Category Archives: Blog Hops

August 19, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Foods From My Geographic Area That I Don’t Like

A laptop sitting on a wooden table. The text reads: “Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.”

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.

I’m not a very picky eater, so this is going to be a short list.

A glass of red wine next to a bottle of red wine. I do not like alcohol (and have medical reasons to avoid it now anyway), so any wine, beer, or other alcoholic beverage made in Ontario isn’t something I will be imbibing.

Sushi Pizza. There’s a restaurant here in Toronto that serves it. While I love pizza, sushi is one of those foods I’ve never learned to enjoy. The seaweed wrap for it is far too salty and chewy for my tastes. Maybe it’s because my family never ate sushi when I was a kid?

Sausages. There are farms in Ontario that make all sorts of sausages, and I rarely if ever like any of them. Meat is something I eat, but I enjoy it far less than something like a warm, crusty loaf of bread with a little vegan butter and cherry jam on it.

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August 18, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Series I Want to Catch Up On

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

This will be a short list this week as I’ve more or less lost interest in reading series. Too many of them have either ended unsatisfactorily for my tastes or never been completed at all.

With that being said, here are a few exceptions to that rule for me that I still need to finish:

1. The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1) by Philip Pullman

2. Children of Time (Children of Time, #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky

3. Semiosis (Semiosis, #1) by Sue Burke

If you know of any speculative fiction series published in the last 10 years or so that were excellent from beginning to end, please share!

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August 12, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Foods From My Geographic Area That I Love

A laptop sitting on a wooden table. The text reads: “Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.”

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.

A bottle of Quebec maple syrup in a glass container. It’s sitting on a wooden table, presumably ready to be poured on some food! One type of Canadian food I haven’t tried yet is Saskatoon berry pie, but I’d bet it will be amazing once I find a dairy-free version or recipe for it someday Everything else on this list is something I have eaten at least once.

I can’t possibly know what everyone has or hasn’t already tasted, so Wikipedia links are included in this post if anything I described is unfamiliar to you or you’d like to know more about them.

Maple syrup is at the top of my list for this topic because Southern Ontario is excellent at making it and it’s one of those foods that people buy here to give as gifts elsewhere. I know it’s collected in many other places on Earth, too, so I hope you all have had a chance to taste it if you wish to.

Poutine is delicious as well. You may not think that French fries, gravy, and cheese (or, in my case, vegan cheese) would go so well together, but they’re delicious. I prefer to add a few tablespoons of chopped green peppers for added flavour, although it’s not a traditional topping per se.

Butter tarts are something I wasn’t able to try until I finally found a bakery that makes a dairy-free version of them. Thank goodness for vegan and allergy-aware bakers is all I can say! They are an incredibly rich dessert that I adore, and I recommend them as well.

Peameal bacon sandwiches are a delicious lunch due to how rich and savoury this type of meat is. They’re typically served on the same sort of bun you might use for hamburger or veggie burger meat. I like to put some honey mustard on mine, but they’re good plain as well.

Nanaimo bars took some getting used to due to my dislike of shredded coconut, but they’re otherwise wonderfully fudgy and sweet.

Split pea soup is actually something my parents made on occasion when I was growing up in the United States. I didn’t realize there was a French version from Quebec, too, until I moved up here.

Finally, beaver tails are a classic Canadian treat. It’s a flat pastry that’s fried and then covered in toppings that range from a simple cinnamon and sugar to chopped up pieces of well-known candy or candy bars and copious amounts of icing. They are also teeth-achingly sweet, so you may want to consider splitting one with a friend or relative as a little bit can go a long way.

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August 11, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was Reading On This Day Over the Last Ten Years

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Thank you to Anne @ HeadFullofBooks for coming up with this topic! Here are books I’ve read in August over the past ten years. I can’t guarantee that I was reading them on precisely August 11 as I don’t keep track of such information, but they were all read in this month and all good reads.

2016

The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction by Gregory Klages

Genre: History

Why I Liked It: Tom Thompson was a famous Canadian painter and one of the Group of Seven who created all sorts of art in the early 1900s. This book explores his life and mysterious death, and I thought the ending was quite fitting for a life that ended far too soon.

2017

Coping With Your Difficult Older Parent : A Guide for Stressed-Out Children by Grace Lebow, Barbara Kane, Irwin Lebow

Genre: Psychology/Self-Help

Why I Liked It: My parents are actually wonderful, but unfortunately I have other relatives in their age group who are only becoming more difficult to handle as they grow older. I’ve read multiple books about boundaries, dysfunctional families, (severe, untreated) mental illness, and self-care over the years to help me develop the coping skills I need for these situations.

2018

The Bedroom: An Intimate History by Michelle Perrot, Lauren Elkin

Genre: History

Why I Liked It: The wide range of topics it covered. Yes, there were references to sex in this book, but it also talked about many other things related to bedrooms and sleeping: central heating, how hotel accommodations worked in the past, how people slept in jails, hospitals, and sanitariums, and so much more.

2019

Let’s Play White by Chesya Burke

Genre: SFF

Why I Liked It: This was one of those collections of short stories in which every entry was unique. I get a little bored with collections that repeat the same themes too often, so this one definitely stood out to me.

2020

Zombies, Run!: Keeping Fit and Living Well in the Current Zombie Emergency by Naomi Alderman

Genre: SFF, Health, Fitness

Why I Liked It: Honestly, the information in it is just as applicable to now as it was to 2020. Taking care of yourself during stressful times is incredibly important no matter what the threat is. The zombie angle simply added a dose of fun to what is otherwise a serious topic.

2021

Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected by Nnedi Okorafor

Genre: Memoir

Why I Liked It: I don’t purposefully seek out information about the lives of my favourite authors because I believe they deserve privacy just like the rest of us (unless they’re harming other people or something, of course). Therefore, I didn’t know about Ms. Okorafor’s botched back surgery or how it lead her to become an author until I read this. It was quite interesting!

2022

On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah-Yah Scholfield

Genre: Horror

Why I Liked It: Eveything up until the ending was perfect. The protagonist was nuanced and relatable and the setting was deliciously scary. I just wish the conclusion had been a happier one, but I’m still glad I read it.

2023

The Necessity of Stars by E. Catherine Tobler

Genre: SFF

Why I Liked It: This one had the opposite problem that Scholfield‘s tale did. The beginning was a little lacklustre, but the ending was so worth the wait. Once again, I’m glad I read it even though it didn’t match all of my expectations.

2024

Gay the Pray Away by Natalie Naudus

Genre: YA

Why I Liked It: I related to it on so many different levels, from growing up in a conservative Christian homeschooling family to being a lifelong bookworm to eventually coming out.

2025

Ghosts, Trolls and the Hidden People: An Anthology of Icelandic Folk Legends by Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir

Genre: SFF

Why I Liked It: You all might remember how much I love myths, fairy tales, and folklore in general. This was a fabulous collection of just that.

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August 5, 2026 · 2:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Reasons I’ve Stopped Reading or Watching a Series

A laptop sitting on a wooden table. The text reads: “Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.”

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.

Drawing of a vintage television that has one of those test cards on it comprised of stripes of various vertical colours that used to show on channels that were off air for the night. The tv includes two antennas sticking up from the top of it. There are many reasons why I might stop watching a series, including:

– A hopeless storyline. I enjoyed the first few seasons of The Walking Dead, for example, but then lost interest because the characters could never gain a foothold and improve their lives. They always slid back into misery, and I really struggle to stay interested in shows that do that repeatedly.

– Prejudice that is portrayed in a positive light. That is to say I don’t watch shows or read books that encourage sexism, racism, ableism, classism, homophobia, etc. (This has thankfully become much less common now than it was in some older programs!) It’s fine if a show explores these topics, of course, and for some historical stuff it can’t be avoided easily or at all depending on which story is being told. Just don’t make hatred look normal or admirable.

– A plot that is stretched out over too many seasons. I’d rather see things end prematurely than be dragged out longer than is necessary. (See also: The Handmaid’s Tale. It should have ended after a season or two, to be honest).

– If it includes anything related to spies, the criminal justice system,* war, the military, or the police. I have extremely limited interest in these subjects at best, so a show really has to impress me to get to watch them if they include these themes. Brooklyn Nine Nine was one of my rare exceptions to this rule.

– Bad or minimal character development. I need to feel emotionally connected with at least one character in order to want to keep watching something, and this is difficult to make happen if nobody has any depth to their personality or backstory.

*Also, why did my autocorrect try to turn the criminal justice system into Cthulhu? 😂

My criteria for books is honestly mostly the same as what I wrote above. If you keep the pacing even, don’t make things too dreary, and allow your characters to be well-rounded people instead of walking stereotypes, I’m open to just about any genre even if I do prefer speculative fiction in general.

Good storytelling transcends genre in my opinion!

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August 4, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Ice Cream Trucks on Covers

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

We are officially in the dog days of summer, and what better cover freebie theme to pick than ice cream trucks. They are a common sight here in North America in the summer. I don’t know if the same is true in other parts of the world, so please share if this is (or isn’t) something people look forward to in your country when the weather is hot and, depending on your local climate, possibly quite humid as well.

I have not read any of these titles yet, so let me know if they’re good.

Book cover for Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer. Image on cover shows a young woman standing confidently on top of a stationary ice cream truck.

1. Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer

2. Love, Inc. (Love, Inc., #1) by Yvonne Collins

Book cover for Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian. Image on cover shows a laughing young white woman whose brown hair is pulled into a pony tail and who is wearing a pink and white dress. She’s leaning over the window in an ice cream truck to take your order!

3. Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian

Book cover for The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson. Image on cover shows a drawing of a young white woman wearing a blue sundress who has several dogs surrounding her in front of an ice cream truck. I think they’re all about to get a treat!

4. The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Book cover for Wesley James Ruined My Life by Jennifer Honeybourn. Image on cover shows a drawing of a young black man and a young white woman working inside of an ice cream truck. He looks distracted and she looks bored.

5. Wesley James Ruined My Life by Jennifer Honeybourn

Book cover for We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride. Image on cover shows an ice cream truck parked on an empty beach on a partly cloudy day. Where are all of the beachgoers?

6. We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride

Book cover for The Good Humor Man by Kathleen N. Daly. Image on cover is a 1950s-style drawing of a white man driving an ice cream truck. He’s smiling and waving as he drives.

7. The Good Humor Man by Kathleen N. Daly

Book cover for Melt With You by Jennifer Dugan. Image on cover shows a drawing of two young queer women sitting on top of an ice cream truck watching the sunset. The one with dark, curly hair is turning to the one with straight blond hair as if she’s about to say something or perhaps kiss her companion.

8. Melt With You by Jennifer Dugan

Book cover for The Little Ice Cream Truck by Margery Cuyler. Image on cover is a drawing of a little brunette boy who is getting an ice cream cone from an ice cream truck.

9. The Little Ice Cream Truck by Margery Cuyler

Book cover for Garth Pig and the Icecream Lady by Mary Rayner. Image on cover shows a drawing of a pig who is wearing a striped shirt and brown shorts and running on his hind legs after a badger who is driving a truck away from the pig.

10. Garth Pig and the Icecream Lady by Mary Rayner

Book cover for Curious George and the Ice Cream Surprise by Margret Rey. Image on cover shows Curious George, a brown monkey, dancing with joy in front of an ice cream truck outside in the grass.

11. Curious George and the Ice Cream Surprise by Margret Rey

(Yes, I know this is eleven books instead of ten. Goodreads had eleven ideas for me, and I couldn’t bear to leave any of them out).

If it’s currently summer where you live, stay cool! May autumn arrive soon.

