Category Archives: Blog Hops

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: An Interesting Story About Family or Friends

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

To give a little backstory first, my grandfather has been a farmer his entire life just like his father was before him. One of the problems with farming in certain parts of the Midwestern United States is that the land there used to be a giant swamp.

This means that anywhere from mild to much more serious flooding is common in certain low-lying areas and that they often have too much water for their crops instead of not enough. Stagnant pools of water are also a great place for mosquitoes to lay their eggs, so one must take note of that as well unless you want to become dinner for thousands of tiny little bloodsuckers.

Drainage pipes are one modern solution to this problem. My grandfather’s land is filled with them wherever he notices that he has too much water.

This is the tale of the white drainage pipe and the kids who protected it.

When my brothers and I were little, Grandpa installed a drainage pipe in his side yard. This was a little uncommon as most of his pipes were in his fields or by his barns in order to keep his crops and tools from being flooded out.

It was not a complicated job, but it was something that my siblings found fascinating. We were allowed to stand a safe distance away and observe part of the process. I have vague memories of it being muddy as they dug.

After the pipe had been placed and covered over with dirt and grass seeds again, Grandpa gave my brothers a very solemn and important assignment.

Two photos from the day when Grandpa dug the drainage ditch in his yard. In the left photo, you see a Caucasian girl with short, curly brown hair leaping over the drainage ditch. I’m probably about 5 or 6 years old in this photo. The ditch was maybe a foot or two deep and there are piles of soil on each side. I’m wearing a pink shirt, a red skirt, and white shoes that were somehow still clean despite all of the mud. I n the photo on the right, my little brother is standing next to our grandfather beside the ditcher. The ditcher had been painted red but the paint was fading. It was about 8 feet tall based on how much it towered over my already decently-sized height grandfather. Grandpa is a Caucasian man in about his 50s whose skin has been deeply tanned by a lifetime of working outdoors. He’s wearing a blue and white ball cap, a blue longsleeved work shirt, and a lighter blue pair of pants. My brother is also Caucasian, about 3 or 4 years old, and he wearing jeans and a yellow-tshirt, and has straight blond hair. Every time we came over to visit, they were to pour a little water in one end of the pipe and make sure it flowed out the other end into a nearby creek.

Some kids might have forgotten this duty after a time or two, but my siblings were not among them. Every time we visited, they would pour a little cup of water into the pipe and then we’d race down the hill with a nearby grownup to ensure grandpa’s pipe wasn’t plugged up.

This went on for multiple visits if my memory is correct. The pipe was always clear, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

And now I chuckle at the cute memory and creative way to encourage the grandkids to burn off some energy and feel included before going indoors into our grandparents’ home.

(This post was edited to include a few family pictures I didn’t know existed from this time period. Look how big that ditcher was! And I’d forgotten that I jumped over the ditch).

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Top Ten Tuesday: Movies That Would Have Made Amazing Books


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A photo of about six rows of red empty seats in a theatre. There’s not a lot of light in this room which gives it an eerie sort of feeling even though all you can see are tidy, red seats everywhere you look. Thank you to Sabrina @ Notes From a Paper Plane Nomad for coming up with this topic!

This is one of those weeks when I will be giving a little more than the suggested ten answers.

What surprised me while doing research for this post was how common it is for many movies and tv shows that weren’t originally based on books to eventually have stories published about them anyway.

I wonder if there has ever been or will ever be a film based on a book that was originally based on another film?

At any rate, here are some films that would make great books. So far as the Internet tells me, no books have been written about any of them yet.

1. Us

2. Good Will Hunting

3. Inception

4. The Cabin in the Woods

5. Beetlejuice

6. Edward Scissorhands

7. Nope!

8. Europa Report

9. Labyrinth

10. Get Out

11. The Sixth Sense

I look forward to reading everyone else’s responses.

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Book Trope I Wish Wouldn’t Happen IRL

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Closeup photo of pink, yellow, orange, and white conversation hearts. Not all of their messages can be read, but the ones that can be say things like “love,” “soft,” and “help.” I have two words for all of you this week: forbidden romance.

Assuming everyone in the relationship is a consenting adult and no one is being harmed, I spend exactly 0% of my time worrying about who anyone dates or marries in real life or in fiction.

This includes, but is not limited to, interracial, interfaith, age gap, multicultural, interabled, same sex, and any other sort of relationship that some heartily disapprove of.

You see people in just about every sort of “forbidden” relationship you can imagine in Toronto every single day. If someone chose to be horrified by other folks quietly going about their business, it would literally occupy the offended person’s mind every single moment of their days for the rest of their lives and they would still run out of time decades before they ran out of couples to be angry about.

Yes, I know that not every community is like this by any means….but I think our world would be a better place if everyone treated others with kindness and didn’t make a fuss about who folks fall in love with.

After all, there are more important things to discuss. For example, are conversation hearts delicious or not? I love them but my spouse does not!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Spring 2024 TBR


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

There are four stacks of books in the background of this image that have about 6-8 books in each stack. No spines, authors, or titles can be seen in these stacks. The three books in the foreground have been wrapped up multiple times with a rough, brown, thick string that might be twine. There is a large pink cloth flower on top of the books. On their spines the words “Happy Spring’ and a few tiny pink cloth flowers have been affixed to cover any signs of their authors or titles. So here’s the thing about spring and my reading habits:

I tend to dramatically slow down on my reading time once the weather warms up, April showers have ended, and spending ample time outdoors is pleasant again for the first time in about six months.

If Ontario happens to have an unusually cold or stormy spring in a given year, this obviously does not happen.

I try to plan for all sorts of possibilities since you never know what the weather might do as the seasons change.

Let’s see which new books coming out this spring have caught my eye. I hope to read them on stormy days when going outdoors is not such an appealing idea.

 

Book cover for The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church by Sarah McCammon. There is no image on the cover really. It starts off as lime green at the top of the cover and gradually shift colour to a sea green at the bottom. The title and author are written in a white font whose style is reminiscent of chalk on a chalkboard.

1. The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church by Sarah McCammon

Publication Date: Today!

Why I’m Interested: Not only am I part of this demographic group, I was also a preacher’s kid. I’m really curious to see what the author has to say about us and how much of her research matches my own experiences.

 

 

 

 

 

The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez book cover. Image on cover shows a drawing of a very pale person who might be a statue lying down with their eyes closed. They are surrounded by flowers and greenery, including one green leaf that is touching their lips and some grass growing up by their pale, still body. The background is pitch black, possibly a reference to this being set very late on a cloudy night?

 

2.  The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez 

Publication Date: April 2

Why I’m Interested: As an author, I have my own little cemetery of abandoned stories that I feel guilty about and do hope to go back and finish one day. Personifying forgotten characters is such a creative idea. This could be an excellent read.

Book cover for A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland. Image on cover shows a closeup of a white person whose long, straight, brown hair is flowing over their bare chest, concealing their breasts. Their hands are holding their hair in exactly the right position to keep this image from becoming too racy.

 

 

3. A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland

Publication Date: April 9

Why I’m Interested: Romance isn’t a genre I visit very often as you all may remember, but I love the fact that this is a retelling of the classic folktale The Selkie Wife and am excited to see what the author does with it.

Book cover for https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/196834746-the-house-that-horror-built. Image on cover shows an eerie red glowing light that looks like an alien spaceship hanging low over the floor in an otherwise almost pitch black room. You can see two white lightbulbs above it and the dim outline of a large wooden door, but the rest of the room is shrouded in darkness.

 

4. The House That Horror Built by Christina Henry

Publication Date: May 14

Why I’m Interested: It’s much less common for me to read horror since the pandemic started, but I do find the occasional stories in this genre that aren’t too scary. Here’s hoping I can handle some paranormal horror as the protagonist sounds like a very interesting person who just so happens to work in what sounds like might be a haunted house.

 

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Book Trope I Wish Happened IRL More Often

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Every Christmas I reread Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

I love seeing a grumpy, selfish, mean man being transformed into someone who is kind, generous and remorseful.

WA photo of the hands of two people who are holding one side each of a $20 US bill. One of the people has dark skin and the other person has a medium skin tone. hile I do believe people can change for the better in real life, too, it seems to be much more rare than it is in fiction.

When it does happen, it’s a slow process in my experience. Instead of taking one night, it generally takes many years and includes lots of stops and starts.

The gradual process of it makes sense to me as a changing is hard work and rarely happens immediately for anyone no matter which habits we’re trying to begin or end.

