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My birthday is on Thursday! You can find my wishlist here and any and all gifts will be appreciated 🙂
(I’m happy to accept birthday gift throughout the year 🙂)
Reader,
This time on Thursday, I’ll be a year older. As a person born at the cusp of a lunar year, I always use that as a reason (excuse?) to reset and start the year afresh. This year, the Lunar Year begins a day before my birthday - on January 29 - so it feels fitting that I should start another trip around the sun.
Unlike previous years, this has been a distinctly plan-less pre-birthday time. As I write this, I have no idea what I’ll get up to on my birthday. Being unemployed has meant that the birthday getaway I’d tried to make a tradition is not really possible this year (I didn’t book a holiday last year because of my short-lived stint in grad school. I still…have feelings about it all) and the recovering Protestant educated at Catholic institutions in me almost wants to spend the day making job applications as something between self-flagellation and seeking to make next year’s birthday different. I’ll report back (with another birthday of books; if past years are anything to go by).
If the last week or so is anything to go by, I’ll almost definitely: read, watch Severance Season 1 before I start watching Season 2 with a friend in February (and listen to this podcast, and this one, about the show), and watch a short film. Everything else is unwritten.
Quasi-related: Please send me any and all media (books, especially) that you (or someone you know) have found useful when it comes to healing one’s relationship with one’s body and food. As a person on the larger side (I was recently in a conversation where a relative made a comment about my body that left me speechless hahaha I’m laughing so I don’t cry!!!), I’d especially appreciate something that’s about body acceptance, moving away from pathologizing food etc from a Global South perspective or from the perspective of Black, queer, women. I feel like there are many things I may not be able to change before my next birthday (cue birthday blues!!!) but maybe feeling stronger, happier, in this husk is something to aspire to. Thanks in advance!
Quick news/ things that may be of interest:
Subscribe to my WhatsApp channel for texts I find while I spend time online
Add me to your New York Times Crossword leaderboard!
Sign up for the Reading Group discussing Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis by Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis here.
This month’s Hadithi Hangout is on Thursday. Go if you can!
If you’re in the Global North and would be open to engaging in the North-South solidarity that is sharing a library card, please email or message me so we can figure things out. Thank you!
My French Film Festival, online till 17/2, for the lovers of moving pictures among us
Links to Reading Lists, Free Books, Book Recs, Book-related Items in this document
Since Elon seems to want (some of) us gone, I’m trying to post more often on Bluesky. Follow me there if you’re on it!
The Queer Liberation Library 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
You can send me books, postcards, letters, and assorted items via PO Box 102439, Jamia Posta 00101, Nairobi, Kenya
I have finished three books since I last wrote to you (reviews up on Fable, still on Goodreads): a hybrid read of Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey Into the Heart of Desire by Tracy Clark-Flory (e-book & audiobook; narrated by the author), a hybrid read of Entitlement by Rumaan Alam (e-book & audiobook; narrated by Nicole Lewis), and a hybrid read of Colored Television by Danzy Senna (e-book & audiobook; narrated by Kristen Ariza).
As ever, please write back to me and tell me what books you’re reading or looking forward to reading — it’s always a great time talking about books.
Thank you for reading 🙂
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Enjoy the week ahead and have a lovely time reading. Talk to you soon!
Happy birthday in advance 🤗