By now, you hopefully have read our previous announcement (pretty please with a cherry on top, go click that and read that first if you haven’t yet!!!) about us expanding the 2026 TDB team :)
We are so excited to welcome Mylynn as co-host, and ten Discord moderators to the team. We have super fun announcements coming up so stay tuned for more information by November 8th, both via the newsletter here and on our Instagram pages <3
A few gentle reminders
What is the November prompt?
There is no *set* monthly prompt this year. This challenge is fully up to you :)
You can choose whichever book you want for each month, as long as it fits one of the ~90 prompts we’ve listed and is written by a racialized author.
What does “racialized” mean?
We included a definition of this:
Where are the prompts listed?
Storygraph challenge
Pinned Substack announcement
Bookish Millennials Book Club
Thanks to Cass, Katelyn & Andrew for joining the last book club meeting to discuss The Truth About Immigration by Zeke Hernandez. <3
October book club selection: They Bloom At Night by Trang Thanh Tran
If you’re purchasing & it is accessible to you, get your copy at the following places to support local, indie booksellers:
SUNDAY 9-NOVEMBER: Virtual book club!!!!
We are hosting our sixth synchronous virtual book club meeting for “They Bloom at Night” on Sunday, November 9th at 4pm Pacific Time.
The arrest of Chinese authors of queer stories (danmei and baihe)
For full context on the state crackdown on writers of Haitang in China you should read this article.
Chinese authors are being arrested for writing gay novels on Haitang (a web novel platform belonging to a Taiwanese publisher), with the excuse of “combating online obscenity and pornography”.
Some ways you can help:
Review Spotlight
Thanks for sharing your reviews each month!
Remember to use #TheDiverseBaseline when posting your reviews, and/or tagging us (only if you want to/feel comfortable doing so), so we can find & spotlight them here.
The below photos are hyperlinked to take you to their social media pages :)
Templates and Stickers
In the carrd, you will find links to Canva templates for your Instagram feed and Instagram stories, as well as some fun stickers you can use in your posts.
Recommendations
We have recommendation lists on libro.fm and bookshop.org. If you would like highly recommended books from us, check out our links and support local/indie bookstores in the process (if it’s an accessible option for you).
About the creators
Brittany is a reader from the San Francisco Bay Area. She can be found on substack, instagram, storygraph, bluesky, and has resources here. She also hosts the SF Bay Area chapter of Cassie’s Walking Club on Strava.
Margherita is a reader and indie author from Italy. Xe can be found on instagram and substack. Xyr author website (pen name) with xyr books and editorial services can be found here.
Mylynn is a reader from Guam/Arizona. She can be found in the kitchen after midnight like the gremlin she is and also on instagram, storygraph, and more here.