10 Cool Writing- and Book-Adjacent Things That Make Me Happy This Holiday Season
with a birthday shoutout to my favorite kid!
Fourteen years ago today, at this exact hour, I was curled up on my living room floor in wretched pain and vomiting. Some eight hours later, my body expunged the culprit for all that suffering: Baby James.
Today, as I’m getting over a severe cold, I’m celebrating this beautiful, sweet boy. My counterbalance to all the shit-storms. Somehow, by the grace of the goddesses, I have been gifted this even-keeled, kind, unflappable kid. Eternal gratitude for this one, and Happy 14th Birthday, James.
For today’s post, I’m calling out some cool writing-adjacent things that made me happy recently. Looking for the counterbalances wherever I can find them!
1. Six hundred booksellers at indie bookstores received $500 holiday bonuses from author James Patterson. I love seeing people with a lot of money doing a lot of good. Such a stark contrast—counterbalance—from the corporate players lining up to give Trump more money.
2. Dave Eggers opened a library for youth, by youth in San Francisco. Dave said of the inspiration behind this initiate, “Writing is a really unique, really powerful tool for young people who really don’t have a lot of power in their communities.” Thank you, Dave.
3. In Berkeley, CA, we have a new wine bar—that also happens to be an Art Deco bookstore. Check it out. Shoutout to Clio’s in Oakland, too, which is part of this trend of encouraging people to hang out and mingle—with and among books.
4. In March, author Lauren Groff opened a new bookstore, The Lynx, in Florida in reaction—and resistance—to the increase in book bans, deciding that her town needed an indie bookstore where titles that had been purged from libraries and classrooms would be on prominent display.
5. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library hit a major milestone, surpassing 200 million books donated. Man, who doesn’t love Dolly?
6. Little Free Library expanded its initiative to reach underserved areas, installing over 2,000 new Little Free Libraries this year. Nice!
7. The beloved Folio Books, now reborn as Noe Valley Books, reopened in San Francisco in November thanks to $150K crowdfunding feat. I love this quote in the story from one of the rehired employees: “The outpour of support highlights a more universal truth: even in an age dominated by technology, there is a human yearning for communal and intellectual havens – places like Noe Valley Books.”
8. Through a program nicknamed “Literature for Empowerment,” the Malala Fund began partnering with local NGOs this year to deliver feminist-themed YA novels, memoirs, and poetry collections. Bring it! Women’s stories will change the future.
I’m closing with a couple personal ones with invitations attached:
9. I have been the Chairperson of the Bay Area Book Festival for the past four years, and this past year we weathered a major transition, very successfully. Being witness to this newfound stability—with our new Executive Director (J.K. Fowler) and new Board Chair (Piper Kerman)—has been among my proudest accomplishments of 2024. If you would like to support the Festival, please please do. Any community event can only happen because of community support.
10. Finally, in gratitude for my amazing mom, I want to share and elevate her Year-End Reflections event on December 31. This falls into the category of things that make me happy because I admire how my mom keeps reinventing herself, and how she’s continuing to do the work that she’s best at in the aftermath of her thirty-year legacy running Pine Manor. If you want to take a moment to reflect on the year that’s passed, and join a group of like-minded journeyers on New Year’s Eve day, check out Year-End Reflections with Gail Warner (10am PT/1pm ET | $45).
In closing, it’s not lost on me that we often suffer for the things that are most worth it. I’m inspired by these stories of people of people doing good in the world; keeping beloved community spaces alive, and starting new ones; finding reinvention and renewed passion for the work we do; seeing a need and finding ways to do something about it!
I’m celebrating all the creators today on this *Birth Day* and day of ultimate creation. Thanks for reading. And Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Festive all the things you celebrate.
And you are one cool thing yourself, Brooke. (and I only used "thing" to stay with your title. I know you're absolutely human, and still you amaze with your super-human "doings.") Thanks for sharing all this with us. Here's to more books and writing in 2025!
I loved this post Brooke. Your son is beautiful and I thank you for introducing me to your mother’s poetry. I visited her website and listened to all of the poems she read. Her voice and her words are powerful.