Author: Patricia Elzie

I have been a fan of the UFYH site for years, before it was even a site and was a Tumblr. It is not about minimalism. It is not about keeping a perfectly clean home. It’s about doing what you can with what you have and not only what you have physically at your disposal, but with what sort of physical and emotional bandwidth you have. This book is about each and every one of us deserving to live in a space that we are glad to be in or at least, doesn’t stress us the hell out because of cleanliness.

My habitat, like that of many others, takes a nosedive when my mental health isn’t its best. Some people have never learned basic housekeeping activities. Some people have disabilities that limit the amount they can clean. Some people live in small spaces or share a space with others or have children or dependents to clean after on top of cleaning up after themselves. UFYH is about doing something, anything, instead of nothing. No matter how small, regardless of your gender (no gender roles here, folks).

Just starting the sometimes massive undertaking of cleaning can be enough to turn anyone off from doing it at all. The author has tips on where to start and is a big fan of what she calls 20/10s, that is, cleaning for 20 minutes then having a rest for 10 minutes. Repeat that as much as needed. It helps mitigate the cleaning burnout that can happen from marathon cleaning, that is, cleaning for multiple hours at a time without breaks. Sure, you can get it done that way but then you’re also burned out on cleaning so you avoid it for the next three months and you’re back to square one.

There are many cleaning basics because not everyone knows how to clean, like an outline of how to clean a bathroom. There are also some excellent checklists, like things to do in the evening to make the next morning go more smoothly. There are also some really valuable talking points for talking to a person you share a space with, how to ask for help, and questions to ask if you’re helping someone else clean their space.

Most importantly, the tone is full of kindness and empathy. It’s been such a valuable resource.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl aka Doreen Green is a hero who has both the powers of squirrel and girl. I’m going to say something that may be controversial: Squirrel Girl is the best and brightest star in the Marvel Universe. This comic reminds me on every page about why I love comics so much. While the character debuted in 1991, I recommend starting with the 2015 run and specifically Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Volume 1: Squirrel Power.

Doreen Green is a first-year computer science student. She lives in the dorms with a roommate, Nancy Whitehead. Nancy doesn’t technically have any superpowers but she certainly has the power of sass and a cat about whom she writes fanfiction. This volume is really about getting to know Squirrel Girl and her friends (as well as her sidekick, a squirrel named Tippy-Toe). Squirrel Girl is super strong and likes to eat nuts and kick butts but rarely if ever does she defeat villains by using only physical force. She’s incredibly clever and often either defeats villains by using her smarts or she just uses the power of friendship. Yes these are all-ages comics and yes, a superhero using the power of friendship might not really sound appealing but I promise you, it is so fabulously excellent. Warning: these comics are full of puns and I am endlessly impressed with the number of puns they are able to squeeze into these pages.

The wonderful and maybe sad news is that this run of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is complete. There are twelve volumes of trades available as well as some accompanying books and a graphic novel titled The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe. If you’re the kind of person that doesn’t like to read comics until they’re all available, then this is great! But I warn you, you’re going to fall in love with Doreen and all her friends and you’ll never want it to end.

Hannah works at the magical supply shop—not a shop of magic tricks but supplies for use in witchcraft. Hannah just finished her junior year of high school and recently broke up with her ex, Veronica, a graduating senior. Both Hannah and Veronica are witches. Specifically, they are Elemental witches who can both manipulate and draw power from the elements: earth, fire, air, and water. There are two other types of witches as well, Caster witches (who cast spells) and Blood witches. Blood witches are rare. They are also frowned upon and even feared by the other types of witches.

We learn right away that Hannah absolutely despises Veronica. It’s not super clear why they broke up but it all centers around a past terrifying experience during a trip. There was a Blood witch involved, so they’re both hyper-sensitive and paranoid about a Blood witch being around, but there haven’t been Blood witches in Salem in forever.

