February 2025 Resources and Recs
+ our next book club pick and
Mark your calendars for the upcoming paid subscriber community conversations over Zoom: March 4 and March 18 — both at 6pm ET. Link to Zoom will be sent day of.
Pssst. Philly is sold out but I’ll be in Portland, OR. Get your tickets and learn more here (space is limited!)
We have had many volunteer community members come forward, eager to help maintain and sustain the bimonthly Diaspora Reads book club. Our next pick is Evil Eye by Etaf Rum for an April book club!
We had such a lovely conversation earlier this week on Hijab Butch Blues. If you missed it, you can catch the recap here:
Other news around here
I will be launching another cohort of our Boldly Bicultural program in the next few months AND I am working on something very exciting for clinicians who want to better serve this population. Stay tuned!
Here is one skill I think clinicians are missing in their practice:
Books I read this month:
📖 Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener- I’ve never read anything like this. I picked this up in an SF bookstore on a whim a few years ago and decided to finally read it. It’s like three books (tracing ancestry, sex, and grief) in one but the aching desire to know one’s ancestry— even if it’s not what you want or expect — is so relatable. The book is choppy which seems purposeful but adds to a level of disconnection for a reader that I was okay with only because it’s short. At its core it’s about colonization, decolonization, whiteness, brownness, history and whose histories we can uncover and whose we can’t. Truthfully, I can only think of 1-2 friends would really appreciate this the way I did which makes sense and makes me sad.
📖A Court ofWings and Ruin, A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas — I received this series as a birthday gift and I am so glad I am nose diving into this world. I am really enjoying it as escapism and a healthy distraction when I need to self care. If you have been on the fence, I would definitely recommend! It did not take me long to get wrapped into the characters or follow the world building (something I am scared of when I think of reading fantasy).
🎧 The Inheritance by Trisha Sakhlecha — I love the Indian family representation (and chaos) in a fun thriller! a wild ride! Definitely recommend!
🎧 The Favorites by Layne Fargo — I love a competitive sports storyline. It did feel like the timeline shifted quickly here and there but it was a fast paced, enjoyable read about what a person will do to get what they’ve trained their whole lives for.
🎧Hijab Butch Blues — This book is amazing! I’ve already bought it for two friends. See the recap above for what we discussed in book club.
What I’ve watched:
Mo Season 2 on Netflix: This show is timely, funny, poignant, and heartbreaking. I can’t think of a smarter show right now and you need to watch both seasons if you haven’t yet.
XO Kitty: My guilty pleasure of teenage/young adult female main character shows is satiated with this show. I love Jenny Han’s shows and this is the perfect mix of Korean drama meets teen rom-com.
Of course, I am devouring Severance and White Lotus as new episodes drop.
What do we think of this for my new marketing campaign for getting therapy clients?
Fascinating articles and topics:
I love this breakdown of how Black characters are written in Severance (something I think has been done in such a smart way and she breaks it down!). I am buying my girl scout cookies from this troop in NYC that started in a shelter. I loved this thought provoking piece on understanding the psychological wages of whiteness in this moment. To round out our theme in February, here are 9 tiny kernels of wisdom about love. And I love this Instagram account and how she highlights children’s books on various identities and issues:
