Category Archives: Blog Hops

September 1, 2020 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Literary Cookbooks That Make Me Hungry

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I’ve written several posts about books that make me hungry, so I narrowed down this week’s topic to make it more of a challenge. Here are ten literary cookbooks that make me hungry.

Three martinis. One green, one purple, and one blue. 1. An Unexpected Cookbook: The Unofficial Book of Hobbit Cookery by Chris-Rachael Oseland

2. Drink Me: Curious Cocktails from Wonderland by Nick Perry

3. Unofficial Recipes of the Hunger Games: 187 Recipes Inspired by the Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay by Rockridge Press

4. The American Girls Cookbook: A Peek at Dining in the Past with Meals You Can Cook Today by American Girl

5. Eat This Poem: A Literary Feast of Recipes Inspired by Poetry by Nicole Gulotta

6. Zora Neale Hurston on Florida Food: Recipes, Remedies & Simple Pleasures by Frederick Douglass Opie

7. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Cook Book by Monica Bayley

8. Fairy Tale Desserts: A Cookbook for Young Readers and Eaters by Jane Yolen

9. Avonlea Cookbook by Kevin Sullivan

10. Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer: A Golden Treasury of Classic Treats by Jane Brocket

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August 26, 2020 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: The Strangest Things I’ve Eaten

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 dragon fruit cut in half to show its white meat and seedsThis question is a little subjective since foods that are common in one culture may be unheard of in another, but it’s still a fun topic to discuss!

If you also grew up in a family of fishers and hunters or in a rural area, some of the meat on list might seem pretty ordinary.

The rest of them I’ve tried on vacations or by picking up random pieces of produce at the grocery store and wondering if I’d like them!

The strangest foods I’ve eaten include:

  • Turtle
  • Venison
  • Elk
  • Oxtail
  • Chicken hearts and livers
  • Frog
  • Gooseberries
  • Lychee
  • Dragon fruit
  • Pomegranate

I was not a big fan of the lychee, frog, or pomegranates, but I enjoyed the rest of them.

But by far the strangest thing I’ve ever eaten is grass. When I was a child, I couldn’t figure out why cows ate grass but humans didn’t eat it. It seemed to me that a calorie was a calorie no matter where it came from. I loved lettuce, so I assumed grass would taste just as good.

Spoiler alert: it wasn’t tasty. There was very little flavour to it at all, but the stringy texture of it convinced me that while cows might like grass, this human does not. 😉

 

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August 25, 2020 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Questions I Would Ask My Favourite Authors

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

This post contains mild spoilers for a few books that were published years ago.

I’ve also decided that being deceased is no reason for an author not to answer a friendly question or two, but that is the extent of my necromancy abilities.

Author: Jean M. Auel

My Questions: What happened to Ayla’s first son after she was permanently separated from him in the Clan of the Cave Bear series? Will you ever write a sequel about his life?

 

Author: Steven King

My Questions: What percentage of your family mealtimes are taken up by you asking your loved ones how they’d respond to increasingly bizarre scenarios you’re dreaming up for future novels? Does Mrs. King enjoy these conversations? Do you ever censor yourself around any grandchildren you might have now?

 

Author: Octavia E. Butler

My Questions: How was the Parable series supposed to end? Did you ever consider hiring a ghostwriter to finish it?

 

Author: Angie Thomas

My Question: Can I be one of your beta readers if I promise not to breathe a word about it to anyone?

 

Author: Kevin Kwan

My Questions: Should I read Crazy Rich Asians before or after watching the film? What are your thoughts on the film version of your story in general?

 

Author: Malala Yousafzai

My Questions: Will you be writing more books for adult readers in the near future? What are your longterm plans for your life?

 

Author: Sarah Waters

My Question: What is your research process like? There are so many years between your books that I can only imagine how much time you spend researching every detail of the eras you write about!

 

Author: Paul Stamets

My Question: How many new readers did you gain after Mycelium Running was used for a Star Trek: Discovery plot?

 

Author: Neil Gaiman

My Questions: How would you describe your friendship with Tori Amos? Do you two let each other know in advance when you write about your friendship, or is it a pleasant surprise?