Hannah’s best friend is Gemma, who is a reg which is short for regular which is what the witches in this universe call non-witches. Gemma does not know that Hannah is a witch nor even that magic exists. As you can expect, Hannah would get in huge trouble with the council if that secret were let out. The person in charge of the coven is Lady Ariana, who is not someone to be reckoned with.

This book begins around the end of the school year but before graduation. There’s a celebratory bonfire that the incoming seniors and graduating seniors attend. This is where the excitement starts. There’s a scream and not far from the bonfire someone had started a different fire and by the looks of it, they were attempting and maybe even succeeding at some kind of magic. There’s blood. Was it a blood witch, even though there aren’t supposed to be any around for many decades? Was it some witch who isn’t part of their coven? Was it a reg trying their hand at magic?

This book is mystery and teen messiness and magic and really bad relationship decisions and I love mess! At the end of the book, it’s very clear that the story continues into the second book, This Coven Won’t Break (which is already available for purchase).

Blair Imani is a Black, bisexual, and Muslim educator, historian, and internet influencer who makes great videos under the series name Smarter in Seconds. These videos are often under a minute long and will give concise explanations of anything from online harassment to how to apologize to gaslighting to bisexuality. This book is almost like a bunch of those little videos all together in book form. She tackles a lot of big subjects and supplies readers with enough information that we can walk away knowing basic definitions and also ideas about where we need to dive deeper. A single chapter in a book is in no way enough to tackle something like gender but it’s maybe enough to give an overview to a relative who has perhaps not thought deeply about it.

The author starts with the self and focuses on identity from name pronunciation to gender and deadnames and last names and pronouns and more. Then she moves on to relationships like family structures, intimate partnerships, abusive relationships, boundaries, and things like how to be accountable to your circles and how to apologize.

One of my favorite sections is about class where she answers questions like “What is capitalism? and “What is socialism?” We already have socialist programs, like the postal service and the library! “What do people mean when they talk about wealth hoarding?” There are also great sections on race and racism and disability and so much more.

This book is a really phenomenal resource for folks who are new to thinking about all of these topics. I see it as not only a good personal read, but also a good gift for anyone from a young adult to an older relative who has not done any deliberate learning since they were in high school. You know the ones. The ones that respond to everything remotely new with, “Well, that’s not what I was taught.” What I like most about this book is that the subjects felt bite-sized. It was clear and concise and laid a lot of basic groundwork for further learning.

Our narrator and protagonist is Nishat. Nishat’s parents are Bangladeshi immigrants and they all live in Ireland. Nishat is super close to her younger (and very social) sister, Priti. The story starts with Nishat making the decision that she is going to come out as a lesbian to her fairly traditional parents. She steels herself to her decision while at Sunny Apu’s engagement party (Sunny Apu is a very distant relative but the closest they have in Ireland). That evening, Nishat goes to Google translate and figures out how to say lesbian in Bengali and plans her script.

The next morning while having her tea in the kitchen, she comes out to her parents. Their reaction isn’t extreme in the way that she was expecting. It was actually very cold. By the way, she didn’t tell Priti she was doing this. Priti knows Nishat is a lesbian, but didn’t know that she had decided to come out at that time. Later Nishat overhears her parents having a discussion that basically amounts to them thinking she’s in a phase and that she’ll grow out of being attracted to women.

Not long after is Sunny Apu’s wedding. The wedding party goes to get their henna done at the salon but Nishat isn’t feeling super social so she, an amateur henna artist, decides to do hers and Priti’s henna herself and it turns out pretty well! At the wedding, Nishat meets a beautiful girl named Flávia, well, re-meets her (they went to school together when they were much younger). Flávia has moved back and will be at the same school. Unfortunately, we learn that Flávia is also the cousin of Nishat’s mortal enemy, Chyna.

There is lots of secondary school (high school) drama, not the least of which is in the title of this book. The students need to make their own businesses. It’s a competition. It gets ugly but then it also gets so sweet and lovely because hey, it’s a romance!

Content warnings for racism, homophobia, bullying, and a queer character being outed.

