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This year exhausted me. But I have been diligently keeping track of experiences all year so as to give you this recap now, nonetheless! Someone asked last year if I work on this all year or do it all at once at the end of the year, and this year is exactly an example of why I keep notes all year long (it’s not full out WRITTEN so much until the end of the year, but it’s relatively outlined). If I hadn’t, there’d be no way I’d REMEMBER what I’ve read or watched or done this year, because my brain is fried. So, read on for us both to be reminded! Also, leave me comments! Discuss this with me! So it doesn’t feel like a waste!
Life Events NOT in Chronological Order this year because some are actually bigger than others
1. My dad died on November 6. I don’t know how much I’ve said about my dad’s health online in the past few years—he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about…four years ago? And that developed a side of dementia, which worsened quickly. The worst part of the past three years of pandemic was that it kept interfering with my ability to visit my dad, who I was losing. Anyway, both Parkinson’s and dementia are the sorts of diseases that don’t outright kill you, but kill you anyway? As was the case with my dad. He couldn’t walk safely anymore, he was supposed to stay in his chair, but he couldn’t remember that. He fell and hit his head, and didn’t wake up. They put him in hospice care at the hospital and we hung out there. On November 5th it occurred to me that this man who’d passed his love of music down to me so thoroughly NEEDED to have music, so I went through all the music on my computer and put together a playlist of all the stuff I knew he particularly liked, and we listened to it all that day in the hospital and honestly, it was SO GOOD for all of us. We’d keep telling stories about the different songs that would come on and how they’d remind us of him. It was a good way to spend our last day together. I kept playing that playlist the next few days, too.
2. On the opposite end of the gaining-and-losing-family-members spectrum, in April we took the kids to the Humane Society for their birthdays to adopt a cat. They picked this absolute monkey of a kitten named Hoagie (his litter were all named after deli orders)— we thought of renaming him— I was all for Monkey Joe but nobody else liked that— but Hoagie ended up sticking. I’m pretty sure he believes he’s actually a mountain lion. He climbs, he stalks, he attacks. 
But while we were there, I fell in love with this shy but polite old gentleman named Sir Ralphie, who’d had a bit of a rough time. And while we were waiting for Hoagie to get big enough to bring home, I read stuff on cats and watched Sir Ralphie and said, “You know, the cat books say kittens adjust better with older cats to look up to. Also cats are better about being left alone when everyone goes to work or school if there’s more than one to keep them company.” So my point is, eventually I convinced Jason that we should also adopt Sir Ralphie, too. The poor traumatized kitty hid for the first couple of days, but eventually realized we were nice, and now he sleeps beside me and is definitely MY kitty, thanks. 
3. Part of my rationale for letting the kids adopt a kitty was the idea of it acting as a sort of therapy animal for Maddie, who was having a REALLY rough time with Middle School. Because they were just MISSING so much school, I figured that until meds and therapy took hold, it would be better to pull Maddie out and enroll in cyberschool instead. Maddie was in no state to employ the self-discipline required for cyberschool, so I basically had to sit there and walk them through it. But it worked, and was kind of fun at times, but really took up way too much of my time and energy. Luckily, by the fall, Maddie was ready to go back to public school, and has been doing pretty well all things considered.
4. Sam, meanwhile, has been involved in SO MUCH STUFF. He started Vo-Tech at school (cars, obvs), but also kept up with light-and-sound crew, helped start an e-sports team, and JOINED MARCHING BAND. But Amy, you say, didn’t both your kids disappointingly quit playing instruments after elementary school? Why yes they did! But one of Sam’s best friends is co-captain of the colorguard, and convinced him to go out for flags! He’s the only boy on flags but that doesn’t seem to bother him. It has been fun for me to go cheer on the band— it’s the only time I’ve ever felt nostalgic for high school!
Christmas
Like I said, I’ve been beat and time-crunched, so made the executive decision not to make home-sewn gifts this year. I also decided I didn’t have the time and energy to decorate to the extent I do usually. Besides, we weren’t sure how the cats would react to the decorations. As it turned out, the cats were surprisingly indifferent to the decorations, with the exception of Hoagie and jingle bells, so we’ll probably go back to full decor next year assuming my energy returns. Anyway, it was a good call, because I’m the most Christmasy person in the household anyway, so we were all content.
We had Christmas Eve at my sister’s house, because Mom certainly couldn’t be expected to have us over. The big Christmas Eve House Party had always been my DAD’S thing, you know. It was good for us to do something entirely different, because Christmas Eve WILL never be the same again, and it’d only hurt to pretend otherwise. There were some must-haves— an early dinner of meatball minestrone, punch and mini hot dogs and chocolate covered oreos later— and that was good. My cousin Monica— who would have attended the Christmas Eve House Party if it had existed— had dropped off surprise presents for everyone earlier, Lego sets across the board. How fun is it to get a Lego set? She got me this amazing succulents set. My siblings, independently of each other, got me various seasons of The Good Place on DVD, all except Season Three which was out of stock, which I had put on my wishlist because we got rid of Netflix, seeing it was simultaneously the most expensive and yet the least used of our subscription services. Guess I can get rid of it if I get a hard copy of my favorite show on it, first!
I had wrapped up a tube and a box with catnip and treats and lots of curly ribbon to theoretically keep the cats occupied with their own “presents” so they’d leave ours alone, and this worked (when they finally broke through to the catnip they were pretty amusing about it, too). Both the cats and kids actually let us sleep until 7:40-something, which Maddie informed us was officially sunrise according to the Weather Channel. Everyone was amused and pleased and content with their gifts, though I mostly got towels. Honestly, though, I know not to expect much from my immediate family! Because my sister-in-law’s family couldn’t make it out until later in the week, we had the rest of the day to just chill, which was good because I’d developed an awful sore throat. Nonetheless I spent a good portion of the day making dinner, because I wanted a festive dinner, and we didn’t know we weren’t going to my inlaws until after I was NOT going to the store anymore before the holiday, so I was proud of myself for the deer roast—the recipe of which I even switched at the last minute when my defrosted roast turned out to be bone-in and I’d first picked a recipe that had to be boneless— and green beans amandine and homemade rolls and chocolate pudding pie. Yeah, it was good.
We finally met up with J's family this past Friday night, where Max, the youngest nephew who exudes ALL the ADHD and adores Maddie, had developed the hobby of taping everything to everything. This was the highlight of the evening, although maybe we shouldn't have been encouraging it. I of course always get books for the nephews, and was gratified when the oldest immediately sat in the middle of the chaos to read them. I myself got some nice shirts and this great Shaun Tan book.
As has become our habit, we spent New Year's Eve eating way too much party food and forcing the children to watch movies they'd never seen before. This year it was Austin Powers (which Sam was a little embarrassed by and Maddie simply proclaimed "dumb"), Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory (which went over better, and Maddie recognized "World of Pure Imagination" immediately as something I randomly sing a lot), and Arsenic and Old Lace (which the kids enjoyed more than Jason because he apparently can't handle black and white?) Well anyhoo. That ended at exactly 11:57 PM, so Sam put on Animal Crossing for the countdown.
Library
Library stuff. Hmmm. Library stuff mostly made me sad this year. We lost SO many staff members— not to death, to other jobs— and everyone new we attempted to hire quit within a week. EVERYONE new. This happened MULTIPLE TIMES this year. And no wonder, because we’re all overworked because we can’t keep staff. Because we’re underpaid, but that’s nothing new. And to be honest, I’m NOT overWORKED as much as I’m forced to spend almost all my time doing the not-fun things I did not sign onto librarianship for. I’m actually more BORED than overWORKED. Because I have to keep my cheerful public servant face pasted on for more hours a day than I used to, and because we no longer have a children’s desk (which STILL sucks), the majority of my interactions are now helping people with computers, unlocking the dang bathroom (WE SHOULD REALLY KEEP THEM UNLOCKED, WE ARE TOO UNDERSTAFFED FOR THIS), and enduring small talk (and not-so-small talk, not sure why so many people feel the need to tell you their entire life story when they return a book a day late, WE DON’T EVEN CHARGE OVERDUES ANYMORE) from grownups. OCCASIONALLY I get to help people with kids’ books and my life has meaning again. OCCASIONALLY I get to do programs. I deliver outreach books, but haven’t started outreach story times again, because we need people on-desk too much to pay me for time OFF desk, even though I outlined how I could schedule outreach to not interfere with library opening hours anyway. I really miss outreach storytimes. They gave me life. Anyway, the fact is I am unhappy because I no longer love my job, but I don’t know what to do about that.
Programs
As I hinted, not much in the way of programs. I continued to do the Bedtime Story videos through May, then we stopped that. I was supposed to do two days of storytimes in the fall, then we hired a new program specialist (because Barb left), and that got cut back to one, and when ONE of those weeks the director noticed I had only one person show (which was by far the slowest week all season) she even batted around the idea of cutting THAT one, too— I think she just doesn’t want me on storytimes? But I CANNOT spend THAT MUCH FREAKING TIME on circulation desk. YES I’m good at it, because I’m good at putting that friendly face on, but it’s TIRING. I AM NEURODIVERGENT FOR GOSH SAKES, IT’S MASKING AND IT’S EXHAUSTING AND ALSO IT’S BORING.
Anyway, though, so on Mondays I’m doing Yoga Storytime again, which is fun but a little redundant because I’m cycling through the same books over and over; and an all-ages storytime, which ends up being mostly babies when I prep for preschoolers. I miss the actually-all-ages Family Night evening storytime I used to do.
The cool new program, though? A monthly Saturday Sensory Storytime. This has been a great success (and since numbers at sensory storytimes HAVE to be low, so as not to be overwhelming, nobody holds low numbers against me). The parents and kids have been very happy with it, and it really HELPS that I’m neurodivergent with two neurodivergent kids— I’m on the same page as my families, and they’ve thanked me for my understanding.
This is normally where I’d list my top favorite storytime topics of the year, but I’m tired and sad.
I kept reading picture books in the hope of actually doing a variety of storytimes again, though, which brings us to:
Media Reviews!
BOOKS:Top 10 2022 Picture Books
1. Field Trip to Volcano Island, written and illustrated by John Hare. As delightful as Field Trip to the Moon, slightly more delightful than Ocean Deep. The little twists weren't obvious and made me smile.
2. Berry Song, written and illustrated by Michaela Goade. Michaela Goade is officially one of my favorite illustrators now. Because Water Protectors and I Sang You Down… (see below) have very blue-heavy covers and I’m susceptible to blue, and this cover had no blue and was a close-up of people, I was like, "surely it's not as pretty as her others," and then I'd turn a page and gasp. No, this book is definitely as pretty as her others, and the words (her first words credit!) are musical and joyful.
3. Blue: a history of the color as deep as the sea and as wide as the sky, by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, illustrated by Daniel Minter. Speaking of being susceptible to blue, of course I’m going to like a book dedicated to my favorite color. But it’s not just pretty pictures, it’s a very interesting history-- I feel like blue has earned its place as my favorite just for being interesting now!
4. Pina, written and illustrated by Elif Yemenici. Pretty stop motion models! I’m such a sucker for model/miniature illustration, but these are particularly good. And this is a really sweetly told story about a socially-anxious little cat who has to venture outside— it’s a story that respects introversion while showing it’s okay to step out of your comfort zone sometimes.
5-10. I can’t choose between or sort these ones, so here, have a bunch of new picture book recs:
- The World Belonged to Us, by Jacqueline Woodson, pictures by Leo Espinosa. A joyful nostalgic look at being free-range kids in the city. Very 1970s. In fact it pretty much screams out “Old School Sesame Street.” Do today's kids like it, or is it just nostalgia-bait? I heard one reviewer say they asked some kids, and they do, but it's like reading a fantasy to them: imagine living so free!
- Rosa's Song, by Helena Ku Rhee, pictures by Pascal Campion. This is a tale of friendships in a community with a lot of turnover and it absolutely made me teary eyed.
- Every Dog in the Neighborhood, by Philip C. Stead, pictures by Matthew Cordell. I have not tried it in a storytime yet—I might have gotten a child reaction for you if the copy I bought for Jason’s nephew hadn’t gotten lost in the mail— but this seems to read aloud well, if a little longer than some audience attention spans. There’s a whole background story about grandma getting into community activism that makes an amusing foil.
- Out of a Jar, written and illustrated by Deborah Marcero. Kind of a companion book to In a Jar, one of my absolute favorites a couple years ago (or last year? What is time?), and while it’s not quite as delightful as the first, it’s still good. This one is about bottling up feelings.
- Counting to Bananas: a mostly rhyming fruit book, by Carrie Tillotson, pictures by Estrela Lourenco. I was very impressed that this is a debut: Tillotson really knows how to write this style of read-aloud, that's for sure. It’s a lot of fun and I can’t wait to actually USE it in a storytime.
- Knight Owl, written and illustrated by Christopher Denise. This is a delightful and surprisingly unpredictable story. The pictures are full of fun jokes.
Top 5 2021 Picture Books In General Because I Did Not Have a Mock Caldecott to Cram For
*Sigh* I’m setting up a passive Mock Caldecott display for January, though, so next year you can have this category back!
1. Moon Pops. Written and illustrated by Heena Baek. And as it happens my number one on this list wouldn’t have even been eligible for the (Mock) Caldecott, as it’s a Korean import. I read a couple of Heena Baek’s books this year, and her collage/model pictures are both ingenious and hilarious. I want to stare at them for a long time. This one was my favorite of them as it has the best story.
2. I sang you down from the stars, by Tasha Spillett-Sumner, illustrated by Michaela Goade. HAVE I MENTIONED HOW MUCH I LOVE MICHAELA GOADE? Her art is so swirly and ethereal. This book is a lullaby to a new baby with Indigeonous tradition woven in. And the beautiful young Native mother on the cover reminds me so much of Irma Loudermilk— OBSERVE: 
--that I am extra fond and I have decided it is fanart in my mind, if the baby was only a skinny blonde white-looking boy (See "Stuff I wrote, Fanfic Edition" #5, below, if this makes no sense to you).
3. We wait for the sun, by Dovey Johnson Roundtree and Katie McCabe, pictures by Raissa Figueroa. Lately there’s been a call for more stories of BIPOC joy, to counteract that so much BIPOC fiction focuses on pain and injustice. And I’m shamed into understanding that firsthand when I hear about a book that’s a true story about the author’s formerly-enslaved grandma and sneaking around and I immediately assume it’s a serious slice of oppression. But instead this is an absolutely joyful, lovely story about going berry-picking (which makes it the SECOND lovely joyful story about berry picking on this list), with gorgeous deep colors in the illustrations.
4. Bathe the Cat, by Alice B. McGinty, pictures by David Roberts. I was doing a bathtime storytime and pulled this out and was disappointed to discover that it wasn’t actually about bathing the cat so was not thematically appropriate, but it’s a very funny read aloud that I’m going to HAVE to find some other thematic excuse to use in a storytime. The cat, in order to AVOID a bath, has mixed up the family chore list to humorous results. In a subtle note of diversity, the family happens to have two dads.
5. Out of Nowhere, written and illustrated by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros. Sweet friendship story with a contrast between narration and pictures-- a beetle is looking for their friend the caterpillar, who, unbeknownst to the beetle, has metamorphosed. There’s nothing trite about the resolutions, either.
Top 5 Older than 2022 and 2021 Picture Books I First Read This Year
1. We Are Little Feminists (series). Okay, this is an absolute (and pleasant!) surprise of a top choice. You would think books, especially board books, published by an independent grassroots organization with a Mission™ —to be as Inclusive™ as possible-- might skimp on actual writing, but these board books have not only lovely-and-very-diverse photo illustrations, but the texts are simple, effective, and flow really well. These are dang good little board books! I would not be adverse to reading them over and over.
2. Warbler Wave, by April Pulley Sayre. Sayre died recently and that's such a sad loss because she's such a treasure, making science so beautiful and poetic in these photo books. I love to pull them out for storytimes when I want to stick in some learning-about-nature. This one I almost used in a storytime about bird migration, but only just didn’t.
3. How to Give Your Cat a Bath (In Five Easy Steps), by Nicola Winstanley, pictures by John Martz. THIS one WAS actually about giving the cat a bath (although failing), and it made for a delightful read aloud at that aforementioned bathtime storytime. It got some hearty laughs from both kids and grownups.
4. Circle, written and illustrated by Jeannie Baker. Also considered for the aforementioned bird migration storytime, but ultimately out of that day’s audience’s attention span, this feels slightly upside down to a North American, because it starts in the south (the book’s from Australia, it turns out), and goes— not just north, but the entire length of the globe. The pictures are a cool multimedia collage.
5. Pepper & Boo: A Cat Surprise! written and illustrated by Charise Mericle Harper. To be honest, I have been more drawn to cat books in general since becoming a cat owner. I picked up and randomly read this easy reader a couple weeks after getting the cats, and decided, yep, accurate cat portrayal here.
Top 5 Longer than Picture Books of 2022
1. Akata Woman, by Nnedi Okorafor. The "woman" in the name worried me, and Okorafor herself when I asked on Twitter didn’t really clear it up— Sunny’s growing up, was this going to be “more mature” than the previous books? What I was really asking was, will I be embarrassed reading it to my children? Well, I DID decide after reading it that that it would definitely need to go in YA instead of Intermediate where the first two were, but the only embarrassing bits were swears that I could skip. Otherwise, it was the same creative storytelling as the rest of the series, if not even more creative. So much great imagery that still sticks with me, even though this was one of our earlier reads of the year!
2. Gallant, by V.E. Schwab. Old-fashioned gothic horror. We all enjoyed it, if you might not think so because somehow with just two chapters left we got distracted and didn't finish for months— it was atmospheric and Maddie left a series of illustrations on post-its in the library copy, and afterward asked for MORE like that. Didn’t quite hit the exact mood again this year, but I did find a genuinely scary middle grade horror series:
3. Spirit Hunters: Something Wicked, by Ellen Oh. The third book in this series, but it’s the one that came out in ‘22 so it’s the one getting listed first. One thing about this series is that it does the horror genre trope of the characters making what the audience knows are bad decisions, and the kids kept yelling at the book. Maddie was very annoyed with the characters for not making connections as quickly as she does. I was worried maybe the kids disliked the books from these reactions, but then they very enthusiastically demanded the rest of the series and were disappointed that this last was just published so the next one won’t be out for awhile.
4. Aru Shah and the Nectar of Immortality, by Roshani Chokshi. Time to say goodbye to the first of the Rick Riordan Presents series, and we’d enjoyed it so much. This last book was a lot of fun, although it did leave a few loose ends.
5. Amari and the Great Game, by B.B. Alston. As fun as the first book, though not quite as good— it seemed like it was trying to tell two different books at the same time and not quite perfecting either. But I’m still looking forward to the next one!
Top 5 Longer than Picture Books Older Than 2022 I First Read In 2022 (most of these are from 2021. In fact we started the first one almost as soon as it went through processing, that just happened to be at the very beginning of 2022)
1. Tristan Strong Keeps Punching, by Kwame Mbalia. First of all, Gum Baby. She has got to be one of my favorite characters of the past few years. Second of all, reading this while people are attempting to ban "CRT" books was really poignant. Stories are important dangit!
2. The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera. Um, speaking of which, this one’s a bit devastating-- though it wouldn't have phased me as a kid! The symbolism of the stories, and Dreamers! I wasn’t sure it was quite Newbery quality across the board, but the mind library chapter was so absolutely stunning I decided it earned the Newbery on the strength of that chapter alone. (The other night I dreamed a story about parallel universes and was enjoying it so much I started, in the dream, writing my Newbery Acceptance speech about the joy of another science fiction book winning, anyway).
3. The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy, by Anne Ursu. Maddie left post it illustrations of this one in the library book, too. Great voice, reads aloud well.
4.Spirit Hunters and Spirit Hunters: Island of Monsters, by Ellen Oh. I pretty much said it all in the third book’s annotation above, but they’re genuinely creepy middle grade horror which the kids spent yelling at the characters to make better choices.
5. The Cursed Carnival and other Calamities, edited by Rick Riordan. This collection of Rick Riordan Presents-related short stories most notably reminded me exactly how much I flippin’ love Sal and Gabi*— their story opened the book and introduced the concept in general, seeing that they’re all about crossing over multiple universes. There were random crossovers scattered like easter eggs between many of the stories, not just that one, though I think Carlos Hernandez and Kwame Mbalia were teasing each other specifically with theirs (there was lots of unexpected GUM BABY which made us all laugh so hard). We didn't read all the stories since we didn't know some of the series— that pointed out the holes in the library collection for me! Riordan also includes a stand-alone about Finn MacCool which was also, um, cool. Cumaill?
*putting this list together has reminded me AGAIN to check Access PA and have my coworker who does ILLs ILL me Hernandez’s collection of grownup short stories, because that voice is worth dipping into grownup books for, and supposedly there’s a story about a grown-up Sal in it, too. I’ll tell you about that next year, supposedly.
Top 5 Rereading Experiences
Actually, I can’t think of any really memorable rereading experiences this year. We started A Christmas Carol again last week, but even that broke off when I got a sore throat.
Moving Visual Media:
I have no idea how to sort this. There are only two movies on the list, a couple of the “TV Shows” are really more mini-series, only two of the others count as “returning favorites,” plus a reboot— there were several of my previous favorite mini-series shows, particularly Only Murders in the Building and Breeders, that I didn’t even get around to watching this year to BE “returning favorites”— I don’t know if I should cut it down to five, I’m not even sure what order to put it in. So here, brief reviews of everything I watched, in the order that I watched it:
- Black Widow— I loved the family aspect of this movie— how it was ABOUT family, I mean, and how what makes a family “real” is about more than just blood. A lot of refrigerator logic plot holes— one character was clearly supposed to die but the threads leading there just sort of stopped, instead, as if The Powers That Be said, “No wait, we might want to use them later.” But it was all so delightful I couldn’t mind.
- Hawkeye— I wanted to watch this before Christmas was over since it was set at Christmas. I got to it while sick on January 9, while our tree was still up and the Matviyas hadn’t yet had Christmas anyway, due to everyone being sick. It was a lot of fun, and I really liked the background Christmasness of it.
- Umbrella Academy— Actually having a deadline to watch all the Netflix-exclusive shows we’d always wanted to see but never gotten around to made us each go on our own binges in late May when we canceled it. This one I’d often seen compared to some of my other favorite shows (maybe because a friggin’ lot of the crew has worked with Noah Hawley), but honestly I had no idea what to actually expect from it going in, and I was delighted by it. There was just the right amount of quirkiness to elevate the suspense (and, just like Black Widow, is ALSO about forced non-blood “family” becoming FAMILY). I had to make a new burner/trial Netflix account just to watch the third season when it came out a month later (ALSO that random part 2 of Stranger Things, coincidentally, so I guess that was timed well). Most notably, it really lends itself to entertaining fanfic, and I swear that’s where the vast majority of my reading-for-fun has gone this year: Umbrella Academy Fanfic. See below. Actually, that’s probably also why I haven’t watched as much as usual this year. Because I was too busy reading Umbrella Academy fanfic in my downtime.
- Stranger Things— You know how the kids on Stranger Things tend to name the monsters after the D&D monsters they’re currently battling? We actually played the Vecna campaign a couple years ago— it was one of the first major campaigns we played with the kids— so we found it very amusing. This season itself was kind of scattered, as if the writers couldn’t decide what to focus on, but still fun. Also, having watched Black Widow earlier in the year, I was amused thinking that Hopper had actually spent his time in the gulag filming Black Widow. Also-also, Sam’s MARCHING BAND did a Stranger Things-themed show this year and it was good. The band arrangement of “Running Up That Hill” is actually loads better than the original.
- Ghostbusters Afterlife— we checked this out of the library for a family movie night, and indeed one of the things I loved most about it was how kid-centric it was— the most truly family movie of the franchise. Though, I mean, OLDER kids. The kid actors were terrific. Podcast was totally channeling Dan Ackroyd and they weren’t even playing relatives. Also I cried at the end.
- Ducktales 2017 reboot— Maddie fell in love and got Sam and I into it too. Since the original was my favorite TV show as a kid, I really appreciated all the callbacks scattered throughout like inside jokes. The reboot keeps the adventurous feel of the original while leaning into the silliness, and I enjoyed recognizing a lot of voices from other favorite shows of mine. It’s great sharing this with my kids now. Oh, I got Maddie so much Ducktales stuff for Christmas, too.
- Andor: is it bad that my two biggest takeaways are a) the title sequence is REALLY COOL/WELL DONE, and b) Cassian Andor is an Extremely Handsome Man. He’s got this 1970 Paul McCartney look going. Also, J and I were discussing just how rich and familiar the Star Wars universe is and how we wish our kids were into it so we could play more of the RPG.
- Mysterious Benedict Society: The second season was fun, though not quite as well-done as the first season (also strayed farther from the books). The kids are still perfect. I appreciated all the bits of Kate and Milligan trying to figure out Family— they’re like my OTPlatonicP— I needed more of that last season AND in the books. There’s a running theme of people trying to figure out Family in these Moving Visual Media reviews this year, isn’t there.
- The Afterparty: Maddie developed this obsession with Ben Schwartz— in part because of the Ducktales reboot, actually— and through that discovered this GROWNUP miniseries and correctly determined that Sam and I would like it, too. Its concept is a bit better than the execution— a murder mystery, with each episode focusing on the testimony of a different witness, but each witness’s story takes on the trappings of a different film genre. I think they could have leaned into that concept a little harder. But it was still rather delightful.
The Top Fanfics I READ— makes more sense to take them out of the “stuff I wrote” category that I put them in last year.
As noted, I read a crapton of Umbrella Academy fic this year. So let me divide the Top read fics into “Not Umbrella” and “Umbrella” to be fairer to the other fandoms:
Top 5 Non-Umbrella Academy Fanfics I read
1. “Back in the (US)SSR” by Ginevra_Benci (The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Agent Carter (TV)) Be not fooled by “Avengers Movies” being listed as the first fandom here, even though every other chapter or so is from Natasha Romanov’s POV: this is straight-up like getting to watch Agent Carter again. The voice and banter fills a hole in my heart! I just feel like I’ve got a friend here: you clearly know My Show! Thank you for returning it in part to me!
2. “Advisory” by hhertzof (Kairos (O'Keefe) Series - Madeleine L'Engle, Young Wizards - Diane Duane) I have often said that the Young Wizards series is one of the few true read-alikes to Wrinkle and the other Kairos books, and this fic takes that to the logical conclusion: Nita finds herself in New England, seeks out a local Advisory wizard for help, and guess what, it’s Meg! Obviously. Conversation reframes the Kairos books as Ordeals and it honestly makes so much sense.
3. “Death Rode Into Hell” by OldToadWoman (The Good Place (TV), Discworld - Terry Pratchett) The tales of the multiple times Discworld’s DEATH met (or nearly met) Jason Mendoza before their final encounter at the safe. The senses of humor mesh perfectly. Jason IS a Pratchett character, if Pratchett had ever based anything in Disc-Florida.
4. “The Farm House” by Wholesome_Soup (Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who, Time Quintet - Madeleine L‘Engle) In which the Doctor strikes up a passing friendship with Charles Wallace. Fun fact, the only full season of Doctor Who I’ve ever watched was Eleven’s first, and it was because the first episode was pitched to me as “Wrinkle In Time-feeling.” This captures that energy, although not Eleven.
5. “Your Beguiling Personality” by half_a_glass (Howl Series - Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle - All Media Types) You might recall that the majority of top-fics-I-read last year were DWJ-related, and as “The Invitation: an Epilogue” is STILL going strong as my most popular fic, I had many opportunities to click through and see what new has been posted, that captures the book characters and not the sad excuses for them from the movie (SORRY I’LL STOP). Here is just a snippet of Howl and Sophie being Howl-and-Sophie-ish at each other, which is reason enough to read it.
Top 10 and Some Bonus Umbrella Academy fics I Read This Year
1. “Broken Clocks” by Gin_Juice (a two-part series of “Broken Clocks” and “Lost & Found”) Probably I wouldn’t have gotten so completely sucked into Umbrella Academy fic if this hadn’t been one of the first ones I found. Gin Juice (who you’re safe reading anything by, these only make the list instead of any others because I read them first) writes stories that feel just like watching the show at its best: funny, twisty plots and absurd details, hitting the emotions in all the right ways, perfect.
2. “Klaus's Moving Castle” by destinyandcoins and LittleRit. Hey, let’s combine last year’s fandom-I-read-the-most-from with this year’s! I cannot get over how well this works. Five is Sophie with the opposite problem, and Ben is Calcifer to Klaus’s SO perfect Howl that I found myself unable to even read my OWN Howl fics without picturing him looking exactly like Klaus now. I’d also like to point out that it’s clearly based on the BOOK not movie, and they’ve got the DWJ voice down. Funnily enough, both authors wrote concise, poignant, beautiful and completely-not-funny short pieces of Five in the Apocalypse (epistolary by destinyandcoins and Prose poetry by LittleRit) that both also made my notes of possible best fics of the year, as completely opposite in mood as they are from this!
3. “Fighting (Pre)Determinism” by chibi_tantei. One of the best things about Umbrella Academy fic is how many writers really take the challenge of exploring time travel seriously, and this story is mindblowing time storytelling, with a great take on Delores that stands out (I kept looking back at my read history thinking “Which was the one with the Delores…?”).
4. “Lonely Man (i am so lonely too)” by Celestialfeathers. This is a GORGEOUS and moving story about Claire turning out to have prophetic powers and dealing with that and with what “real” is, particularly when Allison does not want to deal with it at all. I knew it would make this list the moment I read it.
5. “Holding It Together” by sharkneto, who has created an alternate timeline where there's a psychologist and an astrophysicist who genuinely help the Hargreeves with their myriad issues (while throwing in some nailbiting plot too). They’re one of the rare instances of original characters in fanfic that are lovable enough that recently Sharkneto posted a snippet of story just about THEM, before they even met the Hargreeves, because people were asking for it! Sharkneto generally specializes in Five-centric insightful character-studies-with-plot, which I appreciate since we have the same favorite character and all—Seriously, Number Five Hargreeves, you and Gum Baby, welcome to the Newest Inductees to my list of Favorite Fictional Characters of All Time, emphasis on the “All Time” on his part. I love me a mad genius, and this takes a mad genius and piles on SO MANY MORE LAYERS, so traumatized it comes out the other side as absurdity, probably the reason Umbrella Academy lends itself to such great fanfic because he’s a never-ending well of convoluted plot potential who is next to impossible to tie down with any boring SHIPPING plots because he’s really impossible to ship— upon deciding which I somehow almost immediately started shipping him with his adoptive brother—but that’s beside the point. No wait, actually, it’s not, because it’s that the friendship between him and Viktor can just be SOO TENDER that I am a sap for it whether it’s platonic or not, and anyway I think the first Sharkneto fic I read was “Sometimes Age Comes Alone” which features a great amount of that tenderness, platonically, that I bookmarked it under my “5+7” tag anyway. And for something less angsty, here’s Sharkneto exploring my favorite definitely platonic pair-up with Five (yeah, look, no problem shipping him with an adoptive sibling, but with his sister-in-law? That’s just going too far), Five and Lila do a train-heist-esque plot in “Cease-fire on the Cleveland Express”!
6. “The Best of the Best. Well, Except for Us” by Stephsageek. Also taking the best best frenemies and giving them lots more time to get into hijinks together, let’s pair Five and Lila up as partners at the Commission from the start! You get a buddy-assassin adventure with historical facts mixed with complete absurdity! I would laugh out loud over the twists each new episode would bring and Maddie would always give me this look and I’d be like, “It’s the new chapter of that fic, again! Yes the same one it was last time! Now the Nazi Werewolves she teased are here!” (Note that the sequel DOES ship the two romantically, but technically this Lila hasn’t even met Diego so it’s not so bad).
7. “Lucidity” by BrokeTheLights. This was one of the very first UA fics I read, because I looked them up in the first place because I finished Season Two and thought, “I wonder if anyone has written any good fics exploring the relationship between Klaus and Ben?”— purely platonically, because it was an interesting enough relationship as is! (Season 3 has inspired an uptick in Klaus-slash-Ben fics, on account of Sparrow-Ben, but, no, I’m looking for the Ghost and the Medium Putting Up With Each Other, not shipping). (I also read the comics this summer, but they did not make my list of top books read because really the show took all the best parts of the comics and made them BETTER, with the exception of Diego and Viktor’s— Vanya’s, she’s not trans in the comics— punk band, that was the only thing the comics did better— anyway, the thing that made me saddest in the comics, even beyond that Five and V weren’t even FRIENDS in that one, was the very sad lack of Ghost Ben. GHOST BEN IS IMPORTANT). ANYWAY, so I found this one and it was EXACTLY what I was looking for. And so I kept poking around and got sucked in and it’s been taking up my free time ever since.
8. “Long Overdue” by BubblyWashingMachine. Okay, I probably shouldn’t admit how morbidly satisfying this one was. And that has nothing to do with it technically being a Fiktor— or in this case Fiveya, it was pre-transition*— fic, because that’s more of a background deal though it’s partially motivational. No, it’s just pure, violent revenge fantasy in which Five has gone back in time to brutally murder Harold Jenkins— brutally, I say! It’s cathartic, delicious, and darkly funny. I KNOW! Gratuitous violence AND pseudo-incest in one fic, I’m such a sicko! (*this is why my bookmark tag is just “5+7,” I don’t care what era it’s from—I DO give a side-eye to anyone not using Viktor’s preferred name and pronouns in anything that was written and takes place Season 3 or later, but otherwise, it’s 5+7, I’m not splitting hairs. Also, “5+7” is very short. Just like them!)
I feel like I’m being untruthful by not including more 5+7-tagged fics in this list, but I keep looking at them thinking “Is that objectively GOOD or is that the 5+7 talking?” So okay. Here’s a few disgustingly romantic ones, here’s a couple nice post-or-during-season-3 ones so these don’t all say “Vanya,” here’s a user that writes platonic 5+7 so tenderly the voice in the back of my head shouting “NOW KISS!” won’t shut up. Okay, happy?
9. Okay, let’s counteract that with two completely crack-hilarious ones I can’t decide between: “Twenty-three minutes and thirty-six seconds” by DemonaHW is a very funny and delightfully random adventure about an unexplained temporal anomaly at the Academy; “Open Twenty-Four Hours” by Feech is the iconic diner fight scene if Pinky Pie— yes, the My Little Pony (in Equestria Girls form, but that still gave my mind’s eye a Roger-Rabbitty headache)— happened to be there. Made me wish Maddie had seen Umbrella Academy so as to appreciate it.
10. And finally for the holiday season, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas (If Only In My Dreams)” by disco_tea is how you WRITE a Christmas in the Apocalypse story. You know you can’t fix everything, but you still need that touch of Christmas Miracle, and this pulls off that bittersweet balance PERFECTLY.
Stuff I wrote!
Stuff I Wrote, Here on Dreamwidth Edition:
The only thing was my pseudo-eulogy for my dad, which I already linked to. But I got a lot of positive feedback on it, from people who’ve probably never read a single other thing I’ve written, so it’s pretty good, I guess.
Stuff I Wrote, GeekMom Edition:
I think I’ve pretty much given up attempting to write for GeekMom on the whole, but when an actual science fiction book won the Newbery, I HAD to spit out my used-to-be-annual Youth Media Awards announcement for all the geeky parents.
Stuff I Wrote, Fanfic Edition:
1. “Exploration of the Astral Plane: An Immersive, Multidimensional Study, by Cary Loudermilk, PhD, and Oliver Anthony Bird.” (Legion (TV)) - #1 because I FINISHED it! After YEARS! (well, two years) Nearly a whole year of which was being blocked on how to actually get Oliver lost! But I finally did and it’s pretty good! It’s also sad, but it has to be. :P I mean, the end does. The first four chapters are a lot of fun. The last few chapters have fun bits, too, they’re just also sad.
2. “A Captain With Seven Children...What's So Fearsome About That?” (The Sound of Music - Rodgers/Hammerstein/Lindsay & Crouse, The Umbrella Academy (TV)) —Despite my having started READING a buttload of Umbrella Academy fic, I had no plans to write any myself until I found myself dreaming about these seven superpowered kids whose father was played by Christopher Plummer, and I went, Oh, My Brain, I See What You Did There, that is… that is actually a very brilliant crossover, thank you, Brain, I shall have to write this now. Christopher Plummer is NOT in my version, but Julie Andrews is— Maria has been plucked out of 1930s Austria and sent to nanny a DIFFERENT seven children of a overly strict father. IT IS SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE THIS. You will not believe how well it fits until you read it.
3. “Not Just Stupid Kids” (The Umbrella Academy (TV)) —So this was a surprise on several levels. First of all, I never expected to become such a passionate Fiktor shipper— or any kind of shipper; and so I wrote this in an attempt to settle my I-only-like-canon-ships mind by showing how it could fit into canon, in the background. But it was embarrassing, so I posted it anonymously. And then, surprise again, it became my most popular fic of the year. Anonymously. Not sure what that says about people’s opinions of ME. So then, surprise again, it inspired me to write MORE:
4. “On Soul Mates and Nemeses” (The Umbrella Academy (TV)) —Kind of a sequel, this one is me exploring the inevitability and symbolism and just WHY I feel so strongly about this stupid ship. It’s quite long for a one-shot, but I enjoyed it.
5. “Everything I Know About Writing the Loudermilk Twins” (Legion (TV)) —Let’s counter that with the utterly platonic super-close pseudo-sibling relationship that holds the number one place in my heart! Being one of the only people writing Legion fics, and currently pretty much THE only person focusing on the founders of Summerland, I just felt like I wanted to ramble about all the Loudermilk headcanons I’ve developed, but there’s no one really to ramble WITH. So instead, I wrote this sort of writing-guide thing that spells it all out. Shockingly, people have actually read and kudoed it. You should too! Because I don’t know, why the heck not?
6. “Introduction to Infernal and Eternal Crossover” (Community (TV), The Good Place (TV)) — Back on the Random Crossovers I Actually Dreamed theme, my subconscious mixed up my two favorite sitcoms of the 21st century one night and I was like, That works. The actual dream I had wasn’t much of a story I could grasp, but I COULD write Dean Pelton pitching the concept of it (Community College Is the Bad Place) to Shawn at a demon meeting. So I did. Now I’m calling on other people to actually write stories in this shared universe for me, it’d totally be fun.
7. “Chapter 19.5: Hidden. Safe. Somewhere.” (Legion (TV)) —This is a little missing-scene fic that fixes what I always felt was a loose thread at the end of Legion season 2, and is quite sweet. Unfortunately, what I can only assume was a weird glitch that kept randomly guest-kudoing it kind of soured it for me. I know, you’d think lots of kudos would be a good thing, but it’s too obviously an artificial glitch, because Legion fics just don’t GET that kind of attention, particularly not random little throwaways like this. So I got annoyed that it technically got the most kudos of the year, and came dangerously close to even tying “The Invitation: an Epilogue” for most kudos ever, because it’s not TRUE. I’ve gone back and reread it again now and it IS very sweet, if not deserving of 83 kudos, so I’m rather sad the stupid glitch ruined my feelings toward it.
I filled out an “AO3 Writer Wrapped” ask-survey thing on Tumblr, further exploring various things I wrote this year, which includes some samples and stuff too. You can click through and read more. I mean. I suppose I’d REALLY prefer if you clicked through TO AO3 and read my ACTUAL FICS and also LEFT COMMENTS on them. But hey. If you’re bored or love me very much.
And that's a wrap! That's all I have for you this year! Or last year now! Anyway, this is again a reminder to LEAVE ME A COMMENT! Here? On my fics? On Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr? Anywhere! I just want some sign I'm not talking into thin air! Anything you might have had a thought about in the course of reading this, I want to hear from YOU! YES, YOU!
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Date: 2023-01-03 02:27 am (UTC)From:I'm so sorry about your dad, but I do love that you created a playlist for him to listen to together. I just love that so much as a music lover and I feel certain from what you've said about him that he loved it, too.
I really wanted the entire Lego botanicals line, but Nora asked for the succulents so we got that one for her and I got the bonsai and the orchid sets. I still may consider getting myself the succulent set anyway to have it in my office in lieu of real plants that I would just kill.
I miss picture books. And I'm not opposed to buying them for myself, but I just don't have much exposure to know what's even out there anymore. That one about the history of the color blue sounds amazing, though, so I may have to look into it.
I haven't read the Benedict Society books so my opinion of the show is based on nothing, but I actually liked the second season better. I had a harder time getting into the first one and I just enjoyed where the second season went.
LOVED Ghostbusters Afterlife. I know it was a heavy retread of the original and total fanservice, but I am that fan so I was all for it. And I can't get enough of the mini Stay Pufts. I own a few of the mini Stay Puft Funko Pops because I'm mildly obsessed.
Okay, I'm glad it wasn't just me that saw how much Cassian Andor was channeling Paul McCartney!
And finally, I'm glad you said that you do keep track of this stuff throughout the year. I would love to do things like this, but I can barely remember what I did this past week. Now I would just need to remember to keep track all year.
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Date: 2023-01-03 04:07 am (UTC)From:I like to think that my dad heard all the music and it made him feel at peace, like, "It seems I have done my duty in life by passing down all this music," and that's why he let go early the next morning.
I saw your Lego bonsai on Facebook! I haven't gotten to open my set yet to see if it's incorporated any pink frogs or the like.
"Blue" has gotten a good deal of buzz so I would be surprised if your library doesn't have it already. And I'll also be surprised if it doesn't come away with at least one of a Silbert, CSK, and/or even Caldecott at the end of the month, making your library even more likely to get it after!
I'm impressed that you've watched MBS without having read the books to know anything about it, they've advertised it so poorly! The second season is actually based most closely to the third book. They're fun! I don't want to give away the biggest difference between book-Constance and show-Constance in case you want to read and experience that for yourself, but it's a trip (which I completely understand why it isn't in the show though!)
You know, I am ALSO glad someone else noticed Andor's Paul McCartney-ness! I am not surprised MY brain went there, but it's still gratifying to know I'm not alone!
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Date: 2023-01-28 03:42 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-01-05 03:38 am (UTC)From:Best wishes for a happy new year. :)
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Date: 2023-01-05 01:22 pm (UTC)From:I think Akata Woman may be my favorite of the three, leaving aside my initial confusion on where to shelve it. It's trippy.
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Date: 2023-01-08 07:30 pm (UTC)From:I haven't watched Stranger Things or played D&D, but I DID recently find out that the name "Vecna" is a reference to Jack Vance, the fantasy writer who came up with the magic system the game uses.
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Date: 2023-01-08 07:50 pm (UTC)From:That's cool about Jack Vance. You would enjoy Stranger Things, I'm kind of surprised you haven't seen it yet!
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Date: 2023-01-13 12:13 am (UTC)From:I think Beth has seen all except the last season of Stranger Things.
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Date: 2023-01-13 12:17 am (UTC)From:I did think Beth would ESPECIALLY have seen it! But you'd appreciate all the 80s pop culture references and things too.