June 10, 2025

🦊 A Summer Reading List

Hi friends,

We're almost halfway through 2025. They say “time flies,” but this year has felt like a long drag through the dirt. I’m pretty sure May lasted a full calendar year.

There are so many things happening, all at once. And we’re exposed to everything, immediately, constantly. We were never meant to know this much. We’re not wired for this.

It's impossible to keep up. It's impossible to act on everything, respond to each event with full emotion every day, again and again.

And yet, we can’t ignore what’s going on. We can’t simply look away.

So what do we do?

I don’t know. But I do know we have to pace ourselves. We have to take care of ourselves. It’s no use burning ourselves to a crisp, glueing our eyes to a hellscape of scrolling. We have to remember to breathe.

If we are outraged by what’s going on, and we want to change it, we have to treat it like a marathon, not a sprint. We must stand up for what’s right, but we must also take breaks to sit down, rest, and recover.

Find the little things that keep you going. Hold onto them for dear life. We need them now more than ever.

I'm thankful for a few hobbies I've been immersing myself into lately, like tending to backyard birds and long hours of animal drawing sessions.

Another habit I've slowly stumbled my way back into is reading books. Yes, those big things full of words. No videos to stare at, no comments to peruse and no feed to scrolls. Just me and a book. Swimming in the author's world, let the current of their writing take me.

They say books let you escape to another world, but they are also a way to be more present in this one.

So here are some of my favorite books I've read this year. I hope you find one that captures you!

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What We Fed to the Manticore
by Talia Lakshmi Kolluri

I loved this book. It’s a collection of animal short stories with themes of wildlife conservation, climate change, and more. The characters and their journeys are touching, heartbreaking, and at times mystifying. This is the kind of book I hope to write some day.

Of Mice and Men & The Pearl
by John Steinbeck

Steinbeck is a master. I decided to re-read Of Mice and Men, and I’m so glad I did, because wow. Such wonderful storytelling! The book follows two down-on-their-luck workers in California, and their story is tragic and moving. I followed this up with another great Steinbeck short novel, The Pearl, which I also recommend. Next on my list is East of Eden…

The Bear That Wasn't & The Possum That Didn't
by Frank Tashlin

As a child, I watched a spectacular cartoon (directed by the great Chuck Jones) about a bear who woke up from hibernation to find his cave surrounded by a factory. The workers mistake the bear for a fellow employee, and refuse to believe him when he repeatedly insists that he is, in fact, a bear. It is an absurd, hilarious and powerful commentary on the societal pressure to conform, and how easily we can lose ourselves. I only recently discovered that the cartoon was based on a book by Tashlin, and I absolutely loved it, especially the ink illustrations. I also enjoyed another of Tashlin’s books, The Possum That Didn’t (there is also a cartoon based on it.) Here’s a quick sketch tribute I did of the bear in Tashlin’s style:

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
by Kate DiCamillo

This middle-grade book tells the story of a proud rabbit made of china (yes, the ceramic), who finds himself lost and found again and again, until he learns how to love. It’s short, sweet, and the writing is lovely, especially how the author exposes the inner thoughts of Edward.

Ishmael & The Story of B
by Daniel Quinn

I first read Ishmael back in 2022, and wrote about it in my yearly books-of-the-year post:

“One of the most powerful stories I’ve ever read. This book was written in the 1970s, but its message is more relevant than ever. On the surface, this book is a fictional wake-up call to the pending ruin that climate change can bring us. But it’s also much more than that—Ishmael is a book that highlights the folly of the story we’ve been perpetuating as a global society. It offers us a new lens on the story of man, how we live, and how we came to be this way. The scope of this story is immense. Although it is a tale of fiction, it is grounded in historical context that ties religion to the advances of man, and tells a new story that ties them together. By the end of it, you will likely feel overwhelmed, disillusioned, and unsure of what to do about the seemingly inevitable crisis with which we are barreling ourselves toward. Thankfully, in the final pages of the book, Ishmael gives us a path for optimism. He reminds us that people can change their behavior, if enough people strive to change the minds of their peers, through stories of hope.”

I finally decided to read its sequel, Story of B, and was not particularly moved by it. I expected it would dive a bit deeper into the ideas, or provide a platform for how to apply them in the real world, as some of the reviews had suggested. I didn’t really find either.

However, it motivated me to re-read Ishmael, so in that sense, it was a success 😅 I still stand by my words about Ishmael—if you haven’t read this book, it deserves your time. It explains (and questions) a lot of the disastrous decisions we’ve made as a species in terms of our obsession with industrial farming and constant growth of food supply.

Wandering Spirits
by Salman Ansari

Last but not least, if you’re looking for a short read to kickstart your reading momentum, check out my book of fables, Wandering Spirits. I just opened up my own online store, where you can buy a beautiful signed paperback edition, which includes some lovely stickers and a bookmark. If you’ve already got a copy and enjoyed the book, grab one for a friend or family member! When you buy directly from me, you support an indie author, rather than fueling the monopoly of Amazon.

P.S. A warm heartfelt thank you to all the folks who bought a copy since I announced the store opening last week. I hope you enjoy the tales, as well as the free goodies!