Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

Happy Tuesday, bibliophiles!

2025 is a year that defies any kind of platitudes for me, but it was a year full of upheaval—good and bad. I’m nearly finished with college, I moved into an apartment, I had my golden birthday…all with the looming specter of fascism overhead. Too many people are concernedly fine with that last bit.

This year, I wanted to make a concerted effort to read more nonfiction. As of now, according to my Storygraph, my ratio of fiction to nonfiction is 88% to 12%, which…yeah, there’s still a pretty obvious bias. But compared to last year, where only 6% of what I read was nonfiction, that’s a significant jump up! 6% more than last year! Yet even still, most of my 5-star reads ended up being nonfiction this year, something that I did not see coming. Granted, not every nonfiction book I read was amazing, but there were some real heavy-hitters this year. Spanning from memoirs to essays on everything from grief, art, and identity, I feel like this nonfiction exemplifies my aim this year: to learn more, but to resist the kind of person that the government wants me to be, and that’s someone who is ignorant. I don’t want to thank the current administration for anything, but I will give them this: their insistence on dumbing down the population has only made me want to learn more.

Last year, I talked about how my 5-star reads seem to shrink a little every year; I still maintain that it’s probably for the best, since I’m more selective now than I was before. (Also, it’s bound to be less since I read less and more slowly these days. I’m not blowing through 300 books a year like I was when I was 10 years ago.) And yet I noticed this year that sometimes, I was almost afraid to rate books 5 stars. I found myself second-guessing constantly: did it really move me that much? Was it that good to deserve full marks? Sure, I’ve retrospectively changed ratings of books here and there—it’s bound to happen as we age—but I just need to remember to go with my heart. And what spoke to my heart this year was an oddball bunch—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and science fiction featuring cats. All of it moved me in some strange way, giving me the liberatory knowledge to move forward and the strength to persist. So here’s to these amazing novels that moved me the most this year.

NOTE: Normally, I don’t include re-reads on my 5-star reads of the year, but in this case I’ll make an exception, since for one of them, I retrospectively changed my rating to 5 stars. There’s nothing like a book that’s even better the second time around.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️THE BOOKISH MUTANT’S 5-STAR READS OF 2025⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Last Gifts of the Universe – Riley August | love transcends the impending collapse of civilizations!! and there’s a cat!!
Crying in H Mart – Michelle Zauner | This one gutted me, but Michelle Zauner has such a way with words, both in song and in prose.
Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times – Azar Nafisi | in the midst of sweeping book bans and looming fascism, this is such a potent reminder of the power of books and reading.
On Earth As It Is on Television – Emily Jane | A surprisingly emotional take on alien invasions, with a dose of bratty kids and cat memes. Not a mixture that I’d expect to bring me to tears, but Emily Jane sure did it. | Read my review here! *
What Art Does: An Unfinished Theory – Brian Eno and Bette A. | A concise meditation on the power of art from one of the artists that I’ve admired most this year.
Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed: 15 Voices from the Latinx Diaspora – edited by Saraciea J. Fennell | An excellent collection of the varied experiences of Latine people across the country, many of which struck a chord with me—Julian Randall’s “Julian4Spiderman” was a favorite of mine.
A Closed and Common Orbit (The Wayfarers, #2) – Becky Chambers | back in high school, this was my least favorite of the Wayfarers series, to which I say to my past self…how? Why? I re-read this for my science fiction course that I helped teach this fall (I can now count my professor as one of my Becky Chambers converts), and it touched me so profoundly. What a sensitive and raw depiction of trying to figure out what it means to be a human person when everybody else seems to have it down. (Spoiler alert: they don’t.)
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World – Robin Wall Kimmerer | I finally got around to reading most of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s books this year, and this was my favorite. A case against capitalism and a case for a world embedded more with gratitude towards the abundance present in the natural world (despite what oil executives will tell you).
Begin Where You Are: The Colorado Poets Laureate Anthology – edited by Turner Wyatt (anthology) | makes me immensely proud to be a Coloradan—no notes. Rest in peace to our most recent Poet Laureate, Andrea Gibson. ❤️‍🩹

*I’ve bumped this up to the full 5 stars from 4.75 in retrospect. Deserved.

HONORABLE MENTIONS (4.5 STARS)

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! Have you read any of these books, and if so, did you enjoy them as much as I did? What were your favorite reads of the year? Let me know in the comments!

Today’s song:

That’s it for this wrap-up of books! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Happy Monday, bibliophiles!

Insert panicking about how 2025 is already halfway gone, yada yada yada. It’s always jarring to get to that point after you’ve spent the first half of it relatively unaware, but honestly? Given the truly magnificent shitshow 2025 has been…good riddance.

