October 15, 2019 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Extraordinary Book Titles

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I’m going to assume that this week’s prompt is asking us to make a list of book titles that are unique and attention grabbing. Everything on my list is something that grabbed my attention so thoroughly I had to pick it up and read the blurb as soon as I spotted its title. Since most of them are still on my TBR, I won’t go into detail about them this time.

1. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, #1) by Seth Grahame-Smith

2. The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin

3. Fairy Tales Written by Rabbits by Mary A. Parker

4. Never Slow Dance with a Zombie  by E. Van Lowe

5. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Two story library with a painted vault ceiling

6. Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach

7.The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland, #1) by Catherynne M. Valente

8.Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

9. Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don’t Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook by Sarah Schmelling

10. Drop Dead Healthy: One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection by A.J. Jacobs

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October 14, 2019 · 1:00 am

Characters I’d Never Invite to Thanksgiving Dinner

Pumpkin pie, forks, and a decorative gourd sitting on a Thanksgiving supper tableHappy Thanksgiving to all of my Canadian readers!

Last year I wrote about the characters I’d want to invite over for a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner.

Since then, I’ve gotten some hits on my site from people who are wondering which characters shouldn’t be included on a Thanksgiving dinner guest list.

Honestly, I could happily make small talk about how unpredictable the weather can be in October or why pumpkin pie is so delicious with 99.99% of the people and characters out there. There are plenty of ways to gently guide a conversation along to lighthearted topics if you don’t have much in common or know each other well.

It would take a lot for me to refuse to share such a hospitable and inclusive holiday with someone…especially if they don’t have anywhere else to go!

With that being said, even I have my limits. Here are the characters who would never be invited to my house for Thanksgiving dinner.

1. Dolores Umbridge from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. 

Why: She was a violent, cruel person who did a deceptively good job of hiding that part of her personality from authority figures and anyone else who might have stopped her.

2. The Borg from Star Trek

Why: As cool as it might be to have some body parts replaced by machines, I do not want them to assimilate me or the other guests against our will. Former members of The Borg like Seven of Nine who simply want to eat some food and discuss human culture would be welcomed in my home.

3. Heathcliff from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights 

Why: Like Dolores, Heathcliffe was skilled at putting on the facade of being a good person while doing quietly terrible things to his victims behind the scenes. This is something I simply can’t sweep under the rug.

4. President Snow and President Coin from Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy 

Why: Does anyone actually want to spend Thanksgiving with ruthless dictators who have repeatedly sent innocent people to their deaths? If so, I’ve never met such a person.

This list was pretty short, but I felt that I’d be repeating myself if I added anyone else to it. Basically, the behaviours that would make me exclude someone on Thanksgiving are limited to things that would also be bright red flags the other 364 days of the year. The vast majority of people would never behave this way, so my list of folks who could join me for a special holiday meal will always be miles longer than the ones who will have to make other plans that day.

Which characters would you never invite over for Thanksgiving dinner?

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October 10, 2019 · 1:00 am

Choosing to Survive: A Review of Powdered Souls

Title: Powdered Souls, A Short Story: They Decided to Survive (Snow Sub Series Book 1)

Author: Dixon Reuel

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: 2019

Genres: Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic, Romance

Length: 22 pages

Source: I received a free copy from Dixon

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb: People together in close quarters – fraternization naturally follows.

A military VR trainer, wanting to keep her relationship with a fellow scientist hidden, must pass a security inspection in her lab by the vicious Atlas Crusade that has swept to power.

When the leader of the security team demands an unusual VR request in her lab, Prof. Meliss must decide between keeping her lover safe, or secretly undertaking a consciousness swap that could end the Crusade’s five-year long relentless rule. A rule that has co-opted all scientific research to aid their global expansion, rendering Prof. Meliss and Prof. Lauren expendable, as legions of other researches wait to step into their lab if either woman dishonors the great Crusade.

Science and the military aren’t always a good match for each other.

Virtual reality is one of those topics that always makes my ears perk up when I see it mentioned in a science fiction blurb. There are so many different ways to approach this idea that an author can do just about anything with it, and Ms. Reuel came up with a pretty creative take on why the military would be interested in developing a virtual world for their soldiers to explore. Their reason for paying for this research is something best discovered by readers for themselves.

The world building would have benefited from more development. I was confused by how the military seemed to simultaneously know everything that was happening in their research bases and yet also not know simple things about them like what sort of equipment they used or how their experiments were going. It’s totally possibly for a regime to act this way, but it would have been nice to know what the limits of their knowledge was.

Prof. Meliss, the main character, wasn’t given much opportunity to reveal her personality either. I’d struggle to tell you much about her as an individual or explain why she’d gotten into a relationship with her assistant, Dr. Lauren, knowing how dangerous that would be for both of them. A lot of this character development could be coming in future volumes, but it would have been helpful to have a better understanding of who she was and why they were willing to take such huge risks. I always like finding queer couples in science fiction, so I was disappointed with how their arc played out so far.

One of the few things I did learn about Prof. Meliss was that she could think quickly in a crisis. That’s the perfect skill to have when an army has descended onto your base and is breaking down the front door. The most interesting scenes in my opinion were the ones in the beginning that described how she reacted to this invasion.

Since this was both a short story and the first instalment in a series, I was definitely not expecting the character development or world building to be perfectly ironed out. But I would have liked to see at least a few sentences spent explaining how this militaristic society works, why relationships between scientists and their assistants were punished so harshly, and what the military was and wasn’t capable of. Getting thrown into a new world is amusing, but I needed more answers about what was happening before the final scene wrapped up.

With that being said, I saw a lot of promise in this tale. There were hints about how climate change had affected the lives of ordinary people in this futuristic world that I’m incredibly curious to learn more about.

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October 9, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books That Did a Great Job of Explaining Science to Non-Scientists

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Three DNA strandsI’ve mentioned my interest in science in previous posts here. There’s nothing like finding new books about various branches of science that were written for people who are not experts on the topic.

All of these titles were good reads that I’d recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about their subject matter.

 

The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson

Branches of Science It Covers: Medicine, Public Health, and Sociology

This is one of those books that made me very grateful to grow up in a time and place when vaccinations, antibiotics, and clean water exist.

 

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown

Branches of Science It Covers: Astronomy

Since I’m currently reading this book, I won’t provide any commentary on it yet other than to say that it’s as educational as it is humorous. Scientists are still debating whether to designate Pluto a planet again, but it never stopped being a planet in my opinion. Ha!

 

Lone Survivors: How We Came to Be The Only Humans on Earth by Chris Stringer

Branches of Science It Covers: Biology and Paleoanthropology

Longterm readers might remember my never-ending fascination with how and why the various types of humans evolved over time. Every time a new book comes out on Neanderthals, Archaic humans, or any other closely related species, I simply must read it. It’s the closest I’ll ever come to actually meeting the people that eventually lead to the birth of modern humans.

 

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Doidge

Branches of Science It Covers: Neuroscience, Medicine, and Psychology

Is anyone else fascinated by neuroplasticity? It’s been a while since I read this, but I do recall being surprised by how much the human mind can adapt when accidents, injuries, or other issues cause damage to it.

 

American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree by Susan Freinkel

Branches of Science It Covers: Botany, Mycology, and Ecology

The American Chestnut is a tree that has been driven nearly to extinction by a fungus called the chestnut blight. Since this was published, there have been a few signs of hope for this species. My fingers are crossed that scientists will find a way to keep it alive either by killing the fungus or figuring out a way for the remaining American Chestnut trees to no longer be so susceptible to it.

 

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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October 8, 2019 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Character Traits I Love

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Wooden figurine posed to look as if its grieving, despondent, curious, and happy. This was such a fun and easy prompt to do.

The stock photo attached to this post made me think of all of the different emotions the same character may show in the same story.

1. Intelligent

They don’t have to be geniuses, but I do enjoy reading about how bright characters see the world.

2. Warm and Affectionate

There’s something about characters with this personality that make them irresistible to me. I can appreciate many different types of flaws in a character so long as they start from this base.

3. Active

I exercise regularly and enjoy spending time outdoors. It’s nice to read about characters who are also into staying active.

4. Cautious

There’s something to be said for thinking things through before rushing into a possibly dangerous situation.

5. Quirky

I was about to put the term strange here, but maybe quirky is a little bit more accurate. Characters who wander off the beaten path of life are alluring.

6. Easygoing

While I  can and do also enjoy stories about people who can be high-strung, I generally prefer to read about folks who take a more relaxed approach to life.

7. Bashful

There aren’t enough books out there about folks who are quietly amazing but who will never be the life of the party. For example, I would have loved to read a chapter or two of Anne of Green Gables from Matthew Cuthbert’s perspective. He was honestly more interesting to me than Anne was because of how shy he was about sharing his feelings.

8. Innocent

Honestly, I’ve grown weary of reading about shady protagonists who may not be trustworthy. Retaining some innocence is a good thing no matter how old someone is.

9. Thrifty

That is, it’s nice when characters take care of what they own and are mindful of how they spend their money.

10. Creative

It doesn’t matter how that creativity is expressed. I’m always interested in reading about people who can take an ordinary moment in life and find the beauty in it somewhere.

 

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October 7, 2019 · 1:00 am

Why I Prefer E-Books Over Physical Books

It’s been years since I bought a hardback or paperback novel. Almost one hundred percent of the books I read are in e-book form for the following reasons. I thought this topic would make for an interesting post and possible jumping off point for a group discussion.

Allergies

Book covered in cobwebs and dustIt’s pretty difficult to keep physical books in pristine condition.

Wet pages can easily provide a nice home for mould or mildew to grow. Even a mildly damp environment can give books a musty smell after a while if no one notices and dries them out in time.

Being stored in a dusty place affects books, too, even if they’re eventually brushed off.

It’s hard to completely prevent these things from happening, especially in humid climates or in houses that are difficult to keep dry and clean for other reasons.

Since I’ve been an avid patron of public libraries since childhood, this is something that has cropped up for me even more often than it might have if I bought everything I read.  The idea of many people using the same book instead of everyone buying their own copy and maybe only reading it once appeals to me from both an environmental and minimalist perspective.

But there were multiple times when I reach the top of a huge waitlist for a title only to realize that the book the library sent to me was dusty, musty, beginning to mould, or otherwise was going to be an allergy issue for me.

E-books never have this problem. That’s a big part of the reason why I switched to borrowing them instead of physical books from the library.

Portability

Person facing away from the camera. There's an e-reader in one of their back jean pockets and they're attempting to put a novel into the other I’m not the sort of person who enjoys carrying around a purse, backpack, or bag. Most of the time, I try to leave home with only the items I can fit into my pockets.

There are very few books out there that will fit into a standard-sized pocket…especially since I’m a woman and nearly always buy my clothes in the women’s section of the store where designers have yet to realize that pockets can be practical instead of merely decorative. (But that is a rant for another day).

While I could technically carry around a few physical books, it’s so much nicer to have free hands and not have to keep track of anything extra when I’m out and about. This isn’t even to mention the fact that my cellphone can hold countless e-books without weighing any more than it would if I only had one or two of them downloaded onto it.

Convenience

Man holding a smartphone and looking down at itI find it much easier to keep track of a quote I want to save from a specific page when I read that story in electronic form.

When I was in college, I had a professor who spent a big chunk of our first day in class that semester talking about the importance of looking up unfamiliar terms instead of guessing their meanings.

Some of my previous teachers had encouraged us to infer the meaning based on context clues, so I’d slid into the habit of guessing what a word meant instead of being certain.

That professor changed this habit of mine for good. Even though I haven’t been her student for years, I still insist on looking up any word whose meaning I’m not 100% certain of.

My e-reader can do all of these things with a swipe of a finger. There is no pen or piece of paper required to take note of something I’ll want to remember for the future or look up a word I need a definition for.

When you add in the portability and lack of allergens factors, I can’t imagine reading books in any other way.

What format for books do you prefer? Why?

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October 3, 2019 · 1:00 am

Calling All Bookish Folks to the Trick-or-Treat Book Blog Hop

Trick-or-Treat Book Blog Hop Banner

This event is so cool I decided to dedicate a full post to it today.

On October 31, blogger Patricia Lynne is going to be hosting a Trick-or-Treat blog hop for anyone who is looking for free, new e-books to read.

Authors, you have until October 31 to hop on over to her site and share a link to your free book or books.

Bloggers, readers, and reviewers, the full list of free e-books will be available on that site on October 31. Be sure to go check it out then if you need something new to read. The hashtag they’re using on Twitter is #trickortreatreads, so keep an eye out for that, too.

I’ve already added the link for my books. If I find any titles there that fit the theme of my blog, you may see reviews of them here in the future. A big part of the reason why I wrote this post is so that I can link back to it over the coming months to explain how I gained access to so many free books at once if this pans out as well as I hope it does.

Happy reading, everyone!

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October 2, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What I’d Want on a Deserted Island

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Here are the assumptions I’m going to be making for this week’s prompt:

  1. The island has a climate that will not kill me with heat stroke, frost bite, or unlucky encounters with the wildlife when I arrive.
  2. I will have enough food, water, shelter, medicine, and other basic supplies to keep me alive and well until I’m rescued.

If we’re talking about an island that is freezing cold, filled with venomous snakes, or is otherwise inhospitable to human visitors, all I’d want is to get the heck out of there as soon as possible. I’m going to assume this is not what Long and Short Reviews intended and answer this question under the assumption that I’m safe there as long as I don’t do anything silly like try to jump off a cliff.

In that case, this is what I’d want to have with me.

A notebook to write down memories of and stories about my time there.

A camera to snap a few pictures.

A hammock to sleep in (and a warm blanket in case the night air was damp).

A couple of buckets to use in my sand castle creations.

A swimming suit and towel to make my explorations of the shore a bit easier.

A few people I loved for the companionship.

A few large, friendly dogs to play with and to help me grab the attention of the rescuers whenever they arrived.

And a paperback or two to read if I grew bored.

Give me all of those things, and I’d be pretty happy there for a little while until the rescuers arrived.

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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October 1, 2019 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Titles with Numbers in Them

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Open book on a table. The book is in Spanish, there is a cup of tea nearby, and there is a leaf lying in the middle of the book.This week I had no idea what to say about any of these books, so I’m simply going to list them with links to their Goodreads pages for anyone who wants more information.

I’ve read the first nine from front to back. Someday I hope to be able to get through all of A Tale of Two Cities, too.

1. 1984 by George Orwell

2. Molly: An American Girl: 1944 by Valerie Tripp

3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

4. The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings #2) by J.R.R. Tolkien

5. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss

6. 11/22/63 by Stephen King

7. The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede

8. These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy E. Turner

9. The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing

10. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

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September 30, 2019 · 1:00 am

What to Do If You Missed a Week of Working Out

Woman bent over at the waist and touching her toes. She's stretching before a run. This post is going to be short and sweet. Not everything I write requires 1000+ words to explain.

I’ve been getting so many ideas for posts from my search term analytics lately, and this week’s topic is one of them.

As always, be sure to follow your family doctor’s advice and your own common sense when beginning or returning to an exercise routine.

What works for me might not be the best choice for everyone.

With those caveats out of the way, let’s talk about what happens when life gets in the way and you take a week off from your usual fitness routine. I know I have trouble getting all of my workouts in when I’m travelling or haven’t been getting as much sleep as usual.

The biggest problem with missing a week of workouts that I’ve noticed is that it disrupts your habits. After I’ve missed seven days of exercise, it begins to feel normal to keep my weights in their usual spot instead of jumping into another strength training session or to skip that walk I used take.

That is, it’s far more a psychological issue than it is a physical one. Your muscles, bones, and heart aren’t going to magically revert to the conditions they were in before you began working out regularly just because you missed a few sessions. But this is the point when it starts to feel easier to keep this new pattern going for weeks two, three, four, and beyond.

So the most important thing to do after skipping a week of workouts in my opinion is to get back into your regular habits.

Person walking down a road. There is a guard rail in the background, but we can't see what's behind it. I’m the sort of person who generally responds best to easing back into a fitness routine after a break. That is, I may start off with a shorter weightlifting session or slower walking pace than I’d normally do for the first few days.

Somehow my brain adapts to my former routines better if I don’t expect A+ work on the first day.

If jumping right into your normal workouts at the same intensity you’d built up to before your break is better motivation for you, great!

The important thing is to start moving again until it once again feels normal to stick to the things you were doing before taking this break.

What other advice would you give to someone who has missed a week of workouts?

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