But I do wish this transformation would happen more often in the real world. Imagine how much better life would be if it were common for people who have a great deal of wealth and power in the world to give it away in order to save lives and reduce suffering.

So many of the deeply kind and generous people I’ve known have been folks who have limited influence and tight budgets but who still do everything they can to help others. If only everyone behaved the way they do!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’m Worried I Might Not Love as Much the Second Time Around


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I’m going to tweak this prompt slightly so I can give more general answers to it as I have a long history of rereading books I loved X years ago only to discover that they no longer suit my tastes for a wide variety of reasons.

Drawing of dozens of red, green, black, or yellow circles that have been arranged in a chainmail pattern so that all of the circles are interlocked with several other circles to create an unbreakable bond between them. This means that if I’ve felt the urge to reread something, I’ve probably already done it.

Change is part of being human, and I don’t think it’s always reasonable to expect someone to feel the same way about a book 5, 10, or 50 years later.

Some people will always love certain books, of course, and that’s perfectly okay, too. But I believe that some books may work best if read at certain stages of life or under a specific range of personal circumstances for some of us.

This will be a short list this week.

1. The Classics

I’ve had some disappointing experiences rereading some of my favourite childhood classic novels only to discover things in them that I’d either forgotten or had not fully understood the first time I read them. This makes me not want to read reread anything else from this genre I have fond memories of.

See also: the weird and offensive things The Secret Garden had to say about how people should overcome their health problems. While I agree that spending time out in nature and trying to look on the bright side of life can be great coping mechanisms, they are not magical cures for anyone’s disabilities or illnesses.

 

2. Long Books

I used to see books that were 400+ pages long and relish the thought of diving into them. Now I strongly prefer works half that length at most unless the storyline is otherwise irresistible to me.

See also: The Pillars of the Earth series by Ken Follett. I remember loving how detailed the plot was about the lives of ordinary people who built those amazing cathedrals in Europe…but it’s also almost 1000 pages long which is far too verbose for me these days.

 

3. Unsatisfying Endings 

It’s disappointing to follow a series for years only to be let down by how it ends.

See also: The Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean M. Auel. The first few books in it were wonderful, and then most of the conflicts that had been slowly building up tension in this series were either completely ignored or hand-waved away with tepid solutions in the final two books.

While I’ll always have a soft spot for these characters, I cannot convince myself to read those last two books again.

 

4. (Overly) Hyped Books

Obviously, not all books that are wildly popular upon their release are going to have this issue, but I’ve noticed that quite a few books that are hyped up a lot do not match my expectations of what I want to read. Their characters might feel flat when you look closely, or their plot twists have an over abundance of foreshadowing, or the issues they discuss are no longer so relevant a few years later.

I will not be providing an example of this one as I don’t want to make anyone feel bad for enjoying the hype surrounding hot, new books or having different preferences for character or plot development than I do. Reading tastes are such personal things.

It has simply been my experience that there is often – but certainly not always –  an inverse correlation between how much a new book is hyped up and how much I will personally enjoy it. So I will leave those heavily advertised books for other readers to enjoy and go browse in quieter sections of the reading community.

 

5. Fairy Tales

It pains me to admit this, but I have not enjoyed the majority of the fairy tales or fairy tale retellings I’ve read in the last five years. The genre doesn’t feel fresh to me anymore.

Hopefully this will change someday as I loved this sort of thing when I was a kid.

Once again, no examples are needed here.

 

6.  Amazing Plot Twists

Some stories work fabulously the first time around because you (probably) won’t see their plot twists coming in advance.

Once you know what those plot twists were, it can be hard to find the motivation to reread these tales even though I may have really enjoyed them the first time around.

See Also: Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit (Ishmael, #1) by Daniel Quinn, but I will not be giving any hints about what the twist was!

 

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Non-Fiction Books I’ve Read Lately

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Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

I love this topic and nonfiction in general.

No matter which corners of this genre you might like, there are books waiting there to be discovered.

My nonfiction preferences usually gravitate towards biographies or autobiographies, zoology, medical topics, food, history, and prehistory, but I will jump around to many other subjects, too, if the blurb sounds interesting.

