Let’s see how many things I can add to this list. The prompt for this week said “these could be books, authors, blogs, websites, apps, products, etc.,” so I’m going to try to be creative with it.
This is a bookish Halloween blog that I love. They have a weekly roundup of links that have introduced me to so many new authors and random literary things.
This is a fun blog hop put on by Long and Short Reviews. The topics last year range from favourite characters to recipes to books you’d recommend to people who liked a certain genre.
Open Mic Nights at My Local Library
I don’t know how many – if any – I’ll be attending this year, but it was pretty amazing to listen to other people read their own work, share a favourite poem from a famous writer, sing, crack jokes, and otherwise explore the wide world of literature and the arts last year. If your community has a library, I’d definitely recommend checking to see if they have a similar event (and asking them for one if they don’t).
It’s such a wonderful way to spend an evening and get to know your community better.
Folklore Thursday
If you’re on Twitter, #FolkloreThursday happens every Thursday. Their website or Twitter account generally share the specific themes ahead of time. Past topics have ranged from the food to children to winter holidays.
I’ve learned about so many legends and traditions from the folks who run it and highly recommend it to anyone who loves fairy tales, folk tales, or anything similar to that.
Content warning: Found footage and mental illness. I will be discussing these things later on in this post.
Europa Report is a 2013 science fiction film about an international group of astronauts who are sent on an expedition to Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, Europa, to see if they can find any evidence of life there.
This story expects its audience to already know the basics of how space exploration works and what astronauts would realistically hope to accomplish on a mission like this one.
While the plot definitely does meander into places that are beyond the scope of our current understanding of other parts of our solar system, I classified it as hard science fiction and would suggest spending some time reading about real-life spaceflights and NASA’s tentative plans to explore Europa before watching this film to anyone who doesn’t already have a basic understanding of these things already for reasons I’ll explain in my review below. (Both of those links are nonfiction and 100% spoiler-free).
I should note that this was shot as found footage, so there is shaky camera work in a few places. This is a technique that has made me a little nauseated when it happened in other films. While it didn’t bother me in this one, I still thought it would be best to make note of it for anyone who has a more sensitive stomach.
Characters
Captain Daniel Wu (left) as William Xu. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Captain Wu was the level-headed leader of this crew who was excited to see Europa regardless of what they discovered there.
Anamaria Marinca as Rosa Dasque
Rosa was the pilot and archivist. A risk taker at times, she signed up for this mission because she wanted to go “faster and farther than anyone else before.”
Michael Nyqvist as Andrei Blok
Andrei was the chief engineer. He was highly skilled at his job but found the living accommodations on the Europa One to be less than ideal, especially once he began to deal with his emotional reaction to something difficult that happened earlier on in the mission. My fan theory was that he was a deeply introverted man who struggled to find enough peace and quiet in such tight living quarters even before that experience occurred.
Karolina Wydra as Katya Petrovna
Katya was the science officer. Her background was in marine biology and oceanography, but she was ironically scared of flying when she signed up for this mission. She was adventurous and yearned to fulfill the crew’s mission and discover life on Europa.
Sharlto Copley as James Corrigan
James was the engineer. He’d left behind a wife and young son to go on this mission and often spoke of how much he missed them.
Christian Camargo as Daniel Luxembourg. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Daniel was the chief science officer. His friendship with James provided a few lighthearted moments in an otherwise serious tale.
My Review
Don’t let the introduction to this post deter you from giving this film a try if you’re unfamiliar with the topics it covers. While it does expect the audience to come with some prior knowledge of spacecrafts and space travel, the storyline was well written and fascinating.
“The Europa One Mission was the first attempt to send men and women into deep space. For over six months the world watched every moment.”
All of the characters had spent years gaining the education and experience necessary to be eligible for this sort of history-making mission. Since this was a plot-driven story, there wasn’t a great deal of time spent exploring their backstories. I did learn enough about them to become emotionally attached, though.
As mentioned in the content warning and character description, there is a subplot about Andrei’s struggles with his mental health. All of the astronauts had been taught about the dangers that this mission could pose to their mental health, from the effects of Zero G to the natural consequences of living in relative isolation for so long. I appreciated the way the filmmakers handled this topic.
While I can’t discuss the incident that contributed to this character developing a mental illness without giving away spoilers, it was handled sensitively. There was nothing salacious about it, and it fit into the storyline perfectly. Honestly, I could very well have had the same response if I’d been in his shoes. This is something I’d be happy to discuss in more detail privately with anyone who asks for it.
The camaraderie between the six astronauts was well documented and provided a nice contrast to all of the scenes that went into detail about the various scientific studies they were conducting and the many things they needed to do to keep their ship in good shape.
Katya exploring Europa. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Some of the most exciting scenes were obviously the ones that showed what happened after the astronauts arrived on Europa.
They had a long list of samples they wanted to take from the ice and sea beneath the ice.
What would they find there? How would the readings of this moon taken from Earth compare to what it was actually like?
I had so many questions about this part of their journey, so I was thrilled to see what happened after they arrived and began analyzing everything. Yes, there were certain acronyms and references mentioned during this portion that weren’t explained to the audience. Some of them could be figured out from context clues. Others might require searching online for viewers who aren’t already familiar with this stuff.
Honestly, I think doing a little of research is well worth figuring out exactly what characters are talking about when they’re testing a sample of water or discussing how to fix a damaged portion of their vessel. While that may make this film a little less accessible to the average viewer than it would otherwise be, I thought writing it that way was the right choice. Actual astronauts wouldn’t pause to explain every technical term they used, after all!
To share one final note, the plot was shared out of chronological order in certain scenes. Everything you need to know is included if you pay attention, and the reasons for filming it this way will become clear if you stick with it.
This was something I had a wonderful time watching. I highly recommend it to anyone who is willing to put a little effort into piecing everything together.
England, 1917 Reeling from the death of her fiancé, Stella Marcham welcomes the opportunity to stay with her pregnant sister, Madeleine, at her imposing country mansion, Greyswick – but she arrives to discover a house of unease and her sister gripped by fear and suspicion.
Before long, strange incidents begin to trouble Stella – sobbing in the night, little footsteps on the stairs – and as events escalate, she finds herself drawn to the tragic history of the house.
Aided by a wounded war veteran, Stella sets about uncovering Greyswick’s dark and terrible secrets – secrets the dead whisper from the other side…
In the classic tradition of The Woman in Black, Anita Frank weaves a spell-binding debut of family tragedy, loss and redemption.
Review:
Content warning: Death of a child.
Some secrets refuse to stay hidden.
As the blurb and the content warning mentioned, one of the subplots of this tale involved what happened to a house in the years following the sudden death of a child there. That child’s identity and reason for death were things that were revealed much later on in the plot, so I won’t go into any detail about them here. What I will say is that this tale spent a great deal of time exploring how grief not only changes over time but can stick with someone long after their loss. The family who experienced this loss weren’t the only ones who were grieving. I loved seeing how the other subplots involving grief were interwoven with this one. Not all of them were quite as dramatic, but they worked together beautifully.
What made me give this book a 3.5 star rating was the behaviour of the characters, especially Stella. She’d been intelligent enough to qualify as a nurse in World War I, and yet she continually made choices that I struggled to understand even while knowing that she’d suffered a terribly tragedy while abroad. Her lack of common sense astounded me at times, especially when it came to how she responded to phenomena that had no rational explanation. The occasional lapse of judgement is totally understandable, but there were times when I found it hard to take the plot seriously because of how often she rushed into dangerous situations without thinking things through first. This was a flaw that was repeated with some of the other characters as well, including ones that had lived at Greyswick long enough to that there was something dangerous lurking there.
The treatment of the female characters was handled nicely. We’re still a long ways off from ending sexism, but it was much more insidious in 1917. Women from every social class dealt with it, and there were very few laws to protect them from harmful stereotypes about what they were capable of and how they should be treated if they stepped outside of a narrow range of acceptable behaviours. This isn’t something that a lot of gothic novels address, so I was pleased to see it get so much attention here even though I also cringed at the way women’s hormonal states or “feeble” minds were used as an excuse to avoid getting to the bottom of what was causing so much havoc at Greyswick. It was historically accurate, though!
Despite these issues, The Lost Ones was a deliciously chilling read that I’d recommend to anyone who loves Gothic literature or haunted houses and doesn’t mind suspending their disbelief for a while.
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.
My goals for 2020 are simple.
Visit More Museums. It’s been too long since I stepped foot into a museum. That needs to change.
Try New Things. It could be as simple as visiting a new restaurant or as complicated as having a full-blown conversation in Spanish. I want to stretch my comfort zone this year.
Study Spanish Again. Speaking of foreign languages, I stopped studying Spanish last year. I want to pick it up again and hopefully get to a point where I can have conversations in that language. Learning a new language is hard, and I deeply admire everyone who becomes fluent in a new language.
Spend More Time in Nature. While I love living in a big city, there’s something incredibly relaxing about spending time in nature. I want to do that more often.
Reply to Emails Faster. I wasn’t always good at that in 2019. Let’s see if I can do better this year.
Why I’m Excited for It: There aren’t enough books out there about friendship, especially when it comes to the end of a friendship. I hope this one does so well that publishers realize there’s a demand for these types of stories.
Why I’m Excited for It: This is apparently based on her short story called “The City Born Great.” I loved the world building in that story and can’t wait to see where Ms. Jemisin goes next with it.
Why I’m Excited for It: While the young adult genre in general is getting better at including mental illness reps, I can’t remember the last time I read about a character who was at all familiar with Dissociative Identity Disorder. I hope it’s a good read that does justice for this illness!
Why I’m Excited for It: There have been a few great books about asexual characters that came out over the last few years. This one is about someone who is aromantic and asexual, so I’m super curious to see what it will be like.
Why I’m Excited for It: I’ve never been good at any sports no matter how hard I tried to play them. Serena’s talent on the tennis court amazes me, and I’d like to learn more about where it came from and how she became a star in her sport.
Why I’m Excited for It: As soon as I saw the phrase “literary ghost story” in the blurb, I knew I had to read this one. Hauntings of both the literal and metaphorical kinds are always interesting to me.
Why I’m Excited for It: My sense of direction is honestly not spectacular. Like reading about star athletes, I find joy in learning how other living beings find their way around in our world much better than I can!
Why I’m Excited for It: I take good care of my skin. Reading about the newest science on what you should and shouldn’t do for healthy skin is something I enjoy quite a bit. Here’s hoping this book will touch on that topic!
This post is the final instalment of a four-part series I’ve been slowly working on about walking during each season of the year. Click on the links in this sentence to read about the things I love about spring hikes, summer strolls, and autumn hikes.
Winter is my least favourite season. The cold temperatures, short days, and frequent snowstorms means I generally spend a lot of time indoors.
I do so much of my exercising outdoors from spring to autumn, so this also means that getting workouts in is trickier at this time of the year than at any other. With that being said, there are still advantages to getting outdoors for a walk in the winter.
The Blissful Solitude
While I mentioned something pretty similar to this in my post about spring hikes, but it bears repeating again for this season. There are always some people walking around in my area, but you definitely see fewer of them on cold days.
As an introvert, I love this. There’s nothing like going to the park and having it all – or nearly all – to yourself.
The same can be said for walking down a street that is generally quite crowded in warmer weather. Rather than dodging strangers, I can focus on looking at all of the little things I might not have noticed about the architecture of the buildings I pass or the new plants at the park or forest that appeared since my last visit.
The Quiet Consistency
The months between April and November are filled with changes in the natural world here in southern Ontario. I revel in every change I see as plants sprout leaves, flowers bloom, or the first trees began to change colours for the season.
Winter is a long pause in this cycle every year. It’s just about impossible to look outdoors and immediately know whether we’re in the first week of December or the last week of March. Every day more or less looks the same during those months unless there’s been an ice storm or snowstorm recently.
There’s something to be said for appreciating that consistency. Spring will arrive eventually. In the meantime, I don’t need to think about whether a plant hanging over the side of the sidewalk is poison ivy or whether I’ve photographed that flower already.
Winter is a time of rest. I’m coming to appreciate that.
The Cold, Crisp Air
A year or two ago, I noticed that the temperatures were a bit cooler one August morning than they’d been that previous week. I decided to set out for a walk before the true heat of the day set in.
It took less than half a block for my body to become so drenched in perspiration that I headed back home for a cold glass of water. What I wouldn’t have given for a gust of cold, crisp air that day!
As much as I always look forward to spring, there is definitely something to be said for being able to exercise outdoors without getting dehydrated, developing a sunburn, or sweating through my clothes a few short minutes after leaving the house.
If you live in a part of the world that has winter and you spend time outdoors exercising during that season, what do you like most about it?
In January of 2013, I began blogging once a year about everything I’d read that previous year. This tradition began when my dad asked me how many books I’ve read in my entire lifetime.
I couldn’t begin to give him an answer to that question, but it did make me decide to start keeping track from that moment forward. The previous posts in this series are as follows: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.
There are links included to the books that I also wrote reviews for here.
I had some trouble finishing books this year. There were so many more titles that I started but then gave up on. I think I was pickier about what I read over the last twelve months, and the lure of social media also made reading a little less appealing than it normally is for me.
If any of you have advice on how to get out of this sort of slump, I’d sure like to hear it!
Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs
“Living like Livvy: A Mother’s Story about the Girl Who Refused to be Defined by Rett Syndrome” by Andre Govier
“Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free” by Linda Kay Klein
“Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” by Camille Laurens
“Diary of Family G” by Ami McKay
“Shut Away: When Down Syndrome was a Life Sentence” by Catherine McKercher
“Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited” by Elyse Schein
Mystery
“The Paying Guests” by Sarah Waters
Poetry
“Charlotte: A Novel” by David Foenkinos
“The World According to Fred Rogers: Important Things to Remember” by Fred Rogers
Happy New Year! Long and Short Reviews has released the list of topics for their second year of Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge posts. There isn’t a topic for today, but I will be participating in it again beginning next week.
If you can’t read the graphic above, here is the list of prompts and the dates they’ve been scheduled for. Everyone is welcome to join in!
January
8 – My Goals for 2020
15 – Books I Can’t Wait to Read in 2020
22 – New Hobby I’m Trying (or would like to try)
29 – Best Book/Movie/TV Couples
February
5 – My Celebrity Crushes
12 – Books I Reread or Want to Reread
19 – Types of Exercise I Enjoy
26 – My Favourite Memory and Why
March
4 – Characters Who Remind Me of Myself and Why
11 – One Skill I Wish I Had But Don’t
18 – The Weirdest Thing I Learned Reading Fiction
25 – Favourite Things to Do in the Spring
April
1 – Favourite Book Series and Why
8 – Topic(s) I Could Give an Impromptu Speech On
15 – Characters I’d Invite to a Dinner Party
22 – My Silliest Pet Peeve
29 – Reasons Why I stopped Reading a Series I Loved
May
6 –Favourite Holiday of the Year and Why
13 – A Villain That I Wish Could Be Redeemed and Why
20 – How I’d Fare in a Zombie Apocalypse
27 – Books Set in My City or State
June
3 – Things I Wish I Were Better At
10 – Favourite Poems, Short Stories, or Novellas
17 – My Life in Photos or Gifs
24 – My “go to” Book or Movie for a Pick-Me-Up
July
1 – The Last Place I Traveled to and Why
8 – A Project or Hobby of Mine Inspired By a Book
15 – Things I Collect
22 – Character Names in a Book I Can’t Pronounce
29 – Stuff on My Bucket List
August
5 – My Favourite Tropes of X Genre
12 – What I Wanted to Do When I Grew Up vs. What I Do
19 – Favourite Book or Movies Quotes (and Why)
26 – The Strangest Thing(s) I’ve Eaten
September
2 – Topics That Make Me Stop Reading a Book
9 – Topics I Never Get Tired of Talking About
16 – Books with the Most Words I Had to Look Up
23 – Favourite Things to Do in the Autumn
30 – The Non-Fiction Book Everyone Should Read and Why
October
7 – Recipes From My City/State/Country
14 – Re-reading Books: Why or Why Not?
21 – My Earliest Memory
28 – How I Decide What to Read Next
November
4 – Favourite Songs or Musicians
11 – Movies That Were Better Than the Books
18 – Funniest Things That Have Happened To Me
25 – Recipes from Fiction Books That I Want to Try
2019 was an odd reading year for me. I started and finished fewer books than I usually do. The ones that I did finish were less likely to stand out as amazing in my mind for reasons that had as much to do with me being honestly a little burned out on reading in general as it did with the content of what it read itself.
So my list this week is going to be short and sweet. I hope that I will have a much longer response for this prompt if Jana decides to recycle it next year.
I had no idea the former first lady was such a good storyteller! It was really lovely to read her remembrances of her childhood, college years, working/married life, and experiences in the White House.
I adored the way this sequel fleshed out the parts of The Handmaid’s Tale that Offred couldn’t have possibly known about. I can’t wait to see how it might be incorporated into the TV show next!
It took me a couple of years to finish this book because of how slow the beginning was and how much other stuff I had to read, but I’m glad I slowly chipped away at it. There are other Sarah Waters books that I enjoyed more, but I ended up really loving this one once the characters had all been introduced and the mystery elements of the plot started to coalesce.
If you’ve been through a reading slump, what have you done to get out of it?
Every December I catalogue my most popular posts of the year. This is something I first began doing in 2017 with a roundup of my 10 most popular posts. Last year, I decided to double that number in response to my blogging buddies Terry Tyler and Tom Williams doing the same thing.
I was surprised by how popular my reviews of various Youtube workout videos were this year. When they were first published, they didn’t get as many hits as I was expecting, but that changed quite a bit over the longterm. Look for some more reviews of free online workouts in 2020.
Interviews with readers and writers of science fiction were well-represented in this round-up, too. I’d love to do more of them in 2020 if anyone is interested. The informational link on how to sign up is included below.
On a silly note, I thought it was interesting to see how many posts that had stock photos with orange or yellow hues made it onto this year’s list. Maybe my readers really love those colours. Ha!
Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl
Content warning: Found footage and mental illness. I will be discussing these things later on in this post.
Visit More Museums. It’s been too long since I stepped foot into a museum. That needs to change.
This post is the final instalment of a four-part series I’ve been slowly working on about walking during each season of the year. Click on the links in this sentence to read about the things I love about 
While I mentioned something pretty similar to this in my post about spring hikes, but it bears repeating again for this season. There are always some people walking around in my area, but you definitely see fewer of them on cold days.
The months between April and November are filled with changes in the natural world here in southern Ontario. I revel in every change I see as plants sprout leaves, flowers bloom, or the first trees began to change colours for the season.
A year or two ago, I noticed that the temperatures were a bit cooler one August morning than they’d been that previous week. I decided to set out for a walk before the true heat of the day set in.
In January of 2013, I began blogging once a year about everything I’d read that previous year. This tradition began when my dad asked me how many books I’ve read in my entire lifetime.
