Prince is a part of the Little People, Big Dreams series and is geared towards kids.  This is a pretty quick read about Prince from a child to a superstar and contains a bunch of really great illustrations!  The end of the book has a timeline about Prince’s life.  While I generally knew about Prince’s life once he hit superstardom, I didn’t know about him growing up and writing his first song which I learned about from this book! I also really loved the illustrations, they are a lot of fun!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

In this book from the critically acclaimed, multimillion-copy best-selling Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the life of Prince, one of the most iconic performers in music history.

From a young age, Prince was obsessed with music. Even though he couldn’t read it, his talent—whether on piano, drums, guitar, or vocals—turned him into an icon. Combining funk, disco, soul, and almost every other genre out there, his songs are some of the best-loved all around the world. Prince knew that he didn’t have to be like anyone else to be a star—and there was no one quite like Prince. This inspiring book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the music legend’s life.

​Little People, BIG DREAMS is a best-selling series of books and educational games that explore the lives of outstanding people, from designers and artists to scientists and activists. All of them achieved incredible things, yet each began life as a child with a dream.

This empowering series offers inspiring messages to children of all ages, in a range of formats. The board books are told in simple sentences, perfect for reading aloud to babies and toddlers. The hardcover versions present expanded stories for beginning readers. Boxed gift sets allow you to collect a selection of the books by theme. Paper dolls, learning cards, matching games, and other fun learning tools provide even more ways to make the lives of these role models accessible to children.

Inspire the next generation of outstanding people who will change the world with Little People, BIG DREAMS!

More BTTI 2019

Am I Weird is a book about trying to fit in at school in your middle years.  Although I am now an adult, this was a tough time for me too so I really related with Eva.  There is a group of girls at school that Eva tries to talk to, and while they do include her in activities and sleepovers, they tend to talk over her and ignore her and she doesn’t like it.  She wonders if this is because she is a weirdo.  She does have one best friend, who tells her that she is not a weirdo and after talking to her parents they no longer to try force her to be included in the friend group.  I think this is important – find your group (even if it is just one other person) and do your own thing.  That is what makes you special.  It can be hard to avoid and ignore the mean girls – but you do you and you’ll end up ok in the end.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Eva feels insecure like she’s a middle school misfit.

This is the story of a young girl who longs to be invited to the parties and included in the sleepovers but feels invisible and ignored. Is it because she’s artsy, and her fashion tastes are peculiar? Is her niceness mistaken for boringness? Or is she an actual weirdo?

As Eva questions everything about who she is, can the love of her parents and the wisdom of a loyal friend help her regain a sense of self-worth?

Am I Weird is a compelling chapter book that speaks to the not-so-hidden fears every middle schooler has about fitting in, feeling insecure and staying true to yourself even when it’s scary.

More BTTI 2019

Trigger Warning – this book is probably not for you if you have an eating disorder or disordered habits.

This book begins with “An Ode to Diet Landia” that mentions beaver’s anal glands and I am immediately wondering what I have gotten myself into.  A few more pages in of disgusting toilet humor and I knew I found a book I would enjoy. I have been dieting lately, I mainly just track my calories and try to eat less than I would of things that I like and not try any sort of “fad” diet. This book agrees with that – to a point – the fad diets don’t work and depriving yourself or forcing yourself to only eat cabbage all the time won’t work long term.  But knowing all the ins and outs of food and how your body reacts to them can be super boring.  Fortunately, the author agrees with me there too so the book is written in such a way that the important things are all bolded already (no highlighter required) and it isn’t just massive walls of text, there are photos throughout as well!

Since I am trying to lose weight without really “dieting”, I figured I would find some tips within this book – and I was right.  These tips I pulled out may work for you too, but if they don’t, check out the book to see other things that may speak to you and your eating habits more directly. Some problems I realized I was having was I need to follow “don’t exercise to eat”, I tend to eat more candy then I should and then try to bike off those calories. It makes an unhealthy relationship with eating an exercising so I need to stop that.  I also need to track everything. The author comments even gummy vitamins and supplements.  I have not been doing this and I’ve also not been tracking condiments. I never realized how quickly those could add up until it was all laid out for me.  I also had to cry a little at the realization that I need to measure out the spoon of peanut butter I want and a spoon of the recommended serving, “compare them and then cry a little.”  (I am glad I am not the only one who has trouble with nut butters).  The book also opened my eyes to figure out WHY I eat – because I am bored and the food is right there? or because I am hungry?  While I groaned at the list of homework at the end of the book, I’ll start looking into doing it soon because in the end, I am only hurting myself.

