Category Archives: Blog Hops

September 22, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Fall 2026 To-Read List

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I am still looking forward to reading all of the books I mentioned for Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2026, and now these autumn titles can be added to the list as well.  The first two have already been released.

Here’s hoping all of you have found some real gems, too!

 

Book cover for The Birthing Tree by Amanda Peters. Image on cover shows a drawing of a tree with many gnarled branches and some gnarled roots that are sticking up out of the soil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.The Birthing Tree by Amanda Peters

Thank you to Pam @ Read Bake Create for alerting me to this title.

Why I’m Interested: My mother used a midwife for her first two births. I like stories about this topic. 

 

Book cover for Hollywood, Ending by John Green. Image on cover shows the colours green, pink, orange, yellow, and blue painted in the shape of a rainbow in a repetitious manner. It’s pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.  Hollywood, Ending by John Green

Why I’m Interested: Honestly, being famous sounds tiring. I’m especially interested in how such a thing affects people’s romantic lives as I can’t imagine it makes it easy to date or to stay married. 

 

Book cover for As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers. Image on cover shows a purple planet hovering about our own green Earth. They otherwise look fairly similar as far as continents and size go. This image is shown from outer space so that both planets can be seen in full effect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers

Publication Date: October 13

Why I’m Interested: Ms. Chambers is on my list of must-read authors. This sci-fi romance duology sounds lovely! 

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September 16, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Book/TV/Movie Characters I’d Invite to a Dinner Party

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.

This week’s Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge theme complements yesterday’s Top Ten Tuesday theme beautifully. I love it when the two blog hops I participate in overlap like that.

Those of you who stopped by yesterday will remember how I do not seek out meet-and-greets with authors because I’m not into celebrity culture.

Meeting characters, though? Yes!

Here are some characters from books and shows I’ve recently enjoyed that I’d like to meet:

 

A black and white drawing of a hand making a Vulcan salute. The thumb is pointed out to the side alone, the index and middle finger are touching each other and leaning to the right, and the ring and pinkie finger are touching each other and pointing gently to the left. This leaves a v-shaped space between the middle and ring fingers. Erica Ortegas from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. I love her sense of humour and how quickly she thinks on her feet in a crisis. She’s had some interesting storylines regarding her mental health, too, after she was seriously wounded on a mission. If only the writers would give her some happiness in the future, too, whether it’s in the form of her getting a longterm girlfriend, spending time with family, or something else that’s equally wholesome.

 

Joseph M’Benga, also from Strange New Worlds. He has a tragic backstory that I keep hoping the show will go back to with some sort of resolution arc. I also enjoy seeing how methodically he works in the sick bay, especially when an episode includes multiple people getting sick or injured in the same time period. He’s a kind and dedicated doctor. It would be nice to see him and Erica in the same room more often, too, as they’re generally working in opposite areas of their ship.

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September 15, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I’ve Met

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This is a good idea for a theme, but I haven’t met many authors. I avoid celebrity culture in general, including when it spills over into the bookish community. Toronto often has celebrity visitors who are here filming movies, performing concerts, doing book signings, or participating in other work events for them, so it’s not exciting to me. They’re just people like you and I are.

If I were able to meet my favourite characters in person, that would be one thing. But I’d generally either rather not meet authors at all or treat them like I would anyone else if we do cross paths. That means I might congratulate them on their latest book if they bring it up, but I won’t be fawning over or swooning over them or anything because if I were in their shoes, I’d rather just have a normal conversation about the delicious food or beautiful music at an event or something instead.

(No offence intended to those of you who enjoy such things as a reader or as an author, of course).

With those caveats in mind, here are three authors I’ve met who all happen to be fellow Canadians.  They were all quite kind in our brief interactions, so do feel free to say hello to them if you know who they are and see them at bookish events.

A photo of children’s author Gordon Korman who is smiling faintly and wearing a light purple button-up shirt. He’s an older white man who is wearing sunglasses in this shot.

© 2019 Larry D. Moore. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gordon Korman 

 

Book cover for Molly: Child Number 583 by Mary Keenan, John Stevens. Image on cover shows a photo of Mary as a child. She’s wearing a light blue dress, a red sweater, and is carrying a doll that has a red dress on. This photo looks like it was taken in the 1940s or 1950s.

 

Mary Keenan
(I could find no recent photos of her online, so here’s her book cover instead. It was a good read!)
Photo of famous Canadian science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer, a middle-aged white man wearing a dark blue button-down shirt and glasses. His hair is cut short and he’s smiling broadly in this shot.

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September 9, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books Set Near Where I Live

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 know I’ve done similar topics in the past. This time I’m specifically focusing on books set in Southern Ontario instead of in Toronto.

Book cover for Ghost Road And Other Forgotten Stories of Windsor by Marty Gervais. Image on cover is a black and white photo of a back country road that only has one vehicle driving on it. The grass and dry and looks dormant for the winter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.Ghost Road And Other Forgotten Stories of Windsor by Marty Gervais

 

Book cover for Birding at Point Pelee by Henrietta T. O'Neill. Image on cover shows an aerial shot of Point Pelee. It’s covered in forests and has a beach on the left hand side of the point, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Birding at Point Pelee by Henrietta T. O’Neill

 

Book cover for Fifth Business by Robertson Davies. Image on cover shows the silhouette of a man’s head against a round yellow object, possibly the sun. Near him are various objects like a black fist, the tendril of a growing plant, and three solid blue lines in a row.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

 

Book cover for Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. Image on cover shows a painting of a young woman with long light brown hair who is looking serenely off to the side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

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September 8, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Indie Books I’ve Reviewed Here This Year

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Thank you to dark.shelf.of.wonders and Books Are The New Black for submitting this theme!

One of the unfortunate consequences of the rise of large language models is how they anre impacting the indie and self-published corners of the bookish community. I’m seeing more and more authors from these sectors use LLMs not only to design their book covers but also to help write or even sometimes do all of the work of writing their stories. (This is something I know because many of them actually admit to it!).

I am morally opposed to the use of LLMs in general because of how harmful they are to the environment, the widespread theft of written and visual imagery that was used to create them, and the devastating number of people who have lost their jobs as a result of these things. Therefore, the number of indie and self-published authors I review on my blog is seeing a steady and probably permanent decline. As committed as I used to be to featuring authors that needed such exposure, I can’t ethically continue to do so under current conditions.

You have the right to your own opinion on this topic, of course, but I will only be approving kind and respectful replies here.

So this post is looking back at a happier time before all of that stuff started happening. Here are ten self-published books I’ve reviewed here in the recent past. To the best of my knowledge, no LLMs were used in the creation of them.

The links below will take you to my reviews of these stories!

Book cover for Homeless by Neal Shooter. Image on cover shows a black and white sketch of someone walking through a forest on a cold winter day. The ground is covered in snow, the trees are bare, and the person is so bundled up you can’t tell what they look like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Homeless by Neil Shooter

 

Book cover for Love Bug  by Zoe Tasia. Image on cover is a drawing of three light brown envelopes that have been dropped in a snowbank and have a few red hearts floating out of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Love Bug by Zoe Tasia

 

Book cover for Five Miles Out Of Black Creek by Neil Shooter. Image on cover shows a dry, dusty country road that has no one travelling on it. It shoots straight ahead and, in the far distance, turns up over a hill. There are mountains even further in the distance. The trees on either side of the road and brown and leafless as it appears to be late autumn in this scene. The sky overhead is hazy and blue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Five Miles Out Of Black Creek by Neil Shooter

 

Book cover for Amina by P.B. Cannon. Image on cover is a watercolour painting of a woman with long white hair dancing in the forest. She’s wearing a light blue dress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Amina by P.B. Cannon

 

Book cover for Marginal Worlds by Alfred Bekker. Image on cover shows a realistic drawing of a space ship sailing past a streak of light in outer space. There are no planets or suns in the picture, so the source of the light remains mysterious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Marginal Worlds by Alfred Bekker

 

Book cover for Cosmophobia by George Saoulidis. Image on cover shows a computer-generated drawing of the sort of probe scientists have been sending to places like Jupiter. It’s gold-coloured, oblong shaped, and has two wings that look like they also double as solar panels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Cosmophobia by George Saoulidis

 

Book cover for Mayday Mayday Mayday by Holly Schindler. Image on cover is a black and white photo of one of the engines of an antique two-engine plane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Mayday Mayday Mayday by Holly Schindler

 

Book cover for Beach House on the Moon by Leigh Kimmel. Image on cover shows a young white woman with long, straight blonde hair sitting on a rock at the beach while wearing a black jacket. She’s watching the waves crash against the shore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Beach House on the Moon byLeigh Kimmel

 

Book cover for Chasing June by Holly Schindler. Image on cover shows a straw hat with a red ribbon on it. The hat is lying on top of a little bouquet of white wild flowers that is itself lying on an old leather book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Chasing June by Holly Schindler

 

Book cover for A Hundred Julys by Holly Schindler,. Image on cover shows a 1970s-style television with a faux-wood cover. It has a small white 1970s-style fan and a potted plant sitting on top of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. A Hundred Julys by Holly Schindler

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September 2, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: One Sci-Fi Item or Ability I Wish Really Existed

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.

In previous posts on this topic, I’ve talked about my desire for replicators and for top-notch Star Trek medical care to be real due to all of the wonderful things they’d do for us.

I’m sticking with the Star Trek theme yet again this time because that universe was filled with some excellent ideas.

A computer-generated sketch of what warp drive might look like as a spacecraft suddenly zipped away. Hundreds of white lines are jutting out from a centralized space in the middle of the image, illuminating outer space for a moment as the spacecraft leaves. I wish we lived in a world where Warp Drives really existed as well so we could travel faster than the speed of light and see more of the universe. Right now we are only capable of traveling to the moon which, while still a noteworthy place to explore, doesn’t have any life on it.

