Our first month in our new home was a huge success! Thank you all SO MUCH for supporting us! We are so thrilled to be a part of the downtown community.
We had our official ribbon-cutting ceremony through the O’Fallon-Shiloh Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, May 28th. Lena gave a lovely speech and got to use the big scissors while two of her children held the ribbon! The Chamber posted a reel on Facebook if you want to watch it! If you have any photos from this special day, please tag us on your socials!
Customer Celebration on June 20th!
Since a lot of our customers weren’t able to join us for our ribbon-cutting on Thursday, we are having a celebration on Saturday, June 20th! We want to show our appreciation for our customers and community. Come by for snacks, prizes, and a raffle!
There are so many things to celebrate this June! Keep scrolling if you want to find more.
Audiobook Appreciation Month
June is Audiobook Appreciation Month, which is a great time to listen to audiobooks. We don’t actually sell audiobooks in the store, but if you get yours from Libro.fm, you can still support us! A lot of our customers like to listen to their books on audio and then come purchase a paper book to keep.
LGBTQ+ Pride Month
LGBTQ+ Pride Month is every June! Pride Month celebrates the spectrum of gender and sexuality, as well as the struggle for equal rights and acceptance. It is also a commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising, which began on June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in New York. The very first Pride parade was an inaugural protest march that took place on June 28, 1970, in New York City.
To learn more and to check out our recommendations for Pride, click the banner below!
Immigrant Heritage Month
June is Immigrant Heritage Month. It has been around since 2014, and it gives us all an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of immigrants and to explore the heritage of the United States and our own families.
Unless you’re indigenous, you or your ancestors came from somewhere else in the world, and there’s probably a very interesting story about why! If you aren’t familiar with your family’s origins or their immigration stories, don’t feel bad, though. Family histories can easily be lost.
We’ve got some books by or about immigrants that might interest you. Click the banner below to find them.
Caribbean-American Heritage Month
June is Caribbean American Heritage Month, which celebrates the culture and contributions of Caribbean Americans. The month was recognized nationally by a presidential proclamation signed by George W. Bush in 2006. The Caribbean is a vast area in the Caribbean Sea that includes over 7,000 islands, some of which are territories of the United States.
To learn more and see our recommendations, click the banner below!
Juneteenth
Juneteenth celebrates freedom and the end of chattel slavery in the United States. It specifically commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union forces arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed the last group of enslaved Black people that they were emancipated. Juneteenth is also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, and it has been celebrated since 1865, although it only became a National Holiday in 2021.
To learn more and to check out some recommendations, please click the banner below.
Father’s Day
This year, Father’s Day is June 21st. The first Father’s Day was observed on July 5, 1908, in West Virginia, after a horrific mining accident killed hundreds of men. The first Father’s Day to become an annual celebration on the third Thursday in June occurred in Spokane, Washington, in 1910. It became a national holiday in 1972.
If you are a father, if you have a great relationship with your father, or if you have a bad or non-existent relationship with your father, we hope that you have a Happy Father’s Day!
We always recommend books as gifts, but if you’re looking for activities, St. Louis Calendar has some great ideas. Click the banner below to find some book recommendations!
Summer Recommendations
June 21st is the first day of summer! Happy Summer! The bookstore is a perfect place to visit on a hot day. Check out our summer book recommendations by clicking the banner below!
Reminders
If you’re a local maker, and you want to display your wares in TBR Books, please visit our Artisans and Vendors page, read the FAQ, and fill out the application! We’ve got a few empty shelves that need filled.
Nothing in this newsletter is knowingly made using AI. All of the graphics are made in Canva (avoiding AI features), and all information shared is personally researched. Links are provided to share information sources and provide access to more information if you want it. More on our AI policy can be found here.
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