Lydia Schoch

June 17, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Summer 2025 to-Read List

A 1970s, muted rainbow-themed graphic that reads “here comes the sun.” The rainbow colours are arranged to look like a circle or the sun instead of a traditional rainbow. I have been saving some of these titles in a document for months as I slowly accumulated them in an attempt to make my seasonal TBR posts a little longer than they have been previously.

Here’s hoping they are all excellent reads.

Do you all do similar things with these seasonal TBR posts and have to do a lot of digging to find books for them?

I am so impressed with Top Ten Tuesday blogggers who routinely come up with ten or more answers for these prompts.

Book cover for The Afterlife Project by Tim Weed. Image on cover looks like an oil painting of a valley filled with spruce and fir trees that has a meadow in the centre of the valley. It looks like it was painted in the 1800s.

1. The Afterlife Project by Tim Weed

Why I’m Interested: I love science fiction novels about time travel and trying to save humanity from extinction!

Book cover for One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford. Image on covers shows a stylized drawing of a pale person turning their head away from the viewer. In place of hair, they have fire flickering their head. As well, a portion of their neck skin is missing and you can see the various muscles and tendons in the neck.

2. One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford

Publication Date: July 15

Why I’m Interested: Of course some people would try to cure their loved ones if zombies were real. I like it when this genre explores what those cures might look like.

Book cover for The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Image on cover shows a drawing of a pale-skinned hand reaching up and out to a small golden phoenix that is flying away.

3. The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Publication Date: July 15

Why I’m Interested: Ms. Moreno-Garcia writes such interesting premises.

Book cover for The Lies They Told by Ellen Marie Wiseman. Image on cover shows a painting of a little farmhouse sitting next to the woods at dusk. There are a few fireflies flying around outside as well as some flowers of various hues at the top of the cover.

4. The Lies They Told by Ellen Marie Wiseman

Thank you to Susan @ Blogging’Bout’Books for alerting me about this title.

Publication Date: July 29

Why I’m Interested: Eugenics was an ugly chapter of history that still echoes loudly through to the present. I shudder and then become angry when I read about folks who think people with disabilities are somehow less valuable than the able-bodied or express even more horrifying opinions than that one.

Book cover for Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. Image on cover is a neon drawing of a large robot picking up red neon noodles from a gigantic neon orange pan of noodles while a small golden robot stands next to the pan and looks on.

5. Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

Publication Date: August 5

Why I’m Interested: Science fiction has given us so many frighting stories about robots that a cozy one is a refreshing change. I wonder what sorts of dishes service bots make?

Book cover for The Space Cat by Nnedi Okorafor. Image on cover shows a drawing of a tabby cat that’s lying comfortably on the word Space in the title and peering ahead at the audience.

6. The Space Cat by Nnedi Okorafor

Publication Date: August 12

Why I’m Interested: She writes such interesting stuff.

Book cover for Legendary Frybread Drive-In by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Image on cover shows a drawing of two Native American women holding a platter of fry bread in a parking lot and gazing down at it as a red heart blooms from it. Behind them there is a car and a few other people standing around. Perhaps they are waiting for food?

7. Legendary Frybread Drive-In by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Publication Date: August 26

Why I’m Interested: I love interconnected collections of short stories and poems.

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Tagged as TBR, TBR List, Top Ten Tuesday

June 12, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Their Other Selves

Title: Their Other Selves

Author: Benjamin Parsons

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: September 28, 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Historical

Length: 24 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 stars

Blurb:

Caletha isn’t ready to settle down until she meets someone who loves her as much as she loves herself. It’s a joke, but she half-believes it. Then one evening she and her father take a walk along the riverbank and meet themselves— their exact doubles coming towards them. Sudden tragedies follow this ominous encounter, which drive Caletha to doubt everything she used to believe. Are the misfortunes merely coincidental, or caused by the supernatural? And who was the mysterious figure lurking in the shadows behind the uncanny doppelgängers? Evenking, or Their Other Selves is a short folktale-inspired story, part of the collection Blaquoby: Country Town Tales.

Content Warning: Grief and death.

Review:

The mind is a powerful weapon.

Some of my favourite scenes were the ones that explored Caletha’s guilt and grief. She was an ordinarily bubbly and cheerful young woman who didn’t always put deep thought into how other people saw the world. While it was never done out of malice, she did have a blind spot when it came to how her actions affected others, and I believe she would have happily tried to change those interactions if given a second chance. I appreciate it when authors create characters who are likeable but whose flaws are issues that genuinely make life more difficult for them sometimes. In this particular case, that was precisely what the plot needed to move forward.

I found the doppelgänger storyline confusing, especially given the folklore surrounding why someone might have this experience and what they may have done to bring it on. Caletha was not a perfect person by any means, and she had made a hurtful decision early on in the storyline that I agree should not have happened. Still, the explanation of why she saw her double didn’t quite match up with what I learned about her as a person. If the decisions she made earlier were enough to trigger it, I’d argue that everyone deserves that same fate because none of us get through life without occasionally doing things, whether intentionally or unintentionally, that we later come to regret.

With that being said, I did enjoy the fairy tale qualities of this piece. It felt like the sort of story people might have told to their children generations ago in order to explain why it’s important to keep promises and what sad fates might await those who break them too easily. There was nothing at all gory or gross here, but there were themes that included stricter rules for etiquette and interpersonal relationships than many modern people are held to today. This gave the plot a timeless feeling in the sense that it could have occurred 80 years ago or 800 years ago with few if any changes to the fates of the characters.

This is the fifth book in a series that does not need to be read in any particular order.

Their Other Selves was thought provoking.

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Things to Do in the Summer

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.

I know we’ve had this theme for WWBC in the past at least once, but I’m purposefully not looking up my old post or posts about it. Let’s see what my brain comes up with this time.

What do I like to do during the summer?

Eating fresh, local produce. There are a limited number of options for Canadian produce between about November and April or May, and most of those involve apples, cabbage, or other root vegetables. Due to this, I relish all of the seasonal and often more delicate foods that are abundant the rest of the year. Yay for berries, stone fruit, tomatoes, and more!

Going swimming. Yes, some Canadians enjoy a nice Polar Plunge (briefly swimming or wading in the Great Lakes in the dead of winter), but I am so not one of them. Give me sunlight on my skin and enough time for the summer heat to actually warm up the water to non-freezing temperatures before I’ll even think about dipping my toes in at a beach or pool.

Taking morning walks. Even on hot days, the weather can still be decent if you go outside before the sun has warmed up everything too much. Evening walks can be nice, too, depending on the high temperature of the day.

Attending festivals and parades. I love being surrounded by happy people while celebrating books, cultural events, various minority groups, food, music, or other uplifting topics. You’ll often see dogs walking around with their people at these events, too! I like to pretend that everyone’s dogs know exactly who or what is being celebrated and wholeheartedly endorse it.

Travelling lightly. That is to say, in the summer there’s no need for a winter jacket, mittens, hat, scarf, long underwear, or any other extra stuff to remember to put on when I’m out and about. I love walking around in shorts, sneakers, and a t-shirt with nothing to carry in my hands other than maybe a bottle of water.

Visiting nature. I think you all could probably guess I’d pick this. Summer can be tricky for park visits depending on the heat and humidity levels and what the air quality index looks like, but on the cooler and less smoky days* I’m definitely up for a picnic, a few rounds of nature or other types of photography, some sightseeing, or a stroll through a forest or flower garden.

*Canada, and I believe many parts of the U.S. as well, have had massive forest fires in recent years during the summer. This can make the air quality too poor for exercising or non-essential outdoor time depending on how bad things get.

So this is my list. What can I say other than I’m easy to please and can amuse myself on a budget. 🙂

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Filed under Blog Hops, Personal Life

Tagged as Personal Life, Summer, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

June 10, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Wishes

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I am blessed to have access to a wonderful public library system that has most of the books I want to read, so I will once again pick wishes that are more whimsical in nature.

Dandelion seeds being blown away by the wind from a mature dandelion in a grassy field. My bookish wishes are as follows:

1) Just like I mentioned last time, I wish the Toronto Public Library could raise their hold limit for ebooks. They cut it in half last autumn, probably due to how expensive ebooks are. If only such decisions were never necessary.

2) A comfortable bench in the shade to sit on at the park on a day that isn’t too hot or humid. I love hearing birds chirp and leaves rustle while I read.

3) Satisfying and logical endings for every series. It’s irritating when the last book or books in a series are never written or when they are eventually released but totally ignore the foreshadowing and character development from earlier instalments.

4) Tasty new dairy-free treats at my favourite coffee shops…and ideally a shaded empty table on their patios so I can sit and watch friendly people and dogs pass by as I eat, drink, and read.

5) Growth for the bookish community in general and Top Ten Tuesday in particular. The more readers, reviewers, and bloggers we have, the better if you ask me!

6) More time for blog hopping. I am so behind on commenting on other people’s posts it’s not even funny.

7) New books being released from everyone’s favourite authors. I want us all of to be excited for what is to come.

8) Ideas for blog posts. I haven’t any creative ones in a while, so thank goodness for blog hops like Top Ten Tuesday and the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge.

9) More virtual bookish events. If anyone knows of any, please share!

10) More bookish friends. I’m casting my net widely.

I wonder if anyone else will take a similar approach this week?

