Sidetracks - February 1, 2025

[helloladies]

Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share with each other. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag. You can also support Sidetracks and our other work on Patreon.

Renay

1. Bookshop.org is offering ebooks that will benefit local bookstores. My bookstore, for some reason, isn't on this site, but it seems like it will be very beneficial for indies that participate.

2. Reviews like this, by Roseanna about Remember You Will Die by Eden Robins, are what I love about book blogging.

3. Speaking of Roseanna, she's eligible for some awards this year. She's worked hard and made some incredible art/criticism.

4. Kristen at Fantasy Cafe drop her anticipated books for 2025.

5. Spirit Swap, a game I bookmarked back in 2021 on Steam, is dropping on February 3. I am so pumped.

6. I haven't watched enough of Angel to read this and get what Jenny would like for me to take from it, so I'm holding off for now. But I wanted everyone who has seen Angel to read it if it sounds interesting: I Finally Figured Out the Problem: Angel Hates Sex.

7. I really liked Maureen's take on our current *gestures to everything* moment.

Right now, I’ve been asking myself two questions. First, what’s something I can do today to help someone else? It could be donating, giving food, time, or supplies, promoting diverse voices, or supporting friends and loved ones. Second, what’s something I can do today to take care of myself? Sometimes I need to have a no news day, or go outside. Sometimes I need to read something (like Le Guin) that challenges me a bit. For me, this is a bit different than self-care, in that it’s more focused on restoration and growth.

After 2024, what I've learned about myself is that I really like caring for people in small ways. A nice letter, a bowl of soup, a phone call. I really want to dig into community care the next four years.

8. I've been going back to this essay by Kameron Hurley all week.

We are on a rickety boat in a vast and tumultuous sea of mad humans at a turning point in history. We are in it together. While we may not know where we’re going or how the wind swings next, until it takes us down or spits us out, our time is ours. That’s all that we have.

I will spend it joyfully.

9. Sometimes I hear a snippet of a song and then it lives in my head rent free for weeks.

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