Here are some nonfiction books I’ve recently finished and enjoyed:

Book cover for Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America by Joy-Ann Reid. Image on the cover shows a newspaper photo of Medgar and Myrlie Evers marching in a civil rights parade. Above it is a black and white snapshot of this couple sitting comfortably on a couch together in a living room. She’s wearing and dress and he’s wearing a suit. His arm is around her as he glances at her with a loving expression on his face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America by Joy-Ann Reid

Book cover for Last to Eat, Last to Learn: My Life in Afghanistan Fighting to Educate Women  by Pashtana Durrani Image on cover is a photograph of the author wearing a white headscarf and a gorgeous red and yellow dress that flows around her body loosely and modestly. She is smiling slightly in this photo.

What I Thought of It:  Ms. Durrani is a good storyteller. I appreciated how detailed her descriptions were of life in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the many ways she has worked to make it better for the women and girls living there. Some of the most interesting scenes to me were the ones that described the tension between her and her parents. They love her and completely support the education of girls and women, but they also had some legitimate reasons to be very concerned about how vocal she was about the oppression in her country given how violent the Taliban is. She could have so easily ended up being murdered like Medgar Evers was.

 

 

Book cover for reams: Brief Books about Big Ideas by Melanie Gillespie Rosen. Image on cover shows the word dreams breaking up into different pieces and floating away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dreams: Brief Books about Big Ideas by Melanie Gillespie Rosen

What I Thought of It: I wish it were longer and included more details about why we have the dreams that we do. It was thought-provoking, though.

 

 

 

Now onto some nonfiction books I’m either currently reading or plan to start reading soon. If any of you have read any of these, I’d sure like to hear what you thought of them:

 

Book cover for Mean Little Deaf Queer: A Memoir by Terry Galloway. Image on cover shows the author as a preschooler. They are dressed in a cowboy outfit including boots and hat and are holding a comically large violin as they stand on a flat, dusty expanse of land. There are several houses far in the distances behind them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mean Little Deaf Queer: A Memoir by Terry Galloway

What It’s About: The author’s life growing up as a deaf member of the LGBTQ+ community. The first chapter has been wonderfully funny so far, so I’m hoping the rest will be just as memorable.

 

Book cover for You'll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other Than Love by Marcia A. Zug. Image on cover shows five pictorams: a baby carriage, a ring, a bag of money, and a passport.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’ll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other Than Love by Marcia A. Zug

What It’s About: Like the title said, this is about the history of people getting married for reasons other than them falling in love with each other. I believe it will cover arranged marriages, marriages of convenience, and similar topics, but I have not yet had the chance to crack it open.

 

Book cover for The Secret History of Bigfoot by John O’Connor. Image on cover is a gorgeous painting of trees growing in a lush and green woods. They are growing so closely together that the background quickly fades into a dark, leafy place where little sunlight can penetrate the forest floor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Secret History of Bigfoot by John O’Connor

What It’s About: While Bigfoot is mentioned in this book, of course, I believe it’s mostly meant to be a study of the different sorts of people who are so interested in this topic they will do things like attend cryptozoology conferences or go out into the woods and try to find evidence that Bigfoot is real.

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: How I Amuse Myself in Waiting Rooms

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Four empty red chairs sitting in a row in a waiting room. They are next to a glass wall that shows an empty hallway behind this waiting room. There are fluorescent lights shining in the hallway and a row of windows overlooking outdoors to the left.

Honestly, I tend to play games like Sudoku or Royal Match on my phone when I’m sitting in a waiting room. Cell phones are fantastic for moments like this.

If there’s something about the appointment that makes me feel anxious, games keep me calm before the receptionist calls my name.

Reading a book on my phone can also be distracting if I know it’s going to be a while until they’re ready for me.

Not every waiting room allows cell phones or is a good place to use one, though.

Years ago I had an appointment and was warned in advance that cell phones were not permitted in that building. (It was a passport renewal thing, so security was quite strict about enforcing that rule).

When electronic distractions aren’t allowed or aren’t a good idea for other reasons, I like to people watch. People are fascinating.

I like to pay attention to what others wore that day and how they styled their hair. You might see people dressed very casually and loosely at a doctor’s office, especially if they’re soon going to need to take a certain article of clothing off so the nurse can check their stitches, vaccinate them, or do some other minor medical work.

