Café Sundaze Menu: February 2025

From dishes to books, here’s what’s on the cards this month.

Happy February, my loves!

For many reasons, it feels like 2025 has finally got going now. Since turning 30, I typically use January to lay low, reassess my routines and home and self after the busy Christmas period, and set the grounds for what the rest of the year might look like. Firstly, I did some admin work here and created a separate ‘section’ for my ‘Open-hearted joys’ series. You can now adjust your notifications accordingly if you prefer to only receive my essays and bookish content. Secondly, I knew that February would be a really busy month and, with my boyfriend away for a lot of January, I spent all of my spare time reading. I finished a LOT of books and will be sharing those on Monday.

Along with my family, I celebrated Lunar New Year – specifically Chinese New Year, for me! – on the 29th and it was so much fun. I adore our traditions like new clothes and haircuts, pomelo baths, decking the house in red and gold… The weekend before, we celebrated Tết with my boyfriend’s family, as they’re half-Vietnamese! We’re heading out tomorrow for a belated big family feast for Chinese New Year, since we couldn’t all coordinate annual leave at our respective workplaces and the UK doesn’t celebrate the holiday as a whole. (I miss living in Hong Kong at times like these!) Now that Lunar New Year has passed, I feel ready to take on 2025.

And, yesterday, I finally moved in with my boyfriend! I’m so excited for this new chapter, and to slowly make a home together. My life right now is boxes, suitcases, paint cards and furniture decisions. It’s all change here and I think the name of February’s game will be focusing on taking everything slowly.

On the TBR

We’ve got a short but chunky month ‘planned’ this February, as I think I’ll be spending a lot of time unpacking, painting, building furniture, and fumbling into a new routine with my boyfriend. Nevertheless, I am simply not the same person if I don’t read, so I’m hoping to spend my four weeks sinking my teeth into three big books

The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami

For all of his faults in writing women, Murakami remains one of my favourite novelists – cemented by his non-fiction Novelist as a Vocation – and I was so excited to get my hands on a copy of his newest release. Set in a world he’s already written about, The City and Its Uncertain Walls follows the narrator as their teenage relationship brings them to the barrier between the real and shadow worlds. It’s been said to be a love story and ode to books, and I am thoroughly excited.

When The Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker

I’ve seen plenty of hype about this book on The StoryGraph and bookstagram, and when I saw it was on the Prime Books section, I instantly downloaded a copy for my Kindle. I’m definitely not a romance reader, but dragons and a decent magic system will always draw me in. Plus, this definitely sits in my ‘big books’ reading resolution! Now to try and tackle this before my Prime subscription ends.

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

As soon as I heard Jess’ review of this book in her recent reading wrap-up, I knew I wanted to read The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez. Two warriors and an ancient god mission across a broken land to end the tyrannical reign of a royal family. More of a high fantasy read, this book is a sweeping adventure that explores identity, legacy and belonging.