The Sunshine Blogger Award x2

I’ve been running a little behind with tags and awards lately, but I’m going to try and catch up over the next month or so (especially once I’m into reading War and Peace in September and there will be fewer book reviews)! Recently I was nominated by two bloggers I love following, Rachel @ pace, amore, libri and Dani @ Perspective of a Writer, for the Sunshine Blogger Award. Thank you both so much for the award and if you don’t already follow Rachel or Dani, definitely check them out!

The Rules

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.
2. Answer the 11 questions your nominator has given you.
3. Nominate 11 other people and give them 11 new questions to answer.
4. List the rules and display the award.

Rachel’s Questions:

1. What’s the last movie you saw and what did you think of it?
It’s very telling of how rarely I watch movies that I’m having trouble remembering what the last movie I watched was. I’m pretty sure it was actually The Prince of Egypt on Netflix though (how appropriate a response to a Rachel question!) because I’d had a stressful week and really needed something animated but I’d watched my usual animated favs that I own (Tangled and Ratatouille) recently but wanted something good that I could lose myself in for a bit. I love The Prince of Egypt, its an excellent film and the music is SO good, how is this not already a musical?

Do you have any weird or random talents?
I really don’t! My ability to predict casts and who will be cast in which part in National Ballet of Canada productions is improving thanks to my obsession with the company, but it’s a talent in progress. Otherwise it’s mostly just things like knowing all the words to Les Mis!

What’s your favorite song at the moment?
I’ve been listening to the cast recording of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 a lot recently, so probably something from there. “Letters” gets stuck in my head a lot, but I really like “Pierre” and “No One Else” and “Dust and Ashes” too, and the whole based on great works of nineteenth century Russian literature connection has me back into Onegin and I wind up singing “Let Me Die” and “Oh Dear Father” a lot.

What time of day do you do most of your blogging?
I queue posts so this doesn’t always show, but generally I write my posts at night for the simple reason that I work a pretty typical 9-5(:30) job during the day and when I get home I sit with my cockatiel Poe. When Poe and my laptop are around at the same time she persistently jumps on/walks on/chews on the keys and no typing gets done, so I generally wait until after she’s in bed.

What’s your favorite museum that you’ve been to?
This is such a stumper!!! In Washington, DC, City of Museums, obviously I found the Newseum really interesting and purely for fun I loved the Spy Museum, and the Museum of American History but I think ultimately my answer is a tie between The British Museum and the V&A. The V&A I remember finding really fun and interactive, but still educational, and The British Museum is just the dream. But Hadeer’s answer is terrific, the Chester Beatty museum in Dublin is really gorgeous.

When’s the last time you went to a wedding?
April 2016. A friend from University got married and it was a really nice ceremony and the party afterwards was a lot of fun and I had the chance to spend time with some friends who I don’t see very often.

Do you have a celebrity doppelganger?
I don’t think so? Help me out guys if you know a celeb who you think looks like me!

If you were a cat, what color cat would you be? (Very important question.)
I would be a tabby for sure, but I’m not sure which colour tabby!

Do you have a favorite publisher or publisher imprint?
Content-wise I would say Tor, which has the distinction of being the only publisher where I actually read their blog posts as well as like the books they release.

Have you ever dressed up like a fictional character? (Bonus points for photo evidence.)
Not specifically, I did go as a wizard one Halloween and someone asked if I was Hermione (and this was before Harry Potter blew up so my mom and I were impressed someone knew who Hermione was although that hadn’t been the intent). I also went as a Mountie (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) officer one year which was heavily inspired by my love for the Canadian show Due South and my crush on Constable Benton Fraser, but I wasn’t going AS Fraser so…

What’s your favorite thing about your city (or state, or country)?
My favourite thing about Toronto is definitely the arts scene. Obviously I’m a huge fan of theatre, and living in a city that has its own opera company, ballet company, some reputable independent theatres, and that tends to get touring musicals and plays as well as some Canadian sit-down productions is really important to me. I love having access to all of these wonderful shows!

Thanks Rachel!!

Dani’s Questions:
1. If you had to chose a dystopian world to be sent to, which would it be and why?
Oh my god they’re all so awful I would survive none of them! I mean, at my current age I guess I could deal with The Hunger Games because at least I’m no longer in the tribute pool and I don’t plan to ever have children, but it’s still an awful place to be!

2. What are your favorite blog posts to write and why?
It really depends! There are some shows or books where I just have SO MANY THOUGHTS and I’ve taken notes while reading/after watching and can easily write up a review that I’m really proud of. Other times it’s like pulling teeth to put down how I feel about something in a way that makes sense. I tend to enjoy the top 5, top 10 posts when there’s a topic that really suits my interests because it’s a challenge and forces me to think back over what I’ve read for possible answers.

3. Under what circumstances would you DNF a book?
It takes A LOT for me to DNF a book. I think there’s been two in the last two or three years? In one case (To The Lighthouse) it was so dull that I tried twice and couldn’t even get through the first twenty pages. I realized that I had taken in absolutely none of the book and at that point I gave up. In the other case (LAMB: The Gospel According to Biff) I was more than half-way through and had struggled the entire time. I didn’t find it humourous, I didn’t like any of the characters, I found it crass and not clever at all. In general, probably if there are literally no redeeming qualities about the book, and/or if it’s racist/misogynistic etc.

4. What types of characters do you love most? (i.e. like genre but for characters, examples: strong female, hot love interest, nerds, pirates, if you can group them and love them, name them!)
Oooh boy. I guess there’s ‘guy who seems like an asshole on the outside but is actually a good person on the inside’, since I love h/c characters who play into that by being *tortured* mentally or physically by something and suffering, bonus points if they keep the fact that they’re suffering away even from the people they love, badass bookworms, too clever for their own good characters who are usually super insightful, snarkers, I love a good anti-hero or someone with a little darkness in them, practical good under pressure women.

5. If you could teleport to any city in the world which would it be? If you had to make your way home on you own would it still be the same city?
London, absolutely. I love London, it’s my favourite city in the world and I haven’t been in about four years so I’m starting to get the itch! Also, I’m obviously going to miss it, but I’d love to see one of my favourite theatre actors, David Thaxton, in the production of Jesus Christ Superstar he’s currently performing in since it’s a great musical and the production has been well-reviewed. Although I wouldn’t say no to New York City to see The Great Comet one last time before it closes (why are all of my answers theatre-based?!?) And despite the cost, yes I think I would still say these cities. At least it would halve the airfare!

6. If you wrote a book, what would it be about? (i.e. the premise, type of characters, world?)
I’m not a fiction writer so this is purely hypothetical, but it would probably be fantasy or fantasy-influenced, and I would put my characters through hell and back because that’s the kind of book I enjoy, but in the end things would be okay-ish. I like the kind of book where people don’t walk away easily magically healed but their scars and emotional wounds stay with them and only get better gradually.

7. If a band were to be featured in a fictional story, which would you want it to be and why?
I don’t actually listen to a lot of bands so it wouldn’t make any difference to me, I’d love for a musical to get a shout-out though!

8. What book describes you best? (Is it a particular character, the cover or the story?)
I don’t know about describes me – I felt like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell as well as The Lymond Chronicles were books that I was meant to find. JS&MN is set in the early 1800’s, my favourite time period, and has a dry wit, footnotes explaining the magical history of Britain, and a stubborn and somewhat well-intentioned but absent-minded protagonist magician, which certainly appeals. Lymond it took me awhile to get into, but once I was hooked I was hooked! I’ve heard some people say it bears a resemblance to “id fic” because there’s so much hurt/comfort and since that is exactly my jam, I LOVE those books.

9. Favorite book universe and why? (Is it the friends you would have, the world you would live in or the abilities/circumstances you would be in?)
Even though I’m not a diehard Harry Potter fan, it’s so hard to think of anything else because the wizarding world is just so cool. Who wouldn’t want to share a butterbeer, or ride a broomstick or apparate? The idea of being able to do magic and see magical critters is really cool.

10. What is your favorite book pet? Real pet? Ultimate pet?
I mean, pet is probably the wrong word but Shadowfax would be awesome…although probably not too practical for a city-dweller like me! Ditto Gert from Runaways’ telepathically linked dinosaur Old Lace. Lying Cat from Saga would be useful, but also a bit of an awkward pain. Again not so much a pet, but I’ve been fascinated by the His Dark Materials idea of Daemons for awhile. I’d love to have a daemon! I’m happy with my cockatiel Poe, I just wish she’d lose a few of her bad behaviours like screaming when she sees sun in the morning unless I have blinds and curtains drawn!

11. If you’d humor me and look at this post I wrote about Korean dramas… which banner looks like it has a story you would be interested in reading/watching?
The Emotional Acting one I guess?

