Thank you so much for joining my first reading round up! You can watch the YouTube video HERE or scroll down to find the transcript which you can read as if it's a blog post.
Thanks for joining me for my first reading round up book chat!
You'll find all the links mentioned in the video below:
Book Chats: Episode 1 VLOG Transcript:
00:01
Hi
friends. Welcome to the YouTube channel.
Today we
are going to talk about books. I have, I believe, 16 or 17 books that I'll be
discussing. So, this could end up being a long video. If you like it, please
subscribe and hit the like button. My goal is—one of my goals is to get more
into doing book reviews because reading is life, essentially.
If
you're not into my style or whatever, find another creator that you do like. I
really like the book reviews of Carter Sullivan. Maybe you will too. I will
link her as well as most of the books I'm going to discuss today, and a few
other bits and bobs and things in the discussion or in the description box.
I may
need to pause the video repeatedly today, so if you see little jumps or
whatever in my position, or the way I'm talking or whatnot, that may be why. I
do have the tail end of some Covid-19 symptoms, and I'm coughing and clearing
my throat a lot. I am on the upswing, thankfully. The past two years have been
really hard on me in terms of my health. I’ve had a lot of various challenges
and things that I'm trying to work through. I have been blogging about those on
my blog Thriving or Surviving, which I'll link in the description box as well.
I also will link my reading blog Caffeinated While Reading in the description
box.
But
anyway, get yourself a beverage and sit back and let's get into it. This mug is
one of my favorite mugs. It's from a shop in Sacramento that I will link called
Strapping Store, incredible woman owned, queer owned gift shop, independently
owned, and Susan, the owner, would be thrilled to have you stop by in person or
her website. I will link that as well. Just gonna link all the things as one
does on YouTube, correct?
I know
I'm going to get some questions so about what's behind me, so I'll just talk
about that also. And if you hear some crunchy, chewy kind of noises, my dog is
on the floor right here chewing on a dog toy, she may hop up on the couch with
me at some point and do a little cameo herself. If she does, I'll introduce you
when we get there.
Anyhow,
this poster right here, Ski Mount St, Helens. If you know, you know—you don't
ski Mt. St. Helens. I was six years old when Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980, so
you can do the math and figure out how old I am. My uncle had this clipped out
of a newspaper and laminated and hanging in his basement for years and years.
When he passed away, it was one of the things I wanted to keep. I'd always
loved it, so I got a frame for it and put it up on my wall. Often, people look
at it and they don't quite get it at first, and then you see the realization
dawning, and they start to laugh. Ski Mt. St. Helens, hottest slopes on the
west—in the west.
This
snail, it's a beautiful picture up close. Let's see if I can get us in closer.
Getting lots of reflection, unfortunately. There we go. The snail is made up of
flowers. That actually was a greeting card that somebody sent me years ago, and
I loved it so much I framed it.
This is
a portrait taken of Big Sur, California by my grandparents’ friend in the 1960s.
I have two of them. They’re, along with the Ski Mt. St. Helens poster, some of
my most favorite items. They were hanging in my grandparents’ house while I was
growing up, and I always admired them. And when they passed away, it was one of
the only things that I really wanted in terms of possessions. I wanted my
grandparents back, of course, but I took these, and then other family members
have the additional the rest of the set.
And then
these two pieces, they're paintings or prints of paintings done by my friend,
Marianne. She's a an extremely talented painter. These are scenes from San
Francisco. I will link her social media, and if she still has a storefront, I
will link that in the description as well. Her style is very realistic, hyper-realism,
but she also does other styles as well. And she does process painting videos,
which I love they're very calming. Her travel videos and her sense of style are
also on point. Marianne's a great person, and I hope you'll check out her art.
Anyway,
gonna take another sip of my coffee and let's jump into this.
04:59
The
first book I'm going to talk about, I will have to put an image right here.
It's called Jar City. I don't have the book in front of me. I read it as
an e-book from my library. The author's name is escaping me at the moment. I
should have been more prepared, but it is an Icelandic name that I probably
would butcher.
I am
going to definitely butcher a couple of the authors names today, but we'll be
doing our best. My name is Malea, not an easy name. People mispronounce it all
the time, so I do try to be aware of that when it comes to other names, but
sometimes it can't be helped.
Anyway, Jar
City: this book is Nordic Noir. It is very dark. It is very gristly. It's
murder, it's rape, it's. . .there's a child death, although the child is not. .
.assaulted, the child dies of a brain tumor. There's a mystery. There are
family mysteries, there are community mysteries, there are mysteries that go
back several decades. It's very dark, both in the sense of the theme of the
book, but also throughout the book, the settings are dark and described as
being dark. The weather is very rainy, and you know, it's a time of year where
it's darker. In general, there's less daylight. They're in deep, dark, dank
basements, things like that. It's a very good book, if you like that type of
mystery. The main character is grumpy. He's a single man who, like, has messed
up his own family, but has a little redemptive moment with his own daughter,
his troubled daughter. I really enjoyed the book. I'll probably read more by
this author, and probably more from that series, because it is a series
involving the main character, the detective.
Let's
see. I just finished that one yesterday. I read it very quickly two days, which
is interesting, because my health has not been great and I've been struggling
to focus to read, which tells you that it must have been pretty good if I was
able to read it when I'm really struggling to focus with my reading. I do read
multiple books at a time, but usually only two, or, you know, three to four.
This past week, I've had six going at once, and like I said, I've got like, 16,
17, maybe 18 that we'll be discussing today.
Anyhow.
Moving on, the next book that I recently finished, Let's Talk About Down There
by Dr Jennifer Lincoln. I got this at the library, but it also has a little
inscription by her: “Because shame has no place in understanding how a body
works, Dr. Lincoln, March 2024.” I picked this up, as well as one of the other
books I'll be discussing to read and review for my podcast and blog called Let Me
Tell You About My Period. The goal of that podcast and blog is to destigmatize
anything and everything around menstruation and to generally support the health
and well-being of people who have periods. This book isn't exclusively about
periods, but it does talk a lot about periods. It talks a lot about female
anatomy. It talks about period products. It talks about birth control. It talks
about different pros and cons of birth control and period products. It talks
about understanding your anatomy. It's written in a Q and A fashion. The top of
each page has a question, and then there's a brief answer. Most of the answers
are only a page or two long. There are some charts. There are some
illustrations throughout. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I did know most
of the information that was in here already, but I also have sought out a lot
of this information intentionally, both through working in healthcare as my day
job, but also for my podcast and blog that I am doing with my friend Liesel. So,
most of what was in here was not new to me. However, if you have questions and
you don't know who to ask, you're too embarrassed to ask a friend, a family
member or your doctor, this might be a good place to start. It's a great
resource, very easy to read, very quick to read. You don't have to read it
start to finish. You can go to the table of contents, find the question that's
most relevant to you, and just go directly to those pages. It's an easy book to
dip in and out of as needed. Highly recommend.
09:33
All
right, this next book I got because I'm working on learning Spanish. I'm probably
going to butcher this now that I am putting myself on the spot. Estoy
aprendiendo Espanol pero muy lentamente. I'm learning Spanish, but very slowly.
I don't hear very well, and so sometimes hearing the way things are pronounced
is very difficult, and my pronunciation is horrible. Often when I try to speak
Spanish, even if I have all the correct words and they're in the correct order,
and they're in the correct form, my pronunciation is so bad that sometimes I'm
not very well understood, and it's partially a hearing issue that I have, but
I'm trying. I can read more Spanish than I can speak or understand when it's
spoken to me. But one of the ways that I like to practice, besides using
Duolingo and apparently Google Translate now has a practice part of their app
is to seek out Spanish materials, whether that's podcasts, movies, TV shows, but
also books.
10:36
I picked
up this book, Autoamor by Laura Chica. It's basically a book about
enjoying your life, finding ways to enjoy life more. I believe this says, “Discover
what you love and live a beautiful it's basically you discover what you love
and live a beautiful life.” That's not the exact translation, but that's enough
of an idea for you to know what this is about. There are sections that are
like, you know, full length pages like normal. But there's also these smaller
blurbs. I find it helpful to sometimes go through and just try to translate the
smaller blurbs when I just have a few seconds. But we will see how this goes. I
am excited to get into this. I'll probably try to focus on one page a day,
maybe some of the pages, I will explicitly try to translate word for word and
try to build understanding of grammar and things like that. Other pages, I'm
probably just going to try to build meaning. The actor Bradley Cooper, I saw a
clip of him speaking French recently, and he was saying that it's more
important to try to communicate than to try to get the grammar and the
vocabulary exactly correct. Those weren't exactly what he said, but that was
the idea he was like, you know, communicating and making mistakes is better
than just not even trying, right? And that has been my experience when I've
traveled. I've only had one negative experience when it comes to language, with
a lady in a grocery store in France saying Americans never speak language when
I couldn't understand her very rapid fire French. Once she slowed down and
repeated herself, I understood her, what she was speaking. She just didn't like
that. She was speaking so fast, and I had to ask her to repeat herself, and I
didn't know how to ask that in French, even though I had greeted her in French.
Otherwise, I've had lovely experiences, even with horrible foreign language
skills. If you're curious, I'm working on Spanish, French, Turkish and
Norwegian, which seems like a lot, but I'm enjoying it, so I don't really care
if it doesn't work for somebody else. And yeah. . .
Let's
move on to what I'm currently reading. I have four books that I'm currently
reading. Like I said, I tend to read multiple books at a time. This first one,
I started quite a long time ago with one of my book clubs. I ended up being
sick and not going to the book club. . .but I also hadn't finished the book
yet. I ended up having to return the book because there was a long line of
people waiting for it. I just got it back from the library yesterday so I can
finish it: Chain Gang All-Stars. This is a near future, somewhat
dystopian novel about the justice system, about the prison system, the prison
industrial complex, about prisons for profit, about prisons for profit and
entertainment. Think modern prisons, modern prisons for profit crossed with
gladiator matches. It's an interesting novel. I'm I think I'm about halfway
through this. I'm looking forward to getting back into it and finishing it. My
friend, Liesl, really seemed to enjoy it, so it'll be fun to finish it and be
able to discuss it with her. It is a little bit on the thicker side. This is
what? I do enjoy longer books. I believe this one is, let’s see, this one is
363 pages for this particular edition with normal size print.
I am
almost done with this one. Another one for my period podcast: Welcome to Your
Period. If you know somebody at the beginning of puberty who is likely to
have a period, or who cares about people having periods, this is the book. This
book is so good. I wish this book had been around when I was going through
puberty, when I was starting to have periods. It is straightforward, is written
to meet multiple people at multiple levels, at multiple places in life. They
use both medical terminology and lay terminology. There's a big practicality
aspect to this book. Like the other one, Let's Talk About Down There, you
can dip in and out. You can find the topic you need and read just about that.
Or you can read it start to finish. This is a do-it-yourself adventure, choose
your own adventure sort of style book about periods and puberty. It's extremely
inclusive, not just with regards to gender, but also to ethnicity, to learning
differences, to bodily differences.
15:28
I love
this book. It is very well written. It is written by both a lay person and a
doctor, together. It talks about the embarrassing parts of having periods. It
talks about the practicalities of being at school or trying to swim. It talks
about how to talk about your period. It talks about birth control. It talks
about so many different things, but it's probably the inclusivity and the
approachability that I like best about this. It is extremely empowering without
pandering, and it does acknowledge that periods can be hard to talk about while
supporting that we should be able to talk about them without it being hard. Welcome
to Your Period by Yumi Steins and Dr Melissa King, please go and get this
book for the menstruators in your life, especially if they haven't had their
first period yet. If you're not sure how to talk to your young person about
their periods, this book might be the help that you need. Can't say enough
about this book. I will be doing a deep in depth review of this book on Let Me Tell
You About My Period on our blog and the YouTube channel associated with that
later this week.
All
right, this next one, The Littlest Library—if you know, you know: I got
it at Costco—by Poppy Alexander. A woman’s family members die, and now she
finds herself alone. She sells her home, moves to a small cottage in the
countryside, but there's a catch. There's a telephone box out front, and
whoever owns the cottage is responsible for doing something with the telephone
box for the town. She ends up turning it into a small library. This ends up
being a little more controversial than she would expect. She finds throughout
the book, she worries about being alone, but there's a lot of found family in
this book that I really like. There's a rom-com element that I'm just getting
to the beginnings of. There's a lot of different personalities in the book. I'm
really enjoying this one, although I am finding it hard to focus maybe because
it's kind of got a lot of tropes that go along with a lot of rom-coms. It is
good, but just right now, not really making my brain fire very well. I will
keep reading it. I'm just dipping in and out here and there. When I need
something easy or fast—The Littlest Library, Poppy Alexander.
And then
this next one, Inside the Wolf by Amy Rowland. I just started this two
days ago. If you like Flannery O'Connor, if you like, I can't think of her
name, Kingfisher? if you like Southern, Southern noir, Southern Gothics, you'll
probably like this. If you like mythology, storytelling, folklore, folk tales,
you might like this. It's modern, it's contemporary, but the protagonist is an
expert in folklore, folk tales, mythology and things of that nature. She
returns home to the family farm after being away in the city. There is a theme
involving a wolf, but I've just gotten started with this, so I'm not very far
into it. I am very much enjoying it. I think I'm going to really love this. I
think once I get a little further into it, I'm not going to be able to put it
down. And also, the cover is just beautiful. I love the cover. It kind of
reminds me of, is it Eric Carle that does those animal books with the beautiful
covers? You can see the fox legs behind the plant, the flower up here.
Okay,
that's when I'm planning to read, and what I have read, and what I'm in the
middle of reading, or actually not what I'm planning to read, what I'm planning
to read is coming next. This pile is big. I split it up into a couple of groups:
One books related to book clubs I'm in, books that I just want to read for
various reasons, and then some non-fiction—not necessarily books that you read
straight for straight through.
First,
we have a classic Are You There, God? It's me, Margaret by Judy Blume.
If you read this book when you were younger like me, you may notice that the
cover looks a lot different. It looks like a text message thread, right? Judy Blume
went back through several of her books and updated them as technology changed. There
was an interview with her, and if I can find it, I'll link it. She has talked
about how you watch a movie or read a book or something from decades before,
and the technology doesn't really make sense. Like Now somebody might read the
original version of this would be like, Why? Why don't they just call their
friend from their cell phone when they're walking home? Why aren't they just
calling their parents from their cell phone when they have a problem?
20:31
Judy
recognized that cell phones and things like that and modern technology existed,
so her books should reflect those to stay relevant and to stay current. So, she
has updated this. I'm excited to read it. I kind of would love to go get an
early copy of it and compare the two, but I'm not going to do that right now. I
am reading this along with my podcast partner, Liesl, and our friend Angel. We
might rope in our friend Priscilla as well, because this is, like, you know,
classic coming of age, first period puberty lore in the United States, right?
We are going to do a mini podcast episode after we read this and after we watch
the movie version. Very excited about this. I probably haven't read this since
I was, I don't know, a late teenager. This was one of the few books that my mom
didn't really want me to read. Otherwise, we were a pretty open household when
it came to reading. I think it was more about a little bit of embarrassment on
my mom's side when it came to periods and period talk.
On to
this, Blueprint for a Revolution, I plan to do a read-along of this on
my blog, Caffeinated While Reading, I don't know how to say the first name. I
think it's Srdja Popovic or popovich. I'm not 100% certain, but Blueprint
for a Revolution, How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men and Other Non-violent Techniques
to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators or Simply Change the World.
This is a look at revolutions, at protests, things like that throughout the
world that have worked well using unconventional means. You know, as it says,
rice pudding and Lego men. What do those have to do with protest? Join me and
find out. I have read this a couple of times before. The last time was probably
five or six years ago, so now seems like a good time to re-approach this. I do
plan to do it one chapter, probably every two weeks on Facebook. You can find
the link below, or go to Facebook and search for Caffeinated While Reading, or
go to my blog, caffeinated while reading dot blogspot dot com to follow along
on this.
One of
my other book clubs is reading Joe Nuthin's Guide to Life by Helen
Fisher. I just love that cover. I don't know anything about this book. We'll
see how it goes. I love the book cover. I have loved every book that this book
club has picked out, so I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy this one as well. Joe Nathan
likes the two parts of his name separate, just like dinner and dessert. Mean
Charlie at work sometimes calls him Joe Nothing. But Joe is far from nothing.
Joe is a good friend, good at his job, good at making things and at following
rules, and he is learning how to do a lot by himself. Joe's mother knows there
are a million things he isn't yet prepared for. While she helps to guide him
every day, she is also writing notebooks of advice for Joe of everything she
hasn't yet told him about life and things he might forget by following her
advice, Joe's life is about to be more of a surprise than he expects. Joe loves
predictability, but his life is about to become a surprising adventure. I love
that. Sounds great, and I love that they carried these little star like things
up to the back. Excited to read this.
Another
book club. Yes, I'm in more than one. I don't go to every meeting of every book
club. This other book club is reading The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. I
don't know if I pronounced that correctly. I've read this numerous times. It is
one of my all time favorite books. I love this book so so so much. With my
private tutoring students, if we're reading over the summer and they need something
to read, and they're at a point where this is either just right or maybe
slightly challenging or even slightly easy, I love to read this with my
students. There's so much to talk about. There's so many layers to this story.
It's a great one, and I'm really looking forward to revisiting this one. I'll
probably read this pretty fast, because I am so familiar with it already.
Normally, I kind of like to take my time and read leisurely, at a leisurely
pace. I can read very fast, but I just I don't enjoy it. Why did we decide that
reading really, really fast was really, really important anyway?
Okay,
this next one is part of a nationwide reading challenge for the summer. Check
your local library. You might be able to get a copy of this fairly easily. My
Library has unlimited ebook copies. They Called Us Enemy by George
Takei. I think it's Takei. Is it take or Takei? This is a graphic novel about
his life in an internment camp as a young person.
25:25
It is
not in color. It's all black and white, but I think it's going to be pretty
good. It also feels very timely, given what's happening in the world, many
parts of the world right now. This because it's part of a nationwide program.
You should be able to find this very, very easily through your library. If you
can't ask them to get on it and get copies. They're going to be events
throughout the country around this book all summer long.
All
right, the next two I just wanted to read just because. This one, Life on
the Bridge: Linking My World to Yours as an Autistic Therapist, by Kaelynn
Partlow. I think it's Kaelynn. I follow her on Facebook. This young woman is
pretty extraordinary. She is autistic and faces a lot of challenges as an
autistic person, but she also wants to show that it shouldn't be an autistic or
having some sort of difference shouldn't hold you back. She challenges herself
to try a lot of new things. She talks about what does and does not work. She
talks about what it looks like when she's struggling. She talks about what it
looks like when she's doing well. She talks about the importance of diagnosis.
She talks about the importance of different therapies. She talks about support.
She talks about lack of support. She's very interesting person. I love her
Facebook posts. I love her videos. She recently went to a Lady Gaga concert and
really surprised her with how much she enjoyed it. Anyway, I'm really excited
to read this. I, In my private tutoring, I work with a lot of autistic and ADHD
and autistic ADHD students, as well as students with other neuro divergences,
and a lot of what she says in her videos and her posts really resonates with me
and really fits in well with my approach with my students, which is highly
unique to every student, by the way. I do not use a cookie cutter method if you
have any interest in that, or if you have a student or you yourself are
extremely shy and introverted or really just struggling with figuring out how
to get around in the world. I don't just do academic tutoring. I also do social
skills tutoring and coaching and support. I will put a link like with
everything else in the description box, all right, the next one, the title got
me.
This
title just made me laugh, and it reminded me of two of my other favorite books.
Those two books, An Elderly Lady Must Not be Crossed. And I can't, I
can't quite read the title on the other one, but there's two books by Helene, I
think it's Helene Tursten, that are just so funny. They're Swedish. They're
about an elderly woman who goes out and commits murders. And it's hilarious. So
when I saw this one, it reminded me of those. So, I'm hoping this will be just
as good: I'm Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home by Fergus.
Fergus, Craig. I think the title pretty much speaks for itself. I'm looking
forward to reading this. I have a feeling I'll read this quickly. I'm very
intrigued, very intrigued. I mean, elderly murderers. What's wrong with that?
What could go wrong?
All
right, the last four books I have are not novels or autobiographies or anything
like that. These are more just for my personal interests, indulging some of my
nerdy side.
I love
art I love art history. I recently watched the TV show “Homeland” with Claire
Danes and Mandy Patinkin and so many other great actors and actresses. A lot of
it takes place in the Middle East, and the art of the Middle East is just so
beautiful, and it's just so special, and I could say a lot politically, but I
am really worried about people in the Middle East for a variety of reasons, but
also part of me is worried about the art and architecture and what is being
lost in all the bombings and things that are going on right now. I thought I
would indulge a little bit and get some books about art from the Middle East. I
have one now, and I have another one that's on hold with the library that I'm
waiting to come in. This is Palace and Mosque, Islamic Art from the Middle
East. Just, I mean, look how beautiful that is. I do have some craft
related stamps that look a lot like some of the mosaic patterns that you see in
the Middle East. So, after I get through this book a little bit more, maybe
I'll get some into bringing out those stamps and doing some projects, but I
mean that so so pretty.
30:25
These
have you know, a lot of the patterns have a lot of special, special meanings,
gorgeous.
Okay, so
that's one of them. I love creating art. I love painting. I love mixed media. I
love working with paper. I am not very good at painting, but I want to get
better, and I want to be able to incorporate painting into my art. So, I have Creative
Watercolor and Mixed Media, a Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving Stunning Effects
by Anna Victoria Calderon. I mean, look at that. Isn't that pretty? I would
love to be able to paint things like these and not have them look like a total
mess. There's lots of projects throughout, lots of stunning pictures. She does
start with some very easy to follow instructions. I am looking forward to
working my way through this. It may take me a while. Thankfully, in my job I
have I was—quite a while ago, I was laid off, and I've gone through a couple of
other jobs, and the job I have now gives me a lot of time off, so I may use
some of that time off to work through some of this in the following weeks.
We'll see. Maybe I'll film some of it, and then the next two are cookbooks.
I love
to cook. My kid loves to cook. Our roommate loves to cook. All of us love to
cook. Our kitchen is tiny. It's minuscule, but we make it work. So this past
summer, I was in or actually not summer. In November, I was in London, England,
and I have a severe dairy allergy, and I just kind of naturally tend to eat
vegan without thinking about it. But when I travel, I look specifically for
vegan restaurants or restaurants with vegan options, because it's just so much
easier to navigate than explaining my dairy allergy and having to risk mistakes
and whatnot. I found this restaurant called Mildreds. I believe it is all vegan
now, although at one time it was just vegetarian, the food was so good. I still
think about the food. I still think about the decor. I think about the staff. I
think about the whole restaurant. I'm going back to the UK in the end of July
and the beginning of August. I can't wait to take my friend to Mildred's. So
good. We're going to go to Mildred's as well as a creperie called Suzette. I
will leave both of them in the description, if you have a chance, they are both
divine. I have not cooked anything out of this cookbook yet, even though I've
had it for a few weeks, partially because I just haven't felt well. But this
weekend, I am off work, and I plan to get into it. So good,
so so good.
33:23
And then
everybody in my house really enjoys Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Indian. Those are
all very different cuisines, but we enjoy all of those, and we enjoy Japanese
culture a lot. We all want to eventually, someday, go to Japan. So I found this:
Konbini. I don't know if I pronounced that correctly, but it's basically
a cookbook inspired by Japanese convenience store food, which, if you've ever
seen it, Japan, Japan's Convenience stores are living in the future. There's
various sandwiches that often are called Sandos instead of sandwiches, there's
various bowl type dishes. There's all sorts of things in this cookbook. Again,
one we haven't tried any of the recipes out of, but I'm really excited to get
to trying them. So that is my book chat for today, and I hope you’ll come back
and see the next one. Thank you. Bye.
.png)
No comments:
Post a Comment