Let’s begin, shall we?

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

My school got out jarringly early, which was nice, but part of me is still reckoning with the fact that “summer” has now expanded to fit all but the first week of May in it. I shouldn’t complain. It’s given me a lot of extra time to read and do all of the things that I lamented not being able to do while I was in school. I picked back up with guitar lessons, started improving my knitting, listened to several amazing albums (while knitting), and honed down my drawing. It’s all I can do to keep the anxiety/boredom-depression that starts threatening to consume everything once I get too into a routine, but I’ve got a part-time job, so I’m throwing as much as I can at my brain to keep it occupied.

And Jesus, it’s hard to keep it occupied. Nothing’s changed since my last wrap-up, and my constant state of teetering over the edge of snapping thanks to the news is ever-present, especially this month (FUCK TRUMP AND GET ICE OFF OUR STREETS). There’s nothing like being on vacation and appreciating the splendor that Colorado’s public lands provide us with and then seeing that a bunch of senators wanted to sell off millions of acres of that “undeveloped land”. At least they’re not quite as on that anymore, though I urge everyone to keep the pressure on them, because there are far too many issues that they’re either exacerbating or ignoring. But especially during Pride Month, I have to remind myself that taking care of myself and giving back to my community is an act of resistance, especially as a queer, neurodivergent person, because a) the government doesn’t want us to exist (because why else would THEY SHUT DOWN THE LGBTQ+ SUICIDE HOTLINE? Inexcusable, comically mustache-twirling, depraved evil right there), and b) they want us to be over-individualistic so that we ignore what connects all of us.

But it hasn’t been all freaking out, I promise. I went on a lovely road trip to Crested Butte with my family, and I spent a week up in the mountains looking at so many wonderful wildflowers. Getting back to both my family and my hobbies has made me more centered—the foundation is still wobbly (because of…everything), but I can always count on them to keep me grounded and keep me in the present. I found solace in my community during Pride Month, though I didn’t end up going to any of the local parades because of either plans or the heat. (Denver, I love you, but I’m not standing out in 90+ degree heat. I’m here and I’m queer, but I’m also really pale and don’t want to get excessively sweaty or sunburned.) My existence is an act of resistance, and as much as I can, I will use it for good.

If anything, it’s at least good to have a summer where I actually have movies to look forward to (definitely Superman, and I’m on the fence about Fantastic Four, but I’ll see it, if only for Cousin Thing). Y’all…The Phoenician Scheme. It’s so beautiful, dude. Wes Anderson is physically incapable of making a bad movie. Go see it. GO SEE IT.

Also, I managed to knit my first functional thing in mid-June…here’s this bag I finished up before my vacation!

My magnum opus. Obviously. I’m now keeping a paused knitting project in it, so I hope it’s not one of those “gingerbread man living in a gingerbread house completely oblivious to the fact that he lives in a house of his own flesh” situation. I try not to think about it.

MAY READING WRAP-UP:

I read 13 books this month! In an absolute whiplash of ratings, I had two DNFs and two 5-star reads this month, but between them, there were some great reads. Surprisingly, the nonfiction books (both of which had red covers, coincidentally) were the stars this month!

1 – 1.75 stars:

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library – Michiko Aoyama (DNF – ⭐️)
Ninefox Gambit (Machineries of Empire, #1) – Yoon Ha Lee (DNF – ⭐️)

2 – 2.75 stars:

The Knockout – Sajni Patel (⭐️⭐️)
The Death I Gave Him – Em X. Liu (⭐️⭐️)

3 – 3.75 stars:

Saints of Storm and Sorrow (Stormbringer Saga, #1) – Gabriella Buba (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
A Bánh Mì for Two – Trinity Nguyen (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
Light Years from Home – Mike Chen (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
The Resisters – Gish Jen (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)

4 – 4.75 stars:

Dragonfruit – Makiia Lucier (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Rebel Skies (Rebel Skies, #1) – Ann Sei Lin (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
The Ashfire King (The Sandsea Trilogy, #2) – Chelsea Abdullah (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

5 stars:

Crying in H Mart – Michelle Zauner (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times – Azar Nafisi (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH: Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times – 5 stars

REVIEWS:

SUNDAY SONGS:

BONUS:

The Bookish Mutant’s Books for AAPI Heritage Month (2025 Edition)

JUNE READING WRAP-UP:

I read 16 books this month! Even with my part-time job, summer has given me more time to read, which is always welcome. Although there were some misses in the mix, I had a great bunch of (mostly) queer reads for pride month, both from familiar and new authors!

1 – 1.75 stars: