Remember that Black history is also American history, it doesn’t stop & start in just one month. These books are for every month of every year! Read u...Show more
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The 6th installment of my monthly newsletter sharing all the things I've been reading, eating, playing, obsessing over, recommending, and treating mys...Show more
Prepare yourself for a LONG newsletter full of ramblings on reading goals, bolognese, the intersection of Nosferatu & Babygirl, and of course our shitshow of a government. At the end you get a treat: help me pick out a wedding guest dress!
READING: 2024 recap & 2025 goals!
Okay so I’m a little late to the party with this one. What can I say, the holidays combined with seasonal depression and the inauguration has gotten your girl down in a pit of despair. Nevertheless, she persisted!! I’m already reading a LOT more in January than I was in December (thank you 12 hour TikTok ban for forcing me to look at words on a page again…JK) In December, I only read 2 books LOL — my partner and I have been listening to the Lord of the Rings on audiobook together. Anytime we take a road trip, Andy Serkis is our copilot and he does all of the voices in character SO PERFECTLY, especially Gollum of course.
Also can I just say, Tolkein is SUCH a horse girl (just like me) — every time he introduces us to someone’s horse, he gives us so much detail and constantly reassures the reader that the horse is okay and survives the battles they’re facing. Like, when the hobbits went through the forest and their horses spooked off, Tolkien included a whole paragraph about how they found their way to Tom Bombadil’s cottage where he sheltered and fed them and gave them lots of love and pets??? Iconic. If you’re curious on my thoughts of the LOTR movies, I wrote all about it for the queer film focused Substack THE YEARNING.
The other book I read was WILD & WRANGLED by Lyla Sage, an upcoming pub from Dial Press. The girlies went FERAL over copies of this ARC, and I quite literally begged both Lyla and Dial Press to get me one. After some groveling, I got a NetGalley widget and consumed the book in one sitting. It’s IMPECCABLE, the perfect topper to the end of the Rebel Blue series. I cannot express how excited I am for Lyla’s next series: SWEETWATER PEAK. Lyla describes it as a “contemporary take on a western gothic romance” where the two twin sister MCs are able to communicate with ghosts. I’m…sold. I love spooky. I love horses. I love romance. It’s everything!!!
In 2024 I read 66 books total, across 22,823 pages! The first book I read was Girlhood by Melissa Febos, and the last one was of course Wild and Wrangled by Lyla Sage. My average rating was 3.98 stars, which tracks for me because I am LIBERAL with my 4 and 5 star ratings. If you’re not rating your books positively, why read them? Read what you love and have a good time! I read the most in August (makes sense, summer is always my best season) and I read the work of 24 new authors <3
This year, I’m repeating my goal of 52 books a year. I used to read over 100 books a year when I was first getting into BookTok. I think part of that surge was because of the pressure I felt to constantly be creating new content and reacting to popular books I saw on the app. For 2025, it’s all about intentionality, quality over quantity, and leaning into joy and romance. What are your reading goals this year? Anything stand out in your 2024 reading wrapped? Let me know in the comments!
EATING: My tried & true Bolognese recipe
I really want to share more of my cooking on socials because it is one of the practices that makes me feel most like myself — I got my cooking skills from my mamma. When I was in high school, I did an independent project senior year that allowed me to drop my morning math and science classes so I could stay home and cook with my mom. I’m not kidding — how NYU let me in, I have no idea. I called the project “Around The World in 30 Plates” and I cooked breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert from different countries around the world, blogging about what I learned. I think the Blogspot is still in the ether of the internet somewhere. Digital footprints are terrifying. In fact I just Googled it and it was the first thing that came up. Enjoy stalking the version of me from over 10 years ago if that’s how you want to spend your day, the recipes still slap honestly.
