With Literacy and Justice for All
At Austen’s Shelf, we believe that no human is illegal and reading is not a privilege, it’s a right.
That’s why we’ve partnered with our friends at Juntos, a Philadelphia based community-led Latine immigrant organization, to host a book donation drive to support families of ICE detainees and Juntos’Guerraras Committee. Thank you to local writer Kat Echevarría Richter for organizing and to international best-selling author Julia Quinn for promotional support.
How Can I Help?
Dearest gentle reader,
So often, we live our lives with narrow vision. We see what is right in front of us, what centers our own lives. We snooze our morning alarms then clock in and out of work with hopes to meet our monthly expenses. We feed the kids. Take the dog outside. Pray for good health and hope for the vacations once a year that promise rest from the routine. And at times, we forget to look around us.
At the veteran holding the sign under the bridge, asking for a meal. At the child with no winter coat in the carpool line. At the immigrant whose entire life has been upended, seeking justice for the audacity of chasing the American dream.
We’ve all felt the pinch of helplessness before. The desire to be seen, heard, and loved through our stormy days. And we always remember the one who held out the umbrella. The loved one who provided a word of encouragement that helped us make it one more day.
Now it’s our turn.
Immigrants across the country held in ICE detention facilities are struggling under inhumane conditions. In our own backyard, the detainees in Moshannon, PA are starving. Sick. Missing their families. In need of encouragement. As readers, we know the hope that can be found in words. The mirrored peril that exists in dystopian worlds and the lessons it teaches us about our own. How to love. How to cherish those around us. And most importantly, how to speak out against injustice.
It’s time to look around us and reach out to our neighbors.
Juntos has put together a wishlist of titles to support the immigrant community in Philadelphia, including women in their Guerreras program and children who have loved ones detained by ICE. We’re hoping to collect 500 books—ranging from children’s books to some of your favorite Bridgerton novels—in time to distribute at Juntos’ Back-to-School supply drive on July 31. Every book purchased from the wishlist will bring some much needed hope to our neighbors.
Thank you for your support.
A Message From Juntos
Featured Titles
Explore featured titles from the Juntos wishlist.
Award-winning author-illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh sheds light on the significance of Aztec manuscripts and culture in his picture book A Land of Books.
A 2023 Pura Belpré Youth Illustration Honor Book
Our world, little brother, is an amoxtlalpan, a land of books.
In the jungles where the jaguar dwells, the Mayas make books.
In the mountains the cloud people, the Mixtecs, make them as well. So do others in the coast and in the forests.
And we the Mexica of the mighty Aztec empire, who dwell in the valley of the volcanoes, make them too.
A young Aztec girl tells her little brother how their parents create beautiful painted manuscripts, or codices. She explains to him how paper is made from local plants and how the long paper is folded into a book. Her parents and others paint the codices to tell the story of their people’s way of life, documenting their history, science, tributes, and sacred rituals.
Duncan Tonatiuh’s lyrical prose and beloved illustration style, inspired by the pre-Columbian codices, tell the story of how—contrary to the historical narrative that European colonizers bestowed “civilization” and knowledge to the Americas—the Aztec and their neighbors in the Valley of Mexico painted books and records long before Columbus arrived, and continued doing so among their Nahua-speaking descendants for generations after the Spanish Conquest. From an award-winning author-illustrator, A Land of Books pays tribute to Mesoamerican ingenuity and celebrates the universal power of books.
Simon Bassett, Duke of Hastings, is tired of being courted.
Daphne Bridgerton, whose mother is set on finding her the perfect husband, is also tired.
Neither Simon nor Daphne is happy with this state of affairs and would give anything for peace and quiet.
Their mutual wish leads to a pretend engagement.
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Disrupt and push back against capitalism and white supremacy as Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, encourages us to connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice.
What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Far too many of us have claimed productivity as the cornerstone of success. Brainwashed by capitalism, we subject our bodies and minds to work at an unrealistic, damaging, and machine‑level pace—feeding into the same engine that enslaved millions into brutal labor for its own relentless benefit.
In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted. Our worth does not reside in how much we produce, especially not for a system that exploits and dehumanizes us. Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power because it asserts our most basic humanity. We are enough. The systems cannot have us.
Rest Is Resistance is rooted in spiritual energy and centered in Black liberation, womanism, somatics, and Afrofuturism. With captivating storytelling and practical advice, all delivered in Hersey’s lyrical voice and informed by her deep experience in theology, activism, and performance art, Rest Is Resistance is a call to action, a battle cry, a field guide, and a manifesto for all of us who are sleep deprived, searching for justice, and longing to be liberated from the oppressive grip of Grind Culture.
Together for Literacy and Justice
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Kat Echevarría Richter
Kat Echevarría Richter is an award-winning writer obsessed with all things Jane Austen. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers-Camden and writes about matrescence, Puerto Rican identity, and American historiographies, usually with a side of humor.
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Juntos Program
Juntos is a community-led, Latine, immigrant organization in South Philadelphia fighting for our human rights as workers, parents, youth, and immigrants. We believe that every human being has the right to a quality education and the freedom to live with dignity regardless of immigration status.
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Julia Quinn
#1 New York Times bestseller Julia Quinn is the author of the wildly popular Bridgerton novels, which were the basis for the Netflix series of the same name. Her books have been translated into 43 languages, and there are over 20 million in print in the United States alone.
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Austen's Shelf
Austen’s Shelf is a Jane Austen–inspired bookstore in Historic Bordentown, NJ offering books of all genres, curated bookish merch, and a cozy literary escape for every reader. Austen’s Shelf is also a mobile bookstore traveling throughout New Jersey bringing books, events, and bookish charm on the road.
