Category Archives: Blog Hops

March 22, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books With an Adjective In the Title


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

The following words are written on a green background: adjectives, verbs, prepositions, nouns, tenses, activate, study, adverbs, learning grammar. Here’s a quick and humorous story about adjectives before I dive into this week’s prompt.

When I was in elementary school, our teacher had us write poems that needed to have a specific number of adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and other parts of speech in certain portions of the poem.

I was a little unsure about what made an adjective different from the other parts of speech, so I opened a nearby dictionary and selected words based in large part on what the dictionary said about which part of speech each one belonged to.

This is probably not exactly what my teacher was hoping we’d do, but I finished the project and technically followed all of the rules for it.

1. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

2. The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

3. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Edward Albee

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

5. The Case of the Perfect Maid – a Miss Marple Short Story by Agatha Christie

6. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

7. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

8. The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo by Zen Cho

9. The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

10. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

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March 16, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Something “Lucky” That Happened to You

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.

Toronto Ferry at Toronto island. The CN tower and the city landscape are in the backrground. It is a semi-cloudy summer day and the lake water is nice and placid.

Toronto Island and the Toronto Ferry with the city of Toronto in the distance.

About eight years ago, my spouse and I spent the day at Toronto Island with some relatives who were visiting from out of town.

If you’ve never been to Toronto Island, know that it’s a large public park  that also has other amenities like a petting zoo, beaches, restaurants, bike and boat rentals, and a small amusement park.

It’s the quintessential place to spend a day with your entire family when the weather is nice. There is something to do there for everyone no matter your age or interests.

After spending several happy hours exploring the island, we hopped on the ferry to back to the mainland. There were between 50 and 100 other people on the ferry, including infants, disabled people, and senior citizens.

The ferries here move quickly on the water to save time, and they only slow down right before they approach the dock.

For reasons I’ve never been able to ascertain, this ferry didn’t slow down. It slammed into the dock instead, sending multiple people crashing to the floor because they were either standing up at the time or weren’t physically strong enough to remain seated. One of the people who fell was my own father!

My mother, who was a nurse back then, immediately leapt up to see if anyone needed medical assistance. We feared the worst given how hard and abruptly the ferry slammed into the pier and how many people were onboard who could be at higher risk of being seriously hurt by falling.

Miraculously, no one needed first aid. A few people who fell might have woken up with a bruise or two the next morning, but that would have been the absolutely worst of it to the best of my knowledge. No one needed my mother’s help after all.

I was very lucky that day, and so was everyone else onboard.

(Yes, I have taken the ferry once or twice since then. Don’t let this story scare you off if you haven’t tried this form of transportation yet. It’s usually perfectly safe, and you get a marvellous view of the city during the ride as well).

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March 15, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Spring 2022 TBR


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Spring is an uncertain time of year here in Ontario as I’m sure it is in many other places, too.

The wildly shifting weather usually starts in late February or early March. That is to say, one day might be relatively warm and sunny for that time of year, but the next one could coat our corner of the world in another thick layer of snow and ice.

Once the weather warms up enough in May that we probably won’t see snow again, thunderstorms are still a risk. They can be violent, heavy, and not always easy for our meteorologists to predict in advance.

That is to say, always pack an umbrella and don’t trust those bright blue skies too much at this time of the year!

How does this affect my reading habits, you might be wondering? Well, it is not a good idea to plan any outdoor activities more than a few hours in advance in the spring here. You might have a beautifully mild day that beckons everyone outside to enjoy it, or you might have a sudden storm that makes reading indoors a much safer and more appealing option.

I’m glad to have so many books to look forward to this spring. Along with seeing what the Toronto Public Library has available in their New Books section, the weather will also affect how quickly I read these books.

I’d love to hear about what spring is like in your part of the world and how it affects your reading habits when you comment!

Lakelore has already been published, so that’s why I didn’t include a publication date for it.

Lakelore by Anna-Marie McLemore Book cover. Image on the cover shows drawing of two teens standing in a lake with leaves on their heads.

1. Lakelore by Anna-Marie McLemore

Why I’m Looking Forward to It: I love stories about magical worlds in lakes or other bodies of water.
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi Book cover. Image on cover shows the title and author of the book written on a blood-covered tag that’ surrounded by green leaves.

2.The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Publication Date: Today!
Why I’m Looking Forward to It: Mr. Scalzi is on my must-read list of authors. I can’t wait to see what he does with the concept of massive endangered animals from other planets who need human assistance to thrive.
The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller Book cover. Image on cover shows a the bones of a human hand that are surrounded by flowers.

3. The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller

Publication Date: March 22
Why I’m Looking Forward to It: While I’m not 100% sure I’m ready to dive into the non-paranormal horror genre again, this sure does look like a unique and creative story.
The Trayvon Generation by Elizabeth Alexander Book cover. Image on cover shows a photo of a black child staring into the camera with a neutral expression on his face.

4. The Trayvon Generation by Elizabeth Alexander

Publication Date: April 5
Why I’m Looking Forward to It: This collection of essays grabbed my attention immediately. I look forward to reading it and quietly absorbing the thoughts of the people who wrote them.
City of Refugees: The Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life Into a Dying American Town by Susan Hartman Book cover. image on cover is a drawing of buildings in a town.

5. City of Refugees: The Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life Into a Dying American Town by Susan Hartman

Publication Date: May 10
Why I’m Looking Forward to It: The premise sounds amazing. I’ve seen how refugees enriched life for everyone in Canada and am excited to see how similar patterns have played out in the United States.
 Buried: An Alternative History of the First Millennium in Britain by Alice Roberts Book cover. Image on cover shows a photo of a real human skull.

6.  Buried: An Alternative History of the First Millennium in Britain by Alice Roberts

Publication Date: May 26
Why I’m Looking Forward to It: I think you all know how much I love reading about history, so this book was an automatic yes for me.

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March 9, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Book Setting You’d Like to Visit 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.

After thinking about it for a little bit, my answer to this week’s prompt is simple: I want to visit The Grand Canyon.

When I was about six years old, my mother read Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry to me while we were driving somewhere on vacation.

It was after dark and the stars shone brightly in the sky above our car as I listened to the adventures of a brave little donkey in the Grand Canyon. I remember feeling so cozy and entertained on that trip even as my eyes began to droop a tad. Brighty was in terrible danger at times (or so it seemed to my young mind), but I was sure he’d make it through okay in the end. Mom surely wouldn’t have read it to me otherwise!

I believe this was a tale that one of her parents might have read to her when she was in elementary school, too.

At any rate, the descriptions of the Grand Canyon were so vivid and beautiful in that book that little Lydia decided she wanted to see it for herself one day. I’ve always loved nature, especially if it involves places as large and majestic as this particular portion of the world seems like it would be.

It hasn’t happened yet, but maybe it will once this pandemic ends and travelling internationally for the sheer joy of it becomes possible once again!

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March 8, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books With Your Favourite Theme


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Drawing of a hand holding on a piece of string that’s connected to the letter P in the word Hope. How can anyone only pick one trope or theme? I think I could write dozens of blog posts on this topic and still not run out of things to say.

Over the past two years, hopeful stories have been the ones that caught my attention most often for reasons I’m sure all of you can already guess.

Hope seemed like a good theme for a post, so here are eight hopeful books that I’d recommend from a variety of genres.

1. Becoming  by Michelle Obama

2. The Martian by Andy Weir

3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3)  by C.S. Lewis (The rest of this series is pretty hopeful, too!)

4. A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1)  by Becky Chambers

5. Oh, the Places You’ll Go!  by Dr. Seuss

6. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again  by J.R.R. Tolkien

7. The Princess Bride  by William Goldman

8. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco

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March 2, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Tell Us Something About 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.

I do not have a photo of the actual fish I’m going to discuss, so a stock photo must suffice.

A fish swimming in a blue sea. This happened in late spring or summer when I was a child. My family lived in a house whose backyard sloped down into the shore of a lake back then.

I was walking by the water when I noticed a fish swimming oddly close to the shore and to the surface of the water.

While I didn’t see any visible injuries on it, the poor little fish looked like it needed help. It wasn’t swimming as quickly and confidently as fish normally do. It looked wobbly and uncertain.

I built a little pen of rocks around it to protect it from any larger creatures that might hurt it. The pen was not terribly big, just tall enough to give it a safe spot in the water to rest.

Then I went to the house to see if one of my parents could help him or her.

When I returned, the fish was gone.

It’s impossible to know for sure what happened to it, but I choose to believe that moment of rest somehow helped and that it had a long and happy life after that afternoon.

I did not know it long enough to pick a name, but I bonded enough with it during the brief time we knew each other for me to remember it all of these years later.

It was a nice little fish, and I did everything I could to help it.

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March 1, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Enjoyed, but Have Never Mentioned on My Blog


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A bookcase that is slowly opening and revealing a hidden passage behind it. Let’s see how many books I can think of that fit this prompt!

I know I’ve already mentioned many of the books I enjoyed reading on my site at some point, so it took me a little while to search for all of these titles in my archives to make sure I hadn’t mentioned them before.

Enjoy isn’t exactly the right word for some of these answers because of the serious topics they cover, but they were still excellent books that I’m glad I discovered.

Keep reading to discover my hodgepodge of answers!

They cover so many different genres and topics.

 

 

 

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens book cover. Image on cover is an oil painting of a young 19th century man wearing a cap and looking serious.

1. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Why I Enjoyed It: The author had a thought-provoking message about what we should expect out of life and how we should respond if our wishes don’t come true or aren’t fulfilled in the ways we thought they would be. I didn’t understand his point so well when I first read this tale, but it makes a great deal more sense to me now.

 

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Book cover. Image on cover is an oil painting of a woman holding an infant and looking seriously off into the distance.

2. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Why I Enjoyed It: This story was assigned to my English class many years ago in a time in my life when I was experiencing a lot of bullying.  I found an odd sense of comfort in reading about adults behaving just as poorly a few centuries ago. Some people need to put others down in order to feel better about themselves. That sort of behaviour says a lot about the perpetrator’s character, and not in a complimentary way.

 

The World According to Garp by John Irving Book cover. Image on cover shows a drawing of a brown and white bullfrog.

3. The World According to Garp by John Irving

Why I Enjoyed It: Most of the characters were rather selfish and unkind, but they were often witty and creative as well. While I wouldn’t want them to be a permanent part of my life by any means, I would be amused by listening to their stories over dinner for an evening. It takes a lot of talent to create deeply unlikeable characters that still draw a reader into their lives, flaws and all.

 

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison book cover. There is no image on the cover, just a pretty, blue background.

4. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Why I Enjoyed It: Ms. Morrison has a poetic writing style that’s always wonderful to read.

 

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn book cover. There is no image on the cover other than a few decorative swoops of the pen next to the letter A in the title.

5. A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Why I Enjoyed It: It told the stories of so many different groups of people who were rarely if ever mentioned in the history classes taught when I was in elementary, middle, and high school.

 

The Ugly Little Boy by Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg book cover. Image on cover shows a drawing of man standing next to a gigantic golden pillar of some sort.

6. The Ugly Little Boy by Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg

Why I Enjoyed It: Anyone who has followed this blog for a while might remember how much I enjoy stories about Neanderthals. This was a good one.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander book cover. Image on cover shows the hands of a black man who is gripping rails in a prison cell. His face is not visible.

7. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Why I Enjoyed It: Okay, so enjoy is definitely not the right term for this book. Let’s say that I was educated by it instead. Reading it was the first time I’d been exposed to the idea that the prison industry could be compared to the Jim Crow era.

 

Ash by Malinda Lo Book cover. Image on cover shows an Asian girl wearing a flouncy white dress as she curls up in a ball.

8. Ash by Malinda Lo

Why I Enjoyed It: It was the first Cinderella retelling I read, and I thought it was well done.

 

Warm Bodies (Warm Bodies, #1) by Isaac Marion Book cover. Image on cover shows a zombie giving a bouquet of yellow flowers to a living teen girl.

9. Warm Bodies (Warm Bodies, #1) by Isaac Marion

Why I Enjoyed It: I used to enjoy zombie fiction and was flabbergasted at the thought of anyone turning those creatures into a love interest. This took a very interesting take on the subject for sure!

 

The World According to Mr. Rogers: Important Things to Remember by Fred Rogers book cover. Image on cover shows a minimalistic drawing of Mr. Roger’s famous sweater.

10. The World According to Mr. Rogers: Important Things to Remember by Fred Rogers

Why I Enjoyed It: Mr. Rogers was a wonderful human being who made the world a better place. He was so full of wisdom, love, and grace!

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February 22, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Dynamic Duos

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Two identical windows in the side of a building. Each window is comprised of eight small panes. The bottom left pane of glass on the right window is opened. All others are closed. This week’s prompt made me pause and think for a little while. My first reaction to it was that I don’t read many books with dynamic duos, but I think that impression wasn’t entirely correct now that I’ve had a chance to ponder it further and dig deeply into my bookish past.

