Tag Archives: Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Genre I Want to Read More Of

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Last winter I reread the first few books in Jean M. Auel‘s Earth’s Children series. They reminded me of how much I enjoy historical fiction novels that have been well-researched and include the latest data about what life was like for average people in that era.

For example, the Earth’s Children books described what the characters ate, how they hunted and gathered, what their clothes and tools looked like, and so much more. Specific plants and animals from 30,000 years ago are explained in great detail, including species that have since gone extinct. The author extrapolated when necessary as not everything can be fossilized, of course, but she did an incredible amount of research for these books that really made ice age Europe come alive for me.

A photo of an abandoned stone cathedral on a grassy hill. It still has walls but no longer has a roof or glass in its windows. There is a stormy grey and slightly pink sky behind it. I love becoming immersed in a world so unlike modern life.

Years ago I adored how the Pillars of the Earth series by Ken Follett took a similar approach to English life in the 12th century. It was written from the perspective of one of the many working class men who was hired to build a cathedral.

They worked long, hard hours for low pay at a time when workers’ rights were much less protected than they are today. I was fascinated by how they managed to survive under such conditions.

If you know of other historical fiction novels that are similar to these ones as far as accuracy and research goes, I’d love to hear about them.

Generally, I do not enjoy reading about war or royalty, but I’m open to just about any other setting and era anywhere in the world.

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Describe Your Sense of Humour

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Image of something being downloaded. The text reads “downloading future. Please wait” and there is a loading image above the cancel bar. I started working on this back in March and have been slowly adding to it as I find more examples of things that tickle my funny bone. Some posts work better if they’re allowed to percolate for a long time.

My sense of humour is gentle and kind but honest.

Everyone should be laughing and feeling happy by the time the punchline is revealed.

 

I love these types of humour:

  • stories or videos about pets or people doing amusing things like accidentally scaring themselves
  • jokes that allow people to poke gentle fun at themselves if they wish to
  • puns and wordplay
  • wholesome memes
  • anything that sidesteps the audience’s expectations of what will happen next and gives us something clever in exchange.

 

Here are some examples of things that have made me smile or laugh recently:

 

One day, a police officer pulls a car over and sees the backseat is full of penguins. The officer tells the driver, “You can’t be doing this, you need to take these penguins to the zoo!”

The next day, the police officer pulls the same car over again, and says, “Hey! I told you to take these penguins to the zoo!” The driver says, “I did, and today I’m taking them to the movies!”

 

 

Beagle Puppy Learns How to Go Down Stairs  (1 minute, 33 seconds long)

Adorableness is always in style. This dog has been a YouTube star for years.

 

 

Q. Why are frogs so happy?

A. They eat whatever bugs them.

 

 

First Day of Rural Medicine (2 minutes, 15 seconds long)

This is a skit about the challenges of providing medical care to a culture that tries to tough everything out. I grew up around so many farmers and other rural folks who avoid modern medical care unless there’s a true emergency, and even then they won’t go in very promptly. For example, one of my relatives had a heart attack in the middle of the night years ago, took some antacids, and then casually strolled into their family doctor’s office the next morning. Their family doctor examined them and immediately called for an ambulance. After emergency surgery for a quadruple bypass, my relative is doing well. Their family doctor might need a hug, though.

 

 

Q: What would bears be without the letter B?

A: Ears.

 

 

Screenshot of a message on a social media site (possibly tumblr?) from user Roxy Horror whose username is roxiqt. The message says: “I went to the ER for a migraine once. The nurse asked me what I took for it. I said, ‘a litre of chocolate milk.’ She paused and said, ‘odd…but only something a migraine sufferer would try’ as if I correctly answered her riddle and she was granting me passage to the land of pain relief.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one is funny and relatable to me. I have tried the chocolate milk – well, actually mine was chocolate almond milk – trick when I was desperate for relief. It did not work in any way, but it was delicious. Now I have more effective prescription medication to take when I feel a migraine coming on, so I have been granted passage to the land of pain relief, too, assuming my meds work.

 

 

Photo of a cat sitting on a wooden swing outside. The cat is wearing an orange scarf and a blue sweater. There are colourful autumn leaves scattered about and some trees in the background that look like their leaves are turning colours, too. Humorously enough, the text on this image reads “Friends: it’s still 85 degrees out. Me: …..” 85 Fahrenheit is about 29 Celsius. So even when it’s still warm out, both this can and I yearn for autumn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn is so much nicer than summer to me!

 

Animals Reacting to Their Reflections  (2 minutes, 32 seconds long)

I thought this was funny and educational. Some animals seem to have much more self-awareness than others do.

