Look. I know you're tired. I know you've been running on fumes and spite and whatever's left in the coffee pot, and the LAST thing you want is some book blogger telling you to Do the Inner Work. But I need you to hear me out, because a Pixar movie about eMoTiOnAl DaMaGe and two therapy besties named Jessica Tomich Sorci, LMFT,PMH-C and Rebecca Geshuri, LMFT,PMH-C (yes I included the letters after their names because I’m a GIRL’S GIRL and they earned it damn you) have apparently been in a secret conspiracy to make you cry twice — once in the theater, and once on your therapist's couch — and I think it's time we talked about it.

"Wait, back the EFFFF up Zee. What even is 'This and That'?" I’m so glad I pretended like you asked. It’s a series I’ve been thinking about almost forever (I’m autistic, my brain either does time as “what is time” or “at 2:34pm on the day I lost my first tooth” and there is no in between) about two separate pieces of media and how I think you should consume them like PB&J, like red wine and blue cheese, like grilled cheese and tomato soup. Because yeah, they’re good separate. But together they are GOOD SOUP. (Yes, that was a Harrow the Ninth Chapter 25th reference, sorry NOT SORRY AT ALL EVEN A LITTLE BIT.)

If you don’t get that reference, I’m going to assume that you will never read Harrow the Ninth because you read my stuff and you read Gideon and didn’t like it. Fine, that’s ok, I don’t get you but I still love you. Spoiler: Harrow makes soup with her bone marrow and uses necromancy to explode someone from the inside out (see above fan art by @naomistares on Tumblr.) Gross but my GOD the cinema! So the analogy is, food so good it will FUCK YOU UP. Damn I’m weird. But you're here so I must assume, gentle reader, that so are youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...

Anyway back to the matter at hand, Inside Out, the Pixar movie, is about a little girl’s named Riley’s feelings, each as its own character in her head. Each of these feelings – aptly named Joy, Disgust, Sadness, Anger, and Fear, have their own feelings and motivations about her move to a different city. New school, new sports, new friends, and the loss of her old ones. And Miss Joy decides to suppress all of the others – especially Sadness - because Riley needs to act happy for her parents, who are also having a tough time. Moving sux.

And it all goes to complete SHIT, as literally everyone could have seen coming. I cried in 2015 over an imaginary elephant.

Which brings me to the book that made me rewatch all of this with my jaw on the floor. When Good Moms Feel Bad is based on this therapy called Internal Family Systems (aka IFS) which basically means your brain is made up of subpersonalities, or "parts," each with its own unique motives. Which is EXACTLY what Inside Out is about. If you’re not a parent, don’t let me lose you here. This is for everyone who has ever been told they needed “self-care” and responded with, “how-the-fuck-do-you-expect-me-to-do-a-spa-day-when-the-world-is-burning?!”

I HATE self-care culture. I detest self-help books. I am a working mother who does this weird book social media thing as a hobby – no, I don’t make money off of this and any money everyone’s ever paid me to do it (and MORE) has gone straight to one of the charities for all of the people currently being shat upon by the world: trans people, Palestinians, immigrants, the list goes on.*

When a therapist or friend or especially an internet blogger insert irony here tells me to get in some self-care, it annoys me. Because doing a face mask does not relieve me of my concern that my 13 year old son may be steered into a red pill pipeline on YouTube. Getting a massage won’t take away my deep and unabiding horror at the genocide my government is funding in Gaza. Picking up a new hobby won’t relieve me of my fear that I’m not doing enough to protect my immigrant friends from being thrown into bedless cells and have their children separated from them to do god knows what with by a masked police force. I have LEGITIMATE feelings and stress that a bath bomb simply will not fix. And nobody has once convinced me that the self-care craze isn’t just another attempt to get me to spend more money on shit I don’t need. Like eyebrow gel. So when a therapy book actually gave me something useful, I was suspicious. I checked for a catch. Reader, there was a catch, but we'll get there.

