Hey bookworm friends! I’m back again with another community links post and this time I’ll be highlighting what I enjoyed in July and August. I had a rough time this week in many ways so I only posted on Monday and now I just want to bookend the week by celebrating the creativity of people from the blogosphere🥰. In August, I had a really weird month where I wanted to link up to a couple linky parties but my browser (damn you, Firefox) decided that, actually no, you can’t see these link-up widgets now 🫠! It was extremely frustrating but I think I may have solved the issue and it only took me the entire month to figure it out—please don’t judge me😂. So to make up for my tech struggles, I want to start by highlighting the two monthly linky parties in case anyone else is interested in joining and giving them more love!
Link-ups
BookWorms Monthly
BookWorms Monthly is hosted by Anne @ At Home A Lot. You can share up to 4 posts a month as long as they contain some bookish content! If you like you can even link up some of your older posts.
A Good Book & Cup of Tea
A Good Book & Cup of Tea is hosted by Lisa R. Howeler @ Boondocks Ramblings, Erin @ Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs, & Cat @ Cat’s Wire. You can link up with any of the hosts but the link-up party for September is here! Unlimited posts related to books and reading.
Reviews
- Book Review: The Red Sacrament by Sara Hinkley ⟡ Charlotte @ Bewitching Books, Ravenous Reads shared a 5 star review that gave me goosebumps just by reading her descriptions!
- [Review] As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers ⟡ Kiera @ Kiera’s Bookmark wrote an excellent review of a book I’m anticipating and helped set my expectations in a way that I hope will make sure I love it!
- ARC Review: BRIDGET AND GABE ARE NOT OKAY by Lex Croucher ⟡ Sifa Elizabeth @ Sifa Elizabeth Reads shared a review of a sequel I wasn’t expecting and am now pumped about!
- A PLAGUED SEA by Kim Bo-young – Review ⟡ Tammy @ Books, Bones And Buffy does a great job of intriguing me with her review of this vibes-forward novella.
- Review: When Dealing with Dragons by Dana Swift ⟡ Leslie @ Books Are The New Black really sold me on this romance about a dragon veterinarian. I appreciate hearing about potential YA books I might love seeing as I’m a bit pickier with those these days too.
- This Is Where The Future Bleeds by Mike Brooks ⟡ Matt @ Runalong The Shelves put this unique- sounding fantasy on my radar with his wonderful review!
Challenges, Lists, Discussions & More!
- Summer of Horror 2026: Favorite Horror Book Covers of 2026 ⟡ Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense highlighted some truly excellent 2026 horror covers that caught my eye.
- Yellow ⟡ Melissa @ Under the Elderberry Tree created the summer-iest ode to the colour yellow with stunning photographs, a few words, and a song!
- My First Fifty Classics ⟡ Olivia @ Bemused & Bookish shared a hopeful list of classics to be read in the next 5 years. It inspired me to take stock of my read classics.
- 2026 Mid Year Freakout Book Tag! ⟡ C0smic Occurence @ Marked For Plot formatted their entry to this favourite tag in such a satisfying way. I am finding a have a lot in common with their reading tastes and I loved seeing how the questions were answered.
- The need for speed? ⟡ Cat @ Cat’s Wire discussed the merits of reading slowly and shared tips to make reading more intentional which I loved.
- 10 Cover Artists I Can’t Get Enough Of ⟡ C0smic Occurence @ Marked For Plot shared a post that appealed to my love of praising cover artists! It even breaks down specific reasons that each artist works well for them.
- How many of my Anticipated 2025 Releases did I actually read? ⟡ I’m a sucker for a good accountability post and Caro @ Bookcheshirecat really delivered haha! A tasty list organized by month and sorted into 3 categories, I loved every second of it.
- From Books to Films: I Wasn’t Prepared to Fall This Hard for ‘Seeking Persephone’ ⟡ The Velvet Bookmark‘s gush-fest about this mini series adaptation convinced me it needs to be my next watch on Hoopla, where I’ve had my eye on it.
- My Horror Do’s And Don’ts – Part One ⟡ Charlotte @ Bewitching Books, Ravenous Reads discusses what elements of horror stories work for her and which don’t. A great idea that lead to fun conversations.
Other Links Worth Visiting
These links are from outside the blogosphere & I thought were worthy of sharing with you all 🖤.
- For lovers of free printables: PrintBlame is a collaborative studio with a “Free for All” philosophy. Here’s a downloadable Book Reading Planner with 18 pages to pick and choose from.
- For those who think corvids are cool: Scientists Thought Ravens Followed Wolves for Food. They Were Wrong. Ravens Predict Them – I was fascinated by the information in this article on ZME Science.
- For people who love learning about space: Scientists just found sugar in space. Here’s why that matters – I enjoyed this quick CBC article that talks about a new space discovery that brings science closer to understanding the building-blocks of life.
- For those who need a good giggle: This old YouTube video of a song cover made me go “how does someone even figure that out?”. Eye of the Tiger played by 9 Electric Devices. Seriously, how?
- For those who worry about the literary crisis: At a Loss for Words: How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers. Not exactly new (2019) but this AMP Reports article is very relevant, still (and not just in the US). It made me rage but I also learned a lot about things that certainly affected my education.
- For Witch Hat Atelier Fans: ‘Witch Hat Atelier’ Creator Kamome Shirahama Shares the Secrets of Her Magical Craft . Reading about some of Shirahama’s thoughts about her works on Animation Magazine made me appreciate the anime adaptation even more than I already do!
- For those who aren’t yet tired of the discourse around The Odyssey: The Odyssey Archery Review (and attempting the 12 axes challenge). I enjoyed bluminek’s YouTube video and how his niche expertise provided a new lens to view this movie through.
Let’s chat in the comments!
What are you currently reading? Drop one of your posts in the comments if you feel it needs more attention & I’ll go visit it 🖤!
Plagued Sea seems to be one of those books going around. I’ve seen a bunch of reviews for it, and honestly it just seems really intriguing to me
Yeah I keep seeing it around I am more and more intrigued too 🤔!
Thank you for linking my review😁 I need to go read the article about ravens!
My absolute pleasure, Tammy! 🖤 & I found the ravens article super cool and I learned something new!
Thanks for these links, especially that Witch Hat Atelier one. I’m enjoying both the manga and anime so it’s great to get the creator’s thoughts on it.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the manga and anime, like me 😀 I enjoyed seeing some of her thoughts as well :)!
Sorry to hear that you had a rough week. I hope you’re doing okay and have a wonderful month.
Thanks so much for sharing my posts. Its so sweet what you said about the goosebumps 🥰🥰
I loved Tammy’s review for A Plagued Sea and that cover post too. I’ve saved this to check out some of the other links when I feel more up to date (if I want all my monthly posts done I have to post something basically every day right now and its crazy 🫠)