Sunny's Shared Spines

06/12/2023

Inspired by my love for community and reading, I am excited to announce that I have founded a pop-up bookstore; Golden Hour Bookstore. 🌅📚

Golden Hour provides a unique selection of librarian curated books for kids, teens, and adults. We aim to provide a diverse collection of secondhand books that promote a diverse range of genres, authors, and characters.

Our dream is to convert a 2 horse trailer into a mini mobile library so we can provide a bookish escape for late-night readers by popping up weekdays at dusk, and during weekends at markets and on-location with local businesses.

Follow along with our journey at .

Visit us and meet founder/owner Samantha at the Sycamore Farmer’s Market on June 20th from 3-7pm.

Coming soon:

03/28/2021

Hello All! You may have been wondering where I have been for the last few months💁‍♀️. Let me crack the spine and turn the cover to the most recent chapter of our story:

In November I started a job 60 miles away in a rural library. I love it! But it’s 60 miles away😫. I get home between 7:30-8:00pm every work night.

Wanting to buy a home in a rural area for a couple years but being unsure where, finding this job was the perfect catalyst we needed, and, it happened to be located in a beautiful town that reminds me of where I grew up in NJ.

2021 has unfortunately been a stressful, rough, and emotionally and physically painful year, but, its been full of many wonderful things as well.

Founding Sunny’s Shared Spines in May of 2020 was amazing. I have met so many wonderful people in the Humboldt Park, Logan Square, and free and equitable access to Literacy communities. Most especially are the following important movers and shakers in the Lit community who helped me, and embraced me, through fundraising, promoting, supporting, and partnering.

Please give them a follow: Nancy with , Laura with , and Tashay with .

It’s finally time to leave Chicago after living here since I was 18 in 2004! I am moving tomorrow!

My goal is to re-open Sunny’s Shared Spines where I find my future home, and to once again bring free diverse books to a new community of neighbors who love to read as much as you do.

I want to especially thank some of my top patrons, who helped me circulate my books through our ‘hood: Wendy S., Ellie H., Therese S., Amanda S., Dahlia M.G., Julie F., Betsy E., Bekah M., Katherine A., Kimberly T., Ale F., Mini B., Michael F., Courtney T., and everyone else who has shared in the delight of using the secret combo to open the BookBox to take out a little bag with a new adventure waiting inside.

I am moving on to the next chapter, but Sunny’s Shared Spines is not ending yet, merely taking a break.

Support your local libraries, get vaccinated if you can, keep reading and sharing stories, and continue donating and supporting literacy and mutual aid groups!

Love always,
Sunny💕

10/21/2020

Sunny’s Spooky Stories continues with “American Supernatural Tales”, a compendium of horror tales edited by S. T. Joshi with series editor Guillermo Del Toro. Filled with 26 stories from authors such as Henry James, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe and Shirley Jackson, this volume from Penguin Horror is a beautiful book both inside and out. With black edging, a glossy raised heart on the cover and shadowy pages, this book is sure to delight any reader with horribly amazing tales. Available to borrow now at SunnysSharedSpines.com!

10/19/2020

It’s that time of the year to re-read the story of the Owens family. Like all of Alice Hoffman’s readers, I fell in love with Gillian and Sally, their aunt’s, their future, and now I can fall in love with their past. This is our chance to learn more about the matriarch of the magic of the Owens; Maria. Set in the 1600’s Maria Owens is betrayed by a man she loves and her pain creates a curse that dooms any man who dares to love an Owens woman for generations to come.

I can’t wait to dive into this book, it’s sure to be as beloved at the other two in this series. Thank you to and / for sending me this tote and signed bookplate as a winner of their giveaway! “Fall”ing in love again with the magical Owens family is just what the witch doctor prescribed. I’m officially kicking off my “Sunny’s Spooky Spines” Halloween reads. (This one won’t be available right away to borrow because I’ve got dibs 😂.)

10/11/2020

It’s a Sunday Fundraiser Giveaway! Donate $1 to get a donor’s button and you could also win: a copy of Dominicana so you can read along with our Story Society, a blue S3 mug, a tote bag, and an icon button!

Each $1 you donate gets you an entry to win!

Details below:

To enter-
•Donate $1 or more through our donation page on the website. You can use PayPal or Venmo.
• This is a national giveaway!
• Be sure you’re following me so I can tag you if you’re the winner!
• Tag any friends who might be interested in donating to our library to provide free books for the community.
•Every local donor (who can pickup from zipcode 60647) will get an icon button. See second picture for the button close-up!

If you are not local and would like a button, donate at least $5 (to cover the cost of shipping the button) please, and let me know in a comment that you’d like a button mailed to you!

Funds raised will be used to purchase affordable children’s books to put on the free shelves at , and, to purchase adult bestsellers for the main circulating library!

Thank you for your support and generosity! I’m so excited for the winner, you’re going to love Dominicana and showing off your support of Sunny’s Shared Spines!

-Warmly, Sunny💕

@ Chicago, Illinois

10/05/2020

New buttons have arrived! First 15 people to visit get one for free!

I am selling these buttons for $1 since we have no more book purchasing funds and I would like to add more free children’s books to the small shelves at MeLatte.

Thank you to those who have donated to our donation jar at the coffee shop! I’ve been able to buy a couple books with your donations, and am very grateful!

Enjoy the new buttons! DM me to purchase one locally for a $1 donation!

-XLibris, Sunny 💕

09/29/2020

It’s a and book drop! Find a free book in Humboldt Park! View my stories to see where I’ve hidden them!

Today’s drop is Historically Inaccurate by !

About the book:

It only takes one moment to change your life forever . . .

After her mother’s deportation last year, all Soledad “Sol” Gutierrez wants is for her life to go back to normal. Everything’s changed—new apartment, new school, new family dynamic—and Sol desperately wants to fit in. When she joins her community college’s history club, it comes with an odd initiation process: break into Westray’s oldest house and steal . . . a fork?

There’s just one problem: while the owners of the house aren’t home, their grandson Ethan is, and when he catches Sol with her hand in the kitchen drawer, she barely escapes with the fork intact. This one chance encounter irrevocably alters her life, and Sol soon learns that sometimes fitting in isn’t as important as being yourself—even if that’s the hardest thing she’s ever had to do.

About the author:

Shay Bravo is a Mexican born author who has now lived half of her life in the USA. She began sharing her work online through Wattpad when she was fifteen years old and has connected with over 114,000 followers. Historically Inaccurate won the 2019 Watty Awards and is her first novel.

09/22/2020

If you entered to win a copy of Dominicana to read the first book of Sunny’s Story Society with us, check your email to see if you won and how to take the next steps!

Thank you everyone for your interest, I look forward to having you read along with us and attend the big end meeting to chat and ask questions! I will post the weekly readings and chapters once I hear from everyone about their desired reading time-frame!

09/16/2020

🙌I’m looking for members for our new book club Sunny’s Story Society📚!

Thanks to , our first read will be Dominicana by Angie Cruz! 9 other readers will join me during or to read this novel!

📖A bit about the book:
Shortlisted for the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction, Angie Cruz’s Dominicana is the story of 15-year-old Ana Cancion who never dreamed of moving to America like her friends. She was happy in the Dominican countryside. But when Ana is proposed to by Juan Ruiz, a man twice her age and a man she doesn’t love, she has to accept his proposal so that her whole family can have an opportunity to eventually immigrate to America.

So on New Year’s Day 1965, Ana marries Juan and becomes Ana Ruiz, a wife taken from her quiet and peaceful countryside to the big and bustling New York City and confined to her six-floor walk-up.

Ana becomes depressed and lonely and wishes to escape back home, but Juan’s younger brother Cesar convinces her to stay.

When political tensions rise in the Dominican Republic, Juan goes back home to protect his family and their estate, leaving Ana and Cesar behind.

Through exploring the city and fun experiences with the free-spirited Cesar, Ana begins to become the person she dreamed she would be in America.

But when Juan returns, Ana has to choose between her heart and her duty to her family.

📚How do you enter to win one of 9 spots in the S3 Society?
Head to the website 🔗in bio, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and fill out the entry form!

🥳Winners will be picked at random to read, keep, and speak about the book in the Story Society. The winners will be contacted by email by end of day Sunday 20th!

I can’t wait to see who I’ll share the first Sunny’s Story Society virtual book club experience with!

-XLibirs, Sunny💕

*Readers from all over the US are allowed to enter! I will ship the book to you*

09/16/2020

Introducing Sunny’s Story Society: the Sunny’s Shared Spines Book Club!

Watch the video to learn about the Society become a member of our first virtual book club!

09/15/2020

Our double-sided grocery tote and pink mug! I wanted to provide you with a large gusseted tote you could fill with books from Sunny’s Shared Spines. The tote is double sided and has our horizontal logo on the other side.

The mug is beautiful and shiny with two sides to share your library love! I call this one my left-handed version so the library name shows outward while holding and you get to look at the cute icon while you sip!

You can own these and many more items through our website shop! There’s a 20% off $25 first-order code on the site, and 10% of every sale goes back to us so I can buy more books for you!!