These are her footprints in the snow…where did she go? To the woods, and the Dewey box of course!

I can‘t even begin to say how much I loved this book. The author provides recipes along with stories of her family in each chapter. She goes deep into the lives of her ancestors, never shying away from the brutal reality of enslavement and the lingering effects it still has on communities today. She describes beautifully, the way she cooks while her matriarchs observe and speak to her, guiding her through the recipes, never leaving her side. ⬇️

This book falls in line with The Blue Zones; much of the content was familiar to me. The Japanese people of Okinawa have a very simple way of life, and it turns out to really pay off for them. The keys to aging well are the same, from everything I‘ve read: nutrition, fitness, mind, and social. These are also good tools for countering cognitive decline. I‘m adding this book to the books helpful to discuss at death cafes. We already know what⬇️

Found in the YA section at my local library, even though this book is for YA, I knew I wanted to read it; there is always another voice I need to hear, another lens I need to look through. This book through story telling, aims to guide you through showing up and how to be better; everyone can benefit from reading it.

This book features a collection of strange and many ridiculous laws. A quick and interesting read that will have you shaking your head and asking, wait—what? There is no shortage of senseless laws today. Just look at what local legislators and Congress are doing with their time and our taxes. They aren‘t creating and passing laws to improve quality of life.

In the south, we are experiencing a rare, historic snow. Perfect weather for reading, and cemetery strolls! 🥶🌨️❄️

These lights in my dermatologist office look like they would be in the donut restaurant in this book. They remind me of UFOs and donuts! 🍩 🛸👽

This book is about my foremothers, my kitchen ghosts, about the ways in which the foodways of the hills were passed primarily down through the women in my family, to me, and how I will pass them to my generations. The concept of the kitchen ghosts came to me years ago when I realized that my ancestors are always with me and that the women are most present while I‘m chopping or stirring or standing at the stove. The art of cooking and engaging ⬇️

The fact that trees communicate with each other wasn‘t new to me, but the name for it was. This book is a memoir of one woman‘s journey from logger, to activist sounding the alarm. While performing experiments in the forest, she discovered the secrets of the vast, intimate mycorrhizal network beneath and between the trees. She discovered that older trees protect all the other plants and trees around it, even as it is dying. She called these⬇️

I love horror movies, I always have. I‘ll choose the horror genre over others every time. This book was a new perspective, a Black lens I needed to look through. This book goes deeper than what we all know: the Black character dies first, or is sacrificed in other ways—not necessarily a physical death. Cinema still has a long way to go, and we must continue to demand it do better. This looks like inclusion, representation, ending racist⬇️

On the day I left my experiment, I stopped to absorb the forest‘s wisdom. I walked up to an elder birch along the Eagle River where I had collected the soil for transferring to the planting holes. Running my hands across the papery bark stretched across its wide, sturdy girth, I whispered the tree thanks for showing me some of its secrets. For saving my experiment. Then I made it a promise. A promise to learn how trees sense and signal⬇️

My finds today at a little local library book sale. I grabbed a bread machine cookbook for my mother in law too, she just got her first (machine)!

I checked out a small stack tonight from the library…and I still have 2 other stacks to get through first😬

Bigfoot/Sasquatch isn‘t something I‘ve had much interest in, or a solid belief. I‘ve watched some personal stories about it lately though, and I find it interesting. The author travels to British Columbia to hear these kinds of stories from the locals. He gets indigenous wisdom and many stories; he learns the many names of this mysterious being; he meets other scientists who ask, if we know this creature exists, why the stigma? The book is⬇️

This book focuses on the little known fact that slavery was not just used by white people, nor was it confined to the South. The reasons varied from attempts to keep families together, to purchasing the ‘freedom‘ of their loved ones for them, to capital. Various laws were passed in SC from 1800-1859 that made emancipation very hard, and for many, impossible. This is an old text that I would like to see updated with new information. An ⬇️

I knew I wanted to read this book as soon as I saw it on the shelf. This memoir is told not directly by the family, but as it was told to the author writing for them. Nicole and her twin brother were adopted, and from a very early age, she knew she was in the wrong body. The family‘s journey from observation, to education, to the many steps of gender affirming care and inevitability the legislature is told. This book was published in ⬇️

Diversity is not disease.

—Georges Canguilhem

Dear Universe, Hi it‘s me, Nikki. I know that we haven‘t talked in a while, but I thought that I would just bring up something that has been bothering me lately. Transgenderism. No, not transgenderism itself, more like, how we are treated, and why we can‘t do this or that, or why it‘s such a big deal to everybody. For starters, why IS it such a big deal to everyone what somebody has in their pants? Now, I don‘t mean to get too philosophical⬇️

Any memoir of life in the ER is always going to be a humbling, enlightening, enriching experience. Here, Dr. Harper shares the story of her troubled childhood, how she became a doctor, with stories of her patients and how they each brought something memorable to her life. It‘s not always obvious or easy, but sometimes beauty can be found in the hard things.

This little book is a gem! We‘ve all heard of toxic positivity. We‘ve all been asked, ‘how are you?‘ by someone else—and let‘s be honest, they don‘t really want to know if we‘re collapsing. Sometimes, we need to be real with ourselves and each other. Take off the mask, face the demons, and figure out the next steps. That‘s community. I found this book hilarious and brutally honest. Follow the author on instagram for laughs: ⬇️

I loved this much as Noodles, Rice, and Everything Spice: A Thai Comic Cookbook. We need more books like this! The illustrations are cute; everything is educational, cultural, and fun! Ramen is loved all over the world; it is a big bowl of comfort. This book really makes you appreciate just how much goes into making the perfect bowl. It is a labor of love! Here you will learn how to find and identify Ramen Yas (bars/houses), how to order it⬇️

The author shares the story of his life with us, telling us of the profound lessons he learned. His childhood, his adolescence, and adulthood. At 19 years old, he found himself in trouble, ending up incarcerated for 10 years. During this time, he earned a degree and became an activist for incarcerated people. He speaks deeply about being treated as worthless, like an animal, behind bars. This is done by design. It won‘t change anything. ⬇️

America‘s refusal to listen to what Black people ask, plead, strategize, and demand is the core of the American sickness. Justice is undoing all that is needed to acquire redemption from brokenness. More than seventy million people decided against a simple act of solidarity of firing a man whose presidency unmasked the truth of America: that it is a brittle republic that depends on lies to survive. And Black Lives Mattering is a way out for⬇️

An enlightening episode to listen to (and a podcast to subscribe to…), while you read this book. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/code-switch/id1112190608?i=1000683056935

Abolition is a politics of creationism. Wanting to end policing is wanting to create thriving communities that do not need an armed state security force that has no true legislative and judicial accountability. A world without prisons is the manifestation of solutions to socioeconomic problems. Abolition is wanting to live without fear. Have police succeeded in establishing societies of safety? Have prisons? Has parole? Probation? ⬇️

We are always dying at higher rates than white people from one thing or another, yet they are the ones always complaining about being replaced or outnumbered. That delusion shows up in America and its prisons. Incarceration is the direct result of white people believing that they need to dehumanize everything Black in order to prosper. Prisons are built on former slave plantations in the American South. The same tactics used to break a slave ⬇️

New floor lamp from 🎯 Target. I thought it was stylish and not boring. The shape also reminds me of the lamp from The Brave Little Toaster🤣
Link: https://www.target.com/p/elegant-lighting-juniper-1-light-brass-floor-lamp/-/A-9...

While on my hunt for plant based/vegetarian cookbooks at two of my local libraries today, I checked out all of these…I‘m so excited to read tonight under the new lamp! Pic collage coming 🔜
💡 🛋️ 📚 📖 🐈‍⬛

I brought my hospice patient another 5 books to read. On my previous visit, she said she wanted something scary. “Blood, guts, and gore!” She‘s diving into Perfume first. She‘s never seen Carrie, or Pinhead😱! I showed her the library book I‘m currently reading, and now she‘s laser focused in those pages🤣

I claim no special powers; nor do I know how to handle death any better than you. What I know is that for thirty-six hours a week, I reside in the melee that is a hospital emergency room, where I am called to be salve, antidote, and sometimes Charon.

I‘m afraid of what scary humans are going to bring in this new year, but I‘m excited to read more pages and share them where they are needed.

I‘ve always loved the stories of Mog and her adventures. This book marks the end of them. After she dies, she quickly realizes the family can‘t see her anymore, though she is with them. When they bring home a new kitten, she is delighted to know that it can see her! They play together and Mog lives on…in another way.

This is a cute story about the raunchy lives of cats. When two cats end up in a storm drain together, their owners team up to find them. Later, kittens are born. The author doesn‘t explain how this happened, but we all know. Friendly reminder: spay and neuter your pets!

I absolutely adore the first book about Sid‘s secret habit. In part 2, he, his family, and neighbors are all going on vacation to Scotland. He meets a wild cat in the woods who tries to teach him how to hunt, (enabling him to eat all day long, beyond his usual 6 meals). It turns out the Highlands aren‘t for him, but that doesn‘t stop him from planning how to get 7 meals a day!

I loved this book! Dysfunctional family drama, queer and Jewish identities, mediumship: it‘s all here. The characters and events reminded me so much of the HBO series 6 Feet Under, but even better. I would so love to see this adapted on the big screen! This is a story about love but it‘s also heavily about grief—the many ways it shows up and how we navigate it. Our main character is a trans man who finds himself deep in family drama, but he⬇️

I found the story interesting but questions were left unanswered, and some things just didn‘t make sense. An ancient pagan book that is supposedly cursed is somehow the connection between a 16th century woman burned at the stake, and a young woman performing a modern day pagan ritual gone wrong. I feel like the author should have stuck to one story instead of trying to combine the two. Alison‘s character is based on a real historical person.⬇️

In this light hearted story, a cat is given the chance to live out more lives as a ghost among the living. He accepts the offer but realizes it isn‘t so easy after all. He gets 120 years worth, and observes many changes during that time. The funniest parts are him experiencing new inventions that are useful to humans, and trying to catch a mouse. I loved the parts where humans could sometimes see him, if only for a second!

As someone who organizes Death Cafes, I found this title intriguing. I knew it would be the perfect title, because of its honesty in hard feelings, and in the other hard facts. In the early chapters, I thought, this has a Munchausen by Proxy feel to it. I wasn‘t wrong, as the author actually said this later. This memoir is about the hell her mother put her through for things she wanted for herself, but also to maintain a high control over her.⬇️

I went to the library this morning specifically to get the two books on top, but walked out with all of these…ooops. Meanwhile, I still have 2 previous stacks to get through…TBR never ends!

Books like this should be a mandatory part of curriculum. The author is white and has written many books on Carolina history; this narrative collection contains many stories about what life was like as a slave. There are accounts of being sold, separated, beaten; Union and Confederate soldiers during the war, the moments when freedom was announced, and more. A tough but necessary read on the horrors of the slave south.

I remember when ‘mancipation came. Freedom came and was like having been to the Devil and come back.

—Sabe Rutledge
The Ark Plantation, Horry County, SC

I loved this book! Packed with cute illustrations and step by step instructions, this is a very educational guide for how to cook Thai food. There are also history and cultural traditions thrown in too. This book is great for all ages. Read it, then try to make a dish at home, or seek it out at a local Thai restaurant! Shown: favorite Thai dishes and the restaurants they came from in Seattle. The silky noodles: perfection! I LOVE Thai food.

I adore books like this. The font used for the title makes me wonder if the authors like Black Metal (I hope so)! This is a short collection of the older, darker figures of winter time. Many of them predate Christianity by thousands of years. The lore is fascinating, but if you want something more in depth, you‘ll have to look further than this book. I was familiar with most of these figures, but not all; one of my favorite illustrations ⬇️

I love the author‘s style of writing, his reflection. In this collection of notes, he speaks on the importance of writing, of how it gives words power, how speaking truth is power. Truth may be forcibly hidden but like the moon, it cannot remain hidden for long. Here, he shares his emotional and physical experiences from his time in Senegal, SC, and Palestine. We must keep writing, reading, reflecting, and acting. There is no other way⬇️

My stack of check outs from tonight. Meanwhile, I still have 2 more books from a previous stack to finish.

This is a fast paced read, with each page leaving you wanting more. The kkk are not humans, but horrible monsters hiding under the white hoods…and only those gifted with ‘the sight‘, can see them for what they really are. Meanwhile, the 1915 propaganda film ‘The Birth of a Nation‘ is used to spread more hatred, and time is running out to stop it. Hate creates the monsters in this book, but we all know it creates them in real life, too.

Another challenging text, written in high detail. The Creek were used like a tool by Andrew Jackson to expand the confederacy, clearing out the land while fighting another tribe he called the ‘Red Sticks‘. Thousands of both tribes were slaughtered…this massive death event and violent colonization paved the way for expanded slavery territory, and eventually, the Civil War. Note: the confederacy enslaved both Black and Indigenous people, and⬇️

A challenging read, written in great detail like a text from university. I am from Charleston and I never knew the Grimke story until now. The house still stands and you can tour it. But do they talk about the horrors that went on inside it? There were some very dark parts in this book, as is anything truthfully told about slavery. The Grimke family were an elite, wealthy family who owned multiple plantations and hundreds of slaves. The⬇️

Secret Book Exchange at work: revealed! L: the book I brought. It was too dark for everyone except one person, and no one ‘stole‘ it from them🤣 R: the book I ended up with (which I did steal!). These are both now on my TBR.

We had the book exchange at work today—this year, we added the library card! Thorne encapsulates vitamins/minerals/supplements, (check us out)! L: the book I brought. R: the book I got. This game is the one where it‘s a white elephant gift, and you get to ‘steal‘…

https://www.thorne.com/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADLUbJVlU_LV4QLFUSu4YgAwi4MtI&g...