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July 29, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: My Life in Photos or GIFs

A laptop sitting on a wooden table. The text reads: “Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.”

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.

Several of my loved ones, including my spouse, don’t like having their photos shared on the Internet. Their absence in their post is a sign of my respect for their wishes and nothing more. 😊

A middle-aged white woman with shoulder-light, wavy and loosely curly brown hair is standing beneath a tree filled with pink blossoms on it. She has a hand on her hip and is smiling gently in the shade.

I love spending time in nature. This was taken at one of my favourite parks here in Toronto back in May.

A yellow #2 pencil and a crumpled up piece of paper lying on an open spiral notebook.

Obviously, you all already know I spend a lot of time writing all sorts of things.

The same middle-aged white woman now standing in front of a pair of rainbow angel wings at a display at Pride.

We love Pride festivities (assuming no migraines that weekend, of course). It’s such a happy and welcoming place. This was taken at the end of June during a rare quiet moment in the section of Pride where all of the booths and street food are located.

No, this didn’t happen on the same day as the park visit. Purple is my favourite colour, so I wear that shirt a lot.

Rows of free weights neatly lined up on a rack.

I gained some weight over the past few years while dealing with a few painful health conditions, one of which is now hopefully resolved for good. While I still have weight to lose, I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished since last autumn when I started focusing on my health more. (My body can easily develop another migraine as a result of exercise, dehydration from perspiring more than usual, or how much I eat, so it’s a delicate balance between sticking to healthier habits and not triggering bonus migraines. Aren’t bodies fun? Ha!).

My favourite types of exercise include kickboxing, weightlifting, dancing, yoga, and walking. Swimming and cycling are great, too, although I haven’t done either in a long time.

A photo of myself and my mom sitting in comically oversized chairs in a park in Windsor. The chairs were made of metal. There are several large trees in the distance, and we are partially covered by shade.

Whimsical thngs often attract my attention. Here’s a photo of me and my mom sitting in two comically large chairs in a park in Windsor, Ontario. We met up there in June and had a wonderful long weekend together.

And, look, I didn’t wear the same purple shirt that day. I did still wear purple, though. Ha!

Screenshot from Duolingo showing that I’ve finished the first seven sections of the Spanish language and am about a third of the way through the eighth and final one.

Finally, look how close I am to being finished with Spanish on Duolingo! There are eight sections of learning for this language, each of which is divided again into many subsections of lessons. I think I’ll finish it this year at this rate.

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Tagged as Duolingo, Health, Migraine, Personal Life, Photography, Spanish, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

July 28, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Library Books on my TBR List That I’m Looking Forward to Reading

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

The original theme for this week was “Books I HAD to Have Immediately but Still Haven’t Read.” It’s quite rare for me to buy books without immediately reading them, so I’m tweaking the topic a little to talk about some library books on my TBR list that I am looking forward to reading instead.

1. The End of My Life Is Killing Me: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker by Annabelle Gurwitch

Why I’m Interested: Stage 4 cancer doesn’t seem like something that’s inherently funny, but I’m drawn to the idea of making the best of whatever is happening to you and trying to find the humour in hard circumstances when possible. No, I’m not talking about toxic positivity here. Think of it more like living in the moment and looking for the good when you can.

2. The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon: The Diary of a Courtesan in Tenth Century Japan by Sei Shōnagon, Dennis Washburn (Foreword), Arthur Waley (Translator)

Why I’m Interested: I’ve never read a book like this before.

3. Church Girl by Naima Simone

Why I’m Interested: Every so often I peek over into the romance genre to see if anything looks interesting, and this is one of those rare titles from it that I might want to read.

4. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Why I’m Interested: My parents and the vast majority of my other relatives are wonderful human beings with whom I have warm, healthy relationships, but I also know what it’s like to be related to or otherwise socially connected to someone who stirs up difficult and painful emotions. If only we lived in a world that was more open to discussing such topics and emotionally supporting people who don’t have the “typical” reaction to complex relationships or the death of a relative. You never know what’s really going on behind the scenes in a family or social group in general, so these folks won’t receive any judgement from me about how they should behave under these circumstances.

