Heads up: some links below are affiliate or referral links. I only ever link things I actually use.
LOVE WELL
Beach Reads and Bubbly: how I found my book club
How it started
One of the best things that happened to me at least six years ago now: I started following Katie of Beach Reads and Bubbly on Instagram (she’s on substack too!) At the time she was a gal in the Chicago area with no kids that loved to yap about books. Now she has three kids and still likes to yap about books. She is an avid reader like me and posts about books she reads with a really positive, fun energy. It’s a happy place on the internet.
Even though she’s blown up since I first started following her, she still gives the best book recommendations. From the very beginning I knew we had very similar taste because what she loved I had already read and loved or when I read what she recommended I would usually align with her final rating (usually but not always). She’s who got me into reading romance, among other genres. She coined the term B.R.A.D. which stands for “beach read after dark” and can be categorized as a spicy romance that’s short on plot but long on spice. It’s actually what you want when you don’t want something deep, or angsty, or thought provoking – it’s the equivalent of scrolling on your phone to numb out, just much more fun. She reads romance, thrillers, mystery, gen fiction, historical fiction, romantasy, etc, and I read all of those plus some non-fiction too. While Katie reads a little of this and a little of that, the core of what she wants are books that make you feel good and who can argue with that.
I started following her right around when I started back in my reading era. In 2020, at the start of COVID some friends and I were chatting about how we now had time to read some of us decided to read a book at the same time. It rekindled my old love of reading and I decided to try to read 20 books that year. Remember this was a time when we literally had no where we could go and nothing to do (and I had two toddlers at home) so while this felt aggressive, it also felt possible, even though I hadn’t been reading AT ALL for years. I ended up reading 21 books and I was so proud of myself! I had used to love reading but only ever read lying on a beach during vacation so it would be a few books a year (which was still more than most people I knew!) but then I had kids and all reading went out the window for 5+ years. For 2021 I was feeling good and decided to try to up it to 26 books, one every 2 weeks. I ended up reading 41! Nearly doubled from the year before. So in 2022 I decide to go all in and up it to 52 books as my goal, one per week. The result? 105 books! My mind was blown. I’d been reading nearly double my expectations every year. There was no way I could read more than 105 books so I set my 2023 goal at 104 books or two books per week. Drumroll please – I ended up reading 142 books in 2023. I know. It was too much. I was spending every free minute reading which was great and also an addiction so I intentionally cut back to limit myself to 90 in 2024 and way back to 75 in 2025 and 2026. I feel like that is a tolerable pace. I often feel like I’m not reading much at all these days but I’m still on track for 75 books a year which is obviously not insignificant. I also sometimes compare myself to my book club friend who has at times read 450 books in a single year!!!! Yes it is very hard to comprehend but I know it as true. If you’re into romance books – check out her IG where she can actually recall minute details from the 400+ books she reads per year: SuperSpecificRomance
(Also want to give some photo credits to another book club friend with a Bookstagram! Check out CLT.Reads and follow along on her reading adventures)
Then she made it local
Anyway, speaking of book club. In 2023, Katie from Beach Reads & Bubbly created local groups (through what’s now Bumble BFF) where people following her on IG could post their city and start a book club locally. I don’t think she expected it to take off the way it did. There are hundreds of these clubs now. She doesn’t actually run them or have anything to do with them – she just brought like minded readers together.
I’d wanted to join a book club since 2020 when I hit my reading stride, but the introvert thing is real (plus, COVID). I tried to get into friends’ existing clubs and they were full (once a cozy book club forms, it’s hard to expand). By 2023, my kids were 5 and 7 and I was ready to get out in the world more.
The first Charlotte meetup was in June. I missed it, and then I panicked a little that the group would form without me and I’d be the odd one out. So I made myself go to the second one in July. About 25 women met at a local brewery and I met so many lovely people! A subset of us got fixated on one book in particular (A Court of Thorns and Roses — someone was still reading it and we ALL wanted to know what she’d think…IYKYK), we swapped numbers, and that little group is now one of my closest friend groups. We travel together, do regular dinners, celebrate birthdays. Three years in, it’s one of the most important parts of my life.
We still go to the bigger Beach Reads and Bubbly Charlotte book club too. Charlotte’s split into a few location-based options now, and ours in South End is still the biggest, 15 to 35 people a month at a wine bar. It’s amazing the turnout we get! Usually two book options a month, one romance and one not, so people can pick (a lot of the time I read both). Every month new people show up after seeing Katie talk about her clubs online, and they get welcomed right in.
