“Composers shouldn’t think too much – it interferes with their plagiarism.”-Howard Dietz
“I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.”― Duke Ellington
“If you talk bad about country music, it’s like saying bad things about my momma. Them’s fightin’ words.”-Dolly Parton
“Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.”― Igor Stravinsky
“Beethoven tells you what it’s like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it’s like to be human. Bach tells you what it’s like to be the universe.”― Douglas Adams
“I stole everything I ever heard, but mostly I stole from the horns.”— Ella Fitzgerald
“I believe in fiction and the power of stories because that way we speak in tongues. We are not silenced. All of us, when in deep trauma, find we hesitate, we stammer; there are long pauses in our speech. The thing is stuck. We get our language back through the language of others. We can turn to the poem. We can open the book. Somebody has been there for us and deep-dived the words.” ― Jeanette Winterson, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
“Libraries are places where the damaged go to find friends” ― Tamora Pierce
“I never feel lonely if I’ve got a book – they’re like old friends. Even if you’re not reading them over and over again, you know they are there. And they’re part of your history. They sort of tell a story about your journey through life.” Emilia Fox
“It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming of themselves like grass.’-Eudora Welty
Look, I have no excuses for the growing (pun intended) collection of office plants except that they make me super happy and proud that I’ve kept them alive. They give me oxygen, clean the air, and also provide dopamine. There are three plant ladies in my office and I gave some spiderwort to one of them so now both of our offices are exploding with them. She gives them away to people who even look remotely interested.
Heart Philodendron- this one started, if you can believe it, as a few struggling cuttings from my buy nothing group, as well as a very overgrown clearance plant from the fancy plant store. It’s doing really well at the office, as you can see! The cup was given to me last spring by a dear friend and it now stands as a memorial to her, as she passed away from unexpected health complications. It reminds me when I see both the mug and the new growth, to stop and appreciate my friends, family, and other blessings.
Shark Pot- Variegated, Hoya Spiderwort/Inch plant variety for the other two. I’ve killed two hoyas by not enough light and overwatering, so this is my last attempt at it, I think. This one seems hardier than the other two though, so I have high hopes for it. The big spiderwort was given to me by a coworker, who had a client come in with a cup full of water and these giant vines. My coworker said they wouldn’t grow well in her office because of the light, but knew I had other varieties of them. Who am I to refuse free plants?! Spiderworts are fascinating because they really follow the light and are very agile. They do eventually die out along the bottom of the plant and you have to keep cutting them to keep them under control so you just have a continuous stream of new plants.
Garden pot- Spiderwort variety (seriously, this thing will not quit, even though it looks a little sad. Be-leafing pot- Swiss Cheese Plant (mini Monestera): I’m surprised this one likes me! Nerve plant in the polka dot plant. These are so dramatic and I love them for it. They are actually pretty hardy as long as you water them when they start to droop. You can also see my accidental adventuring group, my fidget shark, a snail made from a shell, and a tiny clay fairy made by a friend on the side.
Ignore the messy shelf. It’s been a terrible month and I did just reorganize after taking the picture. The spider plant on the left has two babies! It also got some babies from a friend, so it’s got a stolen baby from my Mom’s plant, two from my friend’s plant, and then the rest is the original plant. You can’t see it well, but in the flamingo planter, there’s a zebra haworthia, which seems to be doing well. the Aloe plants are from a friend and I think I maybe overwatered it by accident, so it’s feeling a little rough. There’s a kalanchoe from a former intern in the blue patterned pot. More spiderwort in the grounded pot and in the rooting vase. A string of hearts that I haven’t killed yet (it’s maybe not so happy with me though,) and the original green variety of spider plant. I used to not like them, but as it turns out, I’m good with them, so I decided to try my hand at keeping a few. All the ones I stole from my mother (yes, she knows now, but I was sneaky at the time) are growing really well, so… I guess I like them now.
Once I rearrange my home houseplants, I’ll have to give you a tour of those as well. I think they have all adjusted to living in my house and I’ve got a reminder set to check if they need water twice a week. My office plants bring a lot of connection with clients, I’ve found, and they make my office seem more comfortable and homey as well. Most of the ones there haven’t done well at home, so I’m glad I’m able to bring them in and give them more space. I hope they bring you a little joy too!
As a bonus picture, this is what my coffee table looked like the day I had a few unexpected cancellations and decided to repot my spiderworts. You can see what they do in the white pot when the bottom leaves start to die off. Don’t worry, I did clean it all up and my table looks good as new. Lol.
“Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.”-Benjamin Disraeli
‘Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals.”-Neil Gaiman
“Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.”-Malorie Blackman
“Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life.”-Barbara Kingsolver
I don’t normally choose to read a lot of non-fiction books as I don’t generally find them as engaging, but these next few books won me over.
