Category Archives: Blog Hops

February 7, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Debut Books I’m Excited About


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

There is a blanket with alternating white and dark orange stripes on it spread out but still wrinkled. On the blanket is a cup of hot cocoa in a red mug and an opened book that has yellow tinged edges of its pages and looks like it’s getting old. Many of the books I read are from authors who are new to me or new in general, but I don’t normally spend a lot of time digging around in debut book lists.

I pay attention to the blurb and first page when deciding what to read next. (Okay, covers matter, too! But they’re the icing on the cake, not the cake itself. I’ve read amazing books with not-so-great covers and quickly tossed aside other books whose gorgeous covers did not match what was inside of them).

Sometimes this means I’ll read six books in a row from the same author and still yearn for more from them.

In other cases, I really loved one or two books from a particular author but haven’t connected with the rest of their work.

I have no other what other people’s habits are, but I hope to find out from you all today.

Here are four debut authors I’m curious to try.

 

Book cover for The Museum of Human History by Rebekah Bergman. The image on the cover is a painting of a white woman whose right shoulder is hunched over slightly. She’s touching the bottom of her face as if she’s contemplating something. She does not appear to be wearing a shirt, although we can only see the skin of her arm, shoulder, hand, and neck. Her head is covered from the bridge of her nose up by a pink, yellow, orange, and blue cloud that grows lighter the further up it you look.

 

1. The Museum of Human History by Rebekah Bergman

Why I’m Interested: The thought of someone surviving an awful accident only to stop aging is intriguing. It makes me think of the similarities between that and how after someone dies they are forever frozen at their age of death in the memories of those who loved them.

 

Book cover for “Period: The Real Story of Menstruation” by Kate Clancy. The cover is blue and there is a gigantic drop of red blood that symbolizes the O in Period and has the phrase “The real Story of Menstruation” written in it in a black font.

 

2. Period: The Real Story of Menstruation by Kate Clancy

 

Why I’m Interested: I’m fascinated (and a little disturbed) by how much scientists are still learning about menstruation, the uterus, and other related topics. It’s about time that these things were studied in depth not only for people who have typical menstrual cycles and reproductive organs but also for those deal with diseases or abnormalities related to menstruation and the uterus that some doctors sadly can be pretty dismissive of.

 

Book cover for “On Earth As It Is On Television” by Emily Jane. Image on cover shows a drawing of a red spaceship shining a white beacon of light on the author’s name. The author’s name and title are written in a repeating pattern of white, blue, orange, and pink letters.

 

3. On Earth As It Is On Television by Emily Jane

 

Why I’m Interested: I love first contact stories!

 

Book cover for “She Is a Haunting” by Trang Thanh Tran. Image on cover shows a young Vietnamese woman with thick black hair. She looks frightening and is staring straight ahead at the audience crying as six small flowers grow out of her mouth.

 

4. She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

 

Why I’m Interested: Haunted houses are one of those tropes that immediately grab my attention. I hope this will be an excellent example of how to scare characters silly with a haunted house.

 

What are your reading habits like?

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February 1, 2023 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What I Eat in the Average Day

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 know this week’s prompt is asking about our average eating habits, but mine shift throughout the month. I’ll begin with what’s typical during the colder months of the year when I don’t have a migraine.

As I mentioned in the morning routine prompt last November, I normally have almond milk and oatmeal with fruit, nut butter, and chia seeds for breakfast.

Close-up of penne noodles evenly covered in a marinara sauce and sitting in a white bowl. There are two sprigs of basil sitting on top of the pasta. Lunch is my biggest meal of the day. It’s common for me to eat dishes like pasta, rice and beans with various seasonings and vegetables added in, stir-fry of various sorts, tacos, fajitas, or chilli.  I batch cook a couple of days a week, so these are often leftovers from previous meals.  During heat waves, I switch to cold options like sandwiches, hummus and pita, large salads that include a source of protein, etc.

Typical dinner foods include options like smoothies, baked beans, big plates of raw and/or cooked vegetables, fruit, some leftover meat or other high-protein foods, eggs prepared in various ways, or other light and healthy meals. This remains pretty consistent throughout the year. I can get heartburn if I eat spicy food or too close to bedtime, so I try to eat just enough of something mild (ish)  to keep me full until morning.