About the “bubbly”
As I said, Katie doesn’t run any of the local clubs. Each city votes and decides for itself. Some meet in homes, some in public, some do one book a meeting, some lean literary, some lean romance. In Charlotte we meet at a wine bar, and you can have a drink if you want, not required. The drink-with-your-book-review thing is more Katie’s brand. In Charlotte, you do what you want to do.
What makes a beach read (and how I actually read)
One thing I love about book club is everyone reads the same book but comes in with totally different opinions. Sometimes people love a book while others hate it, and sometimes for the exact same reason. Reading is so subjective. Books I’ve adored, some of my book club friends couldn’t finish, and the other way around. Though for the most part I think the reason the group has clicked is that our general taste in books is similar (we all love a B.R.A.D. too).
Sometimes you just want something brainless and fun, not deep, a.k.a the B.R.A.D. But most of the time, even for romance, I want character development or plot, something to actually keep me engaged. And I like to switch genres, never three thrillers or three romances in a row. Literary fiction, historical fiction, mysteries. The variety is what keeps me reading.
I read almost exclusively on my Kindle now. I gave up physical books, which was hard at first, but a real book feels heavy to me now, hard to lug around. I do audiobooks on walks or in the car, which is the only time it works for me, because my brain has to fully concentrate to listen. So I tend to listen to nonfiction and self-help type books. I process those better by ear anyway and I only listen in small doses.
If you’re on the fence about walking in
If you decide to join a local BR&B book club, you will not meet nicer people. Everyone at these meetups has been pre-vetted, in a way, because they all follow Katie, someone who’s a genuine positive light on the internet and prides herself on staying on the good side of it. The people who show up are connected to that and it makes a difference immediately.
So put yourself out there! I walked in not knowing a soul and walked out with some of my best friends. Everyone was new at some point, and there are always new faces. Having something to look forward to every month, a reason to get off my phone, a book waiting for me: it’s honestly made me a better version of myself over the last few years. If there isn’t a local one near you – be the first! I promise it will be worth it.
The short hit
Want to find your own book club? Follow Katie at Beach Reads and Bubbly on Instagram, see if you jive with her book recs, then look for your city’s local group (they run through Bumble BFF). If there’s one near you, just go and give it a try. You don’t have to know anyone, and everyone there was new once.
What I’ve loved lately (recent 5-star reads)
My Friends by Fredrik Backman — literary fiction. Everything he writes is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. A little slow to get into sometimes, but I’m never disappointed at the end. I did this one on audio (recommend it), and it was very well done.
Dire Bound by Sable Sorensen — romantasy. Loved it. Sort of a Fourth Wing and Hunger Games type of vibe. The sequel Fury Bound just came out and it’s next on my list.
Dolly All the Time by Annabel Monaghan — one of my favorites of the summer. She’s an auto-read author for me now. She writes women in their 30s and 40s (so hard to find in this genre), real characters that make you feel something, one book a year (I wish it were more!)
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino — something a little more out there. A girl who believes she’s an alien sent to earth to gather information. Funny, and also quietly a spiritual-awakening kind of book if you listen to the underlying message.
Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea — The last thriller/mystery I truly couldn’t put down. About a cold case from 9/11…sort of.
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy — literary fiction, I opened the year with it. Epic, a little mystery/thriller under it, but more literary. Short but it definitely stays with you.
Windy City series by Liz Tomforde — sports-team romance, light on plot, easy, and you don’t have to read them in order. I just read book 4, Play Along, and liked it better than book 1.
My August stack (my actual TBR)
I read fast, so this is a best guess, but here’s what’s stacked up:
Fury Bound by Sable Sorensen — the Dire Bound sequel.
The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros — a tear-jerker romance with excellent reviews. It’s an older one that’s been on my list forever and I’m finally getting to it. Same author as Fourth Wing but very different vibes in her contemporary works.
Into the Blue by Emma Brodie — a decades-spanning love story I keep seeing everywhere.
Look Closer by David Ellis — a few years old but I’ve heard good things; a thriller.
In Her Own League by Liz Tomforde — the Windy City spin-off.
Before you go
What’s the last book you couldn’t put down? Hit reply and tell me. I’m always adding to my TBR (to be read) and love to read books that come highly recommended by someone I know!
Talk soon,
Kristen ❤️