so what is @calliesreads?
Part quarantine passion project and part attempt to study my craft, I started a “bookstagram” in January of 2022 to share with friends and family.
In a little less than 6 months, that account has become what is now @calliesreads– a place where I share reviews and recommendations to a community of about 900 followers.
Though it started as a hobby, it turned into a personal case study of gaining a social media following. Through the account I’ve learned how to use hashtags, stories, and the Instagram algorithm to increase engagement and maintain followers.
For more content and my reviews, I’ve linked my yearly booklists below.
2023 Booklist
Sula by Toni Morrison
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams
The Stranger by Albery Camus
The Vagina Monologues by V (formerly Ever Ensler)
Maame by Jessica George
Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs by Jamie Loftus
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
All About Love by bell hooks
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
2022 Booklist
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen
Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley
Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
Girlhood by Melissa Febos
Beartown (Beartown, #1) by Fredrik Backman
Us Against You (Beartown, #2) by Fredrik Backman
The Mercies by Kiran Hargrave Millwood
The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World by Shelley Puhak
Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel
2021 Booklist
The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper
As You Like It by William Shakespeare
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal
Miss Iceland by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg
Whiskey When We’re Dry by John Larison
The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
She Would Be King by Wayetu Moore
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
The Arsonist’s City by Hala Alyan
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Circe by Madeline Miller