March 11, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books That Are Written in Verse


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A bouquet of blue hydrangeas sitting on an opened book of poetry that is itself sitting on a a white table. The wall behind the table is painted turquoise blue. Occasionally, new books are released that are written in the form of poetry. That is to say, the entire story is told through one poem (or, more often, many different poems) that push the character and plot development forward.

This is such a creative way to tell a story! Here are some examples of books written this way that I’ve enjoyed.

1. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

2. Sold by Patricia McCormick

3. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

4. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

5. The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

6. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Unknown

7. Booked (The Crossover, #2) by Kwame Alexander

8. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

 

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March 6, 2025 · 1:00 am

Newlywed Questions: A Review of The Ring and the Knife

Book cover for The Ring and the Knife by Benjamin Parsons. Image on cover shows a black and white drawing of a shirtless white man and a white woman who is wearing a long, flowing dress. They are standing in a graveyard during a time of year when there are no leaves on the trees. It’s probably very cold there, so why don’t they have the common sense to dress warmly for the weather? She looks pensive and he’s pointing at something behind them and trying to get her to turn around and see what it is. Title: The Ring and the Knife

Author: Benjamin Parsons

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: March 11, 2023

Genres: Romance, Paranormal, Historical

Length: 32 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

Something happened to William Mortimore in Berecombe churchyard, many years ago – something he can’t quite remember. When he unexpectedly finds himself that little country village again, fragments of the past start to haunt him – and lure him to uncover a forgotten secret.
Berecombe – why does William remember the name of that little village? When was he there before? What happened to him that day in the churchyard, long ago? Why can’t he remember? Why does he feel compelled to return? As the questions smother him, he searches to understand the dreadful, portentous meeting his memory has supressed – the terrible secret of his own past.

Content Warning: Murder. I will not discuss it in my review.

Review:

Cemeteries are as full of answers as they are of new questions.

Romance isn’t a genre I visit very often, so it’s quite the compliment for me to mention how much I loved this one. William and his wife were deeply in love and determined to enjoy their honeymoon when the audience met them in the first scene. I looked forward to getting to know them better and was pleased with what was shared. Newlyweds are so full of hope that this particular pair created a nice contrast between their happiness and the sad things that were happening in the churchyard they decided to visit.

There was a plot hole involving William’s past that I wish had been given more time to develop as the order of events for it never quite made sense to me. Some of these moments were shared non-linearly, so it took me a little bit to piece them together and come up with a reasonable explanation of what must have occurred. If more attention had been paid to this issue, I would have happily gone for a full five-star rating.

With that being said, I enjoyed the plot twists that were revealed later on. They created a satisfying mixture of romantic and paranormal themes that made me wonder what else the characters were about to discover about that quiet little pocket of the countryside that felt so peaceful but was simultaneously filled with intrigue and uncertainty, too. What a treat it was to dig more deeply with them as they pushed forward to figure out why William’s memory had a large blank spot in it.

The Ring and the Knife was romantic and eerie.

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March 5, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Book I’m Nervous to Read (and Why)

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Photo of a wooden fence with barbed wire strung at the top of the fence. The sign on the fence reads, “private no public right of way.” On the other side of the fence you can see a large grassy area and, in the distance, a grove of trees separating this grazing area from the next one. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman is my answer for this week’s prompt.

Why am I nervous to read it?

While I’m usually pretty good at ignoring short-tempered curmudgeons in real life, I developed that skill by emotionally distancing myself from them, setting firm boundaries, and accepting that they are (probably) never going to change.

From what I understand about the plot, Ove does eventually change and become a (slightly? moderately? dramatically? ) more tolerable person to spend time with.

I’ve avoided reading this book so far because I’m worried about being annoyed by how unrealistic the character development will be and how much the narrator will expect the kind characters I’m assuming the protagonist meets to bend over backwards to accommodate his surliness.

