Happy Tuesday!

Welp, election season is over, which means no more candidate text messages (kinda nice to finally not have to text "stop" 40 times a day).

In the last newsletter (the Halloween edition), we asked for you all to send in your costumes, and we have a winner…

Here's Bookum user LaDonna's Alvin & the Chipmunks teacher look:

Give her a follow on Bookum!

Lastly, some housekeeping—check out our latest podcast with #1 New York Times Bestselling Author and "America's Government Teacher" Sharon McMahon.

We discuss her new book, The Small & The Mighty, history, and unsung American heroes.

Enjoy!

This Week’s Votes:

• 📚 New Feature: WEB NOOKS

•  📺 Is Reading Political?

• 📖 Creator List: According to Alina

This Week On Bookum:

Super excited to share that Nooks have found a new home!

WEB NOOKS ARE HERE!!

Yes, we are expanding Nooks to the website!

Nooks are real-time audio group chat spaces for more nuanced, in-depth, or just fun book conversations with friends.

Think Clubhouse for book chats!

You can now listen to and host Nook conversations from a laptop, desktop, and any personal computer.

The future for book chats is now audio!

The audio quality is exceptional, and we are thrilled to make Nooks more accessible for all devices.

Live nooks on the app will pop up on desktop and vice-versa.

If there's a book you've been dying to discuss with friends, start a Nook on Bookum and chat!

This Week in The Book World:

So, America had an election last week.

Following the news of the results, depending on which side of the internet you were on (X or Threads), you would've seen drastically different opinions on the future of the country.

Specifically, in the book world, we saw something even more nuanced…

Are books political?

On one hand, you have the camp that views books as purely escapism—read what you like, the book community is a safe space from the outside world, and no political discourse should enter this sanctuary. (Editor's Note: which is kinda funny, because saying "keep politics out of the book community" is inherently political.)

On the other hand, you have people who say everything is political; books have been political, from book banning to opinions about politics, and it does belong in the bookish discourse.

As a book conversations app, we are excited to see this—not so much for the hateful rhetoric it incited, but rather because it opens people up to consider what they are consuming and who they are consuming it from.

The nuance is in the discussions we are willing (or not willing) to have.

There's a lot more to this conversation, but we would love to hear from you:

Consider starting a Nook on Bookum to discuss!

Anyways, here are some takes from creators on this:

@acleaningaffair

My page is not political my page is for book lovers with a variety of opinions ❤️💙 #booktok #bookish #bookworm #bookishthoughts #booklover... See more

@katiemreads

If you think this “isnt what #booktok is about”… I have news for you- from someone whos been here a long time 🙃 #Inverted

@them_yangs

I need yall to be so expeditiously for real right now ##booktok##bookish##blackgirlsread##bookshelf

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This month, try reading a book completely out of your comfort zone that challenges your worldview, and share your book blog on Bookum.

This Week in Publishing:

Back with another creator list this week.

We recently had According to Alina on our Creators Talk podcast (Check it out here).

Below are the books Alina recommended/mentioned in the conversation.

If you're interested in reading more international books, you’ll enjoy this list:

• Dante's Inferno

• The Divine Comedy

• Moara cu noroc (The Lucky Mill) by Ioan Slavici

• Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed) by Alessandro Manzoni

• Paradise Lost by John Milton

• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Last Book)

• The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (Next Book)

• The Rules of Engagement by Anita Brookner (Page Turner)

• My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell (Challenged Alina's Worldview)

• A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe (book with similarities to Dante's Inferno)

Add these books to your TBR List on Bookum

As always, if you enjoyed this week’s 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!

Share this newsletter on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or via email.

Happy Reading!

Download Bookum on Apple or Android Here!

See you next week!

Footnotes (Aka other articles we are reading and Bookum content):

It was 'great relief' for Haruki Murakami to finish his latest novel -https://www.npr.org/2024/11/11/nx-s1-5184497/haruki-murakami-interview-new-novel-the-city-and-its-uncertain-walls

On the Politics of Booktok - https://schizophrenicreads.substack.com/p/on-the-politics-of-booktok?r=17hr62&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true