Thank you Dani!!

I nominate:
Amanda @ MetalPhantasmReads
Caffeinated Bibliophile
Elise @ The Bookish Actress
Emily @ Embuhleeist
Luna @ Bookish Luna
Katie @ Read With Katie

My Questions:
1. Which movie would you love to see on the big screen (something that you’d either love to see in the movie theatre again, or an older movie before your time that you never had the chance to see in the theatre and would love to)?
2. Which book would you love to read for the first time again?
3. Do you have a favorite publisher or publisher imprint?
4. If you worked in a bookstore, what would your one staff pick recommendation be, and why?
5. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?
6. Is there a classic that has been on your TBR for ages?
7. What’s your favourite bird?
8. What colour do you wear the most?
9. What are your thoughts on binge-watching? Is it something you do, and if so, which show did you last binge-watch?
10. What’s your favourite episode of your favourite TV show and why?
11. Do you have a favourite bookstore/used bookstore?

 

Liebster Award

Over the last month or so I’ve been tagged in a bunch of different book tags by you lovely people that I haven’t gotten to, so I just wanted to say how much I appreciate it, and that I will definitely do them, it just might take me a few weeks to catch-up!

In May Darque Dreamer Reads nominated me for the Liebster Award. She has a wonderful blog with insightful reviews and really gorgeous bookish photos, so definitely go check out her blog! Thank you so much for this award!

The rules for this award are:
1. Thank the person who nominated you.
2. Answer 11 questions about yourself.
3. Give 11 interesting facts about yourself.
4. Nominate 11 other bloggers.

11 Interesting Facts About Me:
* Despite being a Canadian English major and having a Master of Library and Information Science degree, I have never read any of Margaret Atwood’s works! (I’m hoping to get to a few this year though.)

* I can’t play a musical instrument to save my life.

* I don’t own a smartphone. My phone is kind of archaic and can manage e-mail and, on a good day, Facebook (but it sucks the battery like crazy). At times I think it would be really handy to have a smartphone, but it’s also kind of nice to disconnect a little from social media, at least while I’m at work.

* I have a deep and abiding hatred of peppers – red, green, yellow, hot, not, I don’t like the taste of peppers and get irrationally frustrated when they’re in a food where I don’t expect them (why would you put peppers in a tuna wrap!?!).

* My ideal weather is probably partly cloudy, with limited wind, and a temperature in the low-mid-twenties Celsius (That’s about 68 to 77 Fahrenheit for my American friends). Extreme heat and humidity and frigid windchill winters are not my favourite times of year.

* The only sport I watch and follow is baseball (go Blue Jays!).

* I also don’t have an eReader, although I’m waffling on that. eReader users, are there any brands you’ve liked, didn’t like, things I should look for if I get one? Problems you’ve had with them? My only must is that it has to be compatible with the Toronto Public Library system.

* I love cool colours, so green and blue are my favourite colours, closely followed by purple.

* I have no sense of direction at all. If I have a map and there are only two directions to turn in, I will probably turn the wrong way.

* My favourite genres to read are Sci-fi & Fantasy, YA, and historical fiction.

* I LOVE reading outside. When the weather is nice you can probably find me on my balcony, on a park bench, or by the pool with a book or two nearby!

Questions from Darque Dreamer:
Why did you start your blog?
There are a few reasons actually. Rachel and I had been chatting about potentially starting to book blog, so we got into this together. Blogging for me is a way to commit to and keep track of what I’ve been reading and what shows I’ve seen. I use goodreads avidly, but I don’t tend to write reviews, so it’s been valuable for me to get down my thoughts on a book while they’re fresh! Blogging is also a creative outlet. I like my job, but it doesn’t involve a lot of writing or creativity, so I wanted to exercise those abilities. Finally, of course, I’ve really enjoyed connecting with other readers and seeing what books they’re loving.

How do you spread the word about your blog?
I try to participate in either a Top Ten Tuesday or a T5W each week and share my post on the threads. Otherwise, I read and comment on what other people are blogging about, and hopefully they’ll check my blog out too. I’m still pretty new to book blogging though and this is definitely something I could improve on.

Who is your inspiration?
In life? My mom. We’re really close and she’s a wonderful person, who has always supported me and given me the freedom and the support to do anything I want to do.

Do you have a particular talent?
This sounds awful to say on here, but generally writing is a talent of mine. It’s always been something I’m able to do and enjoy doing.

What is your favorite food?
I have a sweet tooth, so probably a dessert, like a nanaimo bar. Or, more generally, CHOCOLATE!

Do you have a career outside of blogging?
Yes, I work as a corporate librarian for a financial institution, so generally I do research, using paid-for databases and publicly available sources, that supports internal clients.

Are you an animal lover?
I am. I have a pet cockatiel, Poe, who I adore, and I like most animals (except spiders).

What kind of music do you like?
Mostly musical theatre cast recordings. Obviously I love Hamilton, but also The Last Five Years, Parade, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Les Miserables, The Colour Purple, Bonnie and Clyde, etc. Besides musical theatre I like rock I guess, but I don’t listen to that much contemporary music.

What is your favorite book?
Singular book – Les Miserables. It’s a bit of a “project book”, meaning I set a number of pages a day to read and that helped me through some of the slower parts in this 1460 page novel, but it’s well-worth reading. Some beautiful turns of phrase, characters I loved so deeply, and very moving.

Series – The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett. They sucked me in and have never let go. The itch to re-read is always there. In the 1960s, having finished reading the types of books she loved, like Alexander Dumas’ works, Ms. Dunnett was persuaded by her husband to write the type of book she loved. The result is the dense, impeccably researched six-book Lymond Chronicles. She tends to throw the reader in headfirst with untranslated latin and french quotes appearing in the novel, but at other times the prose is so gorgeous that I had to stop and marvel “how do you words?!” My adoration for these books is never ending.

What is your favorite movie?
I’m not actually a big movie person (much more of a TV watcher) but a few I love are Pixar’s Ratatouille, my happy place movie, Inside Out (which I recommend for anyone who has ever suffered from depression, but bring tissues it made me bawl like a baby), Brokeback Mountain, Gattaca, The Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Where is your favorite vacation spot?
London, England. I always feel like I’ve left part of my heart there I adore London so much. the combination of architecture, history, culture, and the West End theatres is ideal for me. I don’t think I could ever get bored in London.

Do you play video games?
I don’t. With each gaming system my family got, I used it less and less, so although I did pretty well at the N64 (Donkey Kong, Banjo Kazooie, and Mario Kart were favs), and the Game Boy Colour, I was so-so at the GameCube, and barely used the Wii. I’ve never used a PlayStation.

My Questions: 
(re-using a couple here since they were really great questions)
1. Why did you start your blog?
2. How do you spread the word about your blog?
3. Which author (living or dead) would you most like to/like to have met?
4. What’s your favourite beverage?
5. What’s one of your biggest pet peeves?
6. What is the best book you had to read for school?
7. How do you organize your books on goodreads?
8. What kind of music do you not like, and why?
9. If you won an all-expenses paid trip to anywhere in the world, where would you go?
10. What’s your favourite holiday?
11. Are you a morning person or a night owl?

I nominate:
Ella @ A Book Without End
Steph @ Lost Purple Quill
Elise @ The Bookish Actress
Dani @ Perspective of a Writer
Bentley @ Book Bastion

As always, feel free to ignore if you’ve already been tagged or aren’t interested in doing this!

Thanks for reading this (very long) post!

 

 

The Unique Blogger Award

I was nominated by my wonderful friend Rachel of pace, amore, libri for this award. Thank you Rachel! It’s been an honour to undertake the book blogging journey with you!

The Rules

• Share the link of the blogger who has shown love to you by nominating you.
• Answer the questions.
• In the spirit of sharing love and solidarity with our blogging family, nominate 8-13 people for the same award.
• Ask them 3 questions.

Rachel’s Questions

1.Who’s your favorite actor/actress and what’s your favorite performance that they’ve ever done?  It can be something you’ve seen on stage, or in a film/television show/etc.

As Rachel guessed, this is difficult to narrow down, so I’m completely cheating and I have a few answers:

One has to be English theatre actor David Thaxton. There are no other actors who I have literally crossed an ocean to see, and although there have been other reasons, seeing him perform was a huge impetus to take these trips to London. My favourite performance that I’ve seen live has to be his turn as student leader Enjolras in the 2008/09 West End cast of Les Miserables. His strong baritone, natural charisma on stage, and camaraderie with his fellow actors was really captivating. I didn’t have the chance to see it live, but the recording of his Olivier award (basically the UK-Tonys) winning performance as Giorgio in Passion at the Donmar (which you can watch by booking an appointment to visit the V&A Museum’s archives) was stunning and made me cry just from a video.

The second is Canadian baritone Andrew Love. I first spotted Love playing the Bishop and other roles in the Toronto cast of Les Miserables and even in brief scenes his voice blew me away, so naturally when I heard he was understudying the role of Javert and would go on one Saturday in November, I dashed to the theatre to buy a last minute ticket and it was beyond even my high hopes. His voice is superb, but his acting is every bit its equal and his take on the role was thoughtful and very human. He was also fabulous recently in Against the Grain Theatre’s modern English-language take on La Boheme. I’ll definitely be following his career for the rest of my life.

Finally, as far as film actors go I think Oscar Isaac is ridiculously talented and has the ability to transform into each role he takes on. My favourite is definitely Poe in the new Star Wars movie (namesake for my pet), but I also loved his work in A Most Violent Year. And I’m currently working my way through Toby Stephens’ (Maggie Smith’s son!) filmography. My favourite role of his is, obviously, Captain Flint in Black Sails. His monologue’s rival Bryan Cranston’s in Breaking Bad and he’s played a fabulous arc with this character.

2.Which book would you most like to see adapted into a film and why?

I’m kind of already getting this, because the book I think would be best suited to an adaptation is Marvel’s Runaways comics, which are being turned into a Hulu show. The snappy pop culture dialogue, diversity of the teenage protagonists (which include a Japanese-American girl, a Jewish overweight girl, a vegan lesbian, and an African-American prodigy), and great backstory (everything thinks their parents are evil at somepoint, but what if you found out your parents were actually supervillains?) were really ahead of their time and I can see the show working really well as long as it’s cast smartly and well-written.

3.Talk about and share a picture of your pet(s)!

I have a pet cockatiel named Poe (after the Star Wars character) and she’s a laugh a minute. She’s very affectionate to the point of being clingy (she flies after me when I leave the room), enjoys headscratches and eating broccoli and other people food, and can’t be trusted around computers or books (she tries to eat them). Like most cockatiels, she’s curious and needs to be kept busy with toys to chew on and explore. She also loves having baths, but hates the being wet part, so she has a blast splashing water around, but when she’s done she runs around in irritation until her feathers dry off. Here’s what she looks like wet!

I Nominate

• Darque Dreamer Reads
• Readers Rule
• The Bookish Actress
• Read With Chris

My Questions

1. Talk about and share a few of your favourite book covers.
2. How do you organize your bookshelves? (by author, by genre, by colour, etc.)
3. Besides books, do you collect anything? If so, what do you collect?

As always, feel free to skip this, especially if you’ve already been tagged by someone else!

Mystery Blogger Award

I was nominated by the fabulously eloquent Rachel of pace, amore, libri for the Mystery Blogger Award – thanks Rachel! If you like literary fiction, general fiction, and/or hist fic and aren’t following Rachel already, you’re definitely missing out. Also she has incredibly photogenic cats.

The Rules:
Put the award logo/image in your post.
List all the rules.
Thank whoever nominated you and leave a link to their blog.
Tell your readers 3 things about yourself.
Nominate 10-20 people and notify them.
Link back to the creator of the award.
Ask nominees any 5 questions of your choice, with a weird or funny question.
Share the link to your best/favourite post of yours.

3 Things About Me:
1. Most of the music I listen to is cast recordings and musical theatre songs, and I am such a sucker for a baritone. I have tenor favs too – I was indoctrinated into love of Colm Wilkinson young through both the Canadian cast album of Phantom of the Opera and through Les Miserables and my love only grew when I saw him live (he’s a senior citizen but hugely funny, still has the voice, and puts on a fabulous show!). I would also watch or listen to just about anything for Jeremy Jordan and his combination of charisma with those glorious note he hits, but my ultimate love is baritones. Small wonder that one of my favourite songs is the baritone duet, “Lily’s Eyes” from The Secret Garden!

2. Horror is my one automatic nope genre, both in film and in books. I don’t mind a good thriller or a work of suspense, but I don’t like to be scared and I can’t deal with gore so I avoid horror like the plague!

3. I’m not a naturally neat person. I really wish I was. I wish that a bit of mess bugged me and switched something into gear in my brain to make me tidy up, but sadly that’s not me. I’m not the girl who apologizes for having 5 dirty dishes in her sink, I’m the girl who was up frantically cleaning at 12 am the day before friends or family come to visit so the apartment resembles other people’s normal levels of tidiness.

Rachel’s Questions:

1.What’s your favorite book-to-film adaptation and why?
I have to go with Lord of the Rings. I have minor quibbles with the movies (mostly Faramir, and even those are helped by the extended versions somewhat, and the sheer amount of fighting in The Two Towers getting a little boring after a bit), but in general what a feat adapting these huge, dense, classic books to film and doing so in a way that is exciting, that keeps with the spirit of Tolkien’s novels, and that feels real. I LOVE these movies, and I think they were so well cast. The films move me and make me want to fall into Middle Earth, or at least Rivendell and Hobbiton, and live there.

2. If you had to live in another country for a year, where would you choose?
I would 100% live in the UK for a year. I actually sort of tried this a few months after graduating university by enrolling in the SWAP program, where basically the program helps you with things like getting a working VISA for a year and offers some resources for housing etc. The plan was to go to the Republic of Ireland for up to a year and then to the U.K. Except I went in early 2009 when the financial crisis was causing all kinds of havoc. I did have friends I met in the program who stayed and found jobs and lived in Ireland, but generally it was much harder to find employment than I had been told, and I this was my first time away from home so I was already nervous. In the end I decided to use the money I had saved to travel and see what I wanted to see instead of worrying about whether or not I could get a job. I do sometimes wonder what it would have been like if I had stuck it out and tried to live and work in a foreign country, but my seven week traveling spree was the right decision for me at the time. I love London especially though, the mix of culture (The West End! Museums!) and history, and architecture, (and a better transit system!) and a country that isn’t too different from my own really appeals to me and it would be really cool to live there.

3. What’s your favorite board game/card game?
My great sadness is that because I am an introvert, someone more comfortable in small gatherings of a few people or one-on-one, game playing opportunities are few and far-between. I love playing games though. In high school we played Asshole (also known as President) the card game at lunch for months on end, I also liked Signal. My favourite game has to be Ticket to Ride though. I LOVE that game and I’m so sad that I never have anyone who will play with me!

4. Describe your ideal breakfast in detail.
As someone who loves fruit and pastries, breakfast is my favourite meal of the day! I love eggs benedict, I love french toast, and I love breakfast pastries. I think my ideal breakfast would probably be a buffet so I could have small amounts of multiple dishes. There would be some fresh fruit, especially strawberries and mango slices, some scrambled eggs, perhaps with feta, parsley, and cherry tomatoes, breakfast potatoes of course, danishes and/or muffins, and french toast. The scones benedict with tea at Alice’s Tea Cup in New York would also work!

5. Which fictional character do you most relate to and why?
I always have such trouble with this question! I think it’s partly because characters by their very nature generally have to be more ambitious, decisive, take charge than I am or they wouldn’t be very interesting to read about. I think that’s why I relate to two of Brian Fuller’s protagonists, Jaye Tyler from Wonderfalls and George Lass from Dead Like Me. Both characters are independent, sarcastic, fairly introverted, and are generally unambitious, forced into action by the universe.

My Questions:

1. What other languages do you speak, and which language(s) would you like to learn?
2. What would your ideal home library look like?
3. Describe your favourite tea or coffee mug.
4. Which author, living or dead, would you most like to meet and why?
5. What’s your unpopular food opinion?

Tagging:
Aditi @ Readers Rule
Luna @ BookishLuna
Elise @ The Bookish Actress
Emily @ Embuhleeliest
Cate @ Shelf Pickings

As always, if you don’t do tags, have already done this one, or are just plain not interested, please feel free to ignore!

And if you weren’t tagged but would like to do my questions, please do and link back to me so I can read your answers!

The One Lovely Blog Award

I was recently nominated by Aditi at Readers Rule for this award. Thank you so much! I really appreciate the love and it’s wonderful to bring book bloggers together and find new friends through these kinds of posts.

• Thank the person that nominated you and leave a link to their blog.
• Post about the award.
• Share seven facts about yourself.
• Nominate at most 15 people.
• Tell your nominees they’ve been nominated for one lovely award.

1. I have a major sweet tooth. I love desserts, especially chocolate, and my favourite special occasion treat is a sugary Canadian creation called a Nanaimo bar!

2. Like many readers, I am a big tea drinker. My favourites tend to be flavoured black teas, like rhubarb cream, or blackcurrant, but I’ll drink most teas with one exception – I’m with V.E. Schwab and come down firmly on the anti-Earl Grey side of the great tea twitter debate!