We do order takeout occasionally as well, but I try to cook at home as much as possible.

Sounds pretty healthy, right?

If I’m at any point in the migraine cycle, things change. Strong cravings, generally for sugar and salt,  are one of the early signs that I’m going to have a migraine within the next few days, and it’s really hard for me to resist junk food on those days.

The closer I get to needing to take my migraine medication, the more painful it is for me to chew hard foods like, say, carrot sticks or apple slices. If you’ve ever had a toothache, it’s similar to that but in multiple teeth on one half of my face.

I experience nausea that makes my body finicky about the texture, smell, and taste of the food that it will allow to remain in my stomach. My sensitivity to noise as the migraine looms closer also makes it impossible for me to use something like a blender then.

So my diet shrinks down to soft foods that have mild scents and do not require noisy preparations until my medication kicks in and I’ve slept off the worst of the rest of it. Sometimes we’ll order in pizza on those nights instead of me trying to cook something.

I will often roast some sweet potatoes and hard boil some eggs a day or two in advance to give myself some healthy options, and I’m always on the lookout for other dairy-free foods to add to my rotation when I can’t chow down on raw, crunchy stuff.

Luckily, I’ve been able to reduce my number of migraines by figuring out my triggers for them,  avoiding triggers as much as I possibly can, and following a strict sleep and meal schedule. I can’t avoid every migraine, though, and so that’s how they influence my diet.

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January 31, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Confessions


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Person holding a finger in front of the mouth of a small dog as if to keep him or her from speaking. For today’s freebie post I’m going to be sharing some bookish confessions.

(The dog in the photo isn’t mine. I simply thought it was an amusing illustration for this prompt).

1. Reading graphic novels definitely counts as reading in general, but I personally don’t enjoy that form of storytelling. I’d rather have more words and fewer pictures.

2. I am quick to give up on books I’m not enjoying. Life is too short to read something that doesn’t resonate with me.

3. Vlogging is scary and I never want to do it. Ha!

4. I do not understand people who judge others based on the genres they do (or don’t) read. It’s one thing to say that genre X isn’t your cup of tea and quite another to say that one type of storytelling is inherently better or worse than all others. Honestly, there are gems and duds in every genre.

5. Audiobooks work best as rereads for me. When I get distracted by my workout or cleaning, I like being able to immediately figure out what I missed in the last scene or two.

6. Some classic novels have passed their expiration dates (at least for me). I’ve loved some of them but been completely bored and confused by others.

7. As much as I love reading, I relish my reading breaks when the weather is nice enough for me to spend tons of time outside every day.

8. I don’t follow as many book bloggers as I used to. I felt slightly guilty for unfollowing them, but I simply don’t have time to keep up with as many of them as in the past.

9. Horror novels are best read in the middle of the day, not right before bed. Feel free to guess how many nightmares I had before I figured this one out.

10. I’m quietly suspicious of people who think fiction is a waste of time. While I’m sure there are exceptions to this rule, the folks I’ve met who think that way tend to be less empathetic than average and really struggle to see the world from other points of view. Fiction can teach us to appreciate the many shades of grey in a conflict (or  character, or real human being, or an issue), and it confuses me to meet folks who have such black and white thinking they can’t even enjoy a simple story.

What are your bookish confessions?

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January 25, 2023 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Something I’m Proud of Doing

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.

This week’s prompt was a little tricky for me because I’ve been feeling down in the dumps lately. January isn’t my favourite month of the year, and this one seems to really be dragging on.

I don’t know about all of you, but sometimes my brain likes to focus on the things I wish I’d done differently instead taking note of what I think I’ve done well in life so far. I will take this as a challenge to congratulate myself on how far I’ve come, though!

A white person’s hand and forearm has punched through a yellow wall and is reaching out for help with all five fingers extended. When someone needs help, I’m the sort of person who will leap to the occasion. That’s a positive character trait in many situations, but sometimes it can be taken too far if you don’t also look after your own needs or if the person who wants help doesn’t respect boundaries.

In the past few years, I’ve noticed that it’s slowly become easier for me to realize what my limits are and stop before I’ve been pushed past them.

As a hypothetical example, I can be available to do A or B for someone on the first Tuesday of the month from 7 to 8 pm but not be able to do anything outside of that time frame and never agree to do C, D, or E for them.

It’s a huge win, especially when the occasional person demands I give them all of the letters of the alphabet on any given day and hour of the week and I still stand firm in how much time and energy I actually have for them.

Not only that, but my guilt about saying no is decreasing, too, and I can now more easily end my availability to do A or B temporarily (or even permanently) for people who try to push past my limits one too many times.

 

 

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January 24, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2022


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A typewriter with a white sheet of paper stuck in it. The phrase “something worth reading” has been typed on to the sheet of paper. Many of the books I read in 2022 were written by authors I hadn’t tried before. Here are ten of them.

Just like last year, I’ll also be including what books I read from them and whether I want to read more from them in the future.

1. Author: Marlene Campbell

What I Read from Them: Vintage Christmas: Holiday Stories from Rural PEI

Would I Read More from Them? Maybe. I liked some parts of this collection but found other sections a bit too repetitive. Then again, I am not a particularly sentimental person, so other readers might have a completely difference experience with it.

 

2. Author: Sonia Hartl

What I Read from Them: The Lost Girls

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. I loved the author’s tongue-in-cheek approach to the pitfalls of romances between vampires and teenage girls.

 

3. Author: Kate Nunn

What I Read from Them: The Only Child

Would I Read More from Them? No, and it pains me to say that. I loved the premise of this book but found the character and plot development thin and predictable.

 

4. Author: Riley Black

What I Read from Them: “The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World”

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. Not only was Ms. Black an excellent writer, she knew exactly how to translate often complex scientific information into something the average person can easily understand. That’s difficult to do but so meaningful when it does occur.

 

A quiet wooden cabin in a snowy winter woods. The cabin has a stone chimney. 5. Author: Yah Yah Scholfield

What I Read from Them: “On Sundays She Picked Flowers”

Would I Read More from Them? Assuming her next work isn’t quite so violent, absolutely. I enjoyed her poetic writing style but can’t handle reading many of the types of scary stuff I loved before this pandemic began.

 

6. Author: Nice Leng’ete

What I Read from Them: “The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree”

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. She’s lived an interesting and useful life so far. I’m curious to see what she does with her talents next as she continues fighting to end female circumcision in Kenya.

 

7. Author: Julia Scheeres

What I Read from Them: “Listen, World!: How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America’s Most-Read Woman”

Would I Read More from Them? Probably not. This was a neat peek at a portion of history I wasn’t aware of, but the writing style wasn’t my cup of tea.

 

8. Author: Carl Matlock, MD

What I Read from Them: “The Annals of a Country Doctor”

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. He was a great storyteller.

 

An empty church that has white wooden pews and white painted statues of saints on their walls. 9. Author: Daphne du Maurier

What I Read from Them: “Rebecca”

Would I Read More from Them? Maybe. I understood why this novel is a classic and did enjoy the storyline itself, but I was exasperated with all of the characters for reasons ranging from how passive aggressive they were to how little regard they had for basic interpersonal boundaries to how much they relied on what other people thought of them when making every single decision in life. Let met take a break from Ms. Du Maurier before seeing if this is a pattern in her work or if her next book will be filled with characters I’d actually want to hang out with in real life. Ha!

 

10. Author: by Deesha Philyaw

What I Read from Them: “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies”

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. I connected beautifully with her characters and would love to see what she writes next. She was delightful.

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January 18, 2023 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: New Things I’ve Tried Recently

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 usually try new things more often during the warm months of the year when it’s easier to travel and there are fewer germs floating around that my household needs to avoid, but I have tried some cool stuff this winter. (No, this isn’t an ad. I don’t do paid or sponsored posts of any sort. These are simply things I’ve tried recently and liked).

Duolingo Math.

Logo for the Duolingo app. The logo consists of the word “Duolingo” written in a plain, bright green font against a white background. There is nothing else to be seen in this image. I was an average math student in school, but I didn’t find it particularly interesting or relevant to my life most of the time. It seemed like something that a few students were naturally good at while the rest of us slogged through it.

