Category Archives: Blog Hops

April 16, 2019 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Rainy Day Reads

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

There are two things I really like to read on rainy days: poetry about stormy weather and humorous books. Why does my brain work this way? I have no idea, but it has strong opinions on this topic that I’m going to honour.

This week I’m going to be recommending five comedic books and five poems that somehow reference rain, storms, or similar topics.

The Books

1. Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip-Confessions of a Cynical Waiter by Steve Dublanica

Most people understand that folks who work in the service industry are fellow human beings and should be treated with the same basic level of respect and kindness you’d offer to any other stranger. The individuals who choose not to follow this social more for whatever reason provided endless fodder for a hilarious blog that eventually lead to this book, too.

It’s the perfect thing to read if you’ve ever worked in the service industry or wondered what that experience can be like on the not-so-great days. I started reading it during a thunderstorm years ago, so that may be why I associate it with rainy days so much.

2. Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern

Mr. Halpern’s dad is the sort of person who says whatever outrageous thing is on his mind without thinking about how others will react to it. I should warn you that some of the quotes in this book might be offensive to some readers due to the stereotypical things the dad says about certain groups.

With that being said, most of these quotes are simply odd statements about society shared by a man who either can’t or is purposefully refusing to understand that the world has changed a lot since he was young. (It was never clear to me which one of these explanations was most accurate, and I definitely don’t want to shame him if he has some sort of health problem that affects how he thinks or relates to others.)

As someone who has a couple of relatives who act a lot like this dad, it feels nice to know that I’m not the only one dealing with this situation. Sometimes laughter truly is the best response to things you cannot change.

3. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

I read this book several years ago. The only things I remember about it is that it was quite funny and I believe I might have read it during a very rainy weekend in my city.

4. Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh

Ms. Brosh is one of the funniest cartoonists of our generation. If you haven’t checked out her work yet, you really should. Sometimes I save her latest blog posts specifically for stormy days because of how much I enjoy savouring them for a while.

5. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

This was the first book I ever read from this author, and it happened in a bookstore on a stormy day. I loved his descriptions of trying to learn French, among other adventures. I’ve been a fan of Mr. Sedaris’ work ever since then.

 

The Poems

1. April Rain Song by Langston Hughes

If you read this blog long enough, you’re going to notice me mentioning Langston Hughes a lot. He was an incredibly talented poet that I try to introduce new people to as often as possible.

2. Peasants Waiting for Rain by G.S. Sharat Chandra

It can be easy for those of us who aren’t farmers to forget just how important rain is for agriculture. This poem is a nice reminder of that.

3. Rain in the Desert by Walter Lowenfels

If you’ve never seen a downpour in the desert, this poem is an excellent description of one.

4. To the Rain by Ursula K. LeGuin

I love the cleansing imagery in this poem. The world does seem like a cleaner, brighter place after a good thunderstorm!

5. Sheep in the Rain by James Wright

The last line of this poem was what made me realize how great it is.

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April 10, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Characters I Never Want to Meet

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

My answer to this week’s prompt is going to be much shorter than it was last week for the recipes topic.

I’m the sort of reader who tries to find the good in every character I read about or watch in a show so there aren’t a lot of them that I truly wouldn’t want to spend time with under any circumstances.

With that being said, I was able to come up with five answers for this question.

Lord Voldemort

Voldemort. He’s honestly kind of self-explanatory. Who’d want to hang out with someone who would put a death curse on a baby among many other terrible deeds? No, thank you. There are plenty of other Potterverse characters who would be much more pleasant to meet.

Reavers. For anyone who hasn’t watched the sci-fi television series Firefly, these creatures were the violent antagonists in that  universe. If they stumbled across your ship, you were doomed to a painful death. I refrained from sharing a picture of them in this post because I know that some of you fellow participants really dislike horror stuff, and they’re not exactly cuddly-looking bad guys. If you want to see what they look like anyway, click here.

Sheldon Cooper as an adult and as a child.