When Good Moms Feel Bad is the first thing I’ve ever read that gave me some legitimate coping tools that I can use instead of trying to convince me to buy something (spoiler: when I looked up the author’s website, there is a ‘Mom Parts Community’ you can join for the low low price of $29/mo. But hey, even people with good advice have to pay to eat under capitalism, amiright?) I listened to the audiobook for free on Netgalley, but I liked it so much I purchased the book so I can have access to the workbook included.

What are these coping skills, and what do they have to do with Inside Out? WELL. Essentially, every emotion you have is there for reasons. Fear of failure protected you as a child, because your parents would love you more if you met their high expectations. Irritation is an alert to show you your boundaries have been crossed, because when it’s happened before you were in DANGER. Your Inner Critic picks you apart in order to put you back together in a better way, but sometimes it gets stuck in the telling you you’re a shitty person loop. Every shitty feeling has a goal. But how do you keep them from conflicting and eating you alive? It’s actually pretty simple. You Mom them.

New skills? You don’t need them. Expensive seminars? Nope. You already have the experience you need for this from being a mom. So you take each part of yourself, and thank it. And then tell it what you would tell a child who was acting out. Validate, then correct. Mother thyself. “Thank you, Inner Critic, for making me a better person. But please remember, we don’t say critical things to hurt people. We say them in a caring and compassionate way.” Or “thank you, Irritation, for trying to keep me safe, but right now I’m only touched out, I’m not in danger. I’m NOT in danger, you can rest.” Am I telling you to speak to the voices in your head? Yes. Yes I am. Turns out the voices in your head just want to be parented. Which is either deeply healing or deeply horrifying depending on how your own childhood went. Moving on!

I picture those Inside Out style cartoon characters in my head, and I get down on their level and hug them. This is me literally caring for the inner parts of myself. If Joy had just hugged Sadness and said, “you’re right to be sad, this is a sad time! Let me be here with you while you’re sad” then Riley would have never had an emotional collapse (I won’t spoil it for you – seriously you’re missing out if you haven’t seen that movie – seen and consumed critically!) and, well, we wouldn’t have a movie. Something my son and I constantly tell each other as we pick apart movies we watch. (Because critical media consumption is a skill you have to practice with your kids, they can't just learn from being told.)

I would recommend you watch the movie then read the book. Why? I’m not a huge non-fic girlie and I need to entertain myself by finding constant parallels in my non-fic with something that is fun. If you love a self help book, good for you! But I’m a recovering fiction addict and I need to be entertained when I engage in critical thought, ok? “Thank you Inner Critic for the self-deprecating humor, I honestly love that about myself, but you are smart and read critically no matter the genre, so please stop apologizing!”

 * If you read this far, you're already one of my people. Subscribe for $5/month — less than a bath bomb, more useful than a bath bomb, and 100% of proceeds go to humans currently being failed by the world. Big 5 publishing hates us. Let's keep going anyway.

Heading to this great Brooklyn event next week to support my labelmates! Would love to see you there for this awesome double feature launch!

Summary

In 1879, King Leopold II of Belgium launched an ambitious plan to plunder Africa’s resources. The key to cracking open the continent, or so he thought, was its elephants—if only he could train them. And so he commissioned the charismatic Irish adventurer Frederick Carter to ship four tamed Asian elephants from India to the East African coast, where they were marched inland towards Congo. The ultimate aim was to establish a training school for African elephants.

Following in the footsteps of the four elephants, Roberts pieces together the story of this long-forgotten expedition, in travels that take her to Belgium, Iraq, India, Tanzania, and Congo. The storytelling brings to life a compelling cast of historic characters and modern voices, from ivory dealers to Catholic nuns, set against rich descriptions of the landscapes travelled. In an original weave of past and present, she digs deep into historic records revealing an extraordinary—and enduring—story of colonial greed, hypocrisy, and folly.


Review
I'm conflicted about this one. This is a point in history that I've been diving into ever since I read "King Leopold's Ghost" and as far as telling this history, this is a good companion to that book. The story was a fascinating look at the egosim and pride of colonizers, which ultimately became their downfall.

It was a tragic look into a niche part of this history in Leopold's attempt to start a training school for Elephants in order to futher colonize Africa. I learned a lot.

Where I think this book fell short was in the travelogue aspect. Roberts clearly did an incredible amount of research into this book and was very clearly careful and intentional about discussing the imperialist impact of this history. However, there was a strange irony in Roberts, a British jouranlist, retracing an imperialist journey through Africa. Her interactions with the land and the people around her seemed surface level at times and a missed opportunity to take the focus away from the colonizers and onto the effects of their colonization.

I would recommend this book if you're interested in the topic, but I highly recommend that you read "King Leopold's Ghost" first.



What I learned

• King Leopold was respsonsible for the deaths of an estimated 10 million Africans over the period of 23 years.

• In the 1958 World Fair, Belgium hosted what they called the "Kongorama", a literal human zoo, to showcase Belgium's "civilizing" impact on the Congo. This zoo held 600 Congolese men, women, and children captive. This harkened back to 1897 when King Leopold started this human zoo which attracted 1 in 4 Belgiums to come visit.

• In the construction of the Central Railway Line in Africa, Germans used slave labor, resulting in the deaths of 100 men each month. During its peak of construction, over 20,000 Africans worked on the railway line.

• Elephants will not abandon their sick or dying family members, communicate through an infrasonic system that humans can't hear, can recognize themselves in a mirror (few animals can do this), have a better memory than humans, and even have a burial ritual for the deceased.

• At the beginning of the 19th century, there were 26 million elephants in Africa. Now, there's between 4-500,000.

"Sven Lindqvist remarked: 'You already know enough. So do I. It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and to draw conclusions.'"

The people have spoken! We’re reading These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs in March and I couldn’t be more excited. This is our first sci-fi pick in the book club and I have a feeling we’re going to love it. Other reviewers have sung this series’ praises, lauding it as a character-driven and action packed story with excellent writing and pacing. I hope it lives up to the hype!!

Don’t forget to check the Discord for our monthly giveaway winner and for virtual meetup details. Some of us are also working through the rest of the Dandelion Dynasty series together on the side—feel free to add your thoughts to our forum discussions as you read the books. I’m almost finished with The Veiled Throne and am hoping to read Speaking Bones in March (along with our book club pick, of course). I’m so happy I get to read and discuss amazing books with you all ❤️

The official cover of the sequel to Black Salt Queen! I am obsessed.

Hello readers and dreamers! It's time to announce the book club read for March! We voted and the winner was ...

Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett!

Feel free to read along the timeline I've outlined above (about 9 chapters per week) if you wish, or read ahead if you wish! I'll have a chat room open in Discord for read reacts and theories based on these divisions so hopefully nobody gets spoiled!

Thanks everyone! I can't wait to read this with you all 🐾

My love for reading began when I was quite young. I fondly remember a few books from my elementary years that I still think about to this day. My favorite book from my childhood was Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary. It was about this kid whose class was tasked with writing to authors in hopes of getting a letter back, and he haveformed a friendship with the author in the book.

I also fell in love with the Animorphs series as a teenager. Then again, who didn't love teenagers who could transform into animals?

As I've grown older, my taste and approach to reading have drastically changed. I've become more aware of the time I commit to books, and that has helped shape the types of books I read and why I read them.

Much like a well-balanced diet, you can't expect to eat just pizza and reap the benefits of someone who's eating vegetables, protein, and carbs consistently with each meal.

Creating a sustainable reading habit, especially one you'll enjoy and feel accomplished in, requires a well-balanced approach. Below is a running list of books that I consistently recommend for various reasons.

In the near future, I'm going to break down this list and explain why I recommend them, and sort them based on where you might be in your life or reading journey.

But for now, check out some of these books, give them a shot, and be sure to come back and let me know what you think!

Evergreen Book Recommendations

​East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Tinkers by Paul Harding

Cigarettes by Harry Mathews

Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green

White Noise by Don DeLillo

How The Word Is Passed by Clint Smith

The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay

Midnight In Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham

Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder In Imperial Rome by Anthony Everitt & Roddy Ashworth

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Yr Dead by Sam Sax

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

The Wolf Age by Tore Skeie

Poor People by William T. Vollman

Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants by Matias Enard

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Things In Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li

Founding Partisans: Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams, and the Brawling Birth of American Politics by H.W. Brands

Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went To War In 1914 by Christopher Clarke

A New World Begins by Jeremy Popkin

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

Varieties of Disturbance by Lydia Davis

King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild

Sengoku Jidai by Danny Chaplin

The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
​Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kohlker

Sad Tiger by Niege Sinno

Butcher's Crossing by John Williams

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

My Struggle Books 1-6 by Karl Ove Knausgaard

The Art Thief by Michael Finkel

Life For Sale by Yukio Mishima

A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut

1776 by David McCollough

Challenger by Adam Higginbotham

The Graves Are Walking by John Kelly

Voices From Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich

Memoirs of a Revolutionary by Victor Serge

Man-Eaters of Sunderbans by Tahawar Ali-Khan

Vineland by Thomas Pynchon

I finished two books this week, and they could not have been more different for me.

Just Our Luck started off as this cozy, feel-good vibe… but somewhere around the middle, I lost steam. By the last 20% I was more like “just get me through this” and ended up skimming the end. 😭😭

What didn’t land for me: the MMC came off as lowkey mean at times, and the FMC felt a little too innocent for the energy of the story. And the Whole Lottery Thing… she wins a life-changing amount of money and then basically keeps living like nothing happened??

I was here mentally booking Paris, Seoul, spa days, big moves with her money, but she’s at a donut shop trying to be near her crush. I just could not suspend disbelief lol.

Funny Story was much more my vibe. The FMC’s issues with her father actually hit me, HARD. She’s emotionally grown, but sometimes parents have a funny way of hitting our soft spots. That added a level of depth that I didn’t expect.

The MMC was such a soft teddy bear, supportive, earnest, calming, and yet the bedroom dynamic surprised me in the best way. Like when we say talk her through it, that's exactly what he did. No notes. I don’t usually crave spicy scenes, but here it felt earned and natural. If intimacy jumps in too fast I get bored, and this one paced itself perfectly for me.

Overall, pacing was smooth, emotional arcs felt believable, and I walked away satisfied.

Week verdict:
Just Our Luck - fell flat
Funny Story - cozy, meaningful, well paced

Revenge that has been translated into English!

SPECIAL FOR YOU!

If you recall, we joked about making Daddy Moirarty hats WAY back (keep in mind that HEL is Daddy, not her daddy), and yes, yes — I did the damn thing. And as a thank you to our top tier members (YOU!) I'd love to ship you one for free to get you in the WAYWARD SOULS spirit!

If you'd like a hat, please comment on this post and make sure your shipping address is updated here:

https://binderybooks.com/settings/account/

I'll start shipping once I get your request. (And I'll add some other Inky goodies in the package!)

And this will be for US shipping only. I am so very sorry about that, but with the state of our country and tariffs, it's just not manageable at the moment.

Heya! The March polls are up for the History/Fiction Sickos Book Clubs, you can go vote on them in the appropriate Discord channels (scroll down a bit and you'll see #fiction-vote and #history-vote). The polls stay open for 72 hours and were posted late last night so you've got some time to coerce and bribe fellow members to sway to the vote in your favorite.

Not seeing the channels?! Make sure you've linked your Bindery subscription to Discord via the Account Settings page. Also, those channels unlock at the Sicko plus paid tiers, so if you're a "Follower", you'll need to upgrade to get the goods. Along with the book club forums you also get access to a load of other channels for various genres, book recommendation requests, movies/TV, and a bunch more. We've also set up buddy read forums for our Russian literature reads, Discworld, Malazan, Red Rising, John Gwynne, Robin Hobb, The Hunger Games, 11.22.63 and A Complement of Scoundrels!

