Reviewing Fiction One Happy Ever After at a Time
Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.
NOTE: Just a quick announcement — back by popular demand, the Friday Five writing prompt. Hope to see you there and spread the word!!
Deep, Deep, Down: The Secret Underwater Poetry of the Mariana Trench by Lydia Lukidis
Publisher: Capstone
Genre: Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.), Non-Fiction, Contemporary
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe
Deep, deep down, at the very bottom of the ocean, lies a secret world. Through lyrical narration, this spare-text STEM picture book takes readers on a journey to a place very few humans have ever been–the Mariana Trench. The imagined voyage debunks scary myths about this mysterious place with surprising and beautiful truths about life at Earth’s deepest point. Deep, Deep Down shows a vibrant world far below, and teaches readers how interconnected our lives are to every place on the planet.
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Each Friday, Long and Short Reviews will be hosting a writing prompt and we hope you join us! We provide the five words you need to use in your writing (you can write a story, part of a story, a poem, or whatever you’d like as long as the five words are included). The words are on the graphic above.
There’s no pressure to write something every week (though it should be fun and a challenge), but we do ask that if you do post something, you share your link on the weekly post we’ll put up at our site (it will be the top post on this page, Miscellaneous Musings, each Friday morning) — the link list will be open for new links for 48 hours. Other bloggers will also share their links and you can hop over and see what they have to share.
We hope to see you there — and tell all your friends to come join us!
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Each Wednesday Long and Short Reviews will be hosting a blog hop and we hope you join us!
Blogging is a fun way to meet people and get to know them. We’re offering a weekly “prompt” for authors, non-authors, bookish folks and others to share something weekly and gain new friends and visitors to the blog. There’s no pressure to write something every week (though it should be fun and a challenge), but we do ask that if you do post something, you share your link on the weekly post we’ll put up at our site (it will be the top post on the home page each Wednesday morning) — the link list will be open for new links for 48 hours. Other bloggers will also share their links and you can hop over and see what they have to share.
Want the simple header graphic for your own page? Just right click on the graphic below and save to your computer.
Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.
Last Chance! It’s time to start planning next year’s WWBC list of topics. We’d love suggestions (or we can just use our same one from four years ago–everything old is new again?). If you have any interesting ideas for a topic, please email us at lasreviews@gmail.com with “WWBC Topic Idea” in the subject, so we can have fun again in 2023!
Also, this is the last Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for 2022. For the next two weeks, we’ll be having our Winter Blogfest (There’s a prize on every post — you should definitely stop by). We’ll be back to hosting the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge starting January 4, 2023. Hope to see you all there!
Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl
Here are ten books scheduled to be released this winter that I’d like to read.
The Love Match by Priyanka Taslim
Publication Date: January 3
Why It Interests Me: It’s a retelling of Pride and Prejudice.
Organizing for the Rest of Us by Dana K. White
Publication Date: January 11
Why It Interests Me: I love the idea of having an organized house, but the actual process of figuring out how to organize things makes me feel anxious and overwhelmed. Maybe this book can help?
This Is Not a Personal Statement by Tracy Badua
Publication Date: January 17
Why It Interests Me: Dreams don’t always come true…or at least not in the way one thinks they will. My ears perked up when the blurb mentioned this begins after the main character’s application to attend her dream college was rejected. it will be interesting to see what adventures she has as she figures out what to do instead.
Someone Else’s Life by Lyn Liao Butler
Publication Date: January 17
Why It Interests Me: Stalking is such an interesting (albeit disturbing) topic. I hope this will be a good exploration of what encourages someone to behave that way.
Transitional: How to Live Your Authentic Life by Munroe Bergdorf
Publication Date: February 1
Why It Interests Me: It’s interesting to read the perspectives of people who have experience gender dysphoria and who have transitioned. I’ve never really had to think about many of the topics they’ve needed to figure out, and I hope to learn all sorts of helpful stuff in this memoir.
Cold People by Tom Rob Smith
Publication Date: February 7
Why It Interests Me: Antarctica is a harsh environment. It would be extremely difficult for people to survive there longterm without regular replenishment of their supplies from the outside world, so I’m curious to see if these characters will figure out how to do it.
The Friendship Breakup by Annie Cathryn
Publication Date: February 7
Why It Interests Me: Losing a friendship can be just as painful as losing a romantic partner, and yet there are very few books that talk about what happens when friends are no longer part of each other’s lives. This looks like a great read.
Venco by Cherie Dimaline
Publication Date: February 7
Why It Interests Me: The thought of a magical spoon makes me giggle. Isn’t it marvellous when authors come up with creative stuff like this?
The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
Publication Date: February 21
Why It Interests Me: Some paranormal horror stories rely on honestly rather flimsy reasons for characters to want to remain in a home that turns out to be haunted, but I can see how the promise of a large cash prize and a a quiet place to write would be enticing for a lot of people!
My Dear Henry – a Jekyll & Hyde Remix by Kalyan Bayron
Publication Date: March 7
Why It Interests Me: I’ve never actually read the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story. Maybe this will convince me to give it a try so I can compare and contrast these books?
Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.
Also… it’s time to start planning next year’s WWBC list of topics. We’d love suggestions (or we can just use our same one from four years ago–everything old is new again?). If you have any interesting ideas for a topic, please email us at lasreviews@gmail.com with “WWBC Topic Idea” in the subject, so we can have fun again in 2023!
Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl
Since this week’s topic is a freebie post and the holiday season is rapidly approaching, I decided to use it to share some quotes about presents. This is an inclusive topic that can be applied to many different solstice and winter celebrations that are currently happening or will soon be happening.
Literal presents are mentioned in this list, but there are also quotes about the gifts we all sometimes receive in life that can’t be wrapped up or bought in any store.
“One can never have enough socks,” said Dumbledore. “Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn’t get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
“What greater gift than the love of a cat.”
― Charles Dickens
“Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
― Pablo Picasso
“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt
“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”
― Émile Zola
“A gift is pure when it is given from the heart to the right person at the right time and at the right place, and when we expect nothing in return”
― Anonymous, The Bhagavad Gita
“If you love someone, the greatest gift you can give them is your presence”
― Thich Nhat Hanh
“Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.”
― Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby
“Time, as far as my father was concerned, was a gift you gave to other people.”
― Michelle Obama, Becoming
A School of Daughters by Kate René MacKenzie
Publisher: Red Lace Books
Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction
Rated: 5 stars
Reviewed by Rose
It’s funny how things sneak up on you…
Kate Willoughby is a champion for throwaways—discarded dogs and cats, abandoned horses bound for slaughter, and all creatures great and small. But now it’s Kate who’s alone in a hostile world like a dog dumped by the side of a road. Is there a champion for Kate?
After 22 years of marriage, Kate loves her husband, Brian, with an even greater passion than when she spoke her vows. “My world spins on his axis,” she often says. But when Kate finds a love letter to Brian from Micky, she’s torn between proving Brian’s innocence and nailing him to the wall with his guilt.
Throughout her marriage, Kate has been trusting and trustworthy —to a fault, friends have said. Now, she steals into Brian’s emails and accesses his credit card accounts, phone records, bank statements, friends and activities, discovering the metaphoric iceberg beneath Brian’s affair.
Turning to the one constant in her life, Kate is guided by her family of animals: shelter dog Molly; Premarin horse Quinn; packrat Winston; owls Albert & Victoria; Stubby, the chipmunk; rattlesnake Cassandra; and Phineas, the determined grosbeak. These wise and wonderful teachers, along with a wild menagerie on her Arizona ranch, deliver lessons on life, love, and letting go. But it’s Molly, in a heartbreaking act of courage, who leads Kate back to her true self, before she became lost in love with Brian.
Shining a light on the childhood events and adult choices that, like steppingstones, brought her to this moment, Kate illuminates a familiar and well-worn path. Narrating her story with equal doses of heartache and humor, Kate comes to understand that nothing sneaks up on you that isn’t already here. Learning from Phineas, the determined grosbeak, Kate realizes that even after a devastating injury, you can soar again.
Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.
Also… it’s time to start planning next year’s WWBC list of topics. We’d love suggestions (or we can just use our same one from four years ago–everything old is new again?). If you have any interesting ideas for a topic, please email us at lasreviews@gmail.com with “WWBC Topic Idea” in the subject, so we can have fun again in 2023!