I am courteous to people like Ove and help them if I can do so without harming myself in real life, but I also don’t think the onus should be on those of us who are easy going to absorb other people’s anger. It reminds me of when teachers would sit me next to the class troublemakers because I was one of the quiet and  studious kids in the classroom. (Yes, I know teachers in some districts have limited options when dealing with disruptive students, but expecting their good students to be the first line of defence against kids who can’t or won’t follow simple classroom instructions is a terrible strategy!)

People like Ove are presumably competent adults who are choosing to behave badly while many of us are quietly dealing with all sorts of problems without ever taking our pain and frustration out on others. A one-time or rare outburst can easily be forgiven, of course, but I avoid people who turn such behaviour into a habit or make excuses for it.

Frankly, I have my own troubles to deal with and simply don’t have the time or energy to try to “fix” the Oves of the world. I wish them well and genuinely hope things improve for them while also believing that it’s ultimately up to them to decide whether or not they will choose to behave in a way that makes others enjoy their company.

Yes, this can be harder for some people than it is for others for a variety of reasons, but part of being an adult is developing these coping skills and taking accountability if you hurt someone else just like you’d work on any other fault. I don’t expect perfection, just effort.

Maybe someday I will have the time and energy to read this book and see if my assumptions about it are valid, though!

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March 4, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Things Characters Have Said


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

The full explanation for this week’s prompt was:

Two overlapping speech bubbles. They are white and have blue borders. Maybe a character said something really profound or romantic or hilarious or heartbreaking. You could share witty one-liners, mic-drop moments, snippets of funny dialogue between multiple characters, catchphrases, quotes that have become a part of pop culture–like “May the odds be ever in your favor.”, etc.

I rarely write down quotes from books, and when I do they tend to be several sentences long and have not become common sayings in modern English. Therefore, I’ll share some famous one-liners and catch phrases instead and hope that I have not misunderstood this topic:

 

“Bah! Humbug!”

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

 

“Big Brother is watching you.”

George Orwell, 1984

 

”All that glitters is not gold”

Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

 

“Not all those who wander are lost.“

J.R.R. Tolkien, From “The Riddle Of Strider” Poem  in The Fellowship Of The Ring

 

”It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

 

“The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42.”

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

(Maybe I have geeky friends, but I’ve heard this quoted more than once when someone has an existential or complex question).

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February 27, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Winter’s Chill

Book cover for Winter’s Chill by J D Savage. Image on cover shows a yellow late 1800s or early 1900s style house with a large porch on the right and a turret on the left. The house is covered in snow as it is the dead of winter.Title: Winter’s Chill

Author: J D Savage

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: January 18, 2025

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 61 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Melinda Wilson receives news that her mother has died by suicide. Not believing that her mother committed suicide, she returns to her childhood home along with her best friend Greg Creston. As she digs into her mother’s death, strange things to start happen. As Melinda digs deeper to find the truth she finds her father’s diary. Inside she finds information that would destroy the family name and rock the town to its core. As things get dangerous who will survive winter?

Content Warning: Death. Discussion of suicide as a possible cause of death. Murder. Brief references to blood.

Review:

Winter is full of frights.

The atmosphere was well done. There’s something about old houses that can be a little eerie even if they don’t have anything malevolent hiding in the corner, and this only becomes a stronger feeling when reading about homes that do have a paranormal presence. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the cold areas of the house as that could have easily been explained away by the fact that historical buildings can often be cold and drafty during the winter. To encourage the reader to continue to believe there was a less ordinary explanation for that was a smart decision and one that kept me reading.

This story would have benefited from another round of editing in my opinion. One of the characters was introduced with a last name but later referred to by a  completely different last name. Had he been earlier shown to be a liar, I would have assumed that this was yet another example of him misleading others.  He was always written as a truthful person, though, so I can only assume this was an error and not a hint about his moral character. There were some punctuation errors sprinkled through it as well that I found distracting. As much as I would have liked to choose a higher rating, I wasn’t able to do so due to these issues.

Not everyone is lucky enough to come from an upstanding family, especially when one digs more deeply into their heritage. Some of the most interesting scenes were the ones that explored Melinda’s feelings about the information she discovered about the past and how it could destroy the good name her family had in the community. No one should be held personally responsible for the actions of their ancestors, of course, but there is also something to be said for seeking out the truth and making amends as much as one possible can once they know what really happened.

Winter’s Chill was a scary read for a snowy night.

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February 26, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Hobby and Why

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

You all might have noticed this already, but I’m easily amused, and I think that’s a good thing. I cannot narrow my answer down to just one hobby, but I’ll try to keep this brief.

I love:

Reading and writing, of course.

These ones basically go without saying. If I have sufficient access to good stories and writing materials, I can amuse myself all day.

 

Lydia, a white woman with curly brown hair who is wearing jeans, sneakers, and a light jacket, is sitting in a comically oversized red beach chair. She is smiling slightly. Taking long, meandering photography walks

This is a fuzzier answer, so let me give a couple of examples.

About 2 years ago my spouse and I took a bus to a beach that’s a bit of a trek from our house. We walked up and down the boardwalk and I snapped photos of my favourite things there like trees, boulders, and a ridiculously large but delightful beach chair. (See photo).

Then we bought two hamburgers, an order of fries to share, and a soda to share.  I wanted to stay there all day!

Last autumn we spent the day at High Park and did something similar. First we enjoyed our hamburgers, fries, and soda, and then we spent a few hours walking around the park and snapping photos of the wildlife and plants there.

Every walk is different. Sometimes i find a fun, new dairy-free bakery to visit, a live musical performance we weren’t aware of, a new mural, or a little park I didn’t know was recently built.

I love these free surprises. You don’t have to spend money to have fun, and when I do buy things on occasion it’s almost always something like lunch that I would have needed no matter where I was at that time of day.

Walking is a healthy, easy habit to get into as well. I know I spend far too much time online or watching tv shows when the weather is bad, so I try to make up for that by taking long walks when it’s mild outside.

 

Jigsaw puzzles

I love the challenge of putting them together. They’re such a fantastic distraction from whatever else I might be worried about or dealing with in life.

 

 

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February 25, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set in Another Time


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

The word time is printed on a piece of cardstock. The cardstock is on fire and the flames have almost reached the printed word on this document. One of the reasons why I enjoy science fiction so much is how often authors in this genre set their tales in alternate universes, alternate timelines, or in versions of the past or future that are likewise different from our own in important ways.

Here are ten books with these sorts of settings.

1. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

2. My Real Children by Jo Walton

3. To Say Nothing of the Dog (Oxford Time Travel, #2) by Connie Willis

4. Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

5 .11/22/63 by Stephen King

6. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

7. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

8. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

9. The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

10. The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

 

 

 

 

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February 20, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Priye

Book cover for Priye by Lynn Strong. Image on cover shows a drawing of a striped grey and white kitten looking up and just to the right. It’s not quite making eye contact with the viewer. Behind the cat is a black doorway and, above the doorway, and golden wall that has been subtly carved with dozens of small circles and petal-like shapes that repeat themselves in pleasing patterns. Title: Priye

Author: Lynn Strong

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 3, 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Alternate History

Length: 63 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

Wander the world of the Catsprowl with a Miyazaki-style look through the eyes of a catfolk kitten in a large, multicultural, multi-religious city which is full of book-keepers and bath-houses, priests and prophets and pigeons, and even one small kitten’s nemesis: soap and water. (This is one of the three novellas collected in Chai and Cat-tales.)

Priye

For a small alley-kitten, human words make a tricky tangle of misunderstandings that bite back. Purring and hissing and yowling are much more clear.

A human named her Priye, though, and he taught her that it means someone who is darling, someone who is treasured.

Growing up in the nooks between three cultures is hard, but Priye wants to make her own way. And she wants to repay the kind people who feed small hungry kittens.

But it’s not always easy to hunt when everyone else is bigger and stronger and faster. The humans who named her like soap and water entirely too much.

