May 4, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Best Mother in a Book, Movie, or TV Show

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.

Mother holding child up with joy at a beach at sunset. My choice for this week’s prompt is Mrs. Dorothy Quimby from the Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary.

Ramona and her older sister Beezus could be rambunctious and stubborn kids. Everything in their family was written from little Ramona’s perspective, and she didn’t always understand the world the way her parents or even her older sister did.

I loved seeing how patient, empathetic, and understanding Mrs. Quimby was with her daughters. When young Ramona decided she wanted to run away from home, Mrs. Quimby helped her pack her suitcase with everything a kid would need to survive to give the girl a chance to reconsider her decision. (It ended up being so heavy that little Ramona changed her mind).

She gave her daughters space to make their own decisions even if they didn’t always necessarily make the right ones. Her love for them was unconditional, and she had a wonderful sense of humour, too.

I only wish the author had written one of the books in this series from the mother’s point of view!

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May 3, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: One-Word Reviews for the Last Ten Books I Read


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Green typewriter with a piece of paper stuck in it. The word “review” has been typed on that page. Narrowing down my opinions of these books to a single word each was definitely not easy, but it was an amusing challenge.

Tiny Humans, Big Lessons: How the NICU Taught Me to Live With Energy, Intention, and Purpose by Sue Ludwig

The One-Word Review: Mindful

 

The Heart of Caring:  A Life in Pediatrics by Mark Vonnegut

The One-Word Review: Hopeful

 

The Story Girl by L.M. Montgomery

The One-Word Review: Playful

 

The Golden Road by L.M. Montgomery

The One-Word Review: Bittersweet

 

You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate Our Power of Persuasion and Why It Matters by Vanessa Bohns

The One-Word Review: Inspiring

 

Hildie at the Ghost Shore by Paula Cappa

The One-Word Review: Spooky

 

A tachometer for feedback. From left to right, each section reads poor, fair, good, and excellent. The colours for each one left to right are red, orange, yellow, and green.

To Walk About in Freedom: The Long Emancipation of Priscilla Joyner by Carole Emberton

The One-Word Review: Amazing

 

The One-Word Review: Sobering
The One-Word Review: Surprising
The Annals of a Country Doctor by Carl Matlock, MD
The One-Word Review: Reflective

 

 

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April 28, 2022 · 1:00 am

Gently Combing the Sea: A Review of Hildie at the Ghost Shore


Hildie at the Ghost Shore by Paula Cappa book cover. Image on cover his a painting of a very foggy shore by a body of water. You can see almost nothing but the tiniest glimmer of blue water in the distance. Title: Hildie at the Ghost Shore

Author: Paula Cappa

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: May 17, 2015

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Mystery, Historical

Length: 22 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

We are in Old Belgium. Hildie the lace maker, Mistress of Runecraft, knows the secret spells of the runes from the wind-god Odin. When a mysterious old sailor visits her attic workroom, he requests a reading. Hildie agrees. During the casting of the runes, Hildie conjures the Ship of the Dead, Loki the trickster, and flame-eyed ravens. Who will survive this adventure in a land beyond the ghost shore? Hildie at the Ghost Shore is a quiet little mystery (Kindle Single) with a dash of Norse mythology evoking the magic of the Runes. This story was originally published at Fiction365.

Review:

Content Warning: Murder.

Danish mysteries abound on this quiet shore.

The poetic and etherial style of this short story made it impossible for me to stop reading. It was my first experience with Ms. Cappa’s work, and I was immediately impressed by how smooth and beautiful her writing style was. She excelled at drawing this reader into the storyline and making me never want to leave it. Reading this felt like the literary equivalent of stepping into a light, airy fog on a mostly-deserted beach on a chilly late winter or early spring day. That is to say, I felt as if I’d stepped into another world or some alternative version of our own world whose rules of physics were just different enough to make it impossible for me to guess what remarkable things I might discover a few moments in the future. It was a truly delightful experience that made me eager to discover what else the author has written.

I would have loved to see more plot and character development. There was very little of the former and almost none of the latter which struck me as unusual for something that went on for twenty-two pages.  It would have made sense for flash fiction, and the premise could have been shrunken down to accommodate a much shorter interpretation of it. Unfortunately, it felt out of place for a longer work that did seem to have more than enough room to include both of these elements.