If you are looking at a new way to lose weight – a smarter way to lose weight – definitely look into the Unicorn diet.  It will teach you more about carbs, calories, proteins and how much you should be consuming. It will also ask you to take a look at your current diet and see what changes you should be making to your eating lifestyle.  While all this content could be super boring and sciencey, this author presents everything in a very fun way, complete with poop jokes.

I received a free ecopy of this book from Reedsy Discovery in order to write this review.

About the Book

Brian McKnight and BTTI

Work on Grad School homework on a patio in Jamaica.  Deal with a cyber attack from vacation. Get some sort of food poisoning (salmonella?) while on vacation. Deal with 3 canceled concerts, 17 postponed ones and 2 canceled cons. Attend 37 live stream concerts.  Didn’t leave my house for 100+ days.   Managed to set up a work from home setup with nearly no notice.  Didn’t wear my brace for 250 days.  Attended every in-person Hanson concert there was (13).  Bought way too many masks to find the perfect fit. Blew my reading goal out of the water.  Made an update to my website that was in the works for 8 years.  Finally caught up on scrapbooking and even got ahead.  Graduated grad school – in a tornado, virtually. Fight Russian bots. Felt like I was in a SciFi movie every time I flew. Have my credit card number stolen 3 times despite rarely leaving the house.  Gave myself 2 COVID tests.  Got excited when in-person races I otherwise wouldn’t be able to participate in went virtual.

2019 Anti Bucket List
2018 Anti Bucket List
2017 Anti Bucket List
2016 Anti Bucket List
2015 Anti Bucket List
2014 Anti Bucket List
2013 Anti Bucket List 

Soul Girl drew me in with its tagline, “For souls that don’t know where they’re going but are in the rush to get somewhere…”  I sometimes feel like I have no future, I have no realistic 5-year plan and I have no idea where I’m going but I could say that I might be in a rush to get there.  The author, Kristina, early in the book pointed out “you are not alone, not now, not ever.” and while it may seem like I am the only one with these struggles, I very clearly am not because if I was – Kristina wouldn’t have gone through this as well and she would have had no reason to write this book to help out the rest of us!
A lot of these self-help books are “this is what I did, and you can do it too”, but Kristina notes that her Mom taught her independence and how to be self sufficient when she was a child and she sent her to buy the crayons she needed for school.  Yes, Kristina tells us what she did, but in addition to that she asks the readers questions to figure out things for themselves.  Much like her Mom and the crayons, Kristina is teaching us to think about ourselves positively and find our strengths that will ultimately lead us to being self sufficient for ourselves in a way that we need it, even if that may be different than what Kristina needed for her life. Another quote that resonated with me was “if I could travel alone, I could do anything in the world.” and while it may not be possible for everyone, I did find traveling alone does have a sort of liberating feel to it. You don’t have to make plans based on what everyone else wants to do, you can sleep late if you want and no one will be groaning at your for missing out on time sightseeing. You do what you want when you want and that’s an empowering thing.

If you are looking to look deeper inside your soul and find out more about yourself, then I think you should give Soul Girl a read.

I received an e-copy of this book in order to write a review for Reedsy Discovery!

About the Book

Soulgirl is a gentle and empowering self-help book written memoir style for girls who won’t settle for second best.

If you’re running from place to place, relationship to relationship, in the hope of finding a home and peace for your heart, and in search of bringing real meaning to your life, then Soul Girl has so much to share.

You see, the author was one of those girls whose outward life was packed with adventures, parties, trips, education abroad– none of which she was born into– and it was fun while it lasted. But she’s been always haunted by a feeling of not quite belonging, of being lost, of not knowing where she was heading inwardly.
While living in six different countries she realized something– the more places she moved to, the more bridges she burned, and the more disconnected she felt within.

Over the past two years everything’s changed. She’s stopped searching for answers and permissions outside herself. This is her story. She hopes it will inspire you too.