Anyways, the recipe I make more than any other is bolognese. It was my pandemic hyper-fixation — I crafted the recipes from a mish mash of Bon Appétit videos (before its downfall), at home trial and error, family tips & tricks, cookbooks and Italian legends etc. The below is MY true bolo, but it can be done in a million different ways and I love that for you and your journey. This is mine. If you make it, send me a pic so I can judge you with love <3
NINA'S BOLOGNESE RECIPE: ft. unhinged commentary & unclear instructions
Serves: 4-6
1.5 lbs of Italian sausage (spicy if available)
- Get it out of the casing and form into about 1 inch chunks, browning on all sides in your sauce pot, the bottom coated in olive oil — medium/high heat
- Take it out and set aside (I always use the top of the pot and turn it upside down and lay down a few paper towels)
- DON’T CLEAN OUT THE POT OKAYYYYY
1/2 lb of pancetta, cubed to about 1cm
Like … half ? a bulb of garlic, minced
- Throw these in the pot and get em nice and cooked JUST before they’re crispy. Maybe 5 min? Medium heat
- Add garlic halfway through so it doesn’t burn
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1 medium bag of celery hearts, diced
- This is your MIREPOIX bitches — add that shit in and add in more olive oil
- Sauté until soft and the veggies turn a little translucent. Maybe 10 min? Medium heat
White wine
- Pour until the top of the label (about 1 cup ? drink the rest lol)
- ADD YOUR SAUSAGE BACK IN FIRST — use your wooden spoon to break it up in to smaller chunks. Give it a good stir.
- Let this REDUCE in the veggies — maybe another 10 min?
1 can of tomato paste
Grated nutmeg — like, maybe 1/4 of the nut?
2-3 bay leaves depending on their size
- Add these and let it simmer until the paste turns a darker red color — like 5 ish minutes?
2 cups of chicken broth
1 cup of whole milk (you can substitute for oat milk only if it’s extra creamy, or use 1/2 a cup of heavy cream)
- Add these and DO NOT COVER YOUR POT and turn it on LOW HEAT
- Let it bubble bubble toil and trouble for like 4-5 hours. Watch TV. Read a book. Drink the rest of that bottle
1 box of mezzi rigatoni (Barilla ofc, have some class)
- THIS IS THE BEST SHAPE I HAVE DONE EXTENSIVE TESTING DO NOT ARGUE
- Get water boiling in a different pot — DO NOT SALT THE WATER I KNOW IT FEELS WRONG BUT I FEEL LIKE THE SPICY SAUSAGE IS ALREADY SALTED AND CHEESE JUST DON’T OK
- Cook TWO MINUTES UNDER THE RECOMMENDED TIME — you’re going to finish it in the SAUCE
- Save some of the pasta water you heathen!!!! Like 1 cup at LEAST
- Add the pasta into the sauce with a shit ton of parmesan — add your pasta water GRADUALLY and cook for the remaining pasta cook time
- Serve and enjoy <3 You did it! Slay!
PLAYING: The Venn diagram center of Nosferatu & Babygirl (TW: discussion of SA)
In December I saw Nosferatu and last week I saw Babygirl — both were complete 5 star movies for me. Now, I’m musing A LOT on the politics of expressions of sexual desire that falls outside the societal norm and how that intersects specifically with survivors of sexual assault and violence. My friend Sanjana has a WONDERFUL video related to this & Nosferatu on her TikTok page, and many others, and she’s so much smarter and more eloquent than me but I’m going to attempt to give you my half baked take.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!
So basically — the opening scene of Nosferatu shows our main girlie Ellen Hutter (Lily Rose Depp) experience what I took as an implied sexual assault as a child. Then as an adult in multiple parts of the movie, she’s married and talking to her hubby Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) about how she feels unclean, tainted, terrified and ashamed by her dark thoughts and desires.
Almost identically though in very different contexts, in Babygirl, Nicole Kidman’s character Romy talks to her hubby Antonio Banderas about how she feels unclean, tainted, terrified and ashamed by her dark thoughts and desires. For her, it’s implied this stems from growing up in a cult, and we see her explore sexual fantasies through her porn preferences and her affair with a much younger man.
Both characters endured some sort of trauma as children, and it heavily affected how they experience and express desire in their sex lives as adults. Both feel they have to suppress their desires because of the society they live in — Lily Rose Depp in Victorian era Germany, and Nicole Kidman as a CEO of a major corporation. They both, in their own ways, want to be controlled and dominated by these desires, to succumb to the darkness and let go, though it is so difficult for them to communicate this to their husbands since they’re such soft loverboys (who both eventually give them what they need in different moments).