56 Comments

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Tagged as Bookish Stuff, Top Ten Tuesday, wish

June 5, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Mob Lodge

Title: Mob Lodge

Author: Krrish Anand

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: April 15, 2025

Genres: Fantasy, LGBTQ+, Contemporary

Length: 160 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

The world has ended, but people still have to survive. Enter Grim – an unapologetically nihilist, asexual, transmasc z-ennial with the mouth of a sailor and the visual acuity of a naked mole rat – and his adolescent naturalist grandson, Bug. When survival is just too damn boring, Grim recalls life from before the nukes dropped; which, he asserts, was much, much harder back then.

Content Warning: Murder and death.

Review:

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes.

I adored the character development in this piece, but I can’t go into much detail about it without giving away some fantastic plot twists. Honestly, this was one of the biggest reasons why I chose a five star rating. There was plenty of space left for nuance, and characters who behaved one way in the game were often presented quite differently in this novel which gave this reader the chance to see that boxy, flat world from perspectives I hadn’t spent much time pondering in the past as well as helped to explain why they behaved the way they did once the heavier action elements of the storyline kicked in. The various layers of meaning in their behaviour kept my attention levels high from beginning to end and made me want to go start a new world and build a house in it again. If only I could bring some of these characters with me into my world!

Death in the Minecraft universe isn’t handled the same way as it would be in our world. This was a nice Easter egg for fans of the game who have already had their character die in it, but I don’t want to provide too many spoilers for anyone who isn’t already familiar with this feature. What I can say is that this feature provided plenty of opportunities for the characters to grow and change as individuals on their quest. I smiled and nodded along as they faced insurmountable odds and did everything they could to help each other along the way.

The plot twists were exciting and numerous. Just like while playing the game, I would think I knew what would happen next only to be surprised by something I didn’t see coming. This is the kind of writing style that makes me want to come back for more, especially for a genre like fantasy that I’ve read so extensively. It’s not always easy to find fresh spins to put on common tropes, but the author did a good job here of both meeting this reader’s expectations of how the storyline would go and delighting me with creative applications of the sorts of conflicts, characters, and settings I knew I was almost certainly going to read about.

I’d strongly recommend playing Minecraft before reading this book as the narrator assumes their audience already knows all about the lore of this world.

Mob Lodge was wildly imaginative and made me want to play Minecraft again!

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Book Covers 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.

A bouquet of little white flowers - possibly of the dogwood variety - lying on an antique hardcover book. The book’s cover is brown and looks like it may have once had a floral design on it. There are scratches and little pieces missing here and there on the cover, though, so it’s hard to tell for sure. Honestly, I’m a little picky about how blurbs and the first few pages of a tale are written and what is or isn’t included in them, but book covers themselves aren’t as important to me. There are many different styles I like or even love and only a few that would deter me from giving something a try.

My favourite types of covers are the ones that are just a little jarring or surprising in a good way for the viewer. That is to say, you glance at them and wonder what the heck in going on in that scene.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

Book cover for The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1) by Margaret Atwood. Image on cover shows two women wearing long red dresses and white hats that cover their faces. They are walking beside a tall brick wall in an otherwise desolate scene.

The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid’s Tale, #1) by Margaret Atwood

I knew absolutely nothing about this story when I picked it up, but the cover made me feel nervous about their strange clothing and curious about where they were going.

Book cover for Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1) by Diana Wynne Jones. Image on cover shows a castle that has somehow sprouted large wooden legs and is walking in a meadow.

Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1) by Diana Wynne Jones

This book has been on my TBR list for ages, so all I can go by is the oddly ambulatory castle on the cover that utterly fascinates me.

Book cover for A Dirty Job (Grim Reaper, #1) by Christopher Moore. Image on cover shows someone in a grey tunic pushing a baby skeleton in a hot pink carriage. The baby is carrying a scythe and is maybe the grim reaper as a child?

A Dirty Job (Grim Reaper, #1) by Christopher Moore

While I haven’t read this one and it is not currently on my TBR list, it has such an eye-catching cover. I’d never think to draw a baby grim reaper (if that is, indeed who he or she is).

Book cover for Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Image on cover shows the silhouette of a young black woman’s head. Her hair has been braided in dozens of little braids and she’s looking up expectedly at something beyond the viewer’s gaze.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

There is subtle foreshadowing on this cover that I found delightful after finishing the last chapter and realizing what hints were shared immediately. (It was an excellent read, too!) If only I could go into more detail without spoiling things. Just know that everything in this image matters.

Madeleine Is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

Here’s another book I haven’t read that has such an intriguing cover. I’m guessing these girls were playing dress up, but why is a cured leopard pelt part of their games?

Book cover for The Deep by Rivers Solomon. Image on cover shows a black mermaid with dreadlocks who is swimming in the ocean next to a whale.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

Once again, this cover has excellent clues about the storyline embedded in it. I appreciated the fact that it lets the reader know immediately that this is about mermaids without giving away the many important differences between Yetu and, say, Ariel from The Little Mermaid. The mythology of and backstory in this tale are of utmost importance, but one also doesn’t want new fans to know too far ahead of time exactly what to expect for spoiler reasons. Hollywood, please hurry up and turn this into a film. The source material has so many little moments in it that would look amazing on the big screen.

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Filed under Blog Hops

Tagged as Book Covers, Bookish Stuff, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

June 3, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: LGBTQ Summer Fiction

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Drawing of a heart that has ridges and swirls in it like a fingerprint.The heart has all of the colours of the Pride flag in it with red at the bottom and then going counter-clockwise for the rest of the of the shades. Happy Pride Month to everyone who is celebrating it! Here are ten LGBTQ+ books with summer settings or themes that I am curious to check out once the humidity and heat rises and it’s too hot to spend much time outdoors.

We’ll see how many of them I get around to.

If you’ve read any of them, I’d love to hear your thoughts on their characters and plots!

1. Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan

2. The Summer of Jordi Perez by Amy Spalding

3. Kings of B’more by R. Eric Thomas

4. Donut Summer by Anita Kelly

5. The Dead of Summer by Ryan La Sala

6. The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake

7. Going Bicoastal by Dahlia Adler

8. This Pact Is Not Ours by Zachary Sergi

9. If We Were a Movie by Zakiya N. Jamal

10. Get Real, Chloe Torres by Crystal Maldonado

Do you also tend to save up books to read for when the weather becomes less pleasant for outdoor adventures?

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Tagged as LGBT, Top Ten Tuesday

May 29, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of More Money Than Brains

Title: More Money Than Brains

Author: Rudolph Kohn

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 11, 2024

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 13 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

Aric and the Misevelin Salvage crew find themselves in a dangerous situation when they try to rescue a captain with way too much money and not enough brains or common sense. The ship’s abysmal condition is almost entirely due to the captain’s neglect, and his bad habits get everyone into a much more dangerous situation!

A short, free introduction to the Derelict Project universe, a far-future hard science fiction setting that focuses on derelict ships and the people who find and investigate them. “More Money than Brains” is a humorous short story that provides a taste of one of the Derelict Project’s main groups of characters: Aric Misevelin, Verene “Bill” Resteford, and Lewes Otracht.

Content Warning:

Review:

Nothing can be neglected forever.

There’s nothing like walking into a disaster at work that could have been easily prevented if small issues had been taken note of and looked after immediately. No matter what type of job you may have, the frustration of people who must deal with the repercussions of others who refused to pay attention to detail and keep up with basic maintenance and cleanliness is universal. I nodded along as this crew realized the long lists of problems they needed to solve to prevent this ship from destroying itself and tried to prioritize the most urgent needs first while continuing to find even more issues along the way. It made me wish I had their specialized knowledge and could help them get things sorted out faster!

This was a fast-paced, plot-centred work that didn’t require much introspection from the characters in order to get its point across. Still, I did enjoy the little moments that showed how Aric, Bill, and Lewes reacted to the nonsense they were dealing with. The combination of their obvious breadth of knowledge on the topic of ship repair and their humorous responses to everything going to hell in a hand basket was delightful and rang true to the repair people in my own life who have had similar reactions to things they wish had been done properly and maintained steadfastly the first time around.

I also loved the ending of this piece which brought the hard science fiction elements of the storyline even further into the spotlight and made me wonder what might happen next. This is something other readers should discover in detail for themselves, but I liked the way it explored both the technical nature of the work as well as all-too human responses to machines as well as other humans that don’t always do what the experts wish they’d do. Bravo for a job well done, Mr. Kohn!

This is a standalone tale from a series.

More Money Than Brains was perfect.

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books That Need a Sequel

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.

A large question mark scribbled in blue ink. I wasn’t able to come up with many answers for this week’s prompt because just about all of the books I wished had sequels were eventually given them regardless of what I thought of how those series turned out. I’ve been very lucky in that regard.

Let’s see which books I still wish could have sequels. Beware of spoilers for older titles in this post!

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Why: The bleak and underwhelming ending. While I still enjoyed the plot, I was expecting the protagonist to accomplish so much more than he actually did.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Why: Once again, the ending was dark and a let down from what I assumed was going to happen. I also thought that the way it was wrapped up conflicted with the themes in earlier chapters about what it means to be human and whether clones should be given the same human rights as someone who was conceived in a more traditional manner.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Why: I’d love to see how the world continued to be rebuilt after the events of this book. It ended on such a hopeful note.

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Tagged as Sequel, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

May 27, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Animal Companions

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A green frog sitting peacefully in the water of a pond. The water includes algae and a few small green leaves that have fallen from nearby plants. Thank you to P.S. I Love Books for submitting this theme.