Games for Adults/Families

I had a friend ask about my favorite games.  Looking through the list, most of them are word games.

1. What the Flock - a roll of the die determines the category for each round, including rhyming words, word find, using the first three letters of a word to make other words, a scattegories category, and charades.  This is a game you could play with upper elementary aged youth and up.

2. Ransom Notes - create a note based on the magnetic tile words in your hand based on a prompt card.  I love the creativity in this game! I would say this is probably best for high school and above.

3. Telestrations - it's the old telephone game, but with drawings.  The first person writes a prompt, the next person draws it, the third person has to write a prompt based on the picture, and the rounds continue.  We first played this online as Gartic Phone (https://garticphone.com/) - great for online game nights!  Kaiden is such an artist, his pictures are always the best.  You could play this with upper elementary age and up.

4. Cranium - this game uses a lot of different skills including acting, sculpting, humming, trivia, and spelling.  I love to scuplt!  This would be a good game for upper elementary and up.

5. Poetry for Neanderthals - can you describe things using only single-syllable words?  It's harder than you think!  This is a fun game to play with Brian, who gets into the caveman persona.  I think upper elementary students could play this game.

6. Cards Against Humanity - choose the card in your hand that best fits the prompt.  Depending on your relationship, you could play this with high school students.  We have fun playing with Kaiden and friends.

7. Twenty-Five Words or Less - another word game where you try to get your partner or team to guess 5 words using the minimum number of descriptors.  You could play this with middle school students and up.

8. Taboo - another word game.  Get your partner or team to guess the word without using some of the most common descriptors.  I love this game!  I would think middle school students would be able to play.

9.  Suspicion - this is similar to Clue (my favorite childhood game).  Use deductive reasoning to play as one of ten world-class jewel thieves trying to unmask the other players in a strategic game.  We played this with Kaiden when he was in upper elementary school.

10. Scattegories - write down items in a variety of categories using a single starting letter.  There is a great online version for online game nights (https://scattergoriesonline.net/new-game.xhtml) 

Then there are my childhood favorites - Clue, Monopoly, Boggle.  What are your favorite games?

Sixteen years of Goodreads

I first started tracking my reading in 2010.  Since that time, I've read more than 1,800 books.  As I start my list of favorite reads of 2025, I've been thinking about my favorites since 2010.  At the end of 2019, I shared my top 10 of the past 10 years - https://jaymebooks.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-top-10-reads-of-decade.html.  I thought I would update that list with my top 6 of the past 6 years (2020-2025), which aren't necessarily my top book from each year.  With time and perspective, those yearly picks sometime evole.  These are the books I can't stop thinking about, the books I choose to listen to again (and sometimes over and over) on audiobook. The more I think these books, I'm going to post 6 fiction and 6 non-fiction books that had the greatest impact on me from 2020-2025.

Non-Fiction

I talk about these first three books constantly when talking about how brains work, what our brains need to function optimally, and how to keep our cells healthy.  

1. The Power of Showing Up by Drs. Tina Payne Bryson and Dan Siegel

This book changed the way I think about relationships.  During CASA training, we talk about the infant attachment cycle - how a baby learns that the world is a safe place and when they express a need, someone will be there to meet it.  Drs. Tina Payne Bryson and Dan Siegel take that cycle to the next level.  To feel secure, we must be safe, seen, and soothed.  This is true in every relationship we have throughout out lifetime.  Essential reading for all parents and teachers (and honestly all humans!).

2. What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing by Dr. Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey

I have been a Bruce Perry groupie for years.  I first heard him speak at a conference in 2000, and I was hooked!  His work on how brain development is impacted by trauma and how to overcome that trauma is critical to the work we do at CASA and in helping every child who has experienced childhood trauma thrive.  This book is on my list of 5 books every human should read.  It's a great audiobook, too!

