February 9, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Ways to Show Someone You Love Them

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

A red heart that’s been affixed to the other side of a windowpane that’s foggy and covered with rain. 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.

My comments on certain blogs do not seem to be going through for reasons I haven’t been able to ascertain. If you don’t see reciprocal comments on your site, that is why. I am doing my best each week to say hello to everyone! 

There are so many different ways to show someone you love them!

Here are a a few of my personal favourites. All of them are assuming that the person in question actually enjoys these things, so do tweak them as needed if, say, the people in your life prefer going to a basketball game to taking a hike or would be embarrassed if you praised them in front of other people!

 

  • Stop and truly listen to what they’re saying.
  • Cook or bake something you know they love.
  • Fix their broken cell phone (or leaky faucet, or squeaky door, or anything else you might know how to fix).
  • Change the oil in their vehicle for them.
  • Take them on a nature walk and picnic.
  • Compliment them on something you generally don’t think to mention.
  • Give them a big, warm hug.
  • Send them a funny Internet meme, article, or video about a topic they love.
  • Surprise them with a few uninterrupted hours of your time, and let them decide how you’ll spend those hours together.
  • Tell a heartwarming story about something wonderful they said or did.
  • Invite them out for coffee and a donut.

As an added bonus, most of these ideas are either very inexpensive or won’t cost you a single penny.

6 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as , , , , ,

February 8, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Helpful Nonfiction Books About Relationships

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

 

Rose petals being shot through the air in the shape of a few different hearts. This is happening in a desert area. Happy early Valentine’s Day to everyone to celebrates it!

I do not celebrate Valentine’s Day, but I do have a short list of helpful nonfiction books about creating better relationships, whether they’re with friends, romantic partners, family members, or other people you know.

Yes, some of the information in some of them is specifically written for certain types of relationships like a romance or dealing with a pushy mother-in-law, but the principles in them can be applied to many other situations as well.

Some of these books were written for specific groups like Christians or people who are polyamorous. I encourage you to check them all out even if those specific labels don’t apply to you. Just like with the different types of relationships, there are far more similarities between these groups than you might originally think. We’re all human, after all!

I mean, every relationship should include things like clear communication, setting boundaries, compromising, kindly handling conflict, and giving/receiving emotional support no matter who you are, how you identify, or whether the person you’d like to get along with better is your spouse, best friend, mother-in-law, or coworker.

The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts by Gary Chapman book cover. Image on cover shows a couple embracing on a beach as the sun sets behind them.

1. The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts by Gary Chapman

What I Like About It: Not everyone values the same methods of showing affection. I think there’s something to be said for figuring out what makes people feel appreciated and doing those things as much as you can.

 

Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud book cover. Image on cover shows a red pencil drawing a line on a plain white sheet of paper.

2. Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud

What I Like About It: Setting boundaries can be tricky for me sometimes, but it’s important for every type of relationship. This book is filled with examples of how to figure out what you can offer someone and how to say no to the rest. It was also cool to see what specific phrases they recommended for people who have trouble saying no.

 

The Polyamory Breakup Book: Causes, Prevention, and Survival by Kathy Labriola, Dossie Easton book cover. Image on cover is a drawing of a gold leaf on a blue plant.

3. The Polyamory Breakup Book: Causes, Prevention, and Survival by Kathy Labriola, Dossie Easton

What I Like About It: I believe that we should all be methodical about who we invite into our inner circles and move slowly when dating, making new friends, or even deciding where we’d like to work (if possible).  This book goes beyond picking out red flags for more obvious things like abuse and encourages the audience to figure out exactly what we want out of all of our relationships and who we are (and aren’t) compatible with.

You can prevent a lot of heartache if you move slowly in the beginning of any sort of relationship and pay close attention to how you are (or aren’t) matching up with your potential romantic parter or friend.

I also loved what it had to say about gracefully ending relationships that aren’t working for whatever reason. There’s no need to demonize anyone if you find that you’re not actually compatible with them. Some relationships simply weren’t meant to last, and that’s okay.

 

Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love by Amir Levine book cover. Image on cover shows two magnets being drawn to each other.

4. Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love by Amir Levine

What I Like About It: While attachment styles can be changed with time and hard work, they are part of figuring out compatibility for many different types of relationships and learning how to communicate better.

For example, I tend to have a bit of an anxious attachment style, so I know that people with avoidant attachment styles are not a good fit for me at all. (Although I do wish them the best!)

 

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman book cover. There is no image on this cover. It’s just blue and red background.

 

5. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman

What I Like About It: Emotional intelligence matters in every sort of relationship we have as human beings. There are ways to approach difficult subjects that can make it much easier to discuss and hopefully resolve. A harsh phrasing of the same sentiment might lead to nothing but an argument that goes nowhere.