 

Author: Langston Hughes

My Question:  Would you write a poem about 2020 for us?

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August 19, 2020 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Movie Quotes (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.

Four blocks that spell out the word hope I narrowed down this week’s topic to movie quotes only.

 

“Just keep swimming.” -Finding Nemo (2003)

Why I Love It: Sometimes this is the best advice for a hard day, week, month, or year!

 

“If you build it, he will come.” – Field of Dreams (1989)

Why I Love It: I’ve had multiple experiences in life that showed the value in putting in hard work long before you have any inkling if, how, or when that effort will pay off. More often than not, you will be rewarded when you least expect it.

 

“Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.” – Back to the Future (1985)

Why I Love It: This makes me giggle. It’s as simple as that.

 

“There’s no crying in baseball!”  – A League of Their Own (1992)

Why I Love It: Not only does this make me giggle, the context gives me hope as well. This film was loosely based on the first women’s baseball teams in the United States during World War II. The players dealt with many naysayers who thought women shouldn’t play baseball, especially professionally. I truly enjoyed seeing how they and their coach responded to that and rose above everyone who tried to stop them.

 

“This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” – Casablanca (1942)

Why I Love It: There’s nothing like meeting someone and realizing that you two would make excellent friends.

 

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it, always.” – Gandhi (1982)

Why I Love It: Hope is something that should always be cultivated.

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August 18, 2020 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Should Be Adapted Into Netflix Shows

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I have strong opinions about today’s topic! All of these books would make amazing shows. I can only hope that Netflix will realize they need more content and pick them up.

A laptop with the Netflix logo on it. The laptop is sitting on a bed and flanked by a stuffed animal and a blanket. 1.The Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean M. Auel

Why: This series has everything – romance, adventure, history, science, and even a little science fiction.

It would also be amazing to see what current CGI would do with Neanderthals, mammoths, and other extinct species.

2. The Neanderthal Parallax series by Robert J. Sawyer

Why: The only thing cooler then seeing Neanderthals 30,000 years ago is imagining what they’d be like to day if they’d survived and we had been the ones to go extinct.

3. The Deep by Rivers Solomon 

Why: Now is the perfect time for a show about healing old wounds. As I said, the world building hinted at so many things that could be expanded upon. A TV show would create so much space for Ms. Solomon to explain Wanjinru society more clearly and show additional differences between it and other versions of mermaid tales that exist out there.

4. The Lost Ones by Anita Frank 

Why: Is there ever a bad time for a haunted house story? I think not. My review noted my frustration with some illogical choices the main character made. I otherwise liked her a lot and can’t help but to wonder if her decisions would make more sense on the small screen since the era she lived in would be brought to life in ways that can be a little trickier in a book.

5. The Spellbound Spindle by Joy V. Spicer 

Why: I love the idea of having more feel-good fairy tales on Netflix. There were so many scenes in this book I couldn’t talk about for spoiler reasons that would look amazing on a TV. Let’s just say that the antagonists were very colourful characters, and their dialogue would make me laugh pretty hard if I heard it.

6. The Farm by Joanne Ramos 

Why: Surrogacy can be a complicated topic, especially in scifi novels like this one where surrogates are monitored so closely. The themes in this novel about how society thinks about women’s bodies and how pregnancy can be commercialized are ones that could be dramatized nicely.

7. The Testaments (The Handmaid’s Tale #2) by Margaret Atwood

Why: Okay, so technically I’m sure that some of the themes will be included in future seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale, but I’d sure like to see to see a spinoff set years from now when all of the various plot lines have finally reached their climax. I enjoy The Handmaid’s Tale, but I’ve also found past seasons to be really dark and heavy. It would be nice to see this world reach a peaceful resolution in the end.

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August 12, 2020 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What I Wanted to Do When I Grew Up vs. What I Do

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.

Woman leaping between boulders. The one she is leaping to has the word "job" on it. What I wanted to do:

It changed every year, and sometimes I had no idea what I wanted at all.

Generally, my dreams revolved around being a librarian, college professor, or bestselling author.

I love books, knowledge, and teaching things to adults. If the occupational outlooks for librarians or professors were better, I probably would have gone in one of those directions!

What I actually do: I’m currently a writer who is looking for ways to pivot back into the traditional workforce. Those plans were interrupted by Covid-19, so I’m still evaluating my options as far as job training, online courses, or additional volunteering goes to strengthen my resume as the economy (hopefully) improves. We’ll see what happens!

I’ve previously worked in all sorts of places, from retail to tutoring to office work. I enjoyed my office job the most because of how personable my bosses were there. Having wonderful bosses makes all the difference in the world.

Once I worked in a movie theatre that my coworkers swore was haunted because of weird sounds they heard and how certain objects like mop buckets tended to move around when certain people were cleaning. I preferred rational explanations for those phenomena, but I also didn’t look too closely into the shadowy regions of the employee-only zones late at night. Ha!

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August 11, 2020 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved But Never Reviewed

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

This is one of those topics I could write dozens of blog posts about and still come up with more answers to it. I only write reviews of a portion of the books I read.

Due to this, I decided to share the reasons why I don’t write reviews of certain books I loved.

ceramic mug sitting on an opened book1. The series had an unexpected ending

Example: Jean M. Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear series

I loved the first few books in this prehistoric world. The last few instalments didn’t tie things up the ways I thought they would based on the early foreshadowing.

While I understood some of the changes the author made, I don’t think I’m the right person to review this series because of how different my interpretation of those early scenes was from the author’s interpretation of them.

2. It’s a classic novel

Example: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein 

Frankenstein is one of my all-time favourite classics! If we ever get another Frankenstein film, I will be shouting that news from the rooftops and blogging a (hopefully glowing) review of it.

With that being said, this story is 202 years old. Most people who want to read it have already read it, so I’d rather save space for newer books that aren’t so well known.

3. Mainstream audiences have embraced it 

Example: Andy Weir’s The Martian 

Now don’t get me wrong! I love it when people who don’t normally read science fiction discover something in this genre that appeals to them. It has made me extraordinarily happy to see this interest of mine become much more mainstream since I was a kid, and I welcome every new fan.

But I also feel compelled to focus on lesser-known science fiction stories, especially when they’re indie and/or written by writers from underrepresented groups.

4. I don’t know what to say about it 

Example: Emily Tesh’s Silver in the Wood 

This doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes I have trouble specifying why I love a book so much.  It could be that it reminds me of very specific childhood memories or that it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Those reactions are a great deal of fun, but I need to have a firm list of reasons for enjoying a story before I decide to write a full review of it. I always want to be the sort of reviewer whose readers receive plenty of concrete examples of why I liked it so much so they can decide for themselves if it’s the right read for them.

Reviewing is serious business in my opinion!

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August 5, 2020 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: My Favourite Science Fiction Tropes

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 those prompts that I could ramble on about for ages. I did my best to keep this post fairly short and sweet, but do ask me about science fiction tropes if we ever meet in person and you’d like to see me suddenly shift from being quiet to talkative!

Galaxy filled with starsInterstellar Travel

Example: Star Trek

Why I Enjoy It: Sometimes I wish I’d been born at a point in time when we could actually go visit the planets and moons that astronomers are currently discovering. Based on how far away they are from us, we’d probably need to invent interstellar travel to make it possible for us to discover what – or maybe even who – else we’d discover on those possibly habitable words.

 

high-angle photo of a robotRobots

Example: Isaac Asimov’s Robot stories

Why I Enjoy It: I’m fascinated by technology in general, especially when it can be used to do complex tasks that used to require a human to do them correctly.

If we ever create robots that have human-like intelligence, I’d be so interested in finding out how they changed society and how humans treated them. In the meantime, there are many stories out there about this topic.

 

three strands of DNAClones 

Example: Jurassic Park (film and book)

Why I Enjoy It: I’ve loved this idea ever since I saw the baby dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. It’s also thought-provoking to imagine a world where someone who needs a new heart can have one grown from their own cells and never have to deal with any of the longterm health issues that transplant recipients currently need to look out for.