3. I don’t have a green thumb at all, in fact I’ve even killed a cactus before, but I do love flowers. My favourites are pansies, because they’re so bright and cheerful and bloom early in the season so they’re a splash of colour after a dull winter, and poinsettias, because I associate them with Christmas, my favourite holiday.

4. I’m a big supporter of my local library (Toronto Public Library) and tend to get most of my reads from there. It definitely helps that I live in a big city with one of the world’s busiest library systems though.

5. My favourite city is London, England. I’ve been three times so far and I absolutely love the history, culture, architecture, and atmosphere of the city. I really like Toronto and my country and I don’t think I would want to live anywhere else permanently, but if I could live anywhere in the world for a year, it would be London.

6. I took singing lessons, first in a group musical theatre class, and then in private voice lessons all through high school, but I gave it up when I went to university and I regret not continuing.

7. My favourite plays of all-time are Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (the muffins scene makes me laugh every single time), and Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. But recently I really enjoyed Of Human Bondage and I loved the book and film versions of Twelve Angry Men and hope to see a production of it one day.

Rachel at pace, amore, libri
Hadeer at Hadeer Writes
A Book Without End
Katie at Read With Katie
Dani at Perspective of a Writer

The Versatile Blogger Award

I was nominated by the wonderful Rachel of pace, amore, libri, who you should definitely be following for her insightful reviews and of course her gorgeous cats. Thanks Rachel!

The Rules:

• Display the award on your blog.
• Thank the blogger that nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
• Share 7 facts about yourself.
• Nominate 10 bloggers for the award and provide links to their blog.

7 Random Facts:

1. I often get asked if I’m a cat or a dog person. I love cats, but I’m actually a bird person! I have a pet cockatiel named Poe (as in Dameron, not Edgar Allan), who is about a year old. Poe loves eating broccoli, shredding paper, and taking baths. Cockatiels are naturally inquisitive birds and very affectionate, so they’re good company, but I don’t get any reading or blogging done when I’m sitting with Poe – she tries to eat any books I read and likes to sit on/chew on my laptop!

2. I’m a Librarian! I have a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree, and  I work in a corporate library within the financial services sector. My work mostly involves doing research using paid databases and other resources to gather information for internal clients. It’s a job with a lot of variety, which I really like.

3. As you can probably tell from the joint theatre-book blog, my other love is the theatre. I love the experience of seeing a show and am lucky enough to live in a city with a vibrant theatre scene, as well as its own ballet company. My favourite musical is Les Miserables, which I’ve seen 14 times in 3 cities. Other favourite theatre experiences include The Color Purple (Broadway, 2016), Hamilton (Broadway, 2016), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Broadway, 2014), Candide (London, 2013), Titanic (Toronto, 2015), and the National Ballet of Canada’s Nijinsky (2014) and The Winter’s Tale (2015), both of which are returning this fall!

4. I have a weird sock collection! Several years ago I started collecting interesting socks. I have socks for different cities and places (Alcatraz, San Francisco, London, NYC), wildlife (foxes, skunks, raccoons, toucans), and even holiday socks (Christmas, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day). Here are some of my favourite book related pairs of socks:

5. I am possibly the only Canadian alive who has never seen a full hockey game. I hate watching most sports, the only exception being baseball. I root for the Toronto Blue Jays and enjoy going to a game when I can.

6. I don’t watch a lot of movies but I am a big fan of TV. Among my favourite recent shows are Rectify and Black Sails (both of which ended this year after 4 seasons), The 100 (currently airing), Jessica Jones, Into the Badlands, Daredevil, and Better Call Saul. Some of my other favourites that have finished include: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Breaking Bad, Fringe, The West Wing, Parks and Recreation, Oz, Dead Like Me, Being Human UK, In the Flesh, and Veronica Mars.

7. I don’t own an e-reader. I am definitely one of those people who loves the feeling of a book in my hands, and I enjoy flipping physical pages and seeing how far into a book I am, but I think e-readers can be really useful and I would love to get one in the future, especially for NetGalley, etc.

10 is a lot and I’m still discovering new blogs to follow, so I’m just going to nominate 4 people:

A Book Without End
Book Bastion
Caffeine and Books
Jade Writes Books

Apologies if you’ve already been nominated and I missed it. Also please don’t feel like you have to do this if you don’t want to!