Category Archives: Blog Hops

November 12, 2024 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Destination Titles


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Thank you to Rachel@Sunnyside for submitting this topic!

My goal for this week is to make all of my answers relate to Canada as I think my country deserves more attention in the literary world. Let’s see if I can do it and come up with answers other than the Anne of Green Gables series.

I’m going to guess that most Top Ten Tuesday bloggers are from the United States. If you’re comfortable sharing which country you live in, I’d like to find out if I’m right about that!

A photo taken of an empty country road in late autumn. All of the trees on both sides of the road have revealed their fall colours, and some of the trees are beginning to look sparse as their yellow, red, orange, or brown leaves fall off. 1.Montreal : a poem by John Glassco

2.Paris in April by Allan Dare Pearce

3.  The Moons of Jupiter by Alice Munro

4. Canada by Richard Ford

5. Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx

6. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry

7. Wychman Road by Ben Berman Ghan

8. Fire on the Hill by Frank Rockland

9. The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson

10. The Road Past Altamont by Gabrielle Roy

11. Random Passage (Random Passage, #1) by Bernice Morgan

 

 

12. Beyond the Shining Mountains by Doris Shannon

 

 

 

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November 6, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Things I’ve Learned from Another WWBC Blogger

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 photo of a white neon sign that says “think about things differently.” The word differently is spelled backwards. This sign has been placed against a black background so it really stands out!Here are my answers for this week’s prompt.

George taught me that food can be a sensitive topic for some people. I appreciate his candor about his eating disorder and am proud of how far he’s come so far. (I hope I’m not embarrassing him by bringing this up as it’s truly not my intention. He is a gem.).

On a lighter note, Michael introduced me to Festivus Geekiatum, a holiday he invented to help deal with the doldrums of winter at the end of February when it feels like spring may never arrive. What a fantastic holiday to look forward to at that time of year!

I celebrated it last year and intend to again this year. If anyone else wants to join in, I’ll happily promote your post on my blog, too.  Just leave a comment with a link to your post or let me know through some other way if we’re friends elsewhere on line.

Thank you both for widening my perspective of our world. I appreciate it.

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November 5, 2024 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Covers with Fog on the Cover


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Photo of a pine forest that is covered in fog. The forest is covering a large hill - or possibly a small mountain - so the trees further away from the fog are much clearer than the ones in the thick of it. This looks to be a hazy and overcast day even before the fog rolled in. Here’s a fun fact about me: I love foggy days so long as I don’t have to travel anywhere during them. (Driving in fog is too dangerous for me to ever look forward to it!)

There’s something poetic about seeing how this sort of weather blurs the edges of the buildings, trees, and other places I know so well when I can view it from the safety and comfort of home, though.

Here are ten books with foggy, misty, or otherwise hazy covers.

 

Book cover for The Mist by Stephen King. Image on cover shows the title spelled out in a thick white mist above a drawing of four people wearing protective gear walking through thick fog as they shine their lights to dimly illuminate the path before them. Above them there is a superimposed image of a white man covering his face with his hands and peeking out between his fingers in fear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. The Mist by Stephen King

 

Book cover for House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III. Image on cover is a black and white sketch of an old farmhouse at dusk. Fog is enveloping the land and blurring the house as well as the dry grasses growing tall beside it. This appears to be set in late autumn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III

 

Book cover for The Prince of Mist (Niebla, #1) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Image on cover shows mist that has formed into the rough shape of a person. It is thick, white, and a little frightening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. The Prince of Mist (Niebla, #1) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

 

Book cover for Fog Magic by Julia L. Sauer. Image on cover is a black and white sketch of a young girl standing outdoors on a very foggy day as she looks toward the small house her family has in the middle of a pine forest. She has long blond hair that is loosely braided, is wearing a flannel shirt, and is cuddling a baby raccoon strangely enough. She has a pensive expression on her face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Fog Magic by Julia L. Sauer

 

Book cover for The Fog Horn by Ray Bradbury. Image on cover shows an impressionist style painting of a lighthouse surrounded by very thick layers of fog. You can’t see the ocean or anything other than fog everywhere, a dim outline of the lighthouse, and a weak beam of light shining from the top of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. The Fog Horn by Ray Bradbury

 

Book cover for Mean Streak by Sandra Brown. Image on cover shows a photo of someone wearing a long black winter jacket and walking outside in the snow on a foggy day. Superimposed on this image is the side view of a white woman’s face as she stares off thoughtfully into the distance, although we cannot see what she sees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Mean Streak by Sandra Brown

 

Book cover for The Mist in the Mirror by Susan Hill. Image on cover shows a painting of several people walking down a town street on a very foggy day. You can’t see any identifying features for anyone, just their long, dark coats and the outlines of their heads. You can also see a horse pulling a carriage down the street but they, too, are distorted and blurred out by the thick and unyielding fog that makes everything look grey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. The Mist in the Mirror by Susan Hill

 

Book cover for Fog Island by Tomi Ungerer. Image on cover is a drawing of two children rowing in a boat next to a barren, tall rock island. It’s a very foggy day, so the sky is dark grey and everything in this scene is muted by how much fog is everywhere. You can only see basic outlines of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Fog Island by Tomi Ungerer

 

Book cover for The Fog by Kyo Maclear. Image the cover of this picture book is a drawing of a little Asian kid who is wearing a red rain jacket and peering at a yellow bird through binoculars outside on a foggy day. Adorably enough, the bird also has a pair of binoculars and is peering right back at her!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. The Fog by Kyo Maclear

 

Book cover for Sleepwalker in a Fog by Tatyana Tolstaya. Image on cover is a blurry photo of someone standing outside in a forest. It looks like they are surrounded by a layer of thick fog, although it could have also been created by overexposing the film. You can just barely make out the forest behind the person and the person themself who appears to be wearing a thick sweater and jeans as they wander around aimlessly and slightly hunched over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. Sleepwalker in a Fog by Tatyana Tolstaya

 

 

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October 30, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Superstitions I Secretly Believe In

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.

 

Photo of two teardrop shaped mirrors in wooden frames that have been hung on a black wall. Reflected in the mirror you can see the white covers and white pillows on a bed that’s been made but is still a little rumpled. (I received my annual covid and flu vaccines yesterday, so I may be a little late responding to other people’s posts depending on how I’m feeling today.)

I am not a very superstitious person, but these are the superstitions I do follow. Yes, I know most of them are nonsensical, but somehow they still feel important to me.

Crossing fingers for good luck.

When someone I care about is waiting to hear if they’re being offered a job, or what their test results are from the doctor’s office, or any other number of things that could change their lives for the better or worse but that I have no way to influence in a positive direction, I cross my fingers for them and hope for the best.

 

Don’t walk underneath ladders.

I mean, honestly, this is common sense. A collapsing or unsteady ladder could really hurt you or someone nearby.

 

Saying gesundheit or bless you after someone sneezes.

Can I assume that the majority of you know about gesundheit? It’s the German word for health and a pretty common blessing after a sneeze here in North America. I cannot hear someone sneeze without saying either that word or bless you even though logically I know they’re not actually a cure for anyone. It simply feels wrong to ignore sneezes or not wish other people good health.

 

Four leaf clovers bring good luck.

I have never found one, but I have searched for them now and again since childhood. Maybe someday I’ll find one and reap the good luck of not plucking it as I’d rather let it grow in peace!

 

Knocking on wood for good luck and/or to avoid tempting fate.

I didn’t know about the history of this practice. It’s simply something I saw happening occasionally when I was growing up that was presented as a good idea.

 

Don’t place mirrors so that they face each other in a room. 

My spouse taught me this one. It’s apparently bad luck, and I’ve seen too many spooky tv shows about spirits coming out of mirrors to test fate on this one even though I logically know that nothing would happen.

 

Don’t kiss babies

This is a superstition in a few different cultures. In the southern United States, they would warn not to do it because it will make babies drool, but this is also good medical advice in general. Babies, especially very young ones, have underdeveloped immune systems. What presents as a cold in healthy adults or older children could make a newborn dangerously ill if, for example, you happen to be infected with a cold sore, RSV, or the flu but don’t yet know it.

I did not realize kissing babies was so dangerous when I was younger, but I would not do it now! My apologies to the little ones I kissed before I knew better, but so far as I know I didn’t get any of them sick.

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October 29, 2024 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: The Best Ghost Stories I’ve Read


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Photo of someone walking around outside in a field with a white sheet over their head. Two eye holes have been cut into the sheet so they can see where they’re going while they dress up as a ghost. They are holding up a lantern with an orange flame in it and looking around as if they may be missing something. Interestingly enough, some of the grasses here are taller than this person. They’re huge! They’re also dry, brown, and dead as it’s autumn in this scene. The Halloween freebie post is one of my favourite recurring Top Ten Tuesday topics because Halloween is my favourite holiday of the year and I love seeing what everyone does with this theme.

Here are the Halloween posts I’ve written for Top Ten Tuesday in previous years: Free Horror Stories, My Favourite Halloween Treats, Halloween Picture Books,  Halloween Things I’ve Never Done,  Things I Love About Halloween, and LGBTQ+ Horror Novels.

This year I’m blogging about ghost stories which is one of those genres I return to over and over again and never grow tired of reading. The best ones in my opinion are the ones that end with the spirit finding closure with their death and being able to move on from this earthly plane. With that being said, not every tale follows that pattern as not every ghost was necessarily a good person in life or is currently able to heal.

Here are some of the best ghost stories I’ve ever read and still remember the titles of.

1. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

2. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

3.The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

4. Beloved by Toni Morrison

5. The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs

6. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

7. The Shining by Stephen King

8. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

If you like this genre, too, feel free to share your favourites in your comment if you wish!

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October 23, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What I Do When I’m Bored

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 photo of an autumn forest. The trees are still holding onto about half of their orange leaves. The rest of the leaves have fallen to the forest floor and are covering it and the trail between the trees. If I’m bored but cannot leave my surroundings because I’m sitting in a waiting room or the weather outside is frightful, I’ll probably people watch, read a book, or play Royal Match (a tile matching game) on my phone.

Those are all pretty common answers I’d bet, though, so let’s talk about other possibilities. Most of them are free activities and the rest are inexpensive.

Taking Long Outdoor Walks

If weather is okay for some outdoor time, I’ll go take a walk.

Walking is free, good for you, peaceful, highly customizable, and lets me discover all sorts of new shops and other places that have recently popped up or been renovated in my area. If you ask me, this is a highly underrated form of entertainment.

Asking Lots of Questions

I’m quiet, but every so often I get the urge to be talkative and share some of the thoughts that I normally keep to myself. When I was a kid, my parents and siblings were the relatives I’d bless with questions. Now my spouse gets to hear them. (The questions are normally about topics we’ve spoken a lot about, so chess or Star Trek for example).

Gazing at the Ceiling

Ceilings are often an under-appreciated aspect of architecture in my experience. I love looking up to see what sort of light fixtures, sky lights, or decorative objects might be up there. Some of them can be rather plain, I’ll admit, but others are works of art.

Exploring Library Events

I’m lucky to live in a city with a large and active library system. There’s something going on there multiple times a week, so there is a decent chance I’ll see an event on their website that would be fun to attend either virtually or in person.

Visiting Coffee Shops

I love the ambiance of coffee shops that offer seating.  They’re such cozy and friendly places to visit as I enjoy a beverage or snack.

Enjoying the Park 

The squirrels are currently searching for food to store away from the winter, and watching them find it can be amusing. Since some people feed them, they can also be unnervingly friendly at this time of the year. Last autumn I had one follow me for several minutes until it realized I’m not the sort of human who feeds wildlife.

I like snapping photos, so going to the park is also a good chance to look for moments that I want to capture for posterity.

 

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October 22, 2024 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: How My Reading Habits Have Changed Over Time


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

 

A time lapse photo of a red amaryllis flower from bud to full bloom. It is show in seven different steps, from tight little bud on the left side of the image to full bloom on the right. Each intermediate plant is a little redder and prettier than the last. These days I am generally not interested in:

  • Poetry
  • Long books
  • Polemics
  • Classic or traditional-style fantasy
  • Nonfiction about disease, war, or suffering
  • Gory horror
  • Romance
  • Classic novels
  • Dark endings
  • Fairy tales

(There are occasional exceptions, of course, but these aren’t categories that immediately spark my interest in most cases).

And I have a deep interest in:

  • Short stories and novellas
  • Cozy science fiction and fantasy
  • Memoirs, biographies, or autobiographies of people who make the world a better place
  • Nonfiction about scientific advancements in any branch of science, animals, food, and plants
  • Ghost stories
  • Psychological horror (e.g. no blood or gore, just apprehension)
  • Humorous books
  • Stories about emotionally healthy platonic relationships*
  • Hopeful writing in general
  • Historical fiction about the lives of ordinary people
  • Justice being served to the antagonists

*they don’t have to be perfect by any means!  I simply prefer to read about characters who genuinely try to be good and treat each other kindly than about characters who are stuck in dysfunctional patterns of behaviour with their family and friends.

My tastes seem to shift every few years, so I’d have to make this a much longer post to document every little change I’ve experienced since childhood. Honestly, I don’t know that I’d even remember all of them anymore.

All I know is that I tend to dive deeply into a topic for a few months to a few years and then move on to other topics in most cases.

I look forward to seeing how everyone else’s tastes have evolved over time.

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October 16, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Something That’s Improved Since I Was a Kid

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.

Six speech bubbles lined up in three equal rows. The row on top is coloured peach, the middle row is pink, and the bottom row is sea green. One of the biggest improvements I’ve seen since I was a kid has to do with how much easier it is now to find people who share the same hobby, interest, identity, or diagnosis.

Among countless other possibilities, if you are:

LGBTQ+,

A fan of a specific book series, tv show, or obscure hobby,

Trying to learn more about a new hobby,

A llama herder, or

Just coming home from the hospital or doctor’s office after you or someone you love has been diagnosed with disease X,

 

You can find communities of people online who are in the same boat.

This is valuable for everyone, but it is even more important for folks who are living in rural areas or with health conditions that limit how much they can travel and who therefore may not be able to find anyone in their neighbourhood to discuss such things with in person.

When the Internet became something that virtually everyone in the western world has daily access to, countless people were finally able to meet others like themselves online for both serious and lighthearted purposes.

For subjects like life-changing illnesses, this means that information about the latest tests, studies, and treatments can spread much faster and farther than it could have a few decades ago. There is no doubt in my mind that this has saved a lot of lives as well as reduced suffering.

But even if you’re only searching for likeminded folks online who share your interest in topic X, it is still a wonderful thing to find those kindred spirits and finally get to dig deeply into the minutia of what you enjoy. Hobbies are an important part of living a fulfilling life, and I love how much easier is to meet other people who like the same very specific things you do these days.

I am so grateful that such things are possible and common nowadays.

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October 15, 2024 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wasn’t Assigned to Read in School (But Wish I Had Been)


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I already did this topic last July during the Freebie post that week that asked us to pick an old topic from the Top Ten Tuesday archives. Had I known it would be repeated so soon, I would have picked a different option from that list!

Photo of rows of empty, two-person desks in a classroom. Each desk has two chairs and enough space for two kids to sit there. You can see a chalkboard at the front of the room but it has been wiped clean and is ready for the next class.Therefore, I’m going to be making a list of books I was not assigned to read in school but wish had been on the syllabus. I ended up borrowing some of them from the library and reading them on weekends on over the summer. It would have been helpful to have a teacher around to explain certain cultural norms that have since changed or references to other works I didn’t quite get, for example.

1. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

2. The Iliad by Homer

3. Native Son by Richard Wright

4. 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

5. Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo

6. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

7. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

9. Beloved by Toni Morrison

10. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Which classics – modern or otherwise – do you wish had been taught in school?

 

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October 9, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Something That Was Better When I Was a Kid

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 semi-opened laptop. It is in an otherwise pitch-black room, and the light from the screen is illuminating the keyboard with all sorts of soft, pastel colours. This is one of those topics that makes me wish I could take a peek at all of the other answers before publishing my own! Will most folks choose serious or frivolous answers, I wonder?

I’m going to bend the rules slightly and give two answers this week so that I won’t be out of place for giving a serious answer while everyone else bemoans the loss of their favourite snacks from decades past or for giving a lighthearted reply while everyone else soberly talks about recently extinct species of animals or something.

My Serious Answer: Winter

Winter was better when I was a kid because it was colder and snowier. This meant that there was more water to fill our aquifers when spring came and that fewer harmful species like ticks survived the deep freezes of that season.

Last winter was worryingly mild and dry in Ontario. We received less than half the usual amount of snow and some veterinarians here are now recommending that pet owners give their dogs tick medication year-round because they were still finding ticks on dogs in late December when the ground should have been far too frozen for any of those creatures to be crawling around, much less being alert enough to bite.

Climate change is here, and it’s rapidly affecting everything in our environment.

My Lighthearted Answer: Message Boards

I remember a time when there were active forums and message boards everywhere online for any topic you could imagine and probably many more for subjects you’d never think would have such numerous or devoted fans. Sometimes a thread would be started about a specific question and it would sit dormant for weeks or months until someone with the right knowledge discovered it, bumped it to the top, and answered it.

Social media is useful for a lot of other things, but it usually does not inspire deep conversations on niche interests that unfold over many years or reward people who are experts in their fields and genuinely know what they’re talking about.

I desperately miss having access to all of that knowledge and having the opportunity to add to it when I could.

If only we could experience both of these things thriving in 2024: social media for what is predominantly lighthearted, surface-level conversations and forums for people who want to dig deeply into a specific topic and either share their knowledge of it or become well-versed in it themselves.

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