Category Archives: Blog Hops

April 26, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Curly-Haired Characters on the Cover


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A red headed woman with long, curly hair standing in front of a wall plastered over with magazine covers.

This isn’t me, but my hair is similar to a brunette version of hers.

I have naturally curly hair that ranges from Type 2C (wavy/loose curls) to something a little curlier than Type 3B (springy ringlets) depending on which part of my head you’re looking at, how recently I’ve washed and moistured it, how humid or dry the air is, and a million other factors that anyone who knows curly hair no doubt is already well aware of.

When I was a kid, I’d always get so excited to see a curly-haired person included on a book cover or described in a story.

Sometimes that was the deciding factor in whether I read a book!

I grew up in a community that was so homogenous that even minor differences in human appearance like this were hard to find.

And I’m saying that as someone who is Caucasian. I’m sure the small number of classmates I had who were from other racial backgrounds yearned for representation of people who looked like them even more than I did.

Representation matters.

While there’s still plenty of work to do in this area, I’m glad publishers are doing a better job these days of representing characters from a wider range of backgrounds.

This week I’m going to be sharing ten wonderful book covers featuring people who have curly hair.

 

The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley Book cover. Image on cover shows a woman with curly red hair sitting at a table and glaring at the reader.

1. The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley

 

Baby Girl by Lenora Adams book cover. Image on cover shows a young black woman wearing hoop earrings as she looks over her shoulder and has flowers tucked behind her ear.

2. Baby Girl by Lenora Adams

Nobody's Prize (Nobody's Princess, #2) by Esther M. Friesner book cover. Image on cover shows a white girl with long, curly brown hair standing and staring at a large aquarium.

3. Nobody’s Prize (Nobody’s Princess, #2) by Esther M. Friesner

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill book cover. Image on cover is a drawing of the heroine wearing her hair naturally in a big puff of gorgeous curls.

4. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

Liar by Justine Larbalestier book cover. Image on cover shows a young black woman hiding her face in her hoodie.

5. Liar by Justine

Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher book cover. Image on cover shows a blond woman staring off into the distance.

6. Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher

Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann book cover. Image on the cover shows a dark-skinned African-american girl dancing for joy while wearing a white, sleeveless top.

7. Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

 

8. The Freemason’s Daughter by Shelley Sackier

Blue Flame (Perfect Fire Trilogy, #1) by K.M. Grant book cover. Image on cover shows a young woman with loosely curly brown hair standing outside by the ocean during a storm.

9. Blue Flame (Perfect Fire Trilogy, #1) by K.M. Grant

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo book cover. Image on cover shows a drawing of a woman who has a large, black Afro.

10. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

 

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April 20, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: One Meal Everyone Should Try

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 believe everyone should try meals that they did not grow up eating from places in the world their (recent) ancestors did not come from or live in. Of course, this means that the answer will be different for everyone!

Shish Kabob, rice, and other East African food. In my case, this means trying meals from different African countries and cultures since none of the small towns I grew up in offered anything like that.

I’ve only done it once so far at a nice little Ethiopian restaurant here in Toronto and once or twice at other places, but I hope to do it more often once this pandemic ends. There are so many other cuisines to try from that continent. I know I’ve barely even scratched the surface so far.

Sadly, I can’t find my photos of those meals, so here’s a stock photo of similar East African food instead.

It is so much fun to taste new dishes and try new combinations of spices! I can’t recommend it highly enough.

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April 19, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Merchandise I’d Love to Own


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

My answers to this week’s prompt might be a little unorthodox.

I have enough bookmarks, ereaders, tea mugs, and cozy socks to last for many years to come.

I do not have enough chocolate to nibble on while reading, but that’s because I have a sweet tooth and chocolate is hard to resist. Perhaps some of you who do not like sweets so much have never had this problem. Ha!

These are the bookish things I wish I had.

A cozy little home library in a the corner of a room. There is a red rug on the wooden floor and a light shining on the books and rug from a nearby shelf.

A Spare Room to Turn Into a Personal Library.

There are many things I love about living in a cozy apartment in a city, but one of the few downsides of it is that housing here in Toronto is too expensive to devote an entire room to reading. If only that were different!

A man using a laptop while sitting on a couch. A woman has stretched out next to him on the cough and has her legs by his thighs as she listens to something.

A Big, Comfortable Couch

I want to gently flop over the sides of the couch and find every position comfortable while still leaving space for someone else to sit there, too.

Yes, sometimes I’d probably sit on the “proper” way, too. But not every time.

Pink clouds floating through the sky near a full moon at either sunrise or sunset.

Peace and Quiet 

I want a few hours of peace and quiet in which to read.

It’s okay if a truck rumbles by or a bird sings outside of my window, but I would rather not have conversation, music, blaring horns, or anything else that might be distracting.

Quiet reading sessions are the best if you ask me.

A little white dog sleeping on a chair.

A Leash and Soft Place to Sleep for My (Hypothetical) Dog or Dogs

Yes, I know that’s worded a little oddly, but let me explain. I don’t think of pets as objects to be owned. They’re members of a family instead.

If I weren’t allergic to dogs and if my home were large enough to accommodate one, I’d also want to have a canine companion or two. (Let’s also assume that my spouse agrees to this plan!)

Ideally, they’d sleep or play quietly for a couple of hours while I read and then let me know that they were ready to go for a walk.

There’s something about taking a walk that makes reading even better. It  gives you time to think about what you’ve read and wonder what might happen next in the story.

Dogs are also good listeners from what I’ve surmised from people who can live with them, so I’d probably talk to them while we exercised together.

It wouldn’t matter to me what the dog looked like. I simply included the picture above because the dog in it looked so peaceful.

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April 13, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What’s On Your TBR List

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.

Purple and white tulips lying on an opened book. If this prompt had been scheduled for the winter or summer, I would have had a very different answer to it!

You see, this is one of the best times of the year for enjoying the outdoors due to the mild weather.

My reading rates drop off when the sky is sunny and the temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold to make it uncomfortable to stay outdoors for several hours.

With that being said, here are a few books that bridge the gap between my love of reading and my love of the outdoors.

Ontario Birds: 125 Common Birds by Chris Fisher

Why I’m Interested: I’ve been casually interested in birdwatching for years but started doing it more intensely in 2020 when many other forms of entertainment were unavailable. It’s thrilling to catch sight of a bird you haven’t seen in your area before! I think red-tailed hawks are my favourite species so far.

 

Trees of Ontario: Including Tall Shrubs   by Linda Kershaw and Plants of Southern Ontario by Richard Dickinson and France Royer

Why I’m Interested: Identifying local trees and other plants is a brand new interest of mine. Someday I’d love to walk through the forest and be able to identify everything I see!

 

I’ve mentioned these books in previous posts, including a Wednesday Weekly Blogging post from the winter, but I am still looking forward to reading A Prayer for the Crown Shy (Monk & Robot #2) by Becky Chambers and Empty Smiles (Small Spaces #4) by Katherine Arden as well.

Why I’m Interested: I enjoyed the previous book(s) in both series quite a bit and am looking forward to catching up with the characters’ latest adventures.

I hope to review Chambers and Arden’s books on my blog this summer or autumn, but I am not planning to review the bird or foliage books. Speaking of which, I wonder how people do review books like that? It seems like that would be a little tricky since the authors are experts on the topic and many readers would not be.

Anyway, those are the books I’m most looking forward to reading in the near future.

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April 12, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I Haven’t Read But Want To


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I originally thought this week’s prompt was going to be a hard one, but I ended up finding the full ten answers for it!

 

Coffee, tulips, and an opened hardback book lying on a white bedsheet. Author: Min Jin Lee

What I Want to Read From Them: Pachinko 

 

Author: Agatha Christie

What I Want to Read From Them: I don’t know yet.

 

Author: Yaa Gyasi

What I Want to Read From Them: Homegoing 

 

Author: Noelle Stevenson

What I Want to Read From Them: Nimona 

 

Author: Rita Dove

What I Want to Read From Them: I don’t know yet.

 

Author: Allyson Hobbs

What I Want to Read From Them: A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in America

 

Author: Nelson Mandela

What I Want to Read From Them: Long Walk to Freedom 

 

Author: Dee Brown

What I Want to Read From Them: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee – An Indian History of the American West 

 

Author: Art Spiegelman

What I Want to Read From Them: Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History (Maus, #1)

 

Author: Nomi Eve

What I Want to Read From Them: Henna House

 

If you’ve read any of these authors and have other suggestions of good books from them, I’d love to hear about it!

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April 6, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Unique Talent You Have

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 sketch of a heart in an otherwise blank notebook Not everything in our world is poetic or beautiful by any means, but my unique talent is finding the poetry and beauty in situations that at first glance do not seem to have a silver lining in them at all.

I’ll give you all a few examples of what I mean.

Years ago, I needed to go through some medical tests for a potentially life-threatening health condition that I was ultimately found not to have. While the technician was performing the ultrasound and taking notes of what she was finding, I quietly came up with pleasant thoughts about how the thump of my heart on the monitor sounded like something you’d expect to hear in a submarine as it dove deep into the calm, blue sea.

When my spouse and I went through financial trouble many years ago and had no money to spare for frivolities of any sort, I made taking long walks my chief form of entertainment and imagined that all of the trees were whispering delicious forest secrets to each other as the humans passed by unobtrusively below. It was honestly just was much fun as going to the movies or buying junk food and other things we couldn’t afford!

More recently, there were some protests here in Toronto earlier this year that clogged up some of our most important streets in the hospital district of the city. I imagined the sound of their angry voices on megaphones and the incessant beeping of their vehicles passing down the street while on their way to their destination were a warning from some future version of Toronto where such things were now commonplace.

This isn’t to say that i ignore the very real troubles we all go through or expect other people to think about scary life events the same way I do by any means. I simply find it easier to deal with them if I can make up whimsical stories about them in my head once I’ve done everything I can to change the situation.

Why worry excessively if there’s truly nothing else you can do in the moment? I think it’s better to look for the good in those moments if you can.

 

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April 5, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: 5 Reasons to Take a Reading Break


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A few years ago, I blogged about the general benefits of taking a reading break. Today I wanted to take a different approach to the topic and discuss some of the specific reasons why it can be a good idea to stop reading or to read less often for a while.

Reason #4 will mention grief and Covid-19, so feel free to skip that one if needed.

A beautiful park filled with large, healthy trees that are brimming with green leaves. 1. Enjoying Good Weather 

Southern Ontario is a humid and often stormy place. That humidity translates into chilly winters and stifling summers, so one quickly learns to take advantage of mild temperatures and clear skies when they occur.

To me, reading is an activity that makes more sense when it’s -30 Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit) or 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) outside and it’s medically dangerous to be out there for long periods of time. If you’re lucky enough to have a balmy day in the15-20 Celsius (59-68 Fahrenheit) range, you’d better enjoy it while it lasts and go take a hike or enjoy a picnic or something.

2. Pursuing Other Interests 

I love my bookish and often nerdy interests, but that is not all that I am! It’s refreshing to switch between hobbies and interact with different social circles. Sometimes I also discover that there is more overlap between my various interests than I originally thought which is always cool to find.

3. Being More Physically Active

Yes, I know that some people listen to audiobooks while exercising, but that only works for me when I’m doing something like taking a brisk walk. I prefer to give my undivided attention to activities like weightlifting so that I can keep an eye on my form and stay focused on what I’m doing.

4. Resting My Mind 

This was especially true about eighteen months ago when a relative of mine caught Covid-19 and did not fully recover from it. (That is to say, they are still with us but have Long Covid now). Books can be a healthy distraction, but they can also be a little overstimulating when you’re waiting for news of even the smallest signs of improvement and do not necessarily get them.

5. Rediscovering the Excitment of Reading 

Nearly anything can begin to feel repetitive if I do it too often! As much as I love reading, taking breaks from it enables me to rediscover how exciting it is to crack open a book and once again anticipate what it will be like to discover all of its secrets.

 

 

 

 

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March 30, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What Mythological Animal You’d Want as a Pet

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.

My first response to this prompt was, “none at all!”

I think I’ve read too many speculative stories about people who try to capture faeries or other magical creatures only to discover just how dangerous and foolish it is to mess with forces you don’t understand. For the sake of playing along, though, I’ll assume that any animal or creature I choose would be docile enough to make a half-decent companion, could look after itself, and wouldn’t mind if a human wanted to be near it sometimes.

An Ogopogo statue in British Columbia. It is green and grey and has parts of its body poking up from a blue stream.

An Ogopogo statue in British Columbia. Photo credit: Hamedog at the English-language Wikipedia

An Ogopogo (which is something like Canada’s version of the Loch Ness Monster) seems like a good match for these criteria.

Yes, I’d need to move to Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, but I can only assume that the Powers That Be ™ would somehow ensure that all of the details for that move would taken care of and that my new magical friend would be made aware of it. (Calling it my pet somehow doesn’t seem quite right).

Ogopogos generally leave humans alone, especially in contemporary stories about them. Mostly, they just swim around and occasionally startle tourists who weren’t expecting to see such an enormous and ancient creature calmly existing near them.