 

Closeup photo of the head of a peaceful capybara. Image on text reads: “Humans and capybaras are evolutionarily closely related. You are genetically as cute as this capybara.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(I don’t know that we’re actually that closely related to capybaras….but this meme made me smile. I hope you all smiled, too.)

 

This is a still from the 2001 film Shrek. In it Donkey (the sometimes overly cheerful grey donkey in it) is walking in a meadow looking pleased with himself. There is a dark forest behind him and a boulder in front of him. The text reads, “me going outside to improve my mental health.” At the bottom of the image, the donkey’s line of dialogue is on the screen and reads “I like that boulder. That’s a nice boulder.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking is not a cure-all, but it sure does help distract me when I’m worried about something. Exercise is a great form of stress relief.

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books That Should Have Ended a Different Way

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Photo of a person wearing a hoodie and hunching over a little as they read a book. They are in a room that is only partially illuminated with light, so you can see a weak yellow-orange light behind them but it is not strong enough to show us this person’s age, race, sex, or any other identifying characteristics. So all you see is their silhouette as they read.

Just like last week, I’m digging deep and picking books from a wide variety of genres that I have rarely if ever discussed here before. (So there will be no ranting about the Earth’s Children series today. Ha!)

These were all books I otherwise enjoyed, by the way. I simply wish their endings had been different for reasons I will share below. Beware of spoilers in this post, although I did try to minimize them as much as possible.

Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan

What Should Have Happened: Either most species should have gone extinct or the characters should have figured out what killed off everyone with a Y chromosome and fixed it.

 

Tyrell by Coe Booth

What Should Have Happened: Tyrell was smart person who was working so hard to get out of poverty. I liked him and hated how ambiguously things ended. In my imagination, everything worked out well for him and he’s living a quiet, happy life. I choose to believe he now has a good job,  a few adorable kids with his wife, and was recently convinced to adopt a dog from the local shelter that he pretends to find annoying but also sneaks treats to when no one is looking.

 

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

What Should Have Happened: Ideally, new evidence would have come forward to exonerate Mary, but I would have accepted any other possible ending as well other than the one we received.  I was annoyed when I read the last few pages of this book even though the rest of it was great.

 

The Golden Road by L.M. Montgomery

What Should Have Happened: A time machine and proper medical treatment so that a certain beloved character can live a long, healthy, and happy life. (Yes, I know that’s unrealistic for this era, but it still broke my heart to realize what happened to them).

 

Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan Henry

What Should Have Happened: Once again, we need a time machine so that one of the characters in this book could received the medical care they needed to live to a ripe old age in good health even though I know people with their diagnosis did not live very long back then. It feels deeply unfair that this was their fate, though, and those deaths caused so much pain.

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books With Fantastic Endings

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Five hardcover books with bright red covers have been stood up on a white background. They are arranged so their pages are fanned out and their spines are facing each other in a circular pattern. My first impulse for this week’s prompt was to discuss books with fantastic endings that I’ve talked about here before, but I’m going to try to stretch myself and choose titles I have rarely or maybe even never discussed on my blog instead.

Now let’s see if I can briefly describe why I loved these endings without giving away too many spoilers about them.

I will be jumping around among various genres a lot in this post as that’s what my reading habits have always been like.

 

My Real Children by Jo Walton

Why the Ending Was Fantastic: It was open-ended. Given how serious Patricia’s memory loss was, a definitive answer would have felt a little odd to me.

 

Westlake Soul by Rio Youers

Why the Ending Was Fantastic: Westlake performed marvellously in it!

 

Angelica: A Novel by Arthur Phillips

Why the Ending Was Fantastic: As a heads up for those of you who need it, one of the storylines in this book revolved around whether a child was being abused or if her strange behavior could be explained by paranormal means instead. I thought this book did an excellent job of resolving that question while still remaining true to the time period when it was written and when child abuse was rarely if ever discussed in polite company.

 

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

Why the Ending Was Fantastic: There was a lot of character growth by the final stanza. (This was a story told in the form of poems).

 

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

Why the Ending Was Fantastic: This entire book took place over a few days in  a maternity ward in an Irish hospital during an outbreak of the 1918 flu. While there were still things about it that felt rushed to me, the ending went a long way in explaining why everything moved so quickly.

 

My Antonia by Willa Cather

Why the Ending Was Fantastic: It was happy. Given what happened earlier in the storyline and how often those things turned out tragically back then, that is not at all what I was expecting. It was pleasantly surprising to say goodbye to these characters with the assurance that they were going to be okay.

 

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

Why the Ending Was Fantastic: I loved how much room it left for a sequel while still tying up nearly all of the important conflicts in the storyline. The fact that romance was not part of this storyline was also refreshing to me. We need more books that focus on non-romantic relationships in my opinion.

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Things I Like and Dislike About the Mystery Genre

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A pale-skinned person holding a book in front of their head. The book has a question mark photoshopped onto its cover. This photo is in black and white. Just like I did for the romance genre version of this topic last year, I will share three things I like and three things I dislike about mysteries.

What I Dislike About the Mystery Genre 

1. Graphic descriptions of death and corpses.

I rarely like to read this stuff in the horror genre these days, much less in genres that have much more realistic explanations of how someone could die. Please give me a fluffy overview instead and then let’s move on to solving the case.

2. Red herrings

This doesn’t seem to be as popular these days, but I dislike mysteries that try to purposefully mislead their audiences early on. Why not share fewer clues overall instead? I don’t mind being confused or not figuring everything out before the main character does.

3. Inspired by true events

Unless the crime in question is a really silly one where no one was physically harmed, I don’t like mixing fiction with fact in this genre. I’d rather see how creative a mystery author can be instead. Fiction is escapism for me the vast majority of the time, so there’s no need to be reminded of real-life tragedies when I’m reading a mystery.

 

 

What I Like About the Mystery Genre

1. Puns

The cozy mystery sub-genre excels at titles that are filled with puns, and I love every single one of them I’ve seen so far. If the titles reference food as well, I basically have to pick them up and at least read their blurbs if nothing else.

2. Justice 

Criminals are almost always brought to justice in this genre even if they’ve managed to fool everyone in their lives up until the point that the protagonist figures out what’s really going on.  I find that so emotionally satisfying. If only real life could be like this, too.

3. Mixing Genres

Mysteries are often mixed with other genres like romance, historical fiction, paranormal, or fantasy. When they’re done well, these tends to be the sorts of books that I cannot put down because I simply must know if the sad attic ghost will finally find peace after their untimely death or if the main character is ever going to realize that his or her neighbour is totally flirting with them and would make a great boyfriend/girlfriend for them.

There’s something about the mystery genre that really lends itself to being combined in these ways in my opinion! Pure mysteries are fun, too, but that blending can really bring out the best of two or more genres.

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Funny Animal Video

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Close-up photo of a little brown baby bunny sitting in a patch of dirt outside. Its ears are perked up as it listens for anything nearby. One of my favourite types of amusing animal videos involves rabbits squeezing through spaces the humans thought were far too small for them to fit through or hopping further than anyone thought they should be able to.

If you’ve never held or otherwise been near a rabbit, know that a lot of their volume can be taken up by their fur and that they hop over and around all sorts of barriers.

Their bodies beneath all of that fluff are smaller and more flexible than you might think, especially if they’re sporting an especially fluffy coat or if it’s the right time of year for their winter fur to grow in.

Here is a short video about a baby rabbit who squeezes thought a cage.

Here is another one.

And a third and final great escape from a so-called rabbit-proof fence. (I do not think anyone consulted the rabbits before deciding to call it that!)

This is a baby bunny who has been temporarily placed in a laundry basket that is much too high for them to jump out of….right?

The tale of a rabbit in a large glass cage.

All of these videos are short. They are a few minutes long at most, and some are more like 20 to 30 seconds of footage.

I adore seeing tiny little rabbits outwit humans. It’s so funny.

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Book I Wish Were More Popular

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A gorgeous black woman dressed in a mermaid costume and sitting on the sand at the beach as the waves roll in. Her bra is metallic purple, her fin is light green, and her hair has been braided with red extensions. She’s lovely and looks very happy to be there.

It was so tempting for me to list five or six stories today, but I did follow the rules by narrowing down my choices to books that have been published in the last five years that I think should have been far more popular than they were.

My answer for this week’s theme?

The Deep by Rivers Solomon. That link will take you to the Goodreads page for it, and this one will show you my review of it from 2020.

What is it about? Without giving away spoilers, it’s about black mermaids who bear little to no resemblance to Disney’s bubblegum representation of mermaids. Their meaning is much deeper and thought provoking than that.

What I love about this novella are all of the layers readers get to unwrap as they discover more information about Yetu and her people. My impression of her changed several times as I read this book, and I keep hoping someone will finally turn it into a film or TV show.

Other themes in the storyline include intergenerational trauma, the lingering effects of racism, figuring out how to heal from the past, accepting love (both romantic and platonic), and, interestingly enough,  the many differences between aquatic and land-based organisms.

Obviously, humans in their current form cannot live in the ocean. It takes a lot of alterations to make such a thing possible and some of them created opportunities for amusing misunderstandings, so keep an eye out for those moments as they appear.

