Category Archives: Blog Hops

March 14, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Spring 2023 To-Read List

There is an opened hardback book. Four white tulips with pink streaks in their petals are lying on top of the book. The flowers have just begun to open and have not yet reached their full bloom. You can see their green stems and leaves on the bottom left hand side of the image. I know that not every Top Ten Tuesday participant lives in the Northern Hemisphere or in a part of the world that has similar seasons to Ontario, but some of us are inching closer to spring with every passing day.

I cannot wait for spring so I can go outside and enjoy some warmer and non-soggy nature time. (It can get pretty muddy here in March and April after the ice and snow begins to melt but the soil hasn’t absorbed all of that water yet).

Who else is counting down the days until the change of the seasons?

My answers to this week’s prompt are going to be the usual random assortment of topics. I love jumping around between nonfiction and fiction as well as zooming between all sorts of genres within the fiction label as well.

Let’s see what will hopefully be capturing my attention this spring.

In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune

Publication Date: April 25

Why I’m Interested: T.J. Klune is one of those authors I keep meaning to read but never quite get around to it. I love robot stories, though, so this one might convince me to take the plunge.

Book cover for The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley. Image on cover is a drawing of a senior citizen and a young dark-haired person driving off into the sunset in a green car that doesn’t have a top on it.

The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley

Publication Date: March 28

Why I’m Interested: I love stories about cross-generational friendships. It’s also nice to see more protagonists who are senior citizens.

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan

Publication Date: April 4

Why I’m Interested: I’d never heard of Madge Oberholtzer before, but she sounds like she was a courageous and incredible human being.

Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing by Emily Lynn Paulson

Publication Date: May 30

Why I’m Interested: It’s really sad to see people being taken advantage of by pyramid schemes and other “job” offers that promise wealth but often put one deeply into debt instead.

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March 8, 2023 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Something Funny That Happened To Me

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.

About a half dozen pairs of dress shoes neatly polished and sitting in tidy rows on a wooden surface. They have shoe horns inside of them, too, to help them keep their shape. This is a story that happened when I was about two years old. I don’t personally remember it, and there aren’t any photos from this day so far as I know. Luckily, my parents made sure to tell me all about it once I was old enough to form longterm memories.

When I was a toddler, mom and dad took me on a trip to visit my mom’s younger brother at college. Uncle Joe had a roommate named John and trilingual friend named Sebastian who were both with him that day. From what I’ve been told, they were happy to meet my parents and have a little one around for a few hours.

I was a quiet, calm, and generally well-behaved child. The combination of those personality traits means that you can sometimes get away with things that noisier kids who unwittingly attract adult attention with their shenanigans might not.

So there was baby Lydia quietly looking around in an unfamiliar place when she noticed that Sebastian wasn’t speaking English! I stared at him in amazement as he had a conversation in French. (He speaks Spanish, too, although I don’t think he spoke it that day).

Then little Lydia saw an untidy pile of shoes near the door. She didn’t approve of such nonsense and decided to fix the problem by matching up all of the shoes with their mates and then placing every pair of shoes neatly by the door.

I imagine the grownups noticed what I was doing as they spoke to each other. Since no one intervened, I was able to straighten up every single shoe and be satisfied with a job well done.

Whatever toddler behaviour my uncle might have been expecting from me, this was not it. Everyone was amused by how I’d decided to keep myself busy and useful while the grownups talked. I’d like to think Uncle Joe and his friends placed their shoes neatly by the door a few times after we left just for the fun of remembering the little one who cleaned up after them.

Here’s another funny twist to the tale. My untidy childhood bedroom sometimes annoyed my poor mother who is naturally good at organizing stuff and keeping everything in its proper place, but I have slowly become better at that skill as an adult. To this day, I still love fiddling around with things and organizing them into various ways even if I’m never quite as tidy as mom is.

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March 7, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish People I’d Like To Meet

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Ten people standing on top of a hill just as the sun has slipped below the horizon and darkness covers three quarters of the land. You can see the silhouettes of their bodies as they all leap for joy with their knees bent and their arms outstretched above them. While I currently have no plans to meet any of these bookish people, it would be cool if that changed someday.

My prediction is that a lot of answers will probably be of famous authors and such. While there will be a few of those authors on my list, most of my answers will be of non-famous people I know whose online personas are kind and intelligent.

Honestly, who wouldn’t want to spend time with someone like that? (I’m sure they’re just as wonderful in person, too!)

