January 8, 2019 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Non-Fiction Releases for the First Half of 2019

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

When I’m not reading the science fiction and fantasy genres, non-fiction is something I love diving headfirst into. Thus far, it looks like 2019 is going to be an amazing year for all sorts of non-fiction titles, from biographies to sociology and so much more!

1. Influenza: The Quest to Cure the Deadliest Disease in History by Jeremy Brown

Release Date: Today

2. Womanish: A Grown Black Woman Speaks on Love and Life by Kim McLarin

Release Date: January 15

3. What We Talk About When We Talk about Rape by Sohaila Abdulali

Release Date: January 26

4. No Beast So Fierce: The Terrifying True Story of the Champawat Tiger, the Deadliest Animal in History by Dane Huckelbridge

Release Date: February 5

5. Becoming Emily: The Life of Emily Dickinson by Krystyna Poray Goddu

Release Date: February 5

6. Louisa on the Front Lines: Louisa May Alcott in the Civil War by Samantha Seiple

Release Date: February 26

7. Bats: An Illustrated Guide to All Species by Marianne Taylor

Release Date: April 9

8. Beyond Words: What Elephants and Whales Think and Feel by Carl Safina

Release Date: April 23

9. The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas.

Release Date: May 21

10. Dissenter on the Bench: Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Life and Work by Victoria Ortiz

Release  Date: June 4

Are you planning to read any of these books? What books are all of you looking forward to over the next six months or so?

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January 7, 2019 · 1:00 am

My Review of Fitness Blender’s Brutal Butt & Thigh Workout

From the Brutal Butt and Thigh Workout


Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, and this post is in no way intended to give out medical advice. Please seek the advice of a qualified medical professional before beginning this or any other type of workout routine. 

In addition, I’m not receiving any kind of compensation for this post, I’m not affiliated with anyone at Fitness Blender, and there is never affiliate marketing of any sort on my site in general. I’m reviewing this workout simply because I loved it and think some of you might, too.

Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve reviewed a workout video here. it’s time to change that.

Fitness Blender creates the videos I use for the vast majority for my weightlifting workouts. Kelli and Daniel are the couple who created and own this brand.  Their Youtube channel and website offer free workouts for every fitness level.

About the 30 Minute Brutal Butt & Thigh Workout

This workout consists of 5 groups of 2 different exercises. There are ten repetitions of each exercise before you move onto the next one, and all of the exercises are done in the AB/AB format. For example, Kelli’s movements looked like this in the first section:

  • Traditional Squats
  • Deadlifts
  • Traditional Squats
  • Deadlifts

Between each muscle-building exercise, she spent 20 seconds jogging in place.

This is a good routine for more experienced weight lifters. I would not recommend it to beginners due to the intensity of the moves.

All of the videos from Fitness Blender that I use require a minimal amount of equipment. For this particular one, you’ll need a barbell or dumbbell. If you happen to own a yoga mat, that extra cushioning can be useful for the cardio portions of this routine. It’s not strictly necessary, however.

The last five minutes of this video are dedicated to cool-down exercises, but it doesn’t have any warm-up activities. I’d recommend warming up on your own before beginning it.

 

Brutal Butt and Thigh Workout

My Review

This is one of my all-time favourite workouts, so you’re going to hear a lot of complimentary things about it today.

The lack of background music was one of the first things I noticed about it. While I like background music when I’m doing a dance video, I find it distracting for most other types of exercise. It was nice to not have to think about it during this video.

Instead of instruments or the sound of people singing, the only noises you hear on this video are of the narrator explaining which moves are coming up and discussing how they affect your body. There were alternatives suggested for people who couldn’t do the full range of motion for certain moves which was helpful. It was also interesting to hear Daniel talk about how your muscles will react if you’re able to do the moves the way Kelli was in this workout. I only ever felt encouraged by his descriptions. It was fascinating to hear how the human body works and how it can adapt to new challenges over time.

While Kelli did jog in place between all of the exercises, I appreciated the fact that participants were encouraged to find their own level of activity between sets if they weren’t able to jog every time. Honestly, I can’t jog in place for the entire workout every single session. There are times when I need to walk instead, especially at the end, and that’s perfectly okay.

The Cool Down Portion of This Workout

One of the unique features of the Fitness Blender brand is an icon on the right hand side of the screen that shows you how much of the workout you’ve currently completed as well as how much of it you still have to go.

It looks sort of like a thermometer, and the color of it changes from green to yellow to red as you progress further into the routine. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used this feature to see how long I have left to go and to find another burst of energy when I know we’re getting close to the end.

The weightlifting exercises themselves are challenging for me in a good way. When I first began using this video, I was a little sore the next day. While my body has grown stronger and adjusted since then, this routine is by no means an easy one for me. I enjoy being challenged in this way, and I can see myself going back to it over and over again for quite a while yet to come.

I also enjoy the cool down portion during the last five minutes. By the time it comes up, I’m usually covered in perspiration and totally ready to take a break from exercising. All of the stretches in the last few minutes are a nice bridge between weightlifting and the quieter portions of my day that are soon to follow.

Honestly, the thing I’d change about it if I could would be to include a short warm-up at the beginning. I find that I am more diligent about warming up properly when I have someone else telling me which body parts to stretch and for what period of time. Going to the trouble of actually warming up for it is well worth the effort, though!

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January 5, 2019 · 1:00 am

Blog Hops I’ll Be Participating In

A blog hop is a weekly prompt in which group of bloggers all write posts about the same, pre-determined subject. The person or site that came up with that topic provides a space for everyone to share links to their own responses and read what others had to say about it as well . This gives everyone a chance to attract new readers, find out how other people responded to the same subject, and discover blogs that might be right up their alley.

Blog hops are sometimes called link parties or link-up parties.

However you refer to them, I’ll be participating in two of these things in 2019. Today I wanted to tell you about them in advance so my readers know what is happening when these posts begin popping up here in the next week or so.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010. In January of 2018, it moved to That Artsy Reader Girl. As per That Artsy Reader Girl, “it was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.”

This is what Top Ten Tuesday participants will be talking about over the next two months. New topics are generally announced  1-3 months in advance for this blog hop, so be sure to check That Artsy Reader Girl in the future to find out what the rest of her prompts will be for this year if you’re hoping to join in or wondering what I might be discussing here.

January 8: Most Anticipated Releases for the First Half of 2019
January 15: New-to-Me Authors I Read In 2018
January 22: Books I Meant to Read In 2018 but Didn’t Get To
January 29: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My To-Read List
February 5: Upcoming Releases I’m On the Fence About (these are the books you need help deciding if they’re worth adding to your TBR or not.)
February 12: Favorite Couples In Books
February 19: Books I LOVED with Fewer than 2,000 Ratings on Goodreads
February 26: Places Mentioned In Books That I’d Like to Visit (submitted by Georgia @justreadthemm)
March 5: Characters I’d Like To Switch Places With (submitted by Sara @ A Gingerly Review)
March 12: Standalone Books That Need a Sequel
March 19: Books On My Spring 2019 TBR
March 26: Audiobook Freebie

This probably isn’t something you’ll see me writing about every single Tuesday. My goal is to write about the prompts that speak to me in any particular month, whether that is none, some, or all of them.

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

The Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge was created by Long and Short Reviews in January of 2019. Their first blog hop will happen on January 8.

This is what they will be discussing in 2019. Unlike Top Ten Tuesday, they’ve released all of the topics for this year simultaneously. I find that really helpful from the perspective of someone who likes planning ahead!

January 9: Books That Need a Prequel
January 16: What I Would Do with a Million Dollars
January 23: Favorite Things to Do in the Winter
January 30: Characters I’d Name a Baby After
February 6: Favorite Movies of All Time and Why
February 13: Most Romantic Memory
February 20: What to Read To Learn About X
February 27: Fictional Worlds I’d Rather Not Visit
March 6:  Favorite Hobby and Why
March 13: A Day in My Life
March 20: Characters I Want to Meet
March 27: Favorite Websites/Podcasts/Blogs
April 3: Favorite Comfort Foods & Why (& Recipes)
April 10: Characters I Never Want to Meet
April 17: 10 Unusual Things About Me
April 24: Books I Discovered on Social Media
May 1: X Things I Wish More Books Talked About
May 8: Books I Want Youth to Discover
May 15: Favorite TV Shows and Why
May 22: Books I Love That Became Films or TV Shows
May 29: Lessons I Learned from a Book Character
June 5: Books That Need a Sequel
June 12: Favorite Books Covers & Why
June 19: Favorite Things to Do in the Summer
June 26: Humorous Book Titles
July 3: Books That Should Be Made into a Movie and Why
July 10: Favorite Authors in X Genre
July 17: Fictional Worlds I’d Love to Visit
July 24: My Favorite Quotes from Books
July 31: Favorie Food and How I Use (+ Recipe)
August 7: Books I Loved But Never Wrote Reviews For
August 14: Books I Had to Read in School and Didn’t Like
August 21: What I Read When I’m Not Feeling Well
August 28: Books I Had to Read in School and Liked
September 4: Books That Deal Well with Tough Topics
September 11: Books I Keep Meaning to Read (But Haven’t)
September 18: What Is My Superpower?
September 25: Authors I Wish More People Knew About
October 2: What I’d Want on a Deserted Island
October 9: Books That Did a Great Job of Explaining X
October 16: Popular/Famous Books I Don’t Plan to Read
October 23: Books I Read on Someone’s Recommendation
October 30: Things That Scare Me
November 6: Books I’ve Recommended & Why
November 13: A Strange or Useless Talent I Have
November 20: Things I’m Thankful For
November 27: Books That Influenced My Life
December 4: Book Boyfriends or Girlfriends
December 11: My Earliest Memory
December 18: 10 Gifts for People Who Love X

My goal for this one is to participate every single week. Some of their prompts aren’t things I’d normally blog about, so you’ll be learning stuff about me that you otherwise wouldn’t know.

If any of my readers are also  interested in joining these blog hops, I’d love to read your responses!

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January 3, 2019 · 1:00 am

What I Read in 2018

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:  2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.

Over half of the books I read in any given year are for a review site that I volunteer for under a pseudonym. I always omit those titles from this post for obvious privacy reasons, but I am able to talk about everything else that tickled my mind since the last post in this series.

Once again, most of the science fiction and fantasy I read was for that review site I mentioned earlier in this post. This section of the list was much longer than it might appear.

The young adult genre remained a popular one for me. There’s something nice about reading stories that are (generally) a bit more cheerful than the ones written for serious adult audiences.

My poetry consumption was way this year. I made a concerted effort to read more of it after noticing last year that it had been a long time since I dug into this genre.

I finished fewer biographies than normal in 2018. While I started quite a few of them, I found it a little trickier to keep reading this year than I normally do.

It will be interesting to see if all of these trends continue in 2019. If any of my readers have decided to join me in keeping tracking of what you read, I’d love to see your lists for the past year!

Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs

“A Forever Family: Fostering Change One Child at a Time” by Robert Scheer

“Marjorie Her War Years: A British Home Child in Canada” by Patricia Skidmore

“Educated” by Tara Westover

Fiction

“Marilla of Green Gables” by Sarah McCoy

“Caroline: Little House Revisited” by Sarah Miller.

History

“Runaway Wives and Rogue Feminists: The Origins of the Women’s Shelter Movement in Canada” by Margo Goodhand

“Children’s Homes: A History of Institutional Care for Britain’s Young” by Peter Higginbotham

“Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, and Criminal in 19th Century New York” by Stacy Horn

“The Bedroom: An Intimate History” by Michelle Perrot

Mystery

“The Broken Girls” by Simone St. James

Poetry

“Collected Poems” by Chinua Achebe

“Copper Woman and Other Poems” by Afua Cooper (Poetry)

“How Lovely the Ruins: Inspirational Poems and Words for Difficult Times” by Annie Chagnot

“Cartography and Walking” by Adam Dickinson (Poetry)

“Love & Misadventure” by Lang Leav (Poetry)
“A Bedroom of Searchlights” by Joanne M. Weston (Poetry)

Science and Medicine

“The Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully” by Aaron Carroll

“Lyme: The First Epidemic of Climate Change” by Mary Beth Pfeiffer

“When Humans Nearly Vanished: The Catastrophic Explosion of the Tora Volcano“ by Donald R. Prothero

“Patient Care: Life and Death in the Emergency Room” by Paul Seward, MD

“Treknology” by Ethan Siegal

“Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World” by Paul Stamets

“Best Before: The Evolution and Future of Processed Food” by Nicola Tempa

Science Fiction and Fantasy

“A Sincere Warning About the Entity In Your Home” by Jason Arnopp

“Semiosis” by Sue Burke

“The Last Neanderthal” by Claire Cameron

“Only Ever Yours” by Louise O’Neill

Sociology and Psychology

“An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments” by Ali Almossawi

“Mass Starvation” by Alex de Wall

“Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance Between Corporate America and Anti-Hunger Groups” by Andrew Fisher

“Leftover in China: The Woman Shaping the World’s Next Superpower” by Roseann Lake

“The Asshole Survival Guide: How to Deal with People Who Treat You Like Dirt” by Robert J. Sutton

Young Adult

“A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo” by Jill Twiss

“Out of My Mind” by Sharon M. Draper.

“Odd and the Frost Giants” by Neil Gaiman.

“No Laughter Here” by Rita Williams-Garcia

“Blue” by Joyce Moyer Hostetter

“Comfort” by Joyce Moyer Hostetter

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December 31, 2018 · 1:00 am

My 20 Most Popular Posts of 2018

Wow, this year flew by! Just like I did for 2017, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the most popular posts I published on this blog over the last year.

At the end of 2017, I talked about how surprising it was to see which posts ended up being the most popular on my site. Once again, there was a healthy representation of all of the topicsI talk about, but my posts about blogging and writing tended to dominate the top of the list.

I have no idea what prompted this change, but it’s going to be interesting to see if it continues in 2019.

If you’d like to read other people’s lists, my friends Terry Tyler and Tom Williams both recently blogged about their 20 most popular posts as well. The first year I did this, I made it a top 10 list. This year I doubled that number to match what they did. Terry and Tom, you’re good influences! If anyone else blogged about this topic, I’d love to link to your site as well. Just leave a note in the comment section with a link to your post.

20. A Peek at My Never-Ending List of Sci-fi and Fantasy Films to Watch 

19. 4 Reasons Why You Should Attend Nuit Blanche

18. 5 Reasons Why You Should Become a Reviewer for Long and Short Reviews

17. Why Do Library Holds Arrive Simultaneously (And Other Questions I Wish I Had Answers To)

16. Characters Who Need a Date 

15. 6 Things I Wish My Gym Teachers Had Done Differently 

14. 4 Things I Want to Accomplish This Autumn 

13. Why Walking In the Rain Is Underrated

12. What Is the Perfect Reading Spot? 

11. Science Fiction and Fantasy Rules That Shouldn’t Be Broken 

10. I Love the Fuzzy Edges of Science Fiction 

9. The World Needs More Blogging 

8. Blogging Changes I’m Making This Winter 

7. 10 Things That I Won’t Read About 

6. Why HALT Is One of My Favourite Mindfulness Exercises

5. Why Negative Reviews Can Be a Positive Thing

4. Families Are Forever: A Review of Pixar’s Coco

3. 15 Things I’ve Learned from 15 Years of Blogging

2. Is It a Good Idea to Take a Blogging Break? 

1. Why Creative Writers Should Read History Books

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December 29, 2018 · 1:00 am

Suggestion Saturday: December 29, 2018

Here is this week’s list of essays, short stories, and other links from my favourite corners of the web. This will be the last Suggestion Saturday post from me, at least for the time being. As I mentioned earlier this month, I’ll be experimenting with other types of posts here in 2019. Stay tuned!

New Year Candy. What a creative idea.

Celebrate New Year’s Eve the Latino Way via StephyOrtez. The effigy portion of these celebrations really appeals to me.

Don’t Set Goals for the New Year; Set Goals for Life via JamesPackWriter. Ooh, I like this advice.

The  New Years Day Reflections of John Quincy Adams via shannonselin. Some of you might chuckle at this, but I’ve never really thought about what people thought about New Years Day in the past. Have you?

How to Prepare for a New Year of Blogging. There was a lot of excellent advice here. This is the perfect time of year to, take inventory of what is or isn’t working, make any necessary changes, and possibly even revamp your blog in general.

Five Reasons Your New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Stick, and How to Make This Year Different via DrJanaScrivani. I especially liked point #2.

From New Year:

The old Year is going. I am yet in the old year. I don’t want to let her go.

“Hi Buddies. I am going. Stop loving me. A new year is coming for you. She will take care of you.”

“I want you. You are very lovely. I flourished to so much in this year. I don’t know, how the New Year will be for me. I want you to stay.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

From The New Year Is the Oldest Thing – Inside Philadelphia’s Mummer Parade :

The parade occupies a weird position,” one of the Vaudevillains’ captains, Adam Leeds, told me afterward. “On one hand it’s a citywide parade, and it’s on New Year’s Day, which is an important day, but on the other hand, it’s also the parade of a specific set of neighborhoods and a specific set of ethnicities in South Philly, and those neighborhoods are continually changing. It needs to change. It needs to include more kinds of Philadelphians.”

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December 27, 2018 · 1:00 am

Blogging Advice: How to Begin a Blog

Last month, Ruth Feiertag  left a friendly comment on one of my posts asking for blogging advice. Not only did I have far more to say to her than would fit into a comment, I thought her question would be an excellent jumping off point for a new series on this site.

Today I’m going to be talking about starting a blog, from figuring out which blogging platform to use to choosing the topic(s) you want to talk about.

I don’t know how many other posts will be in this series yet, but in the future I would like to also cover:

  • Social Media and networking in general
  • How to come up with new blogging ideas
  • How to handle writing slumps
  • When and how to promote posts, both old and new alike
  • Why it’s so important to include photos in posts.
  • Where to find free stock photos that are either in the public domain or can be used if you attribute them to the original photographer.

Some of these topics will be combined into one post. Others will probably need their own post to explore in greater depth. If Ruth or anyone else can think of other topics to cover in this series, please speak up. I’m quite open to suggestion.

In the meantime, let’s talk about starting or revamping a blog. As always, there are no affiliate links, and I’m not being compensated in any other way for mentioning the sites I will in a moment. I’m strictly speaking about them from the perspective of a user/visitor.

Pick a Hosting Site

The most common hosting sites I see on the sites in my RSS feed these days are WordPress, Tumblr, and Medium. While I’ve opted to pay for my own domain name, all three of these sites can be used for free and don’t require any knowledge of HTML or other programming languages in order to use them. In general, I’d recommend using the free versions of things like these and figuring out if you like them before you think about upgrading.

Tumblr seems to be particularly popular among people who write about niches that have a high rate of audience feedback and participation. It is a highly customizable site, and it has reblogging features that work well Every Tumblr page will have a different feel, of course, but in general I’ve noticed that the culture there tends to favour gifs, pictures, running jokes, pop culture references, and much shorter pieces of text.

Medium is a newer blogging platform that reminds me of what newspapers used to be like. From what I’ve observed, it often attracts serious subject matter and audiences. It’s not uncommon to find 1000+ word posts there, and some of them are much longer than that.

WordPress is what I use, and it seems to be one of the most popular options for bloggers in general these days.  I love how easy it is to customize the look of a WordPress site. They also have free Plugins you can download that will help you do everything from screen out spam comments to set up a mailing list to create a contact form if you want to give your readers an easy way to email you.

Again, these are all generalizations. I encourage you to do your own research before deciding which platform works best for your your needs.

Choose Topic(s) of Interest

It’s been my experience that blogs have a much easier time finding and keeping audiences if you limit the number of topics you talk about. My topics are as follows: writing, fitness, mindfulness, and anything related to the sci-fi/fantasy or horror genres.

I’ll occasionally step away from that list to tell stories from my personal life, but my readers know that at least 90% of the things I write about will somehow be related to one of the categories listed above.

What you put on your list is a highly personal decision. I’ve seen several bloggers pick one area of interest and dig deeply into it. This option seems to work best for very broad topics like history or art that can be approached from many different perspectives.  Three to five areas of interest seem to be most common, though.

Find a Posting Schedule that Works for You

As a longtime blogger, writing posts on a strict schedule works best for me. I’ve had new posts coming out on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays on this site for years, and I love the predictability of that even if the days themselves might shift over time.

I follow people who post once a day, once a week, or whenever the mood hits them. While I do prefer structured posting schedules as a reader, I know that not everyone is able to commit to writing that often or that regularly. The important thing is that you find something that works for you over the long term and that you communicate any major changes to those patterns with your readers, if possible.

I don’t worry if a site that normally posts on Wednesdays skips a week or two (especially during busy times of the year), but I do get a little concerned when there has been six months of silence from someone who used to post daily.

Are they okay? Have they been abducted by werewolves? Will they ever blog on that site again, or is this a temporary hiatus? It sure is helpful when people share information like this with their readers if they know they’re going to be taking a long break or will soon be posting much more or less than they usually do.

 

Additional reading:

15 Things I’ve Learned From 15 Years of Blogging

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December 24, 2018 · 1:00 am

What to Do on Christmas If You Don’t Celebrate It

Merry Christmas to everyone who will be celebrating it tomorrow! I hope it’s a joyful time for you and your loved ones.

As someone who doesn’t observe this holiday anymore, it’s always interesting to talk about what I do when everything is shut down and see what other people have come up to pass the time on the biggest holiday of the year in western society, too.

Obviously, the answer to this question is going to be different for everyone. People who live in tropical or Mediterranian climates are going to have a far different range of possibilities than those of us who live in chillier, snowier places. If your weather is nice enough for a hike or other outdoor activity, I envy you just a little bit today. That wouldn’t be a very pleasant thing to do here….although obviously not every Canadian is as averse to the cold as we are!

My hope is that this post will give you a few ideas of things to do when just about everything is closed. For readers who celebrate Christmas, I also hope it will give you a glimpse into what your friends and neighbours might be up while you’re celebrating today and tomorrow. There’s something to be said for learning about how other people live, in my opinion.

A typical “Christmas” is quiet for me and my spouse. Businesses and non-essential governmental buildings are closed here in Canada, just like they are in most other western countries. Many stores remain open on Christmas Eve, but they generally have reduced hours on that day and are packed uncomfortably full of people doing last-minute shopping. I avoid that scene as much as humanly possible.

Instead, I make non-traditional foods like chocolate chip cookies and tacos or fajitas, depending on what ingredients we have on hand. This tradition of sorts started when I first moved to Canada, realized my spouse and I would be alone on Christmas, and didn’t really feel like going all out for a holiday I was quickly losing interest in anyway.

We already had the ingredients for Mexican food and cookies on hand that first year, so that’s what we ate. Since then, we’ve done something similar to this when we could. There’s something nice about having a hot, simple meal that doesn’t take a lot of time to make and requires far fewer dishes than the average Christmas dinner. (Did I mention that I wash all of our dishes by hand? I don’t normally mind this chore, but it can be a little tricky to keep on top of them when we’re eating a multi-course meal).

If you love making fancy dinners, by all means make one. This is simply what works best for us.

The dress code is casual and generally involves wearing pants. Well, okay, sometimes it involves wearing pants. So much depends on what stage of the cooking process I’m in and how warm our apartment is. We have such efficient insulation in our building that sometimes it gets a little too warm to wear all of those layers when the oven is on and the sun is shining brightly through our windows.

At some point during the day, we’ll often turn on the latest science fiction or fantasy film that we’ve been meaning to rent or rewatch. There’s something relaxing about seeing Frodo once again attempt to return the One Ring to Mordor while delicious scents waft out of the kitchen. I also enjoy getting to know brand new characters instead if we’re in the mood for something we haven’t already watched.

The rest of the day is spent napping, relaxing, playing games (generally of the computer variety, although occasionally I’ve amused myself with board games and puzzles), or doing other quiet things that don’t require outdoor time. It’s nothing at all like the Christmases of my childhood, but I’ve come to look forward to this time quite a bit all the same.

I have heard of people going out for Chinese food on Christmas, as those restaurants tend to stay open. It’s not something I’ve tried yet myself, but maybe one year I will.

Do you celebrate Christmas? If not, what do you generally do on that day? Regardless of whether you personally observe it, what is this holiday like in your country in general? I know that not everyone who reads this blog comes from a culture where Christmas is well-known or even practiced at all.

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December 22, 2018 · 1:00 am

Suggestion Saturday: December 22, 2018

Happy Holidays! Here is this week’s list of comic strips, poems, and other links from my favourite corners of the web.

The Dark Side of Santa via CandyKorman. There’s a fantastic Futurama episode about this exact concept. How I wish I could still be around in a few thousand years to see how the myth of Santa actually evolves for future generations.

The “Perfect” Holiday – Make It a Family Tradition. This was a thought-provoking piece on navigating the holidays when you have a relative whose disability makes certain traditions hard to follow.

Christmas Carols in the U.S. and Britain via ellen_hawley.  I had no idea there were so many differences between Christmas carols in these two countries. Did you?

What Is Your Favourite Thing to Do on Boxing Day? via SkygateStack. The U.S. shares many holidays in common with Canada, but this isn’t one of them. I was surprised and a little impressed by the fact that this American blogger had heard of Boxing Day…especially since he’s a dog! 😀

Clamdy Canes, Clam Flavoured Candy Canes. No, this isn’t a joke. There really are clam flavoured candy canes out there. If any of you decide to try them, I’d love to know what you thought of them.

Nell. This is a retelling of The Little Match Girl that I like quite a bit more than I did the original version.

25 December 1840 via ruthrblair. I’ve done a lot of reading about workhouses, but this was the first time I’ve never learned what Christmas was like in such a place.

Merry Newtonmas. What a cool holiday. I’m quite tempted to start celebrating it.

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December 20, 2018 · 1:00 am

What I’m Reading Over the Holidays

I was originally planning to write about walking meditation today, but I’ve been dealing with a stubborn headache the past few days that’s kept me from doing the research needed to properly put that post together. It’s such a cool concept that I want to make sure I do it right. So we’ll save the walking meditation discussion for a later date and have a quick chat about winter holiday reads now instead.

Honestly, is there such a thing as having too many posts about books? I vote no! For those of you who haven’t met me in real life, I’m pretty quiet in person…unless we somehow get on the topic of books I’ve read, am reading, or want to read soon. This is one of those things that can make me light up, especially if it happens to be a title I have a strong opinion about.

Luckily, my local library seems to have have endless supply of reading material, and I’ve been reaching the top of the list of some very interesting titles as December speeds by. I should warn you that nothing in today’s post is going to be about Christmas, New Years, or any other winter holidays. They’re simply what I hope to read over this period of time, and this year it’s a beautiful hodge-podge of genres and themes.

These are the books that are currently in my to-read queue. I can’t promise that I’ll finish all of them, but I will be giving them a shot as 2018 comes to an end.

As much as I love science fiction, it’s definitely not the only thing I read. This list is pretty representational of the wide range of fiction and non-fiction that I’m working my way through at just about any point during the year, and everything is listed in order of when I’m hoping to read them. I generally try to read the titles that are due back at the library first unless something really exciting pops up in my queue.

How Long ’til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin

When Humans Nearly Vanished: The Catastrophic Explosion of the Toba Volcano by Donald R. Prothero

In Search of the Canary Tree: The Story of a Scientist, a Cypress, and a Changing World by Lauren E. Oakes.

I Wait for the Moon: 100 Haiku of Momoko Kuroda by Momoko Kuroda. Translated by Abigail Freidman.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing by Sam Kean.

Jell-O Girls by Allie Rowbottom.

Dealing with Dragons The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Book 1 Patricia C. Wrede.

Happiness: How to Get into the Habit of Being Happy by Gill Hasson.

Happy Times in Norway by Sigrid Undset.

In the beginning of January, I’ll be sharing the list of everything I finished reading over the past year.  (It doesn’t make sense to me to count a book that I only read a chapter or two of before putting it aside for something else). A couple of the bloggers I follow have already published the lists of what they read which is wonderful. Hopefully this trend will grow in the future. It’s so much fun to see what everyone has read and possibly find some new authors or series that you might not have heard of before.

Have you read any of these titles? What will you be reading over the next couple of weeks? Finally, what’s your most effective and/or unusual home remedy for headaches?

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