Which books would all of you add to this list?

72 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as , , ,

February 3, 2022 · 1:00 am

You’d Better Run Faster – A Review of Small Spaces

Book cover for Small Spaces by Katherine Arden. Image on cover shows a silhouette of a scarecrow and a sign that says “Small Spaces” in front of a yellow school bus that’s parked at dusk. Title: Small Spaces

Author: Katherine Arden

Publisher:  Puffin Books

Publication Date: July 9, 2019

Genres: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Paranormal, Mystery, Horror, Contemporary

Length: 256 pages

Source: I borrowed it from the library.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

After suffering a tragic loss, eleven-year-old Ollie who only finds solace in books discovers a chilling ghost story about a girl named Beth, the two brothers who loved her, and a peculiar deal made with “the smiling man”—a sinister specter who grants your most tightly held wish, but only for the ultimate price.
     Captivated by the tale, Ollie begins to wonder if the smiling man might be real when she stumbles upon the graves of the very people she’s been reading about on a school trip to a nearby farm. Then, later, when her school bus breaks down on the ride home, the strange bus driver tells Ollie and her classmates: “Best get moving. At nightfall they’ll come for the rest of you.” Nightfall is, indeed, fast descending when Ollie’s previously broken digital wristwatch begins a startling countdown and delivers a terrifying message: RUN.
     Only Ollie and two of her classmates heed these warnings. As the trio head out into the woods—bordered by a field of scarecrows that seem to be watching them—the bus driver has just one final piece of advice for Ollie and her friends: “Avoid large places. Keep to small.”
     And with that, a deliciously creepy and hair-raising adventure begins.

Review:

Content Warning: Bullying, grief, depression, and death of a parent. I will briefly mention mental health and the death of a parent in my review.

It’s never too late to try again.

One of my favourite things about this tale was how it played around with certain stereotypes about gender roles and race. All of the characters were well-rounded people whose interests were not necessarily constrained by what others assumed someone of their sex or race would be into. Even characters who seemed to fit the mould at first glance were filled with wonderful surprises once I got to know them better. What made this even better was how natural it felt for them and their storylines. They simply were who they were without pretence. That’s exactly the sort of stuff I want to read about!

I would have liked to see more attention paid to the ending. The author was working with so many different plot points that she unfortunately didn’t seem to have quite enough time to wrap everything up satisfactorily for this reader. I know this is the beginning of a series, so I’m hoping that the sequels will dive much more deeply into the sudden death of Ollie’s mother and how Ollie’s mental health has fared since that tragedy. Her grief was explored thoroughly. If everything else had been given the same treatment, I would have gone with a five star rating as I deeply enjoyed it in general.

The storyline was filled with twists and turns that made me smile. I especially appreciated how the author included the horror genre without making anything gory or gross. The mere thought of being chased by scarecrows for reasons still unknown to the audience until much later in the plot was enough to make me shudder! This is the sort of psychological horror I’m irresistibly drawn to,  and it’s a fantastic introduction to the genre for anyone who might not have given it a try before.

Small Spaces was a delightfully spooky book to read on a dark, chilly night.

 

 

 

4 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 2, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Your Theme Song for This Year

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.

A stereo audio equalizer showing a rainbow visualization of a beat. My theme song for 2022 is a song that was released a few years ago.

It was written by one of my favourite modern musicians, Ed Sheeran, and the title of it is “Beautiful People.”

Here is a link to the lyrics for anyone who would like to read them before listening to the song.

What I love about this piece of music is how it encourages everyone to embrace their true selves, flaws and all. That’s such a positive and helpful message to share with the world! It’s something I need to hear sometimes, too.

Here is the official music video for the song: Beautiful People by Ed Sheeran ft. Khalid 

6 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as , , , ,

February 1, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Character Names In the Titles

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A cup of hot cocoa sitting on an opened book that has little plastic golden stars on it. The book is lying on a window ledge nestled next to a cozy, white blanket. There is snow and ice on the outside of the window. There are so many books out there whose titles include character names that I’m going to be narrowing this week’s topic down a little.

This is a list of books with character names in their titles, and I’ve read and would recommend all of them.

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

2. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

3. I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai

4. Heidi by Johanna Spyri

5. Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1) by L.M. Montgomery

6. Bridget Jones’s Diary (Bridget Jones, #1) by Helen Fielding

7. Coraline by Neil Gaiman

8. Winnie-the-Pooh (Winnie-the-Pooh, #1) by A.A. Milne

9. Still Alice by Lisa Genova

10. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Before I wrote this post, I hadn’t realized that so many of the books featuring character names that I’ve read were written 100+ years ago. I hope that some of you will have good suggestions of contemporary works that fit this criteria.

82 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as

January 27, 2022 · 1:00 am

Stay Home, Stay Safe: A Review of The Machine Stops

Vintage Science Fiction Blog Challenge badge. It shows a rocket ship against a red background. There is a bubble city in the background. Vintage Science Fiction month takes place every January, and has a few guidelines:

 – read, watch, listen to, or experience something science fiction / fantasy that was created in 1979 or earlier

 – talk about it online sometime in January

 – have fun

If any of my readers are also interested in participating this month, let Little Red Reviewer know about your posts if you’d like them to be included in her official roundups. 


Title: The Machine Stops

Author: E.M. Forster

Publisher: The Oxford and Cambridge Review

Publication Date: November 1909

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 25 pages

Source: I read it for free on the UC Davis site 

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

“The Machine Stops”” is a science fiction short story (12,300 words) by E. M. Forster. After initial publication in The Oxford and Cambridge Review (November 1909), the story was republished in Forster’s The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthology Modern Short Stories.[1] In 1973 it was also included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two.The story, set in a world where humanity lives underground and relies on a giant machine to provide its needs, predicted technologies such as instant messaging and the Internet.”

Review:

Book cover for The Machine Stops Here by E.M. Forster. Image on cover shows a big, red bow on an analogue clock. Who needs in-person contact when you have virtual gatherings?

There were some fascinating parallels between how Vashti had lived her entire life and what the Covid-19 pandemic was like for those of us who were lucky enough to work from home and order many necessities online. Vashti could summon anything with the touch of a button, from food to a warm bath, to an assortment of friends who wanted to hear a lecture on human history. She virtually never had reason to leave her home at all, and neither did the rest of humanity. It was supposed to keep everyone safe and content, and yet not everyone Vashti met was necessarily happy to live this way for reasons I’ll leave up to other readers to explore. What I can say is that staying home to reduce the spread of a pandemic is quite different from spending your entire lifetime in one room no matter how nice that room is. The various human reactions to them are similar, though!

The ending was confusing to me. I needed to google it to make sure that my understanding of what happened in that scene matched what the author was trying to convey. While I did find my answer, I do wish the author had been more forthcoming about what was going on there. He had several thought-provoking ideas he was working with throughout the course of this tale. All he needed to do was develop them a little more fully and I would have given this a much higher rating.

With that being said, I did think the conclusion was much more realistic than what typically happens with dystopian tales published in modern day. I appreciated the fact that the themes and hints embedded in earlier scenes were allowed to play out so naturally. While I did wonder if this twist was coming in advance, that was a good thing. It was nice to have a consistent experience even if it wasn’t something that most contemporary authors would do.

The Machine Stops was ahead of its time. Anyone who likes dystopias should check it out.

4 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 26, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: The Best TV Show from 2021

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.

The retired astronaut Leland Devon Melvin posing with his dogs for his official NASA photo in his spacesuit. I watch many excellent science fiction series, so this answer was a little surprising. A nonfiction miniseries won out over the the many works of fiction I could have selected instead!

Dogs is a Netflix miniseries that released its second season in 2021. Each episode follows the lives of different dogs as they provide companionship, work alongside their humans, or do extraordinary things.

Leland Devon Melvin is the name of the astronaut in the photo accompanying this post. His loving relationship with his two dogs was explored in-depth in one of the season two episodes as they prepared for a long and difficult hike, and it brought a tear to my eye.

It’s incredible to see just how much joy and meaning dogs bring to people’s lives. The rest of the stories in this series were also interesting for a wide variety of reasons, from the journey of a young girl who has severe epilepsy and was getting her first service dog to the tireless work of animal rescue groups who save countless lives and so much more.

This is one of those wholesome series that I think should appeal to a wide audience. There’s something for everyone in it no matter how old or young you are.

8 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

January 25, 2022 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2021

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Strawberries, coffee, cookies, and an art book on a white sheet. Sometimes it feels like the January Top Ten Tuesday topics are so closely connected to each other that I need to be careful about repeating myself when responding to them.

For that reason, I’ll keep this week’s list short and sweet. Here are five books I read last year from authors who are new to me.

 

Author: Betty MacDonald

What I Read from Them: The Plague and I

Would I Read More from Them? Yes! I never would have guessed that a memoir about living in a tuberculosis hospital in the 1930s would be so funny or relatable nearly a century later. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for anything else she might have written.

 

Author: Annalee Newitz

What I Read from Them: Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age

WouldI Read More from Them? Yes! This author had a conversational writing style that made learning about history amusing and educational.

 

Author: Kathy Iandoli

What I Read from Them: Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah

Would I Read More from Them? No. I found the author’s writing style to be choppy, and she only skimmed the surface on some pretty important questions about Aaliyah’s life. I know that it was probably quite difficult to dig up new information about this singer given how private her family is, but I wasn’t impressed with this biography.

