September 10, 2019 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My TBR I’m Avoiding Reading and Why

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I honestly don’t have much to say in the introduction to this post this week, so let’s jump straight into my list.

Title and Author: Networking for People who Hate Networking: A Field Guide for Introverts, the Overwhelmed, and the Underconnected by Devora Jack
What It’s About: The title says it all.
Why I’m Avoiding It: Most of the reason why I haven’t read this book yet is because there’s a long list for it at the library. I’m also a little worried about it being one of those “just pretend like you’re not an introvert and magically don’t get nervous!” sort of books.

Title and Author: Tell It to the Bees by Fiona Shaw
What It’s About: Two women falling in love in the 1950s in a rural British town.
Why I’m Avoiding It: I had major issues with certain plot twists in the film. I don’t know if the book followed the same path, so I’m a little hesitant to give it a try.

Title and Author: The Ministry of Truth: the Biography of George Orwell’s 1984 by Dorian Lynskey
What It’s About: Why George Orwell wrote the famous novel, 1984.
Why I’m Avoiding It: I’m trying to take a long break from the dystopian genre as a whole. I know I’m going to enjoy this book once I’m in the right frame of mind for it. Right now, I need lighter, fluffier tales.

Title and Author: Haben: The DeafBlind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma
What It’s About: The title explains it all.
Why I’m Avoiding It: As I said earlier, these days I’m more into short, fluffy reads. I’m saving this book for when I’m ready for something serious and thought-provoking again.

Title and Author: Suzanna by Irene I. Blea
What It’s About: Child marriage, desperate loneliness, and what I think may turn out to be an emotionally abusive relationship.
Why I’m Avoiding It: This book sounds like a powerful read, but I don’t think I can handle such heavy themes at the moment.

Title and Author: Wilder Girls by Rory Power
What It’s About: A F/F romance, a deadly disease raging through an isolated school, and the mystery of what might lie beyond the fence the students have been forbidden from walking past.
Why I’m Avoiding It: Just about everyone loves it. I’m simultaneously excited to read it and worried that it won’t live up to the hype for me.

If you’ve read any of these books, please do share your thoughts on them.

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September 9, 2019 · 1:00 am

Should I Bring Back the Reader Questions Series?

Years ago, I occasionally answered reader questions about all sorts of topics. This is something I originally began doing because a friend of mine started doing it first.

The post that began this series on his site as well as some of the entries in it are no longer online so far as I can tell, but reading his answers to all of the questions people have sent in over the years has been fascinating.

My friend blogs about all sorts of topics: his chronic health issues, raising a (now-adult) child who has Down syndrome, photography, memories of his youth, U.S. politics, and the many theological and other changes his family has been through over the decades. The questions his followers send to him generally fit into one of these buckets, although sometimes people throw wild cards into the mix that probe parts of his mind he generally doesn’t share with the world.

Reason #1

One of the things I really like about my friend is how open he is to discussing just about anything with his readers. While I completely respect the wishes of some bloggers to stick to specific topics or to keep a firm line drawn between their online and offline selves, I think it’s interesting when they’re willing to open up to their audiences and talk about random things occasionally.  This is the first reason why I’m considering answering questions again.

Reason #2

This site has grown and changed so much since the last question in my series was published in 2015.

I know that most of my current readers weren’t following this site four years ago. With all of the new followers who have shown up over the last six months to a year, answering questions you come up with instead of what I think my readers are most interested in checking out might be a fun way for you to get to know me a little better.

What could we talk about?

  • Meditation (and how not to fall asleep during it)
  • Reading habits
  • Genres I love like science fiction
  • Genres I generally avoid and why
  • Stories from my life as a preacher’s kid
  • Life as an immigrant and dual-citizen
  • The writing process
  • Self-publishing
  • Demisexuality
  • Bisexuality
  • Polyamory
  • Fitness for people who aren’t athletic or good at team sports

Or anything else you’ve wondered about while reading my posts.

I’m a little nervous about sharing the link to some of my old reader question posts because of how much my writing style and choice of topics have evolved over the years, but click here or do a search for the term mailbag if you want to look through what people have asked in the past.

Reason #3

Change can be a good thing. As much as I want to go back and revamp some of my old posts, I’m proud of how willing I’ve always been to try new things and see what works. There have been times when certain types of posts flopped when I expected them to succeed. At other times, a post I didn’t think would do well still continues to draw in readers years later.

The Internet can be an unpredictable place at times. I’m ready to roll the dice again and see who is interested in reviving this series with me.

Respond

If you have questions, I’ll have answers. Leave them as a response to this post, fill out the contact form, or email them to interviews AT lydiaschoch DOT com.

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September 5, 2019 · 1:00 am

What It Means to be Human: A Review of Let’s Play White

A few months ago, Apex Publications invited me to be part of their Back Catalogue Blog Tour. I chose to write a book review for Chesya Burke’s Let’s Play White as my contribution to it. Other participants will be sharing author interviews and guest posts throughout this month, so click the link above to check them out.

Title: Let’s Play White

Author: Chesya Burke

Publisher: Apex Publications

Publication Date: 2011

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Contemporary, Historical

Length: 200 pages

Source: I received a free copy from Apex Publications.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Blurb:

White brings with it dreams of respect, of wealth, of simply being treated as a human being. It’s the one thing Walter will never be. But what if he could play white, the way so many others seem to do? Would it bring him privilege or simply deny the pain? The title story in this collection asks those questions, and then moves on to challenge notions of race, privilege, personal choice, and even life and death with equal vigor.

From the spectrum spanning despair and hope in “What She Saw When They Flew Away” to the stark weave of personal struggles in “Chocolate Park,” Let’s Play White speaks with the voices of the overlooked and unheard. “I Make People Do Bad Things” shines a metaphysical light on Harlem’s most notorious historical madame, and then, with a deft twist into melancholic humor, “Cue: Change” brings a zombie-esque apocalypse, possibly for the betterment of all mankind.

Gritty and sublime, the stories of Let’s Play White feature real people facing the worlds they’re given, bringing out the best and the worst of what it means to be human. If you’re ready to slip into someone else’s skin for a while, then it’s time to come play white.

Review:

Content Warning: racism, pregnancy, childbirth, deaths (including the death of a child), rape, domestic violence, and miscarriage. This will otherwise be a spoiler-free post, and I will not be going into detail about any of these topics in my review.

As much as I’d love to write a full-length review of all eleven stories in this anthology, doing so would have inflated this post to five or six thousand words at minimum because each one was set in its own unique universe. What I decided to do instead was to pick a few of the stories I enjoyed the most and talk about why I liked them so much. If any of these mini-reviews catches you attention, I highly recommend reading the whole anthology! It was well done and pretty interesting to read.

Purse

In “Purse,” a woman named Manyara battled anxious thoughts about the other passengers on the bus she was travelling on, especially when it came to a black man who was sitting near her. She was carrying thousands of dollars in her purse and worried she’d be robbed. This tale was filled with creative plot twists, so I’ll need to be mindful of what else I say about it.

What impressed me the most was how much effort I had to put in as a reader to figure out what was really happening on this bus ride. There was so much more going on with Manyara than she originally shared with the audience. This is something I’d recommend reading with as few assumptions about what is happening as your brain can handle.

What She Saw When They Flew Away

Grief doesn’t always end on a set schedule. Pearl, the main character of “What She Saw When They Flew Away,” had suffered a terrible loss before this tale began. Not only did she struggle to come to terms with it, she had even more trouble helping her daughter, Nayja, adapt to their new life together. Their sometimes-conflicting reactions to the same tragedy made me wonder what would happen by the final scene.

While I can’t say much else about their lives without giving away spoilers, I loved the metaphors Pearl used to explain how she was feeling even though I do wish she’d been given more time to show how they affected her life instead of simply telling the audience they were bringing up bittersweet memories.

Cue: Change

As the blurb mentioned, “Cue: Change” was set in a zombiepocalypse. These weren’t typical zombies, though, and their unpredictable effect on society was something I couldn’t have predicted ahead of time. I was fascinated by this twist on this monster. It was completely different from any other take on them I’ve read before, and it made me wish for more stories like this.

The humans also didn’t behave the way I’d normally expect them to in this sub-genre. Not only did they make calm, rational decisions, they stuck to their regular routines as much as they possibly could. This isn’t a common reaction to zombies, and it made me wish this was a full-length novel so I could get to know the characters even better than I did.

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September 4, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books That Deal Well with Tough Topics

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

When I originally saw this topic on the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge List, I thought it would be an easy one. It turns out that most of the books I’ve read recently have not been about tough topics, and the ones I have read are not necessarily titles I’d recommend. So I had to dig deeply into my reading history to answer this prompt.

Title and Author: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Issues It Covers: Racism, Police Corruption, and Injustice

Title and Author: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Issues It Covers: Second Wave Feminism, Sexism, and Mental Health

Title and Author: As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl by John Colapinto
Issues It Covers: Gender, Medical Malpractice, and Mental Health

Title and Author: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Issues It Covers: Childhood Sexual Abuse, Mental Health, and Racism

Title and Author: Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud
Issues It Covers: Mental Health, Unhealthy Interpersonal Relationships, Toxic People

Title and Author: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Issues It Covers: Grief

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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September 3, 2019 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Enjoyed That Are Outside of My Comfort Zone

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I had some trouble coming up with all ten answers for this week’s prompt. Generally, I don’t bother finishing books that are truly outside of my comfort zone. These titles were were exceptions to that rule, and they make for an eclectic, if also shorter than usual, list.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman book cover. The word unwind appears to be shrink-wrapped.

1. Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Why it was outside of my comfort zone:

While I love science fiction in general, the process of Unwinding really freaked me out. That is a term I’m purposefully not explaining because of how graphic and disturbing it is. Feel free to google it at your own risk.  I’m glad I finished this tale, but I don’t know I could ever watch a film based on it.

2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Why it was outside of my comfort zone: 

Romance is a genre I don’t read much in general because, despite being married for a decent amount of time now, I am a rather unromantic person at heart. (Well, unless we’re talking about chocolate covered cherries because who doesn’t like chocolate-covered treats!?) The romance in this book happened between two selfish and emotionally unhealthy characters, so that pushed it even further outside of my comfort zone even though the plot itself was well done.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry book cover. Boy stands on asteroid looking at stars.

3. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Why it was outside of my comfort zone: 

Some of the allegories in it make my brain hurt. I simultaneously love the poetic nature of it and desperately wish for a straightforward translation of what it’s trying to say.

The Crossover book cover by Kwame Alexander. Image of the outline of a black kid twirling a ball on the front of it.

4. The Crossover by Kwame Alexandre

Why it was outside of my comfort zone: 

I know nothing about sports and have no interest in learning about them. Despite that, this book of poetry about a kid who was obsessed with basketball and worried about his father’s poor health was incredibly well done.

 

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September 2, 2019 · 1:00 am

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Harry Potter Characters and Socks

Happy Labour Day to everyone in Canada and the United States. Most schools here in Canada reopen after Labour Day weekend, so thoughts of making lists and cracking open books are bouncing around in my head.

This is the time of year when I’d try to squeeze the last bit of fun out of the summer before school started up again, so I thought it would be amusing to stick to lighthearted material.

Today’s topic is something I jokingly mentioned in I’ll Tell You About My Draft Folder If You’ll Tell Me About Yours:

I’ve gotten multiple hits on my blog about Harry Potter characters wearing socks, Harry Potter characters who won’t wear socks, socks that feature Harry Potter characters, fuzzy socks, hand-knit socks, and just about any other sock-related query you can think of that so much as glances in the direction of the Potterverse. I am so tempted to write a full-length post on this topic. Would you write it?

According to my readers, the answer to that question was a resounding yes! I have accepted the fact that writing this post may result in even more people finding this blog in their quest to find answers to all things related to the Potterverse and socks, so let’s give them plenty of things to think about.

If you haven’t read J.K. Rowling’s famous series yet or need a refresher about the identities of the characters I’m about to mention, click on their names to read about them. Be warned that those links will contain spoilers!

Most – but certainly not all – of the questions I’m about to answer have showed up in my search logs at various points. The ones I added were somehow related to the queries I’ve already received.

For example, I remember seeing a question about the sock-wearing habits of Potterverse characters. It was a little vague, but it did get me thinking about this topic. I flipped that original query around a bit to make sure that every angle was covered.

My hope is that this post covers so many of people’s questions about this slice of the Potterverse and the Harry Potter fandom in general that everyone who finds it walks away feeling satisfied.

Where Do I find Novelty Potterverse Socks?

Amazon has dozens of entries on this topic, and I’ve received just as many queries about where to purchase such items.  I can’t vouch for the durability or comfort of any of these styles, but they are most certainly out there. Someday when I run low on socks again, I may order a set or two and test them out for myself.

Am I Too Old to Wear Harry Potter Socks?

No one is ever too old for Potterverse socks or novelty socks in general. Why not do things that bring joy to your life, especially when it’s something as harmless and fun as this?

Which Harry Potter Characters Would Wear Socks?

Hermione Granger would wear them because she was a stickler for following rules. (Well, except when she wasn’t).

Dobby would wear them because being given a sock was how this house elf earned his freedom.

Which Harry Potter Characters Would Not Wear Socks?

Moaning Myrtle doesn’t strike me as the sort of person who worries about what’s on her feet. (Can ghosts be said to wear clothing in general, though? Or do they appear to wear clothing because that’s what they did in life?)

Luna Lovegood broke so many social conventions that I could also see her purposefully choosing not to wear socks.

Which Harry Potter Characters Would Lose Socks While Wearing Them?

Rubeus Hagrid. The poor guy had a knack for finding the hardest way to do just about anything.

Fred and George Weasley are the sort of characters who would come up with a spell to transport the dirty socks on their feet to the closest laundry basket, accidentally mis-pronounce one syllable in it, and end up blinking their socks out of existence entirely.

Potterverse Characters Who Should Have Been Socks

I’m tempted to say that all of the antagonists should have been socks instead of people, but that would have removed too much conflict from the plot. You need something or someone for the protagonists to struggle against, after all!

With that being said, someone as violent and cruel as Dolores Umbridge should have definitely been turned into a sock long before she became a professor at Hogwarts.

Socks That Should be Potterverse Characters

I think that any sock with a sassy message or a zany pattern would probably make for an interesting wizard. (My site doesn’t share affiliate links. That is simply a collection of socks that are attention-grabbing enough for me to imagine them as living, breathing people).

What Sorts of Socks do People Wear at Hogwarts?

Based on the references to Molly Weasley knitting sweaters and socks for the children in her life, my fan theory is that many wizards and witches wear hand-knitted socks. Perhaps some of them figure out a knitting spell to create “handmade” socks a little faster than usual if they have a long list of loved ones who need them.

This has no basis in anything I can remember from the Harry Potter books, but I’d also like to think that some socks may have been enchanted before they were gifted. It’s amusing to think there are wizards and witches in that universe whose feet never get wet or cold because of a thoughtful spell that was put onto their socks.

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August 29, 2019 · 1:00 am

An Update on My Walk to Mordor

Do you remember a few months ago when I blogged about my plans to walk to Mordor?

That is, I signed up for an app that lets you track how many miles or kilometres you walk every day and gives you updates about what Frodo and Sam were up to when they’d walked a similar distance in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Someone I know also signed up for this app when I blogged about it back in May, so I’ve had a buddy to compare journeys with every time I log in to update my account. That was a nice surprise, and I’m always open to connecting with other people on this journey if anyone else wants to start it.

The cool thing about this challenge is that it almost feels like I’m walking alongside Frodo and the other characters from Lord of the Rings as I log my kilometres walked every day and read about the people they met and the places they visited during their question.

Now that I’m a third of the way through this experience, I thought it was time for an update. 

A Long Journey

Screenshot of the Walk to Mordor App. It shows a green bar filled one third. It also says that there are 38 km to go before I reach the next milestone in Sam and Frodo's journey. What I’m enjoying the most about this walk to Mordor so far is fully realizing just how much walking it required. On average, I log between 9 and 10 kilometres a day. Those numbers are nothing compared to what Frodo and Sam must have done on most days in order to make it to Mordor on time.

It’s one thing to read about characters walking a long distance.

It’s quite another to walk that same distance yourself. Every time I read a new update on their adventures, I wonder how these characters kept going day after day. What I’m doing for the sheer fun of it they did because they really had no other choice. Either Frodo needed to destroy the One Ring at Mordor or see his entire world be destroyed.

To be fair, I have a warm, soft bed to sleep in every night, a sturdy pair of sneakers, plenty of food to keep me going, and no Nazgul hunting me down. So my experiences with this fitness challenge are obviously going to be much easier than the real journey was.

Although I will always be a little jealous of the fact that Frodo and Sam got too eat lembas.

Non-Competitive Exercise

The non-competitive nature of this challenge is something I’m also really liking about it. Other players might make it through all 3109 kilometres (1932 miles) faster or slower than I do. Honestly, this isn’t something I’ve taken the time to google or spend energy thinking about.

There’s nothing wrong with other people competing with each other on distance walked or how long it takes to finish the game, but I’m completely content to keep chugging along at my usual pace. The storyline provides so much fodder for the imagination that I honestly don’t want to rush this experience.

I’m currently estimating that I’ll complete this challenge in March of 2020 if I keep up the same pace. In my first post in this series, my best guess was that I’d be finished by late winter or early spring. It will be interesting to see if that same prediction holds in a few months when I share another update on my progress!

This post is going to be shorter than usual, but I really don’t have much else to report for now. The walk to Mordor is going well and I’m feeling good so far.

Respond

Have you ever taken up a fitness or other challenge based on a book? If so, what was it? This experiment has been well worth my time so far, and I’m definitely interested in trying similar games in the future if anyone has recommendations.

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August 28, 2019 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books I Had to Read in School and Liked

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

This list will be a long one. I had some truly wonderful Language Arts teachers over the years. While there were a few books they assigned to us over the years that I didn’t like, I found something enjoyable in the vast majority of our assigned reads.  

I’m assuming that all of the WWBC participants have at least heard of these plays, poems, novels, and other works if they haven’t read them. I chose not to write commentary on them to keep this post from turning into a 1000+ word essay, but I’m happy to expand on anything that you’re all not already familiar with. This is roughly sorted by the age when I read them. Little House in the Big Woods was a fourth grade reading assignment, I believe.

Book cover for The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor EstesLittle House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder 

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

The Pearl by John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Edgar Allen Poe’s works, especially “The Raven” and “The Masque of the Red Death”

Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

Othello by William Shakespeare

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Emily Dickinson’s collected poems

e.e. cummings collected poems

The Iliad by Homer (I think we only read excerpts of this one),

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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August 27, 2019 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’ve Read That I’d Like In My Personal Library

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

My list is a short one this week. There simply aren’t that many books out there that I’d reread often enough to want to have in my personal library.

1. Old Reference Books

I discussed my love of reading dictionaries, thesauruses, and encyclopedias here before. These books can be a tantalizing glimpse into the past. Some of the words they use are no longer common, and others have seen their meanings change dramatically. I really like comparing the way things were back then to what is (and isn’t) acceptable to write about today. 

Book cover of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It shows Jane sitting pensively against a plain background. 2. Any First Edition Copy of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

I actually had a first edition of this book and one of the sequels in the series in my personal library when I was a kid. I don’t know what happened to them, but someday it would be cool to touch them again. 

3. Beowulf.

This is one of my all-time favourite legends. When I first read it, our professor did an excellent job of explaining what we knew about the culture that created it as well as making note of all of the references that have been lost to the mists of time. 

4. Everything N.K. Jemison Writes

I discovered her work much later than most people, and I still have a long ways to go in catching up on her stories. So far I’m loving them and would gladly add all of her books to my personal library. 

5. Spanish Children’s Books

Studying Spanish is one of my hobbies. I’ve really come to enjoy attempting to read Spanish children’s books as I try to apply all of the words I’ve memorized to something more practical than translating short sentences how many apples someone ate on Duolingo. Ha!

6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

When I was in high school, I reread this book multiple times a year. It’s been a long time since I reread it, and I’m thinking that’s something I should do again soon. 

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August 26, 2019 · 1:00 am

Happy 12th Anniversary, Long and Short Reviews!

There are four balloons in this graphic. The text reads: "Long and Short Reviews 12th Anniversary Party. August 26-30, 2019. Win $100 Amazon GCs and more! Dozens of winners."

Long and Short Reviews is a well-respected book review site that I’ve been a fan of for many years. They review titles from many different genres: erotica, romance, sci-fi/fantasy, mysteries, horror, young adult books, and more. Many of the authors they work with are self-published or from small publishers.

I love the fact that they amplify the voices of writers who aren’t already well known. Over the years, their reviewers have earned the reputation of being honest but fair. I’ve discovered so many new authors and stories there since I was first introduced to this site.

This week, Long and Short Reviews is celebrating their twelfth anniversary! They’re having a blogging bash from today until August 30 and are giving away dozens of prizes, including some $100 Amazon gift cards. All you have to do to enter is click on the link above and follow the instructions in the guest posts you read there.

Generally, the guest bloggers ask you to do something like leave a comment or answer a question about their post for one chance to win. There are multiple ways to enter per post, and you can do more than one of them if you’d like.

I will be back to my regular blogging routine tomorrow with a Top Ten Tuesday post. In the meantime, I hope you’ll join me over in the various comment sections of Long and Short Reviews over the next several days. Winning a prize definitely sounds like a nice way to end the week, don’t you think?

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