This week’s prompt was “The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf,” and it totally stumped me. I haven’t bought new books in ages, and I’ve already talked about the library books I’m hoping to read soon in a recent Top Ten Tuesday post.
Therefore, I’m going with an unrelated, but still bookish, topic for today: picturesque reading spots. I don’t know about you, but I find reading even more enjoyable if I can do it in a beautiful location. Here are just a few of the spots I’d love to read in.
I would need a cushion for these chairs, but they look like a very restful place to sit and read.
This looks like a supremely comfortable reading spot. The minimalistic decor would also make it easier to focus on a difficult or long book.
There’s something so soothing about large bodies of water. I’ve found that they’re often much prettier in person no matter how beautiful they are in a photo or video. There’s something about smelling that fresh water and possibly hearing it lap against the shore that makes it even more enticing.
I love nature, but I also love having a clean and dry place to sit and read. This bench seems like it could offer the best of both worlds.
Sometimes the weather dictates that one should read inside. These aren’t my pets, but I sure would love to snuggle with a couple of pets while reading. It sounds so cozy.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, and this post is in no way intended to give out medical advice. Please seek the advice of a qualified medical professional before beginning this or any other workout routine.
In addition, I’m not being compensated for this post and have no affiliation with the creators. There is never affiliate marketing of any sort on my site.
About the 30-Minute Cardio Latin Dance Workout
This is a 30-minute dance workout. There are warmup and cooldown exercises included in it.
If you’ve never done a cardio dance workout routine before, I’d recommend either starting with Bipasha Basu’s 30-Minute Aerobic Dance Workout instead or embracing all of the modified moves that one of the dancers demonstrates for the audience if you’re up for a challenge. This routine is not intended for beginners in my opinion.
I’d recommend either wearing a supportive pair of shoes or putting down a yoga mat or other soft but non-slippery surface for all of the jumping you’re about to do. No other equipment is necessary.
It’s been a few months since I added this workout to my regular rotation, and I absolutely love it.
I had no experience with salsa or merengue dancing before trying this workout. If any of my followers do have experience with those dance styles, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this routine!
One of the best things about these styles of dance is that they repeat the same moves over and over again in various combinations and patterns. While it definitely took me time to get all of the moves down fairly accurately, it was nice to start to understand it right away.
If I didn’t have the exact pattern memorized yet, it was really easy to pick something similar and keep moving. This is something that I haven’t been able to do in every dance workout I’ve tried, so I definitely appreciated the fact that I was able to wing it a little in the beginning while I was still getting used to how everything fit together. That extra challenge was a small but important part of the reason why I stuck around after the first time I tried it.
The dancers in this video are energetic. This was especially true for Nicole Steen who was leading the routine. I couldn’t help but to smile at the jokes she cracked and the many techniques she used to keep the energy high in her backup dancers.
Dancing is one of those things that can easily perk up my mood, so the combination of getting to do one of my favourite forms of exercise with having such an upbeat instructor worked really well for me.
I also appreciated the fact that this routine can be done in a fairly small space. Yes, you move around a lot in it, but you’re not leaping from one corner of the room to the next if that makes sense. Instead, dancers tend to do a lot of bending, twisting, and shaking. My apartment is a tiny one, but I always had enough space to copy the dancers (once I figured out what to expect from them next!)
The modifications were also a nice touch. I had enough experience with other types of cardio-heavy styles of dancing that I didn’t end up using them, but it was reassuring to know that I could drop down to less intense moves if necessary. This also was a feature that convinced me to leave the door open for people who don’t have a lot of dance experience to give this a shot. With less twisting and jumping to worry about, picking up on the moves sure seems like it would be easier.
Honestly, I can’t recommend this workout highly enough. It’s a great deal of fun and something I’m planning to keep doing for the foreseeable future.
Previous Reviews of Free Youtube Workout Routines:
– 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.
Today I’m going to be blogging about “Second Variety,” a science fiction novelette by Philip K. Dick about what happened to the Earth and the few remaining humans on it after a nuclear war erupted between the Soviet Union and the United Nations. This tale was originally published in 1953, but many of the themes in it still feel fresh nearly 70 years later.
Click here to read “Second Variety” for free. Everything after this sentence and in the tags of this post contains spoilers for this story, so reader beware!
The first thing that grabbed my imagination when I was reading this tale had to do with the destruction of the natural environment. There was so much devastation everywhere the characters looked.
It briefly reminded me of the massive forest fires currently burning in Australia. Just like in our world, the lion’s share of the suffering was shouldered by innocent living beings – human and otherwise – that were never given a choice in the matter. It was utterly unfair.
While this is a story about war, it’s not a war story. The biggest battles have long-since happened by the time we meet the main characters, and the addition of a new enemy has already thrown both sides off-kilter. The exhaustion of fighting an enemy that never needs to sleep or fulfill other human needs also added a new twist to this post-apocalyptic world.
There were actually times when I felt a little sorry for the robots. Yes, they were attacking humans…but they weren’t the ones responsible for causing such severe environmental damage that Europe and vast swaths of North America were no longer able to grow any food at all. They were just following the orders they’d been given by their creators.
With that being said, I still loved the plot twists involving the robots and what they were capable of doing. They technically weren’t alive, but they sure acted like it. Not only did they repair themselves when broken, they paid close attention to what was left of human culture and looked for any weaknesses they could find and take advantage of. That’s not something I’d normally expect from a robot!
As someone who has read a ton of post-apocalyptic and robotic science fiction, I figured out where this story would probably end up pretty early on. That isn’t a criticism of the piece, though. It wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of other authors were influenced by Mr. Dick’s writing style kind of like modern authors have written things that echo the Harry Potter series or various Margaret Atwood novels.
This repetition and evolution of ideas is common in all genres. It will be interesting to see if any of my fellow scifi fans had the same reaction to this story, especially where the ending is concerned.
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.
There are plenty of books I’m curious about, but I can think of only one upcoming release that genuinely excites me at this point. (The year is still young, so this will almost certainly change over time!)
I’m thinking about rereading the Hunger Games trilogy before the prequel comes out in May. Here’s hoping that the prequel is well done and answers everyone’s questions about how Panem was created in the first place.
Let’s see how many things I can add to this list. The prompt for this week said “these could be books, authors, blogs, websites, apps, products, etc.,” so I’m going to try to be creative with it.
This is a bookish Halloween blog that I love. They have a weekly roundup of links that have introduced me to so many new authors and random literary things.
This is a fun blog hop put on by Long and Short Reviews. The topics last year range from favourite characters to recipes to books you’d recommend to people who liked a certain genre.
Open Mic Nights at My Local Library
I don’t know how many – if any – I’ll be attending this year, but it was pretty amazing to listen to other people read their own work, share a favourite poem from a famous writer, sing, crack jokes, and otherwise explore the wide world of literature and the arts last year. If your community has a library, I’d definitely recommend checking to see if they have a similar event (and asking them for one if they don’t).
It’s such a wonderful way to spend an evening and get to know your community better.
Folklore Thursday
If you’re on Twitter, #FolkloreThursday happens every Thursday. Their website or Twitter account generally share the specific themes ahead of time. Past topics have ranged from the food to children to winter holidays.
I’ve learned about so many legends and traditions from the folks who run it and highly recommend it to anyone who loves fairy tales, folk tales, or anything similar to that.
Content warning: Found footage and mental illness. I will be discussing these things later on in this post.
Europa Report is a 2013 science fiction film about an international group of astronauts who are sent on an expedition to Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, Europa, to see if they can find any evidence of life there.
This story expects its audience to already know the basics of how space exploration works and what astronauts would realistically hope to accomplish on a mission like this one.
While the plot definitely does meander into places that are beyond the scope of our current understanding of other parts of our solar system, I classified it as hard science fiction and would suggest spending some time reading about real-life spaceflights and NASA’s tentative plans to explore Europa before watching this film to anyone who doesn’t already have a basic understanding of these things already for reasons I’ll explain in my review below. (Both of those links are nonfiction and 100% spoiler-free).
I should note that this was shot as found footage, so there is shaky camera work in a few places. This is a technique that has made me a little nauseated when it happened in other films. While it didn’t bother me in this one, I still thought it would be best to make note of it for anyone who has a more sensitive stomach.
Characters
Captain Daniel Wu (left) as William Xu. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Captain Wu was the level-headed leader of this crew who was excited to see Europa regardless of what they discovered there.
Anamaria Marinca as Rosa Dasque
Rosa was the pilot and archivist. A risk taker at times, she signed up for this mission because she wanted to go “faster and farther than anyone else before.”
Michael Nyqvist as Andrei Blok
Andrei was the chief engineer. He was highly skilled at his job but found the living accommodations on the Europa One to be less than ideal, especially once he began to deal with his emotional reaction to something difficult that happened earlier on in the mission. My fan theory was that he was a deeply introverted man who struggled to find enough peace and quiet in such tight living quarters even before that experience occurred.
Karolina Wydra as Katya Petrovna
Katya was the science officer. Her background was in marine biology and oceanography, but she was ironically scared of flying when she signed up for this mission. She was adventurous and yearned to fulfill the crew’s mission and discover life on Europa.
Sharlto Copley as James Corrigan
James was the engineer. He’d left behind a wife and young son to go on this mission and often spoke of how much he missed them.
Christian Camargo as Daniel Luxembourg. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Daniel was the chief science officer. His friendship with James provided a few lighthearted moments in an otherwise serious tale.
My Review
Don’t let the introduction to this post deter you from giving this film a try if you’re unfamiliar with the topics it covers. While it does expect the audience to come with some prior knowledge of spacecrafts and space travel, the storyline was well written and fascinating.
“The Europa One Mission was the first attempt to send men and women into deep space. For over six months the world watched every moment.”
All of the characters had spent years gaining the education and experience necessary to be eligible for this sort of history-making mission. Since this was a plot-driven story, there wasn’t a great deal of time spent exploring their backstories. I did learn enough about them to become emotionally attached, though.
As mentioned in the content warning and character description, there is a subplot about Andrei’s struggles with his mental health. All of the astronauts had been taught about the dangers that this mission could pose to their mental health, from the effects of Zero G to the natural consequences of living in relative isolation for so long. I appreciated the way the filmmakers handled this topic.
While I can’t discuss the incident that contributed to this character developing a mental illness without giving away spoilers, it was handled sensitively. There was nothing salacious about it, and it fit into the storyline perfectly. Honestly, I could very well have had the same response if I’d been in his shoes. This is something I’d be happy to discuss in more detail privately with anyone who asks for it.
The camaraderie between the six astronauts was well documented and provided a nice contrast to all of the scenes that went into detail about the various scientific studies they were conducting and the many things they needed to do to keep their ship in good shape.
Katya exploring Europa. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Some of the most exciting scenes were obviously the ones that showed what happened after the astronauts arrived on Europa.
They had a long list of samples they wanted to take from the ice and sea beneath the ice.
What would they find there? How would the readings of this moon taken from Earth compare to what it was actually like?
I had so many questions about this part of their journey, so I was thrilled to see what happened after they arrived and began analyzing everything. Yes, there were certain acronyms and references mentioned during this portion that weren’t explained to the audience. Some of them could be figured out from context clues. Others might require searching online for viewers who aren’t already familiar with this stuff.
Honestly, I think doing a little of research is well worth figuring out exactly what characters are talking about when they’re testing a sample of water or discussing how to fix a damaged portion of their vessel. While that may make this film a little less accessible to the average viewer than it would otherwise be, I thought writing it that way was the right choice. Actual astronauts wouldn’t pause to explain every technical term they used, after all!
To share one final note, the plot was shared out of chronological order in certain scenes. Everything you need to know is included if you pay attention, and the reasons for filming it this way will become clear if you stick with it.
This was something I had a wonderful time watching. I highly recommend it to anyone who is willing to put a little effort into piecing everything together.
England, 1917 Reeling from the death of her fiancé, Stella Marcham welcomes the opportunity to stay with her pregnant sister, Madeleine, at her imposing country mansion, Greyswick – but she arrives to discover a house of unease and her sister gripped by fear and suspicion.
Before long, strange incidents begin to trouble Stella – sobbing in the night, little footsteps on the stairs – and as events escalate, she finds herself drawn to the tragic history of the house.
Aided by a wounded war veteran, Stella sets about uncovering Greyswick’s dark and terrible secrets – secrets the dead whisper from the other side…
In the classic tradition of The Woman in Black, Anita Frank weaves a spell-binding debut of family tragedy, loss and redemption.
Review:
Content warning: Death of a child.
Some secrets refuse to stay hidden.
As the blurb and the content warning mentioned, one of the subplots of this tale involved what happened to a house in the years following the sudden death of a child there. That child’s identity and reason for death were things that were revealed much later on in the plot, so I won’t go into any detail about them here. What I will say is that this tale spent a great deal of time exploring how grief not only changes over time but can stick with someone long after their loss. The family who experienced this loss weren’t the only ones who were grieving. I loved seeing how the other subplots involving grief were interwoven with this one. Not all of them were quite as dramatic, but they worked together beautifully.
What made me give this book a 3.5 star rating was the behaviour of the characters, especially Stella. She’d been intelligent enough to qualify as a nurse in World War I, and yet she continually made choices that I struggled to understand even while knowing that she’d suffered a terribly tragedy while abroad. Her lack of common sense astounded me at times, especially when it came to how she responded to phenomena that had no rational explanation. The occasional lapse of judgement is totally understandable, but there were times when I found it hard to take the plot seriously because of how often she rushed into dangerous situations without thinking things through first. This was a flaw that was repeated with some of the other characters as well, including ones that had lived at Greyswick long enough to that there was something dangerous lurking there.
The treatment of the female characters was handled nicely. We’re still a long ways off from ending sexism, but it was much more insidious in 1917. Women from every social class dealt with it, and there were very few laws to protect them from harmful stereotypes about what they were capable of and how they should be treated if they stepped outside of a narrow range of acceptable behaviours. This isn’t something that a lot of gothic novels address, so I was pleased to see it get so much attention here even though I also cringed at the way women’s hormonal states or “feeble” minds were used as an excuse to avoid getting to the bottom of what was causing so much havoc at Greyswick. It was historically accurate, though!
Despite these issues, The Lost Ones was a deliciously chilling read that I’d recommend to anyone who loves Gothic literature or haunted houses and doesn’t mind suspending their disbelief for a while.
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 goals for 2020 are simple.
Visit More Museums. It’s been too long since I stepped foot into a museum. That needs to change.
Try New Things. It could be as simple as visiting a new restaurant or as complicated as having a full-blown conversation in Spanish. I want to stretch my comfort zone this year.
Study Spanish Again. Speaking of foreign languages, I stopped studying Spanish last year. I want to pick it up again and hopefully get to a point where I can have conversations in that language. Learning a new language is hard, and I deeply admire everyone who becomes fluent in a new language.
Spend More Time in Nature. While I love living in a big city, there’s something incredibly relaxing about spending time in nature. I want to do that more often.
Reply to Emails Faster. I wasn’t always good at that in 2019. Let’s see if I can do better this year.
Why I’m Excited for It: There aren’t enough books out there about friendship, especially when it comes to the end of a friendship. I hope this one does so well that publishers realize there’s a demand for these types of stories.
Why I’m Excited for It: This is apparently based on her short story called “The City Born Great.” I loved the world building in that story and can’t wait to see where Ms. Jemisin goes next with it.
Why I’m Excited for It: While the young adult genre in general is getting better at including mental illness reps, I can’t remember the last time I read about a character who was at all familiar with Dissociative Identity Disorder. I hope it’s a good read that does justice for this illness!
Why I’m Excited for It: There have been a few great books about asexual characters that came out over the last few years. This one is about someone who is aromantic and asexual, so I’m super curious to see what it will be like.
Why I’m Excited for It: I’ve never been good at any sports no matter how hard I tried to play them. Serena’s talent on the tennis court amazes me, and I’d like to learn more about where it came from and how she became a star in her sport.
Why I’m Excited for It: As soon as I saw the phrase “literary ghost story” in the blurb, I knew I had to read this one. Hauntings of both the literal and metaphorical kinds are always interesting to me.
Why I’m Excited for It: My sense of direction is honestly not spectacular. Like reading about star athletes, I find joy in learning how other living beings find their way around in our world much better than I can!
Why I’m Excited for It: I take good care of my skin. Reading about the newest science on what you should and shouldn’t do for healthy skin is something I enjoy quite a bit. Here’s hoping this book will touch on that topic!
This post is the final instalment of a four-part series I’ve been slowly working on about walking during each season of the year. Click on the links in this sentence to read about the things I love about spring hikes, summer strolls, and autumn hikes.
Winter is my least favourite season. The cold temperatures, short days, and frequent snowstorms means I generally spend a lot of time indoors.
I do so much of my exercising outdoors from spring to autumn, so this also means that getting workouts in is trickier at this time of the year than at any other. With that being said, there are still advantages to getting outdoors for a walk in the winter.
The Blissful Solitude
While I mentioned something pretty similar to this in my post about spring hikes, but it bears repeating again for this season. There are always some people walking around in my area, but you definitely see fewer of them on cold days.
As an introvert, I love this. There’s nothing like going to the park and having it all – or nearly all – to yourself.
The same can be said for walking down a street that is generally quite crowded in warmer weather. Rather than dodging strangers, I can focus on looking at all of the little things I might not have noticed about the architecture of the buildings I pass or the new plants at the park or forest that appeared since my last visit.
The Quiet Consistency
The months between April and November are filled with changes in the natural world here in southern Ontario. I revel in every change I see as plants sprout leaves, flowers bloom, or the first trees began to change colours for the season.
Winter is a long pause in this cycle every year. It’s just about impossible to look outdoors and immediately know whether we’re in the first week of December or the last week of March. Every day more or less looks the same during those months unless there’s been an ice storm or snowstorm recently.
There’s something to be said for appreciating that consistency. Spring will arrive eventually. In the meantime, I don’t need to think about whether a plant hanging over the side of the sidewalk is poison ivy or whether I’ve photographed that flower already.
Winter is a time of rest. I’m coming to appreciate that.
The Cold, Crisp Air
A year or two ago, I noticed that the temperatures were a bit cooler one August morning than they’d been that previous week. I decided to set out for a walk before the true heat of the day set in.
It took less than half a block for my body to become so drenched in perspiration that I headed back home for a cold glass of water. What I wouldn’t have given for a gust of cold, crisp air that day!
As much as I always look forward to spring, there is definitely something to be said for being able to exercise outdoors without getting dehydrated, developing a sunburn, or sweating through my clothes a few short minutes after leaving the house.
If you live in a part of the world that has winter and you spend time outdoors exercising during that season, what do you like most about it?
Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl
The dancers in this video are energetic. This was especially true for Nicole Steen who was leading the routine. I couldn’t help but to smile at the jokes she cracked and the many techniques she used to keep the energy high in her backup dancers.
Vintage Science Fiction
The first thing that grabbed my imagination when I was reading this tale had to do with the destruction of the natural environment. There was so much devastation everywhere the characters looked.
Content warning: Found footage and mental illness. I will be discussing these things later on in this post.
Visit More Museums. It’s been too long since I stepped foot into a museum. That needs to change.
This post is the final instalment of a four-part series I’ve been slowly working on about walking during each season of the year. Click on the links in this sentence to read about the things I love about 
While I mentioned something pretty similar to this in my post about spring hikes, but it bears repeating again for this season. There are always some people walking around in my area, but you definitely see fewer of them on cold days.
The months between April and November are filled with changes in the natural world here in southern Ontario. I revel in every change I see as plants sprout leaves, flowers bloom, or the first trees began to change colours for the season.
A year or two ago, I noticed that the temperatures were a bit cooler one August morning than they’d been that previous week. I decided to set out for a walk before the true heat of the day set in.