What I Read in February 2025

Hi, friends! February was a short month but I read quite a bit, though a couple of my reads are technically not real books… here’s everything I read last month:

THE MAKING OF ASIAN AMERICA by Erika Lee

Asian Americans are often left out of American history, and it’s important for me that I make efforts to seek out stories about Asian people in America. The Making of Asian America may be the most recent, comprehensive work about Asian American History as it covers events that predate the founding of the United States all the way through mid-2010s. Unsurprisingly, I learned so much while reading The Making of Asian America–the lynchings of Asian Americans out West, Asian people who immigrated as indentured “coolies”, and more. Since this book was published in 2015, the anti-Asian racism during the early COVID-19 pandemic is not covered. I would’ve been really interested to see that as part of the overall narrative though I was able to find a short article by the author on this topic.

THE YOU YOU ARE by Dr. Ricken Lazlo Hale

This is one of the non-books I’m including in this post… I hope you are watching Severance (on Apple TV) because it’s only the best show ever! Rex and I watched season 1 and loved it but we had started watching it halfway through season 1 so we could binge the second half of the episodes. Season 2 of Severance is out but they are dropping one episode a week so we’re finding ourselves really digesting each episode and being invested in different theories each week! The You You Are is a self-help “book” written by Ricken, brother-in-law of the main character Mark, and the first eight chapters are available on Apple Books both in eBook and audiobook format. It’s certainly weird and quite a bit vague but you can see the glimpses of times past and who Ricken may be… 👀

BOTTLE OF LIES by Katherine Eban

I learned about Bottle of Lies from a book club meetup in January, and I was very intrigued by the premise of it, as I work in a pharm-adjacent industry. Bottle of Lies is an investigative non-fiction that reveals the dangerous practices that were rampant within the generic-drug manufacturing and the work of whistleblowers and inspectors it has taken to correct the course. Before reading the book, I had this incorrect idea that the once the pharmaceutical companies’ patents run out, generics companies are able to create the generics versions of the name brand drugs with the same “formula” which is not the case…! An informative read and a particularly interesting one if you are curious about the pharmaceutical manufacturing and/or regulations.

THE TEACHER by Freida McFadden

Recently, I’ve been seeing so many people reading Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid. While I wait for my library hold on The Housemaid series, I listened to The Teacher. As the title suggested, The Teacher involves two high school teachers Eve and Nate who are in a dispassionate marriage as well as a student named Addie who crushes on Nate and resents Eve. The Teacher gave me a good insight into McFadden’s writing and storytelling. It was a quick page-turner as I expected but perhaps heavier than I anticipated…

THE DROWNING FAITH by R. F. Kuang

Another non-book I read this month was The Drawing Faith. It’s a collection of snippets from Nezha’s point of view throughout The Poppy War trilogy. It’s incredibly short but also enlightening and heartbreaking to see Nezha’s perspective.

THE BURNING GOD by R. F. Kuang

Finale to The Poppy War trilogy!!! I loved The Poppy War but felt more lukewarm towards The Dragon Republic. A lot happens in second book, and I couldn’t see how it would end or what the point of all that happens was…! I may have carried some of my feelings about The Dragon Republic when I started The Burning God, but the storytelling in The Dragon Republic is clearer and there is more clarification and resolution. The ending of The Burning God may be worth all mess and heartbreak leading up to it (yes, I did cry). One day, I will read The Poppy War trilogy again. On a happier note, I’m excited to have read all of R. F. Kuang’s novels before Katabasis comes out later this year!

AND SO I ROAR by Abi Daré

I did not expect a sequel to The Girl with the Louding Voice but of course, I had to read it once I knew about it! And So I Roar picks up Adunni’s story where The Girl with the Louding Voice left off though I would argue that And So I Roar may be equally about Ms. Tia. The day before Adunni is due to start at a girl’s school, she is forcibly brought back to her home village to be judged for her “sin” along with some other women and girls. Ms. Tia returns with Adunni to fight for her freedom all while her mother is on the deathbed and her husband is discovering about her past she kept a secret for so long.

A WELL-TRAINED WIFE by Tia Levings

Tia Levings came across my TikTok FYP some months ago, and I learned about A Well-Trained Wife that way. She has been openly sharing about her time in the fundamentalist Christian church on the Internet for some time (her online presence began while she was an active member of the church actually). A Well-Trained Wife is an extended version of her story in which she chronicles her upbringing, how life was like for her as a wife and mother in the Quiverfull movement, and her escape from such circumstances. A Well-Trained Wife felt ever so poignant with the glorification of “tradwife” lifestyle these days.

P.S. Photo is from January when I hosted a Silent Book Club at home!

P.P.S. I’m currently reading Say Nothing and listening to I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying.