Books Read in 2018

These are all the books I read this year that I actually remembered to write down, in alphabetical order:

Kaveh Akbar – Calling a Wolf a Wolf

Susan Albers - 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food
Randy Alcorn – The Treasure Principle: Unlocking the Secret of Joyful Giving 
Charlie Jane Anders - All the Birds in the Sky

Alison and Steven Anderson – How to Make Maple Syrup

Bradford Angier - How to Eat in the Woods

Katherine Applegate – The One and Only Ivan 

Kelly Barnhill - The Witch’s Boy

Peter S Beagle and Jacob Weisman, eds. – The New Voices of Fantasy

Melody Beattie – Codependent No More

Martha Beck - The Four Day Win

Joshua Bennett – The Sobbing School

Susan Rose Blauner – How I Stayed Alive When My Brain Was Trying To Kill Me: One Person’s Guide to Suicide Prevention

Vera Brosgol – Be Prepared

Brené Brown – The Gifts of Imperfection

Mike and Nancy Bubel – Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables

Emilie Buchwald, Pamela R. Fletcher, Martha Roth, eds. - Transforming a Rape Culture

Jessie Burton – The Miniaturist

David L. Carlson – The Hunting Accident: A True Story of Crime and Poetry

Emily Carroll – Through the Woods

Christophe Chabouté - Tout Seul

Nidhi Chanani – Pashmina

Chen Chen – When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

Ernest Cline - Ready Player One

Gennifer Choldenko - Al Capone Does My Shirts 

Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, eds. - Troll’s-Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales

Tian Dayton – The ACOA Trauma Syndrome

Rita Dove – Collected Poems: 1974-2004

Martin Duberman - Stonewall

W. E. B. DuBois - Black Reconstruction in America

Edward Eager - Seven Day Magic

Christopher Edge – Twelve Minutes to Midnight

Bret Easton Ellis – American Psycho

Grace Ellis – Moonstruck

William Evans - I Still Can’t Do My Daughter’s Hair

Tony Faber - Stradivari’s Genius

Tee Franklin – Bingo Love

Jaclyn Friedman & Jessica Valenti - Yes Means Yes!

Neil Gaiman - Smoke and Mirrors
Elizabeth Gilbert – Big Magic

Meredith Gould – The Catholic Home by Meredith Gould

Dave Goulson - A Buzz in the Meadow: The Natural History of a French Farm

John Howard Griffin – Black Like Me

Raven Grimassi - Italian Witchcraft 

Tim Herd – Maple Sugar: From Sap to Syrup

Faith Erin Hicks – Zombies Calling

Faith Erin Hicks - Friends with Boys

Nalo Hopkinson - Brown Girl in the Ring
Nalo Hopkinson - The Chaos
Nalo Hopkinson - Falling in Love with Hominids
Nalo Hopkinson - The Midnight Robber
Nalo Hopkinson - The New Moon's Arms
Nalo Hopkinson - The Salt Roads
Nalo Hopkinson - Sister Mine
Nalo Hopkinson - Skin Folk

Angela Jackson – It Seems Like a Mighty Long Time

Tove Jansson - The Woman Who Borrowed Memories
N.K. Jemisin - The Broken Earth Trilogy 

Patrice Kindl – Keeping The Castle

Matt Kindt - Dept. H.
Bessel van der Kolk - The Body Keeps Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Rupi Kuar – Milk and Honey

Shari Lapena - The Couple Next Door

David Lebovitz – The Sweet Life in Paris

David Lehman and Star Black, eds. – The KGB Bar Book of Poems

Jeff Lemire – Sweet Tooth

Jonathan Lethem – Men and Cartoons

Benny Lewis – Language Hacking: Italian

Ada Limón – Bright Dead Things

Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda – Monstress Volume 1&2

Amanda Lovelace – The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One

Amanda Lovelace - The Princess Saves Herself in This One

Maja Lunde – The History of Bees

Jonathan Maberry – Fall of Night 

Jonathan Maberry - Dead of Night

Carleen Madigan – The Backyard Homestead

Emitithal Mahmoud – Sister’s Entrance

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi – Kintu

Annie Martin - The Magical World of Moss Gardening

Shane McCrae – The Animal Too Big to Kill

Larry Mellichamp and Paula Gross – Bizarre Botanicals

China Miéville - Railsea
Gabriela Mistral - Madwomen: The "Locas Mujeres" Poems of Gabriela Mistral

Fábio Moon and Gabrial Bá – Daytripper

Monique W. Morris – Black Stats: African Americans by the Numbers in the Twenty-First Century

Eileen Myles – I Must be Living Twice

Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith – 30 Days of Night

Kathleen O’Dell - The Aviary

Nnedi Okorafor - Akata Warrior
Nnedi Okorafor – Akata Witch
Nnedi Okorafor - Binti
Nnedi Okorafor - Binti 2: Home
Nnedi Okorafor - Binti: The Night Masquerade

Nnedi Okorafor – Lagoon

Nnedi Okorafor - The Shadow Speaker

Nnedi Okorafor - Who Fears Death

Nnedi Okorafor - Zahrah the Windseeker

Mallory Ortberg – The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror

Morgan Parker - There Are More Beautiful Things than Beyonce

Ben Passmore – Your Black Friend and Other Strangers

Luke Pearson – Hildafolk Comic Series

Martin Pistorius – Ghost Boy

Robert Polito – Hollywood & God

Katha Pollitt – The Mind-Body Problem

Nicole Sealey – Ordinary Beasts

Zenaida Sengo - Air Plants: The Curious World of Tillandsias

Brenda Shaughnessy - Human Dark with Sugar

Neal Shusterman – Scythe

Neal Shusterman - Thunderhead

R. H. Sin – She Felt Like Feeling Nothing

William Sloane - The Rim of Morning: Two Tails of Cosmic Horror
Danez Smith - Don't Call Us Dead
Jeff Smith - Bone: The Complete Comic Epic in One Volume
Zadie Smith - Swing Time
Noelle Stevenson – Nimona
Noelle Stevenson - Lumberjanes Series

Jomny Sun – Everyone’s a Aliebn When ur a Aliebn Too

Erik Axl Sund - Les Corps de Verre
Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki – This One Summer

Raina Telgemeier – Ghosts

Lysa TerKeurst – Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely

Paul Tobin and Juan Ferreyra – Colder Omnibus

Peter J. Tomasi - House of Penance

Brian K. Vaughan – Saga Volumes 1 & 2

Robert Venditti – Surrogates Volumes 1 & 2

Ocean Vuong – Night Sky With Exit Wounds

Jen Wang – The Prince and the Dressmaker

Chris Ware – Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth

Tish Harrison Warren – Liturgy of the Ordinary

Kirsten Weiss – Déjà Moo

Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib – The Crown Ain’t Worth Much

Kai Ashante Wilson – Sorcerer of the Wildeeps

Kai Ashante Wilson - A Taste of Honey

Janet G Woititz – The Complete ACOA Sourcebook

Kevin Lowell Young - Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels

Charles Yu - How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

Ellen Zachos – Backyard Foraging

Markus Zusak - The Book Thief

Day of Rest

This month has been bananas so far.

I left off on Tuesday of last week. On Wednesday I visited Love Bug and went to ASL class. In ASL class I learned about the Nelson Mandela Memorial debacle that happened back in 2013 that I had no awareness of at the time. President Obama was giving a speech when the ASL interpreter Thami Jantjie made a bunch of fake signs. Think: random gesticulations that meant exactly nothing in ASL. This would have been bad enough, but the problem wasn't addressed until the speech was over and Deaf folks thought that if Jantjie had been fake translating an oral language the problem would've been handled far more quickly. Yikes!

Meme of Thami Jantjie. The top shows him fake signing and it says "what we saw."
The bottom shows Mr. Bean making a ridiculous gesture and it says "What deaf people saw."

On Thursday I went to my church's Blue Christmas service. This was actually really helpful to me since I've been feeling kind of down about not having Mom around for Christmas (or her birthday which was December 2nd).

On Friday I had my pharmacology final. Yikes! I crammed like crazy and I think I passed but that final was hellish.

Princess Bride meme that says "The next time I see that pharmacology exam... I will say to it: Hello my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my GPA... Prepare to die."

Saturday was Love Bug's birthday. Yay! He turned fourteen. I had to work which in this case was lucky since it meant I was there all day and I was able to set up the party. His grandma, mom, little sister, aunt, and cousins all came and he was SO EXCITED to see them. I was happy for the chance to meet the family members I didn't know.

Photograph of a light blue tinted cake with fourteen candles on it.

The rest of the week was just more finals. So many finals. But now they're done and I've passed my first semester of nursing school!

Meme of Frodo that says "It's over: The first semester of nursing school is done."

I celebrated the end of finals week by visiting Love Bug again and then driving to look at other people's over-the-top Christmas light displays. Here is a terrible picture of the most ridiculous light display I could find:

Blurry photograph of a light display with various animated Christmas things such as toy soldiers and Santa Claus.

The last thing that happened this week which bears mentioning is that Wolfie got my Christmas present - a crèche. Here she is playing with it:

Wolfie moving the figurines around.

Today's big task was decorating my Christmas tree. Huzzah!

Esh decided to help me.

Mayim was unsure about this whole Christmas tree thing so she hid in the kitchen shelving.

The tree.

Closeup of the tree topper.

That's it. I will leave you with this photo of my cats:

Esh (left) and Mayim (right).

Pathophysiology and Waldo

Today I had my pathophysiology review. I'm a little lost on the hematology parts. Sigh.

Meme that says "The day will come when I will understand hematology
but it is not this day."

After my review session, I went with Waldo and Belle to Waldo's mom's restaurant for dinner.

Belle, Waldo, and me in front of the Christmas tree at Waldo's mom's restaurant.

Still Chugging Along

Nothing new to report. I'm still chugging along with school and work. Today I had my maternity clinical.

Art of a peanut parent giving birth to a tiny peanut.

The other thing I did today was take a few house photos. Here you go:

My kitchen.

My favorite dinosaur planters.

The plant windows in the library.

And here's some random graffiti just because...

Sharpie on wood that says "God is coming back soon."

Thanksgiving Times Three

Wednesday was the first day of Thanksgiving break. I worked 7-3 and then visited Love Bug. I initially wanted to see him on Thanksgiving but his family is visiting then so I figured the day before was just as good. I read him a couple of books and we practiced playing catch. He likes playing with the ball but not so much throwing it back to me. He's pretty happy when it lands in his lap, though. We'll work on it. After hanging out with Love Bug I went to my church's Thanksgiving service and dinner - mostly out of curiosity since Thanksgiving is such a colonialist, racially loaded holiday and I wanted to see how they would handle it. I was pleased that they didn't just whitewash the history of the day, but I probably won't go again.

Thursday was officially Thanksgiving and I visited my family for an early meal aka my second Thanksgiving. This cartoon pretty much sums up family Thanksgiving:

Cartoon of two white people in military helmets in front of a seating chart titled "Operation: Seating Chart." One of them is saying "Aunt Millie is an alt-righter and Cousin Jimmy is a socialist, but if we seat the Episcopalians between all of them I think we have a shot at keeping the peace."

Then I went to visit friends for a queer vegan Friendsgiving aka my third Thanksgiving. Friendsgiving was my favorite one because there was no pressure and I could actually eat everything since it was vegan.

Me in my Thanksgiving attire.

Table for four (the fifth guest came later).

Dinner!

Four of the five people at Friendsgiving.

After Friendsgiving, I rushed off to work the overnight shift, which I then did again Friday night. I crashed for an extended nap after the overnight shift, then it was back to work for the 3-11. Then Sunday was church and another 3-11. I was a very tired me.

Me wearing house elf ears and frowning because I am overworked.

Today is Monday and all I have to do is sleep and study. Tomorrow I have two tests and a doctor's appointment. The fun just never stops around here. Sigh.

Meme that says "Yo dawg, I heard you like anxiety attacks so here's two nursing tests a week for the whole semester."

Almost Break

Thanksgiving Break starts on Wednesday but first I have to get through tomorrow's pharmacology class. I have spent so much time studying pharmacology. Bleh.

Meme that says "Pharmacology: Study ALL the drugs!"

Meme of Hermione that says "I just have to tell myself that I am Hermione,
nursing school is Hogwarts, and pharmacology is potions class."

I certainly hope potions class wasn't as miserable as pharmacology. But it probably was.

In other news, I talked to the pastor and officially joined my church. Hadwen Park Church is my new church home. Yay!

Hadwen Park Church. Isn't it cute?

Snowstorm!

Well, today we had a snowstorm. I'm not ready! On the plus side, I was able to take Love Bug out in the snow for a little bit and he was excited about it. He kept trying to give me handfuls of snow which was super adorable. He also tried to eat some snow and he was clearly dismayed at how cold it was.

My snowy street.

What else did I do? I visited with Alice. I had my a pathophysiology exam.

Meme that says "Good, good. Let the pathophysiology flow through you."

I also had a nursing simulation. Fortunately my simulation went better than this guy's:

Nurse with fake patient who has lost his genital piece.

I also had my maternity clinical. And ASL and Creole classes. And work. It has been a long week.

What's New?

Well the biggest news is that they finally finished processing my background check so I am officially Love Bug's visiting resource. Yay! We have our first visit scheduled and I'm excited about it.

What else happened?

I voted. I am happy to report that it worked since we upheld the trans antidiscrimination law. Huzzah!

Me with my "I Voted" sticker.

The other big thing that happened is that there were three giant explosions at around 10:15pm on Monday. There was no power for a large radius and the neighbors' kids wanted to light candles but we told them know because we were waiting for someone to tell us if there’s gas we should be worrying about. We did see a couple of firetrucks and cop cars but they just cruised slowly by without stopping. We decided we'd all chillax on my neighbor’s porch with blankets and beer and flashlights while the kids (who were all super excited about possibly not having school tomorrow) ran around in the street. I finally gave up and went back to bed around midnight. The rumor is that there was a large underground fire which caused exploding manhole covers, which is what made the exploding noises and blew out all the power.

I also had a text, a lab, and my maternity clinical. It's ridiculous to me how many tests we have in this program. Sheesh!

HALLOWEEN!!!

Today was Halloween. I skipped my ASL class so I could pop by to see Love Bug's costume. He was dressed as Captain America.

Captain America.

In lieu of ASL I give you this comic.

Cartoon of two witches facing each other on a double-seater broom. The text says "A custom broom for deaf witches."

After that Joy and I took Mini T trick or treating. Here are some photos from trick or treating:

Me dressed up as Coraline.

Mini T dressed up as a panda bear.

Joy dressed up as a wind-up doll.

Me and Mini T ready to go trick or treating.

Mini T and Joy walking down the street.

Mini T gets candy.

Mini T and Joy lit up with halloween lights.

I found Anthony way!

Creepy house with a huge blow-up spider on the porch.

Me, Joy, and Mini T.

Test and Pumpkins

Today was my pharmacology test. I am NOT a fan of pharmacology.

Gollum meme. It says "We must study the pharmacology... but we hates it!"

At least I got to dress up in Halloween attire for the occasion?

Me ready to behead my pharmacology test like I've beheaded the metal skulls in my necklace. 

After my test I visited Joy and Mini T for pumpkin carving!

Me carving a pumpkin.

Joy carving a pumpkin. She'll probably kill me for putting up this photo since she her hair isn't done.

The finished pumpkins.

Mini T trying to make a vampire face like the pumpkin.

Mini T even drew a picture of the experience...

Mini T and her drawing.

I'm the blue dude with glasses because "I didn't have any white people skin color."

Mini T's drawing.

I think her drawing is cute and I'm putting it up on my fridge when I get home. Pumpkin carving definitely made today better.