Non-Fiction:
101 World Building Prompts by MD Presley: I enjoyed reading this book of tips for making new worlds. The author was really good with helping you think of new ideas and other things to consider. It was an easy and thoughtful read. I am currently writing a world for games based on a Nano idea and it’s been really fun to incorporate some techniques from the book and clarify my process. I can use this book for both personal use and for work stuff. Best part? I got it for free on Stuff Your Kindle day!
Disability Visibility Edited by Alice Wong: This was a book of short essays about disabilities and the ways they impact people who are just trying to live in the world not set up for them. I appreciated the new perspectives, the straight talk, and the reminders of things to do to help support others in general.
The Dressmakers of Auschwitz by Lucy Adlington: This book had a profound effect on me. I hadn’t known that a dress salon existed at Auschwitz or that it was an important point of resistance for the prisoners who were held there. The idea that clothes are something more than just fashion and body coverings, especially in a place where clothes could be the difference between life and death, is something I feel I should consider more as a sewist myself. My joke about sewing being a sought after skill during the zombie apocalypse feels a little flat after reading a book about women who were literally sewing for their lives. The history seen through the eyes of these ladies and the pictures and interviews with some of them in the book were amazing. The trauma and horror of war isn’t glossed over and has just enough of a statement of fact to drive home the facts of what these women suffered. I would highly recommend this book, just be prepared that it is not a light read.
Work Related:
Little Wizards by Antoine Bauza: This is a delightful first step into tabletop role playing games for both kids and parents who haven’t played before. It offers three stories with varying levels of instruction or suggestions for the Storyteller. They are all kid friendly and offer lots of different choices for how to investigate the mystery. I’m currently in the middle of the first one with a kid who is highly enjoying the novelty of solving the mystery. I really like the illustrations too- they are all adorable! Character customization is easy and you only need two 6 sided (regular cube) dice for it, so no special dice are needed. I would recommend this for probably 6-9ish? Maybe 10 if you added questing options or side quests. Check it out if you need something fun to do!
Kids on Bikes by Jon Gilmore and Doug Levandowski is a super cute and highly customizable tabletop role playing game system that is similar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer or more currently- Stranger Things. The general outline is that you are kids in a small town in a time before readily available google and cell phones and you have to solve a mystery that’s happening in your small town. Perhaps it’s aliens? Or maybe space monkies? Who knows? All you really know when you start the game is some rumors that you might start hearing about from the other players. This uses fancy dice, but is really open ended with just a few prompts and hooks to get you into the story. Then after that, the game master and players really take it away.
I’ve used it at work for one of my game groups and it went over pretty well. My players did the exact opposite of what I thought they were going to do most of the time, but that just kept me on my toes! It was fun to play and fairly easy to design characters and teach. I’m definitely keeping this in my work rotation.
Creative Therapy in the Sand by Roger and Christine Day is a sandtray therapy book with some general information and then some directive prompts to use in therapy sessions. Sandtray, while it is a little bit magical, can sometimes be hard to explain to people and this book does a good job of explaining the basics. I’m a big fan of sandtray and have used it myself to help me understand some of my more difficult things in life. I am always looking for more directives for sessions, so this was a good book to help prompt me with that. It’s definitely a small book though, so I wouldn’t recommend clinicians just use this with no other training.
I did read more non-fiction last year, but these were my favorite ones. This year, I hope to read some more of the books I keep buying for work and then not actually reading. Wish me luck!
These Therapets cards are all from the artist The Latest Kate, who you can find on Facebook, Instagram, and Redbubble! She creates them to help herself and others with their mental health.
“Nerds are far more interesting humans in later life.”-Alyson Hannigan
“In society at large, nerds are law-abiding, caring, fundamentally good folk who keep the wheels of civilization grinding.”-Alexandra Petri
“I want to be the poster girl for engineers and computer nerds.”-Alessandra Torresani
“Evanescence fans aren’t the popular kids in school. They aren’t the cheerleaders. It’s the art kids and the nerds and the kids who grow up to be the most interesting creative people.”-Amy Lee
“No longer is a geek identifiable by a pale complexion, black-rimmed glasses, a bowling shirt that says ‘Nerd World Order.’ No, geeks are everywhere. And they’re cool!”-Faith Salie
“Geeks are people who love something so much that all the details matter.”-Marissa Mayer
“Sometimes a family was a mischievous magical boss, her magical rival turned friend, a magical girl who used to be a babysitter and now was like an older sister, and the person you didn’t understand in the beginning but liked so much now. And sometimes it was arguments and sometimes it was hugs and sometimes it was banding together to fight a morally corrupt government body and sometimes it was just existing in the same space together as friends. But whatever this family was right now, whatever it was going to be, and however it would turn out, it was mine. And I knew that I belonged.”― F.T. Lukens, Spell Bound
“Once I had him in the book club, I’d seduce him the only way I knew how. Through books.”― Juliette Cross, Grim and Bear It
“He looked at her like she was both his salvation and his anguish. Like he had been searching for her for a lifetime.”― T. K. Tucker, The Coven of Ruin
“The story of disabled success has never been a story about one solitary disabled person overcoming limitations—despite the fact that’s the narrative we so often read in the media. The narrative trajectory of a disabled person’s life is necessarily webbed. We are often only as strong as our friends and family make us, only as strong as our community, only as strong as the resources and privileges we have.” ― Alice Wong, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century
“You expect heroes to survive terrible things. If you give them a medal, then you don’t ever have to ask why the terrible thing happened in the first place. Or try to fix it.” ― T. Kingfisher, A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking
Hi there! Whew. I don’t know about you, but the end of the year has been a whirlwind. I finished my 100 Book Reading Challenge this year and it took a little longer than I thought it would. I think I read more “quality” over “quantity” this year and that made it harder to just mow through fluffy books. Last year I was just downing silly books because it was all I could concentrate on.
This year I deliberately tried to spread out to different types of books, genres, and topics. I read traditional style with physical books, audio books, and with the Kindle App. I also tried to read a variety of different age ranges. I’m working on stocking my office with more books for my kid readers.
I didn’t force myself to finish books I didn’t like for one reason or another. I’m proud of myself for that, but I did forget to keep track of them in some way, so I had to go back quickly and try to remember which ones those were.
Viking in Love by Doug Cenko: This is the cutest little book ever about conquering your fears to look for true love. I adore it and gifted it as part of a 12 Books of Christmas present for K1’s kids. I received word that they also loved it. Stig proves that you can challenge yourself to work through your fears and still be yourself.
My Brain is a Racecar by Nell Harris: I have this book in my office and I love it for explaining ADHD to younger kids. The author was inspired by her own journey with ADHD and offers ideas and skills for other kids to help them give their race care brain a break. I especially enjoyed it because I recognized some of the things she says her brain does and actively do some of the rest techniques mentioned. I liked that it normalized neurodivergent brains in a fun way.
A Day With No Words by Tiffany Hammond: This book tells the story of Tiffany and her Autistic son Aiden and their day using only their AAC (Augmented and Assistive Communication) devices and apps to communicate. It’s a beautiful book that I think should be in all the libraries and read to all the kids. Tiffany has such a lovely way with the storytelling (You can check her out on Facebook as Fidgets and Fries too) and the love that’s evident in the book between them both is just wonderful. I love books like this that normalize all sorts of communication and families. This book was gifted to a few friends and also is in my office.
Middle Grade– Most of the Middle Grade books, I read because I was looking at them for the office and also because it was fun to see a new style and grade level of book.
Speak Up by Rebecca Burgess: The main character in this graphic novel, with the help of her friend, transforms into an internet pop star sensation on the weekends and is a shy student during the school day. She is Autistic and loves music and writing her own songs. Dressing up in costumes makes her feel invincible and able to get her feelings out. Eventually she has to learn not only the value of friendship, but the value and strengths in speaking up for herself. I really liked it. It was a super easy read and was pretty fast paced. I liked how there was conflict but also showed the resolution. I would definitely recommend this for middle readers.
Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry: Calliope June is the main character who is a middle school attempting to hide her Tourette’s Syndrome because she’s gotten teased about it before. The book goes into detail about symptoms she experiences and emotions relating to them. This one is a little heavier I’d say, with appropriate themes, but you’d probably want to talk about it with your kids when reading it or after reading it. Themes included friendship, first love, bullying, moving, and different family dynamics.
Isla to Island by Alexis Castellanos: What a beautiful graphic novel! The colors are stunning as you can see by the cover, but then they also used black and white to evoke emotions without having to use words. The story is about Isla, a Cuban immigrant girl who came to the alone US as part of a refugee program in the 1960’s. This program was real and the graphic novel tells a fictional story of Operation Pedro Pan that was based on real experiences. I thought this was super immersive and it was a good read.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher: This book was probably my favorite Middle Grade book I read last year. I discovered T. Kingfisher only in the last couple of years and it’s a Nome de plume for Ursula Veron. I loved this book! For such a short books, I lost track of the times I was cackling on the couch loudly enough to scare both the Husband and Piggy. It is about a girl with an unusual magic that only works on bread and a struggle for her city.
If you have kiddos in any of these age ranges, I would highly recommend all these books. You will not regret it! I have several more that I didn’t get to read last year that will make it on my list this year, I’m sure. Now, go find a fuzzy friend, a warm beverage of choice and get reading with your kids!
