Happy Saturday, mis internet amigxs!

I have been so behind this week due to a family emergency earlier in the week and I can't seem to catch up. I want to apologize for this brief introduction this week, but hopefully some of the news I'm sharing with you will help assuage my brevity here.

HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS GIVEAWAY

As you're all aware, we're reading The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende in April ahead of the Spanish-language release of the show on April 29th. On Monday, I'll be posting one of TWO giveaways for the book. Monday's giveaway will be for 5 people to win a copy of the Everyman's Library hardcover edition of the book AND an Out Of Print t-shirt that features the original cover! This has been such a fun sweepstakes to put together, but there will be a link to the PRH website, versus a post here on Bindery. I will share the link once the sweepstakes live. The second giveaway is still being working out, but tentatively plan on posting on March 16th, I believe is going to be for the S&S paperback. This one is subject to change, so more details to come...

AUTHOR CHAT WITH ZAKIYA N. JAMAL

This Monday night, instead of sprints on Discord at 8:00 PM EST, we'll be chatting on Zoom with Zakiya N. Jamal, author of our February book club pick, Sparks Fly. Full details to join can be found in this post.

And now, on to this week's releases...

ROMANCE

The Starter Ex by Mia Sosa HOPING TO GET THE FIRST EPISODE OF THE PODCAST UP THIS WEEK WITH MIA AND I DISCUSSING THIS BOOK! I LOVED Jason and Vanessa and how they earned their love. She also created a dynamic and amazing community, especially Vanessa's family bodega, which if you know something about my life, know I was raised in my parent's bodega--this book was full of heart and neighborhood community in a way that felt so authentic and lovely. Such a wonderful story.

Second Chance Duet by Anna Holguin (Audiobook) A swoony, slow burn romance about a struggling composer whose big break comes at a cost--working side-by-side with her college nemesis.

HISTORICAL

Frida's Cook by Florencia Etcheves (Audiobook) This colorful, emotive historical debut whisks us to the home of Frida Kahlo, where food, art, and love weave together an unforgettable story of friendship and loyalty, with a bright Coyoacán as a vivid background

HORROR

You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom V. E. Tirado (Audiobook) Nonbinary Dominican author, Tirado, brings us a contemporary gothic horror--Demons clash with inheritance claims as secrets unfold and violence is unleashed over twelve harrowing hours trapped in a house with the worst thing imaginable: family.

Cabaret In Flames by Hache Pueyo: In this novella, Hache Pueyo transports readers to an alternate-Brazil terrorized by creatures called Guls who hunger for human flesh. Ariadne lost part of her body to a Gul’s appetite but now works in a clinic to treat them. When one named Quaint walks in, claiming to be a friend of Ariadne’s missing mentor, Ariadne puts her suspicions aside in favor of learning more about what might have happened to him.

MIDDLE GRADE

No Way Never Sisters by Natalia Sylvester & Chantel Acevedo (Audiobook) Two rival Latine girls, whose parents get engaged, then scheme to break up their parents wedding!

Mystery on Macaw Mountain by María José Fitzgerald (Audiobook) Birds of a feather solve crime together in this riveting middle grade mystery! When eight endangered macaws are stolen from a bird sanctuary in the Mayan ruins of Copán, four sleuthing cousins must find out who took them—and why

Queso, Just In Time by Ernesto Cisneros (Audiobook) Middle Grade Sci-Fi that's a funny and heartfelt time-travel tale about family, grief, and love that stretches across the years.

xoxo,

Carmen

Hello and happy March!

Here is the link to request personalized book recommendations from me for March! This form will close at 11:59pm (PST) on March 14th, so make sure to get your requests submitted before then.

Here's the link again typed out because I know the Hyperlink doesn't always work: https://forms.gle/3cNS4tR2wpSiZrGk6

I hope to have these to you by the end of the month--I hope you have a wonderful March!

~ Kaley

Bindery is still super new to all of us, but I figured why not experiment with a little weekly reading update. It's been a while since I made one of these for my website (far too much work for a static blog page), but I think I remember how. :)

As I type this, I'm sitting on the patio of my father's place enjoying my morning coffee amidst the sounds and sights of the bayou. It's my last day here, so I'm trying to soak it all in before I head back home to Los Angeles. As much as I love being home and spending time with family (saw all my aunts & uncles & cousins just yesterday), I'm eager to be back home with my fellas.

The truth: this week has flown by entirely too fast. Between his procedure (angiogram) and trying to keep up with work and bookish content, I feel like I've missed out on time with him. I promised myself I would take time off work and bookish content next time I visited him, but the truth is there's just far too much going on at work to have done that this time. I'll be back this summer, and I promise you, me, and him that it will be work free!

As for the bookish content, I've been bitten by a creative bug the past few weeks. So, naturally, I've been feverishly trying to make magic happen before I lose that momentum. Over the past few weeks I've been working hard to update my website and refresh my Pinterest strategy to help drive traffic (which is down). I've also recorded TONS of new content for Youtube and Bookstagram, which I now need to edit. It can all feel like a bit much sometimes, but I have to confess that I love the chaos of it all. Now if I could somehow do it for a living...

As you can imagine, my reading has taken a back seat the past few weeks. I've not even finished a book this month which is *gasp* incredible. Needless to say, I've got some catching up to do. I'll likely finish my current audiobook, The Attic Child, today while commuting home to L.A. It's a terrific book that I think most people will enjoy, though it is a bit dry at times. And maybe I'll manage to read a few pages of Before We Were Yours, the BBFL Book Club book for March, while on the plane. I have to admit I'm excited about that one because it's so beloved.

I'll wrap it up here so that I can go enjoy the last few hours with my dad. I want to know if you enjoyed this, so let me know in the comments. If so, maybe I'll do it again sometime soon. :)

For now, I'm signing off and headed home to my little man.

Great 36 hours in NYC including the Headless Horror imprint launch at Twisted Spine!

Wow! Thank you so much to everyone who has requested What Feeds Below on Netgalley- request here! We are now the number one most requested book in Horror and we are number 6 most requested in all of YA! That is so amazing!!!

Early reviews are in:

If you were approved on Netgalley, please review on Netgalley and Goodreads! These reviews help so much!

If you haven’t preordered yet, Please Order Here

Your preorder supports me, Tatiana and Black Walnut Books, an Indigenous, queer woman owned bookstore.

Early preorders will also make it possible for me to publish another book next year (and I’m reading some really great Indigenous and horror ones right now. If we don’t get enough early preorders- I may miss out on a great story! Please help if you can!)

Thank you so much for supporting me and for all the love you’ve shown Tatiana and this book! We could not do this without you!

Happy Friday y'all! We made it through the week!

For me, it has been a pretty decent week, what with planning things for the summer as well as getting back into my reading as well as my other fantasy games. It feels like a homecoming and I am enjoying every minute of it!

And today, I am shouting out an author that has encapsulated my entire being with her way of crafting the perfect book boyfriends.

And that author is.......

EVELYN LEIGH!

Now if you haven't heard of her, what are you doing, go search her up right now, she is a romance and dark romance author who can create the book boyfriend of your dreams and have you sobbing that they are not a reality. She will have you clutching your sides from laughter, grabbing tissues as characters experience their lows and hardships, and beaming brightly and clutching pearls at some of the more salacious scenes. Evelyn writes characters that feel real in their struggles and thrive in their underrepresentation, making an impact where a "glass ceiling" would hinder them.

Not only is she an amazing writer, she is also a gem of a person. Kind and sweet, she is a champion for mental health as well as community. Hilarious, she wears many hats and each of them are more interesting than the last. And if you get a chance to call her a friend, she is fiery loyal to those she cares most about.

So, I may be a little biased because she also gives the best hugs, but Evelyn is equal parts peach and rum, coming together to make a delicious and festive party that is sure to keep you on your toes.

Go check her out and give her some love if you haven't already:

https://authorevelynleigh.com/

Have a happy weekend, loves!

Hi everyone!

We finished up polling for our book club picks for April - June, and we have some amazing books to read coming up here in the spring! So here they are:

• April: The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

• May: The Sword of Kaigen by ML Wang

• June: Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

If you are not a member, and you want to participate, make sure to sign up as a member here on Bindery and check out the pinned post about how the book club works. The book club is always free, but of course paid members get a lot of great stuff in addition to the book club (including early access to YouTube videos, a weekly reading update, picking a book for me to read each month, a private Discord server channel, and more)!

Also, if you are interested in getting these books to read, or any of the books I post about on here, you can order by clicking them either on my shelves or on this post here on Bindery, and buying through here helps me out a bit! It gives you the option to order fro Amazon or Bookshop (when available), which gives you a good choice.

Hope to see some new faces joining us here in the spring, and let me know if you have any questions! And of course, we are always welcoming new members to our Discord server, where we have a great community of people talking books, doing buddy reads, and sharing great bookish conversation. you can click the link in my profile, or when you join as a member you'll get an invite link. Hope to see some folks there as well!

Here we are 6 days in and apparently my internet glitched and never posted the reading schedule for our book this month. Yay technology. Anywhoooo here is the reading schedule! If you missed the announcement on Instagram/tiktok we are reading the shadow of what was lost by James islington!

Week 1: prologue- ch 13

week 2: ch 14- 28

Week 3: ch 29-43

Week 4: ch 44 -epilogue

Happy Friday, mis internet amigxs!

We will be chatting with Sparks Fly author on Monday night in lieu of our usual 8:00 PM sprints.

8:00 PM start time is EASTERN STANDARD TIME, so please adjust for your time zone on your calendar.

Our chat will be on Zoom--many stated they had issues last time, so I'm including the invite below. YOU MUST BE LOGGED INTO ZOOM TO ACCESS.

Our conversation will be recorded. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO TURN OFF YOUR CAMERA AND MUTE YOURSELF BEFORE JOINING THE CHAT.

Submit your questions on Discord in the Sparks Fly chat or in the Q&A section on Zoom.

Please do not share this link with others.

Looking forward to seeing you all on Monday night!

*****************************************

Carmen is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Zakiya N. Jamal x Bien Leidos Author Chat
Time: Mar 9, 2026 08:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 899 6691 8854
Passcode: 652602

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I have just under 60 books left for sale!

Some of these are covers that are no longer in circulation, editions no longer in circulation, special editions!

If the book isn’t gone by next Thursday night, it will be in a free little library by Friday morning!

Every order comes with a What Feeds Below bookmark! And orders over $40 come with a What Feeds Below coloring page!

LAST CHANCE! Rescue my books

Hello, friends and dreamers! I've been a bit quiet here because I'm in the middle of moving to a new house where I get to have a LIBRARY room and I'm STOKED. Please enjoy a little preview and let me know what YOU would choose/ have chosen for your library details! Inspoken Insiders ($5 a month tier) get ready for a video reveal soon!!

It is enormously flattering when someone asks me to do a Sad Rich Girl Salon online or to do it in [their city], but this will not be happening any time soon. I'm very sorry if you're not near NYC but taking srgSalon on the road or online would diminish the quality and I hate low-quality anything.

I wish online was not such a paltry version of real life. If you've been on a zoom date or done a zoom class or zoom cocktail party-- you know I'm right. It doesn't compare.

Teaching on zoom is hell. There's no real time feedback. You don't know if people are silent because they're doing something else, totally distracted, on their computer or because they hate you and think your class is trash. And that's the people with their cameras on. The majority of people have their cameras off. Imagine if a stand-up comedian did a show (I know they did this during covid) and had to perform an entire set without any reactions. Madness.

If you still think an online Salon might be "better than nothing", let me give you the live music example. For a musician I'm a huge fan of, yes I will tune into a livestream of their concert. But recognizing how big the gap is between the online experience and the concert in-person experience --and now extrapolating this massive, massive chasm to the Salon and considering that OnlineSalon vs IRLSalon would have a proportionate gap - I can't do it. It would be unacceptable to release something so subpar just because it's easy enough to set up a stream.

I shut down the discord

precisely because of my hatred for low-quality. I didn't have time to manage it well and I definitely needed to be active and present (it never reached flow state/autopilot) for it to feel alive. I don't want something that is very much mine to have a lackadaisical presence.

Scaling anything these days feels like a gross thing

It's the Private Equity of it all. Making things bigger because they are trendy/liked/promising ruins them. I can't tell you how much i despise blank street coffee (and 787). A blank st opened a block away from me and seeing this irl symbol move-fast-break-things makes me cringe.

I'm not a blackpink head but private-equity-style expansion is what happened to that group. They're popular so their team works them to death-- makes them tour so much that they get sick (I could've sworn I saw a headline that said one of them passed out on stage while performing- but I can't find it) and they're falling apart but still being pushed BECAUSE they have a shelf life.

In a way, being forced to stay visible in this high-octane way shows a lack of faith from backers. Why can't the band rest and push the tour out a year? why can't blank street grow slowly and deliberately? because they (financiers) don't think it has any staying power. the $ people are thinking of it as a trend and expect the trend to die out imminently. They don't believe in the product, they're manically trying to eke out as much profit for themselves as they can- not realizing (or actually i think they do) that they're destroying it in the process.

I believe in my salon.

Not necessarily that it has the ability to expand into a giant empire but that it's the right format the way it is now. It's a high-effort high-quality thing (a luxe good!) and to pervert that in any way would mean it's no longer the thing i want it to be. Mass produced SRG salon is just crappy discussion group.

I don't believe in my content-

not in the same way as my salon. The salon has legs, it could go somewhere. It could evolve. Content (by which I mean short-form content, 2 min videos etc) is so limited. I've been making worse and worse content (lower effort, less time, less thoughtfulness) because 1) it doesn't change my views/stats and 2) I get to spend more time working on fiction. In fact (and I hope the significance of the following really makes you consider the habit of scrolling) making "worse" content has made my account grow faster. My content since mid February has been sloppier. I'm less concerned about anticipating rebuttals and countering them. I'm essentially letting myself be stupid-er and the algorithm is rewarding me.

Isn't that heinous?

Gene Pressman of Barneys (rip) said:

"Never give the customer what they want because they don't know what they want." This is what I feel about online SRG salon. It sounds like it'd be a good alternative- why not? just livestream it. But people aren't grasping that what the salon promises (and, i think, has delivered so far) is good conversation with interesting people. This would never translate online. You could watch the first 30 min talk of me+friend but the part that I think is the most valuable is the small discussion groups. The fact that so many people linger and continue chatting with each other long after the official event is over is what makes me consider it a success.

It's not just about "cheapening" my brand

That's part of why I don't want to do an online salon, certainly. I don't want to be associated with something that isn't up to my standard. But it's the idea of treating the salon as a "product" that feels ick. We're so accustomed to thinking in terms of brand building and how this salon is "leverage" that can make me look good in the eyes of the industry (maybe a magazine will do a profile on the salon! maybe i will be invited to a podcast!)

Like it's this "asset" that I have that i am not "capitalizing" on enough.

But the salon isn't an asset. It's not something I ever want to think of as a service i am providing. Honestly, I think what makes it good and interesting and valuable is rooted in a certain selfishness. I started a discussion group (unemployed girls club🤪) last summer because I wanted to talk to people who were interested in the same things I'm interested in. People who have the same cultural touch points so i dont have to explain what "west village girl" is (shots fired at my husband, sorry) -- and i found them. and it was a great convo. and I enjoyed it tremendously and so I continue to do the salon for my own enjoyment.

Just because people express a desire for something that you could potentially provide (and let's say they're even willing to pay for it) doesn't mean you should offer it. I think of Ratatouille and how when Gusteau dies, his name is immediately slapped on a bunch of frozen food that he would never have approved. People are clamoring to buy Gusteau frozen meals- but they'll probably be disappointed.

It's like all the Target collabs! I remember being SO excited for the Victoria Beckham one. And then being horrified by how bad the quality was-- but also. what did i expect? of course it's a polyester monstrosity- it was $30.

I swear to god ^^ this must have been a custom version of the target look that her team made special for her in better fabrics (and obv tailored to her tiny size). I bought this entire outfit and it was a disaster.

My salon will probably die before it gets big -- and that's how i prefer it. I'm way more likely to be like those directors who disavow their movies because they feel the studio or whoever is interfering with their vision.

If you are available on March 30th- come to the next salon and see for yourself if it's as magical as I'm claiming it is💖