As I mentioned in a previous post, sometimes I need to read something completely different from my main reading diet of fantasy and science fiction. That’s when I’ll often turn to non-fiction of various sorts.

Becoming Myself is a delightful read for any fan of Irvin Yalom. I was assigned several of his books during my time in graduate school for psychology. I found Yalom’s The Gift of Therapy to be an especially insightful and inspiring read for myself as a beginning therapist. He helped to reinforce a number of things I had already learned from my time on crisis lines, and working with clients face-to-face. In many ways, Yalom is someone who inspires me to be the best therapist that I can be, and his perspectives and tips on how to move towards that are both simple to comprehend and challenging to execute.

Since my graduate program emphasized family systems, and systems therapy in general, I have found myself curious about Yalom’s background. This book is a thoughtful exploration of Yalom’s life, his FOO, and working as both a clinician and a writer through a number of decades.

If you enjoy autobiographies, I can definitely recommend this book. If you want to read something that offers perspective on being a therapist, being a writer, and being deeply human, I can’t recommend this book strongly enough. If you have never read any of Yalom’s work, I highly recommend any of his fiction novels to therapists and non-therapists alike. If you have read his books, and are curious about what inspired his novels, you will definitely enjoy the latter half of Becoming Myself.

This is book 2 of the Detective Inspector Chen series. When I finished book one, I’d felt a bit put off by the ending and uncertain where this series was going. Book 2 starts off focused not on the first book’s protagonist, but on a character I viewed as secondary, Zhu Irzh, the demon equivalent of Detective Inspector Chen, though his focus is Vice not murder.

This book introduced us to a swarm of new characters, and a new plot entangling Heaven and Hell (not quite like the ones discussed in Christianity) in a different convoluted plot and set of perils. I do enjoy how smart the characters generally are, though the romantic subplots occasionally see otherwise intelligent beings get a bit thick-headed. Ah well.

Sadly, I found myself once again feeling rushed and confused through the last third or so of the book. I know endings are difficult, but so much of these books are done well that the contrast is noticeable and disappointing. I may eventually try to read more of this series, but for now, I needed a break and something else to read.

I found this series by reading the Author Notes at the back of Aliette de Bodard’s Obsidian and Blood series. I found the story of Detective Inspector Chen fascinating both for the excellent world building, the introduction to a mythology I was not familiar with, and the enormous amount of fun that I had with these characters.

The Obsidian and Blood characters were interesting, but lacked a lightness that I found in Detective Inspector Chen and his demon associates. Now, we’re not talking Robert Asprin or Terry Pratchett levels of fun, but nonetheless an irreverence in the midst of ongoing mystery and peril.

Sadly, while this book started out very enjoyable, I found myself struggling with it a bit more towards the end. I’ll note here that I don’t know if that was due to the book itself, or general distractions in the rest of my life. I will note that I think this book is well worth reading and enjoying a different take on Heaven, Hell, and the complications between the two.

This is book three of the Obsidian and Blood trilogy, and I agree with multiple other reviewers on Kindle that this is the best book of the three.

So, again, excellent worldbuilding set in the Aztec empire. Again,  our main character is Acatl, High Priest of the Dead, and this time he’s dealing with the aftermath of the impossible choices made at the end of book two, a disastrous coronation war, and a plague of unknown origin.

I love how Acatl has grown into his role as High Priest, accepted his responsibilities, and doesn’t turn away from the complications of both his empire’s leaders and their impact on the world around them. He’s stronger in this book in so many ways, facing his responsibilities with greater equanimity and acceptance, even when doing so gets rather grim.

My overall take is that if you are looking for something with a different magic and mythology than you’ve read in previous fantasy series, and if you like mystery and convoluted plots, give this series a try. The worldbuilding alone is worth it, and the characters grow as the series continues.

This is the 4th book of the Wayward Children series, and one that I have been looking forward to for nearly a year. I pre-ordered it in February of 2018, both because I adore this series, and because Lundy is a character that fascinated me from book one.

I can’t recommend highly enough that you read the Wayward Children series in order of publication. The format of the series is something the author has likened to an intricate braid, and while technically each story can stand on its own, you get the most impact, IMO, reading them in publication order.

So, Book One: Every Heart a Doorway is set at Eleanor West’s Home For Wayward Children, and it is one of my heart’s loves, a story that explores what happens to children from a portal fantasy after they have been cast back into their originating world. It is set in the “present” of the main story thread. Book Two: Down Among the Sticks and Bones goes into the past and explores the origin and portal world of the twins Jack and Jill, who were secondary characters in book one. Book Three: Beneath the Sugar Sky takes us back to the present and the school, and leads us into fixing something that has gone very wrong for a Nonsense world.

And thus, Book Four: In An Absent Dream, the story of the portal world that Lundy was called to, who would eventually become someone leading group therapy for the other travelers at Eleanor West’s Home. I am still deeply processing this novella, despite devouring it in 2 hours the day after it came out. Lundy’s story wasn’t what I expected, there are several twists that I expected to play out further, or differently than they did, and I was hopeful that they would possibly play a role in the next book. Then I had a friend remind me what happened to Lundy in the “present” series, which leaves me feeling wistful and sad, though still hopeful because many things are possible with portal worlds.

I found the world of the Goblin Market to be the first named portal world that appealed to me personally. I’m not sure how well I could live in a place that so strongly enforced “fair value” and following the rules, but there’s a definite appeal and comfort in the notion of a place where everyone is held to account, and that trust given will be balanced in one way or another. I know for myself, having a sense of balance is a pervasive anxiety below the threshold of many things in my life. Am I giving my clients “fair value” during our therapy sessions? Am I being a “good enough” partner to my partners? Are they being “good enough” partners to me? The questions throughout Lundy’s time in the Goblin Market about what something is worth, and how her understanding of value changes over time and over the course of her experiences is beautiful and thought-provoking.

I find it fascinating that her downfall, in the end, is seeking a loophole trying to have everything, instead of “being sure”, as she has claimed to be for the majority of the book. I find it even better that at one point the author admonishes us for thinking we would know what choice we’d make, and how that can seem very clear when we know it is a choice we’ll never face.

I can’t recommend this series highly enough, and I look forward to seeing where it goes from here!

This is book 2 of the Obsidian and Blood series. Strangely, I found this one the hardest of the books to get into and enjoy, which surprises me. The book contains stellar worldbuilding, fascinating glimpses of a new-to-me mythology, and supernatural peril aided and abetted by court intrigue. All of that tends to be not only right up my alley, but my preferred sort of fantasy novel all around.

My best guess is that I wanted Acatl to be a bit less lost chasing after every sort of red herring, and dealing with misleading clues, and finally impossible and unsatisfying choices. I can clearly see the noir roots that imbue the story just as much as the research into the Aztec empire, and I’ll be the first to admit that noir doesn’t do much for me overall.

That said, I would still highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys excellent worldbuilding, and who finds new non-Western European cultures of deep interest. There’s more than enough to keep you going, even if this book does suffer some from the “muddle in the middle” that can afflict trilogies. Part of why I continued was looking ahead to the next book’s reviews and seeing a number of people list it as the best in the series.

I believe I found this series off of a list detailing series set in non-Western/European fantasy settings. I’ve seen the name Aliette de Bodard show up on my Kindle suggestion list before, but not this specific series by her. The series name is Obsidian and Blood, and our main character is the High Priest of the Dead in the Mexica Empire Acatl, and the timeframe is pre-Contact with Europeans.

I’m still trying to decide if I like this series or not, despite finishing all three books. I can say that I found the main character interesting, though a bit prone to ramble, and very good at showing you how uncomfortable he is in his present situation. The world building is nothing short of stunning, and only gets better as the series continues. It’s quite clear that the author has done her homework and then some.

By the end of the story contained in the first book itself, I was unsure about wanting to continue, simply because while it’s a decent read, I’ve been struggling a lot more with enjoying books that don’t center on a female or non-binary protagonist. However, the author’s notes at the end about her research, how she tried to construct Acatl’s world, and the novelty of reading something set in a very different fantasy space, all encouraged me to take a chance on the second book.

Sometimes when I need to take a break from a series, I’ll grab something non-fiction to read. I don’t remember if I found this book due to reading Lost Connections by Johann Hari, or if it was just recommended to me by Kindle.  

It’s an excellent, accessible, and all around amazing book explaining in clear detail about ACEs, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and their impact on health in both the short and long term. Even better, she goes into a number of things we’ve found so far that help correct the impact of ACEs.

I can’t agree strongly enough with her position that we should be screening people for ACEs as consistently as we are checking their blood pressure and cholesterol, and taking their ACE score into account in terms of increased risk of disease and problems throughout the lifespan.

This writer is such a convincing advocate, that I’m already noodling about how to change my intake paperwork with my own clients to screen for these issues and help them get onto a better path psychologically. I expect this to be a book that I’ll re-read, and “borrow” extensively from in terms of helping to educate my clients about their stress-reactions, how they work, and why they have the impact that they do.

I also agree with her about needing to de-stigmatize what it means to be someone who has faced adversity, and that this is a problem for all groups and walks of life, not just the very poor or POC. I took the test in Appendix 1 of this book, and my own ACE score is 5. I’m white, was raised middle-class, and had a lot of advantages in my life. I also face seriously increased health risks because of the adverse experiences I had as a child. These experiences in turn make me more vulnerable to toxic stress reactions, not just having tolerable stress reactions.

Also, I want to quickly call out the six things she lists as counters to toxic stress: sleep, exercise, nutrition, mindfulness, mental health, and healthy relationships. These are all factors we can cultivate to a greater or lesser degree in our own lives to combat toxic stress and overturn the impact ACEs have on our health and well-being.

As a therapist, I know the value of good sleep, and I see how much it increases my clients’ suffering when they can’t get enough or good enough sleep. Exercise is still one of the best anti-depressants we know of, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve advocated for my clients to take a walk, even if it’s a brief one around the block. They have all my sympathy as I do so, because I still find myself resistant to getting outside of my house and walking, even knowing it would be good for me. Nutrition, same deal, I know that eating more nutrients would be better for me, and I find myself turning to the same high-sugar, high-fat foods when I’m feeling down or stressed. Mindfulness: I took a class last year from my therapist on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). I know that engaging in my mindfulness practice every day would be a wonderful boost, and I struggle with my motivation too. In all of the above, I make a point of working from a variant of harm-reduction, and try to just add one more healthy thing in a week. Some weeks that’s 2 minutes of mindfulness. Some weeks it’s a couple of walks in the local park. Some weeks it’s getting more servings of vegetables or fruit. Above all, I try to remember to exercise self-compassion and encouragement, because talking down to myself is not going to improve my motivation.

Mental health is my work. Every day I see clients, I’m helping them prioritize their own mental health. I have my own therapist that I see every couple of weeks to maintain my own mental health, and to challenge me on the blocks in my own life. Healthy relationships are my joy, and my partners help me every day in managing my stress and finding better ways to be all of myself.

What I will say in summary about this book is that it reminded me of all the challenges and adversity I’ve already faced, helped me grieve and feel the pain of those hurts, and reminded me of the things I can do now, and every day in the future, to make my life the best it can be. I would highly recommend it to everyone.

Technically I was already in the middle of this book when 2019 started, but I’ll keep it in anyways. Not a lot to say about this one. I started reading Red Rising, which is book one of this series, because a friend of mine had posted a list from Barnes and Noble about excellent debut novels. So I browsed the list and picked up a bunch of new novels to try. I will say I found this series absorbing in the “What happens next?” way, and also found myself skimming a lot of the battle scenes, because there were so many of them and lots and lots of descriptions of gore. Consequently, I decided to take a break, and am still on the fence about reading the rest of the series. I liked the place this one ended at, and I’m not finding myself immediately eager to see where the story goes from here.

Welcome to my new blog. Here I’ll be listing the books that I read in a given year, starting with 2019, and adding my own thoughts and comments about them as I go.

While I’m doing this mostly for my own curiosity about how many books I do read in a year, this blog is also an experiment in putting my thoughts out into the world. In this age of social media, where everyone shares everything from their breakfast to their politics, I’ve often felt bewildered by the thought of sharing so much with random strangers. My forays into different sites have been tentative, with me often sharing and posting more of what others post than my own thoughts.

However, I love books, and the thought of sharing what I read, and what I think and feel about what I read, is much less intimidating.

According to family lore, I started reading at age 2 and a half, and I haven’t really stopped since then. The first book that my parents were certain that I was reading on my own: The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree. Apparently this was my favorite book, and I asked for it to be read to me so many times, my folks at first assumed I had memorized it. Then one of them wondered if I had taught myself to read, and so brought me a new (to me) Berenstain Bears book and asked me to read it to them. I was delighted, and demonstrated that what I was doing was in fact reading, not memorization.

Since then I’ve read a lot of things. My early childhood books were fairytales, followed by Greek, Roman, and later Norse mythology. In elementary school, I complained to the librarian that I had read everything in the Mythology section of our library. She then asked me if I’d read any science fiction. Upon my no, she put into my eager hands a copy of Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey. I’ve delighted in sci-fi/fantasy ever since.

My tastes are mostly still sci-fi/fantasy, with a lot of urban fantasy, some horror, the occasional mystery, and a smattering of non-fiction books. So, that’s what you’re likely to encounter here in the days ahead.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton