A Reintroduction of Sorts
Meet The Mindful Librarian
Well, hello there!
I am so excited to now be fully moved into my new cozy little newsletter home that is really just like my physical home ~ all on its own, miles away from others, just chilling out. I love that I pop right into your inbox ~ just me, writing to you.
No like button, no “network” to leverage, no social features. Honestly, this is so much like my first blog back in 2007, but even BETTER.
Like most of my Tuesday newsletters, this edition does include a paywall about halfway down. Should you wish to receive these in full going forward, please consider upgrading to a premium subscription. You can subscribe on a monthly ($5/month) or annual ($40/year) basis.
A premium subscription also gives you access to all of my PDF downloads and my exclusive bookshop collections if that is something that interests you. Saturday editions of Five Things to Tell You (or whatever it morphs into next!) will always be free for all readers!
Now that we’re all settled in, I figured it’s time for a reintroduction.
Who even IS The Mindful Librarian?
I got bored even thinking about writing it all out, so instead I made you a resume. The resume I just wish I could use for actual jobs. A resume that reflects the real me and has my voice and vibe. I’m perhaps in my “vibe” era? If you want to peep at the resume in a larger format, here’s the PDF version too!
Along with the resume, here is a tiny selection of my favorite newsletters that I have sent out in the past few years:
Diversity Equity and Inclusion (January 2025)
An Unexpectedly Bookish Weekend (October 2024)
My Ongoing and Very Messy Breakup with Amazon (July 2024)
Maine Vacation Superlatives (June 2024)
A Wisconsin Girl With a Touch of Colorado (April 2024)
Books that Pushed Me Out of the Personal Finance Classroom (June 2023)
A Favorite Bookstore and a Night in Chicago (April 2023)
Are you here for the BOOKS? Well, I always share a few of those every Saturday, but my premium subscribers get ALL of the books! More reviews, thoughts on the reading life, journal pages, reading logs, curated downloads, and exclusive bookshop collections.
Paid subscribers can always peruse the full archives, but two pages to bookmark are these ones:
Please know that I am working on cleaning up lots of links ~ some links within pages will still take you to Substack for now.
And finally, a few Valentine’s Day-week romance treats:
Have you all seen the New York Times new ROMANCE landing page? (gift link) I’m not going to assert that NYT is the best place to find romance recommendations online, but I do love to see mainstream publications taking us romance readers seriously. I believe this is going to be continually updated, so make sure you save that gift link somewhere!
If you don’t spend time on Book Riot’s Romance section, try to make some time for it! And of course, subscribe to their Kissing Books newsletter and listen to their When in Romance podcast. I love Book Riot’s devotion to diversity, and it shows up hard in their recommendations.
If you missed it last year, definitely check out my curated collection of romance novellas if you’re wanting just a touch of romance reading / listening for this romance-focused holiday.
I hope you all have my Falling for Romance download already, but if not ~ here it is! You will NEVER run out of romances to read once you have this collection ~ and I am going to be updating it annually!
Looking for new releases? Then you’ll want my collection of Jan - March 2025 Romance Releases that I curated for you around MY romance reading priorities. (Please ignore any Substack subscribe links and such within the archive posts - I simply haven’t been able to clean them all up yet!)
If you want more romance in your newsletter life, definitely check out Romancing the Phone and Shelf Love: Romance Novel Discourse ~ newsletters that treat the romance genre just as seriously as it should be treated
I recently listened to two very sweet romances ~ The Partner Plot by Kristina Forest and Pardon my Frenchie by Farrah Rochon. They were exactly the light, family-oriented love stories my brain needed for my commute and dog walks in the afternoons. Definitely check them out if sweet and light-hearted, but with a touch of substance, is what you are looking for!
Looking for more of a love story, not so much a traditional romance story? Check out Michelle’s list of 14 Literary Love Stories, many of which I have read and loved. The rest just got moved up my TBR!
Did you know Bookshop.org is having a Black History Month Sale? Hooray! Here is their list of Romance Books to Celebrate Black History Month 2025 ~ use code BHM25 to get 20% off! I’m definitely eyeing up Church Girl by Naima Simone.
Related, but not all on sale, here is Libro.fm’s collection of romance books by Black authors
That’s all for today! I will be back in your inbox on Saturday with Five Things to Tell You vol. 11, and next Tuesday with (assuming life goes to plan) tales of a recent adventure.
Thanks for stopping by!