Sheldon Cooper. This character is part of the reason why I stopped watching The Big Bang Theory so soon after starting it.  It’s one thing to set rigid rules for how you live your own life, but forcing others to follow them is something I have little patience for in real life as well as in fiction. I don’t think he and I would get along at all despite sharing many common geeky interests.

Pete Campbell

Pete Campbell. Pete was a smug and abusive character on the 1960s period drama Mad Men. He got away with the violent, awful things he did because of how manipulative and superficially charming he was to people who hadn’t gotten to know them yet. Anyone who scratched below that thin veneer, though, would know that he’s not someone anyone should be spending time with…especially alone.

Serena Joy. Anyone who has followed this blog for the past few years probably remembers the many references I’ve made to The Handmaid’s Tale TV show and book. There are many frightening villains in this universe, but I’d argue that Serena is the worst because of how unpredictable and volatile she is. One minute, she’ll act like your best friend, and the next she’ll begin hitting you for no reason at all. Scary stuff!

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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April 9, 2019 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Outrageous Things I’ve Done for the Love of Books

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

You’re all about to hear some funny stories about the outrageous, silly, and memorable things I’ve done for the love of books.

For anyone who didn’t already know, I was a preacher’s kid growing up, so the church’s building was basically my family’s second home.  We were there two or three times a week on average, and sometimes way more than that if there were weddings, funerals, potluck dinners, vacation bible school programs, or other events going on.

This fact only makes the first two items on my list even more amusing than they might have been for the average kid. The rest of my list is about non-church-related stuff. I will (probably) not use gifs for the next Top Ten Tuesday, but I couldn’t help but to use them again this week.

1. Snuck Out of Church to Read in a Closet

I believe this happened on one of those weeks when we’d spent way more time at church than usual. At any rate, I quietly walked out of the service, hid in a closet, and read a book about missionaries for a while. It was a good story, I enjoyed the break, and I did not tell this story to my parents until many years later. (They were amused by it).

2. Snuck a Book Into Church and Read It

This happened at a religious conference I attended when I was about twelve. I was a dancer then and loved the dance portion of that conference that showcased all sorts of new moves and styles for worship service dances.  After a few days of spending hours listening to sermons on unrelated topics, though, I decided to sneak a book in and read it when no one was looking. What makes it even funnier is that I was reading a sometimes-steamy series of romance novels that weekend!

3. Worn Out My Flashlight Battery

My family was on a camping trip when this happened, and I’d brought along a short story collection with me because who wants to go on vacation without a book?!  (This theme will repeat again later on because I am a creature of habit). I wanted to read just one more tale  before bed, but I ended up falling asleep with my flashlight on. When I woke up again, the battery was completely worn out.

4. Hid Books Under My Pillow

Not only was I a preacher’s kid, I was homeschooled as well for several years. One of the first things I did once I started attending public school was borrow books from the school library and hide them underneath my pillow. For some reason, I thought I wasn’t allowed to read them. It was a relief when my mom discovered them and didn’t make a big deal out of it at all.

5. Picked My Colleges (Partially) Based on Their Libraries

There were obviously other factors I considered as well, but the libraries were the very first spots I visited on my unguided tours of these facilities. The fact that I liked those libraries so much made it easier to pick the institutions of higher learning that I did.

6. Researched Where the Local Libraries Were Before Moving to New Neighbourhoods

Yes, being situated close to a nice library has been a factor when I decided where to move to in the past! I’ve found that any neighbourhood that has a well-tended, busy library tends to have a lot of other perks, too, like having more free community groups/events and the neighbourhood cultivating a friendly, welcoming attitude towards newcomers.

7. Chosen Video Games Based on Their Storytelling Skills

The gif above is from an amazing puzzle game called Monument Valley that also asked its audience to solve a mystery about  a civilization that had disappeared. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Monument Valley set a high standard for me as a gamer. These days I’m only interested in games that have tight, engaging storytelling woven into whatever else they happen to be about.

8. Matched People with Their Literary Doppelgangers

I like figuring out which literary character is most like the various people I know. You’ll never hear who I’ve pegged you as unless you ask, but there’s something satisfying – if also occasionally a little unusual – about deciding that someone reminds me most of Hermoine, Bilbo Baggins, Jo March, or any other number of characters.

