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You’ve heard about Project 2025. Let’s get ready for what I’m calling Project “Getting Through” 2025.
I am not going to mince words here. The first half of this year has absolutely shaken me to my core. Emotionally. Professionally. Physically (?) somehow. It’s been a mess.
If you’ve read/listened to other content I’ve done for Feminist Book Club, you know I love an educational moment. A deep dive on the 19th amendment? Yes. The intersection of emergency management and feminism? No doubt. But this is not going to be that kind of post. This is just me sharing the books and sundry items that have gotten me through half of this year, and WHY.
I have found solace in unexpected books and podcasts; some are in subjects that deviate HEAVILY from my usual bag. I hope that you make your own “getting through” it list and share with the class in the comments.
Also, these are in no particular order.
A burden shared is a burden halved, and being in community is the only way we’re going to get through this hellscape. Allons-y!
The Hunger Games Universe
When I saw the announcement of Sunrise on the Reaping, I decided to reread the whole franchise in chronological order. It was…devastating. When the first Hunger Games book came out, I was 21 years old, George W. Bush was still president but we were campaigning for Obama, and I had hope that maybe—just maybe—we were headed towards a better future. I was about to graduate from college and, yeah, there was a recession, but, like, how bad could it get?
(Let’s all take a moment to laugh at 21-year-old Natalia.)
AAAAAAAAAAnyyyyyyyyyyway. Re-reading the original trilogy, and reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping for the first time, I saw and noticed so many things that resonated with me. Panem having parallels to Reconstruction Era United States. Snow choosing violence and oppression and authoritarianism at every juncture, even when given the choice. Katniss being an analogue to Rosa Parks and Lucy Gray as Claudette Colvin. The idea that all empires fall, but the really fascinating question is what happens after the fall. District 13’s entire M.O.
As a parent, the books took on a whole other dimension: How Astrid’s trauma felt real and suffocating in a way it didn’t when I was 21. How easily I pictured my kid as Rue and how unlucky she would’ve been. The horror of watching your children grow and knowing that there is really nothing you can do to protect them in a world that’s determined to make them a point of pain and horror.
I know that there are people who don’t reread books and see it as a point of pride, but that could never be me. I enjoy noticing different things with each read of a book, and understanding different characters’ perspectives. Finding new parallels is always good and good literature never disappoints.
The Rages Trilogy
I am going to be very honest right now. I think about the themes of these book at least once a day. The Surviving Sky and The Unrelenting Earth by Kritika H. Rao take place in a ship high above a jungle-planet where the last refugees of humanity live in plant-made civilizations that are held together by tradition, technology, and arcane science. The story centers around Ahilya, an archeologsist who isn’t really respected, and Iravan, an architect who is revered because of his magical nature. The stories talk about themes as large as geopolitical instability and caste systems, and as personal as falling out of love with someone you married. It gets cerebral, especially in The Unrelenting Earth, and there is an absolutely delightful Indian influence that reminded me of when I read the Bhagavad Gita in undergrad. The themes of consciousness and reincarnation throughout the book, however, are what I think about on the regular. The idea that every person is but a temporary vessel to an immortal soul and you experience things in your life that are meant to teach you things to aid your spiritual process have been applied in this sci-fi kind of way and it’s a breath of fresh air when you’re used to just reading a morality principle or idea from a western perspective. I cannot wait for the third book to be published later this year!
The Wizard, the Witch and the Wild One – Worlds Beyond Number
I love audio fiction. When I was growing up, my mom had a deep distrust of most media, so some of my fondest memories were tuning into the religiously themed Adventures in Odessy on the radio. In any event, this show follows three true friends—Suvi (the wizard), Ame (the witch), and Eursulon (the wild one)—on their D&D adventure through Umora. The storytelling is amazing and the characters are engaging, but the audio work behind everything is what has me sitting in my car long after I get home to get to the end of the episode. I have cried and laughed so hard I snorted—sometimes even in the same episode! Sometimes, when you’re facing incredible odds (and some truly cursed die), you think that you’re on your ass and your destruction is nigh. But! Hope is not lost when you get together with your friends and you have a good talk and a honey cake and you kick systems of oppressions’ ass. Not bad for a show of make believe!
Getting a Tattoo
…I think this one is self-explanatory and the glitter background was all me (graphic design is my passion). Sometimes, you gotta get some permanent art. Mine is of a firefly and I picked it impulsively during a flash sale at my local tattoo shop. Best way to spend an afternoon and to really get out of your head and into your body. Because sometimes, folks, as much as I’m loath to admit it, you gotta just feel your feelings.
Romance Books
After the inauguration, I realized I couldn’t really read my dystopian novels with the same fervor I normally could and, at the same time, one of my best friends sent me a copy of Adriana Herrera’s A Tropical Rebel gets the Duke. I hemmed and hawed over reading it because romance—while not something I actively argued against—was not my usual read. But finding myself with an expanse of nonfiction books I couldn’t focus on, I opened it and it was amazing. Herrera wrote about a Dominican female main character???? Who was a badass???? Who was described and looked like me (*cough*maybe10yearsago*cough*)??? I was hooked. Aurora reminded me of stories I heard about my grandmother, a woman who took no shit and made sure that while men were underestimating her, she was running circles around them.
I quickly devoured the rest of the Leonas Trilogy and started reading romance in earnest. I actually found that I had to confront some really subtle internalized misogyny I had around the romance genre. But so help me if these books haven’t been a lifeline during this ridiculous year. I’ve confronted some childhood trauma with Emma in Just for the Summer, walked alongside my anxiety at Rebel Blue in Done and Dusted, restored some faith in my own sense of self in Written in the Stars, and experienced the world with Stella in The Kiss Quotient. Stretching outside of my comfort zone has been enriching and expanded my horizons (and Libby holds) in the best way.
I hope this helps someone out there! Hope you find something inspiring and/or get a dope tattoo and/or find your own ways to get through this year.