1. Top Ten Tuesday Bloggers

It would be fun to meet some of the friendly Top Ten Tuesday bloggers I chat with throughout the week. I don’t want to put anyone on the spot or make anyone feel overlooked by mentioning specific names, but let me know in advance if you’re open to this and have plans to visit Toronto in the future. We could snack on Beaver Tails* or check out the free bookish museum at the Toronto Reference Library or something.

*This is a Canadian pastry that is large and flat like a beaver’s tale. They have several delicious vegan options, too, for plant-based friends.

2. Berthold Gambrel

He’s a fellow author and book reviewer I met on Twitter (before it imploded, of course). This will be a pattern for my next several answers because I am a creature of habit, so assume someone is a writer friend and kindred spirit from social media until I say otherwise.

Berthold and I have remarkably similar tastes in science fiction and he has a great sense of humour.

3. Hebah Amin-Headley

I’d love to talk about books and knitting with her among many other topics.

4. Richard Pastore

He’s the sort of person you can talk about anything with. I can be a little shy sometimes, but I never feel shy around him. He’s so warm and welcoming to everyone.

5. Shykia Bell

She’s only online in spurts, but I love her creativity and calm personality. Those are both excellent character traits.

6. Patrick Prescott

Here is where I break the Writer Friends of Twitter (TM) streak. Yes, he’s a writer friend, but I met him through Berthold Gambrel.

Patrick has a deep and methodical love for books. I’ve enjoyed his recommendations over the years and hearing stories about how he’s filling his time with all sorts of cool volunteer and writing projects now that he’s retired.

7. Rivers Solomon

I still think about her characters in “The Deep” and would love to ask her all about them.

8. Neil Gaiman

He seems like a cool guy.

9. Andy Weir

I want to hear about what science fiction adventure he’ll be writing next!

10. <Insert People I’ve Missed Here>

Every time I make one of these lists, I worry about accidentally leaving folks out whom I would have happily otherwise included. Therefore, I will leave a space for them at the end of this post. You are included.

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March 1, 2023 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: My Favourite Subject in School and Why

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 don’t think anyone will be surprised by this answer, but English was my favourite subject in school.

My family spoke Standard English at home, and my parents would lovingly correct us if we use the wrong verb form, misused punctuation, or made some other mistake. (Rarely, they still do!) This meant that the grammar, spelling, and punctuation portions of this class were intuitive to me 99% of the time because they’d been reinforced and taught at home for my entire life.

I loved reading in general, so the literature portion of this class was easy and enjoyable for me as well. I was the sort of student who tried to read every story in my textbook each year and was always slightly disappointed by how many I liked that we were never formally assigned.

History was a class I liked almost as much as English most years, although I preferred reading about it on my own on school breaks so I could focus on topics I really enjoyed such as the lives of ordinary people in various eras. It was interesting to see the patterns in history as well as to learn how so many different people have fought to make our world a kinder and better place.

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February 28, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Xenofiction I’ve Enjoyed

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

The first layer on this picture is a computer screen where dozens of lines of code has been written. This code is overlaid on the face of a robot that looks like a caucasian woman with very short light brown hair. She is staring blankly ahead as if to wait for instructions from the viewer…or perhaps she is reading the code. Xenofiction is written from the perspective of a non-human protagonist.

The protagonist could be all sorts of different things: an animal, a mythological creature, an intelligent robot, an alien, a microbe, or some other living (or robotic but sentient) being.

The possibilities are endless.

I enjoyed all of these stories and would recommend any them to someone who wants to read something from a non-human perspective.

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.

1. Memoirs of a Snowflake by Joe Vasicek (My Review)

The protagonist is a: snowflake.

Book cover for Watership Down (Watership Down, #1) by Richard Adams. Image on cover is a sketch of a little brown bunny sitting in a field of wheat (or some similar ripe yellow grass) with his ears turned back as he solemnly surveys the landscape. You can see a forest in the distance.

2. Watership Down (Watership Down, #1) by Richard Adams

The protagonist is a: rabbit.

Book cover for A Dog's Purpose (A Dog's Purpose, #1) by W. Bruce Cameron. Image on cover shows a black Labrador retriever looking up from the bottom of the cover as he stands against a light blue background. A thought bubble above his head includes the title of the book.

3. A Dog’s Purpose (A Dog’s Purpose, #1) by W. Bruce Cameron

The protagonist is a: dog.

Book cover for Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. Image on cover shows a drawing of Pinocchio after he’s lied. His nose is about two feet long and two little leaves have sprouted from the tip of it, one yellow and one orange.

4. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

The protagonist is a: a wooden puppet who is magically brought to life.

Book cover for Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott. Image on cover shows a repeating pattern of yellow and black lines that fold in on each other at the centre of the cover as if they all originated from that point.

5. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott

The protagonist is a: a two-dimensional being who travels to three-dimensional, one-dimensional, and no-dimensional worlds and must try to make sense of them.

Book cover for Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker. Image on cover shows a raptor and her baby standing on top of a large flat stone where one spindly plant is growing. The setting sun behind the raptors and plant is casting deep shadows on everything, but the raptors appear to be watching the sunset together.

6. Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker

The protagonist is a: raptor.

If you’ve read xenofiction before, what are some of your favourite books from this genre?

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February 22, 2023 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: The First Website I Remember Visiting

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.

A black magnifying glass magnifying a page that has the word facts printed on it over and over again for ten lines. The words are written in white ink and have been placed on a blue surface. The first website I remember visiting is Snopes.com.

When I was a kid, there were some people in my life who liked to forward chain emails about all sorts of conspiracy theories and urban legends. Their critical thinking skills were rather weak at times, so I eventually began looking up everything they sent me on Snopes and replying to them with links to that site that disproved rumours like the one about strangers giving out poisoned Halloween candy or the one about people being drugged by strangers and having their kidneys stolen.

Sometimes that link was all I replied with if the conspiracy theory or urban legend was a bigoted and/or ridiculous one. I’m a patient person in general, but I draw a firm line at stuff that is used to harm people or that is so obviously untrue even a child should be immediately suspicious of it.

Eventually, they stopped forwarding any of those sorts of emails to me at all.

Adult Lydia would have been a bit more tactful when sharing links to disprove yet another wacky email, but I still think that people should research the information they share online before insisting that Scary Internet Story #567 is 100% true and that everyone should panic about things that a) are so vague no one has found proof of them really happening, b) are medically or scientifically impossible, and/or c) have been recklessly misinterpreted in the worst possible light while leaving out information that is critical to understanding the truth. Mixing what is at best a teaspoon of fractured facts into a frothy gallon of pure nonsense helps no one except scam artists.

Now I’m wondering if I should start reading Snopes again. I only have a couple of people still left in my life who believe in conspiracy theories and urban legends, so I don’t know too much about the current crop of them.

If you have a favourite lighthearted urban legend or conspiracy theory, tell me about it. I’m personally intrigued by the Area 51 lore and what the U.S. government might really be doing there.

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Tagged as Childhood Stories, Conspiracy Theories, Critical Thinking, Snopes, Urban Legends, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

February 21, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Character Traits for Heroines

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I’m tweaking this week’s prompt a little bit so I can take a meta approach to the topic. Heroines come in all shapes and sizes, of course, but the reader’s expectations of how she should behave probably wouldn’t be the same in the historical romance genre as in a contemporary horror novel or a cozy mystery set on a lunar space station 500 years in the future.

With that being said, here are some character traits I love to see in heroines across many different genres and settings.

Black and white photo of a white woman wearing a black one-piece bathing suit. She’s crouching on a barren rock that’s surrounded by water and placing a black flag on the rock. The waves around her are gentle, and it appears to be a nice day outside although the sky is not visible. 1. Healthy Boundaries

Here in North America, girls and women tend to be socialized to be peacemakers and endlessly accommodating to other people’s needs and wishes. This can encourage some of us to have trouble setting and recognizing appropriate boundaries, so I love seeing examples of characters who can both set boundaries and respect other people’s limits, too.

2. Meaningful Flaws

No one is perfect. I like it when heroines have flaws that make a meaningful difference to the plot and to their daily lives. That is to say, I prefer realistic protagonists who procrastinate too much, or who have a bad temper, or who give too much unsolicited advice (or what have you) over ones whose biggest problem is that they’re a clumsy dancer but are otherwise pretty perfect.

3. Common Sense and Street Smarts

I prefer heroines who remain aware of their surroundings and take reasonable precautions before rushing into an unknown situation. It’s one thing to be caught off guard after doing everything right but quite another for a heroine (or a hero) to ignore multiple red flags for the sake of plot development.

4. Frugal

As much fun as it can be to read about characters with limitless budgets, I find it easier to relate to the ones who know that they only have so much money to last until the end of the month. There’s something comforting about seeing characters juggle bills and figure out how to afford what they need when the plot requires it.

5. Calm and Quiet

This is not to say I expect characters to behave this way all of the time, only that I think we need more characters who have easygoing personalities and aren’t the life of the party. Think of all of the interesting things that happen in the corners of a room and out of the attention range of the loudest and flashiest partygoers. There are so many folks hanging out quietly on the perimeter who are worth getting to know, and I’d love to have more stories about their lives.

