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đ Booker Prize Longlist and Robert F. Smith Joins the Bookum Club
Katie Kitamura, Sam Fox, Book Retreats
Kyle Colley
July 31, 2025
Happy Thursday!
Last day of July calls for our FIRST EVER Thursday edition of The Bookum Buzz (read that as: "you're late again, Ferris")
Anyway, check out our latest Creators Talks Podcast with the wonderful Mishayla Twyman, creator of Your Local Book Club and The Reading Room.
We discussed the early days of the Austin-based book club, the Reading Room Collective working with indie authors, and growing the book club to over 1,500+ members!
Enjoy!
This Weekâs Classes:
đ BOOKUM PICK OF AUGUST/SEPTEMBER
đș The Booker List
đ Sam Foxâs List
This Week On Bookum:
Alright, bring out the drumlineâŠđ„đ„đ„
Our official Bookum Club (in partnership with the Founders' Club) pick for August/September is Lead Boldly: Seven Principles from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by the prominent Robert F. Smith.
We are so elated to announce that Robert F. Smith will be joining our book club for a discussion on Sept 30.
About the author:
Robert F. Smith, born in Denver, Colorado, is the founder, chairman, and CEO of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. Vista Equity Partners manages over $100 billion in assets under management (AUM), making Smith one of the wealthiest Black people in the U.S. When he was an infant, his mother carried him (just six months old) at the March on Washington, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.
About the book:
During his remarkable life, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. embodied bold and compassionate leadership and achieved a level of influence few thought possible for a Black man born in Atlanta just before the Great Depression.
Now, aspiring leaders can reflect on some of Dr. Kingâs most impactful speeches and integrate his lessons into their modern leadership journeys. Robert F. Smith, founder, chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, offers his own insights and experiences on each passageâon how themes like âThe Beloved Community,â âEconomic Justice,â and âTwo Americasâ played a central role in his own leadership development, and why the visionary ideas Dr. King espoused are so important for leaders to understand and apply today.
Join us on the Bookum app (in the Bookum Club) to discuss the book throughout the months before the conversation with Robert F. Smith on Sept 30th!
This Week in The Book World:
With just four months left in the year, you know it's time for the start of Longlist season!
We got our first announcement this week for the coveted Booker Prize.
For those unfamiliar (shoutout to the kid in the back of class who wanted to raise their hand but didn't):
The Booker Prize is the "leading literary award in the English-speaking world, and has brought recognition, reward, and readership to outstanding fiction for over five decades."
"The winner receives ÂŁ50,000 as well as the ÂŁ2,500 awarded to each of the six shortlisted authors. Both the winner and the shortlisted authors are guaranteed a global readership and can expect a dramatic increase in book sales."
Hope that helped. đ
Anyway, our normal motto "we shoutout creators" is being rebranded to "we shoutout AUTHORS" because our April pick Audition by Katie Kitamura MADE the list!
Big congratulations to Katie Kitamura (our book club conversation with Katie Kitamura is in the Bookum Club "Cubby" folder on the app).
We will share the full list below. Let us know what books you have read or plan to read on the list! Share your thoughts on the Bookum Community Feed!
This Week in Publishing:
Last month, we had the incredibly insightful Sam Fox (Senior Director of Content Creation & Strategy at HarperCollins) on the Creators Talk Podcast.
Because of that, we are sharing all the books she mentioned and/or recommended from that conversation below for This Week in Publishing. Hope you enjoy and pick up one (or ten) of these books.
Add these to your TBR list on Bookum!
Holes by Louis Sachar (As a child)
The Giver by Lois Lowry (As a child)
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (As a child)
The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin (As a child)
The Clique Series by Lisi Harrison (As a child)
Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar (As a child)
Books from High School Literary Canon:
Animal Farm by George Orwell (High school literary canon favorite)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (High school literary canon favorite)
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (High school literary canon favorite)
Add âInfinite Jestâ to your TBR on Bookum
Recent and Upcoming Reads:
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (Last book read)
Canât Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan (Current book)
Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert (Upcoming book)
Winging It with You by Chip Pons (Upcoming book)
The Broposal by Sonora Reyes (Upcoming book)
Other Mentions:
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates (A book not enough people are talking about)
Nothing Burns as Bright as You by Ashley Woodfolk (A book Sam loves to gift)
Let Them Stare by Jonathan Van Ness and Julie Murphy (A book we should pick up from the bookstore this week)
Authors:
Marilynne Robinson (Author studied in college)
Joan Didion (Author studied in college)
Virginia Woolf (Author studied in college)
Carley Fortune (An author she always buys)
John Green (High school favorite)
As always, if you enjoyed this weekâs newsletter, please share it with others. Every share helps and keeps us growing!
Definitely share to a book content creator friend that might enjoy our newsletter!
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Happy Reading!
See you next week!
Footnotes (Aka other articles we are reading and Bookum content):
Book Content Creator âLife on Booksâ new informative video - The Truth About Online Book Clubs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUCn_C5-SO4
