Kate Houston - Rock Star Librarian

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫. 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭.

While I was still deep in surgeries last fall, I said yes to writing a book.

I know.
Very "me," apparently.

Mia Saenz and I dreamed it up together — two survivors, co-authors from day one. Mia's walked every mile of this road, recurrence and all. She's my coaching colleague, my co-author, and now my full-on breastie sister.

We built the whole thing together, then invited eight other members of the club no one wants to be a part of to bring their incredible stories into it too.

Voilà. 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐢𝐟𝐭 was born.

I didn't stay in "Why me?"
I leaned hard into "What now?"

"Get busy living or get busy dying."
F&*%kYeah, that.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰 turned out to be three enormous things:

🐎 A book — Cancer, the Gift: A Breast Cancer Survivor's Companion to Defiant Joy and Grace. Real. Published. Spine, ISBN, and everything.

🐎 Accepting the amazing position of 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐲 in White Salmon, Washington.

🐎 A move to what I am now calling, without apology, 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐞.
This is my Year of the Fire Horse, friends. And I am fully on that horse.

Two things I need from you:

𝟏. 𝐈'𝐦 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬.
Drop "early reader" below if you'd be willing to read an advance copy and leave an honest review. I'll reach out with details.
This means the world.

2. 𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐥𝐥 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 — 𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐭. (Dropping where to get it below.)

And after the year I've had?
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐝. 😄🐎🔥

T**s Up, Kate

Inspire Big Dreams Coaching & Consulting Stacy Yardley Katherine Froggatt Health & Wellness Coach Coaching With Maria Marnie Clark, Breast Health Coach Coach Christie Miller

(Library photo by the amazing Geoffrey Squier Silver Photography)

For the deep-dive music heads, live-recording obsessives, and fellow audiophile nerds: I’m about to drop something special in the comments.

Back in 1989 in Chicago, Aadam Jacobs started slipping a little Sony cassette recorder into concerts and capturing live sets as they happened. One of those tapes caught a then-unknown band at a tiny club opening with, “Hello, we’re Nirvana. We’re from Seattle.” Long before Nevermind, long before the world caught up.

That recording is just one small piece of a massive archive: more than 10,000 live shows he documented over the years. Now volunteers in the U.S. and Europe are helping preserve, digitize, and upload the collection through the Internet Archive.

This is for the truly myopic, beautiful-music-wormhole people. The ones who love live grit, analog devotion, and going all the way down the rabbit hole. Maybe it gives you a place to disappear for a while this weekend and forget the rest of the world for a minute.

Enjoy. You’re welcome.

Who are my Burner peeps in upstate New York, Buffalo Rochester?
Got a friend moving there-wants to connect with the Burner weirdos.

Serious shoe envy here….

ON SALE TODAY AT 10am !
Duran Duran x BST Hyde Park with special guests Scissor Sisters!

Sunday, 05 July, 2026
Tickets: https://bstfe.st/duranduranbst

See you in London ! 🇬🇧