Collaboration alert! The Tucson Tome Gnome is partnering with our friends at Humane Borders over the next few weeks on two bookish events!

First up (and coming tomorrow, October 26!), we are partnering with Humane Borders on an immigration and border-themed bookish scavenger hunt! Tomorrow we’ll be hiding 16 books all over Tucson — two copies of each of the following books:

• We Were Strangers Once, Too, edited by Shawn Adler: Drawing from students across the entire city of Newark, New Jersey, this edited volume is a powerful collection of 58 first-person memoirs by Newark students exploring immigration, identity, and belonging across 24 countries and 5 continents. Each vivid account offers an intimate look at the immigrant experience in America, with all proceeds supporting students in need at Newark public schools. BUY IT HERE
• Everyone Who is Gone is Here, by Jonathan Blitzer: This book offers a deeply reported, human portrait of the U.S.–Mexico border crisis, tracing its roots through decades of failed policy and corruption. Through intertwined stories of Central American migrants, U.S. officials, and activists, Blitzer exposes the complex forces shaping one of today’s most urgent humanitarian struggles. BUY IT HERE
• The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantu: This memoir bridges Francisco’s experiences as a U.S. Border Patrol agent and the son of a Mexican immigrant. With lyrical prose and moral clarity, Cantú confronts the human cost of border enforcement, exploring how national divides leave lasting marks on both sides of the line. BUY IT HERE
• The Border Simulator by Gabriel Dozal: This beautiful, bilingual debut poetry collection reimagines the U.S.–Mexico border as both a physical and virtual landscape of invention and resistance. Following siblings Primitivo and Primitiva, Dozal’s vivid, shape-shifting poems explore migration, technology, and identity with wit, urgency, and lyric brilliance. BUY IT HERE
• Soldiers and Kings by Jason De León: Winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction, this book offers a gripping, compassionate portrait of the people navigating Central America’s perilous migration routes. Drawing on seven years of fieldwork, De León exposes the human cost of U.S. border policy and the limited choices faced by those caught in cycles of violence and survival. BUY IT HERE
• My Side of the River by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez: This powerful memoir is about growing up as the U.S.-born daughter of Mexican immigrants and facing family separation at 15. With honesty and hope, Gutierrez recounts her fight to survive, care for her brother, and pursue education as an “unaccompanied minor” amid the hardships created by America’s immigration system. BUY IT HERE
• Dora: A Daughter of Unforgiving Terrain by Dora Rodriguez: This is a moving memoir of survival, courage, and purpose set in Tucson. Recounting her escape from El Salvador’s civil war and her near-fatal desert crossing in 1980, Rodriguez transforms tragedy into advocacy, sharing how her journey inspired the Sanctuary movement in Tucson and her lifelong humanitarian work on the border as the founder of Salvavision AND board member of Humane Borders. BUY IT HERE
• Solito by Javier Zamora: This award-winning memoir follows a nine-year-old boy’s solo journey from El Salvador to the U.S. in search of his parents. With vivid honesty and deep compassion, Zamora captures both the peril and the profound humanity of migration, revealing the courage, loss, and unexpected love that shape the journey north. BUY IT HERE

AND THEN, in two weeks (on November 9 from 2-4:30pm), we’ll be joining Humane Borders at their campus in South Tucson for a pre-All Souls Procession afternoon of art, literature, and remembrance as we honor lives lost in the desert and prepare to walk together in the All Souls Procession. The Tucson Tome Gnome will be hosting a book swap/book-sharing table at the event, and we’ll pre-populate the table with additional (free!) copies of the books noted above, plus a few other goodies. We would LOVE to see you all there!!! And if you swing by, feel free to bring a book to share (bonus points if it’s immigration, border, or Dia de los Muertos-themed!). All are welcome ❤