3. The Telomere Effect by Drs. Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel and its companion book The Stress Prescription: Seven Days to More Joy and Ease by Dr. Elissa Epel

For years, I've been talking about childhood trauma and its impact on lifelong health (see The Deepest Well by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris) as seen through the Adverse Childhood Experiences study (ACEs).  The ACEs study by itself is rather depressing - having signficiant trauma in childhood leads to disease in adulthood and early death, increased rates of suicide and substance abuse, and an overall decrease in quality of life.  The work of Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel finally provide both a mechanism of action and HOPE!  

Our brains are designed to keep us alive.  Under times of stress, our midbrain takes over and disengages the cortex, the thinking and learning part of our brain.  It pulls a fire alarm for our bodies by releasing adrenaline and cortisol to prepare us to flight or flee.  Blood rushes to our major muscle groups, our heart rate increases, digestion stops as we direct our energy elsewhere, our immune system ramps up in case our body is damaged in a fight.  As Dr. Nadine Burke Harris says, this is great if you are in the woods and facing a bear.  But what happens when the bear lives in your house?  What happens when you live in a world focused entirely on survival?  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ovIJ3dsNk )
An excellent video I use to describe this when making presentations, particularly to educators, is called Learning Brain vs. Survival Brain (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoqaUANGvpA).  In this video, Jacob Ham, PhD, describes how difficult it is to process new information in survival brain.  Please take a few minutes to watch.  Imagine how hard it must be to take in new information with your brain in survival mode.  Dr. Bruce Perry (my hero!) talks here about how stress impacts learning and behavior (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COMwI2akgqM ).

As you may know, science is my educational background.  Because of this, I’m fascinated by the science around toxic stress and trauma, as I’ve spent my career working in fields with individuals experiencing both.  One topic I always found fascinating in my biology classes was aging and the role telomeres play.  Have you heard of telomeres?  They are caps on the end of our chromosomes (the big bundles of DNA where our genes are encoded) designed to keep our DNA from unraveling.  Just like an aglet on a shoelace, telomeres keep our DNA from fraying.  (I know the word aglet from watching so much Phineas and Ferb with Kaiden when he was younger! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwizJNvl62U ).  The shorter your telomeres, the more aged your cell becomes.  Just like you could replace the aglet on a shoelace, our body has a protein called telomerase that can add telomeres back to the ends of our cells like glue.  Do you know what inhibits telomerase and keeps it from working?  High levels of stress hormones. 

Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn has done significant research on the role telomeres play in cellular aging (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wseM6wWd74 ).  She wrote a book with Elissa Epsel called The Telomere Effect that details scientific research around what shortens our telomeres and what can cause them to grow.  What has been shown scientifically to grow telomeres and keep our cells healthy longer?  Healthy relationships top the list.  The list also includes mindfulness activities, journaling, exercise, and good sleep.   This work has formed the basis for the direction we've taken our work at Thrive! and has certainly changed what I highlight during CASA training.

4. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson (who also wrote The Warmth of Other Sun: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration)

To understand the current state of our country, we must look to the past and the true origin story of the United States.  This engaging book helped me to examine the systems we all take for granted as "just the way things are done," my privilege as a white person in America and helped me think about ways to work to dismantle systems of oppression.  If I truly believe in "liberty and justice for all," there are steps I must take every day to stand up for what is right and just. 

5. Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott

What started as a series of articles in the New York Times became a heartwrenching book about a girl named Dasani and the struggles of her family experienced with poverty, homelessness, the foster care system, and the education system.  I love the quote that books can be mirrors, windows, or sliding doors.  Mirrors are those books where you see yourself reflected, sliding doors are escapism, and windows give you a glimpse into the life of another.  For most of you, this will be a window book.   "We read...to learn how to live life more deeply and richly, to experience the world though the eyes of the other." Barbara Davis

6. The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett Graff

For those of us who are old enough to remember the shock and distress of 9/11, it shaped our view of the world and destroyed some of the safety we all took for granted as Americans.  This book is an incredible oral history of a single day and how it changed us all forever.

Fiction 

1. The House in the Cerulean Sea and Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune

I LOVE these characters!  Most of my favorite books have some kind of magical element to them (Harry Potter, Narnia, The Night Circus).  This book moved into my top 10 books of all time.  The narrator of the audiobook does an amazing job bringing the charaters to life.  This is a book about family you create, about authenticity, and about standing up for what is right.  

2. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

When I read the description of this book, I didn't think I would enjoy it - a book about video games?  But really, it's a book abour relationships and connection.  This was my favorite read of 2023.  After I read it, Brian listened to the audiobook with me on a road trip.  The narration wasn't on the same level as Jim Dale or Daniel Henning or Frank Muller, but it was a decent listen.

3. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

The first time I tried to read this book, I couldn't get into it and put it down.  Then everyone I knew was talking about it, so I picked it up again and fell in love with Elizabeth Zott and her daughter Mad.  As a female chemist in the 1960s, Elizabeth struggles to find her place, ending up the reluctant star of a TV cooking show.  The limited series on Apple TV was so well done - I highly recommend watching if you haven't already.

4. The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Sergovia 

Originally written in Spanish, this book is set during the Mexican Revolution and focuses on Simonopio, an abandonded baby who chnages the lives of those he touches forever.  This is a truly beautiful story of love and loss with a magical twist.

5. The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Saenz (who also wrote the Aristotle and Dante books which are so good)

This is a beautiful story of three friends in high school, searching for belonging, purpose, and discovering their authentic selves.  

6. Historical fiction by Fiona Davis, Marie Bennedict, and Stephanie Dray

Okay, you knew there was no way I could narrow it down to 6 books!  Here are my favorites from each of these authors read in the past six years.

Happy Reading!

 

 

My favorite reads of 2020

CI'm writing this on December 23rd. At this point I have read or listened to 190 books this year. I don't think I've had a year since I started recording my reading that I've read more than 110. I had so much time on my hands early in the pandemic.

I posted a favorite book each day of December on Facebook. Here's the compilation.

Nonfiction:

A Promised Land by Barack Obama (I listened as an audiobook and it was wonderful)

The Power of Showing Up by Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

Tweak by Nic Sheff 

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X Kendi

How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X Kendi

The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett Graff

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker 

Fiction:

The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict 

The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate

Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts

Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens

The Fountains of Silence by  Ruta Sepetys

The Huntress by Kate Quinn

All the Ways we Say Goodbye by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White

Dear Edward by Ann Nepalitano

The Dead in their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley (I love the whole Flavia de Luce series) 

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop by Fannie Flagg

The Story of Arthur Truluv by  Elizabeth Berg

Young Adult Fiction

This is My America by Kim Johnson

Find Layla by Meg Elison

Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

My Top 10 Reads of the Decade

I first started tracking my reading in 2010.  Since that time, I've read more than 1,000 books.  Yearly, I've posted my top books of the year, but I thought as we are on the cusp of a new decade, I should post my top 10 reads of the decade (along with 30 runners up).

1.  The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker.   One of the most beautiful love stories I've read.  I was immediately fascinated by the story of a young woman searching for her missing father in his native Burma and with the story of her father's childhood and great love.  The audio book is beautifully read.

2.  Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, which is read by the fabulous Jim Dale, is a truly enchanting story.  I found it reminiscent of the movie "The Prestige," where two young magicians compete against each other in what becomes a battle of life or death.

3.  Being Mortal is probably the most important book I read this decade, changing the way I thought about medical care and death.  I truly believe this should be required reading for all humans.

4.  Another non-fiction selection, The Book of Joy changed the way I think about happiness vs. joy and how to find joy in life.  For five days, two of the greatest religious leaders of our time (and close friends) shared their thoughts on finding joy despite a life that includes suffering.  Their overall message?  Relationships with others are paramount and joy comes through relationship. 

5. I have three great reading loves - historical fiction, nonfiction, and young adult fiction.  The Hunger Games series tops by young adult reads this decade.  A primer on what government should never be.  et in America far in the future, the country has been divided into 12 Districts with the Capitol in the Rockies.  Because of a rebellion almost 75 years in the past, each district must send two children as tributes to the Captiol each year to compete in the Hunger Games.  Only 1 of the 24 children will survive the competition to the death.  Widely televised, the Hunger Games provide entertainment to those in the Captiol and a reminder to those in the Districts of the price of rebellion.  I loved the characters in this book, but particularly the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen.  While I enjoyed the whole series, this was my favorite of the three books.

6.  My Name is Mary Sutter is set during the Civil War, telling the story of Mary Sutter, who is determined to nove beyond her role as a midwife and become a doctor.  Women's empowerment!

7. Echo was the 2016 Newbery Honor book.  I knew the author from some simple chapter books Lily loved about Tony Baloney the macaroni penguin, and while those books were fun, I wasn't sure what to expect from Echo.  A single harmonica makes its way across the world to change the course of three young lives.  A simply beautiful story.

8.  Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give focuses on the aftermath of the shooting of an unarmed black youth by a white police officer.  A very timely and important read.

9.  I've read all of Robert Dugoni's Tracy Crosswhite thriller series, starting with My Sister's Grave, and have always enjoyed them.  Tracy Crosswhite is a Seattle police officer whose sister was murdered while they were teenagers.  While that entire series is worth reading, nothing about them prepared me for Sam Hell.  This book reminded me of A Prayer for Owen Meany, one of my all-time favorites.  Sam is born with ocular albinism, which makes his eyes appear red.  The book follows his life from childhood to his work as a doctor.  I loved the characters and was sad to leave them at the end of the book.

10.  Adverse Childhood Experiences (or ACEs) and trauma impact health for a lifetime.  More than 20 years after the initial study correlating trauma with long-term negative health consequences, research is finally emerging on how to counteract these impacts as an adult.  Dr. Burke Harris has an amazing TED talk on ACEs if you are interested!

Runners up by category

Fiction

The Institute by Stephen King
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Small Great Things by Jodi Picolut

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani 

Cemetery Road by Greg Iles

Young Adult Fiction

Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley

Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway

The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
Forever or a Long Long Time by  Caela Carter
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Fiction Series

Bill Hodges trilogy (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch) by Stephen King
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith

Natchez Burning trilogy by Greg Iles

Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R King

FBI Profiler series by Lisa Gardner
Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths

Nonfiction

A Secret Gift by Ted Gup

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

The Distance Between Us by Renya Grande

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

My Beloved World by Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Evicted by Matthew Diamond

Wishing you a decade of great reading!

Three five-star reads in a row!

For some time, I've been rating the books I read on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest.  For me, a five-star read is good enough I'd read it again (or more likely, listen to it).  IIt's the kind of book where you are sad it's over, where you feel like you'll miss the characters. There aren't many books that fall into that category, but in the past two weeks, I read three books in a row that I rated five stars! 

I absolutely fell in love with Flavia de Luce, the protagonist of Alan Bradley's The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.  At age 11, Flavia is fascinated with chemistry and has her own (very advanced) chemistry lab in the English manor house where she lives with her father and two older sisters.  I found Flavia's desire and ability to solve mysteries endearing.  I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

Next, I read The Broken Circle, which was one of my free books from Amazon Prime for the month of February.  Enjeela Ahmadi-Miller details her life in Kabul, Afghanistan during the mid-1970s - a life of happiness, joy, and riches as well as her family's flight to India following the invasion by the USSR in 1979.  Simultaneously fascinating and heartbreaking.  This book grabbed my interest because there was a boy in my 6th grade class whose family had escaped from Afghanistan in this same time period. 

Finally, I was thrilled to return to the world of Dr. Mary Sutter, protagonist of one of my all-time favorite books My Name is Mary Sutter.  While this wasn't quite as good as the first book with the Civil War as the setting, I loved spending time with Mary once again. 

What are your recent five-star reads?

My favorite reads of 2018

I'm a little early this year, but there were so many books I loved reading this year that I wanted to go ahead and share.  I normally share my 10 favorite books of the year, but this year I have to expand that number.  Most years I read around 100 books, but this year I've read 126, so I figure I can have a few extra favorites!

