Hello Friends! Welcome Back to My Channel!

I thought while I was here filming other things, I would also film a couple videos that I wanted to make. I'm kind of re-figuring out how to do this with my body's new normal and that's something that I've really struggled with the past two years, so welcome to the experiment. Theoretically, I'll be able to figure something out. I just yeah, I haven't figured it out yet. So I thought I would go over my favorite books so far this year. And just some ones I wanted to highlight.

First up is a book and translation that is by Thorvald Steen and this is called "The White Bathing Hut" and it's translated by James Anderson. And I really loved this book because the author himself is disabled and the story is very much autobiographical. So this book is about a young man who discovers he has a disease that will cause his muscles to degenerate, and he figures this out around 15 years old. And he's trying to navigate Norway's healthcare system, which has a healthy dose of eugenics. And he is just trying to make a life for himself. There's something really beautiful about this book because you know during the pandemic, so many doctors were deciding who got life-saving healthcare depending on what their quality of life would be and obviously it's very disturbing. And one of the things about this book is the depression that the main character feels when he's diagnosed. And ultimately he comes to the conclusion that there is a beautiful life worth living and that's what this book is all about.

And to me, that's really incredibly important, and it was very helpful as I struggled with my own mental health in regards to my illness disease, whatever you want to call it, my disability. And so I really found this book very emotional and very moving, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since, which is why I bought a copy after listening to a friend read it to me. I just love it! I love it.

Next one up is True Biz by Sara Novic, and this is a novel about three different characters who are part of the Deaf community. And it's actually set in the Ohio River Valley where I'm from, which I did not expect. I mean, this is a Reese's Book Club pick. It's been everywhere, but this is a story about a Deaf school. So you have Austin, who is from the school, and he's struggling to find his place within the community, and then there's Rachel, who is a former student, and she's trying to navigate her life after leaving the school. And then there's the new girl, Jamie, who is deaf and mute, and she's trying to fit in with the group.

I really enjoyed this book because it gave me a glimpse into the Deaf community, which I had never really explored before. It was fascinating to see how they interacted with each other and the world around them. The author did a great job of capturing the nuances of sign language and the way that the characters communicated with each other. And the story itself was engaging and emotional, with themes of identity, belonging, and acceptance.

I also appreciated the way that the book highlighted the importance of accessibility and inclusivity in schools and communities. As someone who has struggled with their own disability, I found this to be a really important message, and it's something that I think is often overlooked in mainstream society. Overall, True Biz was a great read, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the Deaf community or looking for a thought-provoking and emotional story.

And finally, I just wanted to mention one more book that I loved this year. And that's... [the transcription of the next book will be added here].

