Vol. 19: Leo season and giveaway time

It’s a birthday book drive!

Happy August, dear friends. August is my birthday month and this will be my fourth year hosting a birthday book drive giveaway for incarcerated readers. I got the idea in 2018, brainstorming how we could use the influence of the bookternet’s obsession with buying books for good. In the years since, it has been fun to see the embrace from Bookstagram, not only of this giveaway in particular but also others who have hosted similar giveaways. 

In 2018, we donated 112 books; in 2019, 143; and in 2020, 246. This year I’m doing my biggest goal yet of 300 books and I’m not gonna lie - I’m nervous about failing publicly!

To recognize and honor the joy that all of you, my newsie subscribers (as I think of you in my head), bring, I’m giving you some ~exclusive~ access to the full suite of prizes coming up this month and a special digital print from an awesome small business so keep reading.

Book Drive Giveaway Info & Prizes

Here’s how the book drive works: you donate a book to an incarcerated reader via Free Minds DC or LGBT Books to Prisoners. These links feature their address and links to their wishlists at Politics and Prose (Free Minds) or Room of One’s Own (LGBTBtoP). I genuinely prefer you use the independent bookstore wishlists because of reasons.

Once you donate, post a screenshot of receipt to your IG stories and tag me. If you’re not on IG or have a private account, please send me the screenshot directly via email ([email protected]) or DM. I ask public accounts to share the receipt publicly because it helps keep the momentum going on the drive!

I’m counting entries through August 21 at 11:50 PM EST (my bday!) and doing three different prize drawings. If you don’t win during the first drawing, you’re still in the pool to win the later prizes.

On August 9, I’ll be drawing a winner for Clint Smith’s How the Word is Passed, one of my favorite non-fiction reads of the year. Thanks to Little Brown for partnering with me on this.

On August 13, thanks to the amazing Hannah Oliver Depp and Loyalty Books, I’ll be drawing a winner for a Loyalty Bookseller Pick Bundle, featuring two books and a small gift.

On August 22, I’ll be drawing a winner for our final prize, a One World Books prize pack featuring Detransition Baby by Torrey Peteres, Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung, Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong, The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee, and Four Hundred Souls edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. Thanks to One World and Megan Tripp for making this happen.

Aesthetic Frames reading tracker

I met the woman behind Aesthetic Frames, a DMV-based Latina-owned business, at the Plants Alive market back in June when we bought a gorgeous Monstera print from her for our entryway. She created an August book tracker that she shared with her newsletter subscribers and also gave me permission to share with mine! You can check out the reading tracker in blue here and green here to track your August reading goals. I would love to see you share it on IG and be sure to tag her @aesthtics__frames and check out all that she has for sale.

How cute is our Monstera print!?

Oh yeah - and here’s what I’m reading

I read The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. It’s an 800 page feat, part historical fiction, part coming of age story that moves back and forth between our protagonist Ailey and her ancestors. I absolutely loved this book - it was so absorbing, and while some of the Songs took me longer to get through, I was so invested in Ailey’s story that I loved reading it. There is a trigger warning for child sexual abuse, rape and addiction.

I just started (finally!) What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk about Fat by Aubrey Gordon and really highly recommend it. I am someone who thinks of myself as unlearning my anti-fat bias but realizing through the first few chapters just how much work I have left to do.

Taking care

 As a Leo and an end-of-summer baby, I’ve always loved my birthday. This birthday season has some unique challenges, between navigating the loss of my Grandma and so much uncertainty surrounding the Delta variant. I’m trying to take care of myself and not force it if I don’t feel as celebratory as years prior.

Lately I've felt like I’ve been an absent friend, or lacking intention in my life, but trying to remind myself that it’s ok if my number one priority is taking care of myself, my partner and planning our wedding (less than three months away!!) with intention. I hope you are offering yourself similar grace.It’s a birthday book drive!

Happy August, dear friends. August is my birthday month and this will be my fourth year hosting a birthday book drive giveaway for incarcerated readers. I got the idea in 2018, brainstorming how we could use the influence of the bookternet’s obsession with buying books for good. In the years since, it has been fun to see the embrace from Bookstagram, not only of this giveaway in particular but also others who have hosted similar giveaways. 

In 2018, we donated 112 books; in 2019, 143; and in 2020, 246. This year I’m doing my biggest goal yet of 300 books and I’m not gonna lie - I’m nervous about failing publicly!

To recognize and honor the joy that all of you, my newsie subscribers (as I think of you in my head), bring, I’m giving you some *~exclusive~* access to the full suite of prizes coming up this month and a special digital print from an awesome small business so keep reading.

Book Drive Giveaway Info & Prizes

Here’s how the book drive works: you donate a book to an incarcerated reader via Free Minds DC or LGBT Books to Prisoners. These links feature their address and links to their wishlists at Politics and Prose (Free Minds) or Room of One’s Own (LGBTBtoP). I genuinely prefer you use the independent bookstore wishlists because of reasons.

Once you donate, post a screenshot of receipt to your IG stories and tag me. If you’re not on IG or have a private account, please send me the screenshot directly via email ([email protected]) or DM. I ask public accounts to share the receipt publicly because it helps keep the momentum going on the drive!

I’m counting entries through August 21 at 11:50 PM EST (my bday!) and doing three different prize drawings. If you don’t win during the first drawing, you’re still in the pool to win the later prizes.

On August 9, I’ll be drawing a winner for Clint Smith’s How the Word is Passed, one of my favorite non-fiction reads of the year. Thanks to Little Brown for partnering with me on this.

On August 13, thanks to the amazing Hannah Oliver Depp and Loyalty Books, I’ll be drawing a winner for a Loyalty Bookseller Pick Bundle, featuring two books and a small gift.

On August 22, I’ll be drawing a winner for our final prize, a One World Books prize pack featuring Detransition Baby by Torrey Peteres, Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung, Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong, The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee, and Four Hundred Souls edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. Thanks to One World and Megan Tripp for making this happen.

Aesthetic Frames reading tracker

I met the woman behind Aesthetic Frames, a DMV-based Latina-owned business, at the Plants Alive market back in June when we bought a gorgeous Monstera print from her for our entryway. She created an August book tracker that she shared with her newsletter subscribers and also gave me permission to share with mine! You can check out the reading tracker in blue here and green here to track your August reading goals. I would love to see you share it on IG and be sure to tag her @aesthtics__frames and check out all that she has for sale.

How cute is our Monstera print!?

Oh yeah - and here’s what I’m reading

I read The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. It’s an 800 page feat, part historical fiction, part coming of age story that moves back and forth between our protagonist Ailey and her ancestors. I absolutely loved this book - it was so absorbing, and while some of the Songs took me longer to get through, I was so invested in Ailey’s story that I loved reading it. There is a trigger warning for child sexual abuse, rape and addiction.

I just started (finally!) What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk about Fat by Aubrey Gordon and really highly recommend it. I am someone who thinks of myself as unlearning my anti-fat bias but realizing through the first few chapters just how much work I have left to do.

Taking care

 As a Leo and an end-of-summer baby, I’ve always loved my birthday. This birthday season has some unique challenges, between navigating the loss of my Grandma and so much uncertainty surrounding the Delta variant. I’m trying to take care of myself and not force it if I don’t feel as celebratory as years prior.

Lately I've felt like I’ve been an absent friend, or lacking intention in my life, but trying to remind myself that it’s ok if my number one priority is taking care of myself, my partner and planning our wedding (less than three months away!!) with intention. I hope you are offering yourself similar grace.