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Or, February 2026 Review
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Reader,
Happy New Month!
And Happy Birthday to Mama Mike, whose Big Birthday™ it is today!
An alternate subtitle of this entry should be “short month, long list” because even though I called February 2026 a “flop month” yesterday when I shared my Storygraph graphic with the Ụmụ Akwụkwọ Literary Club 🗺️, I have more highlights than last month. I highly recommend reading in community and finding anthologies one enjoys!
I promised I’d do a quarterly update on my 2026 reading goals in March so I won’t be posting monthly here. I’ll link that update when I put it out. I’m yet to return to YouTube but I hope this is the month it happens (February was a low energy time for this Spoonie).
Books
I finished 6 books in February. I’ve continued doing weekly book reviews on the blog so you can read extended thoughts there.
This month’s highlights:
Lovers of literature that focuses on working class people (bonus points if you enjoy a novel set in a day), get into Pick a Colour by Souvankham Thammavongsa. A slim novel that packs a punch; I highly recommend it.
If you love reality TV you’ll enjoy Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum. The way Nussbaum provides a history of a universe some of us have been exposed to for years is a revelation
Films
I watched 8 films in February. I wasn’t able to get back to watching a short film a day so please send short film recommendations and feel free to share accounts 😉 to help me get back to it.
It was a good month overall so here are some highlights:
Two People Exchanging Saliva {Deux personnes échangeant de la salive} (2024, directed by Alexandre Singh & Natalie Musteata) was unnervingly good. I’ll be thinking about it for a while. I watched it on YouTube.
The Librarians (2025, directed by Kim A. Snyder) is for library lovers. Focused on the US, it raises many questions about what, and who, a library is for. This was another one I watched on YouTube (previously behind a PBS paywall)
My first 5 star film of the month - Banel & Adama {Banel e Adama} (2023, directed by Ramata-Toulaye Sy) - is one I discussed here. Annual rewatch film added to the canon? [Note to self: create an annual rewatch list on Letterboxd]
The only other 5 star film I watched - Our Little Sister {海街diary} (2015, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda) - broke and mended my heart. I’m so grateful for the film club I watched it with.
Essays
I read a few essays due to the 1000 Nights Challenge (you can find them here). Here are some I’ll be thinking about for a while:
(Note: I should add one more to this list - A lesson in coexistence by Toby Green, which I finished on 1st February - but I accidentally put in the January list)
What technology takes from us – and how to take it back by Rebecca Solnit (available to listen; narrated by Laurel Lefkow) | Solnit makes some great points about life mediated by technology
Swallowed up by the earth by Josaphat Musamba and Quentin Noirfalisse in Issue 227 of The Continent | This felt like a corrective after the narrative that was Cobalt Red. I recommend The Continent for sharp writing on Africa
How to Be an Anticapitalist Today by Erik Olin Wright via a Bluesky post by Mariame Kaba | This made me pick up his book - How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century - because it made some great points.
The Broken Record by Audrey Watters; in my inbox | EdTech’s Cassandra continues to do good work. Keep AI out of education, please!!!
What If Trevor Noah Is Right About the Left and Religion? by Liz Bucar via someone in the 1000 Nights Discord server | Interesting to read an argument for religion in politics as a person who dislikes the way it’s often marshalled
2 essays by Trevor Mukholi - the “art world” is in the Epstein files. and The Professor Who Abolished African Nations | I read the second because I was getting ready to pick up Mahmood Mamdani’s latest book and I was led to it by an invigorating conversation with folks in my zine group. The first is timely.
2 essays by Mary Turfah - I’m Not Done with You and Doctors Without Politics | I read the former after it was shared on Bluesky and it led me to the latter. Read and weep about how so many have stood by as Israel has tried to disappear Palestinians
Learning From the UAW’s National Organizing Push by Chris Brooks via this Bluesky post | I’ve been slowly reading a book about organising - Organizing: People, Power, Change by Marshall Ganz - for months. Interesting to see some of its main ideas upended.
Poems
I read several poems due to the 1000 Nights Challenge (you can find them here) and there were a few I am still thinking about:
From the 1000 Nights Discord server:
Bogland by Seamus Heaney | Reading about this such an education
My Hispanitude by Darrel Alejandro Holnes | More Afro-Latin poems, please!!!
Miss you. Would like to grab that chilled tofu we love. by Gabrielle Calvocoressi | A grief poem, if you need one
I live at the foot of Taipei by Maniniwei, translated from Chinese by Emily Lu | A delight for those of us who love poems about place, especially cities
From the poetry books I’ve been reading (Modern Poetry of Pakistan; edited by Iftikhar Arif & translations edited by Waqas Khwaja and Super Gay Poems: LGBTQIA+ Poetry after Stonewall; edited by Stephanie Burt):
A Prayer for the Homeland by Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, translated from Urdu by Omer Khwaja | Famed disliker of patriotism goes in for this. More at 9
You Throw a Party and Everyone You Have Ever Been Attracted To Is There by Stephanie Chan | A very bisexual poem, with all that entails
From seeking out African poetry, 2 poems by Namibians:
Silence of Mariental by Martha Hagemann | If you, like me, have feelings about dams and colonialism, this does some work
The Silence After Congratulations by Johannes Shikongo | *cries in tarmacking and its digital equivalents* When will the graduate premium arrive for so many young people?
Short Stories
In The Heinemann Book of African Women’s Writing; compiled by Charlotte Bruner:
The Story of Jesus--According to Mokuba, the Beloved Tribesman by Violet Dias Lannoy | Set in Kenya, the way things were both familiar and unfamiliar was such a ride
Regina’s Baby by Jean Marquard | Reading something set during Apartheid, in the same month I watched Long Night’s Journey Into Day (2000, directed by Deborah Hoffmann & Frances Reid), was jarring
Bowl Like Hole by Zoë Wicomb | Class, race, capitalism, and much more besides. A rich text.
In A Century of Fiction in The New Yorker 1925-2025; edited by Deborah Treisman:
In The South by Salman Rushdie | As a known lover of literature featuring old people, I enjoyed this
Visitor by Bryan Washington | I love a story that complicates one’s narrative of one’s parents and other elders. Also, I’m a known lover of Bryan Washington, whose latest novel Palaver I absolutely loved
Discovered via the 1000 Night Discord server:
The Feminist by Tony Tulathimutte | This is one of the stories in Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte which I saw discussed when it was released and which 2 people in the server have said positive things about
Feel free to send reading and watching recommendations (better yet, share a library card!) - community is always the best way to discover great work!
Quick news/ things that may be of interest:
Ongoing:
Next Saturday (register here):
Save the date/ mark your calendar for a bookish day on 21 March — this sale in the morning, Silent Book Club in the afternoon
Get into the Queer Times Book Club book of the month before the meeting details are shared (probably the last Sunday of March):
Treat someone you like (me, for instance, I have a Switch) to the Tiny Bookshop Game (which is also on Discord)
Subscribe to my WhatsApp channel for texts I find while I spend time online
Film folks: Solidarity Cinema, for your consideration
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!
The Queer Liberation Library 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️, which is free to join here
Digital Library of Korean Literature, which is free to join here
Film folks: Check out the Japan Foundation’s JFF Theater online streaming platform
How to Write Alt Text and Image Descriptions for the visually impaired
Links to Reading Lists, Free Books, Book Recs, Book-related Items, and Calls for Submissions in this document (most recent links at the top)
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!
You can send me books, postcards, letters, and assorted items via PO Box 102439, Jamia Posta 00101, Nairobi, Kenya (I write back!)
I have finished two books since I last wrote to you: Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa (e-book and audiobook narrated by Zoe Doyle) and The Blueprint by Rae Giana Rashad (e-book and audiobook narrated by Joniece Abbott-Pratt). I’m primarily using Storygraph now (passively updating Goodreads as I read most e-books on Kindle via the library) and I hope to get back to making videos soon.
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!