As for the options, these are the 8 books across the 2 clubs that we're voting on.

FICTION SICKOS

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Human Acts by Han Kang

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George RR Martin

HISTORY SICKOS

A Rome of One’s Own by Emma Southon

The End is Always Near by Dan Carlin

Africa is Not a Country by Dipo Faloyin

Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary

TikTok Exlpainer Video

Instragram Explainer Video

I've already read all of these, with the exception of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, so they've all got my seal of approval. The reason for this is we are on the hunt for the second manuscript edition for our publishing imprint to acquire. Last year the process was crazy quick as A Complement of Scoundrels by S.V. Lockwood jumped out to me right away during Bindery's Pitch Fest, where unagented authors can submit their novels for consideration. I'm hoping to have the same luck this year, but I need to make sure I've got the mental space for it if it takes a bit longer. All of your support goes towards making this possible as a big chunk of the subscription revenue goes into making an offer and hiring the editing team, artist and so on and so forth, so thank you for making all of this happen!

I will still be participating in the book club discussions though, especially the History Sickos since all four of those books I've highlighted to hell and back so I've got plenty to share.

Last thing to note is I've got another book giveaway happening in the next couple weeks so keep an eye out for that. Alright, enough babbling, get to voting!

Happy Tuesday, mis internet amigxs!

February 28th is the last day to post your #MeltIceBookStack on Instagram! I encourage you to do the same to help raise funds for Minneapolis. Your stack can help raise necessary funds for mutual aid to assist those in immediate need.

I have a few book club and Discord announcements before we get to this week's releases...

BIEN LEIDOS BOOK CLUB

All the winners of the Now I Surrender giveaway have been contacted via their Bindery email. As a reminder, since the book doesn't release until March 3rd, we won't be opening up discussion on Discord until the 4th. Our chat will be spoiler-free throughout the month, as per usual, so feel free to jump in as soon as you receive your copy. Also, we WILL be chatting with Alvaro again! I'm currently talking to his team to confirm availability and will more than likely poll in Discord, if you want to have a say in those dates.

March 1st also begins our nonfiction sidequest, Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here by Johnathan Blitzer. We'll be reading through the end of April, so feel free to join us whenever you want in the next couple of months. There is a possiblity we'll be chatting with Johnathan. I'm in talks with his team to see if schedules align.

I'll be posting polls this week in Discord for spoilery book club discussions of Sparks Fly and Racial Innocence.

April and May fiction book club selections have been finalized. Watch this space for some exciting giveaways and announcements coming up very soon!

COMING UP THIS WEEK ON DISCORD

Discord has voted and the 4th Wednesday of every month will be Sticker/Journal night. Name for this monthly event is pending, but for the time being it's Chaos: A Love Story. If you're into journaling, pens, stickers, this is a fun night on Discord where you can share your newest stickers, journal spreads, pens, etc...

*THIS WEEK'S LATINE'S RELEASES*

We've got a massive selection of Latine books releasing this week, so let's get to them!

HISTORICAL FICTION

The Other Moctezuma Girls by Sofia Robleda

TRANSLATED FICTION

Technology and Barbarism: or how billionaires will save us from the end of the world by Michel Nieva and translated by Rahul Bery and Daniel Hahn

The Invisible Years by Rodrigo Hasbun and translated by Lily Meyer (Audiobook)

I Give You My Silence by Mario Vargas Llosa and Translated by Adrian Nathan West

NONFICTION

Tumbleweed Underworld: A Saga of Morphine and Mayhem in the Arizona Territory by Eduardo Obregón Pagán

CHILDREN’S

La Golondrina by Sonia De Los Santos and Illustrated by Teresa Martínez

ROMANCE

The Hope Once Lost by Ambar Cordova

xoxo,

Carmen