mystery

Currently Reading

• 📖 Half City (Harker Academy #1) by Kate Golden | Sprayed edge paperback gifted from Berkley Romance | ✨ Absolutely LOVING it and will immediately dive into book 2

• 📱 An Unlikely Coven by A.M Kvita | ebook purchased | ✨ Enjoying it

• 🎧 All the Time in the World by Cara Bastone | Audiobook included in Audible | ✨ Fun books like this are why I continue to keep an Audible subscription

Next Up on the TBR

• For a local book club pick: I Hope This Email Finds You in HeII - and thrilled to have received a copy from Berkley!

• I snagged a preordered copy of Between the Chapters by a bit early! Super excited for this upcoming new release.

• I preordered a ton of books in the B&N 25% off sale. I just can’t help myself, it’s such a great time to support my favorite authors at a discount. This time around I ordered 7 books and 3 coloring books.

• My September Berkley Romance box arrived on Saturday filled with 11 books! It’s by far one of the BEST things I get every month and I literally do a happy dance every time it comes. I still pinch myself that I continue to be including in their mailings and sincerely hope they never stop. | Click here for a link to all the September releases on my radar

Tuesday, September 15th:

• Blue Jean Summer | Berkley

• Doomsdate | Dell

• If Not You | Berkley

• A Study in Sparkling | Atria

• The Sugar Maple Inn | Dell

• I want to make at least one recipe from the new Fourth Wing cookbook this week! I’ve marked a few that feel easy for beginners that I’ll start with.

• I want, no I NEED to make a bigger dent in getting the piles of books out of my office. I did a major unhaul off my shelves a while ago but now I need to find new homes for those books. If you’re interested in shopping my shelves, message me on Pango @TheJoyfulBookBlogger for a steep special substack reader discount. I honestly just want them out and re-homed to someone that will read them!

• Inspired by Pippi Post: I want to do some festive drawings on a few mirrors and windows in our house. More to come and we’ll see how it goes.

What’s something that brought you joy this past week?

Wishing you a week filled with good books and joyful moments.

xoxo, Arielle

Many items are affiliate linked at no cost to you.

✨ The September holiday list has been posted - filled with fun reasons to celebrate this month

✨ One of my favorite bookstagrammers @ladies.getting.lit just created a substack Cassidy Krogulski and I’m already obsessed. I highly recommend giving it a look. I have three words to intrigue you: The Book Cartel

✨ Work in Progress: I’m working away on a massive Autumn recommended reading list. Hoping to finish it up soon to share!

✨ 📱 A Match Made in Fall by Melissa Baldwin | ⭐️⭐️💫 it wasn’t for me | Cozy fall rom-com - hockey romance with Hallmark (sweet no spice) vibes | Available in KU

✨ 📖 The Pumpkin Vice Cafe by Ellie Alexander - Out 9/29/26 | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ loved it! | Cozy mystery in Ashland, Oregon in Fall - give me all the pumpkin everything! | Paperback arc gifted from Minotaur Books

✨ 📱 An Unlikely Coven by A.M. Kvita | purchased an ebook copy for $0.99

✨ 🎧 All The Time in The World by Cara Bastone | Available in Audible

✨ 📖 Half City (#1) by Kate Golden | Paperback gifted from Ace via Berkley Romance

✨ It’s a big pub day and I’ll post about everything on my radar soon but I want to call special attention to A Guide to the Kitchen Quadrant:  The Unofficial Fourth Wing Cookbook by Chelsea Cole

✨I received notification that I was accepted into the Page Street reviewer program and got to request September and October Nonficiton releases. There’s so many amazing new craft and food books coming in the next two months and I can’t wait to share about them all!

✨ I got an email from Wednesday Books that I was selected to receive a full set of the new deluxe editions of the House of Night series by P.C. Cast 💀😍

✨ The September selections in my book subscriptions were somewhat underwhelming. I thought about skipping this month for all of them (Allurial, BoTM, and Aardvark), which would be a first for me. However, I changed my mind and ordered one from Allurial, skipped Aardvark, and am contemplating skipping BoTM too if they don’t have a mid-month release that interests me.

New Books Releasing Tuesday Sept. 8th

• Burn of the Everflame

• Disenchanted

• A Guide to the Kitchen Quadrant

• Fall Into Place

• Hexy Beast

• Level Up for Love

• Love Felt Like This

• The Mystic and the Missing Girl

• Receipts From the Bookshop

• With All My Haunted Heart

✨ Much About Love - silly and over the top (even for hallmark) but it was fun.