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February 15, 2023 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: My Favourite Food

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.

Strawberries are my favourite food.

When they’re in season, I eat them every single day by themselves, mixed in with almond milk and a little honey or sugar as a fairly healthy dessert, as a topping for pancakes, cereal, or ice cream, in a mixed fruit salad, or occasionally as strawberry shortcake.

When they’re not in season, I buy frozen strawberries for smoothies and might buy strawberry jam to put on my toast, too.

I like the occasional bit of tartness you find in strawberries. I prefer completely sweet berries, of course, but it is fun to be surprised by other flavours.

They complement so many different types of snacks and meals. I can’t get enough of them.

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February 14, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Liked About Asexual Characters

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A photograph of 18 heart-shaped sugar cookies. They are frosted with various combinations of green, yellow, orange, purple, white, and blue frostings as well as thinner frostings that have written X’s and O’s on them or left romantic messages like “hugs and kisses” or “forever” on them. Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone celebrating it!

For today’s Valentine’s Day freebie, I’ll be sharing a list of books I’ve read and enjoyed about asexual characters.

I’m actually on the asexual spectrum myself, so it’s been wonderful to see such an explosion of stories about people who are like me or similar to me.

This is a complex topic that could easily take up its own blog post, but go to this link if you’re curious about the wide variety of identities that exist within the asexual spectrum.

In the meantime, here’s my list.

1. Loveless by Alice Oseman

Book cover for Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann. The image on the cover shows a radiant dark-skinned black woman with an Afro. She’s wearing a sleeveless white blouse with ruffles near her neck and his holding both arms up in a triumphant pose as she grins and closes her eyes.

2. Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

Book cover for Finding Your Feet (Toronto Connections, #2) by Cass Lennox. Image on the cover shows a background drawing of the famous outline of Toronto that includes the CN tower. In the foreground, you can see a drawing of two people’s legs as they dance together. One has light skin and appears to be Caucasian while the other has dark skin and appears to be African.

3. Finding Your Feet (Toronto Connections, #2) by Cass Lennox

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.

4. The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz (My Review)

If you’ve read any other good books about asexual characters, I’d love to hear your suggestions.

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February 8, 2023 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books That Pleasantly Surprised Me

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.

Close-up of the hand of a white person as they begin unwrapping a red ribbon that’s been tied into a bow around a box wrapped in red and white striped paper. I love being pleasantly surprised by what I read. Here are my three answers from three different genres: literary fiction, memoir, and middle grade. I read them all last year.

Title and Author: Miss Jane by Brad Watson.

How It Surprised Me: This is loosely based on the the fascinating life of the author’s great-aunt.

Both the great-aunt and the main character of this tale were born in the early 1900s with severe urogenital birth defects that made them permanently incontinent and unable to have sex or bear children. The doctor in the opening scene talked about how bleak the protagonist’s life would probably be if she were lucky enough to survive the night. Doctors had no idea how to repair such defects when she was born. The prejudice against disabled people and their families was horrible back then, too, and there were no social services or support groups to help her or her family.

I shuddered when I read his dire predictions and was so relieved and surprised to see what a nice life that little baby ended up having. Yes, she had serious medical and social challenges from her first day until her last one, but she also had a kind family who gave her the best possible life they could for that era. It was such a nice tribute to the author’s great-aunt and everyone who loved her.

Title and Author: Cold: Three Winters at the South Pole by Wayne L. White

How It Surprised Me: I hadn’t realized how many traditions the scientists working at the South Pole have invented to help them get through the winter. For example, they have regular movie nights together and do regular check-ins with each other to make sure everyone’s mental health is still okay. The anecdote about how and why crew members convinced Mr. White to have fancy candlelight dinners with all of them was also hilarious and well worth reading.

Title and Author: Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary

How It Surprised Me: I’d forgotten this series begins with older sister Beezus as the main character. I wonder if my local library didn’t have that book when I was in elementary school? At any rate, it was interesting to transition from Beezus’ point of view to Ramona’s perspective for the rest of the series when I reread it last year.

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Category Archives: Blog Hops

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Spring 2023 To-Read List

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Something Funny That Happened To Me

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish People I’d Like To Meet

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: My Favourite Subject in School and Why

Top Ten Tuesday: Xenofiction I’ve Enjoyed

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: The First Website I Remember Visiting

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Character Traits for Heroines

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: My Favourite Food

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Liked About Asexual Characters

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books That Pleasantly Surprised Me

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