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHello Friends! Welcome back to my channel! I thought while I was here filming other things  I would also film a couple videos that I wanted to make. I'm kind of re-figuring out how to do this  with my body's new normal and that's something that I've really struggled with the past two  years, so welcome to the experiment. Theoretically I'll be able to figure something out. I just  yeah I haven't figured it out yet. So I thought I would go over my favorite books so far this year.  And just some ones I wanted to highlight. And yeah I think I think that's basically the summary of  what this video is going to be. And so all except the last one are kind of in no particular order  okay so first up is a book and translation this is by Thorvald Steen  and this is called the white bathing hut and it's translated by James Anderson.  And I really loved this book because the author himself is disabled and the story is very much  autobiographical. So this book is about a young man who discovers he has a disease that will  cause his muscles to degenerate, and he figures this out around 15 years old. And he's trying  to navigate Norway's healthcare system, which has a healthy dose of eugenics. And he  is just trying to make a life for himself. There's something really beautiful about this book because  you know during the pandemic. So many doctors were deciding who got life-saving healthcare  depending on what their quality of life would be and obviously it's very disturbing. And one of  the things about this book is the depression that the main character feels when he's diagnosed. And  ultimately he comes to the conclusion that there is a a beautiful life worth living and that's  what this book is all about. And to me that's really incredibly important, and it was very  helpful as I struggled with my own mental health in regards to my illness disease, whatever you  want to call it, my disability. And so I really found this book very emotional and very moving,  and I haven't stopped thinking about it since, which is why I bought a copy after listening  to a friend read it to me. I just, I love it I love it. Next one up is True Biz by Sara Novic,  and this is a novel about three different characters who are part of the Deaf community. And  it's actually set in the Ohio River Valley where I'm from, which I did not expect. I mean, this is  a Reese's Book Club pick. It's been everywhere, but this is a story about a Deaf school.  So you have Austin is from \"a traditionally a Deaf family\" a historically Deaf family his dad  is hearing and is a sign language interpreter and ASL interpreter. And he's at the school  and he kind of is very idealistic because that's been his life. You have February, who is a CODA  (a child of Deaf adults), and so she is actually head of the Deaf school where Austin attends.  Charlie shows up at the school and she is a teenage girl who has a cochlear implant  that is failing, and so her parents never let her learn ASL. So public school wasn't  working very well for her because she wasn't receiving the accommodations that she needed.  So when her parents get divorced her dad convinces her mom to let Charlie go to a Deaf school where  she starts learning sign language for the first time as a teenager. There's a lot of complicated  dynamics in Deaf culture that I think this book illustrates. And on the audio which is what I  listen to the author actually signs all of the text that's in italic, which is supposed to be  a translation of the sign right. So the author uses images a lot, and this italics  to illustrate that this—you know—conversation is happening in sign. So on the audio the author  is signing, and you can hear the signing in the background. So you always know, which dialogue  is in sign. I thought that was very clever on how to translate a translation of something  into a medium that it's not literally meant for, and I was wondering how they would do that  on audio since I can't read text. And I don't understand sign language. I don't speak ASL at  all, and so I really appreciated the thought that went into that. I really appreciated this book and  really loved the story and how complex it was. I know I found it very captivating. The next book is  a book that I feel like just hit the right spot um and that's louise erdrich's THE SENTENCE. In some  ways, this book is kind of all over the place because it has so many different moving parts,  almost like the image on the cover. And so I don't think entirely it worked structurally,  but it was the book I needed at the right time. So this book is about Tookie who's an indigenous  woman who was incarcerated for moving a dead body for a woman she loves. And that didn't go well,  and she ends up in prison. And when she gets out of prison, this guy she's kind of loved always  and she get married. And it's really great. She gets this job selling books at Louise Erdrich's  bookstore, Birchbark Books. So Louise Erdrich is also a character in her own novel, which is fun  and strange but delightful all at the same time. And it goes through the pandemic. On top of that  there's this white lady who's kind of obsessed with Indigenous cultures has kind of fetishized  Indigenous cultures. And she passes away, but like her ghost will not leave the bookstore. And it's a  whole thing. So there's a lot of different moving parts, but i just found it a very comforting read,  even if again the structure wasn't entirely like together. It was still an enjoyable book to read,  so that's why because it's like the the warm and cozy feelings but also has some hard-hitting  moments. That's kind of why the book really worked for me, and Louise Erdrich reads the book as well.  She's a wonderful reading voice. I love it. Another book that was kind of structurally all  over the place, the one that i very much enjoyed, is a book called Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho.  And this is read out loud on audiobook—how else are audiobooks read, Kendra?—this  is read by Natalie Naudus, who is a big favorite of mine as far as audiobook  narrators go. And this is about Fiona and Jane, and it's really interesting because  the style between the two women is different, like the writing style. So much the case that  when a story . . . so this is ... I guess I should back up and say this is a short story collection,  and these different stories are featuring Fiona and Jane, sometimes together sometimes separate  in their lives. And it's just kind of a character portrai, different scenes from  these characters lives, how they intersect, and their friendship and and what happens with that.  and so I found that their voices were very distinct in a lot of ways, and so even when  one . . . there's one story where the viewpoint woman is not named. But I knew who it was just  based on the the style of the writing, and it was just, it was really great. I don't know. I didn't  expect to fall in love with this book, and while I think structurally it has like some bumps in  the road, as it were. I found learning about Fiona and Jane's different lived experiences  just so fascinating, and I just fell in love with this book. It was one of the first books I read  this year, and I haven't stopped thinking about it. I'm so excited for this author and what she  has to do right next. I really really, I really loved it. I just, I know there's so much going on  in this book. And yeah, I was playing the Pokemon game the open world one.  