Body language and tone of voice matter, too. You might hear someone switch between languages as they translate for a loved one or speak a little quieter or louder than necessary because maybe they’re not used to being in a doctor’s office, bank, lawyer’s office, or any other number of places.

Sometimes I silently think of a compliment I’d give to every single person in the room. It could be about their cool shoes, or how they immediately stood up and offered their seat to a stranger who had mobility problems, or anything else I can observe without asking them any questions. (I don’t share these thoughts as I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable!)

I also try to keep track of who arrived there before I did and about how many minutes it has been between each person being called up for their turn. This can give me an estimate of how long my wait time might be if the room is small enough for this sort of mental game.

If there are too many people to keep track of – or if I’m more or less alone in the waiting room – I try to memorize as many details about it as possible using all of my senses. For example, what colour are the chairs? What does the room smell like, if anything? Can I hear any machines being used in the rooms whose doors are closed? Are there any mints at the receptionists’ desk, and would they allow me to take one on my way out?

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Top Ten Tuesday: Titles with Things Found in Nature


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Closeup photo of a snail whose shell has a swirl of black, brown, and white on it. The snail is sitting on a large green leaf. This was a cute idea for a theme, Jessica @ a GREAT read

One of the things I like to do when I go out into nature is to keep an eye out for insects, arachnids, and other similar creatures.

Do I touch them? No, never! While the majority of bugs in southern Canada are not dangerous, we do have a few species that could harm a person if you were bitten or stung by them. Luckily, they are shy and so will happily leave humans alone if we leave them alone. (Well, other than the mosquitos).

I have no desire to remove any of these animals from their homes or disturb them from their search for food, water, or shelter. It’s simply cool to crouch down and see what’s crawling around in the soil or sand beneath my feet.

My answers for today’s prompt will include a variety of small animals you might find out in nature.

1. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

2. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Millennium, #3) by Stieg Larsson

3.Little Bee by Chris Cleave

4. Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears by Verna Aardema

5. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

6. Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy

7. Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allburg

8. Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn

9. The Patron Saint of Butterflies by Cecilia Galante

10. Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce

 

Do you like any of these creatures?

 

 

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Pets I Wish I Could Have

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A fluffy little white Bichon Frise puppy sitting on a blue and white striped chair. The dog is looking at the audience with an expectant expression on its face. Perhaps it wants a treat?

As cool as reptiles, arachnids, and fish are, I think I’d prefer to have mammals as pets.

Unfortunately, I’m terribly allergic to the vast majority of mammals that are commonly kept as pets.

If pet allergies didn’t exist and I no longer had migraines that restrict what I can do some days, I’d love to have a few furry companions.

Dogs

Dogs can make such wonderful companions in life from what I’ve observed.

They (usually) don’t mind being petted, and some of them will even actively seek out that sort of attention from at least some of the humans in their lives.

Having a dog or two would also encourage me to be more physically active, especially in the winter when going outside honestly doesn’t sound that appealing most days.

From what I’ve read, dogs can be a solitary pet, but many of them enjoy having at least one canine companion around as well. I appreciate that flexibility as some species like Guinea pigs really need to be kept in groups, or at very least in pairs, in order to be happy.

Some dogs are quite intelligent. I’d enjoy teaching them new words or tricks. It would be interesting to see just how much they could learn over the years.

Rabbits

My second answer to this question is rabbits. A photo of three rabbits sitting under the archway of a door and looking serenely out at the world in front of them. Two of the rabbits are light brown, and the third is a wonderful patchwork of light brown, grey, and white fur. There is a grey stone wall behind them and a wooden door frame just a few shades darker than their light brown fur to frame the scene.

I’ve mentioned my love of this species here many times before.

Unlike dogs, they never need to be taken outside for walks.  They can get all of the exercise and mental stimulation they need inside your home if you provide them enough playtime and enrichment activities. This would be a nice bonus when the weather outside is frightful.

They tend to be quiet, albeit sometimes mischievous, creatures. I like how independent they can be, especially since they generally do best with at least one other rabbit around for companionship. There’s nothing like watching two or more rabbits play together or try to eat the same piece of hay. I’d have hours of entertainment from quietly observing them.

Rabbits are less likely to want to be petted than a dog would be, but it can still happen if you build a trusting relationship with them. I’m a peaceful and patient person, so we’d be a good match there as well.

 

 

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