About The Bold Bookmark
I’ve always loved the written word.
As a child, I stayed up until all hours of the night reading, until my parents would finally confiscate the book so I would get some sleep. Books were an escape. A way of broadening the wonderful but tiny, rural farming town where I grew up. Reading allowed me to try on different lives I couldn’t yet live, fueled my curiosity, and helped me start to make sense of the world and my place within it.
After moving to Seattle for college, I fell in love with the classics. I’d dreamed of becoming a doctor, but came alive when I took courses on politics, history, and religion, ultimately double majoring in Political Science and International Studies: Comparative Religion. Looking back, I realize that storytelling was always the common thread. Politics, religion, law, literature — all are, in their own ways, attempts to make meaning, create community, and understand the world through the power of stories. Humankind is held together by storytellers, and I think that’s a beautiful thing.
After college, I read my way through law school and spent fifteen years as a litigator. Along the way, I had the privilege of studying and working alongside some truly exceptional writers. I read countless court opinions and legal briefs, and even experienced one of the writing highlights of my career: filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Through every season of life, my love of reading has remained constant. One book that profoundly shaped me was Adam Grant’s Give and Take. Reading it gave me permission (that I didn’t realize I’d been waiting for) to stop viewing my inclination to help others as something I needed to temper and instead embrace it as a strength. That perspective has influenced how I practice law, mentor others, volunteer in my community, and ultimately how I approach this site.
For years, one of my favorite ways to encourage and support others was through books. I gifted books to colleagues, mentees, friends, and students — often selecting titles that had helped me navigate a challenge they were facing themselves. When I teach at a local law school, I share a book recommendation list in the hope that a book might arrive in someone’s life at exactly the right moment.
I’ve also had the immense pleasure of sharing my love of reading with my two children, who are currently 10 and 12. I cherish the hours we’ve spent reading together and the books they’ve recommended to me (each of which, I’m convinced, gives me a little more insight into their uniquely wonderful souls). I’m dreading the day they decide they’ve outgrown our nightly read-aloud routine.
A few years ago, I helped bring a Little Free Library to our local Art Park. What began as a small volunteer project quickly became something immensely meaningful, and I still smile whenever I see someone stop to browse its current offerings.
Around the same time, I began volunteering with the Reading Hall of Fame program at my children’s elementary school. Each month, students who completed a reading challenge were able to select a free book. Helping kindergarteners through fifth graders choose books they may enjoy lit up my soul in a way I couldn’t turn away from. For the 2024-2025 school year, I led the program. While I invested far more time, brain power, and money than was probably reasonable, the joy I derived from engaging with these students every month was boundless.
This experience sparked something larger. What began with a school book giveaway program has grown into a broader effort to foster a reading culture in local schools and throughout my community through book fairs, mystery book programs, literacy initiatives, book drives, and other projects aimed at helping young readers discover books they’ll love.
I’m currently taking a temporary sabbatical from active legal practice, and am devoting part of this time to exploring how I can make a larger impact in my community. I’ve been volunteering in my son’s middle school library, experimenting with new reading initiatives, and learning as much as I can about what helps young people develop a lifelong love of reading.
I have long dreamed of writing a book myself. It’s a spark I’ve held close for years, afraid that exposing it to the world — and the critiques that might follow — would extinguish it entirely. Today, I’m beginning to pursue that dream. I’m working on a middle-grade novel, and I’m also taking a smaller but equally meaningful step: sharing my thoughts, ideas, and experiences more publicly through this site.
Because as the heroes and heroines of every great story have shown, life is not to be lived in fear of failure. The protagonist only truly begins to shine once she puts herself out there and dares to be seen and known.
So here I am. Putting myself “out there” through the written word in hopes of encouraging others to foster their own love of reading. The Bold Bookmark is my attempt to contribute to the community that has given me so much. It’s a place where I’ll share book recommendations, literacy initiatives, lessons learned from projects I’ve tried, and honest reflections on what worked — and what didn’t — in hopes that others might find ideas worth adapting for their own communities, schools, libraries, and families.
I’ve long said I’d love to someday open a bookstore, with a café and lots of cozy seating for patrons to settle in and read. Where I’d set up displays highlighting fantastic new books I’ve discovered and want others to experience. Where there would be plenty of space to host community events – book clubs and read-alouds, classes, and support groups. A place where people can gather in comfort, build community, and encounter books that will enhance their lives.
I still dream that someday that bookstore will exist (retirement goals?!). But until then, I’ll claim this tiny corner of the internet and start pursuing the same goals: celebrating books I love, sharing ideas I’ve tried for instilling a love of reading in those around me, and helping connect people with books that touch their heart, expand their mind, and stay with them long after their final pages are turned.
Will you read along with me?
The Bold Bookmark 