 

Author: Katherine Arden

What I Read from Them: Small Spaces

Would I Read More from Them? I already have! I’ll be reviewing Small Spaces and it’s sequels on this site in the near future, so stay tuned.

 

Author: Sandy Skotnicki

What I Read from Them: Beyond Soap: The Real Truth about What You Are Doing to Your Skin and How to Fix It for a Beautiful, Healthy Glow

Would I Read More from Them? Maybe. There was a lot of excellent information about skin care in this book, but I found the writing to be a bit repetitive at times. So I’d pick up more books from this author, but I might skim through them or only read the sections that are most applicable to my skin in particular.

95 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as

January 20, 2022 · 1:00 am

Suspicious Town: A Review of The Dunwich Horror

Vintage Science Fiction Blog Challenge badge. It shows a rocket ship against a red background. There is a bubble city in the background. Vintage Science Fiction month takes place every January, and has a few guidelines:

 – read, watch, listen to, or experience something science fiction / fantasy that was created in 1979 or earlier

 – talk about it online sometime in January

 – have fun

If any of my readers are also interested in participating this month, let Little Red Reviewer know about your posts if you’d like them to be included in her official roundups. 

 

Title: The Dunwich Horror

Author: H.P. Lovecraft

Publisher: Weird Tales

Publication Date: April 1929

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Historical

Length: 58 pages

Source: I read it for free here

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Dunwich Horror is the story of Wilbur Whateley, son of a deformed albino mother and an unknown father, and the strange events surrounding his birth and precocious development. Wilbur matures at an abnormal rate, reaching manhood within a decade–all the while indoctrinated him into dark rituals and witchcraft by his grandfather.

The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft book cover. Image on cover is an abstract drawing of a white smoky blob against a black background. Review:

Content warning: Murder. I will not be discussing this in my review.

Nobody really knows what goes on behind their neighbour’s front doors.

Lovecraft had such a descriptive writing style. Whether he was telling the reader what the unwelcoming landscape looked like or exploring the hidden depths of the people whose families had lived there for generations, he knew exactly how to pull the audience in and make them listen closely to what he was saying. This is a special gift, and it’s something that leads me back to his stories over and over again even though I completely understand the many valid criticisms of his work and personal beliefs. I think there’s something to be said for acknowledging the flaws in famous creators while still leaving room to enjoy the ways they used their talents.

There were some parts of the storyline  that I struggled to understand, especially when it came to Wilbur’s origins. While I completely understood why the surrounding community wouldn’t know all of the details about his parentage, especially in an era when children born to single mothers were so heavily stigmatized, I had a ton of unanswered questions about this stuff that would have really helped me to understand later developments. Was there perhaps something lost in the nuance of it all over the last century? Is the world I grew up in too different from this one to easily make comparisons between the two? Sometimes I wondered if this was the case since the characters seemed to piece some of this stuff together in ways that I as a modern, urban reader did not. This was still an enjoyable read, but those passages did make it feel dated at times.

Small, rural communities can be pretty unwelcoming places to live, especially for anyone who stands out from the crowd due to their appearance or membership in a minority group. I liked the way the author stretched the tendencies of some members of our species to be insular and suspicious of outsiders to its limit. It truly brought out the absurdity of it all while also explaining why humans can react so harshly to people they don’t understand or relate to for any number of reasons.

I’d recommend The Dunwich Horror to anyone who is at least occasionally little disquieted by small, sleepy towns.

2 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

January 19, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What Inventive Ways Do You Have to Keep Warm?

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.

A bowl filled with chilli I’m going to assume that everyone already knows about practical ways to stay warm like wearing multiple layers of clothing, choosing thick, warm socks, and doing something active like cleaning or exercising to get your blood pumping faster.

Eating hot, hearty meals is another trick up my sleeve on cold days. If you like and can eat spicy food, that will make it even more effective.

Filling foods that take a long time to digest really go a long way in warming someone up. This is even more true on days when you know you’ll be spending more time outside than usual. It’s much easier to brace the cold when your stomach feels like a happy little furnace that filled with fuel.

I do not know why spicy meals are even better at doing this. Maybe it’s because they make your mouth and esophagus feel extra warm while you’re eating them?

At any rate, some of my favourite things to eat on cold days are chili, stews, soups, spaghetti, and other dishes that have a nice balance of complex carbohydrates, fat, and lots of protein from meat or beans. If you pick the right ingredients, you can get at least one serving of nearly every food group in a single meal as well which is an awesome bonus.

Stay warm, friends! If you live in a part of the world that is not freezing right now, I am just a tad jealous of your balmy weather.

10 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as