 

microscopic photo of nanotechnology

Nanotechnology

Example: Michael Crichton’s Prey (film and book)

Why I Enjoy It: I dream of the day when my friends and relatives who live with chronic health conditions that currently have no cure might find relief from something like this.

This field is still in its infancy. There’s no telling what it might be capable of doing for future generations!

 

cryogenic podsCryosleep

Example: Futurama (TV show)

Why I Enjoy It: Being able to skip over hundreds or thousands of years of human history while keeping the same protagonist makes many science fiction plots feel much more plausible.

There’s also something amazing about getting a peek at what the future of humanity could possibly be like!

 

 

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August 4, 2020 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Purple in the Title

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Purple is my favourite colour, so all of the books on today’s list will feature the word purple or a synonym of it.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker book cover. Image on cover is of a drawing of two african american women. Their lips are drawn but not their eyes , noses or eyebrows

1. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Harold and the Purple Crayon (Harold, #1) by Crockett Johnson book cover. image on cover is drawing of toddler drawing with a purple crayon on a black wall.

2. Harold and the Purple Crayon (Harold, #1) by Crockett Johnson

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book cover. Image on cover is abstract red and brown painting.

3. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Prince- Purple Reign by Mick Wall book cover. Image on cover is of Prince playing a guitar and singing.

4. Prince: Purple Reign by Mick Wall

The Lavender Screen- The Gay and Lesbian Films--Their Stars, Makers, Characters, and Critics by Boze Hadleigh book cover. Image on cover is of two queer women cuddling up and looking at the viewer

5. The Lavender Screen: The Gay and Lesbian Films–Their Stars, Makers, Characters, and Critics
by Boze Hadleigh

The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton- A True Story of Conjoined Twins by Dean Jensen book cover. Image on cover is of Daisy and Violet playing instruments on a stage.

6. The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins  by Dean Jensen

The Green and Purple Skin of the World by Paulo da Costa book cover. image on cover is of a clear glass container filled with a murky liquid.

7. The Green and Purple Skin of the World  by Paulo da Costa

When the Plums Are Ripe by Patrice Nganang book cover. image on cover is a black-and-white photo of people walking on a dusty road

8. When the Plums Are Ripe by Patrice Nganang

The Sugarless Plum- A Ballerina's Triumph Over Diabetes by Zippora Karz book cover. Image on cover is of a ballerina dancing.

9. The Sugarless Plum: A Ballerina’s Triumph Over Diabetes by Zippora Karz

Purple Dandelion- A Muslim Woman's Struggle Against Violence and Oppression by Farida Sultana book cover. Image on cover is of a photo of the author's face.

10. Purple Dandelion: A Muslim Woman’s Struggle Against Violence and Oppression  by Farida Sultana

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July 29, 2020 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Stuff on My Bucket 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.

Some of topics over the last several weeks have been tricky ones, but this one is easy.

Red sandstone cliffs and red beach at Prince Edward Island.

By Fundamentaldan – Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1550270

One of the biggest things still on my bucket list is visiting Prince Edward Island. My curiosity about this province began when I first read the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery.

Someday I want to see their red roads, rocks, and beaches for myself.

Visiting the various real-life places that Montgomery fictionalized for her stories would also be amazing.

The interesting thing about this goal is that I rarely yearn to travel much in general! I usually prefer to stick close to home due to how easily I feel motion sickness on various forms of transportation.

I’d love to go back to school someday and get a Masters degree. My Bachelors degree was in Psychology, so maybe something related to that? I once dreamed of working as a therapist and still think that would be a rewarding line of work.

Learning how to enjoy jogging is something I’d also like to accomplish. I’ve tried several times and have never felt that runner’s high that some athletic people talk about. Maybe one day it will happen.

Becoming fluent in Spanish is the final big thing on my bucket list for the time being. Learning to speak a second language is a lot of work, so I dip in and out of practicing it as my time and energy levels allow for. I’d bet I could become fluent if I were more diligent about practicing. Can anyone recommend some good Spanish music or TV shows?

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