This book takes place in New Orleans in an alternate post-Civil War setting with a steampunk overlay. In this alternate history, the Union and the Confederacy called it a draw so folks were free in the Union states and slavery was legal in the Confederate states. They would put gas masks on the enslaved people and pump them full of a gas that basically made them like living zombies that followed orders. New Orleans is considered neutral ground.

Our protagonist is a teen nicknamed Creeper, because of how deftly she can climb things. The goddess Oya has taken up residence inside Creeper, occasionally giving her visions or even working through her physically. Oya is the Yoruba goddess of the wind, one of the Orisha brought over with the Africans on the first trans-Atlantic slave-trader ships (I’m oversimplifying). Oya gives Creeper a startling vision that puts her on edge, and then Creeper overhears some men talking about a Haitian scientist who is willing to trade The Black God’s Drums for a jewel.

Creeper knows just who to tell, or rather, barter with having this information. There’s an airship Captain who would go to great lengths to keep this out of the hands of the Confederacy and Creeper is looking to become crew on an airship. When Creeper finally is able to talk to the captain privately, the captain, too, has a goddess in residence, the goddess Oshun.

This novella takes so many exciting twists and turns and it’s full of amazing, eclectic characters that make me want even more stories featuring them. It’s a super entertaining read and perfect for this time of year if you’re trying to meet an end-of-year reading goal.

Our protagonist is Briseis, a literal magical Black girl. She lives in Brooklyn with her two adoptive Moms who own a flower shop. Since a young age, Briseis has had an affinity for plants. More than an affinity, actually. She straight up has magical plant powers. She can grow an entire rose bush from a single pistil, but she doesn’t know a lot about her powers and because she tries so much to restrain herself, it often makes her tired and dizzy any time she uses it. If she is out and doesn’t keep her powers shoved down, trees will lean toward her and plants she walks by reach for her. Only her moms, who she calls Mom and Mo, know about her power but they don’t know much either. Because Briseis keeps her powers restrained, she also has no idea of everything she is capable of. Early on in the book she starts to discover something that I’m not going to give away because it had me on the edge of my seat.

As you can imagine, having such powers is really distracting. She’s grown apart from the only couple of friends she has and her high school grades are not good. On top of that, the rent is going up on the building where their apartment and flower shop is and money is already tight. Coincidentally, an estate attorney shows up saying that Briseis has been left a huge home and everything in it and the many acres it is on. She has been left all this by her birth mother’s sister, Circe, who has died.

Briseis and her moms decide to go check out this mysterious home in this tiny town hours outside the city. They figure it might be the answer to their financial problems and also, out in the middle of nowhere, maybe Briseis can give her powers a stretch. Big creepy home in a small town they’ve never been to? Recipe for weirdness for sure. She makes somes unexpected friends. She finds a secret garden which only has more secrets. The house, too, is full of secrets to be discovered.

I could not put down this book and fair warning, it ends in a cliffhanger and the sequel, This Wicked Fate, is supposed to be out in June of 2022.

Our protagonist Pamela lives in a town with a large green space, a park with a small forest, that she is trying to save from being deforested and turned into a shopping mall. She dabbles in a little bio-terrorism and releases some chemicals into the forest that create a toxic gas that is harmful to anyone who goes near. We learn right away that she got the chemicals from her father’s lab.

Her father is a doctor and a very, very controlling and secretive man. They live in a big, dark, dramatic manor, just the two of them, that has really creepy noises. Pamela’s mother is a botanist who is out of town on a research trip. Her father keeps insisting that Pamela help him in his lab with his “research,” which seems really unsettling because it’s not clear what this research is.

Pamela is in high school and seems to have one friend, Alice, though what gets most of Pamela’s attention is the large greenhouse at the high school that was donated by her mother. One of their classmates is Brett, who was Pamela’s homecoming date and a giant piece of garbage. He keeps trying to get Pamela to hook up with him and when she consistently turns him down, he starts rumors. Alice sticks up for Pamela frequently.

