January 2025 Wrap-Up and February TBR

Plus the next Booker of the Month and Conversation Pusher picks and upcoming releases on my radar

Hi, friends.

This is a long one, so I’ll keep the intro short: Happy February. It’s tough out there, and I’m focusing on the micro to keep from letting it consume me. We made it through January, I turn 33 years old tomorrow, the days are starting to get longer, and it finally feels like we’re closer to spring than fall. Moving my body feels good. Snuggling my baby feels good. Spending a whole Saturday on the couch listening to audiobooks and crocheting handmade gifts for people I love feels good. Watching the best parts of the internet mobilize to defend the best parts of the world feels good. And talking about books here with you feels good.

One day at a time. Together.

---

What I Read in January

I had a slow start, having read almost zero pages between January 1 and 10, but last month turned into a really good reading month for me. I got through eight books and hit the ground running on many of my reading intentions for the year.

I’m still working on full reviews for these, but the books that have them are linked below. The rest will come over the next few days — check the review blog or stay tuned on Instagram.

Loved

• Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab* 📖: I savored this book over the whole month, and what a decadent delight — pun intended. Schwab is one of our best living storytellers, IMO. This beautiful and bloody sapphic vampire novel sweeps centuries and feels both wholly unique and entirely familiar.

• On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder 📖: A pocket-sized must-read.

Liked a lot

• Tartufo by Kira Jane Buxton*† 📖🎧: What a romp. If you need something funny and fast-paced and wholesome and heartwarming (who doesn’t right now?), this is it.

• Mirrored Heavens (Between Earth and Sky, #3) by Rebecca Roanhorse† 📖🎧: I gobbled this up — a phenomenal ending to a phenomenal trilogy. One of the most compelling parts of this series is the fact that you’re rooting for both sides of the conflict. I didn’t know how she was going to give us something that felt settled on both sides, but she absolutely did.

• We Do Not Part by Han Kang, translated by E. Yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris*† 📖🎧: Dark, unexpected, sad, but also beautiful and deeply resonant. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it on the International Booker list.

• The Mime Order (The Bone Season, #2) by Samantha Shannon 📖🎧: I’m continuing to have so much fun with this series, even if this did feel like a bit of a bridge book (sequel syndrome). But no complaints, because it’s clearly setting us up for some phenomenal plot to come.

Liked

• The Pale Dreamer (The Bone Season, #0.5) by Samantha Shannon 📖: Kelly told me to read this fun, fast little prequel novella before I read The Mime Order, and I’m very glad I did!

Just OK

• How to Read Literature by Terry Eagleton 📖: One of my intentions this year is to learn more about literary theory to become a more reflective reader, but this book wasn’t quite right for me. Despite jacket copy promises, Eagleton’s (many) jokes didn’t stop his tone from feeling a bit too academic to hold my attention, and I ended up skimming much of it.

*print copy gifted to me by the publisher
†audiobook gifted to me by the publisher

---

February TBR

There are so many books I want to read and so little time. I know you can all relate. It’s a beautiful thing but it also makes me feel like a shaken-up bottle of soda sometimes.

To that end, remember how just a week ago I told you that I typically cap my TBR at 10 a month? Well, as my therapist would say, boundaries are not walls.

So this month, there are 12 on the list. BUT! I binged two of them — very short audiobooks — on Saturday while I finished a crochet project, so it feels like I still have a whole month left to read my usual 10. (Yes, we’re ignoring the fact that February only has 28 days.)

The sneaky little guys I read on Saturday:

• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad*†: Out 2/25. Just WOW.

• Three Days in June by Anne Tyler*†: Out 2/11. I have … thoughts, lol.

The main event:

• Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3) by Rebecca Yarros: I didn’t quite get to this in January, so it’s up first in February! Gotta stay ahead of the inevitable spoilers.

• Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor*: This also escaped me in January but is getting rave reviews, so I plan to pick it up in the first half of the month.

• Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry: I managed to get a physical copy from the library on pub day last week, and I’m psyched. Nothing but rave reviews so far.

• Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America from Around the Globe by Natasha Hakimi Zapata*: Out 2/4. This month’s Conversation Pusher — more below!

• Black Woods Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey†: Also out 2/4. A Beauty and the Beast retelling set in Alaska by a Pulitzer Prize finalist? Say less???

• Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods*†: Out 2/18. The Little Mermaid meets Cinderella. I’ll be there.

• Cursebound (Faebound, #2) by Saara El-Arifi*†: Also out 2/18. I liked Faebound a lot and remember it being pretty fast-paced, so I’m excited to get to book two.

• Royal Assassin (The Farseer Trilogy, #2) by Robin Hobb: The Hobb adventure continues!

• The Song Rising (The Bone Season, #3) by Samantha Shannon: The Bone Season adventure also continues!

• How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo†: I’ve been meaning to read this one since it came out, and now I have a physical copy from the library, so it’s time.

*print copy gifted to me by the publisher
†audiobook gifted to me by the publisher

---

Conversation Pushers

If you missed December’s column on On Tyranny, full of actionable insights you can use right now to have productive conversations about politics, you can read it here:

Conversation Pushers #3: On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

I earned $5 in commissions from sales of this book on Bookshop and Libro.fm, so I’ve matched it and donated $10 to the ACLU.

The first two newsletters in this Conversation Pushers column have gotten the lowest views of any of my recent posts, despite the fact that folks were really excited about the column’s initial announcement. Honestly, I think we’re all just exhausted.

So this month, I’m going to go with something hopeful: Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America from Around the Globe by Natasha Hakimi Zapata, which promises “real-world solutions to America's thorniest social problems — from housing to retirement to drug addiction — based on original reporting from around the world.”

Bonus: It’s published by The New Press, an indie publisher focused on “books to change minds about justice.” So I hope you’ll buy a copy with my Bookshop.org link, because this is exactly the kind of publisher who deserves our dollars — and remember, all of my commissions get donated (and matched) to a cause related to the topic.

---

February Booker of the Month

ICYMI, I run a book club called Booker of the Month, where we read one book from the Booker Prize longlist each month. There are 13, so we double up just once, and by the time next year’s longlist is announced, we’ll have read them all.

Our February selection is Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. Join us!!

• Find it on The StoryGraph

• Buy a copy from Bookshop (print or ebook) or Libro.fm (audiobook)

• Sign up for our Zoom discussion on Monday, February 24 at 8 PM ET.

NOTE: Wandering Stars is the sequel to There, There. It’s not 100% required, but I do highly recommend reading There, There before you read Wandering Stars. It's EXCELLENT.

---

February hot releases

FYI, I keep a running list of new releases I’m excited for on my Bookshop storefront, plus a list of recent releases I love or expect to love.

Aside from those mentioned above, the books that I have my eye on in February include:

• Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us by Jennifer Finney Boylan (2/4)

• Gliff by Ali Smith (2/4)

• Idle Grounds by Krystelle Bamford (2/11)

• The World After Gaza: A History by Pankaj Mishra (2/11)

• Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism by Eve L Ewing (2/11)

• The Echoes by Evie Wyld (2/18)

• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (2/25)

---

As always, thanks for sharing your corner of the internet with me! It would mean a lot if you were to take a second to like this post. I’d love to hear how your reading month went in the comments, too.

Finally, if you like this newsletter, please send a few friends my way.

Until next time,

— Deedi (she/her)