Tag Archives: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: Sea Monster Stories


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A photograph of a dark portion of the ocean. Something huge is stirring in the water and making waves. It’s too dark in the water to tell what might be churning around down there.I have previously blogged about mermaids, rubber ducks, and wetlands, so it took me a little while to come up with a good spin for this week’s water freebie theme.

Large bodies of water like lakes and the ocean can be beautiful on a calm summer day.

They‘re treacherous during a hurricane or other violent storm.

They can be a safe place to swim, boat, or play.

They’re often a good food source.

What else can they be? Well, depending on what sort of books you read, they might also contain sea monsters. Here are ten titles about that exact scenario.

1. Jaws (Jaws, #1) by Peter Benchley

2. Black Water Horror: A Tale of Terror for the 21st Century : Creature from the Black Lagoon
by Larry Mike Garmon

3. Slime by John Halkin

4. How to Survive a Sharknado and Other Unnatural Disasters: Fight Back When Monsters and Mother Nature Attack by Andrew Shaffer

5. Goliath by Steve Alten

6. Creature from the Black Lagoon by Vargo Statten

7. Zomby Dick or, The Undead Whale by J.D. Livingstone

8. The Origin of the Crabs by Guy N. Smith

9. Orca by Arthur Herzog III

10. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters

11. The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft

 

 

84 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Top Ten Tuesday: Memoirs Written by Women


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A pink dried flower that is lying on the blank white page of an opened book. Here’s a quick heads up before I jump into today’s post. Long and Short Reviews is hosting a virtual party on their site this week to celebrate their 16th anniversary. If you’d like to learn about new indie and small press books in a wide variety of genres or win one of the gift certificates or other great prizes, click on the second link in this paragraph and read some of their guests posts to find out how to enter the drawings.

Okay, onto Top Ten Tuesday stuff now.

The genre topic I picked for this week’s freebie post is memoirs written by women.

I enjoyed all of these books and would recommend them to anyone who likes memoirs or who wants to learn more about the lives of these incredible women and girls.

1. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

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

3. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

4. I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai

5. Educated by Tara Westover

6. Becoming by Michelle Obama

7. Furiously Happy: A Funny Book about Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson

8. Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s by Jennifer Worth

9. Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro

10. Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land

88 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters from Different Books Who Should Team Up


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A humorous photo of two people who are each holding a pet. One is holding a chihuahua and the other is holding a siamese cat. The animals are positioned so that they can look at each other, but they are instead looking at the photographer with puzzled expressions on their little faces. I read books from so many different genres, styles, and eras that it’s often hard for me to imagine what various characters might think of each other.

It’s like grabbing two random pets and expecting them to be friends. Maybe it will work, or maybe they’ll fight like, well, cats and dogs.

Some books dive deeply into character development. Others barely skim the surface of it in favour of adding in extra action scenes. There are also cases where the characters are all well-rounded but so wildly dissimilar that I don’t know how much time they’d even be willing to spend in the same room.

(My theory is that those of you who tend to stick to one genre for most of your reading time are going to have an easier time coming up with matches. Let’s see if I’m right!)

With that being said, here are my picks:

 

1. Anne Shirley from L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series and Ove from Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove.

The Ove we first met would probably be irritated by how talkative Anne could be when she was a child, but I think these two would eventually get along well if they’d met when Anne was older and a little quieter. She was almost always good at softening out the edges of grumpy people, and I think he’d be amused by some of her fanciful ideas about how life should work.

 

2. Yetu from Rivers Solomon’s The Deep and Ariel from The Little Mermaid

They’d be good friends, I think. Well, other than the fact that Ariel wanted to be human and Yetu most definitely did not.

 

 

3. Fatima from Nnedi Okorafor‘s Remote Control and Charlie from Stephen King’s Firestarter 

They were both young girls who had been given powers far beyond their comprehension that they needed to learn how to use safely. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see what they thought of each other?

 

4. Yetu from Rivers Solomon’s The  Deep and Fatima from Nnedi Okorafor’s Remote Control

 

I hope it’s okay to pick the same characters more than once, because I also think it would be cool to see how Yetu and Fatima got along. They both had a strong desire for justice that I think would become even more noticeable if they teamed up.

 

Anyway, that’s my short list. I look forward to seeing what everyone else has to say.

60 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Want to Read Because of Top Ten Tuesday


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Photo of a young woman with straight black hair and olive skin standing in a bookstore. Her ethnicity isn’t perfectly clear, but she could be Asian or Middle Eastern. She’s reading a hardback novel while standing in front of a display of books that has been arranged in a large circle formation that perfectly frames her chest, shoulders, and head. It gives the effect of looking through a mirror or a portal and seeing her on the other side. It’s very cool.

Originally, I was planning to give credit to the people who introduced me to these books in previous Top Ten Tuesday posts.

The problem with that plan is that a) I usually can’t remember who talked about them first, and b) most of these books have been mentioned by multiple Top Ten Tuesday bloggers before, during, and after their release dates.

Therefore, I’m giving credit to everyone has who blogged about these books.

Thank you for bringing these titles to the attention of the rest of us. You’ve enriched my TBR list and no doubt the reading lists of lots of other folks, too.

Here are some of the many books that came to my attention thanks to you.

1. Starter Villain by John Scalzi

2. Babel by R.F. Kuang

3. Camp by Lev A.C. Rosen

4. Anna, A Child of the Poorhouse by Pat Mattaini Mestern

5. Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

6. Godkiller (Godkiller, #1) by Hannah Kaner

7.  Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg

 

 

62 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Top Ten Tuesday: Forgotten Backlist Titles


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Two pretty black women are wearing sundresses and having a picnic on a blanket in the park. The one on the left is wearing a straw hat and reading a book to her companion while the other one sips a glass of wine and smiles. This is the time of year when Toronto is so hot and humid that I generally get a lot of reading done, from new releases to classics to backlist titles that I meant to read a year or two ago but never got around to it.

I don’t know about all of you, but I sure appreciate having books to fall back on as entertainment options while I wait for cooler days ahead.

Here are five backlist books I loved and five more I hope to maybe get started on over the next several weeks of summer.

The Backlist Books I Loved:

Book cover for A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Image on cover shows a saint standing on a hill behind dazzling yellow light. He is clutching something and looking up expectedly at the sky.

1. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller

Genre: Science Fiction, Post-apocalyptic

What It’s About: Cloistered monks who rebuilt society after a devastating nuclear war.

 

Book cover for The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. Image on cover shows a shadowy photo of a grand old house that is now decaying into ruin because the owners can no longer afford to maintain or repair it.

2. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Genre: Historical Fiction, Gothic

What It’s About: An English physician who befriends a formerly-wealthy family in the mid-to-late 1940s. The family lives in a crumbling mansion that may be haunted.

Book cover for The Annals of a Country Doctor by Carl Matlock, MD. Image on cover shows a drawing of a red house. There are a few large trees growing next to it and a flock of geese flying in the sky above in a v formation.

 

3. The Annals of a Country Doctor by Carl Matlock, MD

Genre: Memoir, Medicine

What It’s About: The funny, touching, and sometimes bittersweet memories of a rural medicine physician in the 1970s.

 

Book cover for The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Image on cover shows a painting of a young black girl sitting next to a window with her face half turned out to see the street. She is wearing an old-fashioned red sweater and a small hat.

4. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Genre: Fiction

What It’s About: Race, loneliness, and a young girl coming of age.

Book cover for Dracula by Bram Stoker. Image on cover is mostly in shadow, but in the top third you can see the frightening red face of a vampiric monster leering at you from the shadows.

5. Dracula by Bram Stoker

Genre: Science Fiction, Horror

What It’s About: An arrogant man named Jonathan who ignored countless warnings and travelled deep into Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a house. What Jonathan didn’t know was that Dracula was a vampire.

 

The Backlist Books I Hope I Will Love:

 

Book cover for Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing by Emily Lynn Paulson. The title and author are written in a 1970s font that is various shades of pink and red. On top of the title there is a tube of lipstick that has been digitally superimposed on top o an eye that is in the centre of three triangles of various sizes with the smallest one being inside of a bigger one, and the bigger one being inside of the biggest one. The triangles and lipstick are also superimposed on a red circle that has three little stars around it in roughly even spacing from one another.

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

Genre: Nonfiction

What It’s About: How multi-level marketing schemes deceive their customers.

Piñata (Hardcover) by Leopoldo Gout book cover. Image on cover shows a drawing of a creature wearing a hood and a hat that is comprised of about a dozen spikes coming out of what appears to be a human skull.

2. Piñata by Leopoldo Gout

Genre: Fantasy, Horror

What It’s About: A modern-day retelling of a classic piece of traditional Mexican lore.

 

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz book cover. Image on cover is a drawing of various Greek women sitting around a table reading, talking, and resting.

3. After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz

Genre: Historical, LGBTQ+

What It’s About: The lives of queer women at various points in history.

 

This Is Not My Home by Vivienne Chang book cover. Image on cover shows a drawing of a young Chinese girl wearing a yellow blouse. She’s standing on a balcony and you can see other apartment buildings in the background. Her mouth is open, and inside of her mouth is the title of the book in yellow letters.

4. This Is Not My Home by Vivienne Chang

Genre: Children’s (picture book)

What It’s About:  The difficulties of moving to a new area and making new friends.

Meet Me in Mumbai by Sabina Khan book cover. Image on cover shows drawing of the heads of two Indian women facing away from each other as well as the ghostly face of a woman who is looking at neither of them.

5. Meet Me in Mumbai by Sabina Khan

Genre: Young Adult

What It’s About: The main character’s transracial adoption, queer family, and coming of age experiences.

 

68 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Top Ten Tuesday: The Most Recent Books I Did Not Finish


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A photo of scrabble tiles against a salmon background. The tiles have been arranged to spell out the words “yes” and “no.”When Jana released the summer topics for Top Ten Tuesday, she suggested we include reasons why we didn’t finish the books in this week’s list if we can do so kindly.

I’m going to take her up on that idea, but please don’t let me stop you from checking these titles out for yourself if you’re interested in them.

My literary pet peeves and dislikes might be exactly what you look for in a story and vice versa. Everyone is different, after all, and all of these books had good bones so to speak. I wouldn’t have included them this week if I thought otherwise!

Book cover for Pageboy by Elliot Page. Image on cover is a photo of Mr. Page wearing a white tank top and a pair of blue jeans. He is sitting in a room with a red wall and staring ahead at the camera with a serious expression on his face.

Pageboy by Elliot Page
Why I Stopped Reading It: While I liked Mr. Page’s writing style and was quite interested in his story, I struggled to adjust to how non-linearly he wrote this memoir and how many details about his sex life were included. It is totally fine for people who enjoy that topic to discuss about it amongst themselves so long as all of their sexual partners have consented to it, by the way! I’m simply bored by such talk and would have much rather read something that was written chronologically and focused on the author’s many professional accomplishments instead.
Book cover for The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed. Image on cover shows a drawing of a grey and white bird that has a green fungus of some sort growing on it’s feathers and body.
Why I Stopped Reading It: I enjoyed the science fiction elements of the first few chapters, but the literary fiction elements of it were too slow and meandering for my tastes. I generally prefer stronger plot and character development than what was featured here, but I can also see how this could be a great introduction to science fiction for people who love more ambiguous writing styles.
Book cover for Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and Its Hidden Victims by Jennifer Vanderbes. Image on cover is a black and white photo of a white toddler who is wearing a white dress and placing blocks into the correct holes in a wooden sorting toy. The little girl does not have arms due to prenatal exposure to thalidomide.
Vanderbes
Why I Stopped Reading It: There wasn’t much here that I hadn’t already read elsewhere, although it could be a great read for people who aren’t already aware of the tragic, unintended consequences of thalidomide on embryos and fetuses.
Book cover for Such Kindness by Andre Dubus III. Image on cover shows a photo of a bald old man walking gingerly down an otherwise deserted road on a partly cloudy winter day.
Such Kindness by Andre Dubus III
Why I Stopped Reading It: The main character had been in constant, severe pain since a work accident a decade ago that destroyed his health, marriage, finances, ability to work, and more.  One reviewer said the storyline remained dark and depressing for the first hundred pages before it improved. I read a little past that point but then could not take any more of his suffering. It was too much for me.
Book cover for Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Image on cover shows the eyes of a woman who is deeply frightened. There is a red shade to the image that makes it seem even scarier because everything is washed in red, and that made me think of blood.
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Why I Stopped Reading It: It was too scary. My brain needs calmer stuff at the moment.

72 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Top Ten Tuesday: Books With One-Word Titles


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

An Asian woman smiling slightly as she holds a hardback book over the lower half of her face and peeks out above it at the viewer. The book has a white cover with no title or author printed on it, and the woman is standing in a similarly white and barren room. There’s nothing like a compelling title to grab my attention and make me yearn to see if the blurb is just as good.

While I tend to prefer longer titles to shorter ones, you definitely can come up with a catchy title that only has one word in it.

Here are ten books that caught my eye that have one-word titles.

1. Othello by William Shakespeare

2. Becoming by Michelle Obama

3. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

4. Internment by Samira Ahmed

5. Beloved by Toni Morrison

6. Redshirts by John Scalzi

7. Affinity by Sarah Waters

8. Sula by Toni Morrison

9. Pride by Ibi Zoboi

10. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

 

92 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Top Ten Tuesday: Neanderthal Stories I’ve Enjoyed


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Close-up photo of prehistoric art that has been carved into a large rocky cliff. The images carved into it appear to be various animals that resemble, among other species, cattle. It’s hard to tell what other animals are, but they have four legs and sometimes have tails and horns as well. Maybe they are goats? Those of you who have followed me for a while might remember how fascinated I am by Neanderthals, prehistory, hunter gatherers, anthropology, archeology, other extinct hominid species, and similar topics.

These are the sorts of things I love exploring, especially when new details are discovered about that era that upend our previous assumptions about it.

For this week’s Freebie post, I’ll be sharing some of the books about Neanderthals and early modern humans that I’ve enjoyed.

The site I found this photo on didn’t say for sure who carved these images, but there has been Neanderthal cave art found in certain caves that was created long before Homo Sapiens showed up in Europe. It amazes me to think about how similar they were to us!

Let’s dig into my list.  It’s mostly fiction because of how quickly new ideas can replace older ones in the nonfiction genre.  If you know of other wonderful fiction or nonfiction titles on this subject, I’d love to hear about them.

1. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth’s Children, #1) by Jean M. Auel

Genre: Fiction

Why I Loved It: This was my first introduction to fiction about Neanderthals. It was such a detailed and creative interpretation of what scientists knew about this subject in the 1980s.

 

2. The Inheritors by William Golding

Genre: Fiction

Why I Loved It: It was written from the perspective of Neanderthals. The 1950s assumptions about the differences between them and us  are quite different from modern assumptions, but the writing was crisp and clear.

 

3. Ember from the Sun by Mark Canter

Genre: Fiction, Science Fiction

Why I Loved It: Without giving away too many spoilers, this is about a scientist who finds a perfectly preserved Neanderthal embryo and decides to implant it into a human volunteer. This isn’t something that could ever actually happen, but the ethical and societal repercussions of bringing back an extinct human species made this a must-read for me.

 

4. Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax, #1) by Robert J. Sawyer

Genre: Science Fiction

Why I Loved It: I’ve often wondered what Earth would be like if Neanderthals had become the only surviving human species instead of us. This series does an excellent job of exploring that question in depth.

 

5. Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes

Genre: Nonfiction

Why I Loved It: There’s something to be said for conversational books about the latest scientific discoveries on a topic. I found this easy to read and was surprised by how much more we’ve learned about Neanderthals over the last decade or so.

 

6. The Ugly Little Boy by Isaac Asimov

Genre: Science Fiction

Why I Loved It: Well, I don’t know that love is the right word here. The antagonist’s decision to kidnap a Neanderthal child and bring him to the 1990s in order to be studied was a terribly unethical and dangerous one. I did love the way Asimov dove into all of ramifications of this choice, though.

 

7. Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson

Genre: Science Fiction

Why I Loved It: I’m still reading it, but the writing is exquisite.

 

8. Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes by  Svante Pääbo

Genre: Nonfiction

Why I Loved It: Every era seems to bring a new understanding of what the differences were between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. I thought this was a well-rounded look at the topic as it was understood in the 2010s, but I haven’t gone back yet to reread it and compare to what scientists think in the 2020s.

 

 

 

92 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Top Ten Tuesday: Canadian Books I Haven’t Read Yet


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A white lighthouse sitting on a massive stone outcrop near the ocean. The top of the lighthouse is reflected in a clear pool of water in the sand below the stone. The sky is blue, calm, and only has a few wispy clouds floating through it. This week’s original theme was “Book Covers In the Colors of My Country’s Flag.”

