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Fifth Anniversary of Books Through Bars and Freebird Books bundles--over 25,000 copies collected since June 2020

6/1/2025

Celebrate Pride Month and help Books Through Bars stock up on LGBTQ+ titles for the coming months.
$30 purchases an assortment of three titles (43% off retail)*

For the fifth anniversary of the Freebird/Books Through Bars bundle campaign, we focus on subject material that might not pass muster at the U.S. Naval Academy library, but that incarcerated readers are welcome to request and receive.

A huge thanks to everyone who contributed to the recent drive for mysteries and thrillers. Your generosity will help Books Through Bars re-shelve their section with 550 copies! Which comes on the heels of the previous campaign for sci fi and fantasy which yielded 650 copies. Which officially tips us over 25,000 books collected since the bundle campaign was inaugurated exactly five years ago this month.For June 2025 we step away from genre fiction to celebrate Pride with three works that shed light on the important role of an increasingly maligned community: The Stonewall Reader, an anthology chronicling the tumultuous fight for LGBTQ rights in the 1960s and the activists who spearheaded it, with a foreword by Edmund White; A Queer History of the United States, the first comprehensive history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender America, from pre-1492 to the present; and On Being Different, Merle Miller's early and groundbreaking defense of gay liberation—now a Penguin Classic and with a foreword by Dan Savage.

BTB Bundle: Pride Month Picks

$53.00 $30.00

Freebird's June 2025 picks include a selection of LGBTQ-related titles: On Being Different; A Queer History of the United States; and The Stonewall Reader. $30 for three books.

Please note that when Square processes your order they describe it as a "digital delivery". That does not refer to way the books will be delivered to incarcerated readers. Your purchase will go towards NYC Books Through Bars fulfilling requests with physical copies of the aforementioned titles.

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April/May Books Through Bars Drive (Mystery and Thriller)

4/7/2025

April/May's focus--a roundup of mystery and thriller titles from Penguin Random House publishers: $30 for five books A huge thanks to everyone who contributed to the recent drive for scifi and fantasy. Your generosity will help Books Through Bars re-shelve their section with 650 copies! They will go fast, however, as genre does. Which is why we turn our attention to mysteries and thrillers.To help Books Through Bars restock their mystery and thriller sections, we are making available a variety pack of the genre (Penguin Random House titles) for $30. While donations of used books in this category continue to be dropped off at the store (and please keep them coming), prisons are establishing higher thresholds for the condition and wear-and-tear of the copies. These unstained, undog-eared editions will help guarantee their delivery to incarcerated readers.

BTB bundle: Mystery and Thriller

$54.00 $30.00

Freebird's April/May picks include a selection from Penguin Random House's catalog of mystery and thriller titles: $30 for five books

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February/March 2025 Books Through Bars drive (scifi/fantasy)

2/1/2025

We begin 2025 with a call for science fiction and fantasy titles. Books Through Bars receives a steady number of requests for genre books throughout the year, and currently their library is running especially low for sci fi and fantasy. Please help them restock for the coming months.
$30 purchases an assortment of 4 titles from the Tor/Forge catalog (35% off retail)*

A huge thanks to everyone who contributed to the annual almanac drive, which brought in a record 630 books! Those should help Books Through Bars fulfill all their almanac requests till the 2026 edition is available in December. Until then, we will continue to fill in the cracks in their library (which we recently cleaned up and organized). To help them restock their fantasy and science fiction sections, we are making available a variety pack of the genre (all Tor/Forge titles) for $30. While donations of used books in this category continue to be dropped off at the store (and please keep them coming), prisons are establishing higher thresholds for the condition and wear-and-tear of the copies. These unstained, undog-eared editions will help guarantee their delivery to incarcerated readers.

Books Through Bars annual almanac drive--help us collect 600!

11/8/2024

We look ahead to 2025 with the release of the latest World Almanac. Books Through Bars is always in short supply of this high demand reference work. Please help them restock for the coming months: $30 purchases 3 almanacs (45% off retail)*

Every year we do a push for the latest almanac--next to dictionaries and comic books the most requested item by incarcerated readers. With the 2025 edition of the World Almanac and Book of Facts soon to pub, we hope you can help us match or exceed last year's tally (540). BTB was able to fulfill requests of that 2024 edition until recently, and now is looking to stock up for the next 12 months. For readers starved of news outside their walls, an almanac provides necessary context of the contemporary scene.

We also want to thank everyone who contributed to our last bundle, featuring three AK press titles: Octavia's Brood, Angels with Dirty Faces, and Grievers. Because of your generosity we will be able to send out another 255 books to prisons nationwide.

