Tag Archives: Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

October 22, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Things That Scare Me

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.

We’ve done this topic before, but I’m once again not looking at my old answers. I think it’s more fun to mix things up and maybe give some responses I didn’t share previously. (Or maybe they’ll all be the same? Someday I may go back and check, but today won’t be that day.)

There are plenty of serious things in real life that scare me, of course, but I’m trying to focus on lighthearted Halloween-themed answers today so that everyone will feel comfortable responding.

Please don’t take this post as a sign that I’m ignoring the troubles of the world because I’m not. I’m just trying to avoid topics that will spark unwanted debates on hot topics in my comment section. Ha!

A brown skinned’s person’s handed holding up a paper sign that has the word “scary” written on it. The words have been mounted on a few decorative layers of purple and blue paper for added effect. The Woods 

There’s no one around to help and no street signs to guide you if you get lost. You’re on your own.

 

Awakening Angry Spirits

No, movie characters, you do NOT need to steal that trinket from the graveyard or ignore the locals’ warnings about staying out of the woods. You will have a much better time in life if you mind your own business and assume that strangers who tell you something is dangerous are doing so for a very good reason.

 

Time Travel

Visiting the past doesn’t seem that fun to me. I’d rather stay here where we have antibiotics, the Internet, and air conditioning.

 

Sexy Monsters 

I don’t care if they’re vampires, zombies, werewolves, Sasquatch, ghosts, or something similar. The fact that they’re trying to lure humans closer to them is more than enough reason for me to run away.

It’s sort of like anglerfish who emit light from their antennas in order to attract prey. If they’re irresistibly alluring but clearly not human, this could be a sign that you’re about to be turned into dinner!

(But no offence intended to those of you who like these sorts of stories, of course. I just get danger vibes from this type of character).

 

Curses

You can eventually outrun or outsmart most other foes, but you – or a book character –  can’t possibly fool a curse. It will follow you no matter where you go.

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October 15, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books I Read on Someone’s Recommendation

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.

 

Depending on how long the waitlists are at my local library, I might read a book that someone else recommends to me the same week they recommend it, a few weeks, a few months later, or occasionally even much longer than that.

Closeup photo of someone’s hands as they hold open a book with two hands and read it. They’re wearing a wedding ring and have pale skin. Their age and sex isn’t easy to determine. Therefore, I don’t always remember who recommended specific books to me. In order to participate this week, I ended up needing to work on this post a little at a time over the last month or so as folks mentioned books they’re reading that they think I may also enjoy.

These were all interesting reads, and most of them are titles my mom recommended as she’s also a lifelong reader.

A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet by Thich Nhat Hahn

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Let Them Stare Jonathan Van Neese

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari.

 

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October 8, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Famous Books I Don’t Plan to Read

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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.

Photo of a road closed sign that has been erected in the middle of a road that looks like it’s headed toward the beach. Everyone has different tastes, of course, but none of these famous books have ever piqued my interest:

1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

2. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

3. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

4. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

5. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

6. Watchmen by Alan Moore

7. A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
8. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
9. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
10. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
(Isn’t it hard to list books you don’t want to read? Normally, I’d focus on the ones I do want to read and quietly never mention the rest!)

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October 1, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Classic Books I Would Reread

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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 vintage brown leather bag sitting on a white rock carved into the shape of what appears to be a low fence.The original topic for this week was “Books I Would or Wouldn’t Reread and Why.” As I’ve recently done blog hop posts about mostly contemporary books I wouldn’t read and have another one ready to go for next week’s WWBC theme, I decided to tweak this one a little and talk about classic novels I would like to reread someday. 

From what I recall about their storylines, they were all memorable tales filled with characters that I found relatable or interesting in some way.

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

2. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

3. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

4. The Good Earth (House of Earth, #1) by Pearl S. Buck

5. Dracula by Bram Stoker*

6. The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry

7. Beloved (Beloved Trilogy, #1) by Toni Morrison

8. Beowulf by Unknown

9. The Plague by Albert Camus

10. Calvin and Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes, #1) by Bill Watterson**

*Well, other than the fact that the protagonist brushed off the stern warnings he was given from locals about venturing in Dracula’s territory. You’d think he would have taken them seriously when they told him not to go there. Ha!

** If there is such a thing as a classic comic strip, I’d argue that Calvin and Hobbes deserves to be counted as one. They somehow become funnier and more meaningful every time I reread them.

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September 24, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: How I Handle Bad Days

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.

These past several years have included some pretty tough times for my family, including death and multiple other relatives who have had health problems ranging from minor day surgeries to very serious diagnoses that needed emergency or urgent surgery and rehabilitation, radiation therapy, or other treatments afterwards.

Needless to say, my coping mechanism toolbox is well-stocked and has been heavily used since 2020.

This is what I’ve done to take care of myself when I was part of the support system for others:

Ignoring the news

I do what I can to help, but sometimes I simply haven’t had a single speck of leftover energy for paying attention to the terrible things that happen in our world. This isn’t something I’m proud of, it’s just the reality of life sometimes. You have to take care of your own basic needs before taking care of others.

 

A white woman walking her black dog in a forest. They look content and relaxed.

Not me. I just love this stock photo.

Exercising

Specifically, I have found weightlifting, kickboxing, dancing, and long, brisk walks to be distracting and helpful. It’s harder to keep worrying and ruminating when you’re doing a burpee, or trying to get an entire workout done with excellent form,  or just saw the cutest dog ever walk by you on the trail. (Although I say that about multiple dogs per walk because they’re all delightful).

 

Ice Cream Sundaes

Yes, I mean the vegan or dairy-free kind. I’m so lucky to have lots of flavours to choose from these days as that wasn’t the case when I was a kid. Sometimes a sweet treat really hits the spot when you’re anxiously waiting for a text or call to see how the patient is doing. (I do not recommend sneaking a sundae into the hospital waiting room, though. Ha!)

 

Naps

The world can feel like a much more hopeful place if you can close your eyes for twenty minutes and get some rest.

 

Funny Shows 

My spouse loves to watch dramatic, tense shows as a distraction. I need funny, silly things to watch instead where the worst thing that can possibly happen is that the family dog gets a second dinner one night due to a miscommunication.

 

Haircuts 

There’s something refreshing about brief but important moments of self care like this. I like the sensation of having my head gently rubbed and my hair brushed in preparation for the haircut. It’s soothing.

 

Visiting the Library 

It’s nice to be surrounded by people who are (hopefully) having good days when I’m having a bad one because it reminds me that this, too, shall pass. Also, books are a fantastic distraction from the painful stuff in life.

 

Body Scan Meditation

This is the best type of meditation if you ask me! There’s something so satisfying about focusing on relaxing one part of your body at a time.

 

I look forward to reading everyone else’s responses. There’s still room in my toolbox for other self-care options, although I hope I won’t have to use them anytime soon now that things seem to have calmed down for everyone.

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September 17, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Authors I Wish More People Knew About

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.

This was a bit of a tricky topic for me because  I have no idea which authors you all are already aware of. People that I read regularly might be well known to some of you and a brand new corner of the literary world to others. (And vice versa, of course!)

Let’s see if I can dig a bit deeper and find some new folks to mention. I’m including one recommendation of a good place to start for every person on this list as I know I sometimes feel a little overwhelmed when checking out a new author and seeing a long list of possibilities.

 

Photo of a maple leaf lying on the blank white page of an opened book. There’s a cup of tea in a white mug with the word tea on it sitting next to the book. Both of these items are lying on top of a white blanket.George MacDonald was a Scottish poet and author who lived in the 1800s and early 1900s and played a major role in creating the modern fantasy genre. C.S. Lewis was one of many writers who was inspired by him. 

Read This First: “The Golden Key,” an allegorical fairy tale he wrote about death and the afterlife. He excelled at creating seemingly inconsequential details in stories that later pay off wonderfully…or at least that’s how I felt when I was a kid reading this!

 

Sonia Hartl is a contemporary fantasy writer who loves playing around with audience’s assumptions about what should happen next.

Read This First: “The Lost Girls,” a more realistic take on what would happen  if vampires were real and actually went around falling in love with teenage girls. That is to say, a one-hundred-and-twenty-year-old man who is romantically interested in a sixteen-year-old girl probably doesn’t have good intentions and should not be trusted any further than you can throw him.

 

Claire Keegan is a contemporary fiction author who writes gentle but honest stories about (mostly) rural settings. 

Read This First: “Foster,” a novella about an eleven-year-old girl who is sent to live with childless relatives in the countryside for the summer as her mother deals with a difficult pregnancy.  This was such a kind and hopeful story that I’d love to see expanded into a tv series that shows more of their lives and what happens next. The relatives welcomed the main character with opened arms and loved her just as if she were their own child. It was so wholesome.