I had trouble finding covers that fit it, so instead I’ll be talking about Canadian books I still need to read.

If you’ve read any of these books, I’d like to hear what you thought of them.

1. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

2. The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy

3. The Cure for Death by Lightning by Gail Anderson-Dargatz

4. Ru by Kim Thúy

5. Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

6. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

7. Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood

8. Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese

9. Who Has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell

10. Bride of New France by Suzanne Desrochers

 

What famous books from your country have you not read yet?

 

64 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing During the Second Half of 2023


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A metal statue of a woman sitting on a stone ledge. She’s holding a book and looking up at the land. There is a metal statue of a dog looking in the same direction she is. The dog is sitting on it’s haunches but has it’s front legs touching the land as if it’s about to stand up fully and run away.

Happy Pride to everyone celebrating it!

Between Pride festivities, other summer festivals, time spent in nature, and the hot, humid days of summer, it feels a little hard to believe that autumn is only a few months away.

At this time of year, summer seems it will last forever…but all seasons end eventually.

I thought it would be interesting to look ahead at some books that have been scheduled to come out this autumn. There were more to add to this list than I thought there would be!

As much as I relish the long, sunny days of summer, there are things to look forward to as the temperatures drop and the days become terribly short, too.

 

Book cover for Wednesday’s Child: Stories by Yiyun Li. Image on cover shows a painting of a large white poodle-like dog that is standing in front of a green summer forest. There is a large light brown patch on the left that covers whatever was next to the dog.

Wednesday’s Child: Stories by Yiyun Li

 

Release Date: September 5

I Want to Read It Because: It sounds like this collection has a little bit of everything in it. I admire writers who can do that.

 

Book cover for The Vaster Wild by Lauren Groff. Image on cover shows a drawing of a tree that has spindly branches that are only half filled with green leaves.

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
Release Date: September 12
I Want to Read It Because: Survival fiction is interesting.
Book cover for North Woods by Daniel Mason. Image on cover is a painting of a mountain lion lying on a grassy meadow and staring at something or something that is just out of the viewer’s range.
North Woods by Daniel Mason
Release Date: September 19
I Want to Read It Because: Houses generally aren’t the main characters of stories, and I love the idea of following a house through all of the various inhabitants it has had.
Book cover for “You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories” by Octavia Cade. Image on cover shows about a dozen wilting sunflowers that are falling down or have already fallen down onto a wooden desk.
Release Date: September 21
I Want to Read It Because: It sounds like a possibly excellent Halloween read.  Yes, I know it’s June, but I always relish the opportunity to plan ahead for my favourite holiday of the year.

Book cover for Furies by Margaret Atwood. Image on cover shows a medieval-style drawing of a dragon who has pink wings, a green neck, a red chest, purple arms and tail, and a face that includes all of these colours in stripes down it.

Furies by Margaret Atwood

 

Release Date: September 26

I Want to Read It Because: Ms. Atwood is a must-read author for me. I don’t necessarily like everything she writes, but I give it all a shot because of how often I do enjoy her work.

 

 

Book cover for The Mysteries by Bill Watterson. Image on cover is a black and white drawing of a person wearing a cloak as they stand outside of a cottage in a dark winter forest. The person has a frightened expression on their face.

The Mysteries by Bill Watterson

 

Release Date: October 10

I Want to Read It Because: I was a huge fan of his Calvin & Hobbes comic strips back in the day and can’t wait to see what he’s come up with now.

 

Book cover for Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris. Image on cover shows a black-haired woman with glowing eyes leaning her head back slightly and opening her mouth as red string (or maybe blood vessels?) wind their way out of her mouth, possibly in search of their next victim. The woman’s head is surrounded by a sickly green halo that is reminiscent of the white or yellow halos painted around the heads of saints in Medieval paintings.

Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris

Release Date: October of this year (but no specific publication date has been chosen yet)

I Want to Read It Because: 1) I love eco horror, 2) the blurb sounds deliciously scary and possibly perfect for Halloween, and 3) I have not read many Indigenous authors recently and want to change that.

 

98 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops