Author Archives: lydias

About lydias

I'm a sci-fi writer who loves lifting weights and hates eating Brussels sprouts.
January 9, 2024 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2024


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A black and white spotted cat sitting on top of a bookshelf and resting peacefully. My list of answers is short this week, but I did have more than two books this time which is a nice change from the winter TBR theme from a few weeks ago that was a struggle for me.

Here’s hoping some of you mention some other books that will help flesh it out. That has happened for me on multiple occasions in the past!

If not, there are always plenty of older library books to look forward to.

This isn’t my cat or my photo. (It is a public domain image, though).

I simply like the thought of a cat feeling comfortable enough to rest or maybe even snooze a little while humans hunt for new books to read. It’s so wholesome.

Aren’t animals the best?

 

 

Book cover for Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase. Image on cover shows a drawing of a black woman’s head. There is a fetus growing in a glass or clear plastic cage in the space where her brain should be. It’s very eerie.

 

Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase

Release Date: January 23

Why I’m Interested: The world-building sounds fantastic. My fingers are crossed it will be.

 

 

Book cover for My Side of the River by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez. Image on cover is a drawing of wheat or some other type of grassy plant bending and swaying gently in the breeze.

My Side of the River: A Memoir by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez

Release Date: February 13

Why I’m Interested:  This memoir sounds super interesting.  I can’t imagine being responsible for raising a younger sibling as a teenager. Wow, that’s a lot to ask of someone that age! One of the benefits of reading is learning about the lives of people whose life experiences can be wildly different from your own in all sorts of ways.

 

Book cover for The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden. Image on cover is a drawing of an incredibly pale person’s hands who are clasping a red rose. One of their hands has a bracelet on it.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

Release Date: February 14

Why I’m Interested: I love ghost stories, and I haven’t read many of them set during World War I. This could be good.

 

Book cover for Who's Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler. There is no image on the cover. Just black text against a cream background that has one yellow stripe on the left and one purple stripe on the right side of the cover.

Who’s Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler

Release Date: March 19

Why I’m Interested: I’m curious to learn more about the link between transphobia and authoritarianism as I am completely confused and dismayed by the hatred of and vitriol against transgender people that is being stirred up by some folks. Why not love and accept everyone for who they are instead?  That seems like such a better option to me.

 

I look forward to reading all of your responses.

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January 4, 2024 · 1:00 am

Second Chances: A Review of Hologram Kebab

Book cover for Hologram Kebab by Phillip Carter. Image on cover shows a robot hand hovering underneath a levitating kebab wrap that’s filled with meat, cheese, and beans. Title: Hologram Kebab

Author: Phillip Carter

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 12, 2023

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 32 pages

Source: I received

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Blurb:

Anya has the worst hangover in history. Not only has the kebab gone cold, but her cheating boyfriend is back, and he’s a ghost. But that’s not all, he’s convinced that he is alive, and that Anya is dead. Or half-dead. Something terrible happened last night, and now the couple is in techno-limbo.

 

It all started when Keaton sent a naughty picture to Anya’s best friend, and it all ends with a gadget Anya was about to throw away.

Review:

Content Warning: Alcohol use, a hangover, infidelity.

Sometimes relationships can be toughest part of life.

I liked Anya as a person and understood why she was so frustrated with her boyfriend. They’d had some serious conflicts over the years and sadly didn’t seem particularly compatible with one another anymore. It was interesting to see her wrestle with her attachment to him and remember the good times they had shared as she decided whether or not to continue investing in their relationship. She was a sensible person, and I knew she’d think through all of her choices carefully.

The ending left a lot to be desired for me as a reader due to how abrupt it was. In one scene, the plot was chugging head nicely, and then it suddenly ended without tying up the majority of the loose ends that had me so interested in this tale. I desperately wanted to give this one a higher rating due to how much I appreciated the author’s creativity, but the way the last scene was written made difficult for me to justify giving away more stars.

This short story had a playful writing style that kept me engaged with the plot despite my frustrations with certain aspects of it. I appreciated the risks the author took with how he described certain things like Anya eating a leftover kebab or how she reacted to her boyfriend when he suddenly appeared and shared some disturbing news with her. Mr. Carter knows how to write memorable descriptions, and I will be keeping an eye out for his future work.

Hologram Kebab had a fascinating premise.

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January 3, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Hobbies I Used to Enjoy

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.

Welcome back, everyone!

Some of these answers may give clues about my age.  Here are four of the hobbies I used to enjoy but no longer participate in.

Tamagotchi

A photo of a Tamagotchi toy that was popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It’s made of pink plastic and has a tiny little screen where a pixelated pet can be seen sitting in the centre of the screen.

Photo credit: Tomasz Sienicki

This was a virtual pet that was wildly popular back at the turn of the century (Yes, I’m being a little tongue-in-cheek here).

I never actually bought one. Instead, my best friend gave hers to me after she  grew tired of it.

I spent  many happy hours over the summer keeping my Tamagotchi happy and healthy before passing it onto my siblings.

We must have given it to someone else after that, but I don’t remember who was the next lucky kid to play with it. Here’s hoping they loved it as much as we did.

Cycling

A teal bicycle that’s Ben chained to a no-parking sign on a quiet city street. The building behind the bicycle has been painted a beautiful shade of light pink. When I was a kid, I spent hours going on long bike rides over the summer.

My family lived in a housing development at the time, so the only traffic there was local. The streets were quiet and safe to ride on 99% of the time.

Once we moved into a small city, I only cycled on the residential streets close to my home as there weren’t any bike lanes on the main roads through town and they were far too busy to accommodate cyclists.

After I moved to the big city, I didn’t cycle at all because there weren’t any bike lanes to speak of at the time and it was terribly dangerous to ride alongside cars. There was also the problem of bike theft. You have to be quite careful about where you chain up your bike and how you chain it up here if you would like every part of it to still be there when you return.

Toronto has begun adding bike lanes to certain streets which has definitely improved the safety aspect of cycling here, but theft remains a big issue. I hope that changes someday as I really miss this form of exercise!

Poetry 

A closeup shot of pages in a book being flipped through rapidly. I used to love reading and writing poetry, but both of those hobbies faded away in my early 20s.

Despite several attempts to revive my interest in them, I’ve never been able to recapture the old magic of that experience.

Maybe when I am an old woman I will find one or both of them enjoyable again.

 

Picking Up Trash 

Close-up photo of a white person holding open a white canvas bag. Inside the bag are an assortment of glass and aluminum bottles. Okay, so I might need to explain this one a little.

I spent much of my childhood in rural places where there’s honestly not a great infrastructure for picking up trash that accidentally – or maybe purposefully – gets left behind.  Much of it would just sit there until a kind stranger picked it up, the county assigned people to pick it up as part of court-ordered community service, or a inmates did it on day release from the local jail in order to make a little money.

My family were among those private citizens who picked trash up without being legally required to do so. Sometimes mom and dad would turn it into a free date night activity for themselves. They’d leave us kids home for an hour or so, go clean up the neighbourhood or a local road, and talk about whatever it is grown-ups discuss when their children aren’t around.

I took note of how my parents behaved and would sometimes go out on my own trash-finding adventures. Most of the items I picked up would be soda cans, beer cans, or plastic bags.

In college, I took Ecology as one of my science credits, and one of our assignments was to clean up all of the trash by the side of the road next to our school. That was a fun project. We did it in March or April and found everything from broken toys to cassettes tapes to, I believe, a few Christmas decorations as well.

Toronto was such a clean city that I never got into the habit of doing that after I moved here. We have city employees who drive machines that suck up every the smallest pieces of trash here, so there was usually nothing to pick up.

That began to change when Covid happened. Unfortunately, most of the trash I see on the streets these days would be dangerous to pick up with bare hands. Think broken glass, used hypodermic needles, dirty masks, human or animal excrement, etc.  You don’t see it on every block or on every day, but it unfortunately is the sort of trash I’m seeing more often over time now.

If or when I begin seeing other sorts of trash in my area, I will start carrying a pair of gloves on me and once again keep things tidy.

 

 

 

 

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January 2, 2024 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Books of 2023


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A white woman is looking up lovingly at a book that is hovering in the air above her. Nothing is holding the book up. It appears to be levitating through magic. 2023 was a wonderful reading year for me. Kudos to Berthold Gambrel for recommending two of them to me. You know my taste in books so well. Or maybe we simply have very similar tastes in books.

Here are my favourite stories of this past year.

Links to my reviews have also been included as all of my answers this time also happened to belong to the genres and even the specific titles I discuss on this blog.

Isn’t it funny how that works sometimes?

Most years I would include at least a few other sorts of books I haven’t previously discussed here, but none of them struck me as favourites this time around. They weren’t bad reads or anything, just not top of the shelf ones.

There’s always next year, though.

 

The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz book cover. Image on cover shows a steaming cup of tea in a white mug that has fancy ridges and floral patterns on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz (My review)

Why I Loved It: The storyline had such a hopeful take on what the future could be like.

 

Book cover for Autumn Moon by J.T. McCallum. Image on cover shows a wolf howling outside in the middle of the night. A profile of the wolf’s head and neck can be seen against the dim light of a huge full moon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Autumn Moon by J.T. McCallum (My review)

Why I Loved It: The last sentence of it clinched everything together beautifully. Yes, I know this is vague, but I’m trying to avoid spoilers.

 

Book cover for Memoirs of a Snowflake by Joe Vasicek. The cover is a pretty light purple colour, and it has four large snowflakes, four medium sized snowflakes, and dozens of tiny little snowflakes falling down on what I presume is a night sky on it. It gives the feeling of standing outside and feeling the snow fall onto your face and hands during an early morning or sunset snowstorm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Memoirs of a Snowflake by Joe Vasicek (My review)

Why I Loved It: I mean, the protagonist was a sentient snowflake. That sort of creativity and risk-taking are both huge pluses in my opinion!

 

Book cover for Want to read Buy on Amazon CA Rate this book Hellf on the Shelf: A Christmas Short Story by Rumer Haven. Image on cover shows a ceramic toy elf looking up and over at a Christmas tree behind them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Hellf on the Shelf by Rumer Haven (My review)

Why I Loved It: It captures Elf on the Shelf culture perfectly!

 

Book cover for War Bunny by Christopher St. John. Image on cover shows a drawing of a rabbit looking over its left shoulder. The rabbit’s body is comprised of a pink and green floral pattern that looks like wallpaper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. War Bunny by Christopher St. John (My review)

Why I Loved It: I adore rabbits and books featuring them as characters even more.

 

Book cover for Only the Living Feel Remorse by Ash Deza. Image on cover is a grainy photograph of someone wearing a grey hoodie and walking down an incredibly foggy and dark path. You can see a few possibly leafy tree branches at the top of the cover, but everything else is well obscured by fog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Only the Living Feel Remorse – A Ghost Story by Ash Dena (My review)

Why I Loved It: Most ghost stories don’t scare me at all, but this one did. The protagonist was such a complex, deeply flawed, and memorable individual.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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January 1, 2024 · 1:00 am

What I Read in 2023

The words “wishing you a prosperous new year” have been printed on a white sheet of paper and glued to an off-white wall. There are evergreen boughs surrounding this cheerful message. Happy New Year, readers!

In January of 2013, I began blogging about everything I’d read that previous year.  This tradition began when my dad asked me how many books I’ve read in my entire lifetime.

I couldn’t begin to give him an answer to that question, but it did make me decide to start keeping track from that moment forward. The previous posts in this series are as follows: 2022,  2021, 2020, 2019, 2018,  2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.

I read 55 books this year not counting the ones I review pseudonymously for other sites. That number is a little lower than usual, but I also tended to read longer books this year than I did in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

2023 was a year of me diving more deeply in the biography genre and less deeply into the history genre than usual. My brain is can handle a little horror now if I stick to the psychological or paranormal flavours of it that avoid the gory stuff. Before 2020, I read much more about zombies and pandemics and such, but these past few years have changed my preferences.

I’m enjoying the gentler sides of fiction and nonfictions these days.

Here are the books I’ve read (or reread) over the past year. I’ll wait for Top Ten Tuesday tomorrow to share my favourite stories of the year, so stay tuned.

Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs

Closeup photo of an opened handwritten letter, a bundle of handwritten letters that have been folded in thirds and tied with a rough brown string, and a few faded photos tucked underneath the open letter. “After the Annex: Anne Frank, Auschwitz, and Beyond” by Bas  von Brenda-Beckmann

“Never Give Up: A Prairie Family’s Story” by Tom Brokaw

“Don’t Let Them Bury My Story: The Oldest Living Survivor of the Tulsa Rase Massacre in Her Own Words” by Viola Ford Fletcher

“Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder” by Caroline Fraser

“Kukum” by Michel Jean

“Quiet Street: On American Privilege” by Nick McDonell

“The Story of Tutankhamun: An intimate Life of the Boy Who Became King” by Garry J. Shaw

“Waswanipi” by  Jean-Yves Soucy

“Peace by Chocolate: The Hadhad Family’s Remarkable Journey from Syria to Canada” by Jon Tattrie

“Little House in the Big Woods” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Little House on the Prairie” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“On the Banks of Plum Creek” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Farmer Boy” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“By the Shores of Silver Lake” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“The Long Winter” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Little Town on the Prairie” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“These Happy Golden Years” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“The First Four Years” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

 

Fiction

A photo of a black woman lying on a bed and petting her dog with her right hand as her left hand holds open a book. She is wearing jeans and a white button-down shirt and looks as if she just came home from work to spend time with her beloved pup and read a good book in her well-lit, comfortable bedroom. Light is streaming onto the bed from a nearby window, and you can see a few potted plants on the white dressers behind her and in front of her. “Destination Prairie” by Cathie Bartlett

“Don’t Cry for Me” by Daniel Black

“Yes, Miss Thompson” by Amy Boyes

“Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan

“Foster” by Claire Keegan

“Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe

“Looking for Jane” by Heather Marshall

 

History

“Ghosts of the Orphanage: A Story of Mysterious Deaths, a Conspiracy of Silence, and a Search for Justice “ by Christine Kenneally

 

Psychology and Sociology

A group of young Asian people are laughing and talking as they sit on a large couch together. One of them is reading something on his cellphone. They all look happy and relaxed. “50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food” by Susan Albers

“CBT for Social Anxiety: Simple Skills for Overcoming Fear and Enjoying People” by Stefan G. Hofmann

“NPR Funniest Driveway Moments” by NPR

“NPR Laughter Therapy: A Comedy Collection for the Chronically Serious” by NPR

“Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream” by Alissa Quart

 

Science Fiction and Fantasy

A young red headed girl is reading a book and attempting to cast a spell with a wooden wand. She’s holding the wand above her head and looking expectedly for some sign it’s working! “The Girl With All the Gifts” by M.R. Carey

“The Boy on the Bridge” by M.R. Carey

“A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers

“A Prayer for the Crown-Shy” by Becky Chambers

“The Last of What I Am” by Abigail Cutter

“Bloom” by Delilah S. Dawson

“A Canticle for Leibowitz” by Walter M. Miller

“Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland” by Lisa Schneidau 

“The Necessity of Stars” by E. Catherine Tobler

“War Bunny” by Christopher St. John

 

Science, Health, and Medicine

Mysterious blue liquid in a beaker, a pipette, and a series of glass test tubes that are lined up neatly in a row. “Cave of Bones: A True Story of Discovery, Adventure, and Human Origins” by Lee Berger and John Hawks

“Ravenous: How to Get Ourselves and Our Planet Into Shape” by Henry Dimbleby

“The Last Cold Place: A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica” by Naira de Garcia

“Into the Forest: The Secret Language of Trees” by Susan Tyler Hitchcock

“The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction” by Pat Shipman

“Homo Sapiens Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution Rewriting Our Origins” by Paul Pettitt

“The Autumn Ghost: How the Battle Against a Polio Epidemic Revolutionized Modern Medical Care” by Hannah Wunsch

 

Young Adult

An olive-skinned father reading a bedtime story to his son as the child lays in bed. The book is spread out over the child’s lap. “Still Stace” by Stacey Chomiak

“The Other Pandemic” by Lynn Curlee

“Sarah, Plain and Tall” (#1 in series) by Patricia MacLachlan

“Skylark (#2 in series)” by Patricia MacLachlan

“Caleb’s Story” (#3 in series) by Patricia MacLachlan (Middle Grade)

“More Perfect Than the Moon” (#4 in series) by Patricia MacLachlan

“Grandfather’s Dance” (#5 in series) by Patricia MacLachlan

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December 28, 2023 · 1:00 am

Christmas for Everyone: A Review of Snowfall

Book cover for Snow Fall: A Prophecy Series Short Christmas Story by Liz Bullard. Image on cover shows a black woman with an Afro standing outside and looking at a large snowy mountain. She’s wearing a warm, dark jacket and looks cozy. Title: Snowfall

Author: Liz Bullard

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 22, 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Holiday

Length: 54 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Sometimes spreading holiday cheer leads to a bit of disaster…

In “Snow Fall,” readers are transported to a fantastical world filled with elemental magic and mighty warriors. In this short side adventure, readers are introduced to the world of Zodia and the central characters. The Chosen One, Tabatha, longs to share a piece of her native land with a strange world full of fierce warriors, but her naivete may bring about the opposite of holiday cheer. As Tabatha struggles to control her abilities and spread holiday spirit, she must also navigate the path to doing the right thing in a world filled with danger and uncertainty. Will she be able to make amends and save the holiday season, or will her actions lead to devastation and ruin?

The Prophecy Series, a three-part adventure, is set in a fantastical world rife with elemental magic and mighty warriors. This novella, a short side adventure, introduces the world of Zodia and the central characters.

Review:

Hope is essential for a good life.

Christmas isn’t celebrated in Zodia, so Tabatha has her work cut out for her when she attempts to help the people who live there understand the many bizarre traditions like cutting down trees that nobody in Zodia would think to do for perfectly understandable reasons that other readers should discover for themselves. Some of the most interesting scenes were the ones that explored all of the reactions to this holiday, from confusion to horror to curiosity to cautious joy.

I would have liked to more attention paid to a mistake the main character made that had serious repercussions for the village she was staying in. It involved her performing magic without knowing how to properly guide her powers or ensure that they had the right effect on the land. When her actions destroyed some crops, I was expecting her to be in huge trouble. What actually happened was disappointing due to how quickly everyone around her brushed it off. Just because she’s the Chosen One doesn’t mean that everything she does is the correct choice, after all, so I wish those scenes had been explained better.

Speaking of mixed reactions, I loved the way the characters reacted to each other’s opinions about Christmas as well. There was so much kindness in their interactions, and no one was pressured to feel any sort of way about this new experience for them no matter whether their impression were positive, negative, or somewhere in between those two extremes. This is something I wish were more common in our world as the pressure to express nothing but happy feelings about Christmas can overshadow the moments of joy I might otherwise find in it. Kudos to the author for creating such sensitive and sensible characters!

Snowfall was an interesting glimpse into a new fantasy world.

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December 27, 2023 · 8:13 pm

The 2024 Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge Topics

An image of a laptop sitting on a wooden table. The large text reads Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. In the white box below, the topics for each week in 2024 are listed.

Long and Short Reviews has released the list of topics for their sixth year of Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge posts. All of the details on how to participate can be found on their site.

If you’re having trouble reading the graphic above, scroll down for a transcription of the weekly topics. I plan to participate every week and hope to see you all over there next year.

 

January 3 – Hobbies I Used to Enjoy

January 10 – A  Celebrity I’d Like to Meet

January 17 – New Words I’ve Learned Recently & Meaning

January 24 – Languages I’m Learning or Want to Learn

January 31 – Series I Wish Had Just One More Books in Them

 

February 7 – Things I Like to Do on Stormy Days

February 14 – What’s New in My Life Lately

February 21 – Pets I Used to Have (or Wish to Have)

February 28 – How I Amuse Myself in Waiting Rooms

 

March 6 – Non-Fiction Books I’ve Read Lately

March  13 – A Book Trope I Wish Happened IRL More Often

March 20 – A Book Trope I Wish Wouldn’t Happen IRL

March 27 – An Interesting Story About Family or Friends

 

April 3 – Books on My TBR List the Longest

April 10 – A Moment I Wish I Could Relive

April 17 – Introvert vs. Extrovert: Which One Are You?

April 24 – Songs That Confused Me When I Was a Kid

 

May 1 – Villains I’d Root for Instead of the Protagonists

May 8 – Books/Movies/TV Shows I Wouldn’t Revisit and Why

May 15 – Funny Things I’ve Googled

May 22 – How I Feel About Staycations

May 29 – Museums/Galleries I’ve Visited/Want to Visit

 

June 5 – Books That Are Tearjerkers

June 12 – Characters I See Differently Now Than I Used To

June 19 – Things I Totally Misunderstood as a Kid

June 26 – A Skill I Wish More People Had and Why

 

July 3 – My Thoughts on Social Media

July 10 – Do You Enjoy Shopping? Why or Why Not?

July 17 – Something You Might Not Guess About Me

July 24 – A Sport I Want to Try

July 31 – Would I Stay in a Haunted House? Why or Why Not?

 

August 7 – Funniest Advice I’ve Received

August 14 – Things I Wish More People Talked About Openly

August 21 – A Book I Wish Were More Popular

August 28 – A Funny Animal Video, Photo,  Story, ect.

 

September 4 – Things I Like/Dislike About the Mystery Genre

September 11 – Books With Fantastic Endings

September 18 – Books That Should Have Ended a Different Way

September 25 – Describe Your Sense of Humour

 

October 2 – A Genre I Want to Read More Of

October 9 – Something That Was Better When I Was a Kid

October 16 – Something That’s Improved Since I Was a Kid

October 23 – What I Do When I’m Bored

October 30 – Superstitions I Secretly Believe In/Find Interesting

 

November 6 – Things I’ve Learned from Another WWBC Blogger

November 13 – My Thoughts on the Mystery Genre

November 20 – How I Spend My Weekends

November 27 – A Musical I Liked

 

December 4 – Something I Wish Would Come Back Into Fashion

December 11 – Myths or Legends From Where I Live

 

 

 

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December 26, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A person who is all wrapped up in a a warm winter coat and a red and black headscarf is sitting on a snowy bench in a park reading a book. You can see evergreen trees covered in a thick layer of snow in front of them, too. I was originally thinking about discussing library books this week, but December is such a busy month for me that I needed to finish this post well in advance and therefore would probably have already read (or DNF) any library books I had on my radar when I wrote it by the time this goes live.

Therefore, I’m going to be discussing books I’ve bought or downloaded for free but have not read yet (with two exceptions) instead.

Every Thursday, I share a list of free speculative fiction books on Mastodon. Everything but the first book on this list came from those toots, but they may or may not still be free by the time this post goes live.

Here are my answers and why I’m excited about them.

 

Book cover for The Long Arms by Michael Kanaly. Image on cover shows a fire burning brightly. There is a rock in front of the fire that has a few deer or cows painted on it in a prehistoric style.

 

1. The Long Arms by Michael Kanaly

Why I’m Interested: As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m fascinated by Neanderthals and read everything I can find – both fiction and nonfiction – about them. This looks like it could be a great story.

 

Book cover for Magic, Mistletoe, & Murder by Ruby Blaylock. Image on cover shows a witch flying on her broom in front of a full moon. On the city street below two black cats sit together and peer up at her. The cats are surrounded by a red gift wrapped in a white bow, a witch’s hat, some Christmas lights, and a bat flying low to the ground.

2. Magic, Mistletoe, & Murder by Ruby Blaylock

Why I’m Interested: It’s a cozy mystery set at Christmas. I love reading gentle stories like this sometimes.

 

Book cover for Neuro Noir by Al Hess. Image on cover shows a drawing of about a dozen different eyes that all have black irises and sclera. the one in the centre is red instead!

3. Neuro Noir by Al Hess

Why I’m Interested: I actually have a review of this book scheduled for January 11, so stay tuned.  Artificial intelligence always makes for such interesting protagonists.

 

Book cover for Devil's Night - A Halloween Short Story by Richard Chizmar. Image on cover is a drawing of three jack-o-lanterns leering at the viewer as they sit in a field under the light of a full moon at night.

4. Devil’s Night – A Halloween Short Story by Richard Chizmar

Why I’m Interested: Halloween is my favourite holiday, so I read a lot books set then so long as they’re not gory.

 

(No cover photo)

5. Hologram Kebab by Phillip Kebar

Why I’m Interested: The title was what first grabbed my attention. Isn’t it creative? My review of this book is scheduled for January 4.

 

Book cover for Don’t Look Back - Short Halloween Stories by Jason Thomas. Image on cover shows small, black-and- white drawings of a scythe with blood dripping from it, a gravestone, a stake, and a mushroom that has a little dirt on it.

 

6. Don’t Look Back – Short Halloween Stories by Jason Thomas

Why I’m Interested: See #4. There are never enough non-gory Halloween stories for my tastes.

 

Book cover for The Ballad of Mary-Anne by Kody Boye. Image on cover shows a starry evening sky that is partially lit up with a beautiful pink and purple light shining up from the bottom of the page. It may be from a sunset?

7. The Ballad of Mary-Anne by Kody Boye

Why I’m Interested: One word – aliens. I think they’re such fascinating things to read about.

 

Book cover for Free Will by Lisa Shea. Image on cover shows a human skull that has some gears drawn onto it. I’m sorry, but I have no idea what that symbolizes either! I guess we’ll both have to read the book to find out. :)

8. Free Will by Lisa Shea

Why I’m Interested: Here’s a fun, quick little story for you. My spouse is adamant that free will doesn’t exist. This is not a topic I honestly think about very much, but sometimes I like to tease my spouse a little by picking rabbits or other random creatures and saying those animals have free will but no one else in the universe does. (Yes, we are a little geeky sometimes. Hehe).  So I want to read this book mostly because it reminds me of this silly memory.

 

Book cover for Life on the Other Side by Daniel Powell,. Image on cover shows a peaceful little cottage covered in several feet of snow. It’s surrounded by gigantic fir trees that are also covered in snow, and there is a friendly little light emanating from a window in the cottage. It is overall a peaceful and happy scene.

9. Life on the Other Side by Daniel Powell

Why I’m Interested: The cover looks rather peaceful, while the blurb promises a lot of conflict. I think it’s cool when there’s a little conflict between a blurb and a cover. Which one will win, I wonder?

 

Book cover for The Fall Of Denver - A Tribute Story to the Original War Of The Worlds By H.G. Wells’ by Richard Paolinelli. Image on cover is a black and white drawing of an alien spaceship that looks like it’s beginning to crash onto a large pile of rubble on Earth. Everything is so messily drawn that it’s hard to tell where the rubble ends and the alien vessel begins. This feels like an intentional choice on the part of the illustrator and makes me wonder what other parallels might be drawn between the two.

10. The Fall Of Denver – A Tribute Story to the Original War Of The Worlds By H.G. Wells’ by Richard Paolinelli

Why I’m Interested: I adored War of the Worlds and am so curious to see what a contemporary author does with those ideas.

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December 21, 2023 · 1:00 am

Reporting to Santa: A Review of Hellf on the Shelf

Book cover for Want to read Buy on Amazon CA Rate this book Hellf on the Shelf: A Christmas Short Story by Rumer Haven. Image on cover shows a ceramic toy elf looking up and over at a Christmas tree behind them.

(If anyone from the Top Ten Tuesday community is reading this, it’s a book I mentioned in a Top Ten Tuesday post last December. I saved it for this Christmas season to review!)

Title: Hellf on the Shelf

Author: Rumer Haven

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 3, 2017

Genres: Fantasy, Holiday, Contemporary

Length: 17 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

‘Tis the season for Santa’s elves to deck the shelves, but this one’s on Mom’s naughty list.

