What's New

Voting mode chooser — pick how you rank your ballot: drag to reorder, tap arrows, or type numbers. Your preference sticks between sessions.

Nomination page redesign — a search-first flow with an inline magnifying glass, live cover preview with book details, and a collapsible manual-entry fallback.

Guest nominator names — if you’re not signed in, you can now add your name to your nomination so the club knows who pitched it.

View Details drawer — tap any nomination on the nominations page to see the cover, page count, publication year, and who nominated it.

Mobile drag-and-drop voting — long-press a ballot card on your phone to drag it into position, with haptic feedback on reorder.

Polish everywhere — pill-shaped topic badges, animated confirmation cards, smoother search dropdowns, and better dark-mode contrast across the board.

Mobile-friendly admin — meeting cards, user management, and review lists are now fully responsive with better touch targets.

Meeting topics — admins can set an optional theme for each meeting. It shows on the nomination page and voting ballot so everyone knows the vibe.

Simplified mobile ballot — book details now open in a rich dialog instead of expanding inline, keeping the voting list compact on small screens.

Design token normalization — hunted down every hardcoded color and spacing value and replaced them with proper tokens. Dark mode is more consistent as a result.

Three-zone hero — the book page hero is now split into Identity, Verdict, and Context zones so the title and cover dominate, the club grade stands on its own, and metadata stays out of the way.

Pull-quote blurbs — when a book has enough reviews, a featured excerpt appears between the hero and the reviews section, styled like a book-jacket quote with attribution.

Inline grade distribution — the grade strip moved into the reviews section as a slim 8px bar so it adds context without stealing focus from the book itself.

Book navigation with covers — the Previous / Next links at the bottom now show cover thumbnails and serif titles, making it easier to browse the reading history.

Visual polish — larger 300px cover with deeper shadows, an amber-dash month label, streamlined metadata (pp instead of pages), and text-only external links for a cleaner look.

Bigger Coming Up covers — upcoming books on the home page now show larger cover images with the date label above for a cleaner layout.

Unified edit modal — admins can now edit a nomination’s title, author, and cover in a single dialog. Cover suggestions update automatically as you type.

Email alias support — you can now sign up with + aliases like user+bookclub@gmail.com without issues.

Admin nav cleanup — removed the redundant “View Site” link to keep the admin navigation focused.

Invite links — any member can generate a shareable link from the Members page to invite someone to the club. The new member sees who invited them.

Events on picks — admins can create, edit, and delete event sessions (date, location, Meetup link) for any pick. The home page hero pulls from events automatically.

Display name collision detection — your profile page now checks if your chosen name is taken in real time, with a suggested alternative if it is.

Admin cover replace — admins can search Google Books and swap out any book’s cover image from the pick detail page.

Members directory — browse all club members at /members with avatars, review counts, and join dates. Search to find anyone quickly.

Redesigned home hero — the current book now has a tinted gradient background pulled from its cover, with meeting info and a cleaner layout.

Better profile settings — your profile page now shows a live preview of your URL as you type your display name, with cleaner card sections and a more compact avatar picker.

Admin pagination — the users and reviews lists in admin now paginate properly instead of loading everything at once.

Polish everywhere — reaction and reply buttons have better tap targets and hover states, dialogs use proper accessible modals instead of browser alerts, and community stats show on the home page.

"Did you finish?" — reviews now track whether you finished the book. If you didn't, a DNF badge shows on your review so others know the context.

Reply formatting toolbar — replies now have a compact Bold/Italic/Spoiler/Link toolbar, just like the main review editor.

Grade distribution tooltips — hover or tap the grade axis on any book page to see exactly how many reviews each tier got.

Publisher and language metadata — book pages now automatically show publisher info and language (for non-English books) pulled from Google Books.

Spoiler filter polish — the toggle moved to its own strip with a count badge, smooth animations, and better accessibility.

Immersive book hero — a full-bleed blurred cover wash fills the background, with a dramatic shadow on the cover and genre tags at a glance.

Review and Share buttons — big clear CTAs right on the book page. Not logged in? You'll see a friendly sign-in prompt instead.

Nomination search — when nominating a book, you now get a Google Books powered search with cover previews. No more typos or missing covers.

External book links — quick links to Goodreads, StoryGraph, and Bookshop.org right from any book page.

Richer book metadata — page count, publication year, and ISBN shown in a compact row. Inline admin editing for nominations.

Share any book — tap the Share button to send a link via your phone's share sheet, or copy it to your clipboard on desktop.

Live activity feed on the home page — see reviews, replies, reactions, and nominations as they happen. No refresh needed.

Reply to reviews — start conversations under any review. Edit or delete your own replies anytime.

Review writing upgrades — auto-save drafts so you never lose your work, live markdown preview, formatting toolbar (bold, italic, lists, quotes, spoiler tags, links), and a character counter.

Grade distribution strip on book pages — a color gradient showing how the club rated each book at a glance, with the average grade marked.

Live announcements — club news now appears instantly on the home page when an admin posts, updates, or removes an announcement.

Admin improvements — search and sort reviews and users, promote or demote members, live nomination tracking on meeting pages, and better dark mode throughout.

React to reviews with emoji — tap the + button on any review to leave a 👍, ❤️, 🔥, or any emoji you like. No account needed to see them; log in to react.

Announcements on the home page — club news, event changes, and reminders now appear right at the top. Admins can create, schedule, and expire them.

Winner reveal animation — when voting closes, the results page now shows a full-screen book cover reveal with confetti. Tap the × to dismiss.

Dark mode improvements — fixed date picker icons, admin forms, and the results winner card so everything is readable in dark mode.

Security hardening — added rate limiting, content security headers, and input validation across all forms to keep things safe.

Scan a QR code at meetings to nominate books and vote on what we read next, with live results updating in real time.

Browse our full reading history, see what the club thought of each book, and leave your own reviews with letter grades.

Create an account with just your email — no password required. We’ll send you a magic link to sign in.

Customize your profile with 24 avatar styles, add your Goodreads or StoryGraph links, and see your review history.

See what’s coming up next on the home page with our new “Coming Up” section showing future meetings and books.

Dark mode is built in — toggle it from the nav or let it follow your system preference.