When this was released at the end of December, it piqued my interest. Maybe I’d have a different opinion on this subject now that there are no quizzes, exams, or grades to worry about?

Well, it turns out that I’m really enjoying it so far. Turning math into a game makes it practical, fun, and low pressure.

The lessons run the gamut from easy to challenging. There is a section for elementary students as well as a different one for older kids or adults who want to improve their mental math skills, so this is one of those free games that truly does have something for everyone.

 

Station Eleven Novel and Miniseries

Book cover for “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel. Image on the cover shows four tents that have been erected outside in a field. It is night outside and the cloudless sky is glowing with stars. Each tent has a bright light inside of it as well. The tents are surrounded by a waist-high fence that appears to be made out of hay bales piled on top of each other. I’d heard so many good things about ”Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel, so I finally started watching it this winter.

It follows several of the same characters at different points in their lives as they encounter a deadly form of the flu that kills most of humanity and then about 20-30 years later to see how the survivors have fared.

If you’re comfortable reading about fictional pandemics, this is such an interesting look at how quickly the definition of normal can change. The people who were born after that pandemic had unique and sometimes humorous takes on what life must have been like back when unbelievable luxuries like airplanes, dentists, air conditioning, and the Internet still existed.

Unlike many books in this genre, this one is filled with characters who are kind and decent folks (with rare exceptions). They’re traumatized in the beginning, of course, but the storyline mostly focuses on them doing good things like adopting orphans, preserving as much of the past as they can, and simply surviving in a world where you must grow, knit, build, or scrounge around for everything you need.

I liked the hopeful approach this took to a genre that often assumes the worst about humanity.

The miniseries has been good so far as well. There were some major changes made to certain portions of it in order to help the storyline flow better on screen, but it remains true to the themes and characters of the book. Honestly, that’s exactly what any adaptation ought to do. I don’t need every single line of dialogue to remain identical so long as it still feels like the original.

 

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January 17, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2023


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I like to set (mostly) realistic goals at the beginning of each year. Let’s see how many of these I complete before 2024 sneaks up on us.

1. Read more classic novels this winter. It’s something I do every winter to expand my vocabulary and explore stories that generations of people have loved.

2. Submit a Top Ten Tuesday theme to Jana that she ends up using. (I am 99% joking here, but I mentioned this in a previous goals post a few years ago and would be thrilled if she picked one of my suggestions someday).

3. Enjoy lots of ghost stories. Those of you who have read this blog for a while will know how much I like them in general, but they’re even more amusing on cold, dark winter nights.

4. Attend more library and other bookish events either virtually or in person. They’re such a great place to learn about our world and meet other friendly book lovers.

5. Read more nonfiction. I love learning about everything from science to history at my own pace and without any pesky tests or grades to worry about.

6. Patronize independent bookstores. This pandemic radically altered my habits, and it’s been years since I shopped for something other than food, medicine, or to replace something like shoes or a shower curtain that have worn out.

7. Eat more food featured in books. For example, last year I finally tried Turkish delight for the first time after spending many years wondering what on earth Edmund was talking about in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. What other literary or bookish foods or beverages should I enjoy next?

8. Try poetry again. I loved it when I was a teenager but have struggled to get back in that genre since becoming an adult.

9. Buy bookish socks. Do I need more socks? Well, technically no, but surely there is something to be said for adding just one more pair of socks to the rotation if they make a clever reference to something literary, right?

10. Convince the entertainment industry to make excellent film or television adaptations of all of our favourite books. Hehe!

 

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January 11, 2023 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What I Think of New Year’s Resolutions

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.

Seven paper airplanes are flying over a dark grey surface. The first six are white and flying in straight perpendicular lines. You can see white lines shooting out behind them. The seventh is read and flying in a zig-zag line with a white zig-zag line trailing behind it. I believe New Year’s Resolutions, as well as goal setting activities in general, are a fabulous starting point.

In my experience, longterm change is most likely to happen when you set a goal, make incremental changes that guide you closer to it, and then gradually build on them over time instead of trying to fix all of your habits at once.