Alice and her family had to evacuate their home near the park because of the toxic gas that I mentioned earlier. Alice goes to stay with Pamela and her father in their mansion with all their creepy noises and dark secrets. As you can imagine, it’s hard to keep family secrets with someone else in the home.

I really enjoyed the artwork in this graphic novel and I love the contrast between all the dark, muted colors and then the burst of red that is Pamela’s hair, or the incredibly bright green that shows up from time to time.

Content warnings for an abusive parent and sexual harassment.

Mooncakes is a lovely graphic novel that gives us Asian rep, queer rep, nonbinary rep, and disability rep. Our main characters are Nova and Tam. Nova is a young witch in her late teens. She lives with her grandmas (technically grandma and grandma’s partner). Nova is hard-of-hearing and uses hearing aids which is so rare to see in a graphic novel and wonderful to see on the page.

Nova’s grandmas own a shop called Black Cat Bookseller and Cafe and Nova works there with them. We learn right away that this isn’t just a normal bookstore. A customer comes in and is looking for a particular book so Nova’s grandma asks Nova to show the customer to the back room where they keep the “rare” books. Of course, as soon as they open the door you can tell ah, yes, “rare books” is code for “magical books” because there are definitely books flying around the room and another with teeth and so forth.

Our other main character is Tam. Tam is a werewolf and we learn that they used to live in the same town as Nova and they were friends. But then Tam’s mom and stepdad moved them away. Tam comes back to town for a “mysterious werewolf-centric reason” and Tam and Nova not only rekindle their friendship but a romance as well. Since Nova is a witch and knows a fair bit about magic, she joins Tam in trying to solve the problem that they came back to town for.

In this universe, after a witch graduates high school it’s common for them to move away from their family and deepen their magical education. Nova decided to not move away and to stay with her grandmothers, a decision that weighs heavily on her, especially when her other family visits.

Mooncakes is a story about relationships and not only believing in yourself, but believing in the ones you love and trusting and supporting each other. The artwork is dreamy and warm. This graphic novel is so cute and charming and I really enjoyed it.

Sometimes I pick up a book and start reading without looking at the synopsis. Well, apparently I didn’t even look super closely at the cover of this one because then I would have realized that it heavily involves giant spiders. So there’s my content warning if you, like me, are scared of spiders.

Forest of Souls is the first in a trilogy. It begins with a glossary because this is Fantasy with a capital F. There is some really rich worldbuilding that gets a bit complicated and I definitely had to refer to the glossary a few times. There is the continent of Thiy which has three kingdoms: one of humans, one of shadowblessed, and one of shamans. They all hate each other. Running down the center of the continent is The Dead Wood, a super freaky wood possessed by vengeful souls controlled by a powerful shaman named Ronin.

Sirscha Ashwyn is a teen soldier in training and secretly in training and competition to be the Queen’s Shadow, her master spy and assassin. The Queen considers all shamans to be outlaws and does not allow them in her kingdom unless they are in prison. Shamans each have a particular craft, like a talent, and a familiar. They can work with either fire, earth, wind, water, or light in different ways. You can tell what kind of shaman they are by the intense, bright color of their eyes.

Sirscha and her best friend Saengo are doing a routine assignment with some of the younger recruits when they intercept a message from a fellow trainee named Jonyah, who she hates. Sirscha learns that he is her secret competitor to become the Queen’s Shadow and the message is in their teacher’s handwriting with directions to meet someone at a tea house. Sirscha and Saengo sneak away to try to beat him to the tea house and learn it was an ambush. There were shamans at the tea house and they attacked. Saengo gets stabbed, and Sirscha passes out.

She wakes up at a stream and Saengo is strangely alive even though Sirscha is sure that she saw her die. When Sirscha goes to wash her face in the stream, she finds her eyes have changed color into that of a shaman. While they are out deliberating, they get caught by the Prince, who is captain of the Queen’s Guard. They eventually hear from Ronin, who summons them to go through the Dead Wood and see him. His familiar is a giant spider and that is not even the beginning of the creepiness.

This was such an amazing book to lose myself in and a definitely page-turner.