My favorite book I read this year:

I've read all of Robert Dugoni's Tracy Crosswhite thriller series, starting with My Sister's Grave, and have always enjoyed them.  Tracy Crosswhite is a Seattle police officer whose sister was murdered while they were teenagers.  While that entire series is worth reading, nothing about them prepared me for Sam Hell.  This book reminded me of A Prayer for Owen Meany, one of my all-time favorites.  Sam is born with ocular albinism, which makes his eyes appear red.  The book follows his life from childhood to his work as a doctor.  I loved the characters and was sad to leave them at the end of the book.  

The most important book I read this year:

Adverse Childhood Experiences (or ACEs) impact health for a lifetime.  More than 20 years after the initial study correlating trauma with long-term negative health consequences, research is finally emerging on how to counteract these impacts as an adult.  Dr. Burke Harris has an amazing TED talk on ACEs if you are interested!  

The other non-fiction book that really touched my heart this year:

Dr. Bartolo lives and works on the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is the first stop for thousands of refugees fleeing Africa and the Middle East.  This is his heartbreaking story of the journey of these refugees to find safety.  Tears of Salt was an appropriate name for this book as I found myself crying for the tragedy of hate in our world.

I love young adult fiction, and six of my favorites this year came from that genre.

Similar to The Hate U Give, which was on my favorite list last year, Dear Martin deals with racial injustice and police relations.  A very powerful and timely read.

Pam Munoz Ryan has written some of my favorite books (particularly her young adult book Echo).  Riding Freedom is based on the life of orphan Charlotte "Charley" Parkhurst who hid her gender and became the first woman to ride for the Pony Express and the first woman to vote in a presidential election in California.  

Ghost is the first of four books following four members of an elite middle school track team.  Castle Cranshaw (known as Ghost) has struggled with domestic violence between his parents and trouble at school.  Will his natural talent as a sprinter give him the motivation and path to a different life?  While I have enjoyed all four books (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, Lu), this one is my favorite in the series.  

Lily brought this book home from the school library - wow.  It is a truly beautiful book, told mostly through the amazing illustrations of Brian Selznick (who also wrote The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which became the movie Hugo).  A truly wonderful story!

I'm always up for a good story about foster care or adoption.  Far from the Tree follows three biological siblings who were raised in three different homes.  After giving up her own baby for adoption, teenager Grace begins the search for her biological mother.  Along the way, she discovers she has two biological siblings, Maya and Joaquin.  Grace and Maya were adopted a birth, while Joaquin has spent his life in foster care.  Together they will discover the true meaning of family.  

In 1947, a free India becomes two countries - India and Pakistan.  Tensions between Muslims and Hindus are high, and many Hindus in what becomes Pakistan feel they must flee their homes for their safety.  This story follows one family as they leave behind all they know becoming refugees in the new India.  Beautifully written as well as informative.

The rest of my favorites, in no particular order:

I love historical fiction, and Fiona Davis never disappoints.  Set at the famous Dakota apartment building in New York City, the story alternates between Sara Smythe, manager of the Dakota in 1884, and Bailey Camden, living in the Dakota in 1985.  

I love Kate Morton's books, which are also historical fiction.  The Clockmaker's Daughter follows multiple characters across more than 150 years as a London archivist attempts to solve a murder from the 1860s.

I loved this book!  So everyone knows I'm obsessed with Hamilton the musical.  Eliza Hamilton is my favorite charcter in the musical, but little is known about her life, as she was always in the shadows of her husband, Alexander.  This well-researched novel of historical fiction gave me the chance to know Eliza better and my respect for her just continues to grow.

Classic Stephen King with storytelling at its best.  The Mr. Mercedes trilogy is toward the top of my favorite King books (surpassed by The Green Mile and The Stand), and this book brings back some of my favorite characters from the trilogy.

Movie star Evelyn Hugo, now an octogenarian, decides to tell her life story to a young reporter.  Each section focuses on her life with one of her seven husbands.  Just a fun read!

Jaya, a journalist in New York City of Indian descent, travels to India following a third miscarriage.  Here she meets Ravi, her grandmother's former servant and confidant, who helps Jaya understand her mother and the history of her family. 


Wishing you happy reading in 2019!