Tag Archives: Top Ten Tuesday

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I adore living in Toronto, but there are parts of all of these places that intrigue me. It would be cool to see them in person someday if it were safe and affordable to do so.

If I didn’t mention a specific thing I wanted to do for the numbers on the list below, that means I’d want to talk to the locals to get their recommendations on the best restaurants, museums, parks, etc. before adding my own wish list to the agenda.

You can learn so much about other cities, countries, and cultures by listening to the people who live there and taking their advice on where to go and what to do.

If any of you ever visit Toronto once travelling for fun is possible again, I’d be happy to give you some suggestions of what to do here!

1. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou’s Autobiography, #1) by Maya Angelou

Location: Stamps, Arkansas

What I’d Do There: Soak up every ray of sunshine I can. I get the winter blues each year, so this would make a big impact on my life.

2. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Location: Japan (various cities)

What I’d Do There: Among many other destinations, I’d visit Rabbit Island.

3. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Location: Calcutta, India

4. Dubliners by James Joyce

Location: Dublin, Ireland

What I’d Do There: Visit whichever castle Irish people think is the nicest one there.

5. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang

Location: Manchuria, China

What I’d Do There: See the Great Wall of China.

6. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Location: Nigeria

7. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

Location: Dominican Republic (various cities)

What I’d Do There: Visit the schools and other places that a relative of mine helped to build! He has a lot of experience with this kind of stuff and used to visit every year to help with various projects.

8. Nefertiti by Michelle Moran

Location: Egypt (various cities)

What I’d Do There: See the pyramids, of course!

9. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

Location: Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal

What I’d Do There: Quietly enjoy the majestic mountains for a day or two before asking about specific places there to visit.

10. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Location: Mexico

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All of these titles make me giggle! I have not read any of them yet, so let me know if you’ve read and liked any of them.

1. The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin

2. Annie Gomez and the Gigantic Foot of Doom by Jay Cutts

3. It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita by Heather B. Armstrong

4. Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris

5. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (Origami Yoda #1) by Tom Angleberger

6. How You Can Bowl Better Using Self-Hypnosis by Jack Heise

7. The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill

8. How To Tell Your Cat About Trump by Breaking Burgh

9. The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank by Erma Bombeck

10. How to Make Your Cat an Internet Celebrity: A Guide to Financial Freedom  by Patricia Carlin

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I’m a mood reader, so these TBR posts for Top Ten Tuesday often turn out to be wildly different from what I actually get around to reading in any given season.

Spring is also the time of year when I generally read less and spend more time outdoors.

Toronto doesn’t have many dry days with mild and pleasant temperatures, so you’d better believe we take full advantage of them when they start showing up in the spring! The heat and humidity of the summer will encourage us to head back indoors soon enough.

With those things in mind, these books do sound good to me and I do plan to eventually read them on days that weren’t meant for picnics and hikes in the warm, friendly sunshine instead.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Publication Date: Already released

Why I Want to Read It: I enjoyed “Never Let Me Go” by Mr. Ishiguro and thought the fairytale-like themes of this new release from him sounded right up my alley.

Girlhood by Melissa Febos

Publication Date: March 30

Why I Want to Read It: I love reading about other women’s experiences with every stage of life, including girlhood and puberty. These aren’t topics that are discussed enough in my opinion.

The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos by Judy Batalion

Publication Date: April 6

Why I Want to Read It: I didn’t realize there were resistance fighters in the ghettos in Germany.

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Publication Date: May 4

Why I Want to Read It: I loved “The Deep” (my review of it is here) and can’t wait to see what Ms. Solomon does with the Gothic Fiction genre! It’s so cool when authors dip their toes in other genres or sub-genres.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Publication Date: May 4

Why I Want to Read It: I loved ” Martian” and can’t wait to see what thought-provoking hard science fiction Mr. Weir has for his fans this time. Yes, I do tend to stick with certain authors once I have an amazing experience with one or more of their books.

The President’s Daughter by Bill Clinton

Publication Date: June 7

Why I Want to Read It: It makes me wonder which parts of the plot might have been inspired by President Clinton’s time in the White House! No, I don’t think it’s secretly autobiographical or anything like that, but maybe there were quiet moments from his presidency that inspired him to wonder how they’d fare as a thriller.

Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac

Publication Date: June 8

Why I Want to Read It: I have relatives who worked in the medical field during the first few waves of Covid-19. They only know about its effect on reservations from secondhand experience, but even those tidbits of information were more than enough to make my ears perk up at the thought of learning more.

Are you also a mood reader and/or someone who struggles with these seasonal TBR prompts? Please tell me I’m not the only one!

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I prefer to tidy up my TBR and home at regular intervals rather than doing spring cleanings every year.  I tweaked this week’s prompt a little bit, but I am sticking to the spirit of it.

There’s something about the arrival of spring that feels like a fresh start to me. All of the snow melts in Toronto and we generally don’t get any more of it by the middle of April.

It’s so nice to reach the time of year when it’s warm enough to go outside and try something new or give old hobbies and interests another shot after maybe giving them up for the winter.

This list is filled with books about people who get fresh starts. Some are true stories while others are fictional. A few are set during the spring. What other titles would you add to it?

1. Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too by Jomny Sun

2. The Arrival by Shaun Tan

3.Recursion by Blake Crouch

4. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

5. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

6. Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo

7. The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso

8. The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X

9. Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell

10. Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam

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Kudos to whomever came up with this unique topic! I have not read these books and am only mentioning them because these occupations sound amazing.

Title and Author: The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

The Job: Carpet designer

Why I’m Interested: It’s quiet, intricate work that creates beloved family heirlooms.

Title and Author: The Queen’s Dollmaker by Christine Trent

The Job: Dollmaker

Why I’m Interested: Dolls bring so much joy to the world.

Title and Author: Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier

The Job: Poet

Why I’m Interested: I used to write a lot of poetry. It’s harder than some people imagine it to be but quite rewarding when you finally figure out the right turn of phrase to make your point succinctly.

Title and Author: The Naturalist’s Daughter by Tea Cooper

The Job: Naturalist

Why I’m Interested: This specific naturalist studied the platypus, an animal I find utterly fascinating. Wouldn’t it be cool to be the first person from your culture to discover such a thing? I’d like to think he spoke to the people who already lived there about what they knew about the life cycle and physiology of the platypus.

Title and Author: The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

The Job: Lighthouse Keeper

Why I’m Interested: It was generally quiet and peaceful work which appeals to this introvert quite a bit.  I’d have time to write stories or read books while I was on the job.

Title and Author: The Archivist by Martha Cooley

The Job: Archivist

Why I’m Interested: I adore organizing, cataloguing, and sorting all sorts of different things. Being an archivist sounds heavenly to me.

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Honestly, I haven’t read that many humorous books recently regardless of if we’re talking about tales published last year or thirty years ago.

I’ll share a few funny books I have read and hope I can get some great ideas for other reads from everyone else’s posts today.

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

It was a good read because… the author knows how to poke fun at herself while also inviting her audience to do the same when it comes to our own weird but funny stories about our pasts.

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

It was a good read because… everything and everyone was up for grabs here! There was no topic too sacred or mundane to joke about. This is one of the things I enjoy the most about Pratchett and Gaiman’s stories.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

It was a good read because… of how skillfully but respectfully it picked apart the fairy tale genre and saved only their best bits to be woven together into something that was keenly self-aware but still somehow romantic and magical.

The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, #1-5) by Douglas Adams

It was a good read because… it regularly defied reader’s expectations of how a science fiction adventure series should go. If you haven’t already noticed, I love it when narrators are aware of their genres and purposefully break certain rules in them.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

It was a good read because… no one is ever too old or too young for puns!

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Technically, today’s topic was “Purple, Yellow, and/or Green Book Covers in honour of Mardi Gras.”

I’ve written so many posts about book covers of various colours that I tweaked it to be “Books About Mardi Gras” instead.

They span a wide range of topics, from  recipes to history to even zombies!

1. Gay as Mardi Gras  by Lily Velden

2. No Mardi Gras for the Dead by D.J. Donaldson

3. The Baby Dolls: Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition by Kim Marie Vaz

4. Mardi Gras Indians by Michael P. Smith and Alan Govenar

5. Mardi Gras . . . As It Was by Robert Tallant

6. Confessions of a Bi-Polar Mardi Gras Queen by Marie Étienne

7. Design A Mardi Gras Parade: A Coloring Book by Mr. Sean Gautreaux

8. Mardi Gras Greats: Delicious Mardi Gras Recipes, the Top 79 Mardi Gras Recipes by Jo Franks

9. New Orleans Carnival Balls: The Secret Side of Mardi Gras, 1870-1920 by Jennifer Atkins

10. Mardi Gras Zombies  by Bart Gnarly

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This isn’t me, but it is something I’d do.

Every so often, a Top Ten Tuesday topic comes up that makes me wish I could read what is in everyone’s drafts folders for it as I work on my post.

Will you all choose books that were written hundreds of years ago?

Maybe you will pick books from many different eras instead?

Only time will tell!

1. The Chronicles of Narnia (Chronicles of Narnia, #1-7) by C.S. Lewis

2. The Stand by Stephen King

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

4. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

5. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

6. Animal Farm by George Orwell

7. The Color Purple  by Alice Walker

8. Native Son by Richard Wright

9. Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1) by Chinua Achebe

10. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

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The most 2020 bookish photo ever.

As I’ve mentioned in other recent Top Ten Tuesday posts, 2020 wasn’t a typical reading year for me.

I read less than usual, switched my preferred genres and topics to more cheerful ones, and had some trouble finishing the books I did manage to get through. How many of you can say the same thing?

Here are a few of the new-to-me authors I did try last year. May this year give all of us more time and energy to try new authors!

Author: Nisi Shawl

What I Read from Them: Everfair

Author: Michael Christie

What I Read from Them: Greenwood

Author: Danna Staaf

What I Read from Them: Monarchs of the Sea: The Extraordinary 500-Million-Year History of Cephalopods

Author: Katherine May

What I Read from Them: Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times