For example, an hour of vigorous exercise will be extremely difficult at best for someone who hasn’t exercised in years. They might be so sore or injured the next day they will be scared off from trying again.

A 10 minute walk every day (or every other day, or what have you) is a much easier goal to accomplish for someone in that position, and it can be gradually increased or replaced with more strenuous workouts as you grow stronger and figure out what other types of exercise you actually enjoy doing.

So I like the idea of New Year’s Resolutions, but I think it’s better to keep your expectations reasonable when you’re trying to change something about yourself. Many incredible things are possible in life, but they rarely if ever  happen overnight.

I also believe in celebrating effort and partial success. If you didn’t reach your goal but you did make progress towards it and built up healthy habits along the way, that’s still counts as a win in my opinion.

 

 

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January 10, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2023

  
Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Just like I say every time seasonal TBR posts come up, I won’t be able to come up with a full ten answers or predict everything I’ll read over the next few months. I admire those of who you are that methodical, but that’s not quite how my reading habits work.

With that being said, these books will hopefully be included along with the usual mood reads and whatever intriguing stories I happen to stumble across at my local library this winter and spring.

 

 

Old Babes in the Woods: Stories by Margaret Atwood Book cover. Image on cover shows a drawing of a white cat with yellow and black eyes staring straight ahead at the reader.

Old Babes in the Woods: Stories by Margaret Atwood

Release Date: March 7

Why I Want to Read It: I’ve loved most of Atwood’s stories and give everything she publishes a shot.

 

 

Piñata (Hardcover) by Leopoldo Gout book cover. Image on cover shows a drawing of a creature wearing a hood and a hat that is comprised of about a dozen spikes coming out of what appears to be a human skull.

Piñata by Leopoldo Gout

Release Date: March 14

Why I Want to Read It: I am not very familiar with indigenous Mexican lore and am looking forward to learning more about it here.

 

 

A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher book cover. Image on cover shows silhoutte of a buzzard sitting in a house with green wallpaper and white trimmed walls and door frame.

A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

Release Date: March 28

Why I Want to Read It: I’m a new fan of Kingfisher’s work and want to try everything she’s written so far!

 

 

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January 4, 2023 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: My Goals for 2023

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 is one of my favourite annual prompts for the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge.

Two stick figures are standing on a line that’s supposed to represent a hill. One character is walking down the hill towards a white portion of the page where there is a sign that has “2022” written on it. The other character is looking up towards a sign that says “2023” and walking up the hill on the yellow portion of the image. Out of my goals for 2022, I succeeded at practicing Spanish every single day and finding a better treatment regiment for my migraines.

I made a few new online friends but none in person due to trying to avoid Covid germs.

I lost a small amount of weight and spent a decent amount of time outside even if I didn’t do all of the hiking and nature walks I hoped for. (My health made it hard to exercise and eat the way I hoped to some days or even weeks, but my fingers are crossed that this year will be easier now that I’m having fewer migraines and know more about my triggers for them).

Meditation was a total bust for me last year.

So I’m going to recycle a few of these goals for 2023.

I would like to:

 

  • Spend more time socializing with people in person as safe opportunities for that arise.  Hopefully, this will lead to a new friendship or two, but meeting new folks in general would be fabulous as well.

 

  • Meditate for five minutes every day.

 

  • Try a new restaurant or type of food every month. I don’t go out to eat much in general, but I tend to visit the same spots every time when I do eat food I haven’t made. It’s time to give my tastebuds a workout.

 

  • Develop a conversational understanding of Spanish. This past year of studying it has taught me to recognize a lot of common words and even understand the gist of some sentences or brief conversations, but I don’t yet know enough to have a full, long, or detailed conversation in it. Maybe 2023 will be the year I take the leap into speaking and understanding it in real time without having to look up so many words?

 

  • Join a walking or hiking club, maybe? This would tie into some of my 2022 goals about spending more time hiking and going on nature walks as well as my current goal of meeting new likeminded people.

 

  • Improve my graphic design and SEO skills. I know my local library offers free courses on those topics, so I’ll probably start there.

 

Let’s see how it goes.

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