Imagine a time when we could travel to distant stars and see if the moons or planets orbiting them had anything interesting living there.

Are there plants growing in those distant places that might cure diseases like cancer?

Are there friendly aliens living there with whom we could trade scientific knowledge and resources?

Could humans live there if necessary? Could aliens live on Earth?

The possibilities are endless, and I wish we could have answers to all of our questions.

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September 1, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books With Nationalities In The Title

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I’m going to try to not repeat any nationalities in this list!

As I haven’t read any of these titles yet, the only thing I can vouch for is that they fit the requirements for today’s theme.

Book cover for Cuban Sun (Sofia Koury, #1) by Ann Bauer. Image on cover shows a Cuban woman’s face superimposed over what appears to be the hull of a modern ship. The sun is setting over the ocean in the distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Cuban Sun (Sofia Koury, #1) by Ann Bauer

 

Book cover for Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett. Image on cover shows a painting of a young Byzantium girl dress in light gold robes. She has dark curly hair and is quite pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett

 

Book cover for Stefi and the Spanish Prince by Donna Freitas. Image on cover shows a white woman and a Spanish man embracing underneath a gigantic gold and pink crown outside on a sunny day. The crown is covering their heads and some of the torsos because of how large it is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Stefi and the Spanish Prince by Donna Freitas

 

Book cover for Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li. Image on cover shows a white goose hanging upside down with its feet wrapped up in a gold cord. It’s honking and looks distressed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li

 

Book cover for Indian Dust by Rumer Godden. Image on cover shows a drawing of a leafy plant growing next to a pond.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Indian Dust by Rumer Godden

 

Book cover for 1916: A Novel of the Irish Rebellion by Morgan Llywelyn. Image on cover shows a photo of a child from the 1910s who is wearing a loose dress and standing in the street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. 1916: A Novel of the Irish Rebellion by Morgan Llywelyn

 

Book cover for Jamaican Me Crazy: A Christmas Escape by Debbie Digiovanni. Image on cover shows a pair of pale-skinned feet with red painted nails. They are wearing yellow flip-flops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Jamaican Me Crazy: A Christmas Escape by Debbie Digiovanni

 

Book cover for I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011 by Lauren Tarshis. Image on cover shows a painting of a young Japanese boy running away from a tsunami.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011 by Lauren Tarshis

 

Book cover for Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Peña. Image on cover shows a drawing of a young biracial boy who is gearing up to throw a baseball.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Peña

 

Book cover for Scottish Ghosts by Lily Seafield. Image on cover shows a ghost wearing red lipstick and a white, transparent shawl. They’re looking up at something, and the effect is eerie due to how pale they are and how red their lipstick is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. Scottish Ghosts by Lily Seafield

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August 26, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Weird Fact I Learned from Reading Fiction

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 love this topic but struggled to come up with an answer for it because I don’t read many fiction books that share weird facts in them.

Finally, I thought of a response. When I was a teenager, one of my English teachers assigned “The Landlady” by  Roald Dahl to us. I’m afraid I must spoil the ending of this horror mystery tale in order to write my post, so do go read it first if you’re not already familiar with what happens. It’s a short read.

A white teacup filled with plain tea. Beside it is a white tea maker. Now that you’ve all had a chance to read it for yourselves,  this tale was about a young man who was meeting up with a landlady who happened to have a room available to rent to him. She was a rather strange woman who seemed to be obsessed with taxidermy. The story ends with the young man drinking a cup of tea she offered him that tasted faintly of bitter almonds.

We were all confused about that detail until our teacher told us that cyanide tastes like bitter almonds.

Yes, she poisoned him. After he died, she was planning to taxidermy him just like she had with her previous two boarders.

We were all a little horrified by how this story ended, but it was a memorable one for sure!

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August 25, 2026 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Places I Want to Visit

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Apologies to Susan @Bloggin’ ’bout Books, but I haven’t visited many exciting bookish places. My books generally come from the public library, and I simply do not have the budget to travel to other countries.

Sand sculpted into the image of an old man sitting at a desk and leaning over to read a book. He looks a little concerned with what he is reading. Unless you want to hear stories about me reading encyclopedias from the 1960s at my grandmother’s house when I was a child, I’ll have to tweak this topic a little in order to participate. 

Therefore, here are ten bookish places I’d like to visit that are either the settings for famous works or have beautiful libraries or festivals there:

1. The W.E.B. Du Bois Center Library in Ghana

2. The Library of Alexandria in Egypt (If it still existed, of course).

3. Prince Edward Island, Canada

4. The Jane Eyre trail, Peak District

5. The Ake Arts and Book Festival in Nigeria

6. Amsterdam

7. Kyoto

8. Cartagena

9. Buenos Aires

10. Chimurenga Library in South Africa

 

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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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