Favorite Books Read in 2022

by Wendy, December 30, 2022

This was the year I committed to reading all the unread books on my Kindle, in addition to many checked out from the library. Of the books I read in 2022, my favorites were:

Dread Nation and Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland. This alternate history duology follows Jane and Katherine, two young students who attend a combat school to put down the dead. Why? Because the dead started reanimating during the battle of Gettysburg, and nothing has been the same since.

The first book follows Jane as she tries her best to do her duty – at least, the one expected of her by white people – and quickly gets swept up into a conspiracy. Somehow, she manages to drag her school nemesis, Katherine, along with her. The second book follows Jane and Katherine all the way to California, and beyond, as they try to find some sense of peace and safety in their dangerous, often heartbreaking world.

If you enjoyed The Walking Dead original graphic novels, you might enjoy this. As with that series, these two books aren’t just about zombies, but humanity. The stories also tackle the inherent racism and sexism of the mid-1800s, as seen through the eyes of two extraordinary heroines. There really isn’t a romance here, also, which is nice. Though Jane takes lovers, one of whom is a fellow zombie-fighting young lady, neither Jane nor Katherine require a man to make them whole and happy. It’s a nice change of pace!

If you prefer a fairy tale, check out Thorn by Intisar Khanani. In this story, Princess Alyrra is reviled by her family and set to marry a prince from another kingdom. She doesn’t expect much of the marriage, because her family is certain she will die “accidentally” so the prince can move on with his life.

Fortunately, her family couldn’t be more wrong, because Alyrra doesn’t even make it to her new kingdom. At least, not the way she left her old one! Instead, an act of betrayal swaps her identity with that of another girl and leaves her as nothing more than a servant. Rather than flee her new fate, Alyrra embraces it. As long as she can keep her head down and do her job, maybe she can take charge of her own life.

But as she starts to learn the language and befriend the other servants, she becomes invested in their troubles. She also takes on a new name – Thorn – and advocates for her fellow servants as she better understands their fears and challenges. What Alyrra eventually does is nothing short of wonderful, showing everyone what it truly means to be a princess.

At times, this story addressed dark and sad themes, but the main character’s capacity to care about the well-being of others made her incredibly likeable. I also appreciated the fact that there really isn’t a romance here, as there tends to be with YA fantasy. Any possibility of romance is treated reasonably, with it stated that the characters aren’t in love, but are open to seeing if those feelings develop. I appreciated that aspect of the story.

The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones is another book with more of a fairy tale-like vibe and it drew me in from the beginning. And, yes, more zombies here. After the loss of her parents and uncle, Ryn is doing her best to take care of her family. She is a gravedigger in a remote village that sits at the foot of a mountain range rumored to have once been home to the fae. The bone houses are, specifically, the risen dead. Something about the forest between the village and the mountains seems to keep the dead from staying dead. Legend has it this is because of a curse.

When a mapmaker named Ellis shows up in the village, they end up under attack by groups of bone houses wandering out of the forest. But why? Ryn wants to know what is drawing the bone houses to her home village, while Ellis just wants to map the land. They work together to reach both of their goals and undertake a dangerous journey to the mountain range where the curse is said to originate. Along the way, they learn more about not only the bone houses, but themselves and human nature. I love that a feisty undead goat is their companion, though you know that can’t end well!

There is a touch of horror to the story, but also whimsy and romance. I loved this one and will read it again on a cool, October night, with a nice hot cup of tea.

Finally, my favorite book that I read this year was Small Favors by Erin Craig. This is an absolutely chilling and dreadful tale, with a wild ending that had me excited about it for days. All I wanted to do was talk to people about it… except I don’t know anyone else who has read it!

Ellerie lives in an isolated village called Amity Falls. Right off the bat, I got a “The Village” (the movie) vibe from the way these folks live. For example, when there’s danger, the villagers light fires to alert their neighbors. And their neighbors light their fires, and so on, until everyone knows there’s trouble. And trouble does come, especially from the forest that keeps Amity Falls cut off from the rest of the world. Strange creatures come out of the woods and residents are being offered their deepest desires. You know what they say – if something is too good to be true…

Our main character soon finds her family dealing with one tragedy after another, with no end in sight. Ellerie and her sisters don’t seem to get even a single moment to catch their breaths and, when they do, that moment is tenuous and fraught with anxiety. I love, love, LOVE how the tension grows without letting up in this story until everything and everyone hits a horrific breaking point.

Again, this was my absolute favorite read this year. I thought the ending was bloody fantastic, and I want to find someone else who feels the same. Once again, this book is a mix of horror and fairy tale. I think it’s pretty clear what kind of vibe I was digging in 2022.

“Honorable mentions” for books I read this year go to An Enchantment of Ravens and Sorcery of Thorns, both by Margaret Rogerson. Ravens was enjoyable because it was a fae story that showed what dark, horrible, twisted beings they are beneath their beautiful exteriors.

I’m still reading Sorcery, and I can’t wait to see how it ends. It’s funny to say this, because Howl’s Moving Castle is a book, not just a movie… But Sorcery of Thorns feels like the movie version of Howl’s Moving Castle (the book moves much slower than the Studio Ghibli film). Except, add more dangerous demons and sorcerers, angry grimoires that are capable of becoming twisted, murderous creatures, beautiful dresses and ballrooms, fancy swords, and a slow burn romance.

I read so many other books this year, but these are the ones I loved and highly recommend.

Summer Update

by Wendy, August 8, 2022

It’s late summer and I’m melting. I decided I’m not going to continue with 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, because I wasn’t having much fun with it. The writing prompts are handy, but not my cup of tea at the moment.

I’ve also decided to take a step back from being as active on WikiTree, due to some concerns about leadership. Specifically, how leadership treats those of us in the LGBTQIAP community. A few months ago, a member asked about reporting a project leader for making homophobic comments/statements toward them, and then that same member disappeared from the WikITree Discord server. I don’t know exactly what transpired but I know that, regardless of my sexual orientation, I’m not okay with it.

So I guess this is just a little update on where this blog/site is going. I will certainly be sharing more genealogy. In fact, I have something I’m working on right now, but it’s going to take some time to put my thoughts together. Also, the heat does my head in, so that’s not fun.

There are plenty of other things I want to share and talk about, but I’ll get to them. Right now, I need to slow down, recover, and then move forward from there. Honestly, I feel a bit like I’m screaming into the void anyway, but I always hope someone will find something useful here someday. 😀

Spring 2021

by Wendy, April 19, 2021

As much as many of us may look back at 2020 and say, “What a dumpster fire,” it seems 2021 isn’t much of an improvement. Though I’d like to think we’re going to eventually get to an overall better, more positive place by the end of the year. Besides, I think I’ve let go of the idea of “good years” and “bad years” and, really, it is what it is – a little bit of both – and that’s just life.

Personally, I’ve experienced two losses so far this year and that has certainly shaped my attitude about 2021. My only paternal aunt passed away and it wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it still fills me with sadness to know she’s gone. The other was our parrot of 10 years, Avery, whose loss is heartbreaking. We didn’t anticipate it and, sadly, that’s often the way it goes with birds.

People, of course, are asking or saying – if I’m being honest – dumb and insensitive things. “I didn’t realize he was that old”/”How old was he?” He was 10, thank you very much. “Was he sick?” No and, again, thank you so much for asking. Oh, and sending me pictures or videos of why parrots are so great. Um… pardon me, why? I’m grieving a sudden loss and these things are really twisting the knife. When someone loses someone precious to them, why do people feel the need to ask the how, what, and why? Especially when there is an understandable degree of guilt, since that life was your responsibility? Pet owners often feel guilt, even if they shouldn’t, and these kinds of questions push that idea that somehow it was our fault that our pet died. If that’s what you’re trying to do when people lose a beloved pet, congratulations. You succeeded. If that isn’t your intention, would you please simply say, “I’m so sorry for your loss. Do you want to talk about it?” and leave it at that?

So that’s my mini-rant about that.

Anyway, we never plan on having another bird. Getting one was originally my husband’s idea, because he’s a bird lover. However, he soon realized the amount of work that goes into being a “bird parent” is disproportionate to the amount of energy and attention he was actually willing to put in. I became Avery’s bird mom and loved every moment of it, after never in my life considering having a parrot. We’re all feeling the loss, though, and we know that we don’t want to go through it again. Even our cats have noticed something has changed (namely, Avery not plucking their fur, pecking their paws, and sitting on their backs), and they seem a little gloomy about it.

There are, of course, good things to share. It’s not all sadness. My son went to prom for the third and, likely, last time. He’s a senior and partied his Saturday night away with his class. It was an exciting but sad moment for me. I remember going to the prom with his dad 28 years ago.

My son took my weeping in stride, thankfully. My husband got a kick out of it and obliged me by taking tons of pictures. Graduation is only 3 weeks from now. I’ll be sure to bring copious amounts of tissues.

My daughter said she doesn’t want 2nd grade to end. I don’t blame her, and I also reminded her that she was the one saying she didn’t want school to start last August. She laughed about that, and we talked about beginnings, endings, and how everything has it’s time and place and cycle.

As far as genealogy, I’m turning my attention to my husband’s family. He descends mostly from recent immigrants from so many different countries, that his ancestry presents a unique challenge to me. The majority of my ancestors have been in New England since the Mayflower and Great Migration. There is a branch from Virginia and North Carolina in the 1600s and 1700s that ultimately sort of folded into my New England ancestors, and then my few recent immigrant ancestors are from England, Ireland, and Italy. All very familiar territory for me. My ex-husband’s ancestors are also mostly Great Migration New Englanders, as well as settlers in New Brunswick and Quebec. I know my way around New England and Canada fairly well, genealogically-speaking.

My husband’s ancestors are from Ireland, Quebec, and there are two or three lines that were in the U.S. by at least the 1700s, that went west from Pennsylvania and Virginia. Other than that, I’m looking at countries I’ve never had to work with: Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, and Switzerland. Working on each line is challenging, because none of them are well-documented, except the ones from Quebec. DNA is a helpful tool here. Many of my husband’s matches still reside in Norway, Finland, and other European countries.

I’m also looking at both of our mtDNA lines. My ex-husband’s mtDNA line was super easy to trace. He’s an A2 and we were able to document him back to the daughter of Chief Madokawando, who’d married Jean-Vincent d’Abbadie de Castin. Many of my ex-husband’s mtDNA matches with a genetic distance of zero (15 matches) also descend from this couple.

My mtDNA haplogroup is H1aj1 and that’s the one I’m most interested in exploring right now. I have only 2 matches with a zero genetic distance, however. One is my maternal uncle, so clearly we know which ancestor we share – my nana/his mother. However, we have another match, born in Sicily. As this is the Italian side of my family, I’m hoping to pinpoint how the other match is related to us. Recently, I dedicated many nights to working on our match’s maternal family to see if it might give me clues about mine. The most recent maternal ancestor I can name is my 4th great-grandmother, Angela Giusto, probably born in Cogoleto, and definitely died between 1842 (when my 3rd great-grandmother was born) and 1865 (when Angela’s husband, my 4th great-grandfather, Tomaso Pedemonte, remarried in Cogoleto). Since records for Cogoleto during this time frame aren’t available online yet, I need to be patient.

Working on my match’s family was quite interesting, since he had documented 3 maternal generations, and I was able to add 5 more through vital records in the towns of Lascari and Gratteri, in Palermo, Sicily. The interesting thing is my maternal family is from northern Italy, while his entire family is from Sicily, two completely different regions. Will I find our shared maternal ancestor in Sicily? If so, when and why did my family go north? It’s a project I’ll be working on for the foreseeable future. One neat thing of note is that when you click my 23andMe ethnicity results to look at the breakdown for Italy, it does show Sicily as one of the regions. Sooo, who knows?

Finally, I ordered my husband’s full sequence mitochondrial DNA test and that result came last week. He is haplogroup V11. He has fewer matches at a genetic distance of zero than my ex-husband does, but many more than I do, with 8 matches. I think there’s a good chance that at least a couple of them will make a good basis for comparison as far as finding out more about my husband’s maternal lineage. I’m specifically focusing on the Scandinavian matches or those with most distant ancestors with Scandinavian names, since that’s where I’m sure we’ll find a connection.

The most distant maternal ancestor I have for my husband is his 3rd great-grandmother, Maria Ursula Taescher, born about 1853, maybe in Switzerland. She married Emil Anton Ospelt on 6 November 1876 in Liechtenstein, and they emigrated to the United States. They were in Dubuque, Iowa for some time before moving to Washington County, Oregon, where she died on May 9, 1930. I don’t have the names of Emil’s or Maria’s parents, and don’t know if their death certificates will yield that information, so I’m starting there (I placed my request this weekend), and will work my way back.

I might try to work on a more in-depth post about working with mtDNA in the future. For now, though, the rest of spring will probably be a flurry of activity. We have an awards night at the high school for fine arts students, so I’ll be attending that, followed the next night by my son’s last concert in guitar and choir. And then there will be graduation. Meanwhile, my daughter is supposed to start softball this year. We signed up last year, but it was a wash due to Covid. However, my husband, son, and I are all vaccinated, and my daughter is eager to play. We’re all hoping for a kid-safe vaccine soon!

Well, that’s the news from here. I wish it was happier, but I’m grateful for the years I had with my aunt and my Avery.

2020 In Review

by Wendy, January 1, 2021

I think every year-end blog post or card or family newsletter is going to start with, “What a year!” We say that every year, though, don’t we? At the end of most years, I tend to be optimistic and set goals for the new year. Last year, however, I said, “Same shit, different year.” So I guess I’d better go back to optimism, because look how 2020 turned out!

We are among the fortunate people who haven’t gotten sick yet. However, several people we know and love did get sick, and that has been pretty scary. There’s no telling how Covid will affect anyone, which is what makes it so daunting.

When I heard the news about the first vaccine being administered in the UK, I cried with happiness. Here’s hoping that the roll-out of vaccines in the U.S. goes smoothly and we can all look forward to a slow return to something approaching normalcy.

Of course, we’re happy with the way the election turned out this year. It was another positive aspect of 2020. It took me a few days to feel safe opening a bottle of victory wine, but when I finally went for it, it couldn’t have been a sweeter moment.

Remote schooling for some of the year was difficult, but we felt it was necessary. It was hard for the kids to not see other people face to face. However, we felt it was the most responsible choice over the holidays, considering the uncertainty around other people choosing to gather with large groups, have family get-togethers, etc. We did our best to keep joy in the household with new books, games, music, and TV shows. It wasn’t always easy, but I think extra hugs and talking frankly about everything going on in the world went a long way.

At some point in the year, I also realized I was just done with certain projects and let them go, full stop. I had no drive to move forward. I thought my interest in and excitement for those projects might return, but no. So far, nothing.

It’s disappointing, because these projects have been a big part of “me” for 4 years. They’ve also given many other people a lot of joy. However, as Charlotte once said in “Sex & the City,” I think I’m done here.

What’s next? I’m still figuring that out. I still love my job and the teaching I’ve been doing, so that isn’t changing. But I need to figure out what’s next as far as other aspects of my life.

This post is already rambly, but there you have it. 2020 was, for us, challenging but we made it. Here we are. Where we’re going from here, though, I have no idea. At least, though, I’m feeling far more optimistic at this point in the year than I felt going into 2020!

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