The Joyful Weekly Edit | September 16th
Where bookish finds and joyful moments meet plus all the fun holidays to bookmark for the week ahead!
Good Morning Joyful Readers!
One of the highlights of this past week was sweet bonding moments with my daughter. It never fails to amaze me at how quickly she’s growing and how much she’s leaning and it’s truly the best thing in the world to be able to experience.
What’s on my mind this week:
The new iOS update - am I the only one confused why it went from 18 to 26? Thank goodness my newer phone has a large storage capacity and could handle the large update 😅
The last episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty - it’s over 😭
It’s Latinx Heritage Month and there’s so many amazing book recommendation lists - friendly reminder to check if an author is actually Hispanic or Latinx. {Exhibit A: Abby Jimenez is not Latinx and politely shared that she does not want to take up the space that could be used to platform authors that are!}
Currently on season 2 of my Gilmore Girls comfort show rewatch marathon. Anyone else in a Gilmore Girls mood?
Recognizing that I need to focus more on writing reviews for the books I’ve read — I’m super behind and need to catch up. Planning to streamline my review template a bit and need to decide what that looks like.
Halloween bath bombs from Lush. Splurged on a ton of bath bombs and bath bars this weekend at my local Lush and have already used 2 of them. Give me all the bath bombssss 🧙🏼♀️ 👻 🎃
Costco stated carrying books again
Fall officially starts next Monday the 22nd
At no cost to you I may receive a commission for items purchased through links. Note: many of the books featured were received as gifted free copies from publishers.
The Shelves of a Mood Reader: Bookish Highlights & Notes
Confession time: I get way too many books {yes I said it 😅😂} and it’s difficult to track release dates as they arrive. Receiving books for free is one of the best things about being a book blogger but it’s also one of the hardest things too - there’s always so many upcoming releases that sound like great reads and I want them all!!
Instead of sharing a generic list of upcoming new releases on my radar {because let’s be honest, there’s tons of those available on bookstagram already} I’ll simply share a link to my Goodreads on my Substack profile because you can always follow along there to see what I add to my anticipated releases and book recommendations on my radar. If you’re ever looking for a specific type of recommendation, just let me know, I’m always happy to talk about books I’ve read that I would recommend.
I’ll continue to focus on sharing about what I’ve recently finished, what I’m currently reading, and what’s at the top of my TBR to give better insight on what I’m actually reading and recommending, not just what sounds good.
Finished Reading
🎧 Still Mad About You by Liz Maverick ✨ Audiobook short available in Audible | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Enjoyed it | Quick take: I’ve listened to a few of this author’s audiobooks and they’re always a fun palate cleanser in between books. Short and sweet and filled with a few good laughs. I enjoyed the storyline and that the audio had a cast of readers and some background setting noise, it makes it more interesting for audio fiction listening!
The background /tropes:
🤣 Made me laugh
🌏 Location: New York City
💕 Second chance romance
Started Reading
📖 Servant of Earth by Sarah Hawley✨ Hardback gifted from Berkley Romance ✨Romantasy | Absolutely loving it and am excited to dive right into book 2 - Princess of Blood - when I’m done. Book 2 comes out in two weeks and I’m thrilled to have received a free copy of that too. 🗡️ 🔥
📱Fall I Want by Lyra Parish ✨ ebook available in Kindle Unlimited ✨ Fall themed romance; billionaire, small town, fake dating romance tropes with some witchy premonition vibes - not labeled as witchy which is weird. Not sure about this one yet, some really crude language.
🎧 A Walk in the Park by Rebekah Weatherspoon ✨ Audiobook novella available in Audible ✨ BIPOC romance + puppies = yes please ☺️
Paused / Saving for Later
📖 The Crescent Tearoom by Stacy Sivinski ✨ Paperback gifted from Atria last year ✨ Enjoying it but it’s a slow read. Not sure if it’s the writing style or that it’s just not fully capturing my attention. May end up making this a DNF that just wasn’t for me but I hate to give up on a book when I’m already halfway through.
📖 How The Hell Did I Not Know That?: My Midlife Year from Couch to Curiosity by Lucie Frost ✨ gifted arc
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Next week’s daily holidays:
The full September daily list is available exclusively to paid subscribers and the October list will be posted soon!
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With joy from the stacks
Check out my favorite finds on my Shop My affiliate page: books from B&N, books from Book of the Month, audiobooks from Librofm, and fun finds from Etsy, Wayfair, Michael’s, Nordstrom, Marshall’s, Sur La Table, and World Market