Category Archives: Blog Hops

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Things I Like to Do on Stormy 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.

A woman playfully blowing snow out of her hands. She is wearing thick gloves and a warm hat and coat while standing in the woods in winter, so the effect is lighthearted and she doesn’t look the least bit cold. Winters here in Ontario have been milder than usual these past few years. When we do get cold, stormy weather, here are some of the things I like to do to amuse myself during them:

Read

This one is pretty obvious, and I’m betting most of you are going to mention it, too.

 

Play in the Snow for About 20 Minutes.

I love being an outdoorsy person when the weather is mild, but not so much when it’s painfully cold or hot outside. So about 20 minutes of building a snowman or walking around to admire the beauty of winter is my idea of a good time before I go back indoors to warm up.

 

Watch Movies

I think that psychological horror films are a great match for snowy winter days when it’s far too blustery to be outdoors if you don’t have to be.

There’s something delicious about getting scared silly while the wind beats against your window. It’s so easy to imagine there might really be a monster lurking out there just beyond the blur of the storm, after all!

If I’m watching movies with someone who doesn’t like anything scary at all, other genres like historical, documentaries, or comedies can work perfectly nicely, too. Just don’t ask me to watch anything involving people being cold.

Hypothermia isn’t something I like to think about when the weather outside is frightful. Let’s find something lighthearted, educational, or thought provoking instead.

 

Cook or Bake Food 

I prefer making warm, hearty things like soup, stew, chili, roasted vegetables,  banana bread, or chocolate chip cookies during winter storms. There’s nothing like slowly noticing your home filling up with delicious scents on a stormy day.

 

A black woman dancing joyfully while listening to something on her headphones. She’s wearing jeans and a pink t-shirt. Dance

Am I a good dancer? Heh, not really, but I love learning new dance routines through the magic of the Internet. You don’t have to be good at something in order to enjoy it, after all.

This is a nice way to get some exercise in when you’re stuck indoors all day, and it’s a great way to pass the time as well if you see the snow piling up outdoors and start feeling restless.

I’ll dance to all sorts of types of music, but I find that hip-hop, Bollywood, and Zumba-style dances tend to get my heart pumping the best.

So if I’m dancing as my exercise routine for the day, I tend to start with those styles because I have specific goals about reaching certain heartbeat rates that I try to meet for my cardio workouts.

If it’s just for fun, anything will do. Every sort of dance is a good sort in my book!

 

Play Board Games, Card Games, or Do Jigsaw Puzzles

There are some games I try to save for days when the weather is bad or when I have a cold and need something quiet to do as I recover.

Bodies need exercise, and so does your mind! I’m perfectly happy to play games of luck that don’t require any thinking, too, but I also enjoy the challenge of solving a puzzle or figuring out who killed Professor Plum in the conservatory and what weapon they used as well.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Quick Reads


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A photo of a water-damaged, possibly mold-encrusted book lying opened up to the world on a flat grey stone outdoors. It appears to me that someone did this in order to help the pages dry, and they are drying stiffly and with some pages sticking straight up. Looking at this makes me wonder if the book will be readable again! What a great topic idea, Jennifer @ FunkNFiction.com and Angela @ Reading Frenzy. 

I love short stories, novellas, and other short reads! They always seem to float to the top of my TBR list and comprise most of what I review on this blog because I don’t think they always get as much attention as they should have.

My first few answers will be of some of my recent reviews and the rest will be of older short works that I thought were well done.

Whenever possible, I have included a link to the full text stories I’m discussing here so that you can all enjoy them, too.

1. Is Neurocide the Same As Genocide? And Other Dangerous Ideas (Spiral Worlds) by Alexandra Almeida

What I Liked About It: The ethical dilemma it introduced was interesting and did not have any easy answers. If only the brain mapping technology described in this tale actually existed.

 

2. The Girls in Red by BB Wrenne (My review for this one is scheduled for February 15)

What I Liked About It:  It retold a classic fairy tale that I have seen very few recent retellings of. It’s always nice when that happens.

 

3. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

What I Liked About It:  The main character was sympathetic and the message is something modern audiences still need to take heed of.

 

4. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin

What I Liked About It: The surprise at the end. Some of you may already be aware of why Omelas is such a peaceful city, but anyone who does not will be in for quite the read. I still daydream about this tale sometimes and wonder what happened to the main character after the final scene.

 

5. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

What I Liked About It: Goodness, how do I describe this one without giving away spoilers? Let’s just say that it’s not quite the idyllic setting it might first appear to be and it can be excellent fodder for a spirited discussion after you finish it if you like that sort of thing.

 

6. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

What I Liked About It: There was a strong sense of justice woven into the main character, and I admired his willingness to help others even when it put his own reputation and livelihood on the line.

 

7. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

What I Liked About It: Someday I will stop gushing about the Monk & Robot series, but today is not that day. I adore how peaceful it is and how well most of the people in this universe get along not with each other but with nature and animals as well. Wouldn’t it be incredible to create such a harmonious society in real life?

 

8. Foster by Claire Keegan

What I Liked About It: The realism and honesty of it all. This read like it could be been based on real events that were written down by the main character many decades after her experience living with childless relatives for a few months while her mother recovered from giving birth. I didn’t want this one to end.

 

9. A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams

What I Liked About It: This picture book (which reads more like a short story) was so encouraging and kind. I’d love to read a novel about these characters a few decades later when the little girl is grown up.

 

10. Ramona’s World by Beverly Cleary

What I Liked About It: I read some of the books in this series as a kid but outgrew them before the last ones came out. It was wonderful to finally go back and finish it a couple of years ago. Ramona was as creative and impulsive as ever!

I can’t wait to see everyone else’s answers.

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Series I Wish Had Just One More Books in Them

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

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

I have two answers to this week’s question. The first is from a classic series and the second is from a modern one.

The Chronicles of Narnia

A silhoutte of Aslan walking with the four Pevensie children, Mrs. And Mrs. Beaver, and the Mr. Tumnus the faun in lockstep behind him. All of these characters are from C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. When I was a kid, my uncle gave me his old, complete set of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia books, and I reread those stories over and over again for many years. Can I assume that a spoiler tag isn’t necessary for a more than 70-year-old series?  Skip the next two paragraphs if you believe that this isn’t enough time yet to talk about how it ends.  😉

One thing I strongly disliked about the plot was the way Susan was treated. All of the other main characters end up in the Narnian version of heaven in the end, even folks who made terrible choices earlier on. But Susan is left behind in our world to deal with the overwhelming grief of simultaneously losing her parents, siblings, and a few dear friends because she was growing up and becoming interested in parties and makeup instead of reminiscing about her childhood adventures.

That ending made me so angry when I was a kid. Of course she moved on to other interests as she grew older. Literally everyone does that, and most of us tend to do it multiple times throughout life. It’s completely normal. If certain other characters could betray everyone in their group and still be forgiven, she should have been forgiven for what I see as a much milder offence that could easily be chalked up to her being a teenager who was trying to figure out what adulthood might look like for her and who would have almost certainly circled back to Narnia once she was a little older.

C.S. Lewis should have written one final book to redeem Susan’s character arc and give her the happy ending she deserved. If one of you invents a time machine, I will volunteer to go back to the 1950s and talk him into it.

Monk & Robot Series

I’ve discussed this solarpunk series by Becky Chambers here in at least one previous Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge post, but let’s dive into it again.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy are still the only two instalments of it. They follow a monk named Sibling Dex who lives in a utopian future called Panga where humanity lives in harmony with nature (and mostly with each other as well). People occupy some of the land, but the rest is left to grow into lush forests, marshes, or whatever other sorts of environments the local climate can support without any interference from humans.

A photo of an incredibly dense and thick forest that looks like it’s never had a human walk through it. The trees are growing so closely together that their leaves block out much of the sun. Some light trickles down into the forest, but the forest floor is almost as black as night. Sibling Dex breaks the rules of their society by venturing out into one of those dark, healthy, thick forests one day to see what they might find there.

I won’t share any spoilers about what might be lurking out there since these novellas are only a few years old, but I will say that I adored the world-building and character development of them.  They’re gentle but deep and so rewarding once you pause to think about all of the new details that slowly emerge about how nice it is to live in Panga.

We desperately need another instalment of Sibling Dex’s adventures in my opinion. There are still so many facets of this world that need to be explored. Honestly, I’m hoping there will be at least two or three more books to come without any time machines or persuasion needed, but even one would suffice!

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Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Photo of the hands of a white person holding open a book that is, curiously enough, completely blank on the inside! I’m narrowing this list down a little to new-to-me authors I read in 2023 that I have opinions about.

Sometimes I’ll finish a book with a completely neutral opinion about the author and his or her writing style. There’s not much to criticize or compliment them about, at least for my first experience reading them.

It almost feels like looking at a blank page. It’s not a bad thing by any means, just an unfinished one for now in my mind.

In those cases, I think it’s best to say nothing at all until or unless I try them again and have something more substantial to say about their work.

Here are some authors that I did think were worth mentioning this week.

1. Lynn Curlee

What I Read From Them: “The Other Pandemic: An AIDS Memoir

Would I Read Them Again: Probably. This was written for a young adult audience, so I’d be most interested in seeing how the author writes for an adult audience next time.

 

2. Naira de Gracia 

What I Read From Them: The Last Cold Place: A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica

Would I Read Them Again: Yes. She had a conversational writing style that worked well for readers who are not scientists but who are interested in reading about science. (If any of you are scientists, I’d sure like to hear what you thought of this book).

 

3. Hannah Wunsch

What I Read From Them: The Autumn Ghost: How the Battle Against a Polio Epidemic Revolutionized Modern Medical Care

Would I Read Them Again: Maybe. She seemed to be very knowledgeable on this topic, but sometimes I felt a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of detail that was included. (This is something I’d like to revisit someday. I had a cold when I read it so it could have just been a Right Book at the Wrong Time sort of issue).

 

4. Delilah S. Dawson

What I Read From Them: “Bloom

Would I Read Them Again: No. It’s a me problem, though! This was a good example of what the gory side of horror can have to say about the world, but I’m simply too easily scared these days to enjoy such things anymore. If you love this sort of horror, please don’t let my squeamishness keep you from reading this. The writing itself was gorgeous.

 

5. Susan Albers

What I Read From Them: 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food

Would I Read Them Again: Maybe. Self-help is honestly not a genre I visit very often, but this book did have a lot of thoughtful suggestions for self-soothing techniques that don’t involve food.

 

6. Daniel Black

What I Read From Them: “Don’t Cry for Me

Would I Read Them Again: Yes. I need a sequel to this book written from the estranged son’s perspective immediately! Mr. Black, please make your fans ridiculously happy and show us what happens next in this family. (Hehe).

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Languages I’m Learning or Want to Learn

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 pink mug that has the phrase “la vida bonita” written on it in a cursive font.

La vida bonita – the beautiful life.

I’ve been studying Spanish this past year and am more than halfway through the Duolingo course for it.

While I’m not fluent in it yet, I can have simple conversations in it and often understand the gist of what someone is saying in it if they’re not speaking too fast.

On average, I spend about thirty minutes a day practicing Spanish, but I’m hoping to do even more this year now that I have some of the basics down and don’t have to look up every single word.

Listening to music and watching tv shows and films from this language seem to be a logical next step for me.

Once I do become fluent in it, I’m hoping to learn French next. It’s one of the two official languages here in Canada, so being trilingual would open up a lot of doors for me both professionally and personally.

 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Meant to Read in 2023 but Didn’t Get To


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A photo of a huge bookcase filled with hundreds or maybe even thousands of books. The books are stacked in about eight different shelves that reach higher than most people can reach. You’d need a ladder to get the books on the top couple of shelves. It looks like a peaceful place to browse. I still have a number of books from my 2023 seasonal TBR posts left to read.

This is pretty normal for me.

Most of what i read comes from my local library, so I never quite know when they’ll get any specific title in.

They do a great job of adding new books to their collection, but no library can possibly buy every single book in existence or have enough copies for all of their patrons to read in the first week or two of release.

How are you all doing with your lists from last year?

Here’s what I still have left to read that I hope to get around to sometime.

 

Book cover for Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher. Image on cover shows a dwarfing of a curved and pointed axe whose tip is bathed in blood. One large drop of blood is falling off of the tip. There is a castle in the background.
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
Book cover for “You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories” by Octavia Cade. Image on cover shows about a dozen wilting sunflowers that are falling down or have already fallen down onto a wooden desk.

Book cover for Furies by Margaret Atwood. Image on cover shows a medieval-style drawing of a dragon who has pink wings, a green neck, a red chest, purple arms and tail, and a face that includes all of these colours in stripes down it.

Furies by Margaret Atwood

 

Book cover for The Mysteries by Bill Watterson. Image on cover is a black and white drawing of a person wearing a cloak as they stand outside of a cottage in a dark winter forest. The person has a frightened expression on their face.

