The Mindful Librarian

Hello! Thanks for stopping by! This newsletter has now moved, and can be found over at its new landing page. If you subscribed here, you will eventually be migrated over ~ I will be doing that every Monday and Friday afternoon for awhile. Otherwise, just go ahead and sign up at the new home to ensure you get all emails. Content here will stay for awhile, since many things still link to these older pieces.

Before I dive in, please know that current subscribers WILL still be getting my newsletter in your *email* inbox ~ you won’t need to do a thing. Both free and paid subscriptions will migrate ~ you won’t need to do a thing. This is all about ME, and you should already have an email from my new platform in your inbox right now! Are you new here and want to make sure you don’t miss anything at my new home?

Hello readers! I always want to bring more of myself to this space beyond the bookish side of things, so today is a roundup of the tangible things I created last month. Enjoy! January was, to understate the situation, a very production-heavy month in my creative life. I started a quilting project during Christmas break that has a hard and fast due date, added a little flair to some jeans, did some artsy stuff, and went all-in on cookies.

Happy Sunday, my friends. I am working on some big changes for this newsletter that you’ll be hearing about and experiencing soon, but today I want to share with you how I am resisting Substack’s quest to social-media-fy my formerly favorite place to read smart things from smart people. I want to be absolutely clear that I came to Substack as a writer after fleeing social media. Because I don’t want to use social media. I don’t want likes and alerts and chat and Notes and video.

Hello readers! Yet again, I am sharing five things I simply had to tell you, and would love if you would respond either in the comments or via email with something you simply have to tell me in return ♡ Would you like even more chatty musings on midlife, even more book recommendations, and exclusive downloads and book collections delivered right to your inbox each week?

Three spontaneous Friday newsletters in a row ~ is this a trend? Will it continue? Who knows! I just know that there are no rules and I’m having fun with less structured and planned writing at times. All other pieces are planned and pondered and curated and these …. aren’t. Yesterday, when I sent the latest edition of because I knew it would be right up her alley, I said I wouldn’t write about it. But … here I am. The Mindful Librarian is a reader-supported publication.

Hello readers! Yesterday was THE BIG DAY in children’s literature ~ the Youth Media Awards announcement! I’m excited to share the winners with you, as well as a brief commentary on my experience on the School Library Journal Heavy Medal Mock Newbery panel and my school’s Mock Caldecott activity. I typically watch or listen to Youth Media Awards announcements live, but this year I was teaching 6th graders about paraphrasing and direct quotation of graphic novels as requested by ELA teachers.

Hello readers! Yet again, I am sharing five things I simply had to tell you, and would love if you would respond either in the comments or via email with something you simply have to tell me in return ♡ Would you like even more chatty musings on midlife, even more book recommendations, and exclusive downloads and book collections delivered right to your inbox each week?

I know that my Saturday newsletters may seem too cheery in this time of horror and terror and flames and hate. I know. And wrestle with it constantly. But. But they’re one of my absolute bright spots ~ getting to write about things I love, that make me happy, that offer a diversion from billionaires and ICE and terror and despicable hate. Therefore, this is my official statement that I’m never NOT thinking about the state of our world. I don’t have blinders on.

Hello readers! Today I’m getting into the nitty gritty of figuring out my changing tastes in the romance genre and also sharing 20 titles releasing this January - March that are at the top of my romance TBR. I am so excited to share these with you! Close readers here may have noticed that my reading has been on the heavier side lately1, and that’s a direct course correction after a very disenchanting attempt at following my past practice of reading a lot of holiday romance stories in December.