No matter where or how she arranges the toy at night to surprise her sons in the morning, Mom wakes to find it just sitting on the shelf each and every time. Are the kids messing with her? Is her husband a traitor? Or is there more to the grinning elf on the shelf than its package advertised?

As Mom keeps trying to make spirits bright this season, she learns the true mystery and magic of Christmas.

Review:

Christmas magic is anything but effortless.

I adored the message of this short story. Too often the holidays are wonderful because women – and especially mothers – perform hours of invisible, unpaid work behind the scenes to ensure that the house is sparkling clean, the kitchen is stocked with plenty of delicious things to eat, invitations have been sent out for the parties organized by women, and there is a large pile of presents beneath the tree to suit everyone’s interests among countless other tasks. This isn’t to say this work is joyless. It can make amazing memories for everyone, but that doesn’t detract from the point that the labor is unevenly distributed and not always done happily. Keep this in mind while reading because it’s an important part of what plays out for one exhausted and confused mom as Christmas inches closer.

The unnamed family featured in this tale were genuinely nice people who loved each other and enjoyed spending time together. That’s not always present in what I read, so I sighed with relief when I realized that the twist had nothing at all do with anyone being unkind to each other. It was relaxing to get to know these characters better and wait to see what marvelous things might await them.

There was a gentle quality to the storyline that I appreciated as well. Yes, there were fantasy elements to it, but they all seemed like stuff that could occur at anyone’s house at this time of the year if that family believed in elves who watch over households and report back to Santa on what they find. I liked the ordinariness of the magical scenes and thought it blended in well with the sort of metaphorical magic that exists in our world.

Hellf on the Shelf was a breath of fresh air.

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December 19, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Winter Solstice Bookish Wishes


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Painting of a young, blond, white woman who is standing outside in a snowstorm and looking at a fir tree whose branches are heavily coated in snow. She is wearing a red dress with white cuffs on it and a white cloak with a yellow, possibly fur trim. She is also holding a lantern that’s about the size of an infant. The lantern is glowing steadily in the dark winter scene, illuminating her, the tree, and the snow. Happy (almost) Winter Solstice to everyone who will be celebrating it in a few days! I’m eagerly anticipating the changing of the seasons and the few extra minutes of daylight we’ll soon have each day here in Canada.

Here are my Winter Solstice bookish wishes.

1. More Audiobooks at the Library 

A few years ago, some Top Ten Tuesday bloggers encouraged me to give audiobooks a try during an audiobook prompt. I listened to you and have since learned to love having this option while doing chores or getting cardiovascular exercise on a brisk walk!

My local library has a pretty decent selection of audiobooks, but I’d love to see them offer even more of them than they currently do. For example, I’d love to listen to audiobooks of Jean M. Auel’s Earth’s Children series this winter or even just listen to more fiction in general. Nonfiction is better represented at my library than fiction is from what I’ve seen.

2. Quiet Reading Time 

My spouse prefers watching YouTube videos to reading books and we live in a small apartment, so sometimes I wish for more quiet time to read.

3. An Abundance of Novellas

I’ve really been on a novella kick lately and wish there were more books of this length being published, especially in the speculative fiction genres. It’s refreshing to have something longer than a short story to dive into that doesn’t require my attention for 200+ pages. Some storylines don’t need that much space to shine.

4. Dairy-Free Chocolate

I like to save it for emotional scenes, whether it’s a tense moment in a horror novel or a sentimental chapter in a piece of mainstream fiction. There’s something about chocolate that makes those passages even more memorable.

5. Living Happily Ever After

This is something I’ve mentioned here before, but since 2020 I have felt stronger and stronger urges to read stories that end happily. Occasionally, I will actually look up reviews of certain books or skip ahead to the last few pages to see if the good guys won and if everything is peaceful in the end. While I’m still willing to read some stories that don’t fit that pattern, I’m limiting them much more than I used to and am quicker to DNF them if they become too sad.

6. Endings in General

Maybe I should explain this one a little better. I’m a writer, and I’ve been having trouble coming up with endings for my stories. Beginnings are easy, middle sections aren’t too bad, but endings can be tricky. Here’s hoping I get a flash of inspiration in 2024.

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