The Mysteries by Bill Watterson

 

Book cover for The Wrong Girl & Other Warnings by Angela Slatter. Image on cover is a drawing of a short, red haired person standing in a smoky magical forest. There is a massive, about 15-foot-tall tree monster with glowing yellow eyes looking at the person as it slowly turns around.

The Wrong Girl & Other Warnings by Angela Slatter

 

 

Book cover for Like Thunder by Nnedi Okorafor. Image on cover shows a photograph of a beautiful African woman who has short hair and is wearing an intricate necklace. Her head is overlaid with another image that shows lighting striking a lightning rod on a building.

 

Like Thunder by Nnedi Okorafor

 

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: New Words I’ve Learned Recently And Their Meanings

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 learned all of these words from the same Mastodon post earlier this month. Isn’t it nice when things like that happen?

Closeup photo of an assortment of Scrabble tiles. They are a random grouping and do not spell any words, but you can see letters like r, j, m, and s included in the pile. Respair

From the 16th century. It means fresh hope and a recovery from despair.

 

Gruntled

happy or contented; satisfied

 

Gormful

Sensible; not foolish, senseless, or gormless.

 

Ruthful

compassionate or sorrowful.

causing or apt to cause sorrow or pity.

 

Feckful

Powerful, effective, efficient, vigorous.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2024


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

 

A photo of the word “start” painted in large white letters on an otherwise empty country road. The road is brown and dusty. The grass beside it on both sides is dead. The sky above is blue and partially cloudy. Here are my goals for 2024.

1. Visit coffee shops more often. There’s something so delightfully bookish about them, don’t you think?

2. Submit a Top Ten Tuesday theme to Jana that she ends up using. Yes, I’m reusing this joke from last year, but I would also be thrilled if it happens someday. Ha!

3. Meet more bookish people and maybe become friends with a few of them if it works out?!

4. Spend less time on the Internet. I’ve been using it heavily these past few years as it was often one of the few covid-safe things to do, especially when the weather outdoors was smoky from wildfires or icy because it was the middle of winter and even here in southern Canada it is not a tropical place then by any means. While I’m grateful for all of the entertainment the Internet offers, I’d love to find more ways to socialize in real life that are mindful of Covid precautions, too.

5. Read more books about history. I read very little of it in 2023.

6. Patronize independent bookstores. I didn’t do this last year but would like to try again this year.

7. Try some new caffeine-free teas. I love drinking tea while I read, so any suggestions are would be appreciated if you know of a good one.

8. Read more novellas and short stories. I love how quickly I can finish them.

9. Avoid reading when I wake up in the middle of the night. Sometimes I have trouble falling back asleep, and I’m wondering it that would be easier if I tried something other than reading in those moments.

10. Spend less time on social media. My hope is that I’ll be able to meet some more folks in real life if I reduce Internet and social media scrolling.  (This one is going to be almost as hard as cutting back on my Internet usage in general, friends! Wish me luck).

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A  Celebrity I’d Like to Meet

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

A black and white photo of Fred Rogers that looks like it was taken in the 1960s or 1970s. He is smiling ,has a full head of hair, and is wearing a white shirt and tie underneath a cabled sweater.

Fred Rogers. Photo credit: Terry Arthur

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.

If Long and Short Reviews is secretly hiding their ability to bring back deceased celebrities, I’d love to meet Fred Rogers.

If Long and Short Reviews does not currently have any magical abilities, I’d pick Dwayne Johnson.

Why? It’s simple.

I prefer spending time with people who are kind and thoughtful.

From what I’ve read, both Fred and Dwayne are – or were – well-known for being genuinely good human beings.

I’ve read so many stories about both of them going out of their way to make other people’s lives better in both small and life-changing ways.

A photo of the American actor Dwayne Johnson. He is wearing a button-down blue shirt, a suit, and is smiling.

Dwayne Johnson. Photo credit: Eva Rinaldi

There are other celebrities out there whose work I’ve admired, but I have no idea what they may be like behind closed doors.

Maybe they’re also fantastic, of course, but all I know about them comes from what they’ve created and not what their personal lives may or may not be like.

Therefore, I’m going to pick people who have developed strong reputations as individuals who are a joy to be around every single time.

Life is short and sometimes difficult, so why not choose the most agreeable company you can?

Also, wouldn’t you love to see Mr. Rogers react to one of Dwayne’s comedic films? I think that would be delightful.

 

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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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