*Each purchased bundle will be delivered directly to Books Through Bars so that they can fulfill requests from incarcerated readers. If you wish to purchase one of these titles for yourself, you can go to https://bookshop.org/shop/FreebirdBooks.

World Almanac

$54.00 $30.00

Freebird's November/December 2024 pick include three copies of the 2025 World Almanac-- $30 for three copies

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July 2024 Books Through Bars pick: Voices of the Incarcerated--only $20 this month

6/30/2024

For Freebird's 20th anniversary--and with the help of Scribner/Simon & Schuster--
$20 gets three books sent to incarcerated readers (61% off retail)
With special thanks to Scribner (the publisher of these three titles), we are able to focus the bundle on writers who themselves have experienced incarceration. Mitchell Jackson began his acclaimed literary career shortly after being paroled from an Oregon prison in 1998. He is now a Pulitzer Prize-winning essayist, novelist, and memoirist, whose book Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family explores gangs and guns, near-death experiences, sex work, masculinity, composite fathers, the concept of “hustle,” and the destructive power of addiction—all framed within his personal story, his family, and his community.
Curtis Dawkins is currently serving a life sentence in Michigan, where he has been actively writing and publishing fiction since the mid-2000s. Those stories were collected into the 2017 book, The Graybar Hotel, critically praised for revealing the idiosyncrasies, tedium, and desperation of long-term incarceration—a searing description of the struggle to keep one's soul alive in the face of daunting daily challenges.

For purchasing the above two titles, Scribner will match with a copy of John Edgar Wideman's classic work, Brothers and Keepers. A gripping, unsettling account, Brothers and Keepers weighs the bonds of blood, affection, and guilt that connect Wideman and his brother and measures the distance that lies between them. “If you care at all about brotherhood and dignity…this is a must-read book” (The Denver Post). In includes an afterword by his brother Robert Wideman, released in 2019 after more than fifty years in prison.

BTB Bundle: Voices of the Incarcerated (Jackson, Dawkins, Wideman)

$51.00 $20.00

Freebird's July 2024 picks include Mitchell Jackson's Survival Math, Curtis Dawkins's The Graybar Hotel, and John Edgar Wideman's Brothers and Keepers: $20 for three books

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April/May 2024's pick for NYC Books Through Bars

3/31/2024

April/May 2024's pick--a variety pack of Harvard Business Review's 20-Minute Manager guides, $30 for four books
After heeding our call in February and March, your contributions allowed us to purchase 720 copies of how-to-draw books on behalf of Books Through Bars. Thank you so much! For the next campaign (which again will be over two months), BTB asked us to focus on business advice books. For $30 we will pick a variety of four titles from Harvard Business Review's 20-Minute Manager series:

Finance Basics explains the fundamentals of corporate finance--and its jargon.
Running Meetings gives you the tools and checklists you need to keep your meetings effective and efficient.
Presentations helps you create and deliver a persuasive performance, fast.
Managing Projects shows you how to set up and execute on a project plan.
Managing Time helps you to figure out where all the minutes of your day are going--and how to get them under control.
Getting Work Done helps you to use each of those minutes more productively.
Creating Business Plans shows you how to present the risks and rewards of your idea.
Managing Up helps you to build your relationship with your boss.
Delegating Work shows you how to hand work off right.
Giving Effective Feedback teaches you how to make potentially difficult confrontations and turn them into productive conversations.

HBR 20-Minute Manager books for Books Through Bars

$52.00 $30.00

Freebird's April/May 2024 picks include a selection from Harvard Business Review's 20-Minute Manager guides (Finance Basics; Running Meetings; Presentations; Managing Projects; Managing Time; Getting Work Done; Creating Business Plans; Managing Up; Delegating Work; Giving Effective Feedback), $30 for four books

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February/March 2024 Books Through Bars book drive

1/29/2024

February/March 2024's pick--a variety pack of drawing instructional guides, $30 for five books
After heeding our call in November and December, your contributions allowed us to purchase 540 copies of the latest World Almanac (blowing past our goal of 400) on behalf of Books Through Bars. It made us realize that in 2024 we may need to re-orient our campaigns to be more focused and extended around a single theme (so two months per bundle, rather than 30 days). With that in mind, we asked Books Through Bars what they in particular need of for the coming months and they responded with how-to-draw books. For $30 we will pick a variety of five titles from two different series: Search Press's How to Draw in Simple Steps; and Watson-Guptill's Draw 50 (people, buildings, cartoon characters, airplanes, animals, flowers, and others).

