profile

Thao Votang

winter 📚

Published 9 months ago • 1 min read

Doing Just Fine

February 2026

Dear Reader,

To start off this year, I read two big books: The Politics of Heroin by Alfred W. McCoy and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (thanks to JM for the assignment!).

I would suggest not reading these two back to back, as they're heavy and you might hurt your neck like I did. (No pun intended! Vampires are not real!) I followed these two with The Crop Cycle by Shane Mitchell. It was published by the wonderful Bitter Southerner who I recommend checking out. Mitchell is also the editor-at-large of Saveur, which has been publishing amazing articles with gorgeous photography. Additional reads include Autumn by Ali Smith and A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (thank you to LR for the recommendation!).

And I had a different letter drafted for this month, but in the time of drafting and putting it into this thing that sends my emails, so much has happened. And by the time this sends whenever I scheduled it to send, who knows what will have happened. So, as I continue nurse my weather cracked skin and hurting heart, I'm thinking of all of us who are working toward and dreaming of a freer and peaceful society.

With love,

Thao

I put most of the books I mention in my newsletters into my affiliate Bookshop! Purchasing through this link means I get a small percentage of sales. Be sure to change the shop if you prefer to support your local independent book store!

​Read & share this newsletter in your browser.

600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​

​Read in browser​

Thao Votang

Writer and author of Linh Ly Is Doing Just Fine (Alcove Press).

Subscribe to my monthly letter & book rec's:

Read more from Thao Votang
People sitting at metal tables under umbrellas in Bryant Park on a sunny day

dear reader October 2026 I’ve made a small/big change to my routine and am going through the feelings that always come with that. Because of some shifting priorities in my life, I have moved writing out of the top spot and no longer wake up at 6:30 am to join a virtual writing group. Since I’ve been doing that for the last four or so years, I anticipated a reaction to the alteration. Two weeks in and I'm filled with the despair of being a cog in the machine. On one hand, I wonder why I can’t...

26 days ago • 1 min read
A small brown wren bird singing against a green background

dear reader September 2026 At risk of boring you with my bird stories, we had a wren (again, my bird identification abilities are rudimentary at best) who visited us around 8:20 p.m. every night for a few weeks. It would sing a little song for a little and then leave just before dark. I wish it could have kept visiting but nature is ephemeral, and I’ll take whatever is offered. At the beginning of the month, I sent my manuscript off to my agent. I sincerely, full-bodily hope it’s close to...

about 2 months ago • 1 min read
A dark bird flies across a cloudy, grayscale sky.

dear reader August 2026 Hawks had started to threaten the crows around my home, so I stopped putting out treats for the them because I couldn’t bear to see the altercations. Their caws receded and were replaced with the trilling, high voice of the hawk (probably the red-tailed hawk, but I’m no expert). A while later, we could hear the incessant, unmistakable voice of a fledgling. There were, in fact, two. Hawk fledglings are funny because they’re only really decipherable by a slight...

3 months ago • 1 min read