February 2025, listen, whatever

Headline inspired by nightmare retail customers via Lyndsey Frank, specifically my friend Nina's character.

Sorry to link to TikTok. I watch them on Reels because I am an old.

I spent most of February sleeping, and no, I wasn't sick. I've had weird little aches and pains, which I'm almost positive are about playing too much Stardew Valley slumped on the couch. I don't regret a thing! But I do have a few weeks of physical therapy scheduled to start later this month.

I slept a lot in February because it is winter. I live in Seattle, and many of us experience seasonal affective disorder, and many of us forget that we experience seasonal affective disorder. I try to remind myself that I believe in the concept of wintering, which I learned about in therapy and through reading Katherine May's book. She didn't invent the idea of slowing down in the winter, but I have read the book a few times and think of it often.

“We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.”

The above quote from Wintering by Katherine May.

I firmly believe in listening to my body; I will rest when I'm tired and can seize the moment. And you should too, when and if you can. I'm sharing this because I didn't read a ton of books in February, or it felt like I didn't read a ton. What I did do was sleep, watch Twin Peaks, and hate-listen to a podcast about Gilmore girls.

And then the sun came out last week, and it was over 60 degrees on Thursday. I felt like a person again, and then felt silly for forgetting that I need vitamin D to feel like a person. I'm eagerly awaiting the return of spring, and with it, hopefully, a renewed sense of energy, fewer naps, fewer aches, and more books on park benches.

Here's what I read in listless ass February.

[What I read]

Lessons on Expulsion: Poems by Erika L. Sánchez (2017) | Quick summary: An exploration of living on both sides of the border in myriad ways.
Y'all know how I feel about poetry. I get it sometimes; I don't get it others. Though I really like Sánchez's voice, I think I'll prefer her fiction.
[nonfiction, poetry, written by a mexican american poet and writer, short read]

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance by Zora Neale Hurston (2020) | Quick summary: A compilation of Hurston's recovered short stories about society and human life.
"Zora Neale Hurston is one of my very favorite writers. I vividly remember many of my peers having a hard time reading her characters' dialogue, but to me, it read as plain as day. It still does. I'll always most love Their Eyes Were Watching God, but what a treat to read some of her other stories and characters. Impressed with the work curating these stories. What a gift." written on my bookish instagram after finishing.
[fiction, short stories, written by a Black american writer, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker, medium-length read]

Park Bench by Christophe Chabouté (2017) | Quick summary: A community unknowingly connects through a lovely park bench.
I picked this up for the "wordless comic" prompt of the Book Riot challenge, and little did I know, a wordless comic could make me cry! I adored this.
[fiction, graphic novel, wordless comic, created by a white french comics artist, medium-length read]

Don't Go Where I Can't Follow by Anders Nilsen (2006) | Quick summary: A collection of letters, drawings, and photos about love, cancer, and grief.
Me and my grief books! I liked the multimedia aspect of this book. I found it to be a really personal and familiar approach to processing love, illness, and eventual loss. I hope everyone who knew and loved Cheryl Weaver is doing okay without her.
[nonfiction, graphic novel, created by a white american cartoonish, shorter read]

Good Grief by Brianna Pastor (2024) | Quick summary: A poetry collection regarding identity, grief, trauma, and mental illness.
I'm sure these poems are for someone, but they weren't for me! I do not remember any of them. Sorry to Brianna Pastor, I'm sure she's phenomenal.
[nonfiction, poetry, written by a white queer american poet and writer, "empath and advocate," shorter read]

Night Bus by Zuo Ma, translated by Orion Martin (2021) | Quick summary: A nostalgic journey through the countryside.
I felt the same way reading this as I did while reading Park Bench, just without the tears at the end. I am a magical realism fan, and it is always very cool to experience that genre in comic form because you get the matching visuals. Night Bus was weird and beautiful and I liked it a lot.
[fiction, graphic novel, written by a chinese cartoonist and freelance illustrator, translated by a white american student of chinese, medium-length read]

[What I heard]

Cher: The Memoir, Part One by Cher (2024) | Quick summary: The first part of the singer, actress, and entertainer, Cher's memoir.
That was the most needless "quick summary" I've ever written. I believe there will be three Cher memoirs; honestly, that may not be enough for me. This woman is incredible, with her memory for detail, her storytelling, her humor, her disdain for straight men, her love for Sonny. Part One ends right about when Cher's movie career begins, so this is mostly about her early childhood and being Sonny & Cher. I wish I could tell you she reads the whole thing but she does not. She intros every chapter, and then it suddenly switches over to a close friend and stage actor, who, after you adjust to the voice change, sounds a lot like Cher, so it worked for me. What a life! What a woman! I can't wait for the next part.
[nonfiction, celebrity memoir, written by a white armenian american singer, actress, and television personality, long listen, read by the author and stephanie j. block]

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond (2023) | Quick summary: An exploration into why the United States allows its people to live in poverty.
After finishing Evicted, I'm a Desmond fan and couldn't wait to get to Poverty. Though Evicted read well as an audiobook, I felt lost in the depth of Poverty's statistics and data, so I regretted choosing the audiobook. I listened to the whole thing but bought a (used on ebay!) copy to spend more time with Poverty. It's on my table now, and I'm eager to get out a highlighter. It's a book I'll study a la Dorothy Roberts and Isabel Wilkerson's books.
[nonfiction, poverty and sociology, written by a white sociologist and professor, medium-length listen, read by dion graham]

[Reading challenges]

• For Book Riot’s 2025 Read Harder Challenge:
  • Night Bus by Zuo Ma: "a comic in translation"
  • Park Bench by Christophe Chabouté: "a wordless comic"

[What I recommend]

• If you like to feel: Park Bench
• If you are a fan of Cher: Cher: The Memoir, Part One
• If you're a person!!!!!: Poverty, by America

Thank you for meeting me over here, as I have left Substack, which I wrote about here. The tl;dr is I don't want Chris Best, Jairaj Sethi, and Hamish McKenzie to have any more power than they already do. I don't trust big tech!

But I sure love you guys. xo

"We Negroes in Eatonville know a number of things that the hustling, bustling white man never dreams of. He is a materialist with little care for overtones." Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick

"i swear the entire sky was on fire when you died." Don't Go Where I Can't Follow

"i spend a generous amount of time trying to convince myself that i am worthy of taking up space in a world that i find myself constantly needing space from." Good Grief

"Liberals have a despondency problem. Fluent in the language of grievance, and bumbling in the language of repair." Poverty