Vol. 21: Chunky nonfiction, community care, and more engagement photos

Some thoughts on taking my own advice

DNFing (“Do Not Finish” aka abandoning a book without completion) is something I’ve always advocated for as a reader. I *know* life is simply too short to read books you’re not enjoying. I *know* if I’m not excited about reading the book I’m in the middle of, I just… won’t read. I’ll scroll on IG, watch a lot of television, and feel worse for it. There’s so many books out there, I tell my friends, if you’re not feeling it, put it down and move on to something that holds you. 

Last week, I started reading How to Catch a Princess, a highly anticipated romance novel. There’s not nearly enough full-length sapphic adult romance novels out there, and I’ve enjoyed two of Alyssa Cole’s other books - but I could not for the life of me get invested in the story - even 165 pages in. And I also couldn’t take my own advice about putting it down. 

I shared my struggle with the the book on IG and heard from others, particularly queer readers, who echoed my sentiments. Once multiple people told me there isn’t much romance until the end, I felt more comfortable putting it down. So why did I need outside validation, and why can’t I take my own advice and DNF without a care in the world? 

Granted, this is just one book - it's not that serious - but there’s a lot I need to unpack about how I treat myself as opposed to my friends, and what boundaries I set for and with myself. Maybe 29 is the year I intentionally nurture my self love & intuition.

Past & Current Reads

Luckily, not everything I’ve read recently has been a DNF!

I read The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcom X by Les & Tamara Payne. Les Payne researched and wrote this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography over the course of decades through conversations with Malcom’s family and associates. When Payne died in 2018, his daughter and research assistant Tamara finished the book. It started out pretty slow for me, almost a moment by moment retelling of The Autobiography of Malcom X, but as it got to later in Malcom’s life, I found this book a fascinating portrait both of an incredible man but also a moment of history.

I read The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafa. The marketing of this one threw me off a little because I was expecting it to primarily follow a white supremacist school shooting at a Muslim girls school. A more apt description would be that it’s a flashing of life before the eyes of our protagonist Afaf, a Palestinian American woman, focusing much more on her past than the school shooting she’s experiencing in the present. While the format of the novel didn’t always work for me, this book reminded me how much I love reading about people finding faith.

After loving The Dead are Arising, I’ve decided to tackle another longer nonfiction book on my TBR. Last night I started The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen, which has been on my radar since it won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 2017. Gessen closely follows the lives of four people born in the mid 80s in Russia, who came of age when Russia thought it was heading towards democracy. As someone who is very unfamiliar with Russian history, I’m finding the writing accessible & fascinating so far, and her format reminds me of another nonfiction great, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson.

Community Care

This week, I’ll be donating what I can to Imagine Waterworks to provide mutual aid for those in New Orleans affected by Hurricane Ida. Climate change is real, scary and we need to protect those most vulnerable due to issues of race, class, and ability. 

With ongoing attacks against abortion rights nationwide, but particularly in Texas, donate to your local abortion fund or to Lillith Fund in Texas (h/t @catreadthat)

Finally, a huge shoutout to this community for donating 336 books to LGBT Books to Prisoners and Free Minds Book Club! I am incredibly grateful we surpassed my goal to get books into the hands of incarcerated reader and so much of that was due to my newsletter readers.

Wedding Corner

Planning a wedding in six months in a global pandemic is not something I’d recommend, but I’m so excited to be her wife, and to celebrate with a small group of loved ones. Mariah Miranda really knocked it out of the park with our engagement shoot so please enjoy a couple shot of us loving on each other in the muggy ass, early August morning, DC weather 

Thank you Mariah Miranda Photography!