By far my favourite portion of this tale was the final scene. This was when the plot grew as thick and substantial as it ever would, and it explained some things that keen readers might have kept tucked in the back of their minds as half-formed questions since they first began reading it. I should note that I’m not very familiar with Norse Mythology, so I also appreciated the quick explanations of certain key terms and figures from it. Perhaps readers who are already well-versed on that topic could expound upon it in greater detail, but I was perfectly satisfied with it as is. Yes, I know I’m being vague here! Why share spoilers when you can allow other readers the thrill of surprise instead?

Hildie at the Ghost Shore was a dreamy, wistful reading experience that I cheerfully recommend saving for the next time the weather outside is too foggy, snowy, or drizzly to venture forth outdoors.

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April 27, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Book, Movie, or TV Show You Can’t Wait For

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 wonder if any of you will choose the same answer?

I’ve already talked about a few books I’m looking forward to this summer, so this week I’ll mention a TV show slated to come out in September that fans have been anticipating for years.

The Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power tv show poster. It shows a city carved from stone that’s protected by a large stone statute holding it’s hand out benevolently. If you can’t see the image attached to this post, I’m talking about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The official Twitter account for it has been sharing amazing gifs, short videos, photos and other promotional material that hint at what it will be about while also leaving plenty of room for the imagination.

I first read The Lord of the Rings during a period of my life when I was struggling with my mental health. It was like walking around the world with a thick, grey cloud enveloping me that amplified all of the difficult portions of life and did its best to smother the faintest flicker of anything positive.

This is something I’m sharing because I only revisited that series years later when the film version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy were released.

While this TV show isn’t set during the same time period in this universe, I’m very curious to see how my mind reacts to the similar themes of it now that I’m doing better.

Seeing an epic saga unfold on the small screen should also be worthwhile. I have high hopes that this show will be a magical experience.

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April 26, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Curly-Haired Characters on the Cover


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A red headed woman with long, curly hair standing in front of a wall plastered over with magazine covers.

This isn’t me, but my hair is similar to a brunette version of hers.

I have naturally curly hair that ranges from Type 2C (wavy/loose curls) to something a little curlier than Type 3B (springy ringlets) depending on which part of my head you’re looking at, how recently I’ve washed and moistured it, how humid or dry the air is, and a million other factors that anyone who knows curly hair no doubt is already well aware of.

When I was a kid, I’d always get so excited to see a curly-haired person included on a book cover or described in a story.

Sometimes that was the deciding factor in whether I read a book!

I grew up in a community that was so homogenous that even minor differences in human appearance like this were hard to find.

And I’m saying that as someone who is Caucasian. I’m sure the small number of classmates I had who were from other racial backgrounds yearned for representation of people who looked like them even more than I did.

Representation matters.

While there’s still plenty of work to do in this area, I’m glad publishers are doing a better job these days of representing characters from a wider range of backgrounds.

This week I’m going to be sharing ten wonderful book covers featuring people who have curly hair.

 

The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley Book cover. Image on cover shows a woman with curly red hair sitting at a table and glaring at the reader.

1. The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley

 

Baby Girl by Lenora Adams book cover. Image on cover shows a young black woman wearing hoop earrings as she looks over her shoulder and has flowers tucked behind her ear.

2. Baby Girl by Lenora Adams

Nobody's Prize (Nobody's Princess, #2) by Esther M. Friesner book cover. Image on cover shows a white girl with long, curly brown hair standing and staring at a large aquarium.

3. Nobody’s Prize (Nobody’s Princess, #2) by Esther M. Friesner

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill book cover. Image on cover is a drawing of the heroine wearing her hair naturally in a big puff of gorgeous curls.

4. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

Liar by Justine Larbalestier book cover. Image on cover shows a young black woman hiding her face in her hoodie.

5. Liar by Justine

Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher book cover. Image on cover shows a blond woman staring off into the distance.

6. Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher

Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann book cover. Image on the cover shows a dark-skinned African-american girl dancing for joy while wearing a white, sleeveless top.

7. Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

 

8. The Freemason’s Daughter by Shelley Sackier

Blue Flame (Perfect Fire Trilogy, #1) by K.M. Grant book cover. Image on cover shows a young woman with loosely curly brown hair standing outside by the ocean during a storm.

9. Blue Flame (Perfect Fire Trilogy, #1) by K.M. Grant

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo book cover. Image on cover shows a drawing of a woman who has a large, black Afro.

10. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

 

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April 21, 2022 · 1:00 am

Unexpected Results: A Review of Untethered

Untethered by Nick Stephenson book cover. Image on cover show outer space. The top half of the stars are in a blue cluster and the bottom half are in a red cluster. Title: Untethered

Author: Nick Stephenson

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: February 24, 2021

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 20 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 2 Stars

Blurb:

When a scientist discovers the secret to teleportation, he struggles to figure out what to do with it.

This short story is a love letter, of sorts, to what is commonly referred to as “The Golden Age” of science fiction – the heady days of the 1930s – 1960s where spaceflight had only just become more than a dream and the possibilities seemed endless. I hope you enjoy my take on it.

Review:

Content Warning: Deaths of lab animals.

Inventing can be tricky business.

Teleportation is one of those topics that used to be covered regularly in the science fiction genre but is rare enough to find these days that I always perk up when I read a blurb that references it. Some of the most memorable scenes were the ones that described how the protagonist and his assistant discovered how to transport living creatures across long distances in the blink of an eye. Their original theories about how to do it were solid, but it certainly took them a great deal of time to translate theories into something safe, effective, and profitable. I smiled as I read about the joy they shared when all of their hard work paid off. That scene was somehow by far the most relatable of them all even though teleportation isn’t actually possible in our world yet.

As intrigued as I was by the premise of this short story, were some massive plot holes in it. One of them involved the development of the teleportation machine the main character spent so much time talking about, and the other involved the twist ending. It struck me as odd for such an intelligent and passionate protagonist to gloss over how he expanded a small prototype into something that could be safely used on adult human beings. While I can’t say much about the ending for spoiler reasons, it also contained inconsistencies that seemed quite out of character for a protagonist who had devoted his life to scientific research. I really wish these portions of the storyline had been explained in greater detail as I desperately wanted to give this a higher rating!

Science hasn’t always been used for wholesome purposes, especially when the original creators of a device, drug, or other work are no longer fully in control of who does and doesn’t have access to it. My favourite moment happened when the narrator realized some of the more sinister applications for his invention long after he lost the ability to have a say in how it was used. His reaction to that moment was a tiny slice of the resolution, but it made all of the portions of it I cannot discuss in my review even more poignant. One of the reasons why I enjoy science fiction so much has to do with how it can coax an audience to think about serious, real-world issues like these that we might otherwise not think about, and on that note the author’s message certainly thrived.

Untethered was a wild ride.

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April 20, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: One Meal Everyone Should Try

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 believe everyone should try meals that they did not grow up eating from places in the world their (recent) ancestors did not come from or live in. Of course, this means that the answer will be different for everyone!

Shish Kabob, rice, and other East African food. In my case, this means trying meals from different African countries and cultures since none of the small towns I grew up in offered anything like that.

I’ve only done it once so far at a nice little Ethiopian restaurant here in Toronto and once or twice at other places, but I hope to do it more often once this pandemic ends. There are so many other cuisines to try from that continent. I know I’ve barely even scratched the surface so far.

Sadly, I can’t find my photos of those meals, so here’s a stock photo of similar East African food instead.

It is so much fun to taste new dishes and try new combinations of spices! I can’t recommend it highly enough.

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April 19, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Merchandise I’d Love to Own


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

My answers to this week’s prompt might be a little unorthodox.

I have enough bookmarks, ereaders, tea mugs, and cozy socks to last for many years to come.

I do not have enough chocolate to nibble on while reading, but that’s because I have a sweet tooth and chocolate is hard to resist. Perhaps some of you who do not like sweets so much have never had this problem. Ha!

These are the bookish things I wish I had.

A cozy little home library in a the corner of a room. There is a red rug on the wooden floor and a light shining on the books and rug from a nearby shelf.

A Spare Room to Turn Into a Personal Library.

There are many things I love about living in a cozy apartment in a city, but one of the few downsides of it is that housing here in Toronto is too expensive to devote an entire room to reading. If only that were different!

A man using a laptop while sitting on a couch. A woman has stretched out next to him on the cough and has her legs by his thighs as she listens to something.

A Big, Comfortable Couch

I want to gently flop over the sides of the couch and find every position comfortable while still leaving space for someone else to sit there, too.

Yes, sometimes I’d probably sit on the “proper” way, too. But not every time.

Pink clouds floating through the sky near a full moon at either sunrise or sunset.

Peace and Quiet 

I want a few hours of peace and quiet in which to read.

It’s okay if a truck rumbles by or a bird sings outside of my window, but I would rather not have conversation, music, blaring horns, or anything else that might be distracting.

Quiet reading sessions are the best if you ask me.

A little white dog sleeping on a chair.

A Leash and Soft Place to Sleep for My (Hypothetical) Dog or Dogs

Yes, I know that’s worded a little oddly, but let me explain. I don’t think of pets as objects to be owned. They’re members of a family instead.

If I weren’t allergic to dogs and if my home were large enough to accommodate one, I’d also want to have a canine companion or two. (Let’s also assume that my spouse agrees to this plan!)

Ideally, they’d sleep or play quietly for a couple of hours while I read and then let me know that they were ready to go for a walk.

There’s something about taking a walk that makes reading even better. It  gives you time to think about what you’ve read and wonder what might happen next in the story.

Dogs are also good listeners from what I’ve surmised from people who can live with them, so I’d probably talk to them while we exercised together.

It wouldn’t matter to me what the dog looked like. I simply included the picture above because the dog in it looked so peaceful.

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April 14, 2022 · 1:00 am

A Review of Tales from Monarch Bay: First Memories

Tales from Monarch Bay - First Memories by J.M. Acosta book cover. Image on cover shows a frozen river of some sort that’s either covered in snow or a large flock of birds. Title: Tales from Monarch Bay – First Memories

Author: J.M. Acosta

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: April 12, 2021

Genres: Fantasy, (mild) Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 55 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

All it took for Rien was to touch his old Rio player and a sudden rush of memories from High School came flooding back. To when he first moved to Monarch Bay and met The Keeper. When he had to stop the faceless man and save the world from an ancient threat. But are these really memories he wants to relive?

Review:

Content Warning: Vomiting and a little blood.  I will not discuss them in my review.

Everything in life has its own rhythm if you pay enough attention to it.

One of the biggest strengths of this novella in my opinion had to do with the way it explored old, half-forgotten memories. I think that just about all of us have had the experience of discovering such a memory after being exposed to something that reminds of us of the past. I was fascinated by how the narrator reacted to everything his mind dredged up, whether they were of happy times or terrible ones. It can be quite a jarring experience, and that aspect of it was captured just as nicely as the many other emotions the narrator felt as he relived that portion of his teenage years.

I had trouble keeping track of the plot and the world building. Some of their most important moments were described so rapidly and in such little detail that I wasn’t always sure what was happening. This was a technique that made sense in the beginning when Rien first discovered the MP3 player and had no idea what it was capable of doing, but I wasn’t quite sure why it was used later on once the stakes were higher. As much as I would have loved to give this a higher rating, I simply couldn’t do it due to these issues.

Beaches are such liminal spaces that it made perfect sense for so much of this tale to happen on and near them. It was interesting to take note of all of the connections the author made between the existence of ordinary beaches in our world and the otherworldly places they described that were every bit as transitory and filled with uncertainty. What made this portion of the storyline even better was how it was even more deeply explored in the ending, but that’s all I can say about that topic. If you want to learn more, you’ll simply have to go read it for yourself.

Tales from Monarch Bay – First Memories was a thought-provoking read.

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April 13, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What’s On Your TBR List

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.

Purple and white tulips lying on an opened book. If this prompt had been scheduled for the winter or summer, I would have had a very different answer to it!

You see, this is one of the best times of the year for enjoying the outdoors due to the mild weather.

My reading rates drop off when the sky is sunny and the temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold to make it uncomfortable to stay outdoors for several hours.

With that being said, here are a few books that bridge the gap between my love of reading and my love of the outdoors.

Ontario Birds: 125 Common Birds by Chris Fisher

Why I’m Interested: I’ve been casually interested in birdwatching for years but started doing it more intensely in 2020 when many other forms of entertainment were unavailable. It’s thrilling to catch sight of a bird you haven’t seen in your area before! I think red-tailed hawks are my favourite species so far.

 

Trees of Ontario: Including Tall Shrubs   by Linda Kershaw and Plants of Southern Ontario by Richard Dickinson and France Royer

Why I’m Interested: Identifying local trees and other plants is a brand new interest of mine. Someday I’d love to walk through the forest and be able to identify everything I see!

 

I’ve mentioned these books in previous posts, including a Wednesday Weekly Blogging post from the winter, but I am still looking forward to reading A Prayer for the Crown Shy (Monk & Robot #2) by Becky Chambers and Empty Smiles (Small Spaces #4) by Katherine Arden as well.

Why I’m Interested: I enjoyed the previous book(s) in both series quite a bit and am looking forward to catching up with the characters’ latest adventures.

I hope to review Chambers and Arden’s books on my blog this summer or autumn, but I am not planning to review the bird or foliage books. Speaking of which, I wonder how people do review books like that? It seems like that would be a little tricky since the authors are experts on the topic and many readers would not be.

Anyway, those are the books I’m most looking forward to reading in the near future.

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