Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Characters I Want to Meet

 

The Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge is hosted by Long and Short Reviews. They offer this blog hop as a weekly prompt to help you gain new friends and visitors. You don't have to participate every week, but consistent blogging seems to be the key to success. I can say that when I participate in weekly memes and challenges, I see the most traffic and comments at The Book Connection. 

If you decide to post and join the blog hop for a week, Long and Short Reviews asks that you share your link on their weekly post on their website (it will be the top post on the home page each Wednesday morning). The link list remains open for new links for 48 hours. Then visit the other bloggers participating to see what they are talking about that week. Comments are appreciated. 

How is it Wednesday again? Hope you're having an amazing week.

Today, we are talking about characters we would like to meet. I'll start by sharing the expected ones: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Anne Shirley, and Jo March, all young women whose impulsive natures and forward thinking pushed the boundaries of their times. I would also add Dr. Michaela Quinn to that list. Though this character originated on television (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman), there were a few books released that tied into the series. The daughter of a Boston physician, she replies to an ad for a doctor in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Not originally well-received (they thought her name was Michael), she slowly wins over the townsfolk.  

Wouldn't it be neat to visit the fictional town of Cabot Cove and sit down with Jessica Fletcher? She is a writer and a mystery solver. The Murder, She Wrote books were a result of the popularity of the television show of the same name. Several authors have contributed to this series of books. 

Gordon Butler is introduced as a rookie cop in the third book of F. M. Meredith's Rocky Bluff P.D. series, Fringe Benefits. He is a magnet for mishaps and is often the butt of many jokes. He is my favorite character from the series. Would love to hang out with him and see what he's up to, how his job has changed, and if there is any special news he wants to share. 

Deputy Tempe Crabtree is the only woman and Native American on the Bear Creek police force. Introduced in Deadly Trail, this book finds her putting off her wedding to Pastor Hutch. By the time the series ends with A Final Farewell, she and Hutch are facing a different stage of life. In some ways, she reminds me of Dr. Quinn, because she depends upon her Native American roots to help solve crimes, while Dr. Quinn introduces Native American medicine into her practice in Colorado Springs. Both woman have ties to different communities. And Tempe, like Michaela, must overcome discrimination to become a valued member of her community.

Tempe has always fascinated me: the way she works; how dreams play into her life; how she taps into her ancestry, and her friendship with Nick Two John. Considering her age in the final book, I think as women in transition, we would have a lot to talk about. 

What are your thoughts on my list? Have you read any of these books? Which characters would you like to meet?

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Book I'm Nervous to Read (and why)

 

The Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge is hosted by Long and Short Reviews. They offer this blog hop as a weekly prompt to help you gain new friends and visitors. You don't have to participate every week, but consistent blogging seems to be the key to success. I can say that when I participate in weekly memes and challenges, I see the most traffic and comments at The Book Connection. 

If you decide to post and join the blog hop for a week, Long and Short Reviews asks that you share your link on their weekly post on their website (it will be the top post on the home page each Wednesday morning). The link list remains open for new links for 48 hours. Then visit the other bloggers participating to see what they are talking about that week. Comments are appreciated. 

Welcome back to Wednesday. Today, we are talking about books we are nervous to read and why.  

I pre-ordered this book, just like I have done with every Little House on the Prairie cast memoir. The main reason I haven't read it since it arrived in 2021, is because my review schedule has been steady for many years. Until 2024, I hadn't dedicated real time to reading from my TBR pile. 

The other reason that I keep putting this one off is because I know that Grassle addresses her sometimes tense relationship with Michael Landon, and part of what makes Little House on the Prairie so special is the chemistry between Caroline and Charles. Kudos to them for being such professionals that this never came across onscreen. It is kind of like when I learned Christopher Plummer didn't like acting alongside children, and they didn't even use his real voice. You know these things happen, but you don't like to think about them happening on the sets of your favorite shows and movies. 

What is a book you're nervous to read? 

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Fictional Worlds I'd Rather Not Visit

 

The Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge is hosted by Long and Short Reviews. They offer this blog hop as a weekly prompt to help you gain new friends and visitors. You don't have to participate every week, but consistent blogging seems to be the key to success. I can say that when I participate in weekly memes and challenges, I see the most traffic and comments at The Book Connection. 

If you decide to post and join the blog hop for a week, Long and Short Reviews asks that you share your link on their weekly post on their website (it will be the top post on the home page each Wednesday morning). The link list remains open for new links for 48 hours. Then visit the other bloggers participating to see what they are talking about that week. Comments are appreciated. 

I've known about this weekly blogging challenge for years, but I haven't tackled it yet. I'm never sure how much time I'll have to visit folks, and being supportive of the blogging community is important. 

At this point in my life, I'm pretty sure the only places I want to visit are ones that are beautiful, by the water, abundant in nature, and don't have any creatures that can kill me. That means these worlds are totally nowhere near my bucket list.

Post-apocalyptic Chicago is so not a place I would visit. Danger. Nasty people trying to kill you. Way too industrial looking. 

This alternate history novel set in 1962 with the United States ownership carved up, a contaminated Washington D.C. thanks to an atomic bomb, and regular assassinations is really not for me. 

Scary, creepy, dangerous demons. Need I say more?

This place is named Dark Island. Nothing good is going to happen there. Strange herbal remedies, trails filled with alligators and snakes, and a vampire doesn't exactly say vacation to me. 

Let's just face it, a world with an ongoing battle of good versus evil where only some will survive, is not the place for me. A deadly virus, trekking across the country to meet other survivors, reinventing society... what would I do?  Too scary for me. 

Which part of Panem is good for the average person? Living in poverty? Dying in the games pitted against creatures created by a government who loves to play with you, your emotions, and your family or being pursued by people from other districts whose survival is dependent upon your death? There is nothing appealing about Panem, and even the people working in the government aren't totally safe. 

How did you enjoy this trip through the fictional worlds I would rather not visit? Do we share some of the same choice?