Great Books I’ve Read in 2024 – Part 1

Do You Know Them?: Families Lost and Found After the Civil War by Shana Keller, illustrated by Laura Freeman
In this picture book set in the aftermath of the Civil War, Lettie slowly saves up pennies to place an ad in the newspaper. The ad is to ask for any information that might help reunite her and her uncle with their missing family members, who had been sold away from them long before slavery ended. On Sundays, Lettie reads the ads from others looking for family members to her church, as they all work together to share information, even if it’s bad news.
I didn’t know about this aspect of life after slavery, and this well-done picture book was an interesting way to learn about it. All the ads in the book are real ads that were placed in newspapers at the time, from the Last Seen project (www.informationwanted.org).

Just Stab Me Now by Jill Bearup
I mentioned that I was looking forward to this a few months ago, and I’m happy to report that I enjoyed it. It’s the story of an author trying to write a fantasy romance book and trying to make her characters cooperate (they rarely do). There are layers of the written story, of the author’s life, of exchanges with her editor (who perhaps looks like the Hot Enemy in the story, not because she has a crush on him or anything, of course).
The story started out as a series of Youtube shorts, and it’s the author’s first book. I was prepared to enjoy it, but I was also prepared for the possibility that it would just be badly written fun feels. But I was pleasantly surprised. It’s not the best thing I’ve ever read, but it was pretty good!

Restore My Soul: Reimagining Self-Care for a Sustainable Life by Janice McWilliams
This book about self-care is so practical. Janice McWilliams is a therapist, and she draws on knowledge and experience from her practice as well as Biblical principles. After introducing what good self-care is and why it’s important, she shares advice on managing your thoughts, emotions, rhythms, and living a fulfilling life. Each section includes a chapter of skills to consider and apply. The author encourages you to take your time with it and not try to do everything at once.
Restore My Soul is holistic and encouraging, and it’s an excellent, accessible resource for learning how to cope with life.

The Visual History of Type: A Visual Survey of 320 Typefaces by Paul McNeil
Last summer, I listened to The Medici by Paul Strathern, which I don’t recommend, for problematic reasons, but also because it didn’t hold my attention. The things that made me take notice the most were a few brief anecdotes on the history of certain fonts, how they were inspired by a particular person’s handwriting. After this happened two or three times, I thought, “Hmm, maybe what I actually want is a book about the history of fonts.”
This came up when I Googled that, and it isn’t what I meant. I was looking for some narrative nonfiction, and I will probably still look for that someday. After a break.
This book. I cannot convey to you the size of this book. It is enormous. I took an extra bag to work with me to carry it home after seeing it. I stopped reading it for a while because I hurt my back and it’s so heavy that it hurt to hold it. Even aside from that, it took forever to read because I couldn’t easily carry it around with me and read little bits at a time.
It’s so huge because it covers more than 550 years, and because most of each two-page spread is a large picture of an original example of the font being discussed. These are so cool to see. Also included is some technical information and a few paragraphs about the font. My one real critique is that this is presented in very small print. It might have been difficult to fit a larger size, and admittedly it’s probably time for me to get a new glasses prescription, but I found it uncomfortable, which didn’t combine well with the lack of easy ways to hold the book. But it was often such interesting information, and the writing style was professional but not textbook-dry. I got fascinating tea from the font world.
I love fonts, but in a very casual, adjacent to my graphics-making hobby way, and I have zero education on the subject, so I didn’t understand everything. But I learned things along the way, and even though this took six months to read and was exhausting, I’m glad I put in the effort. If you want an easier experience, just flipping through and looking at the pictures would still be great.

Invisible Wonders: Photographs of the Hidden World by Anand Varma
Speaking of pictures, this book of photography is amazing. Anand Varma is a photographer, and this book includes some of his pictures as well as some by others. The collection focuses on ways photos can help us see the world differently, whether that’s by magnifying things too small too see, or using light in interesting ways, or capturing movement, etc. There are a few pages of text in each chapter, but most of the book is focused on the photographs. They are beautiful. I regularly found myself gasping when I turned the page. It’s a lovely book to look through.

 

For more book recommendations, click here.

A Few Poems for National Poetry Month

Music Shuffle Game 11

Answering silly questions with my music on shuffle, you know the drill. Here’s last year’s.

 

1. What is your name?
Superman (It’s Not Easy) – Five for Fighting

2. What are your hobbies?
Mars – Scott Hoying

3. How are you feeling today?
Paint Me a Birmingham – Tracy Lawrence

4. How was yesterday?
Carry On – fun.

5. What are you doing right now?
Lothlórien – The Lord of the Rings musical (Sadly, no. But, fun fact, I’M GOING TO SEE THIS MUSICAL THIS SUMMER.)

6. What song describes you?
Three Minutes More – Yellowcard

7. What is good advice?
See Jesus Stripped of Majesty – Phil Moore (That is fairly good advice. XD)

8. What were your first words?
Dancing With Our Hands Tied – Taylor Swift

9. What are you afraid of?
Fourth Dimension – Lights (So scary.)

10. What is your motto?
Jet Lag – Simple Plan, Natasha Bedingfield (I am currently not in my usual time zone.)

11. What is the story of your life?
I Lied – Sophia Fracassi (Oh, dear. XD)

12. What will the future be like?
California – Mindy Gledhill

13. What is your happiest memory?
When a Man Loves a Woman – Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist

14. What is your wedding song going to be?
Come as You Are – Nathan Pacheco

15. What do you think of every day?
Jar of Hearts – Christina Perri

16. What did you learn today?
When I Think About Angels – Jamie O’Neal

17. What is your biggest secret?
A Song About Nothing – Malinda

18. How do people see you?
Come, Share the Lord – Hallal Music

19. What will your dying words be?
Woman – Mumford & Sons

20. What song will they play at your funeral?
Heart Attack – Kurt Hugo Schneider (Wow. XD)

Eclipse Day

I live in the path of totality for the solar eclipse that happened yesterday. I also live in northeast Ohio, in one of the places with the most cloud cover in this area of the country.

When I headed to work yesterday morning, clouds covered the whole sky. But they cleared up (probably in answer to prayer), and it turned into an absolutely beautiful day. I kept thinking about this paragraph from The Fellowship of the Ring:

It ended up so sunny that I’m slightly sunburned from spending part of the day at the library’s table at the eclipse party in the park behind our building. And when the full eclipse happened, while there we no patrons in the library, those of us not working at the table got to go outside and watch it.

I didn’t take pictures myself, and I don’t have anything particularly profound to say about the total eclipse. It was incredible, and I almost cried, and I’m so thankful I got to experience it. Pictures and descriptions truly are not the same, and many people have done a better job trying than I could.

But something else I found myself thankful for is that my coworkers are a fun group of people who I genuinely enjoyed getting to experience it with. We had a weird day of strange schedules and answering umpteen questions about whether we had eclipse glasses and watching something we might never see again, certainly not here. And it was chill and pleasant, smoothing even the annoying parts into a fun and memorable day.

That hasn’t always been the case here, and sometimes it still takes me by surprise. I’m very grateful for a place to work where I enjoy being around my coworkers.

Eternity in the Human Heart

Back in January, I drove up to Cleveland for a day to visit the Mummies of the World exhibit. I’d been excited about it for months and got a ticket for Christmas. I love this sort of thing. I wandered slowly through and read all the signs.

I saw naturally preserved mummies from 17th century Germany, wearing knitted stockings, with stitches that are exactly like knitted stockings today.

Shrunken heads that are unbelievably small.

Ancient Egyptian mummies, and a recreation that was done in the 90s with a body that had been donated to science.

Mummies from South America, tightly wrapped in braided grass, braiding just like I do on my hair.

Bodies preserved for students studying anatomy in the 1800s.

It was so cool, and I would have happily looked at three times as many mummies.

When I finished, I had some time to kill before getting dinner, and I found I was within walking distance of the Cleveland Library, so I headed over, planning to write or read for a while. Once there, I remembered that they currently have a display a friend and I had been wanting to see (we haven’t been there together yet, but we’re planning to go later this week, which made me think about it again). The display is a room full of dried flowers, and I’d seen beautiful pictures of it, but they did not do it justice.

Thousands of flowers are threaded onto strings that hang from wooden beams. They are colorful in a muted way, and somehow appear sturdy and intact, yet like the wrong breath could make them fall to dust. They sway with the shifting air as admirerers walk the open paths through and around them. The sign at the door asks you not to touch, quite reasonably, but the delicate beauty makes it difficult to refrain. And no picture could ever convey the wonderful scent as you walk in.

I didn’t write or read. I sat and looked. And I pondered the experience of going from an exhibit of preserved dead human bodies to one of preserved dead flowers.

Both are fascinating and beautiful, in their own ways, but not quite right, not quite like they were in life. And one thing that makes them fascinating is that they are unusual; this isn’t what normally happens when something dies. Death brings decay.

I think humans have an inherent sense that death is wrong, that life ends, but that isn’t the way it should be. In general, we fight so hard to prevent it, and even, in some cases, to preserve what’s left afterwards, whether of a person or a flower.

And we’re right: life ending is not the way it should be. Death is an enemy, and it’s the last one God will destroy. Isn’t it intriguing to see how people of all times and cultures have had a sense of this, however faint?

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. – Ecclesiastes 3:11

I Bought a New Car!

Hello again, I have returned. I’ve managed to do a little bit of other writing over the last week or so, so maybe my brain is ready to provide ideas again.

As the title states, I bought a new car! I loved Alonso (my old car), but he had gotten old and was falling apart more and more, so it was time. The day before the new car was delivered, Alonso shut himself off while idling at red lights four or five times. Then, after getting the new one, I drove around for almost an hour, and it was relaxing and fun, and it made me realize how much I’d gotten used to waiting for something to break while driving. I love driving, and it’s nice that it’s just enjoyable again.

I chose to buy the same kind of car, a Nissan Sentra, but the new one is from ’21 instead of ’08. It’s a big jump in technology! I’m SLOWLY testing out settings to get them the way I like.

It’s fun having a car that feels new and a little bit fancy. I know that won’t last, and that’s okay, but I’m enjoying it while it does.

For car shopping, I decided to try out mats.org, which came recommended from some people at church who had used them a few times. They’re kind of like realtors for cars; you tell them what you’re looking for, and they shop around and provide you options, then walk you through the buying process if you choose one. They’ll even deliver the car right to your house. I had a great experience, and I definitely recommend them.

This is Cloud. I think he’s beautiful.

Time For a Break

Hello! I have decided that my brain needs a break from coming up with blog post ideas, so I’m going to take a month off. It won’t be a nice tidy calendar month, and I thought about waiting, but then I decided that was silly. So I will be back March 26th. Have a nice beginning of spring (maybe)!

Valentine’s Fluff

Happy Valentine’s Day! I have collected a few small fluffy stories I’ve written over the years (not all about romantic relationships).

---

Luke tore a page out of his sketchbook and dropped it in his pile of rejected attempts on the grass beside him. The pile threatened to become his whole notebook at this rate.

Drawing Alana should be easy. He’d done it before, when they were kids and the stakes were lower. He knew her every expression, could close his eyes and picture them all.

But as he tried to capture them on paper, he kept realizing how rarely she was still. Right now, as he drew, she explored the meadow they found on their walk, scrambling a few branches up into a tree, picking flowers, leaping across the field in a flawless jeté just because she could. Even when she paused to examine a bird that flew down from the tree to examine her, Alana’s head tilted, her eyes searched the bird’s, her lips moved in murmured sweet nothings. Trying to snatch one frozen moment out of any of it lost so much beautiful nuance.

Luke got lost in his attempts for a while and jumped when Alana appeared to dump flowers in his lap and place a crown of them in his hair. “Make me one so we can match,” she said.

He took the welcome distraction and a few minutes later arranged the flowers atop her head. Then she got in his space, examining him like she had the bird, too close and too lovely as she searched his eyes, and Luke really had no choice but to cradle her cheek in one hand and kiss her until she melted against him.

When he stopped and opened his eyes to see her again, as she snuggled warm and soft against his chest while he kept himself propped up on one hand, she gazed at him with an adoration that snatched away what little breath the kiss had left in his lungs. And she didn’t move until he shifted to hug her, burying his face in her hair and mussing the flower crown.

After she pecked him on the cheek and skipped away, Luke snatched up his notebook, brimming with new inspiration.

 

Luke drew Alana adoring him.

It still wasn’t easy. It took several days to get it just right. But he knew from the first try that he could get it right.

When he did, it felt like far too much. He wanted to hide the drawing away and treasure it, hoard that look that was for him alone.

But the drawing had been intended as a gift from the start, and in the end he didn’t let himself back out. He tucked it lovingly in a folder, gathered up a carefully chosen bouquet of flowers and box of chocolates, and took it all along for their first Valentine’s date.

---

“I blame college.”

“For what?” Gavin rubbed his eyes, struggling to both sit up and comprehend what Blaze was going on about. It was something like 4 in the morning, way too early even for him, and Blaze’s phone call had jarred him out of a disorienting dream. The panic in Blaze’s voice didn’t make him less disoriented.

“I’ve been up all night trying to finish a stupid paper that’s due today. I’ve been busy with it all week. I finally got it done and crossed it off in my planner and the planner says today is Valentine’s Day.”

Gavin pinched the bridge of his nose. “So?”

“So I forgot!” Blaze wailed. “I have no plans. No gifts. Last week Jen asked what we were doing today and I said she should come over and I didn’t even realize that’s why she was asking!”

That woke Gavin up a little. “Oh. That’s bad.”

“You see???”

“I see.”

“I meant to ask you what I should do for Valentine’s Day, because I have absolutely no clue, and I procrastinated until I forgot. What do I do, Gavin?”

“Okay. Well.” It was too early to think like this. Especially since he didn’t know Jen that well. “She’s coming over?”

“Yeah. This afternoon. I think. I didn’t know it was a plan plan, so I didn’t pay attention to the details.”

“You have some time then. Find a store. Flowers and chocolate aren’t exactly creative, but they’re staples because most girls do like them, as far as I can tell.”

“But then what? What do we do? Should I take her out to eat?”

“You could, though you’ll probably have a very long wait since you don’t have reservations anywhere.”

“Do I tell her I forgot? That just sounds like an excuse.”

“Yeah, but women know things. She’ll be able to tell if you’re faking having everything under control.”

Blaze groaned. “It’s our first Valentine’s Day. I wanted to do better than this.”

Gavin sat back against his pillows. “Going by my dating experience so far, I think it’s safe to say Jen is probably more interested in having you pay attention to her than the specifics of what that looks like. Big gestures and fancy things are nice, but you don’t need them to make someone feel cared about.”

He didn’t get a response, and he could imagine Blaze nodding distractedly into the phone. “Blaze?” he said.

“Hmm?”

“You’ve got this. But I need to get back to sleep. And you apparently need to get to bed.”

“Yeah… Thanks, Gavin. I’m sorry I bothered you.”

“It’s okay.” He felt a little honored, actually. “Let me know how it goes.”

 

Blaze met Jen at his front door, in his best shirt and slacks, clutching a bouquet of roses. “I have a confession to make.”

“You forgot,” she guessed.

“How did you know?”

“It’s a logical conclusion. And you sounded distracted when we talked about today.”

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I can give you my whole pathetic explanation if you want it, but I don’t want to sound like I’m making excuses. But everyone else is out, and I don’t have anything to do for the rest of the day except pay attention to you. We can go out to dinner if you want. Though I was thinking it might be fun to go buy groceries instead and try to cook dinner together.”

Jen was smiling, and she took the roses and leaned in to kiss his cheek. “I think that sounds great.”

---

“What do you think, Mica?” Librarian asked. He examined the bookstore’s shelves of notebooks with the same thorough, thoughtful attention he gave everything. It could test one’s patience, but today they had lots of time.

She’d already picked out a fat notebook with a soft leather cover and unlined pages for Mica. Finally he pulled one off the shelves, white with pretty purple flowers, spiral-bound, taller and skinnier than most of the other options. “This one, Mama.” Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe he already knew her taste in notebooks.

“It’s lovely, Mica!” Hopefully he could tell she meant it. “Shall we check out?”

“I want to pay for it myself.”

She handed over the money.

Freshly purchased notebooks in hand, they strolled to a nearby coffee shop, one that sold the best hot chocolate imaginable, even for two imaginative people. Chairs and couches and paintings probably purchased from yardsales cluttered the space. Librarian and Mica chose a table in a cozy nook near the fireplace that took up most of the rear wall.

When Librarian asked Mica if he would go on a Valentine’s Day date with her, he suggested a writing date. She’d done her best to figure out what that looked like. So far Mica seemed pleased.

They swapped notebooks and settled in, scribbling with their chosen writing utensils, one mechanical pencil for Librarian, a whole box of neatly arranged colored pencils for Mica. He couldn’t write much beyond his name yet, but that didn’t stop him, and he filled page after page with scribbled lines interspersed with drawings.

After two rounds of hot chocolate, he moved to sit on her lap, and they read their stories to each other. Mica might not have written actual words, but he clearly knew what he wanted the scribbles to say, his narration matching up exactly with his illustrations. Librarian pressed her cheek against his and cuddled him close as she listened.

She took his small hand in hers after they gathered their things to leave the coffee shop, and she asked, “Do you think we can have another writing date next Valentine’s Day?”

“Yes,” he said firmly.

What You Say

I would like to tell you the basics of a story I once wrote:

A king has a daughter. A princess, precious and perfect, heir to everything he can give her.

But she is not the king’s first child. His four older children were born and raised to be bodyguards for the princess, their half-sister. That is why they exist, and it is the only way most others see them. They are heirs to nothing but mistreatment. They are used and overlooked, never loved.

In time, the princess grows up and moves away – accompanied by her bodyguards, of course – to marry a prince, joining their two kingdoms. The prince’s father is a good king who loves his new daughter-in-law, but he also looks at her bodyguards and sees people. People who have been hurt and neglected, people who should be loved. Not only does he treat them with respect, he insists everyone around him does so as well. He has no other children, no nieces or nephews, and he concludes that, in the event of an unfortunate catastrophe that leaves the kingdom without an heir, who best to be next in line for the throne but the princess’ very competent oldest brother?

For the first time in their lives, the bodyguards are loved and respected and treated like the royalty they always should have been. Learning to expect this, and to truly believe they’re worthy of it, is a years-long process. It does not come easily. It takes a lot of patience, a lot of growth, a lot of relearning how the world is supposed to work.

If you are in Christ, God has made you his child and his heir. You are no longer a slave to sin and the world. He is a good father and a good king who treats you with love and respect. Maybe it will take a lifetime to learn to live as though that’s true, and to expect it, but you are allowed to take God at his word here. It is worth the effort.

Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. – Galatians 4:6-7

Things Coming Out in February That I’m Excited For

Just Stab Me Now by Jill Bearup
This book started out as a series of Youtube shorts, which a friend shared with a group chat recently. The author and main character of a fantasy book have creative differences over how the story should go, what tropes they should use or ignore, whether the love interest looks like someone the author has a crush on in real life, and all that fun fourth-wall-breaking. It was DELIGHTFUL to watch, and then near the end of the playlist, I found out the creator had decided to turn it into a book, and I got very excited. Here’s hoping it’s as fun as the video series.

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
Part 2 of the ongoing remake of the classic video game Final Fantasy VII. I love the original, and I love the first part of the remake. It’s beautiful, and I thought it added even more depth to the characters without taking away from the original. I’m currently playing through it again in preparation for part 2. Cloud, the main character of this game, is one of my favorite characters of all time. Every time I play a game he’s in, I start out going, “This surely can’t make me love him even more, can it?” And every time, it does. So we’ll see what this one has in store.