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Kaitlyn

@reading.for.three

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📚 Reading for me + my two girls 💕
📖 lit fic • memoirs • kids’ lit + more
📍Indianapolis

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👋🏻 Meet the Bookstagrammer

Hi all! I’m Kaitlyn! I’ve really enjoyed engaging in this bookish community over the last 4 months or so, and I wanted to take the time to introduce myself. Here’s a little bit about the face behind the books:

📖 I’m an INFJ and a 1w2.
📖 I’ve lived in the Indianapolis area essentially my whole life. While I love traveling other places, I can’t really imagine calling anywhere else home.
📖 My husband Jon and I have been married for 8 years, and he’s 11 years older than me. In theory this should make me feel young (He’ll hit 50 the year before I hit 40! 😏), but in reality, he’s fun loving and young at heart, and I am an old soul (AKA premature granny).
📖 We have two girls (ages 5 and 3), and a one-eyed, super-snuggly calico cat named Lacy.
📖 I’ve been a stay-at-home parent for 4 years. Before that, I taught English, speech, and theatre to high school students. I also coached speech team and directed theatre productions.
📖 While reading fills most of my spare time, my other hobbies include knitting, baking, and native gardening. Yes… I am 35 going on 80. 👵🏼
📖 My youngest daughter’s middle name is Jane for Jane Eyre: my favorite literary heroine.
📖 My favorite season is fall, my favorite color is sage green, and my favorite movie is IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE.
📖 I love black coffee, dark chocolate, and red wine.
📖 I once competed on a televised game show with a celebrity host! Anyone want to guess which one?

Do we have anything in common?

Thanks so much to my sister @courtney_thomps for capturing some pretty solid pictures of a very awkward subject. 🤗 by @reading.for.three

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2 years ago

📚 40 before 40 in 4 🎂

I’m 36 today! 🥳 And in true Type 1 fashion, I thought I’d celebrate by making myself a little to do list. 😉

All joking aside, when I saw @booksonmysidetable post her 40 before 40 in January, giving herself over 5 years to complete the challenge, I felt inspired. I’d loved the idea of a milestone challenge like this to help me prioritize some backlist books I’ve been meaning to read, but the thought of trying to do it in a year felt like a chore. As soon as I saw Christine’s post, I knew my 36th birthday would be the perfect time to start. I’ll have 4 years to read these 40 books before I turn 40. I love that symmetry.

When creating my list, I decided to prioritize:
📖 books I own (Yes, I already own 32 of these!),
📖 classics and modern classics I’m particularly interested in,
📖 & books by authors I’ve read and loved and have been meaning to read again.

While I was tempted to include some books I’ve already committed to reading this year for different challenges (looking at you, LaRose and Austen), I decided double dipping would feel too much like cheating, particularly since I’m giving myself four whole years to complete the list. I also decided against including more than one book by any one author simply because there were just so many books I wanted to include, and that was an easy way to narrow it down. I’m so pleased with how my list turned out!

Deadline is July 1, 2029! Let the reading begin… 📚📖

See any favorites here? Let me know what I should pick up first!

#readingchallenge #40before40 #tbr #booklover #bookaddict #birthdaygirl #bookstagram taken in BOOKSTA by @reading.for.three

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a year ago

🏆 Top 5 Reads of 2025 📚

I first set out to make a top 10 list, but I found that to be too difficult. There were so many books this year that I read, loved, and would happily recommend, and towards the end it got too difficult to choose. Choosing a top 5 this year, however, was easy. These 5 books absolutely captivated me and gave me that almost transcendent reading experience I’m always chasing. They are all so different stylistically, but what they have in common is that they all capture the real, messy ache of being human, which is, for me, essential in a good book.

Here they are, in no particular order:

🌟 THE SAFEKEEP by Yael Van Der Wouden
🌟 AUDITION by Katie Kitamura
🌟 THE PLAGUE OF DOVES by Louise Erdrich
🌟 THE SERVICEBERRY by Robin Wall Kimmerer
🌟 FALLING BACK IN LOVE WITH BEINT HUMAN by Kai Cheng Thom

What’s interesting to me is that while almost half of my reading was done on audio this year, none of them made my top 5. There were plenty of books that I listened to that I really enjoyed, but none of them captivated me the same way these did. I’m not sure whether that has more to do with the format itself or the types of books I tend to pick up in audio vs print.

