Emma Roberts PicksDidion and Babitzas Book Club Belletrist's Latest Selection: ‘Felt Like She Was Writing to Me’ (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Emma Roberts, Karah Preiss and the cover of ‘Didion & Babitz’.Photo:Gregg Deguire/Variety via Getty; Scribner

Gregg Deguire/Variety via Getty; Scribner

Belletrist

“Joan is in the DNA of Belletrist and I would argue that Belletrist probably wouldn’t exist if not for me and Karah’s shared connection over her writing.”

The Belletrist hat.Belletrist

“Our aim has always been to deepen the connection between readers and books, and help facilitate conversation with community members,” Preiss says in a statement shared with PEOPLE. “We’re excited about having more authors engage with our community on a forward basis.”Roberts and Preiss founded Belletrist based on a mutual love of reading, per their website. Today, the friends have chosen over 70 books for their club, including both fiction and nonfiction titles. When it comes to what Belletrist are looking for in a book club selection, Roberts says that there isn’t a set method for choosing their next read.

Karah Preiss (left) and Emma Roberts.Cindy Ord/Getty

Cindy Ord/Getty

“It’s genuinely whatever moves us,” she continues. “But I will say this … we try to pick books that we read and then need to talk about. That’s what makes a good Belletrist pick. You read it and you’re like: I gotta talk to someone about this — now!”With the expansion of Belletrist through the Tertulia partnership, Roberts notes how the book club’s community has grown over the years and how social media really started it all.

“I think you can say what you will about social media, but we have been so lucky to find one corner of the internet that is so uniquely positive and engaging,” Roberts says. “When we first started Belletrist as an ‘Instagram book club’ people were like ‘what does that even mean?’ And then COVID happened and people really craved digital connection in a meaningful and organic way.”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer , from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.“Since then, there has been such significant openness to connecting about books we love on social media,” Roberts adds. “And it just keeps growing. All I’ll say is the ‘DMs’ aren’t a terrible place to discuss books.”For more information on the Belletrist and Tertulia partnership, visittheir website.

source: people.com