 

Nnedi Okorafor is a contemporary science fiction and fantasy author who writes dark fantasy and science fiction set in Africa. I mention the setting because it plays such a huge role in her characters’ lives in all of the books from her I’ve read. She’s another author whose work I wish would be made into some films. 

Read This First:”Remote Control,” a novella about a preteen girl who has an accident that helps her develop the ability to kill or to heal people just by touching them. This was such a page turner because she didn’t know what was happening at first or what to do with her gift.

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September 10, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What Is My Superpower?

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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 believe that the last time we had this topic I talked about my uncanny ability to look away from the screen just as something exciting happens in a show. It’s not something I ever do on purpose, I simply get a little bored sometimes depending on which show my spouse picked.

Let’s pick another answer this time.

A white woman wearing a grey sweatshirt is listening to a conch shell at the beach on an overcast and what appears to be somewhat chilly day. Listening is another superpower of mine. I’m good at making people feel heard – so far as I’ve been told – and helping them to figure out what to do without actually ever giving advice.

Here’s the thing: most people don’t need advice in most cases in my experience, especially if they’re not directly asking for you to tell them what to do.

There are often factors outsiders aren’t aware of, or they’ve already tried X, Y, and Z without success and truly do not need yet another well-meaning but ultimately unhelpful person suggesting those options for the tenth time this week.

What they need is a sympathetic ear and someone to validate how difficult and frustrating life can be at times. If they feel heard, seen, and maybe even loved depending on how close I am to them, it can become much easier to try something new, pick themselves up and try again after disappointment, work on one of their flaws, or tackle whatever else it is they’re struggling with that can rarely if ever be fixed by an outsider.

It’s sort of like dancing in that I try to match their energy and glide into the rhythm of the conversation without pushing it into any particular direction.

They’re smart. They’ll figure it out on their own. 🙂

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September 3, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books I Keep Meaning to Read (but Haven’t)

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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 dozen hardbacked books placed with their spines sticking up. The angle of the photo isn’t quite high enough to read their titles, but you can see their white pages and the yellow wall behind them. Since I’m such a huge mood reader, some books hang around on my TBR list for a very long time. Here are some of them:

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

2. Dune (Dune, #1) by Frank Herbert

3. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

4. The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

5. Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

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

Now I’m drawing a blank at what else to add!

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August 27, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books That Deal Well With Tough Topics

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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 person with long straight hair is sitting on a pier at sunset and leaning their head on their knees. Their body language looks bent over and sad. Most of my picks are in the nonfiction genre, but I did try to branch out a little to other options.

I am including the topics these books discuss so that my readers will know in advance if a particular title is or isn’t something that piques their interest.

1. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou’s Autobiography, #1) by Maya Angelou

Topics discussed: Childhood sexual abuse, kinship care, separation from parents, racism, and trauma.

 

2. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez

Topics discussed: Sexism and misogyny.

 

3. 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food by Susan Albers

Topics discussed: Emotional eating, binge eating disorders, and mental health.

 

4. CBT for Social Anxiety: Simple Skills for Overcoming Fear and Enjoying People by Stefan G. Hofmann, Robert L. Leahy

Topics discussed: Social anxiety and mental health.

 

5. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Topics discussed: Sexual abuse and mental health.

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August 20, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books I Had to Read in School and Liked

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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 hardback book, a quill, and a bottle of ink artfully arranged outside in the grass. The book and quill are propped up so the viewer can better see them. This is going to be a much longer list than the one I had a few weeks ago. I liked to loved most of the assigned reads in school, including:

1. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

2. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (but I thought these two should have listened to their parents and not been so impulsive or dramatic!)

3. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

4. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

5. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

6. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

7. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

8. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (even though it made me permanently suspicious of books about beloved pets and what will probably happen to those poor animals by the final scene)

9. The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings by Edgar Allan Poe

10. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

11. Walden or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau (although I wanted a sequel where his poor mother went off into the woods to find herself while Henry stayed home to do all of the washing, mending, gardening, and cooking for once!)

12. Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1) by Chinua Achebe

13. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson (I wish we had lived in the same era. I think she and I could have been great friends).

14. Selected Poems by Langston Hughes (I feel the exact same way about Mr. Hughes and wish I could have been his friend, too).

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