Last weekend, Charis Circle, the non-profit programming arm of Charis Books and More, Atlanta, Ga., hosted a two-part read-a-thon, #charisreads, that raised more than $5,000 for the organization's new building fund and programming space.
Community members, customers, and staff took pledges and read for 24 hours at home while Charis Books co-owner Angela Gabriel held a 5-hour long marathon children's story hour in the bookshop, during which she read 58 books aloud and raised more than $1,000 in pledges.
Adult books ("A very representative list of what our broader community is reading right now," Charis noted) read during the read-a-thon included Alexander Chee's How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, Kiese Laymon's forthcoming memoir Heavy, Tommy Orange's novel There There, Darnell Moore's No Ashes in the Fire, Stacey Abrams's Minority Leader, Zora Neale Hurston's Baracoon, Dust Tracks on a Road, and Their Eyes Were Watching God, Octavia Butler's Fledgling, Jordy Rosenberg's Confessions of the Fox, Christina Crosby's A Body, Undone, and Maggie Nelson's Something Bright, Then Holes and Bluets.