But maybe they have a point about sharing things instead of hunting things? (They absolutely do not have a point about soap, though. Soap is the most horrible thing ever.)

For the neurospicy folks who struggle with the words people expect, this one is for you. For the disabled folks and those who need to hear that your value isn’t in your work output, this one is for you too.

Content Warning: An accidental injury.

Review:

Cozy fantasy is underrated.

Xenofiction is one of those micro genres I’m always excited to discover! The world looks different when viewed through the eyes of a kitten who is regularly flabbergasted by the ridiculous things humans say and do. Honestly, my favourite scenes in this piece were the ones that described silly human customs and choices in vivid detail without Priye quite understanding the significance of them in that moment. What a fabulous opportunity to view the world from a different perspective while wondering if the main character might someday understand some of these things a little better.

I would have liked to see a little more attention paid to the world building, especially when it came to what cats are and are not capable of doing in this universe. Without giving away too much information, the cats in this world are different from the ones in ours in a few significant ways, and I was surprised that those moments were given more time to shine. There was more the author could have done with these details, and I would have gone for a full five-star rating if that had happened.

The conflict was understated and suited the plot nicely. It was exactly the sort of thing I’d expect a kitten to eventually have to deal with, and I liked the way her feline and human companions rallied around her once it occurred. This remained firmly in the cozy niche of the fantasy genre while still leaving room for a reader to wonder what might happen next. It was a smart balance between providing a challenge for Priye to overcome and remaining true to the playful and relaxing vibes of this tale as a whole.

Priye made me yearn for more.

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February 19, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Fictional Worlds I’d Rather Not Visit

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Science fiction and fantasy is fun to read, but I don’t know I’d actually want to visit a lot of the places I read about because I enjoy things like a warm home (or air conditioning in the summer), internet access, regular meals, clean bedsheets, and not being in mortal danger. 😉

A red Do Not Enter sign. Here are some fictional worlds I would not like to visit due to how dangerous they are:

Jurassic Park (or Jurassic anything)

Pan’s Labyrinth from the film by the same name

Shutter Island from the book and film by the same name

The Overlook Hotel from The Shining

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (So many deaths in this universe)

Minecraft (Imagine a monster exploding right behind you while you were trying to build a house.)

The Purge

Plague Inc. (Surviving one pandemic was more than enough, and I’m going to hope that the H5N1 bird flu peters out and does not give us any trouble)

Silent Hill

Now let’s see how many answers we all have in common.

 

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February 18, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Never Reviewed


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A hyacinth flower lying on a blank sheet of paper. As I mostly review and discuss speculative fiction books on my blog, that’s the genre I will be narrowing down this week’s prompt to.

There are a lot of reasons why I might not write a review for a book such as:

1) While there have been a handful of exceptions over the years, I generally refrain from writing one-star or two-star reviews out of respect for the hard work authors do. Some stories are simply never going to mesh with my tastes, but other readers may love those styles or genres! So unless there’s a serious issue with plagiarism or advocating bigotry or something in a tale that I feel the need to warn other readers about, I quietly move on to other options that fit my tastes better.

2) I prefer to  publish thoughtful, deep reviews and don’t have enough hours in the day to write that way for everything I read.

3) Some books are excellent but hard to review without sharing major spoilers due to how the plot is framed and when certain details are released.

4) Other books are decent but don’t give me strong emotions in either direction that would compel me to write a review. Meh doesn’t make for a very helpful or exciting review.

5) They’re older. I try – and the keyword there is try – to prioritize newer books for review as their authors are more likely to be alive and trying to establish audiences for themselves.

Here are some of the many older speculative fiction books I’ve read and enjoyed but will probably never review:

1.1984 by George Orwell

2. Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke

3. The Sparrow (The Sparrow, #1) by Mary Doria Russell

4.Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

5. Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam, #1) by Margaret Atwood

6. Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1) by Octavia E. Butler

7. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart

8. Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy

9.The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Tepper

10.Prey by Michael Crichton

 

 

 

 

 

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