Every week we ask an interesting figure what they're digging into. Have ideas who we should reach out to? Let it fly: info@seattlereviewofbooks.com. Want to read more? Check out the archives.

Tatiana Gill is a Seattle-based cartoonist, illustrator, and creator of many books focused on addiction recovery, mental health, and body positivity, including Wombgenda: Feminist Comics, Blackoutings: How I Quit Drinking, and the recently released Color Me Thicc: A Fat-Positive Coloring Book. She's appearing with fellow local comic artist and writer Colleen Frakes today, Saturday March 16, from 4-6 PM at Outsider Comics and Geek Boutique.

What are you reading now?

Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions by Russell Brand. My 12-step sponsor suggested we read it aloud to each other, and we're a few chapters in. Brand explains the 12-steps in a very funny, irreverent, and G-word (God) free context, sprinkled with anecdotes from his own life and struggles with addiction. As I have been practicing the 12-steps for years, I find it very insightful and full of laugh-out-loud moments. I have heard people speak of how the language of the more traditional 12-steps, crafted in the 1930s and rich in the G-word, alienates them. I think Brand's more modern translation of the same principles is a valuable resource.

What did you read last?

Mis(h)adra by Iasmin Omar Ata. It's semi-autographical graphic novel about a college-going man's struggles with epilespy. I could really relate to the subjects of having complicated illnesses and being misunderstood by doctors, loved ones, and society. But some of it was confusing to me, I didn't understand some of the more abstract parts. I guessed that this well-received book is speaking the language of younger people than I, with it's manga/anime style, and I may be past the ideal age range for it at 44. But I did understand what Ata was saying about the need for patient advocacy and community support. Self-care is half the battle and the other half of the battle is asking for help, and continuing to seek out second opinions when met with misunderstanding and misdiagnoses (easier said than done with limited resources, of course).

I also recently read Outrageous Openness: Letting the Divine Take the Lead by Tosha Silver which I loved. I love a fruity 'woo-woo' self help book but it's easy for them to be low quality, this one was high quality. It's a collection of essays from Silver's astrology column in the San Francisco Examiner. I was struggling with depression and faith when I read it, and I found an uplifting solace in her words. I could pick up what she was laying down and absorb those sweet post-hippie SF vibes while I was at it.

What are you reading next?

Cassandra Darke by Posy Simmonds. I am so excited for this graphic novel! I ordered it from the UK, which I do on very rare occasion (I usually borrow graphic novels from the Seattle Public Library, but I couldn't wait for this). I read Tamara Drewe by this British author a few years ago, and it was great - and it's how I learned the word "slag." In this new book the female protagonist is fat, old, and antisocial. When I am consuming media with a female, fat, old, cranky protagonist (which is produced so rarely), I feel the joy of representation, which helps me to relax and enjoy the story. In this rare representation I see someone like me being important and worthy of carrying a story. When it's a skinny, young, outgoing female (or most any kind of male) protagonist, there's a disconnect, it can be harder for me to relate — or worse, I can wind up aspiring to be something I don't have the means to actualize.