Doing Just Fine

April 2025

Dear Reader,

This month’s reminder/card pull is cordyceps. Oh, that parasitic fungus! How appropriate for spring as compost is mixed into the soil. I am reminded that death returns nutrients to the earth to begin again.

In the early years of the pandemic, I deleted an account on one of those book tracker sites because I calculated that the list of books I had added “to read” would take me an absurd amount of years to get through. I like finishing projects, though some might say a reading list hardly counts. I’ve since stored digital lists in new apps and keep a written list in my planner. I’m committed to the numerous lists in various mediums, with the addition of sheer chaos when I enter a bookstore, because I never look at those lists when I’m in a physical store. Chaos, I tell you!

Do I miss that deleted list from years ago? Not at all. I’ve grown past the things that held my attention then. My new lists lead down different paths. More recently, I deleted an email I used for over a decade. I felt an even bigger release — new emails for new eras. I love quitting and boycotting things. It’s such a sad, small amount of power, but most times, it feels like the only amount of power I have against the people who don’t care about their impact on the planet and will destroy anything to build wealth.

On a lighter side, this month is special for me as it’s my birthday month, and I’m ordering used books so that they arrive scattered throughout April. I will also spread out visits to all the bookstores in the city and spend as much time as I want in them. (I have a serious knack for being un-findable once I enter a bookstore; just ask my poor spouse.) I love wandering the shelves because you find things like the Dictionary of Superstitions. Right now, I’m also really into cookbooks because they don’t simply include recipes; they include stories about life. Stories about what’s available and tracks what changes over time.

And, so, for those of you who are not writing or making that thing you wish to be making, I bet you’re writing in a way. Maybe it’s the exact process of getting your eggs right in the morning or how you’ve decided that chili powder adds something special to fried rice. And I think that’s beautiful. (I’m not yet decided on the chili powder but try it and tell me what you think.)

With love,

Thao

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P.S.

By the time you read this, I'll have sent a manuscript to my agent. It still may be a long time before it becomes a purchasable novel (if it does), but I wanted to note it for accountability :]

Book recs:

• ​How to Think Like an Anthropologist by Matthew Engelke
• ​Armenian-American Cook Book: Simplified Armenian Near East Recipes by Rose Baboian
• ​The Bread and Salt Between Us by Mayada Anjari with Jennifer Sit
• ​Zaitoun Recipes from the Palestinian Kitchen by Yasmin Khan
• ​Into the Vietnamese Kitchen (or any of her books!) by Andrea Nguyen

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