Hello, everyone! This is our last Holiday Book Recommendations installment for the year, featuring Lauren Kay Johnson with some book recs for both children and adults. Childrens’ bookstores (or childrens’ book sections) are wonderful places to be and there’s nothing like finding a delightful and colorful book for some small member of the family. Lauren’s opening caveat, about having spent the year reading mostly slobber-covered board books to her adorable twin girls (whom we call, at Wrath-Bearing Tree, “The Goddesses”), is charming and reminds me of one of our favorite holiday posts, Simone Gorrindo’s “All the Books I Wish I Had Read this Year” (while raising two very small children). Well, both of these amazing women wrote books during this time (Lauren’s ‘The Fine Art of Camouflage’ and Simone’s forthcoming ‘The Wives’). So, as self-deprecating as they are, I think they’ve been kicking butt and taking names.

Here’s Lauren:

Lauren Kay Halloran’s Book Recommendations for Gift-Giving

With twin toddlers, most of the reading I’ve done the past year has been slobbery board books—so let’s start there…

The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen, illustrations by Dan Hanna

I love reading with my daughters, but most toddler-friendly books aren’t super parent-friendly (meaning, there are only so many times one can read them before becoming overwhelmed by a strong desire to make them disappear. Forever). The Pout-Pout Fish (or “pow-pow feesh,” as my daughters say) has yet to exceed my tolerance. It’s a sweet story with a spot-on rhyme scheme about a fish who believes he’s destined to be gloomy forever because he has a pout-shaped mouth. Ultimately, in a twist on the “turn your frown upside-down” motto, he discovers that he is, actually, a kiss-kiss fish, destined to spread cheer instead of gloom.

Ok, on to the grownup books:

I’ll Show Myself Out: Essays on Midlife and Motherhood, by Jessi Klein

This was my gateway back into reading, recommended by a friend who said she wished she had read it when she had young kids. I’ve since passed the recommendation along to several fellow toddler parents. Klein is a former writer for Saturday Night Live, and her essays are expectedly hilarious (often in the caustic way of parental humor, as in, yes, being exhausted and haggard and covered in poop is a total riot!). But the book is also full of sharp insight and uber-relatable parenting moments. I found myself alternately laughing and exclaiming “Yes!” or mumbling a thoughtful “Mmmmm!” I listened to the audiobook—my reading method of choice these days so I can simultaneously fold laundry/wash dishes/pick up toys/stare at the wall—is narrated by Klein, whose self-deprecating tone adds an extra layer of hilarity.

The Sound of Undoing: A Memoir in Essays by Paige Towers

Please humor me for a moment while I celebrate reading an actual book.

YAY!

Ok, thanks for that.

This book, too, is pretty far on the intensity scale, dealing with complex issues of family, mental illness, violence, trauma, religious fundamentalism, and so much more, all within the framework of sound—the author lives with a hypersensitivity to noise. Incorporating research into her personal experience, Towers explores how her life has been shaped by noise-producing objects like a VCR or the cacophony of New York City, and, on the other end of the spectrum, the respite of nature or the silence of secrets. Like The Fact of a Body, the writing is absolutely gorgeous, at times humorous, often profound. Towers is a master of the craft of the essay. Prepare to be astounded.

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Lauren Kay Johnson grew up in a military family in the Seattle area. She went on to serve as an Air Force public affairs officer and award-winning Department of Defense journalist, deploying to the Republic of Mali and Afghanistan. After receiving an honorable discharge, Lauren earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Emerson College in Boston.

In March 2023, Lauren published her debut book, The Fine Art of Camouflage (MilSpeak Books), which chronicles her coming-of-age against the backdrop of war—beginning with her mother’s Army career and deployment in support of Operation Desert Storm when Lauren was seven years old, and later with her own service in Afghanistan.

Lauren’s essays, fiction, and poetry have appeared in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Boston Globe Magazine, Glamour, Yale Medicine Magazine, CONSEQUENCE magazine, Drunken Boat, Pleiades, and several anthologies. Her writing and interviews have been used in the creation of dance and theater productions, and she has lectured at schools, conferences, and veteran centers across the country, including the Association of Writers and Writing Programs national conference, the Boston Book Festival, and the University of Iowa. She is a writing consultant with GrubStreet, an editor at Wrath-Bearing Tree, and a former editor-in-chief of Redivider.

Lauren lives with her family outside Seattle. By day, she works for IGNITE Worldwide, a non-profit that aims to combat the gender imbalance in STEM fields. By night, she writes (with the help of her fat tabby cat) and eats copious amounts of ice cream.

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I hope everyone has (or already has had) very happy holidays, and is looking forward to a bright new year.

Andria