Tag Archives: Top Ten Tuesday

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I know that not every Top Ten Tuesday participant lives in the Northern Hemisphere or in a part of the world that has similar seasons to Ontario, but some of us are inching closer to spring with every passing day.

I cannot wait for spring so I can go outside and enjoy some warmer and non-soggy nature time. (It can get pretty muddy here in March and April after the ice and snow begins to melt but the soil hasn’t absorbed all of that water yet).

Who else is counting down the days until the change of the seasons?

My answers to this week’s prompt are going to be the usual random assortment of topics. I love jumping around between nonfiction and fiction as well as zooming between all sorts of genres within the fiction label as well.

Let’s see what will hopefully be capturing my attention this spring.

In the Lives of Puppets  by T.J. Klune

Publication Date: April 25

Why I’m Interested: T.J. Klune is one of those authors I keep meaning to read but never quite get around to it. I love robot stories, though, so this one might convince me to take the plunge.

The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise  by Colleen Oakley

Publication Date: March 28

Why I’m Interested: I love stories about cross-generational friendships. It’s also nice to see more protagonists who are senior citizens.

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan

Publication Date: April 4

Why I’m Interested: I’d never heard of Madge Oberholtzer before, but she sounds like she was a courageous and incredible human being.

Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing  by Emily Lynn Paulson

Publication Date: May 30

Why I’m Interested: It’s really sad to see people being taken advantage of by pyramid schemes and other “job” offers that promise wealth but often put one deeply into debt instead.

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

While I currently have no plans to meet any of these bookish people,  it would be cool if that changed someday.

My prediction is that a lot of answers will probably be of famous authors and such. While there will be a few of those authors on my list, most of my answers will be of non-famous people I know whose online personas are kind and intelligent.

Honestly, who wouldn’t want to spend time with someone like that? (I’m sure they’re just as wonderful in person, too!)

1. Top Ten Tuesday Bloggers

It would be fun to meet some of the friendly Top Ten Tuesday bloggers I chat with throughout the week.  I don’t want to put anyone on the spot or make anyone feel overlooked by mentioning specific names, but let me know in advance if you’re open to this and have plans to visit Toronto in the future. We could snack on Beaver Tails* or check out the free bookish museum at the Toronto Reference Library or something.

*This is a Canadian pastry that is large and flat like a beaver’s tale. They have several delicious vegan options, too, for plant-based friends.

2. Berthold Gambrel 

He’s a fellow author and book reviewer I met on Twitter (before it imploded, of course). This will be a pattern for my next several answers because I am a creature of habit, so assume someone is a writer friend and kindred spirit from social media until I say otherwise.

Berthold and I have remarkably similar tastes in science fiction and he has a great sense of humour.

3. Hebah Amin-Headley 

I’d love to talk about books and knitting with her among many other topics.

4. Richard Pastore

He’s the sort of person you can talk about anything with. I can be a little shy sometimes, but I never feel shy around him. He’s so warm and welcoming to everyone.

5. Shykia Bell 

She’s only online in spurts, but I love her creativity and calm personality. Those are both excellent character traits.

6. Patrick Prescott 

Here is where I break the Writer Friends of Twitter (TM)  streak. Yes, he’s a writer friend, but I met him through Berthold Gambrel.

Patrick has a deep and methodical love for books. I’ve enjoyed his recommendations  over the years and hearing stories about how he’s filling his time with all sorts of cool volunteer and writing projects now that he’s retired.

7. Rivers Solomon

I still think about her characters in “The Deep” and would love to ask her all about them.

8. Neil Gaiman 

He seems like a cool guy.

9. Andy Weir

I want to hear about what science fiction adventure he’ll be writing next!

10. <Insert People I’ve Missed Here>

Every time I make one of these lists, I worry about accidentally leaving folks out whom I would have happily otherwise included. Therefore, I will leave a space for them at the end of this post. You are included.

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Xenofiction is written from the perspective of a non-human protagonist.

The protagonist could be all sorts of different things: an animal, a mythological creature, an intelligent robot, an alien, a microbe, or some other living (or robotic but sentient) being.

The possibilities are endless.

I enjoyed all of these stories and would recommend any them to someone who wants to read something from a non-human perspective.

1.  Memoirs of a Snowflake by Joe Vasicek  (My Review)

The protagonist is a: snowflake.

2. Watership Down (Watership Down, #1) by Richard Adams

The protagonist is a: rabbit.

3. A Dog’s Purpose (A Dog’s Purpose, #1) by W. Bruce Cameron

The protagonist is a: dog.

4. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

The protagonist is a: a wooden puppet who is magically brought to life.

5. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott

The protagonist is a: a two-dimensional being who travels to three-dimensional, one-dimensional, and no-dimensional worlds and must try to make sense of them.

6. Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker

The protagonist is a: raptor.

If you’ve read xenofiction before, what are some of your favourite books from this genre?

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Many of the books I read are from authors who are new to me or new in general, but I don’t normally spend a lot of time digging around in debut book lists.

I pay attention to the blurb and first page when deciding what to read next. (Okay, covers matter, too! But they’re the icing on the cake, not the cake itself. I’ve read amazing books with not-so-great covers and quickly tossed aside other books whose gorgeous covers did not match what was inside of them).

Sometimes this means I’ll read six books in a row from the same author and still yearn for more from them.

In other cases, I really loved one or two books from a particular author but haven’t connected with the rest of their work.

I have no other what other people’s habits are, but I hope to find out from you all today.

Here are four debut authors I’m curious to try.

1. The Museum of Human History by Rebekah Bergman

Why I’m Interested: The thought of someone surviving an awful accident only to stop aging is intriguing. It makes me think of the similarities between that and how after someone dies they are forever frozen at their age of death in the memories of those who loved them.

2. Period: The Real Story of Menstruation by Kate Clancy

Why I’m Interested: I’m fascinated (and a little disturbed) by how much scientists are still learning about menstruation, the uterus, and other related topics. It’s about time that these things were studied in depth not only for people who have typical menstrual cycles and reproductive organs but also for those deal with diseases or abnormalities related to menstruation and the uterus that some doctors sadly can be pretty dismissive of.

3. On Earth As It Is On Television by Emily Jane

Why I’m Interested: I love first contact stories!

4. She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

Why I’m Interested: Haunted houses are one of those tropes that immediately grab my attention. I hope this will be an excellent example of how to scare characters silly with a haunted house.

What are your reading habits like?

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Many of the books I read in 2022 were written by authors I hadn’t tried before. Here are ten of them.

Just like last year, I’ll also be including what books I read from them and whether I want to read more from them in the future.

1. Author: Marlene Campbell

What I Read from Them: Vintage Christmas: Holiday Stories from Rural PEI

Would I Read More from Them? Maybe. I liked some parts of this collection but found other sections a bit too repetitive. Then again, I am not a particularly sentimental person, so other readers might have a completely difference experience with it.

2. Author: Sonia Hartl

What I Read from Them: The Lost Girls

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. I loved the author’s tongue-in-cheek approach to the pitfalls of romances between vampires and teenage girls.

3. Author: Kate Nunn

What I Read from Them: The Only Child

Would I Read More from Them? No, and it pains me to say that. I loved the premise of this book but found the character and plot development thin and predictable.

4. Author: Riley Black

What I Read from Them: “The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World”

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. Not only was Ms. Black an excellent writer, she knew exactly how to translate often complex scientific information into something the average person can easily understand. That’s difficult to do but so meaningful when it does occur.

5. Author: Yah Yah Scholfield

What I Read from Them: “On Sundays She Picked Flowers”

Would I Read More from Them? Assuming her next work isn’t quite so violent, absolutely. I enjoyed her poetic writing style but can’t handle reading many of the types of scary stuff I loved before this pandemic began.

6. Author: Nice Leng’ete

What I Read from Them: “The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree”

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. She’s lived an interesting and useful life so far. I’m curious to see what she does with her talents next as she continues fighting to end female circumcision in Kenya.

7. Author: Julia Scheeres

What I Read from Them: “Listen, World!: How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America’s Most-Read Woman”

Would I Read More from Them? Probably not. This was a neat peek at a portion of history I wasn’t aware of, but the writing style wasn’t my cup of tea.

8. Author: Carl Matlock, MD

What I Read from Them: “The Annals of a Country Doctor”

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. He was a great storyteller.

9. Author: Daphne du Maurier

What I Read from Them: “Rebecca”

Would I Read More from Them? Maybe. I understood why this novel is a classic and did enjoy the storyline itself, but I was exasperated with all of the characters for reasons ranging from how passive aggressive they were to how little regard they had for basic interpersonal boundaries to how much they relied on what other people thought of them when making every single decision in life. Let met take a break from Ms. Du Maurier before seeing if this is a pattern in her work or if her next book will be filled with characters I’d actually want to hang out with in real life. Ha!

10. Author: by Deesha Philyaw

What I Read from Them: “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies”

Would I Read More from Them? Yes. I connected beautifully with her characters and would love to see what she writes next. She was delightful.

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I like to set (mostly) realistic goals at the beginning of each year. Let’s see how many of these I complete before 2024 sneaks up on us.

1. Read more classic novels this winter. It’s something I do every winter to expand my vocabulary and explore stories that generations of people have loved.

2. Submit a Top Ten Tuesday theme to Jana that she ends up using. (I am 99% joking here, but I mentioned this in a previous goals post a few years ago and would be thrilled if she picked one of my suggestions someday).

3. Enjoy lots of ghost stories. Those of you who have read this blog for a while will know how much I like them in general, but they’re even more amusing on cold, dark winter nights.

4. Attend more library and other bookish events either virtually or in person. They’re such a great place to learn about our world and meet other friendly book lovers.

5. Read more nonfiction. I love learning about everything from science to history at my own pace and without any pesky tests or grades to worry about.

6. Patronize independent bookstores. This pandemic radically altered my habits, and it’s been years since I shopped for something other than food, medicine, or to replace something like shoes or a shower curtain that have worn out.

7. Eat more food featured in books. For example, last year I finally tried Turkish delight for the first time after spending many years wondering what on earth Edmund was talking about in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. What other literary or bookish foods or beverages should I enjoy next?

8. Try poetry again. I loved it when I was a teenager but have struggled to get back in that genre since becoming an adult.

9. Buy bookish socks. Do I need more socks? Well, technically no, but surely there is something to be said for adding just one more pair of socks to the rotation if they make a clever reference to something literary, right?

10. Convince the entertainment industry to make excellent film or television adaptations of all of our favourite books. Hehe!

  
Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Just like I say every time seasonal TBR posts come up, I won’t be able to come up with a full ten answers or predict everything I’ll read over the next few months. I admire those of who you are that methodical, but that’s not quite how my reading habits work.

With that being said, these books will hopefully be included along with the usual mood reads and whatever intriguing stories I happen to stumble across at my local library this winter and spring.

Old Babes in the Woods: Stories by Margaret Atwood

Release Date: March 7

Why I Want to Read It: I’ve loved most of Atwood’s stories and give everything she publishes a shot.

Piñata by Leopoldo Gout

Release Date: March 14

Why I Want to Read It: I am not very familiar with indigenous Mexican lore and am looking forward to learning more about it here.

A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

Release Date: March 28

Why I Want to Read It: I’m a new fan of Kingfisher’s work and want to try everything she’s written so far!