✨ Continuing to love Ted Lasso.

✨ Continuing to watch Lanterns. Still undecided if I’m enjoying it.

✨ Continuing to watch House of Stassi. She can be dramatic but I truly think she’s a good person. Team Stassi here.

✨ Finished the latest season of Love is Blind UK.

✨ I was inspired by all of the yummy fall treats that have been popping up in my feed, plus all the baked goods in The Pumpkin Vice Cafe (Out 9/29) had my mouth-watering.

✨ Tried a recipe for baked apple croissants from Feeding Tiny Bellies and they were a BIG hit in my house! 👩🏽‍🍳Word of the (now) wise: there is a difference between Phyllo Dough Pastry Sheets and Puff Pastry Sheets - you want the puff pastry ones! 😅😆

✨ Made a 9.5 lb pork shoulder in the Le Creuset for pulled pork for tacos. Froze a few bags for easy meals. So delicious!!

✨ Yesterday evening I decided to do something I’ve been meaning to do for ages — I cleaned out our kitchen pantry. I tossed stale and expired food and reorganized a little bit. How do we let our pantries get so bad sometimes? Most of what I tossed expired 1-2 years ago but I had a few things that expired before my kiddo was born and she’s 3. 😅😆

✨ My kiddo’s 6 month dental apt - interested to see how well we’ve actually been doing on keeping her teeth clean with brushing. She loves her Spidey battery operated toothbrush but it’s hard to tell how well the teeth are getting brushed.

✨ Unboxing all the lovely (mostly Halloween) goodies I bought from Epilogue Book Co.

✨ Attending a highly anticipated cookbook launch event. Photos, thoughts, and recipe notes to come!

✨ Dealing with the aftermath of a massive book unhaul. Deciding on what to post on Pango and what to donate to the local friends of the donate bookstores

✨ Impatiently (but respectfully) waiting for @DeltaRiseCo to post the Halloween and Fall launch. Do I need more earrings? Nope, not at all, but you can bet that I’ll be ordering one of just about everything. 💸😅😆 Use JOYFUL15 in the shop 💕

✨ Can you believe I haven’t decorated the house for Halloween yet?! Solo-parenting over the holiday weekend was fun but required a lot more energy than when there’s two of us, so decorating was not on my to-do list.

What’s something that brought you joy this past week?

Wishing you a week filled with good books and joyful moments.

xoxo, Arielle

The weather is quickly settling down from sunny Summer days and I’m so excited for the crisp Fall days that are on the horizon. My Summer reading quickly transitioned in August to SummerWeen and now that the ‘ber months are officially here, I’m running full steam ahead with Halloween and Fall reads. Bring on the sweater weather, cozy days, fireplace evenings, and soup season!!

We’re already two thirds of the way through the year?! It’s true what they say, the days are long but the years are short.

Scroll down to see a list of daily holidays, monthly celebrations, and more.

Coming soon: an autumn reading list filled with recommendations and tbr inspiration.

As always, I love getting recommendations to continue my efforts of reading more diversely. Let me know if there’s a book you’ve loved recently that you’d recommend!

At no cost to you I may receive a commission for items purchased through links. Many of the books featured on my blog are received as gifted copies from publishers, all opinions shared are my own.

In Case You Missed It…

Recent weekly updates | highlight vibes

• August 31st: Dahlias galore!

• August 24th: Book club event

• August 17th: Book mail & mini reviews

Recent bookish posts:

• The Beauty of Blank Bookshelves

Recent book reviews:

• Review: The Book Witch

• Review: She’s Up to No Good

• Review: Maybe a Note Would Help

• Review: The Ordeals

• Review: Dessert Can Save the World

If I’ve encouraged you to purchase a copy of any of the books I’ve read, please consider using my affiliate links to help support my blogging costs and reading habits.

Check out all the books I’ve read in 2026 here: ShopMy Shelves

Friendly reminder that a paid subscription costs less than a latte once a month. If this post brings you joy, I’d appreciate if you would offer your support!

September’s holiday lists:

What did you enjoy celebrating in August? What are you most looking forward to in September?

If you enjoy reading my posts, show your support & let me know you enjoy my work: leave me a comment below, upgrade or gift a paid subscription, or screenshot & share your favorite bits on your Instagram stories and tag me! @TheJoyfulBookBlogger

With joy from the stacks

Sharing a day late - got caught up with a busy Monday and forgot to post!

A paid subscription costs less than a latte once a month. If my writing brings you joy, I’d appreciate you supporting my work!

Reading:

✨ Finished 3 books in the last week - one in each format. Just finished the audio yesterday, still deciding on which audio to start next. I tend to choose nonfiction memoirs narrated by the author but I’m also in a witchy Fall mood…

✨ Currently reading: I’m officially in Fall mode

Building and narrowing down my TBR

✨ I got some amazing books in the past week or so but I also did a major unhaul recently and need to start letting go of them. Part of me wants to list and sell them on pango to make a little bit of my money back but the other part of me just wants it out and to get the space in my office back.

✨ I was very excited to discover that I could pause my Everand subscription for a few months! I’m super backed up on my credits and wasn’t planning to renew - BUT their subscription model is an unlock to give access while you have a membership, and if you cancel you lose access to those books. Not a fan of the subscription model but very glad that I won’t lose access to my unlocked books before I make time to read them.

Watching:

✨ Love Finds You - Ahhhhh it’s officially Hallmark movie season!

✨ Started watching the latest season of Love is Blind UK - it’s some entertaining ‘reality’!

✨ Movie: watched Don’t Say Good Luck on Netflix and man oh man was it a tear jerker. Made me feel all the feels and it was so good.

✨ The Last Sunrise - beautiful scenery, also a tear jerker

✨ Continuing to enjoy Ted Lasso& Lanterns

Other highlights. Some pictured, some not:

✨ We got a magnetic calendar for our kiddo and she LOVES it!

✨ We visited the Swan Island Dahlia farm and the flowers are beautiful. They also had a special display called the Bloom Room that was absolutely breathtaking. I didn’t get to explore that for as long as I would’ve liked - yay for being a toddler mom - but it was beautiful and I’m glad I got to see it!

What’s coming up this week:

✨ My feed has been filled with all things Fall and I’m here for it! I’ve been inspired by Feeding Tiny Bellies and have a few apple recipes I want to try this week.

✨ I’ll be attempting to flex my will power when all of the Labor Day sales flood my feed this week. But also keeping my eye open for a few larger items we’ve been needing/wanting.

If you enjoy this blog: leave me a comment below, upgrade your subscription, or screenshot & share your favorite bits on your Instagram stories and tag me! @TheJoyfulBookBlogger

With joy from the stacks

At no cost to you I may receive a commission for items purchased through links.

A paid subscription costs less than a latte once a month. If my writing brings you joy, I’d appreciate you supporting my work!

Reading:

✨ Devoured Arcana Academy in 4 days so that I could have it completed for the Romantasy book club event I attended. It was the first time I’ve attended a book club event in over 5 years since I moved to Oregon and it was such a lovely event! Wrote up a Substack blog post to share my thoughts.

✨ Currently reading a few books, one of each: witchy, fiction, romance, and memoir.

Building my TBR:

✨Now that August is quickly coming to an end, I’m ready to launch into a full magical and witchy mood! I started compiling a list of recommendations that I’ve loved and realized my TBR was seriously lacking from a diversity and BIPOC perspective. Cue to me deep diving on Instagram to find mire BIPOC authors — and I’m happy to save I’ve updated a collection of magical picks to consider. Check it out here!

Watching:

✨  Watched Camp Rock 3 and my younger self loved how fun it was!

✨ Watched Busboys and lost a few brain cells, wouldn’t recommend it

✨ Watching House of Stassi - one of the few “reality” shows I watch. It’s mostly a dramatic sh*t show but I also really love Stassi.   

✨ Continuing to enjoy Ted Lasso

✨ Continuing to watch Lanterns - appreciate that it’s more gritty and less cartoonish than the movie.

✨ Impatiently waiting for Supergirl and Spiderman to be available to stream for free.

Other highlights. Some pictured, some not:

✨ Personal achievement: I hit the 300 class milestone at my local Barre3 studio. I joined about 5 years ago and took a membership pause during postpartum - so I’ve averaged 60 classes a year with 5 per month. The past 6 months I’ve really kicked it up though and have been going about 3 times a week!

✨ Wayfair items arrived throughout the week- apologies to my husband for bringing in building projects for him 😆 but it all looks so good! We replaced a few light fixtures downstairs, added a cabinet to our family room, and a narrow bookshelf to our upstairs hallway. Next problem, getting rid of all the large boxes everything came in and disposing of our old light fixtures circa the early aughts.

✨ Enjoyed dinner at a new-to-us spot and it was delicious!!

✨ Went in for my 6 month dental cleaning. No new cavities but I need 2 restoration cavities.

✨ Clinique order arrived. They have a cute floral Rifle Paper Co Gift With Purchase going on right now and I couldn’t  resist. It was good timing as I’ve been needing a new mascara and had been wanting to try their even better skincare line for discoloration.

✨ Attended a toddler birthday party our kiddo was invited to. It was paw patrol themed and the kids all had a great time. It’s such a fun age when everyone is included and the kids are all friendly and play well with each other.

What’s coming up this week:

✨ Getting two cavities refilled. They called it restorative cavities - apparently being almost 40 and having really old fillings means that some of them start needing to be replaced. 😅

✨ September is almost here - be on the lookout for my monthly holiday lists soon!

✨ Giving consideration to what kind of agenda I want for next year. I’m not great at updating mine on a regular basis but I do enjoy having a physical one. I’d also love to keep an ongoing annual planner as more of a memory book for my kiddo. So I’m trying to find a good format for that to include notable events and track milestones and monthly highlights.

If you enjoy this blog: leave me a comment below, upgrade your subscription, or screenshot & share your favorite bits on your Instagram stories and tag me! @TheJoyfulBookBlogger

With joy from the stacks

At no cost to you I may receive a commission for items purchased through links.

I started sharing these on Instagram a while back, but I tend to write a lot and Instagram has a word limit. Decided my substack was the best route for not being so limited on sharing all my thoughts. Hope you find some tidbits that bring some joy into your life too!

A paid subscription costs less than a latte once a month. If my writing brings you joy, I’d appreciate you supporting my work! This post may contain affiliate links.

Reading:

✨ Finished reading two books, enjoyed both: Wild Goose Chase and Bad Girl Reputation

✨ Received lots of book mail - August Berkley Romance, a new Atria release, and a surprise from Wednesday books along with my August book subscription picks.

✨ Got 6 children’s books for my kiddo for only $3 at a local friends of the library book nook

Watching:

✨ Tv: still loving Tad Lasso

✨ Movie: You, Me & Tuscany (thought it was much better than the reviews)

✨ Movie: If You Were The Last (quirky and thought-provoking)

✨ TV: started Lanterns (not fully invested yet but will likely continue as they’re released)

Other highlights. Some pictured, some not:

✨ Tried a delicious new-to-us sushi spot

✨ Attended an annual Barre3 in the park event - always fun to go, great energy!

✨ Decorating the house: Bought two faux floral vases from Home Goods. Also got two Halloween decorations that I couldn’t pass up - how cute is this ghost boo cut out that kids can take a photo behind?! I exerted restraint and didn’t buy a whole slew of stuff I wanted! Oh the will power.

✨ Mounds of laundry were done this week following our trip from the week before. Took a few days to unpack my suitcase and I forgot how nice it always feels to get everything cleaned up after traveling.

✨ Starting to feel much better with the antibiotic. My entire skull hurt from the sinus pressure, which was a new one for me.

✨ Some really sweet moments with our kiddo this week. The moments that make your mama heart melt and have an appreciation for what an awesome person your kid is growing into.

✨🐾Scroll to the end: see if you can spot two kitties

What’s coming up this week:

✨ Currently reading a few books - but pausing all to read and finish Arcana Academy before Thursday afternoon for a book club event!

✨ Finally sat down to browse Wayfair for some new light fixtures for downstairs (entry, dining, living, kitchen). Ordered a few things I’m really excited about that will be arriving later this week. Next up from here will be a few more pieces of furniture and decor for the house. And YES, new bookshelves will be bought!

If you enjoy this blog: leave me a comment below, upgrade your subscription, or screenshot & share your favorite bits on your Instagram stories and tag me! @TheJoyfulBookBlogger

With joy from the stacks

At no cost to you I may receive a commission for items purchased through links.

Happy Augtober to my fellow SummerWeen fans! Apologies for sharing this a few days late; I unplugged while I was on vacation for a week and am now getting back into the swing of things.

One highlight from our trip was taking my kiddo to the library to check out books for the first time. I wanted to make sure she was old enough to not tear the books apart and it was fun to share this bookish first during our trip to visit Nana.

Note to self: add The Bakery Dragon and It’s Fall to her wishlist, such cute stories! Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse was a cute story as well but was a really long one for bedtime stories.

The weather may be sunny and warm but my Summer reading is quickly turning to all the SummerWeen vibes and I love it. As much as I love Halloween and Fall, I’m not loving the orange skies and smoky air right now. Fingers crossed the Oregon and Washington fires 🔥 are quickly contained and I’m keeping lots of hope in my heart for those in the affected areas.

I know I say this every month, but how are we already more than halfway through the year?! It’s true what they say, the days are long but the years are short.

Scroll down to see a list of daily holidays, monthly celebrations, and more. Last month I included a list of content post ideas to make your bookish brainstorming easier - let me know if you want to start seeing those every month.

As always, I love getting recommendations to continue my efforts of reading more diversely. Let me know if there’s a book you’ve loved recently that you’d recommend!

At no cost to you I may receive a commission for items purchased through links. Many of the books featured on my blog are received as gifted copies from publishers, all opinions shared are my own.

ICYMI - Recent bookish posts:

• The Beauty of Blank Bookshelves

ICYMI - Recent book reviews:

• Review: The Book Witch

• Review: She’s Up to No Good

• Review: Maybe a Note Would Help

• Review: The Ordeals

• Review: Dessert Can Save the World

If I’ve encouraged you to purchase a copy of any of the books I’ve read, please consider using my affiliate links to help support my blogging costs and reading habits.

Check out all the books I’ve read in 2026 here: ShopMy Shelves

Friendly reminder that a paid subscription costs less than a latte once a month. If this post brings you joy, I’d appreciate if you would offer your support!

August’s holiday lists:

What did you enjoy celebrating in July? What are you most looking forward to in August?

If you enjoy reading my posts, show your support & let me know you enjoy my work: leave me a comment below, upgrade or gift a paid subscription, or screenshot & share your favorite bits on your Instagram stories and tag me! @TheJoyfulBookBlogger

With joy from the stacks

I know I say this every month, but how on earth is it already July?! How are we already halfway through 2026?! It’s true what they say, the days are long but the years are short. The first half of the year flew by but they were filled with lots of fun moments and milestones in our house. As always, there’s tons of fun holidays to celebrate this month - hello America 250!

Bookish-wise I’m looking forward to celebrating Summer and enjoying beach reads before I go full tilt into SummerWeen mode. I’m hoping to see some great recommendations to continue my efforts of reading more diversely. Let me know if there’s a book you’ve loved recently that you’d recommend!

At no cost to you I may receive a commission for items purchased through links. Many of the books featured on my blog are received as gifted copies from publishers, all opinions shared are my own.

ICYMI - Recent bookish posts:

• The Beauty of Blank Bookshelves

ICYMI - Recent book reviews:

• Review: The Book Witch

• Review: She’s Up to No Good

• Review: Maybe a Note Would Help

• Review: The Ordeals

• Review: Dessert Can Save the World

If I’ve encouraged you to purchase a copy of any of the books I’ve read, please consider using my affiliate links to help support my blogging costs and reading habits.

Check out all the books I’ve read so far in 2026 here: TheJoyfulBookBlogger on Amazon

Friendly reminder that a paid subscription costs less than a latte once a month. If this post brings you joy, I appreciate you supporting my work!

July’s holiday lists:

What did you enjoy celebrating in June? What are you most looking forward to in July?

July booksta post ideas:

One of my favorite things about celebrating all the fun and silly holidays is being able to inspire others to celebrate too! I realized the list I share every month is comprehensive and compact, and thought it would be fun to start sharing bookish ideas on what to post about on social media. Brainstorming done easy for y’all!

If you enjoy reading my posts, show your support & let me know you enjoy my work: leave me a comment below, upgrade or gift a paid subscription, or screenshot & share your favorite bits on your Instagram stories and tag me! @TheJoyfulBookBlogger

With joy from the stacks

Check out all the books I’ve read so far in 2026 here: TheJoyfulBookBlogger on Amazon

📖 The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer | Hardback copy gifted from the publisher - opinions my own

🔗 Amazon | B&N | Bookshop.org | Target

At no cost to you I may receive a commission for items purchased through links.

Quick take: A new forever favorite and a prime example of why Meg Shaffer has earned a spot on my auto-buy favorite author list. The writing is humorous, entertaining, intriguing, clever, and thoughtful. Genre-bending but full stop wonderful and magical. A love letter to the ways books can change us and the importance of the written word.

There’s too many wonderful quotes to share them all but let me just say, my book is tabbed and annotated to the gills and I wholeheartedly recommend it! This book is worthy of being annotated in pen, which is my ultimate stamp of honor.

⭐️ 5/5 stars - loved it

A paid subscription costs less than a latte once a month. If my writing brings you joy, I’d appreciate you supporting my work!

If you enjoy reading my reviews: leave me a comment below, upgrade (or gift) a paid subscription, or screenshot & share your favorite bits on your Instagram stories and tag me! @TheJoyfulBookBlogger

With joy from the stacks

5 Star Favorite ✨ She’s Up to No Good by ✨

Quick Take: Absolutely loved this book so much! I’m not usually a fan of dual-timeline with a bit of historical fiction but her writing is so relatable and downright hilarious that I find myself loving everything she writes. I’m making my way through her backlist and strongly recommend her books if you haven’t read them yet!

⭐️ Rating: 5/5 stars - new forever favorite

🔖 She’s Up To No Good • Available on Kindle Unlimited

A paid subscription costs less than a latte once a month. If my writing brings you joy, I’d appreciate you supporting my work!

If you enjoy reading my reviews: leave me a comment below, upgrade (or gift) a paid subscription, or screenshot & share your favorite bits on your Instagram stories and tag me! @TheJoyfulBookBlogger

With joy from the stacks

At no cost to you I may receive a commission for items purchased through links.

📖 A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost

At no cost to you I may receive a commission for items purchased through links.

Quick take: All the stars! I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by the author. This made me laugh out loud throughout the ENTIRE book. My husband even popped his head into the room when I started listening to find out what was going on. 100% recommend listening to the audiobook, but as Colin Jost recommends, buy the book too.

⭐️ 5/5 stars - loved it!

Other Notes:

• The audiobook had me chuckling to myself right from the get go and it just kept going.

• Random tidbit: he didn’t learn to speak until he was 4!

• Self-deprecating, beating the bullies to the punch.

• Absolutely hilarious. Does the limit exist for how many times an adult can poop their pants?! You just might find out while reading this book.

A paid subscription costs less than a latte once a month. If my writing brings you joy, I’d appreciate you supporting my work!

If you enjoy reading my reviews: leave me a comment below, upgrade (or gift) a paid subscription, or screenshot & share your favorite bits on your Instagram stories and tag me! @TheJoyfulBookBlogger

With joy from the stacks

At no cost to you I may receive a commission for items purchased through links.

📖 All of Us Monsters by E. Barbee

Quick take: Lovely indie Romantasy debut by an author that I highly recommend checking out! Perfect for fans of no spice but amazing slow burn chemistry. Touches on political tyranny and rebellion and bravery - embracing the good in people even when they’re different than you.

⭐️ 5/5 stars - loved it

• Beautiful author’s dedication

• Tropes: fake engagement, werewolf paranormal, prophecy, journey/quest vibes, slow burn, touch her and die jealousy vibes

• Made me cry ugly tears - it packed an emotional punch

• Book 1 in a new series; ends with a cliff hanger - impatiently waiting for book 2!

• Available in Kindle Unlimited (but the physical book has beautiful illustrations and a fun map inside!)

Proceed with caution ⚠️

• Adopted family, (somewhat mild off-page) domestic abuse

A paid subscription costs less than a latte once a month. If my writing brings you joy, I’d appreciate you supporting my work!

I had the opportunity to meet the author on Indie Bookstore Day at a local bookshop in Camas, WA and snagged a beautiful signed copy. One of the many reasons I love living in the PNW is having access to the bookish world and getting to meet authors in person!

If you enjoy reading my reviews, there are a few ways to show your support & let me know you enjoy my work: leave me a comment below, upgrade (or gift) a paid subscription, or screenshot & share your favorite bits on your Instagram stories and tag me! @TheJoyfulBookBlogger

With joy from the stacks