9. Touched Hospital/Medical Office Waiting Room Books

Sometimes it has taken so long to wait for a medical appointment or visit a loved one who has been admitted that I must overcome my aversion to germy waiting room books and see what a hospital/doctor’s office waiting room has to read.

Then I imagine all of those bacteria multiplying on my skin and wash my hands with lots of soap and hot water because the thought of getting sick from touching the wrong types of germs makes me nervous. Ha!

10. Left the Perfect Beach to Visit a Bookstore

One year when my family was on a beautiful beach vacation, teenage Lydia convinced my parents to drive to a local mall so I could pick up a few new books when I unexpectedly finished reading everything I’d brought with me. I was thrilled when they agreed to do this and portioned out my reading time better for the rest of that trip.

How many of these things have all of you done? I can’t wait to read your responses to this prompt. It sure was a fun one.

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April 3, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Comfort Foods and Recipes and Whys, Oh My!

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

This week’s topic is “Favourite Comfort Foods & Why (& Recipes),” so of course I just had to play around with the wording of it a little in the title of this post in order to sneak in a reference to The Wizard of Oz. I will now proceed to answer the prompt (mostly) seriously.

Both of my parents grew up in the Mennonite community and have the same general ethnic origins: German and French.

In fact, all of the ancestors we’ve traced so far came from the Alsace-Lorraine area that was sometimes part of Germany and sometimes part of France depending on which century you’re looking at.

If your ancestors ever so much as glanced at that corner of the globe, we are probably third cousins or something.  Ha!

All of the recipes I’m about to share were either printed in the Mennonite Community Cookbook that I’ve attached a photo of to this post or written on the blank pages of that cookbook.

To the best of my knowledge, they are all traditional German-Mennonite dishes for people from that group who live in Midwest portions of the United States.

 

This is what ground cherries look like. Photo credit: Pen Waggener.

Ground Cherry Pie 

If you happen to live in North America, your best best for finding ground cherries would be at your local farmer’s market during the summer or autumn. They’re a tomato-like fruit that’s less sweet than most other fruits. I sure think they taste good in a pie.

My grandmother makes this pie often. I think happy thoughts about her every time I eat it.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup of ground cherries (rinsed off and with their husks removed)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons mini tapioca
  • 2 tablespoons vinegar
  • Yellow food colouring (as much as desired)
  • A pie shell

Directions

Begin by boiling the water. Add the rest of the ingredients one at a time, and allow the water to go back up to a boil before adding the next ingredient.

After you’ve added as much food colouring as desired, pour the mixture into a pie shell. Add the top crust (if desired), and then bake your pie at 400 F for 15 minutes. Then turn the temperature down to 350 F and bake for another thirty minutes. It should have a consistency similar to other fruit pies when it’s finished. Serves 6-8.

Kartoffle Kloesse (Potato Dumplings)

I don’t have a picture of this recipe, but it’s something one of my grandmothers used to make. It’s delicious.

Ingredients

  • 6 boiled potatoes
  • 2 eggs
  • a little salt
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • Croutons

Directions

Grate 6 boiled potatoes . Add eggs, salt, and flour. Beat this mixture until fluffy. Roll it into balls with 2-3 croutons in the centre of each ball. Dump the balls into gently boiling salted water for 10 minutes. Drain well and serve. A little sour cream on the side of your plate would do wonders with this dish if you’re so inclined.

Photo credit: Windell Oskay.

Soft Pretzels

I strangely couldn’t find any of the photos I’ve taken of my own soft pretzels over the years, so I grabbed one off the Internet. You could even make them in fancy ampersand shapes if you wanted to!

Ingredients

  • 4 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon white sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup baking soda
  • 4 cups hot water
  • 1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

Directions

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in 1 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix together all of the ingredients except the flour.

Add in the flour one cup at a time. You might need as few as three cups of it.

Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two more tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Grease 2 baking sheets.

In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in 4 cups hot water; set aside. When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda-hot water solution and place pretzels on baking sheets. Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake in preheated oven until browned, about 8 minutes. Serves 12.

 

 

Bonus Recipe – Dandelion Salad

 I found this recipe in the cookbook mentioned above, and I know have ancestors who ate whatever they could find when food/money was scarce based on certain family legends. To be fair, that hasn’t happened in a few generations so this doesn’t quite count as a comfort meal.  I’d like to try it someday, though! Have any of you ever eaten dandelions or other wild greens?

Salad Ingredients

  • 4 cups chopped dandelion
  • 3 hard-cooked eggs
  • 3 slices bacon

Dressing

  • 1.5 tablespoons flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/4 cup vinegar
  • 2 cups milk or water

Directions

Wash and chop dandelions

Cut bacon into pieces and fry until crisp

Remove bacon from drippings

To make dressing, stir together the dry ingredients, add egg, vinegar, and water. Stir until well blended.

Cook dandelions in bacon drippings until thickened and cool slightly.

Pour dressing over dandelions and mix lightly. Garnish with sliced or chopped eggs and the crips bacon. Serves 6.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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April 2, 2019 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Things That Make Me Pick Up a Book

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Some weeks I struggle to come up with enough items for a Top Ten Tuesday list, but this sure wasn’t one of them. I could have easily given you all twice as many answers to this question. There are so many different things in our world that make me say, “Ooh! I want to read all about that.”

Also, I decided to accentuate my list with gifs this week. I hope you all enjoy them.

1.  It’s Historically Accurate

I love it when authors research the time and place they’re writing about in precise, accurate detail. For example, they might include descriptions of foods that truly were staples in the diet of that culture then, describe how people hunted/grew their food, or show what the average day was like for ordinary folks from that era. If I immediately know or later find out  that they got all of those little details right, I’m going to be quite happy with that writer.

2. It Includes Non-Romantic Types of Love

If the main character’s relationships are with their best friend, sibling, pet, or some other living being that isn’t a romantic partner, I get excited. There’s something refreshing about fiction written about these things, and I wish we had more books that explored why and how platonic relationships enrich all of our lives.

3. There Are Spaceships and Space Exploration

I grew up watching reruns of various Star Trek shows, and they taught me to look forward to the day when humans will be able to explore the universe. Any book that takes a similar approach to all of the wonderful things we might find if we ever visit other planets – or, better yet, meet other intelligent forms of life – is something I’m going to want to read.

4. It’s Willing to Poke Fun at Itself (and/or Its Genre)

If a story or character has enough self-awareness to make jokes about themselves, I immediately become even more interested in following them until the final scene. I love it when narrators realize they’re following the same old tropes in their genre and do something to let the audience know that they’re doing this on purpose.

5. There’s Compassion for and from Everyone

It’s much easier for me to read about terrible things happening to characters if they have compassion for each other and if the author has compassion for them, too. If even an antagonist manages to do this like Inigo Montoya did in The Princess Bride, I’m going to read (or watch) that story over and over again.

6. LGBTQ+ People Get Happy Endings

This is starting to slowly shift, but I used to have the hardest time finding books about LGBTQ+ characters that had upbeat endings for them (when I could even find them at all!) I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to finally read stories about people like me who get to live happily ever after in the last scene. We need many more examples of this, please.

7. It’s About Palaeontology and/or Anthropology

So you all already know that I like reading about history. I also enjoy reading fictional and non-fictional books about the things we’ve learned about what happened on Earth long before anyone started writing stuff down. Whether we’re talking about   ancient humans or dinosaurs that went extinct millions of years before hominids existed, I want to read about all of it.

8. At Least One Character Has an Allergy to Something

I’m not allergic to 109 different things, but I do have multiple allergies. It is so rare for me to read books about people who are like me in this area that I get ridiculously excited when authors not only mention a character being allergic to something but describe it in medically accurate detail. We desperately need more representation in this area.

9. At Least One Character Has a Mental Illness

There are books out there about characters who have mental illnesses, but as someone who has personal experience with this topic I’d definitely like to see more stories that discuss it without using it as an excuse to vilify anyone. I feel like having more characters who have a mental illness will help reduce the stigma associated with it. It might also encourage more people to seek help when they’re struggling with something.

10. Someone Has a Beloved Pet (and That Pet Doesn’t Die or Get Injured)

I’m allergic to many of the mammals that people commonly keep as pets, including cats, dogs, and rabbits. Since I can’t live with any of these creatures, the next best thing would be to read about characters who live happily ever after with their pet(s). There’s something so wholesome about that.

What do you all look for in a book? How much do we have in common here?

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March 27, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favorite Websites and Blogs

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

I don’t listen to any podcasts, so all of the items on this week’s list will either be blogs or websites. Long and Short Reviews is already a given answer to this question, of course, so I’ll focus on other sites I love to visit.

And I included a few amusing gifs today for the sheer joy of it.

Snopes.com. Story time! When I was a kid, a classmate frightened me with the story of what happens when you say Bloody Mary three times while looking into a mirror in a dark room. It was a relief to discover Snopes a few years later and realize just how many urban legends had no truth to them at all.

A Hundred Years Ago. In 1911, a teenage girl began writing a diary about her life on the family farm. Her granddaughter, Sheryl Lazarus, started a blog in 2011 that shared all of those diary entries exactly a century after they were written. The diary stuff all ended in late 2014, but Sheryl has continued updating her site with recipes, newspaper clippings, and other fascinating historical stuff from the World War I era.

Nutrition Action. I love learning about the latest news on nutrition. This site shares unbiased, scientific information on food, supplements, and many different types of diets.

 

Geekologie. This blog is about the scientific study of all sorts of geeky and quirky things. If there’s a question about what’s really happening in a picture or video, they do their best to figure it out while cracking a few jokes along the way

Longreads. Read this site if you’re interested in long-form articles about current events, science & nature, sports, technology, sociology, or other serious topics.

Humans of New York. Every post on this blog is a different interview with an ordinary person. Some of the interview subjects lived through terrible things like civil wars. Others might share stories about what it’s like to have a specific, incurable disease or what their deepest fear is. I love getting to know so much about their lives.

Bird and Moon. I follow so many comic strip sites that I could have made this post about nothing but that topic. This is one of my favourites hidden treasures in this genre. I hope it becomes as popular as xkcd someday.

. This blog is written by a friend of mine who lives in Amsterdam and dreams of living in Iceland. He’s the first blacksmith I’ve ever known, and I find his posts on that topic mesmerizing. If you have any interest at all in history, blacksmithing, or writing, you should definitely check him out.

NASA. Science is such an interesting topic in general. My ears perk up even more if we’re talking about something like astronomy or space exploration, and NASA’s official tumblr site is full of cool stuff on those topics. If you ever meet me in person, mention this topic and I’ll talk your ears off about it if you want me to.

I’ll end this post with one final gif just for fun.

How many of the sites I mentioned do you all visit? I can’t wait to see what you all recommend in your responses to this week’s prompt!

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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March 26, 2019 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Stuff That Might Convince Me to Try Audiobooks

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I’ve never been able to get into audiobooks for two reasons: I’m a fast reader who finds the pacing of most audiobooks far too slow, and I like coming up with my own ideas about what any particular character’s voice might sound like.

So this week’s prompt needed to be fiddled with a little in order for me to come up with a (mostly on-topic) response to it. If I had to listen to audiobooks for some reason, these are the things that would make that experience more interesting for me.

Hot Tea

My grandmother likes to brew two cups of tea, one for each of us, from the same teabag when I visit her. If there’s no one around to share her teabag, she’s been known to save it until later on in the day and use it again. I credit her for my love of tea.

 

Healthy Snacks

I’m a nibbler. Rather than eat two or three big meals a day, I’d prefer to graze my way through several little ones. There’s something so emotionally satisfying about eating bits of various fruit, vegetables, or nuts while you’re in the middle of a story.

Reading Socks

The bookstores in Toronto sell warm, thick reading socks that look something like the socks in the stock photo above. If I didn’t live in such a warm and cozy apartment, I’d buy a pair in a heartbeat!

Adult Colouring Books

Few things are as relaxing to me as colouring. I love picking out which shades to us and slowly seeing my picture come to life. If I could colour while I was listening, I think I might be able to finish an audio book or two.

Fidget Spinners

I’m not a wiggly person in any other scenario, so why am I so wiggly at the thought of sitting down and listening to a book being read to me? No idea, but a fidget spinner might also help.

How many of you listen to audiobooks? Who else might need distractions in order to fully enjoy this type of storytelling experience?

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March 20, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Characters I’d Like to Meet

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

All of the characters I’ll be talking about this week are from TV shows. I’m starting with the oldest show and ending with the most current one. Let’s see if any of you were or are also fans of them!

Lucy Lawless as Xena

My family didn’t have cable – or sometimes even a TV at all – when I was a young kid. As soon as that rule was gradually relaxed in the mid-1990s, I discovered Xena: Warrior Princess and fell in love with her campy plots and amusing takes on Greek mythology. It sure would be fun to hang out with her for a while and see what she thought of twenty-first century life.

Gillian Anderson as Dr. Dana Scully

Yes, The X-Files technically started a few years before Xena did, but I didn’t become interested in the adventures of Scully and Mulder until I was in college.

What I liked the most about Scully was her insistence that everything she and her partner investigated must have a rational explanation. As someone who was and is sometimes prone to worrying and leaping to conclusions, I always appreciated the reminder to stick to the facts until I know for sure what is going on.

COMMUNITY — “Intro to Statistics” Episode 106 — Pictured: (l-r) Donald Glover as Troy, Danny Pudi as Abed — NBC Photo: Chris Haston

Community is the funniest comedy I’ve ever watched. Troy and Abed were two characters in it who, among other hijinks, hosted a pretend morning show together for the sheer joy of using their imaginations.

Their personalities complemented each other beautifully. No matter what problems they faced – whether real or imaginary – they always found a funny way to deal with them. I’d be a guest on their pretend morning show in a heartbeat!

 

Simu Liu as Jung Kim

Kim’s Convenience is a hilarious comedy that’s set right here in Toronto and is still releasing new seasons. It follows the four members of the Kim family as the younger generation enters the workforce and their parents continue to adjust to the many cultural differences between Canada and Korea.

Jung, the oldest child and only son, dropped out of high school and got into some trouble as a teenager much to the chagrin of his parents. Now that he’s an adult, he’s working at a car rental shop and trying to piece his life back together. I love seeing the relationship between him and his family evolve in this show. He seems like he’d be a very interesting guy to meet, especially since the show writers have yet to go into a lot of details about what happened to him when he was a teenager.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question, and the image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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March 19, 2019 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Spring 2019 TBR

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Most of the new books I read come from the local library, so what I’m planning to read next at any given point all depends on  how long the wait lists are for titles and how close I am to the top of the lists for the really popular ones.

I hope to read all of these books eventually. Whether that happens this spring or later in the year is anyone’s guess at this point!

1. The Good Neighbor: The Life and Works of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King

My family didn’t watch a lot of TV when I was a kid, but Mr. Rogers Neighborhood was always on the short list of approved shows. I’ve been waiting forever to read this biography of him. Hopefully, it will turn up soon.

2. Not One of Us by Neil Clark

All I know is that this is an anthology of stories about aliens and first encounters between us and them. That alone is enough to pique my interest!

3. Ask: Building Consent Culture by Kitty Stryker

I love hugging and cuddling with friends and relatives so much that sometimes I wonder if I were a Labrador Retriever in a previous lifetime. Ha!  Not everyone is a hugger like me, so I always get permission first before touching folks. I’ll usually wait until I get to know someone well before platonically snuggling up to them just to make sure they’re really okay with that sort of affection. This book is about why consent is so important and how we can build a world where people feel free to say no or yes to all sorts of experiences. I can’t wait to read it.

4. A Thousand Mornings: Poems by Mary Oliver

Sadly, Ms. Oliver died earlier this year. I’ve slowly been reading her poems ever since then. She had such a simple and accessible way of describing the world that her poems are often what I recommend to people who haven’t had any good experiences with this genre so far. What a wonderful writer she was.

5. Slayer by Kiersten White

Some of you Top Ten Tuesday bloggers have given this book rave reviews. You’re only making me more excited to read it! I might have to go rewatch all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer again while I’m waiting for the library to tell me that my copy of it is available now.

6. Shame: Free Yourself, Find Joy, and Build True Self-Esteem by Joseph Burgo

This spring I want to build my self-esteem and confidence by, among other things, taking risks and trying new things. I’m thinking this book might help, too. Have any of you read it?

7. On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

Yes, I know I’ve mentioned this book in previous Top Ten Tuesday posts. No exaggeration, there are almost 200 other people waiting ahead of me before I’ll get a chance to borrow it from the library. In the meantime, I’ll remain patient and hope the Toronto Pubilc Library orders more copies of it soon. It’s awesome that Angie Thomas is getting so much love from her fans, though! She deserves every ounce of it.

8. Little Dancer Aged Fourteen: The Truth Behind Degas’ Masterpiece by Camille Laurens

As those of you who have followed this blog for a while already know, I love history and art. The thought of combining those two interests together into an exploration of the life of the real-life model for a famous painting fills my heart with joy. I can’t wait to find out who this little dancer was and what her life was like.

9. Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets and Honeybees, The Natural History of Where We Live by Robb Dunn.

I’m both fascinated by the number of species that share living spaces with humans and a little grossed out by it.

10. My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales edited by Kate Bernheimer

I feel like I might have blogged about this anthology before. It’s something I’ve been waiting a very long time to read, and I’m finally almost at the top of the library wait list for it. Is it time to start getting excited yet?

What are all of you looking forward to reading this spring? Were there any similarities between our lists this week?

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March 13, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Day in My Life

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

 

A Day in My Life

I’m a writer, so my days start with me checking email and my to-do list.

Since I’m at the tail-end of recovering from a foot injury, I haven’t been been able to exercise too much over the last several weeks. Normally, I’d either lift weights or do about 20 minutes of cardio exercise in the morning to get my blood flowing, and I’m trying to gently get back into those habits as my foot finishes healing.

Several days of the week I do some online volunteer work that involves reviewing books and writing guest posts. I like to switch between working on that stuff and writing my own stories and blog posts. If I can’t figure out what should happen to one of my characters next, writing a review might help. And vice versa!

Right now I’m looking into finding another volunteer gig that would involve interacting with people in person for a few hours a week. I love what I do, but I also think it would be good for me to get out of the house a little more often. The combination of winter and having a foot injury that restricted how much walking I could do – especially on slippery surfaces –  was tough at times, to be honest with all of you. I’m glad I’m healing and am looking forward to socializing more with friends and loved ones in the near future.

During the rest of the year, afternoons or evenings are a great time to go outside for fresh air and more exercise. This could be as simple as a walk around the block or to run a few quick errands in my neighbourhood, but it occasionally involves longer periods of time spent in nature if we’re having truly beautiful weather that day. (My husband works from home, too, so we’re quite lucky to have this kind of flexibility).

The Eastern Ravine at High Park. Photo credit: Rokker.

Toronto is filled with parks of all sizes, from tiny little scraps of leftover land just big enough for a bench and a couple of small trees to urban forests like Toronto Island or High Park that have walking trails, pretty picnic spots, beaches, public pools, adventurous capybaras that occasionally escape from the free zoo, and so much more. No, that is not a joke. It really happened, and it was big news here for a while.

Since it’s not quite warm enough outside yet to do one of those longer visits to nature, here are some TV shows I really like to watch later on in the day:

  • Modern Family
  • Star Trek: Discovery
  • The Orville
  • The Good Place
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine
  • The Magicians

Keeping up with these programs has been the source of a lot of joy for me this past month! I’m so grateful for them.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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