Tag Archives: Friendship

April 1, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Book Bloggers

A laptop sitting on a wooden table. The text reads: “Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.”

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.

Here are a few of my favourite book bloggers.

I have not always done a very good job of visiting some of their blogs these past couple of years due to some tough personal stuff I’ve been dealing with, but they’re still all great people to follow.

If such things were possible, I’d love to get all of these folks together for a big group dinner as I think some new friendships could possibly spark from that evening.

A green stack of paper is lying on a white table next to a fountain pen. In front of the pen and paper are four white cubes that have the word blog spelled on them with one letter on each cube. Berthold Gambrel.

He reviews a ton of indie authors and sometimes filmmakers from a variety of genres. He’s also a genuinely kind and friendly guy who I originally met on Twitter back before it imploded!

Mock Ramblings

Another old Internet friend of mine. We met in the comment section of Bruce Gerencser’s blog, and I’ve learned so much about D&D and various books from his posts over the years. Sometimes he’ll share funny stories about his family, too.

Nerdy Reader Girl 

A bookish friend I’ve known for years. She has the best sense of humour ever, and I live vicariously through the funny stories she sometimes shares about her cats.

Leah’s Books

Leah is someone I originally met through Top Ten Tuesday. She’s been a little quiet online lately, so I’m hoping all is well with her. I love the fact that she jumps around to various genres just like I do and that she’s normally so chatty if you strike up a conversation with her!

Dini Panda Reads

Dini is another wonderful person I met through TTT. Her blog has such an interesting assortment of books on it that I always check out what she’s reading if I don’t know what to read next. I also appreciate her sweet and gentle personality. She’s lovely.

Lark at The Bookwyrm’s Hoard 

Her Sunday posts are always so interesting! Lark’s willingness to stick up for others (e.g. immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community) is also something I admire about her.

Nicole at Bookwyrm Knits

This is the part where I admit that I thought Lark and Nicole were the same person for an embarrassingly long time due to how similar their blog titles are. They are both free to tease me endlessly about that if or when they read this post.

Nicole shares so many interesting knitting projects on her blog when she isn’t talking about books. One of these days I will try knitting myself, and it will be thanks to her. 🙂 She’s so talented.

Sometimes Leelynn Reads 

Leelynn hasn’t posted in a while, but back when she did I loved being exposed to books on her blog I probably wouldn’t have otherwise known about. (She likes romance more than I do, after all!) Her friendly personality was another thing that drew her to me as well. She gets along well with everyone from what I’ve observed which is quite admirable.

 

Apologies if I missed anyone I regularly interact with! It was not done intentionally. There are so many incredible bloggers out there that I love getting to know.

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February 11, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Platonic Relationships


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

The bare arms of two people who are holding hands. The background shows a pink sky that hints these people are watching either a sunset or a sunrise. One of the people holding hands has brown skin while the other person has pale skin. My previous takes on the Valentine’s Day freebie post include: Bookish Romantic Quotes, Conversation Hearts on Book Covers, Helpful Nonfiction Books About Relationships,  Books I Liked About Asexual Characters, and Books About Chocolate.

While I’m happily married, my spouse and I don’t celebrate this holiday unless you count checking the local drugstore for candy sales on February 15.  (This is something I recommend no matter what your relationship status or feelings about Valentine’s Day may be! Half price candy is nothing to sneeze at if you’re in the mood for some chocolate or conversation hearts).

We’d rather stay home on Valentine’s Day, avoid the crowds, and have a nice date later on in the year when restaurants are quieter and our server has more time for all of their tables.

Luckily, romantic love is only one of the many types of love out there, so this year I will be honouring Valentine’s Day by mentioning some of my favourite books that include strong friendships. Perhaps I should call this a Galentine’s Day post instead, except that this is not going to be a women-only list!

1.Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

2. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

3. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

4. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

5. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

6. Sula by Toni Morrison

7. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

8. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

9. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

10. My Ántonia by Willa Cather

11. Little Bee by Chris Cleave

What are your favourite books that include strong platonic relationships?

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September 12, 2023 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Character Relationships


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Five little paper boats sitting on a light blue surface. The one out in front is red, the two behind that one are blue, and the last two are teal. I had a bit of an adventure trying to find a good stock photo for this week’s post.

So many of the pictures under tags like friendship and relationship presumed I was only talking about romance or that I wanted to see photos of people laughing together without any context as to what was so funny.

There’s nothing wrong with those answers, of course, they just quite weren’t what I was hoping for this time around. Luckily, I eventually found something that left a bit more scope for the imagination as Anne Shirley would say.

Book cover for Waswanipi by  Jean-Yves Soucy. Image on cover is a photograph of a lake and a small range of mountains (or large range of hills) that are part of Cree territory. The sky above is blue and mostly clear. The scene is placid and there are no people around.

1. Waswanipi by  Jean-Yves Soucy

This memoir was never finished, but the portion of it that could be published provided such an interesting glimpse into what Cree life was like before Europeans disrupted it. I enjoyed seeing how every member of the tribe relied on others to survive and how they came together to work on problems. That’s really all I can say without giving you too many spoilers, but the relationships between the folks mentioned in this book were beautiful.

 

Book cover for A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1) by Becky Chambers. Image on cover is a drawing of a winding dirt road through a forest that the viewer sees from above. There are multiple trees and bushes next to the road that begins on the bottom left with a person pedaling a little metal home around. And, at the end of the path, a robot waits to greet them!

2. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Yes, I know I’ve mentioned this book on many other Top Ten Tuesday themes before. If you’re curious about this series but haven’t read it yet, maybe all of this repetition will convince you to give it a try. Hehe.

Sibling Dex (a human) and Mosscap (a robot) didn’t seem to have much in common at first glance, but I loved discovering all of their similarities and seeing how their friendship blossomed.

 

Book cover for Don't Cry for Me by Daniel Black. Image on cover is a painting of the side of a black man’s face as he stands next to an empty yellow road and stares at something the viewer cannot see. The road disappears over the top of a hill, and you can see a setting sun in the distance.

 

3. Don’t Cry for Me by Daniel Black

This is sort of an unusual choice for this prompt because of how lonely and isolated Jacob was as he neared the end of his life. The relationship aspect comes in when he recalled his difficult childhood and how his older brother protected him from their sometimes violent grandfather. Those sorts of bonds can last forever.

 

Book cover for The Necessity of Stars by E. Catherine Tobler. Image on cover shows an unsettling painting of a garden where strange, spindly blue and white flowers grow. In the distance, a reptile-like alien hides in the mist.

 

4. The Necessity of Stars by E. Catherine Tobler

The protagonist of this novella was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. As she struggles to remember the present and sometimes mixes up the past with her current life, she also discovers aliens living in her backyard.

The friendship she strikes up with them was as unexpected as it was mesmerizing. If only this one had a sequel.

I look forward to reading all of your answers!

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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.

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