$Book cover for The Future of Work Is Grey: The Untapped Value of Age in the Workforce by Dan Pontefract. Book cover shows a lightbulb that is glowing because it has a candle burning inside of it. Clever!$

5. The Future of Work Is Grey: The Untapped Value of Age in the Workforce by Dan Pontefract

Why I’m Interested: This isn’t something that personally affects me (yet, of course), but I wholeheartedly support all efforts to reduce and eliminate discrimination, especially in the workplace given that just about everyone must work for a living. There’s absolutely no reason to make the job hunt harder than it already is for many folks!

Book cover for The Beauty of Being Weird: A Psychologist's Guide to Living Guilt-Free by Sergi Rufi. Image on cover shows a black sheep standing next to the title on the right and a row of white sheep standing off to the left.

6. The Beauty of Being Weird: A Psychologist’s Guide to Living Guilt-Free by Sergi Rufi

Why I’m Interested: There is definitely something to be said for learning to be comfortable in your own skin.

7. Playmakers: The Jewish Entrepreneurs Who Created the Toy Industry in America by Michael Kimmel

Why I’m Interested: This is another slice of history I know nothing about, but I want to change that.

8. You x Me by Ayla Vejdani

Why I’m Interested: I know nothing about dating app culture these days, so this anthology could be a good read. (Can you tell I love learning new stuff?)

9. Homesick for a World Unknown: The Life of George B. Schaller by Miriam Horn

Why I’m Interested: I’m intrigued by the lives of scientists who worked generations ago and want to know more about their lives and accomplishments.

10. Big Worlds: Politics and Elections in the Canadian Provinces and Territories by Jared J. Wesley

(Apologies, but this was as large as this image could be sized).

Why I’m Interested: Canadian culture is fascinating and I love learning about the differences between one place here and another. It’s not a topic that our local news covers very often, and I have not travelled to most parts of my country yet.

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Tagged as TBR, TBR List, Top Ten Tuesday

July 22, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books I Wish I’d Discovered Sooner

A laptop sitting on a wooden table. The text reads: “Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.”

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.

I tend to believe that the right books will appear when we need them, but there are a few books I wish had shown up earlier in my life.

Someone – probably my aunt or grandmother – gave me the first few Anne Shirley books as a kid, but I didn’t read the rest of them until I was an adult. Either my local library didn’t have them or someone else had borrowed them every time I looked as I do remember searching for them.

Book cover for Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery. Image on cover shows Anne in a long blue dress that does not have a bustle. She’s looking off to the side with a serious and slightly sad expression on her face as she stands in front of her new home and a small grove of trees around it.

Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery

I read the first three books in this series as a preteen and watched the film version of Anne of Windy Poplars as well. Everything from Anne’s House of Dreams onwards were titles I read in adulthood. I enjoyed seeing Anne as a wife and mother, although her life turned out quite differently than I had dreamed it might.

Book cover for The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children, #5) by Jean M. Auel. Image on cover shows a drawing of a running horse on a cave wall.

The Shelters of Stone (Earth’s Children, #5) by Jean M. Auel

It appears that I need to grumble about this series once again. 😂 I read the first four books many years after they were first released, and then I had to wait years to read books 5 and another long stretch of time before book 6. If only each new instalment could have been released every 3-4 years at the most so I could have finished this series sooner and not spent so much time assuming it would end satisfactorily. I will refrain from listing the many plot holes and abandoned conflicts that irritated me along the way. Ha.

I look forward to seeing what everyone else came up with!

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July 21, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’ve Read Whose Titles Begin With the Letter B

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

My apologies, but I could not come up with good answers for the original theme this week, Books That Live in My Head Rent-Free.

Therefore, here are ten books I’ve read that start with the letter B. It’s been years since I read them, but I do remember thinking they were all good reads!