September 27, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Typographic Book Covers


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Every letter in the alphabet written in a highly stylized, medieval font filled with flowers and other thriving plants. To be perfectly honest, I generally prefer book covers that include some sort of picture on them over the ones that have a fancy typographic font and nothing else.

Pictures, drawings, and other visual representations of what a book might about play an important role in helping me decide what to read. Will it be romantic, scary, or thought-provoking? Should I have my box of tissues on standby? There’s so much you can tell from what is and isn’t included in this sort of cover.

As pretty as an individual font may be, it can never convey as much information about what to expect from a story in my experience.

I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who love typographic covers, though, so I look forward to reading your posts and/or comments about why you prefer them to other types of covers.

 

 

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab book cover. It’s a typographic cover in black and gold.

1. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

 

Players First: Coaching from the Inside Out by John Calipari book cover. It’s a typographic cover in black and blue against a white background.

2. Players First: Coaching from the Inside Out by John Calipari

 

Never Use Futura by Douglas Thomas book cover. Image on cover is typographic, white and red, and against a black background.

3. Never Use Futura by Douglas Thomas

 

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris book cover. Image on cover is typographic and looks like a child’s handwriting on a blackboard.

4. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

 

The Affairs of the Falcóns by Melissa Rivero book cover. Image on cover is typographic and each letter looks like a piece of a patchwork quilt.

5. The Affairs of the Falcóns by Melissa Rivero

 

Burned (Burned, #1) by Ellen Hopkin book cover. Image on cover is typographic and looks like the word “burned” has been burned into a sheet of white paper.

6.Burned (Burned, #1) by Ellen Hopkins

 

The View from Somewhere: Undoing the Myth of Journalistic Objectivity by Lewis Raven Wallace Book cover. Image on cover is typographic and shows each word of the title tilted from a different angle.

7. The View from Somewhere: Undoing the Myth of Journalistic Objectivity by Lewis Raven Wallace

 

Things We Didn't See Coming by Steven Amsterdam book cover. Image on cover is typographic and off-centre. The words are cut off halfway through so you have to read their second halves first.

8. Things We Didn’t See Coming by Steven Amsterdam

 

Oil: Anatomy of an Industry by Matthew Yeomans book cover. Image on cover is typographic and has the word oil written to look like blobs of spilled oil on a cream background.

9. Oil: Anatomy of an Industry by Matthew Yeomans

 

Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer book cover. Image on covers shows dozens of black spots in rows. Where there are no spots, a typographic version of the title is written.

10. Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer

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September 22, 2022 · 1:00 am

Caution is a Virtue: A Review of Veiled Threats

Veiled Threats by Melissa Erin Jackson book cover. Image on cover shows two teens wearing tshirts and jeans smiling slightly as they lean up against each other. There is a light green circle glowing behind them. Title: Veiled Threats

Author: Erin Jackson

Publisher: Ringtail Press (Self-Published)

Publication Date: February 9, 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Contemporary

Length: 74 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

 

This is a short prequel story that takes place before Diabolical Sword, book 1 in The Charm Collector urban fantasy series.

Camila Fletcher has made a career out of finding missing people. Despite being a full-blooded human, she’s often contacted by members of the fae population hiding amongst mundanes. When a young fae girl asks for help finding her sister, Camila is thrust into an investigation that involves much more than one missing girl …

Review:

Content Warning: kidnapping of a human child, pregnancy, and one brief, mildly bloody scene that included a dead chicken. I will not discuss any of these topics in my review.

Critical thinking is just as important as any spell or weapon.

Camila was a warm and likeable protagonist. She was the sort of person I’d love to meet in real life because of how kind she was, although I’ll leave it up to other readers to discover all of the little things she did when she thought no one was looking that made her so endearing. I also appreciated how much common sense she had. She thought carefully about every move she made beforehand and always had a backup plan in case something went awry. There are plenty of fantasy stories out there about characters who rush into situations without thinking about what they’re doing, so it was nice to meet one who broke that mould.

It would have been nice to have a little more world building in this tale. While I wouldn’t expect it to go into as much detail about how The Collective operates or why some humans are aware of the magical societies that overlap human ones, it sure would have been helpful to have a little more information about these topics as I was getting to know Camila and her husband Nelson. As interested as I was in the characters and plot, there were a few times when I was confused about how the human and magical societies intersected and whether average folks were aware of the various non-human species walking amongst them.

This novella has a wry, subtle sense of humour that I truly enjoyed. One of the best examples of it that I can share in this review without giving away too many spoilers had to do with Camila’s suspicious reaction to a handsome and mysterious teenage boy who had won the hearts of many of the other students at his high school. She knew immediately that there was something strange about him, and she wasn’t shy about voicing her opinions of the romantic feelings he stirred up in teenagers. That’s really all I can say about that interaction, but it made me chuckle and want to read more.

Veiled Threats piqued my curiosity.

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September 21, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Least Favourite Chore 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.

Person dusting a glass light fixture and a mirror. Dusting and sweeping are my least favourite chores. There is no carpet in my apartment, so these two chores sort of meld together.

Due to my environmental allergies, cleaning up dust often makes me cough and sneeze which can stir up more dust in a never-ending cycle of airway irritation and puffs of dust floating away.

This is the kind of housework that has no scope for the imagination in it. I can dance to music or listen to an audiobook while washing dishes, folding laundry, or even scrubbing a tub.

Dusting, though, requires such precise movements to ensure that I get every last irritating little mote of it that I struggle to make it amusing in any way.

This is also one of those chores that never ends.

I can hand wash a load of dishes or fold a load of laundry and see visual evidence that I’ve done good work and that it’s finished now.

Dust settles everywhere all of the time. You might think you’ve swept up the last of it only to find yet another corner of the house that needs attention. Everyone is shedding skin cells and hair right this minute that will soon clump up and create more dust bunnies.

It’s such a minor problem to have in life, and yet I still wish I could skip this chore forever.

 

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September 20, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Fall 2022 To-Read List


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Two ripe apples and some apple leaves lying on an opened book that is itself sitting on a wooden bench or table of some sort. Those of you who have followed this blog for a while might remember how short my seasonal to-read lists generally are since I rely so heavily on what the Toronto Public Library has to offer and prefer to be a mood reader instead of sticking to a strict schedule.

Well, this autumn is going to break that trend.

I’ve found nine books I’m excited to read that have either recently been released or are scheduled to be published later on this fall.That may be a record for me for these types of posts. Ha!

If you’ve read any of them or have them on your TBR lists, let’s talk.

 

 

Our Shadows Have Claws by Amparo Ortiz (Editor) and Yamile Saied Méndez book cover. Image on cover shows a cartoon drawing of red lobster claws tearing at a blue sheet of paper (or possibly half-frozen water?)

Our Shadows Have Claws by Amparo Ortiz (Editor) and Yamile Saied Méndez

Why I Want to Read It: Halloween is sneaking up on us quickly, and monster stories are the perfect thing to read in preparation for it if you ask me.

 

Meet Me in Mumbai by Sabina Khan book cover. Image on cover shows drawing of the heads of two Indian women facing away from each other as well as the ghostly face of a woman who is looking at neither of them.

Meet Me in Mumbai by Sabina Khan

Why I Want to Read It: I’m a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and I have several relatives who were transracially adopted. There aren’t a lot of books out there that touch on both of these topics, so I’m pretty curious about this one.

 

Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman book cover. Image on cover shows a person with a white sheet wrapped thigh ly around their head like they’re a ghost. There are two vague eyeholes cut out of the sheet, but you can’t see the person’s face.

Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman

Publication Date: Today!

Why I Want to Read It: Actually, I’m not sure if I do. The thought of taking a pill that allows you to see ghosts piqued my interest, but I don’t know if this will be too scary of a read for me. I will keep it on my TBR for now as I decide.

 

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese book cover. Image on cover shows red roses with their green leaves and thorns against a black background.

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

Publication Date: October 4

Why I Want to Read It: This is the first retelling of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter I’ve ever seen. (If you’re a fan of retellings and know of other books like this, please speak up!) I am thrilled to finally experience this tale from Hester’s perspective.

 

They Were Here Before Us by Eric Larocca book cover. Image on cover shows a stained glass image of a robin eating a large beetle while standing on a tree branch.

They Were Here Before Us by Eric Larocca

Publication Date: October 25

Why I Want to Read It: The blurb is actually pretty vague at the moment, but the words “horror” and “novella” in it have caught my attention. This could be a fun and spooky Halloween read for sure.

 

The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukheerjee book cover. Image on cover shows golden and cream cells of various shapes and sizes floating on a navy blue background.

The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukheerjee

Publication Date: October 25

Why I Want to Read It: I’ve read many books about the history of medicine, but I haven’t read anything in-depth about how we discovered that cells exist. This could be fascinating.

 

To Each This World by Julie E Czerneda book cover. Image on cover shows planets and moons floating through a blue night sky.

To Each This World by Julie E Czerneda

Publication Date: November 1

Why I Want to Read It: I love reading science fiction stories about humans being put into cryosleep and sent off to find new habitable worlds. It’s such a fascinating topic.

 

 

Fourteen Days: An Unauthorized Gathering by Margaret Atwood (Editor) book cover. The cover has yet to be revealed, so this is a red placeholder with white text.

Fourteen Days: An Unauthorized Gathering by Margaret Atwood (Editor)

Publication Date: November 1

Why I Want to Read It: Each chapter of this novel about a diverse group of neighbours bonding together during a Covid-19 shutdown was written by a different author. Yes, Margaret Atwood wrote one of the chapters. I’m hoping it will capture that moment in history well. Fingers crossed.

 

The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama book cover. Image on cover is a photo of her smiling, crossing her arms in a hug, and wearing a white and tan sweater.

The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama

Publication Date: November 15

Why I Want to Read It: I really enjoyed reading her memoir “Becoming.” She’s a good storyteller, so I look forward to hearing what she has to say about hope and perseverance in hard times in this book.

 

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September 15, 2022 · 1:00 am

Dreaming of Happily Ever After: A Review of Somewhere in Time

Somewhere in Time by Fizza Younis book cover. Image on cover shows a drawing of a sun and stars superimposed on an actual photo of the night sky that has a few hazy clouds (or maybe galaxies?) floating through it. Title: Somewhere in Time

Author: Fizza Younis

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 31, 2020

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary, Historical

Length: 34 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

It’s a fairy tale retelling of the classic Sleeping Beauty, set between the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries, the story has a darker paranormal twist, and no happily-ever-after within sight. But what the future holds for our beloved characters, Aurora and Prince Phillip, is yet to be determined.

Review:

Content Warning: mafia, murder, suicide, and a brief mention of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Get ready for a wild ride.

This tale was a delightful mixture of topics I’d never think to include in the same storyline like the mafia, the Covid-19 pandemic, and Sleeping Beauty. I admire authors who are willing to take risks like this with their writing. It makes for an exciting reading experience for those of us who are well-versed in the fantasy genre and who can be difficult to surprise. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for what Ms. Younis writes next, although I won’t try to guess where her vivid and playful imagination might wander.

Fairy tales don’t have to explain everything, of course, but I found myself wishing this one had gone into more details about how the magic works in this world. For example, the reason why Aurora fell into her deep sleep never made sense to me. I could accept the magical veil that protected her and her stately home while she slept, but it sure would have been nice to know why this spell existed in the first place and under what conditions she might wake up. There were so many other changes to the classic Sleeping Beauty story in this retelling that I didn’t think I should make any assumptions about who or what might have caused these magical events. If the author had been clearer about this, I would have happily chosen a higher rating.

The ending made me yearn for more. I wanted to know how Aurora adjusted to the world after her long nap and what she was planning to do with the rest of her life. Given that this was a fairy tale, though, it did make sense to stop at that moment. Princesses have nearly always been traditionally been described as living happily ever after, and I’m hoping the same can be said about heiresses who wake up in the modern world. Who knows? Maybe we’ll someday get a sequel and find out for sure.

Somewhere in Time kept me guessing until the final sentence.

 

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September 14, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What Makes You Pick Up or Buy a Book?

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.

Woman holding antique book with blue cover in front of her face. Let’s see if I can answer this question without writing a whole book on the topic. Ha!

I prefer shorter works, so short stories and novellas rise to the top of my queue faster than books that are 200+ pages long. If something is more than 300 pages, I probably won’t read it unless it’s otherwise irresistible to me.

I like standalone stories.  It’s been my experience that they tend to have more concise writing, faster plots, and better character development because the author knows that he or she has limited time with which to get these things accomplished. Of course, there are  exceptions to this rule, and I love finding series that offer steady character and plot development from their first instalment to their last one.

I enjoy moderate amounts of descriptive passages. That is to say, give me a couple of pages describing what a setting looks like, but I’d prefer not to read Tolkien-esque descriptions that go on for a dozen pages unless there’s some rare, pressing need for that much detail. For example, some fantasy novels genuinely do need many pages to describe how things work in their world, but a contemporary romance or mystery almost certainly will not.

I love to be surprised. Authors who are intimately familiar with the tropes of their genre and have some indication that those tropes will be gently poked fun at, turned upside down, or otherwise subverted will grab my attention immediately. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is an excellent example of this, but I’ll happily read authors from any genre who pull this off. It’s much harder than it might look, but it’s so rewarding when it happens.

Here are some of the topics that will immediately make me read at least the first page of a book if they’re mentioned in the title or blurb:

  • (Non-romance) paranormal stories
  • Adoption, foster care, chosen families, etc. I have several adopted or chosen relatives and find these topics quite interesting.
  • Prehistory (hunter-gatherers, Neanderthals, mammoths, dinosaurs, etc.)
  • Hopeful speculative fiction
  • Alternate history books that aren’t about Hitler or World War II
  • Sapphic main characters (if they get to live happily ever after)
  • Stories about wild or domesticated animals (if they get to live happily ever after)
  • Non-fiction about the lives of ordinary people or historical events that usually aren’t taught in school. Learning new things is amazing.
  • Soothing fiction in general. Give me happy endings instead of heartbreaking ones.

I used to adore psychological horror, too, but have cut way back on that during this pandemic. Maybe someday I can handle being scared more often again.

I’ve also been making an effort to diversify my reading, so any books about people who are not Caucasian and/or who don’t live in North America float to the top of the list. Authors and characters who have medical conditions, disabilities, religious beliefs, etc. that I don’t have personal experience with are being prioritized, too.

You can learn so much about the world by seeing it through other people’s perspectives.

Anyway, that is a brief overview of my taste in books. I can’t wait to read what all of you had to say on this topic.

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September 13, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Geographical Terms in the Title


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A wetland filled with still water and surrounded by a forest of deciduous trees. The geographical term I chose for this week’s prompt is wetlands. That is to say, areas of land that link water and land together. Some of them are always wet, while others can go through periods of being as dry as regular land depending on the season. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, and bogs.

I chose this term because one of the places I grew up in used to be a wetland before the land was drained and turned into farmland. It’s a beautiful place, but the mosquitoes there are overwhelming in the summer. I’ve often wished that my ancestors had left it the way it originally was and built their homes somewhere else instead.

1. Stirring the Mud: On Swamps, Bogs, and Human Imagination by Barbara Hurd

2. Swampwalker’s Journal: A Wetlands Year by David M. Carroll

3. Danger in Blackwater Swamp by Saundra Kelley

4. Birds of Lake Pond & Marsh: Water and Wetland Birds of Eastern North America by John Eastman

5. The Ghost Orchid Ghost: And Other Tales from the Swamp by Doug Alderson

Closeup photo of a frog sitting calmly in a pond next to some algae and reeds.

6. The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise by Michael Grunwald

7. The Geese of Beaver Bog by Bernd Heinrich

8. In the Salt Marsh by Nancy Willard

9. Meadowlands: A Wetlands Survival Story by Thomas F. Yezerski

10. The Bog by Michael Talbot

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September 8, 2022 · 1:00 am

Rooting Out Evil: A Review of Secrets of the Under Market

Secrets of the Under Market by Krysten Harlow book cover. Image on cover shows a glowing yellow coin with yellow lights orbiting it and some sort of archaic writing on it. Title: Secrets of the Under Market

Author: Krysten Harlow

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: May 4, 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 73 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Mortal Instruments meets Hellboy in this riveting urban fantasy series that is a prequel to the Visions of Darkness Trilogy.”

He was born into a rare demon-hunting lineage…

All his life, Max Damiano has trained with his family and waited for his arcane talent to awaken. On the morning of his fourteenth birthday, his wish is granted: he is a telekinetic.

Now he can fully take part in the family’s Work of keeping the world safe from demons, remnants of a long-gone universe, the Qlippoth, whose very existence is inimical to our world’s reality. His first assignment? To investigate the disappearance of a dozen children in the New York City area. In the center of the disappearances is the New York Under Market, a market for the arcane community run by the transglobal Underwood Corporation.

Concerned that their Market is at the center of these alarming disappearances, the Underwood Corporation hires Max and two of his siblings, Tom and Sadie, to investigate. Will they be able to catch the demonic malefactor in time?

One thing is for sure, it will not go quietly.

Review:

Content Warning: spiders, the kidnapping of human children, and the killing and dismemberment of demons. I will not mention these topics in my review.

Never underestimate a demon.

Character development is one of those writing things that can be trickier to display in a relatively short work like this one than it would be in a full-length novel. I mentioned this first so that my next sentence would have some context to it. Seeing how Max changed as a result of his adventures was delightful. He behaved just like any fourteen-year-old should as far as his emotional and cognitive development went, but I also saw exciting glimpses of the adult he would soon become. Honestly, that’s all that’s needed in the beginning of a series. I’m glad the author included them while still leaving plenty of room for further development in future instalments.

I would have preferred to see a faster pacing in this novella. There were times when my interest in it wavered because of how long it took for the next action-heavy scene to appear. Introducing the characters and setting was obviously important, but I did find myself wishing that those descpritons and conversations had been broken up more often by conflicts with demons or similar events. The author had plenty of material to work with, and I would have happily gone with a much higher rating if the pacing had been sped up.

The world building in this novella was extensive and impressive. I actually stopped reading a few chapters in to confirm that I hadn’t accidentally started halfway through the series. There was so much attention paid to the countless little details that make a fictional world come to life in my imagination that it was hard to believe this was the introduction, and I mean that in the best possible way. This isn’t an easy thing to accomplish in a prequel by any means. Ms. Harlow should be proud of how seamlessly she wove everything together.

Secrets of the Under Market made me smile.

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September 7, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Plot Line You Love to Read/Watch 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.

I so badly wanted to pick about a dozen different answers for this topic, but I will follow the rules and stick to one.

A drawing of a halo and some angel wings. My all-time favourite plot line is rebirth. That is to say, the audience is introduced to a morally ambiguous character (or even a downright jerk) who learns the error of his or her ways and eventually make a genuine and permanent change in their behaviour for the better.

The keywords there are genuine and permanent. If a character is truly a terribly human being when we first meet them, I’m going to need to see a lot more time dedicated to showing how they realized they were causing harm to others and how hard they worked to correct their faults than if they were someone whose might have only been moderately irritating instead.

This is not an easy feat for storytellers to accomplish by any means, but when it’s done correctly it gives me so much hope for the future of humanity. Another cool thing about this plot line is that it shows up in every single genre one can imagine which makes it even more exciting to discover. Whether you love reading romance, mysteries, horror, science fiction, fantasy, or some other genre entirely, you stand an excellent chance of stumbling across a character who follows this pattern sooner rather than later.

Here are some examples of films, tv shows, and books that make good use of this plot line:

Traditionally, characters needed to be rescued by someone else when this plot line showed up, but contemporary takes on the topic often show characters who are much more assertive about realizing there’s a problem with how they behave and working to on their own to correct it.

I’m happy with either approach to the subject.

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September 6, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved So Much I Had to Get a Copy for My Personal Library


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A kindle surrounded by leaves, acorns, and yellow autumn flowers. I don’t own a lot of books due to how amazing my local public library is, but here are some I loved that I do own in ebook form.

If I’ve written a review for a particular book, the link will take you to my review of it. In all other cases, it will go to Goodreads instead.

1. Becoming by Michelle Obama

2. My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood

3. The Visitor by Mark Lawrence

4. The Reluctant Familiar’s Guide to Christmas Tree Defence by Bethany Hoeflich

5. Safer at Home by Zoe Cannon

6. Boo and the Boy by Wayne Barrett

7. 1NG4 by Berthold Gambrel

8. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

9. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

How many of you also have wonderful local libraries? I hope all of you can say yes to that question!

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