Anyways both movies made me really horny and you should follow me on Letterboxd for many more unhinged movie reviews. If you’ve seen the movies, let me know your thoughts!!! In the words of Kathy Griffin, I need to talk about this with a gay person.
OBSESSING: The downfall of our democracy, but was there ever really democracy to begin with?
Yeah...so what a wild start to the year…how we all doing? I personally, as I’ve previously mentioned, have been despairing. To recap:
Executive order withdrawing from the Paris agreement
Executive order ending birthright citizenship
Declaring that there are only 2 genders by law???
Zuck removing fact checking and just continuing to be a huge loser
N*zi salutes??? Plural?? And then blaming it on autism?? Insulting to neurodivergents everywhere
Full pardon of Jan 6 terrorists??
The constitution being pulled from the White House website
Reproductive rights and gun control government sites disappearing
TikTok censorship after weird AF 12 hour ban??? Jesus was dead longer than TikTok
Automatic follows and unblocks of new VP, POTUS and FLOTUS accounts
Anyways I’ve been coloring a lot and trying to not doomscroll but it’s SO HARD. I’m sending all my love and support to my trans and nonbinary friends. Here’s a roundup (on a NON META OWNED APP) of all of the books Sapph-Lit has read over the years with trans rep in them!!
RECOMMENDING: Sapph-Lit’s January book + upcoming Emily Austin author interview (also isn't our new logo just amazing?)
In January, we’re kicking off the year reading DEAR SENTHURAN by Akwaeke Emezi
In their critically acclaimed novels, Akwaeke Emezi has introduced readers to a landscape marked by familial tensions, Igbo belief systems, and a boundless search for what it means to be free. Now, in this extraordinary memoir, the bestselling author of The Death of Vivek Oji reveals the harrowing yet resolute truths of their own life. Through candid, intimate correspondence with friends, lovers, and family, Emezi traces the unfolding of a self and the unforgettable journey of a creative spirit stepping into power in the human world. Their story weaves through transformative decisions about their gender and body, their precipitous path to success as a writer, and the turmoil of relationships on an emotional, romantic, and spiritual plane, culminating in a book that is as tender as it is brutal. Electrifying and inspiring, animated by the same voracious intelligence that distinguishes Emezi's fiction, Dear Senthuran is a revelatory account of storytelling, self, and survival.
In February, we’re celebrating Emily Austin’s new release WE COULD BE RATS. This is the FOURTH book we’ve read by Emily Austin together as a book club, and I know it won’t be the last. We’re also welcoming Emily back for her THIRD Sapph-Lit author interview on Zoom! Join us on Discord <3
Sigrid hates working at the Dollar Pal but having always resisted the idea of growing up into the trappings of adulthood, she did not graduate high school, preferring to roam the streets of her small town with her best friend Greta, the only person in the world who ever understood her. Her older sister Margit is baffled and frustrated by Sigrid's inability to conform to the expectations of polite society. But Sigrid's detachment veils a deeper turmoil and sensitivity. She's haunted by the pains of her past--from pretending her parents were swamp monsters when they shook the floorboards with their violent arguments to grappling with losing Greta's friendship to the opioid epidemic ravaging their town. As Margit sets out to understand Sigrid and the secrets she has hidden, both sisters, in their own time and way, discover that reigniting their shared childhood imagination is the only way forward. What unfolds is an unforgettable story of two sisters finding their way back to each other, and a celebration of that transcendent, unshakable bond.
TREATING: Reformation sale picks
So far I have plane tickets for not 1, not 2, but 3 destination weddings in 2025. Woof. Here are some dresses I’ve tried on from Reformation, aka my go to wedding guest dress shopping destination. Let me know which is your favorite! I have to return at least one... HELP!
See you next month! xx Nina
me & my pile of books against the world 🥺 i’ve only read about 10 of these and have built the rest of this TBR thanks to booktok 💗 information is po...Show more
Help us choose what to read in MARCH 2025 <3
Watch our interview with Ashley all about their latest book MAKE THE SEASON BRIGHT on YouTube!