Anyway, if you have any recs for me based on these favs, please send them my way! And cheers to another great year of reading, friends 🥂 taken in BOOKSTA by @reading.for.three

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9 months ago

Don’t mind me. Just over here dreaming about curling up with my books… 💭 by @reading.for.three

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2 months ago

// REVIEW // THE WHITE HOT by Quiara Alegría Hudes
•
Give me novels written by playwrights ALL DAY!!
•
April is a young mother struggling to raise her difficult daughter with the help of her own mother and grandmother, and she is filled with blinding rage. One day she reaches a breaking point, walks to a bus station, buys a one-way ticket, and leaves without a plan. 10 years later, April writes a long letter to her daughter to tell her why. THE WHITE HOT is that letter.
•
Hudes is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, and her prowess for dialogue really shines here. This novel is taut, voicey, visceral, and so honest about the complicated emotions of motherhood.
•
This book did lose me a bit in the middle; the 10 days where April is on her journey feels more surreal and lacks the same emotional depth and tension that so appealed to me in the early pages, but it certainly didn’t spoil my experience with the book overall. And the book ends with one of those gut-punch of a lines that will be etched into my memory for a long, long time.
•
Have you read this one? If so, let’s chat!
•
🏷️ book review, motherhood, bipoc author, latine author, Pulitzer taken in BOOKSTA by @reading.for.three

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3 months ago

This week we’ve been hanging out with my family in Holland, MI, and of course I had to stop in to @readersworldholland!

I gotta be honest, my membership discount to Tomorrow Bookstore sometimes makes it feel silly to buy books anywhere else, but I still love to visit local indies when I travel. My favorite thing to do is to look around at the staff recs and find one to bring home with me. Of course The Trees has been on my “read someday” list, but this staff recs made me want to pick it up right away!

If you’ve read The Trees, tell me what you thought! Or do you have a favorite Everett?

🏷️ independent bookstore, tbr, literary mystery, literary thriller, book haul by @reading.for.three

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3 months ago

☕️ Coffee & Currently Reading 📖

I’m typically a one physical book, one audiobook kind of gal, but somehow I find myself in the middle of 4 (‼️) different books! Here’s what I’m currently reading:

📖 THE BLUE JAY’S DANCE by Louise Erdrich—part of my 40x40 list! I was craving something on motherhood as we approach Mother’s Day.

🎧/📖 UNDUE BURDEN by Shefali Luthra—influenced by @ataleoftwolitties to pick this one up. Many thanks to @ireadvintage for a gifted copy!

🎧/📖 EVERY SWEET THING IS BITTER by @shelvesofsamantha—ya’ll I *preordered* this one over a year ago and am somehow just picking this up!! It’s the perfect balance to all the heavy nonfiction I’m in the middle of, and I’m hooked.

📖 PERFECT VICTIMS by Mohammed El-Kurd—this copy was generously purchased by @schizophrenicreads and his followers during the book crawl! My original plan was to mark this one up and pass it along, but it’s so excellent that I’m for sure going to need to buy my own copy. I’m also woefully late to a buddy read with a great group of people!

💬 What are you currently reading? taken in BOOKSTA by @reading.for.three

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5 months ago

💫APRIL WRAPPED: Books + Life💫

See ya, April! Celebrated our 10 year anniversary, had a big work event, travels to NYC for Book Con, and enjoyed all the spring blooms popping up in my yard!

Here’s a run down of what I read and loved this month:

LOVED
📖 A Language of Limbs
📖 Station Eleven

REALLY LIKED
🎧 One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman
🎧 Nobody’s Girl
🎧 The Correspondent

LIKED AND THEN WAS BETRAYED BY
📖 Heart the Lover

A-OK
📱Nerve Damage (out 5/12, thanks @aaknopf and @netgalley)

💬 I didn’t realize until I was making this wrap up that all of these books have something in common! Can you figure out what it is? 😬

Have you read any of these? If so, let’s chat! taken in BOOKSTA by @reading.for.three

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5 months ago

📚Indie Bookstore🤝Book Subscription📦

I was already pretty dang delighted when I learned that @the.book.drop is a book subscription service run by an indie bookstore, but that delight is was DOUBLED when I learned I have a personal connection to that indie bookstore!

The Book Drop was started by @bethanybeachbooks in Bethany Beach, Delaware, where my SIL’s family loves to spend their summers! Enjoy these photos of my cutie niece and nephew enjoying Bethany Beach courtesy of @thomps924 🥰

If you too love book mail and indie bookstores, The Book Drop has a subscription option you’ll love! And you can use READINGFORTHREE15 to bring that total right on down. 😉 🔗 in bio!

If you need me, I’ll be dreaming of bringing my latest The Book Drop paperback to Bethany Beach! 😌

#booksubscription #indiebookstores #shoplocal #bookaddict #booklover taken in Bethany Beach, Delaware by @reading.for.three

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5 months ago

📚 BOOK CON 2026 📚

Hi hello here’s my lazy and belated Book Con wrapped! I went to BookCon April 18 & 19 in NYC and I…

📖 attended the spotlight on @kuangrf
📖 attended a signing and panel with @rufithorpe
📖 attended a signing and panel with @emilystjohnmandel

💗 had lunch with @abhalovesbooks !!
💗 accidentally twinned with @momsreadingera !!
💗 caught up with my soul mate @catherinecastillocruz !!

🎭 saw two shows
🥯 ate a bagel
🍕 ate pizza

💵 bought (to everyone’s absolute shock) ONE book, a pair of earrings (for my kid’s teacher 😂), and two 3D printed dragon keychains (for my kids 😂😂).

Would have LOVED to have seen @carmenmmachado and @sabaatahir at @bookcon, but they both backed out due to RELX’s contract with 🧊, and honestly, love them all the more for it. 👏🏻

💬 What else you wanna know?? taken in Jacob Javits Center by @reading.for.three

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6 months ago

📚Book mail!📦

Did I take this photo two weeks ago? Yes.
Did I already receive a couple more books in the mail since then? Also yes.
Am I posting this as-is anyway? You betcha.

Won in @readbyregan’s generous giveaway!
🎉 Parallel Lines
🎉 The Island of Last Things
🎉 This Is How You Lose the Time War
🎉 The Memory Police

Gifted—many thanks to the tagged publishers!
🎁 Let the Poet’s Govern @oneworldbooks
🎁 Cowboys and East Indians @ireadvintage
🎁 Playworld @ireadvintage
🎁 Celestial Lights @henryholtbooks
🎁 Again, Harder (ARC out 5/12) @feministpress
🎁 Cat Love (ARC out 6/9) @pantheonbooks

@the.book.drop Q1 Books for Tonic mailing #gifted
📦 Penitence

💬 See anything you’re excited about? taken in BOOKSTA by @reading.for.three

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6 months ago

💫MARCH WRAPPED: Books + Life💫

Phew! Finally resurfacing from Holy Week to share my March wrap up! I was honestly shocked to see I finished 9 books this month because between spring break, Book Crawl, and Easter festivities, the month was absolutely jam packed for us. All with good things, of course!

Here’s a run down of what I read and loved this month:

REALLY LIKED
🎧 A Hymn to Life
🎧 Who’s Watching Shorty?
🎧Separation of Church and Hate
📖 Pet

LIKED
📖 A Guardian and a Thief
📖 The Reformatory
🎧 Pretty
📖 Bitter
🎧 Miracles and Wonder

I liked everything I read this month, and also… nothing really captivated me. I’m (still) finishing up the last two books I started for the Trans Rights Readathon, and I’m really enjoying both of them! The I’m hoping to prioritize some books in April that I suspect I will absolutely love.

💬 Have you read any of these? If so, let’s chat! taken in BOOKSTA by @reading.for.three

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6 months ago