How to Draw books for Books Through Bars

$50.00 $30.00

Freebird's Feb/March 2024 picks include a selection from the Search Press's How to Draw in Simple Steps and Watson-Guptill's Draw 50 (i.e. people, buildings, cartoon characters, airplanes, animals, flowers, and others).-- $30 for five books

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We will be closed over the Labor Day weekend

8/26/2023

Freebird's July 2023 book drive for Books Through Bars looks to the skies and under the hood

7/1/2023

July's book bundle for incarcerated readers are all about planes, trains, automobiles...and zeppelins
$30 purchases three books (45% off retail)*

Following our campaign (collecting 204 books!) that focused on game play and honing thought and strategy, we hit on a transportation theme. A steady subset of requests amongst incarcerated readers are manuals for learning a trade. And especially as they relate to cars. Here we include a beginners guide on Auto Repair and Maintenance to inspire those budding mechanics. On the aeronautics side, Empires of the Sky tells the dramatic story of the early 20th century battle between airships and airplanes for dominance in international travel (concluding with the fiery crash of the Hindenburg). And we round these out with a title from the Draw 50 series--art instruction remains one of the most in-demand topics--featuring how to draw other vehicular conveyances: trains, ships, and fighter planes.

*Each purchased bundle will be delivered directly to Books Through Bars so that they can fulfill requests from incarcerated readers. If you wish to purchase one of these titles for yourself, you can go to https://bookshop.org/shop/FreebirdBooks.

June's book bundle for incarcerated readers focuses on games that require thought and strategy--$30 purchases three books (39% off retail)*

6/1/2023

Chess Tactics, Card Games, and The Big Trivia Quiz Book

$49.00 $30.00

Freebird's June 2023 focuses on three titles-- $30 helps purchase for incarcerated readers copies of Chess Tactics for Champions, Penguin Book of Card Games, and The Big Trivia Quiz Book.

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Following our campaign (collecting 200 books!) that focused on the Western and books that pushed the boundaries of that genre, we go back to a perennial favorite: game play. How to play chess or improve one's strategies is frequently requested, as well as books to test one's knowledge or learn a new card game. We feature for June: Chess Tactics for Champions by Susan Polgar, The Penguin Book of Card Games by David Parlett, and The Big Trivia Quiz Book.

*Each purchased bundle will be delivered directly to Books Through Bars so that they can fulfill requests from incarcerated readers. If you wish to purchase one of these titles for yourself, you can go to https://bookshop.org/shop/FreebirdBooks.

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Fifth Anniversary of Books Through Bars and Freebird Books bundles--over 25,000 copies collected since June 2020

Celebrate Pride Month and help Books Through Bars stock up on LGBTQ+ titles for the coming months.
$30 purchases an assortment of three titles (43% off retail)*

BTB Bundle: Pride Month Picks

April/May Books Through Bars Drive (Mystery and Thriller)

BTB bundle: Mystery and Thriller

February/March 2025 Books Through Bars drive (scifi/fantasy)

Books Through Bars annual almanac drive--help us collect 600!

World Almanac

July 2024 Books Through Bars pick: Voices of the Incarcerated--only $20 this month

BTB Bundle: Voices of the Incarcerated (Jackson, Dawkins, Wideman)

April/May 2024's pick for NYC Books Through Bars

HBR 20-Minute Manager books for Books Through Bars

February/March 2024 Books Through Bars book drive

How to Draw books for Books Through Bars

We will be closed over the Labor Day weekend

Freebird's July 2023 book drive for Books Through Bars looks to the skies and under the hood

June's book bundle for incarcerated readers focuses on games that require thought and strategy--$30 purchases three books (39% off retail)*

Chess Tactics, Card Games, and The Big Trivia Quiz Book

Sign up for our newsletter

Archives

Celebrate Pride Month and help Books Through Bars stock up on LGBTQ+ titles for the coming months.$30 purchases an assortment of three titles (43% off retail)*

BTB Bundle: Pride Month Picks

BTB bundle: Mystery and Thriller

World Almanac

BTB Bundle: Voices of the Incarcerated (Jackson, Dawkins, Wideman)

HBR 20-Minute Manager books for Books Through Bars

How to Draw books for Books Through Bars

Chess Tactics, Card Games, and The Big Trivia Quiz Book

Sign up for our newsletter

Archives

Celebrate Pride Month and help Books Through Bars stock up on LGBTQ+ titles for the coming months.
$30 purchases an assortment of three titles (43% off retail)*