With this year being so weird for concerts, I started to keep track of virtual shows I went to, which I typically didn’t do in years past.  (I’ll continue to keep track in 2021 as well until things hopefully get back to normal, then I’ll stop including them as they will hopefully go back to being few and far between again.)  I was surprised to see that I had spent almost $600 on virtual concert tickets this year – especially when I was doing “pay what you can” on StageIt and paying $5-$10 there.  But I did go to quite a few – a number that made a bit more sense to me for a total for a year – 37. (So 52 for the year, which is about average for me when you add on in person) Including virtual concerts also helps me keep my streak alive of 1 concert per month – which started in January of 2009.

Most expensive show: Stephen Kellogg + M&G was about $55 [it was supposed to be in person when I bought tickets, but switched to virtual]

Least (not free) expensive show: I did a few “pay what you can” tickets to StageIt for $5

Free shows: I only did a couple free streams this year – Kris Allen and Stephen Kellogg (x2?)

# artists seen: 37
# unique artists seen: 5, but no one new.
# shows seen in CT: Technically all were most likely from my bed
# of shows out of state: None (Though I did watch the Hanson stream repeats in OK, I don’t have those listed in my spreadsheet as I was there in person, too.)

Show farthest away: None
Closest show: All
$$ spent on tickets: ~$600 [Damn!] Miles traveled: 0

Top 6 shows of the year? Very hard to rank these.

Total number of shows in 2020? I did 37 virtual shows

First show of the year? Jon McLaughlin

First show with actual tickets: None

Last show of the year? David Cook

Most surprising show? It was surprising how much I ended up enjoying all of  them, honestly. And I really liked when the setlists were themed.

Most disappointing? None

Farthest traveled? None

States attended shows in? All CT. In bed.

Venue most visited? My bed.

Band seen the most? Since I seemed to see the same guys over and over let’s break it down:

Jon McLaughlin – 12
Stephen Kellogg – 12
David Cook – 7
Kris Allen – 3
Matt Nathanson – 2

Best new discovery? I mostly stuck with what I knew this year 

Bands seen this year that also broke up this year? None

Friends made at shows? The floppy bunny that lives in my bed.

Band members met? I did 1 zoom M&G with Stephen Kellogg – I had bought M&G thinking it would be in person but they did pretty well converting everything to virtual.

Best souvenir from a show? None 

Longest time in line? None 

Shows seen from the barricade [front row]– Technically all, I guess.

Most shows in one month? 

March – 1
April – 9
May – 6
June – 5
July – 1
August – 3
September – 3
October – 5
November – 1
December – 4

Most shows in one week? Probably some of the April shows 

Biggest crowd? I have no idea, for me they were all crowd of 1

Any drunk encounters? Definitely not! lol one major perk to watching by yourself from the safety of your own bed.

He’s growing is a fable about a clever, orange tomcat.  A fable is a short story that typically has animals as the characters, conveying a moral.  This book follows this orange tomcat who ends up hungry and decides it may be in his best interest to find a family who will take him in and feed him as it has gotten harder and harder for him to forage for food out on his own.  Every few chapters, the cat grows larger – starting as a house cat, then a Main Coon, a lynx, a leopard, a cougar and finally he is nearly as big as a lion!  The family that takes him in is made up of a mother and father and their 2 children, a daughter and a son.  We never learn the families names but each of the family members feels differently about the cat moving into their home, especially since they just lost the family dog not too long ago.  They seem to come across as more of “dog people” than “cat people”, but have offered up their home to this cat.  The bigger he gets, the more annoyed the mother seems to get with him.  Then the cat figures out how to talk to the family and the mother ends up even more annoyed while the rest of the family are all enamored with him.

I had an idea of this book from the start based on the cover, but it took quite some time for me to realize if I was right or not in my assumptions. I don’t want to give too much away – but if you think the cover is giving something away, you’ll want to stick with the book for a while.  As I am not a “cat person” it was hard to really get into a book where the main character was a cat – and a not so nice cat, at that.  It took a while for this book to really get rolling for me, and once it did, it was nearly over.  I could have done with less back story I guess, and more action!

If you’re a cat person though, you’ll probably enjoy the inner workings of this cat and his thought process. You’ll enjoy it more if you’re not a fan of who you think you might see on the cover.

I received a free e-copy of this book from Reedsy Discovery.

About the Book

A modern fable, “He’s Growing” tells the story of a clever, orange tomcat who ingratiates his way into an innocent family, getting bigger and bigger. Once he learns how to talk, there’s no telling where he’ll stop.