I'll put an image somewhere around here. Obviously, I love Nintendo. I was playing  Pokemon and listening this book, and I fell in love with the book, not necessarily the game,  But you know, we just, we'll just move on from there. So the next two books are Appalachian books  that I finished this year, even though i started both in a different year, last year, I guess. So  one of them has Punched Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome. This is also read by him on the audiobook,  and Brian Broome is originally from Appalachian Ohio. He eventually moves to Pittsburgh.  This memoir is primarily focused on his growing up years and like early adulthood. He grows up as a  gay Black man in rural America. And he talks about the racism and the colorism that he experienced  growing up and how that informed who he became and some of the trauma that he carried with him into  adulthood. And he has such an incredible writing style and the way that he's able to communicate  things and beautiful prose, but then discussed the inner workings of his mind both with the  understanding of what he felt at the time but also able now to look back on his experience. I felt  that he handled that really well, which I think can trip some memoirs up a bit. But I just i just  love this book, and I cannot wait to read whatever he puts out next. So loved that. Another queer  memoir is Another Appalachia coming up queer and Indian in a Mountain Place by Neema Avashia. This  is out from West Virginia University Press, which is the same press that put out The Secret Lives of  Church Ladies. I really love Neema so much. I am very biased. I had her on for a live show  for Read Appalachia, and she is just so wonderful and she talks about growing up in Southern  West Virginia. She also talks about growing up queer and then coming out and moving away,  and, you know, the different aspects of coming out to people back home after you've left. And  then also what it's like to see you know people she grew up with that were really important to her  share horrible things on their Facebook about immigrants. And she's like,  you do know i'm an immigrant? And they're like, oh, but not you you're one of the good ones.  Yeah, it's a lot, but I feel like she did such a great job. And I really loved how much love and,  you know, attention to detail. And it's just such a beautiful book. I don't know. I have no words.  I'm so grateful for her as a writer, and it's a personal. I am biased, fair, but here we are.  So one of my favorite books of the year is a book that I find very difficult to describe. And  that is Easy Beauty um by Chloé Cooper Jones. And you cannot see the lettering. I feel like  they needed to make it a little bit bolder. I understand the elegant feel they were going for  and how shiny and pretty it is, but anyway, this is a memoir by someone who has prose that makes me  want to give up writing for the rest of my life. Like why would I want to keep writing when this  woman's prose exists. It's like, ah! It's so good! So Chloé Cooper Jones is working on her second PhD  when she finds herself at a bar listening to two other PhD candidates . . . they're  arguing on whether or not she should exist. So one of the man is like, you know, people like  Chloé shouldn't exist because they would have had genetic testing and made sure that people like her  were born because the quality of life is not as good. And the other dude is like,  oh my word, that's offensive. And Chloé's just sitting there like a deer in headlights, like  what is happening?! Why does this keep happening? Why does this guy think he gets to say and whether  or not i should exist? And I found it really interesting because you know with the pandemic  more and more people think eugenics is fine. And it's not. It's not fine, and I felt like this is  such an important conversation to have she begins kind of wandering around trying to figure out,  you know, her place in the world. She was born with a condition that affects her stature,  so she is shorter, and also affects her gait, so she walks with a visible limp.  And a lot of people, you know, walking around seeing this woman who's visibly disabled,  they have very horrific responses to her existence. And so this book is part her story part  her kind of contemplating her life and her place in it and why she kept looking for someone to  say that yes she deserves to live in this world. She's fine as she is. What is she looking for? Why  does she feel so restless all of the time? Why does she keep leaving her husband and child to  go travel the world and then her husband just holds down the fort with their child? And she  knows that she is putting a lot on him, but she just needs to figure all of this out.  And that's the thing is like, i don't think she really ultimately comes with a concrete answer.  She finds something that works for her. She finds something that gives her peace to a  certain degree, but really I felt the book was more of a thought experiment in beautiful prose.  There's a lot of discussion about disabled motherhood. People told her she would not be able  to have children when in fact she could. There's nothing wrong with her reproductive system, and so  everyone was really shocked when she decided to carry her baby to term and have her daughter  and everyone kind of freaked out because, you know, heaven forbid her baby also might  have a disability. And it was just this whole conversation around disabled motherhood that  is ongoing. So many disabled women are questioned on whether or not we would be good mothers or not,  and we are interrogated, we are questioned, we have to prove constantly that we would be good  mothers. And so if you are a disabled person going through a mother or parenting experience where you  don't want to read about that right now, I would say wait on this book because there's a could be a  lot of triggering content in here. But yeah, it's a beautiful book. And I can't stop thinking about  it. I'm just going to quit gushing about that. So those are some of my favorite books of the year.  This year has been really difficult to find books that have really spoken to me in a way that I  really connected with. And so I was happy to find some things even though I read a lot more books.  I normally have I just had a lot of kind of okay books, and so I really am glad that these books  exist, even if I'm not able to exactly articulate why I love these books and why hot mess people  right now or what I'm gravitating towards. I mean, yeah saying that out loud okay it makes sense now,  considering my existence. But I really appreciated characters who keep making these mistakes who  are writing about their process of discovering themselves and trying to figure out  where they belong in the world and does that place even exist?  Where can I find acceptance and peace? And that is something that I found through a lot of these  books and I didn't realize that that was a theme until I stacked them all up to film this video and  here we are. So those are some of my favorite books, and mostly it's because I personally  effortlessly connected with them. I guess. So anyway, those are those uh books and yeah,  I guess I will talk to you in the next one, friend! Hang in there! As always, you can  find me on social media at @kdwinchester. I also have a substack where I write about disability,  and those will be linked down in the description box. All right—bye friends!\n"