The world-building leaves a lot of space for readers to come up with our own ideas of how certain things worked or what happened in the time periods Yetu does not have knowledge of as well. This is yet another reason why we need more readers for this book and for an on-screen adaptation to happen.

I need more folks around who would like to discuss the possibilities of this world and what might happen next to the characters!

 

 

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Things I Wish More People Talked About Openly

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This week’s prompt was interesting because I’m a pretty private person. Theoretically, I am all for people sharing details of whatever is going on in their lives, including topics that previous generations tended to keep to themselves.

A photo of four different phones. From left to right there is a: 2000s-era black cellphone, 1980s-era green landline, 1960s-era white rotary phone, and 1940s-era black rotary phone. That does not mean that I am equally comfortable sharing everything about myself in great detail, though! I need time to get to know someone first to see what sort of character they might have and whether something small I share privately with them is going to be spread to every single person they know in the world by tomorrow morning. 😉

So what do I wish people talked about openly more often?

Their Average Days. Social media can often be a highlight reel of the best times in life…but what about when you’re not doing anything out of the ordinary? What do those days look like?

Small Accomplishments. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. I love listening to or reading about people doing little things that are difficult for them but may be easy for someone else like making a phone call or trying something new. There’s nothing like cheering someone on for something that most folks would probably overlook if it wasn’t pointed out.

What They’re Grateful For. I believe that gratitude is often an underrated virtue, so it’s wonderful to see what someone is grateful for today even if it’s something minor like watching a gorgeous sunset.

Compliments. Everyone needs a nice compliment now and again.

How about all of you?

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Funniest Advice I’ve Received

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The word advice is written in block letters with chalk on a chalkboard. I began working on this post in March and will slowly add to it until the publication date arrives.

Sometimes advice is funny because it’s horribly wrong and should never be followed by anyone.

In other cases it’s amusing because of how it makes you see the world or the way it plays with our expectations of what might happen among many other reasons.

I tried to come up with a mix of these types for my replies.

Piece of Advice #1

“Stop taking your antibiotics once you’re feeling better! That way you’ll still have some antibiotics to take the next time you’re sick.”

This is something a relative who does not understand science, medicine, public health, or how antibiotics work said a few years ago. Please do NOT follow her advice. The last thing we need in 2024 or beyond are more antibiotic-resistant superbugs getting passed around and causing life-threatening illnesses.

 

Piece of Advice #2

“Never do anything you wouldn’t want to explain to the paramedics.”

And, honestly, I think this is an excellent litmus test to apply when deciding whether to take a specific risk.

 

Piece of Advice #3

”Leave Canada geese alone.”

I had multiple Canadians tell me this when I first moved up here, and it’s something everyone should listen to. Yes, they’re beautiful birds, but they can also be quite territorial and aggressive, especially during breeding season. It’s best to give them a wide berth and admire them from afar.

 

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Would I Stay in a Haunted House? Why or Why Not?

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A black-and-white photo of a cobweb-covered staircase in an old house. On vthe right you see the stairs up to the landing. To the left you see the railing for the next flight of stairs up to the next floor, but you cannot see the stairs themselves due to how the staircase curves after the landing. I have already stayed in a haunted house! One of my relatives owns a townhouse that used to have shadow people in it a few decades ago.

The shadow people were never dangerous or violent. From what I’ve been told, you’d simply see them out of the corner of your eye or maybe catch a quick glimpse of a dark shadow walking across the room and then disappearing into a wall.

Sightings of these creatures stopped after a cleansing ritual was done many years ago.

While I did hear someone walking up the stairs there a couple of times when nobody was actually using the stairs, it was probably just the the sound of neighbours walking up their own stairs that echoed through their shared walls.

To make things more interesting, would I stay in a house with a more active supernatural presence?

Some places might have reputations as being haunted when they actually have raccoons or other creatures scurrying around in their attics and knocking stuff over or some other rational explanation for occasionally odd events. I’d stay there once all of the furry little intruders had been taken somewhere else, the squeaky hinges had been fixed, and all sources of cold drafts  wafting through the house had been repaired.

Other houses might be haunted by mischievous spirits who open kitchen cabinets at night but otherwise keep to themselves. I might be willing to stay there if that was the extent of their shenanigans. Honestly, sometimes I leave kitchen cabinet doors open by accident, too, so the ghosts would be in good company (and/or would be annoyed that this human is stealing their thunder).

If we’re talking about a genuinely haunted house that has any history of entities causing harm to the living, no thank you. I am not at all interested in fighting over real estate with anyone, supernatural or otherwise. There are plenty of other places in the world to live.

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