March 17, 2020 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Spring 2020 TBR

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Some weeks I come up with fewer than ten answers to the prompt. This week I had eleven!

Memory Craft: Improve your memory using the most powerful methods from around the world by Lynne Kelly book cover. Image on cover is of a round ball that looks vaguely brain-shaped.

1. Memory Craft: Improve your memory using the most powerful methods from around the world by Lynne Kelly

Will this book be helpful? I don’t know, but I’m curious to see what it recommends!

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid book cover. Image on cover is of a gorgeous woman wearing a shimmery, green evening gown.

2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I decided to read this because so many of my fellow Top Ten Tuesday bloggers enjoyed it. You’ve all convinced me to give it a try.

Life Changing Helen Pilcher book cover. Image on cover is of a series of 10 moths arranged from a black, small one one to a large, cream one.

3. Life Changing: How Humans are Altering Life on Earth by Helen Pilcher

If you ever meet me in real life and want me to blab without stopping, bring up human evolution, ecology, zoology, or climate change. I would happily discuss any of those topics with anyone for ages!

Outsmart Your Anxious Brain: Ten Simple Ways to Beat the Worry Trick by David A. Carbonell book cover. Image on cover is of a thought bubble filled with anxious scribbles.

4. Outsmart Your Anxious Brain: Ten Simple Ways to Beat the Worry Trick by David A. Carbonell

My anxiety is mild most of the time, but I’m always on the lookout for new coping techniques for it.

Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc book cover. Image on cover is of a house surrounded by green leaves. There is also a crutch, ear, and a few disembodied fingers on the cover.

5. Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc

I was the sort of kid who adored the original, sometimes gruesome versions of fairy tales. Some of those stories were incredibly politically incorrect at times, so I’m very interested in revisiting them from a social justice angle.

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle book cover. Image on cover is of a man wearing a top hat and black cloak walking down a dark alley.

6. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

The Ballad of Black Tom is a retelling of H. P. Lovecraft’s story “The Horror at Red Hook.” I can’t wait to see what it’s like.

Greenwood by Michael Christie book cover. Image on cover is of a beautiful pine forest.

7. Greenwood by Michael Christie

Since this is a Canadian novel, I don’t expect most Top Ten Tuesday participants to already be aware of it. I’m excited about it because it tells stories set in the same setting in four different eras: 1934, 1974, 2008, and 2034. I love it when authors do this. It makes the universes they create feel so expansive.

The Season: A Social History of the Debutante by Kristen Richardson book cover. Image on cover is of a pair of white, formal, silk women's gloves.

8.The Season: A Social History of the Debutante by Kristen Richardson

I was the sort of girl and am the sort of woman who dislikes dresses, high heels, and wearing makeup because of how physically uncomfortable they all are to wear for me. High heels are painful, lace is unbearably itchy, and I’ve had many allergic reactions to makeup.

I totally respect the fact that folks from many different genders enjoy this stuff today, but the thought of anyone donning all of those things at once and on purpose both horrifies and fascinates me. It’s going to be interesting to see how it was handled across various eras and cultures in the past.

History Teaches Us to Resist: How Progressive Movements Have Succeeded in Challenging Times by Mary Frances Berry book cover. Image on cover is of a red-washed photo of the White House.

9. History Teaches Us to Resist: How Progressive Movements Have Succeeded in Challenging Times by Mary Frances Berry

I don’t usually make references to politics on this blog, but I’m a U.S. citizen who is deeply concerned about what’s going on in my birth country. My reasons for being interested in this book are pretty self explanatory, I think.

The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom book cover. Image on cover is of a collage of family photos from an African-American family.

10. The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom

I love memoirs, old houses, and thinking about the people who lived in old houses decades ago.

This autobiography truly has it all.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal book cover. Image on cover is of two women wearing headscarves holding up their arms to wave at each other.

11. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

Isn’t this a fabulous title? I know very little about Indian culture or the Sikh religion in general and am looking forward to changing that.

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March 16, 2020 · 1:00 am

Safe Haven: A Review of Everfair

Book cover for Everfair by Nisi Shawl. Image on cover is of a pair of hands holding a globe that's illuminated by gold light and surrounded by flying birds. Title: Everfair

Author: Nisi Shawl

Publisher: Tor Books

Publication Date: 2016

Genres: Fantasy, Alternate History, Steampunk

Length: 384 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 3 stars

Blurb:

From noted short story writer Nisi Shawl comes a brilliant alternate-history novel set in the Belgian Congo.

What if the African natives developed steam power ahead of their colonial oppressors? What might have come of Belgium’s disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier?

Fabian Socialists from Great Britain join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo’s “owner,” King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.

Shawl’s speculative masterpiece manages to turn one of the worst human rights disasters on record into a marvelous and exciting exploration of the possibilities inherent in a turn of history. Everfair is told from a multiplicity of voices: Africans, Europeans, East Asians, and African Americans in complex relationships with one another, in a compelling range of voices that have historically been silenced. Everfair is not only a beautiful book but an educational and inspiring one that will give the reader new insight into an often ignored period of history.

Review:

Content warning: Racism and sexism. I will not be discussing these things in my review.

Strap in for a wild ride.This book has a bit of everything!

Ms. Shawl did a very good job of explaining the political and historical landscape of the setting. I didn’t know a lot about how Belgium colonization of the Congo went so horribly wrong in our world, so I was grateful for all of the details the author provided about why Belgium made that decision and how they expected to make it work before she imaged how things could have turned out much differently for the Congo if they’d already had steam technology when this conflict boiled over.

The cast of characters was massive. Rather than telling this tale from the perspective of one or even a few different people, there were dozens of narrators and other protagonists to sort out as I read. Given the fact that each chapter was written in a form that was pretty similar to a short story and that previous characters often weren’t revisited until many years after their previous entry, I had lots of trouble keeping up with everyone and the plot at the same time. This felt like something that really should have been separated out into several novels or many more novellas. There was so much going on in the plot that nobody got all of the attention they deserved.

There was a list of characters, their relationships to each other, and approximately when and where they lived included before the story began. I was glad to have this information and would highly recommend taking a look at it before beginning the first chapter. As I mentioned earlier in this review, the cast of characters is humongous. Having a basic idea of everyone’s identity and when they lived is crucial in order to understanding the plot, and this list did help with that even though I still believe the plot would have been better served if it were divided into a series and no more than three or four narrators were included in each instalment.

Anyone who loves alternate history speculative fiction should check this book out.

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March 12, 2020 · 1:00 am

Righting Wrongs: A Review of See You Yesterday

Film poster for See You Yesterday. It shows the two main characters running. There is a large clock in the background. Content warning: death of a parent, police violence and gun violence. I will be discussing the last two items in this list in my review.

See You Yesterday is a 2019 science fiction film about C.J. and Sebastian, two high school students who are best friends, fellow science enthusiasts, and inventors.

Their latest invention is a backpack that allows the person wearing it to travel back into time. The technology wasn’t perfect. It could only go back into the recent past and could only be used a certain number of times. They were still figuring out how to change those limitations when the events of this film took place.

After C.J.’s older brother, Calvin, was murdered by the police, she and Sebastian decided to use their unfinished invention to travel back in time and save her brother before time ran out for him for good.

 

Characters

Eden Duncan-Smith as C.J. Walker

Eden Duncan-Smith as C.J. Walker

 

C.J. was the protagonist of this tale. As an incredibly intelligent and driven young woman, she believed she could solve any problem that came her way by seeking the scientifically correct answer to it.

Danté Crichlow as Sebastian Thomas

Danté Crichlow (left) as Sebastian Thomas

 

Sebastian was C.J.’s best friend. He was just as intelligent as C.J. but tended to be more cautious about trying new things until he’d gathered all of the date he needed about how they worked.

Michael J. Fox as Mr. Lockhart

Michael J. Fox as Mr. Lockhart

C.J. and Sebastian’s science teacher

Mr. Lockhart was C.J. and Sebastian’s supportive science teacher. He didn’t believe in time travel, but he did believe that his two smartest students would do incredible things with their lives. Supportive teacher, but doesn’t believe in time travel.

Anyone who is a fan of this actor’s previous work will find a delightful Easter Egg about it at some point in this tale.

Brian "Stro" Bradley as Calvin Walker

Brian “Stro” Bradley as Calvin Walker

 

Calvin was C.J.’s overprotective but loving older brother. He admired his sister’s intellect and believed that she’d one day make life better for their entire family because of it.

My Review

This was such a good story that I’m planning to watch it again!

Obviously, there were strong social justice themes in this movie. The blurb and trailer for it will give that fact away immediately to anyone who somehow missed it. C.J.’s invention was really cool in and of itself, but the thought of it being used to right terrible wrongs only made me more curious to see if and how she’d reach her goal of saving her brother’s life.

C.J.’s character development was beautifully handled. There were excellent reasons for her sometimes stubborn behaviour and unshakeable belief that science can be used any problem if one works hard enough to understand what happened and how it can be changed. I’ll leave it up to other viewers to discover these things for themselves, but it was delightful to see how her past and present shaped who C.J. was and who she was becoming.

There were a couple of fantastic plot twists later on in the storyline. They made perfect sense given everything C.J. had gone through earlier. While I did see them coming due to how familiar I am with tropes in the young adult and science fiction genres, I’d be pretty curious to find out if other audience members had the same reaction to them. Either way, they enhanced the viewing experience nicely.

My brain is beyond eager to discuss the ending in this post, but I’ll need to carefully dance around what actually happened in it in order to avoid spoilers. What I can say is that it fit the themes of this tale well and it had a powerful message for audience members about how we should respond to police and gun violence.

Ending on such thoughtful terms was such a great decision. I’ve read that the director isn’t planning to make a sequel, so it looks like the audience will have come up with our own theories about what might happen next.

A Note on the Violence Tags in My Review

Some of the violence was implied. Other acts of violence were shown directly to the audience, albeit in a sensitive and thoughtful manner. There were the briefest hints of blood in a couple of scenes, but in general this was a pretty blood-free story (especially given the subject matter).

See You Yesterday is something that I’d recommend just as highly to adult viewers as I would it’s original young adult audience.

See You Yesterday is available on Netflix.

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March 11, 2020 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: One Skill I Wish I Had But Don’t

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.

screen shot of HTML code.

My response to this week’s prompt can be summed up in one word: programming.

I’m fascinated by the various programming languages that have been developed in order to create websites.

There’s something incredible about seeing how the right commands can create eye-catching sites with enough patience and work.

A few months ago, I took a one-day introductory HTML course to this topic at my local library. It was fascinating to get that taste of that world. I’m dabbling with the idea of continuing my studies in this area (whether in HTML or in another programming language entirely).

What can I say? Computers are cool, and I want to learn more about how to build nice-looking websites for them.

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March 10, 2020 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors Who Have a Fun Social Media Presence

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Cellphone with three pieces of paper lying above it. One has a heart, one has a human emoji, and one has a conversation bubble in it. My first impression of this week’s prompt was that it would be an easy one. It turned out to be trickier than I assumed. In my experience, some people misinterpret social media as a place to sell books or draw traffic to one’s latest blog post.

While I love seeing what authors have recently created, having a fun social media account requires effort, creativity, and, most importantly, regularly engaging with your followers. All of the authors I’m about to share do just that. I’d recommend checking out their creative, thought-provoking status updates regardless of what your personal feelings are about poetry, horror, science fiction, or any of the other genres they represent.

This post is divided into two sections: Twitter and Instagram.

Twitter

N.K. Jemisin

As N.K.’s pinned tweet says:

Please be advised that I only talk here about writing-related topics, which means just politics, media, science, food, charity, cartoons, volcanoes, gardening, space, cats, health care, cats, fanfic, Afrofuturist music, human nature, video gam

And, honestly, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Her Twitter feed is filled with interesting stuff from a wide range of topics.

Chuck Wendig

Chuck is one of the funniest people I follow on Twitter. His timeline is filled with the sorts of random thoughts that most people don’t speak aloud.

Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi’s cat is adorable, and her tweets about the Coronavirus are on point.

Stephen King

Stephen is like that cool uncle everyone hopes will show up at the next family reunion. You never quite know what he’s going to say, but you know it will always be worth listening to.

Instagram

Rupi Kaur 

Rupi’s poetry melds perfectly with the Instagram aesthetic.

Danez Smith

Danez’s feed is such an eclectic mixture of poetry, writing, selfies, and random pictures from his life.

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March 9, 2020 · 1:00 am

Stay Home and Read

Woman holding a book and smilingA few days ago, Toronto learned that someone who was diagnosed with COVID-19 had taken several trips on the TTC, our  public transportation system, after they began coughing and showing other symptoms of that disease.

Our local media has been publishing many stories on the Coronavirus outbreak these winter alongside their regular winter features on cold and flu season. While I have some mixed feelings about how they’ve reported on this new outbreak in particular, it’s difficult to ignore all of the new information pouring in about COVID-19 and how regularly new cases have been diagnosed in Ontario lately.

Like the rest of the world, Toronto is nervous about this topic. There have been so many folks stocking up on toilet paper and other supplies that some stores here have actually put limits on how much of those items you can buy at a time.

I happen to be part of an age bracket that is at very low risk of developing complications from Coronavirus, much less dying from it. I also don’t have any pre-existing medical conditions that would make it harder for my body to fight this illness. If I were to develop it, chances are excellent that it would be no worse than a bad cold or the flu for me if I even developed symptoms at all.

Three piled books on a white wooden table. Still, I’ve found myself staying home more often these days. I’d hate to accidentally spread this illness around to people at high risk of complications if I’m one of those young, healthy people who have it while showing few to no symptoms of it.

When I do go out, I’m noticing that our libraries, stores, and malls feel a bit quieter than usual. My guess is that other folks are cutting back on spending time in large crowds when possible as well.

Since most of my favourite places to visit are outdoors and I’m trying to reduce my time spent in crowds, reading seems like the perfect solution.

March is a chilly, sloppy time of year in Ontario anyways. Might as well read until the weather improves and the spread of this disease is hopefully slowed down while scientists work on a vaccine for it.

This means that you may be seeing more book reviews on my site over the coming weeks. I love writing them, but they take up so much time and energy that I generally can only get through a certain number of them in the average month.

There are only so many TV shows I can watch and hours of Minecraft I can play before needing to do something else with my free time, though, so reading it is.

I already have my first review of this semi-quarantine season ready to go for next week! Thank goodness I still have a big pile of library e-books to plow through as well.

How have your daily routines changed this cold, flu, and coronavirus season? How are your countries and communities reacting to COVID-19? Are you all staying home and getting more reading time in than usual these days, too?

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March 5, 2020 · 1:00 am

Hopeful Science Fiction: Online Reunion

Click on the tag “hope” at this bottom of this post to read about all of my suggestions for hopeful science fiction. If you have recommendations for future instalments of this series, I’d sure like to hear them. Leave a comment below or send me message about it on Twitter.

Recently, I discovered the Better Worlds series, a science fiction anthology of short stories and films about hope that was published at The Verge two years ago. This is the second story from this anthology I’ve covered here, and I will eventually blog about all of them. 

There are mild spoilers in this post. 

Online Reunion

Close-up of a computer keyboard. The "enter" key is pink and has a red heart on it. Leigh Alexander’s “Online Reunion” was about a young journalist chronicling a vintage e-pet reunion who gets more than she expected.

One of the things I found most interesting about this tale was how little time it spent on the world building.

The Internet had changed society in some pretty profound ways over the decades, but this wasn’t something I fully appreciated until I read it for the second time. I’d definitely recommending reading this slowly in order to catch every hint about what’s really going on here.

Human Nature

Fashions may come and go, but human nature remains constant from one era to the next. The best portions of this story were the ones that quietly highlighted what has changed, and even more importantly what hasn’t changed, over the past few generations since people began using the Internet heavily.

Jean, the main character, thought she had a good idea of what to expect when she went to Mrs. Marchenstamp’s house to interview her. I was amused by the assumptions she made about the first generation who used the Internet heavily, especially once Jean realized that she might have underestimated her interview subject.

There was also something comforting in the thought of people finding new ways to connect with each other in a futuristic world where something similar to Internet Addiction Disorder is much more common and dangerous than it is today.

I can’t go into detail about that topic without wandering into serious spoiler territory, but I was pleased with how familiar this tale felt. Yes, the characters had access to technology that you and I can only dream of, and there were plenty of social problems the plot hinted at that seemed to have grown worse over time instead of better.

But I still felt as thought I could sit down and have a cup of tea with any of the characters. Other than the occasional slang term that would be used differently in their world than in ours, they seemed like people I already knew. There was a familiarity with their problems and their triumphs that made me want to get to know them better.

As much of a cliche as this is to type, people are people everywhere. I loved seeing all of the similarities between them and us.

It made me look forward to the future. What could be better than that?

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March 4, 2020 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Characters Who Remind Me of Myself 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.

A Purple RoseI’m a quiet, gentle, shy person who has a mischievous streak that occasionally surprises people. Here are some characters who remind me of myself.

Matthew Cuthbert from L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series. 

I adored Anne, but kind and gentle Matthew was the character who really won my heart. I understood him on such a deep level and was thrilled by the way he warmly welcomed Anne into the family.

Beth March from Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women. 

She was the only March sister that I think I could spend time with regularly while coming away from those visits with an invigorated spirit. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Meg, Jo, and Amy quite a bit. But Beth had one of those mellow, easygoing personalities that both attracts my attention and reminds me of how I am, too.

There’s something to be said for peacemakers who try to find the good in everyone.

Allan Karlsson from Jonas Jonasson’s The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (The Hundred-Year-Old Man, #1)

Remember when I told you all I had a mischievous streak? I wasn’t joking.

90% of the time, I’m that calm, unassuming person who peacefully sits in the corner and finds amusement in the simple things in life.

The other 10% of the time, I’m quietly getting into mischief without giving anyone advanced warning. Only folks who know me incredibly well will be able to predict these moments before they happen.

If I make my childhood goal of living to see my one hundredth birthday, you just might catch me climbing out of a window at the retirement home on that day.

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March 3, 2020 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Single-Word Titles

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Woman Reading a BookI kept things simple for this week’s prompt. Most of these books are ones I haven’t read yet, but all of them grabbed my attention with their short, snappy titles. It’s harder than you think to come up with a single word that will do that!

1. Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

2. Amigo by Byrd Baylor

3. Equipoise (Ennek #3) by Kim Fielding

4. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

5. Beloved by Toni Morrison

 

6. Fury by Salman Rushdie

7.Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui

8. Confessions by Kanae Minato

9. Solo by Kwame Alexander

10. Me by Elton John

 

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March 2, 2020 · 1:00 am

3 Reasons Why I Take the Stairs Instead of the Elevator

Photo of person's legs and orange shoes as they climb a flight of blue stairs.

I’m writing this post from the perspective of someone who is (mostly) able-bodied and still fairly young. Taking the stairs isn’t the right choice for everyone, so listen to your body and your family doctor if this post doesn’t resonate with you. 

When was the last time you took the stairs?

This question popped into my head last month, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

When given the choice between taking the stairs, elevator or escalator, my preferences have shifted in the direction of the stairs for the following reasons.

It’s Faster

Dozens of lego figures crowded together
Toronto is a bustling city. No matter what time of day or night it is here, you will almost certainly be surrounded by dozens to thousands of other people while going about your daily (or nightly) business.

There are many advantages to living this way that don’t quite fit into the theme of this post.

One of the disadvantages has to do with how crowded elevators and escalators can become, especially on the weekends and during rush hour. Elevators and escalators are in heavy demand. They would be crowded even if the only people who used them were chronically ill, physically disabled, pushing a stroller, or carrying a heavy load.

The fact that people who could take the stairs also use them only increases the demand for them. I don’t judge anyone for this decision, but I do personally find it more comfortable to avoid all of that jostling and take the stairs instead.

Why fight for a space on the escalator or wait five minutes for the next elevator when the stairs are right around the corner and mostly empty?

It’s a Mini Workout

Woman running down a flight of stairs by a forestOne of the things I enjoy the most about living in a walkable neighbourhood is how much exercise is built into my normal activities.

While I have a structured fitness routine as well, half or more of the total exercise I get each day comes from mini workouts that happen in short spurts while I’m running errands or travelling somewhere.

Taking the stairs is one of these things I do regularly that only takes a few minutes here and there but adds up to a few extra hours of exercise per week.

In my experience, turning small, easy lifestyle changes like this into habits is an excellent way to become more fit over time. I’d never do this sort of exercise for two or three hours in a row, but I have no problem putting the same amount of time in if it’s two or three hours spread across an entire week (or more).

And the more I take the stairs, the stronger my urge to do it becomes over time.

It Doesn’t Require Special Equipment

Girl holding handrailI don’t know about you, but I have a strong preference for types of exercise that don’t require me to change clothes, travel to a specific place, or use a particular piece of equipment.

Blame it on my negative experiences with elementary and high school gym class if you will. All I know is that it takes far less emotional energy to make a quick decision to walk up or down a few flights of stairs when the opportunity presents itself than it does to change into gym clothes, travel to a gym, exercise, shower, change into regular clothes, and then go home again.

I believe in gravitating towards types of exercise that work for your fitness level, interests, and willpower (or lack thereof). For me, that means taking the stairs more often.

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