The only exception to this rule involves people who intend to harm the Ogopogo and/or the valley it protects. I would post signs warning visitors about the possibility of an Ogopogo attack if they had dishonourable intentions, but anyone who simply wanted to have a picnic or something by the lake with me shouldn’t have any trouble at all with them.

Honestly, I like the idea of a protective entity.

That’s something that many lakes and other natural places need nowadays, so I’d leave my Ogopogo do it’s sacred duty without any interruptions. If it wanted to swim up and say hello while I was enjoying the shore, so be it.

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March 29, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: 21st Century Books I Think Will Become Classics


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A little yellow flower sticking out between the pages of an antique hardcover book. If you ask me, this is one of the best topics that was ever submitted to Top Ten Tuesday!

Bravo to Lisa of Hopewell for coming up with it. You have a wonderful mind, and I’m so glad Jana chose your idea.

It is about time that books from the 21st century begin to be sorted into various classics lists. I used the plural form because I don’t know that there should ever be one single list that everyone reads or even agrees is the best of the best.

What I find emotionally engaging and appealing might not be necessarily the same list of books that someone else picks for a wide variety of reasons. We all have different tastes and previous life experiences that influence which books leave a lasting impact on it.

Honestly, there are certain books from the lists of classics from earlier centuries that I have never been able to get into, but of course not everyone agrees with my opinions of those books.

With all of that being said, here are some books from this century that I think will be remembered fondly for many years to come.

1.Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Why: It was an immersive story that followed the same group of characters for decades as they matured. The plot itself was also quite interesting, and I could see it being taught in schools.

 

2. Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Why: Neil Gaiman is an amazingly nuanced storyteller who sneaks all sorts of deep themes into his works that you might otherwise expect to be simple entertainment.

 

3. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

Why: To be honest, it’s been so long since I read this book that I’ve forgotten many of the plot twists. What I do remember is being astonished by how many layers the author fit into the short life of his main character. That takes skill, and it makes this something I should reread again soon.

 

4. Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam, #1) by Margaret Atwood

Why: This almost read like it was half of a conversation with an unseen companion who had strong opinions about the world that the author only partially agreed with. Ms. Atwood also had some astute observations to make about 21st century life that I think will appeal to future generations quite a bit.

 

5. Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Why: It had such a sympathetic portrayal of someone who had Alzheimer’s Disease and no hope for a cure. I’ve read other books on similar topics from previous centuries. You can learn so much about a society by looking at how people with incurable illnesses are treated as well as how they react to the news that they’ve reached the end of what medicine and science can offer to them.

 

Five hardcover books standing up and arranged in a circle on a wooden table. 6. Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Why: The gorgeous writing makes this a modern classic in my opinion! Do not spoil the storyline for yourself by looking up spoilers in advance. The less you know about it beforehand, the better in my opinion.

 

7. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Why: This was a challenging read for sure given the many references to war and political upheaval, but it was well worth sticking it out with the characters to see what became of them.

 

I look forward to see which books everyone else picked! I wonder how much crossover there will be on our lists?

 

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March 23, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Your Favourite Podcast and Why

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 neon sign that says “On Air.” To be honest with all of you, I rarely listen to podcasts.

Books are such a huge source of entertainment to me that I simply don’t have a lot of time left over for other things, but I am open to changing that under the right circumstances.

One of the few exceptions to this rule is Tell Me About Your Pain. It’s a podcast about living with chronic pain and the latest evidence-based information on how best to treat it and to live with it.

(For anyone who might be new to the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge or to my site in general, I have episodic migraines).

I’m still quite new to this show, but I appreciate the fact that the people who run this podcast are so conscientious about only recommending treatments that have a strong scientific basis for their claims.

One of the things I’ve learned from my illness is that most of us will do anything to find relief and a very small percentage of humans out there will take advantage of that desperation to sell “treatments” that are ineffective or, even worse, might actually cause other health problems or exacerbate your current ones.

Due to this, I’m cautious about who I listen to when I seek out complementary treatments for my migraines that might work well with the new treatment regiment my family doctor put me on a few months ago. I don’t want to upset the delicate balance that can happen when you finally find a routine that helps.

This podcast is an excellent one if you also happen to have a chronic illness that causes pain or if you simply want to get a peek at how some of your friends and loved ones deal with this sort of thing.

if anyone reading this knows a lot about podcasts and would like to make some recommendations, I’d love to hear about anything that’s related to science, books, art, or history! It’s wonderful to learn more about the world.

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