Here are some of my favourite duos in fiction.

1. Sam and Frodo in The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

2. Travis and Old Yeller in Old Yeller by Fred Gipson

3. George and Lennie in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

4.   Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

There weren’t many of them, and oddly enough they were all about white men (or hobbits). I’ll be eagerly reading all of your answers to diversify my list as I hadn’t realized I had this blind spot!

Honestly, I think being able to pick each other’s minds like that and expand all of our horizons is one of the best parts of Top Ten Tuesday.

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February 16, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Book Genre 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 stack of about a dozen books sitting next to a white wall. All of the book’s spines are facing away from the viewer so we don’t know their topics or authors. The best I could do was to narrow my answer to this week’s prompt down to two different answers.

I’ve loved the speculative fiction genre since I was a little kid. Whether it was paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, or something similar to one of these categories, I adore stories about things that aren’t actually possible in our world.

Some of the oldest speculative fiction stories out there have predicted things like travelling to the moon or cell phones that were the stuff of dreams during their eras but are now perfectly possible and even ordinary in certain cases.

On the other side of the spectrum, I’ve grown to love nonfiction as an adult.

Biographies and memoirs give us intimate glimpses into the lives of others and often include insight into how they surmounted even the most difficult circumstances.

History class was often a little boring when I was a kid, so it was thrilling to grow up and learn about the many historical figures and events that my teachers either never talked about at all or only went into scantest details about before moving on to yet another war or royal dynasty. (Kudos to those of you who enjoy reading about royalty and/or war, of course! They’re simply not my cup of tea).

I try to keep Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge posts brief, so I’ll only mention one other type of nonfiction that excites me. It’s marvellous to learn about new scientific discoveries and advancements in any number of fields as well.

Sometimes books are written about archeological discoveries, medical advancements, or distant celestial bodies that we’re still gathering information about. Occasionally, a scientist might write an entire book about a species like eels or earthworms that we’ve recently discovered a whole bunch of fascinating information about.

I devour all of these these books with gusto. The real world can be just as filled with wonder and excitement as any imaginary one in a faraway magical land  if you pay close attention!

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February 15, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Too Good to Review Properly

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

 

A dog wearing glasses and looking happy while lying on a white bed next to an opened book.

This isn’t my dog, but don’t they look happy?

My comments on certain blogs do not seem to be going through for reasons I haven’t been able to ascertain. If you don’t see reciprocal comments on your site, that is why. I am doing my best each week to say hello to everyone! 

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, it’s rare for me to love a book so much that I can’t review it properly.

I’ve been reviewing books for so many years now that I can write my way out of nearly any dilemma, from figuring out diplomatic ways to word constructive criticisms to gushing about a story for paragraphs on end without giving away any important plot twists.

There are a myriad of ways to discuss most books with kindness and without spoilers.

With that being said, there has been one recent exception to this rule.

It’s a novella I’ve wholeheartedly recommended to everyone I know who has ever so much as glanced in the direction of speculative fiction.

The storytelling was so tightly woven that I didn’t even mind the fact that it seems to be the beginning of a serial.

Normally, I strictly avoid tales that drop off at exciting moments and make you wait for the next instalment to see what happens next.

This one figured out how to pack so much world building and character development into the first instalment that I don’t mind waiting for the sequel, especially since it has had such a hopeful vision of what humanity’s future might look like.

“A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers couldn’t have been better.

“A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers Book cover. Image on cover shows a robot and some machines in a drawing of a winding road.

I adored the protagonist, a non-binary tea monk who was so restless and dissatisfied with their life they decided to leave the safe zone where humans had lived for generations to see what they might find in the wild forests that covered all of the places humanity had abandoned.

The world they lived in was such a safe, harmonious place. There was no more war or environmental destruction. Everyone lived simply and no one went without what they needed to survive.

I spent the entire novella wondering what the main character would find on their journey. I yearned for it to be something wonderful that they could bring back to show everyone.

There are so many other things I wish I could say about this novella, but I really do have to be careful about giving away thrilling plot twists to anyone who hasn’t read it yet.

Maybe someday soon I’ll figure out a way to discuss this short work in greater detail and properly review it before the sequel comes out this summer!

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