Tag Archives: Audiobooks

New Year New Language?

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Have you ever made it your New Year’s Resolution to learn a new language? I speak 3 languages: 2 fluently (English and French) and one considerably less fluently (German). During the pandemic, I started work on a fourth language, but it was Klingon, and once the world started up again, it fell by the wayside.

Illustration of a Klingon bat'leth (weapon from Star Trek).

(For now: I have EVERY INTENTION of picking it back up again in the future. Is it useful? No. Is it suuuuuper fun to be able to say, “I’m learning Klingon?” HIja′!) Learning a language is hard. Learning a language as an adult is very hard.

Kids and grown ups learn in very different ways. Kids’ brains are like information sponges. Adult brains are more rigid: always trying to save energy by reusing what they already know. If we grew up here in Canada (which I didn’t but that’s beside the point for the moment), we probably learned French as a second (or third) language in school.  That’s important: we learned French as kids, and we probably stopped using it just as soon as we weren’t being forced to take it anymore.

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Secret Santa 2: 2 Secret 2 Santa

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Cover-image-for-Such-Sharp-Teeth-by-Rachel-Harrison

Continuing our new holiday tradition, next up we have my recommendations for fellow blog team member Maya. After conducting extensive research, including scouring Maya’s previously published posts, I’ve come up with some bespoke picks for her enjoyment. For those among you who may enjoy horror with a supernatural/paranormal tinge, graphic novels, Kate Beaton, and the like, these choices just might do double for you. I hope there’s something here that you haven’t already heard of and that interests you, Maya! Since Maya is an undisputed horror fan (with several blog posts in evidence), I had to include a horror novel in my gift of recommendations. This one was on Book Riot’s 2024 Summer Scares List, which is an annual tradition the website has in collaboration with the Horror Writers Association in the US and several other book and/or library-related organizations. What better way to play to Maya’s steadfast and unceasing love of summer and hatred of winter then to pull from this list. It aims to boost the popularity of the horror genre for readers at any age and for all seasons. Too often the spoopy and gothic are linked to Halloween, the colder months, and autumnal vibes. Check out the list linked above if you’re interested! There’s books for adults, young adults, and middle grade. Such Sharp Teeth is about Rory Morris. After a move back to the place she was born and an encounter with a man from her past, she gets in an accident with a wild animal, or so she thinks. Paranormal transformation ensues, along with romance.

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My Quick & Easy Guide to Curing Housework Boredom

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If you’re anything like me, there’s always one thing that you end up dreading throughout your week: the ever-growing mountain of household chores. Whether it’s the dishes staring at you judgmentally from the sink or the endless piles of laundry, it’s just always there and it’s tough to find any fun in it. It’s why it usually stays that way, at least until Mount Housework decides it’s time to have its weekly avalanche. Plus, add in either a move or a renovation like I am next month, and it just makes things worse.

A-black-and-white-cartoon-of-a-cat-sitting-in-a-chair-with-headphones-on

I sometimes try to fill the time with music, but you need to be in the right sort of mood to listen to it. Plus, after the tenth time of having a verbal struggle with Google Home where it’s determined to send you to the abyss of YouTube’s repository for strange cover bands, you end up wanting to listen to anything but. That’s where I found myself when I stumbled upon the wonderful world of podcasts (ironically, thanks to YouTube. Sometimes the algorithm knows what it’s doing).

The great thing about podcasts is you can take them pretty much anywhere no matter what you’re doing, so long as you have a phone and some headphones (hooray for mobile entertainment!). There’s such a wide range of podcasts too, from self-help to science lessons to my personal favorite, the fiction stories. I think there’s something to be said about how full circle these kinds of podcasts are, taking so much from radio theatre from the 1920s. But that’s another blog post for another time. I’m here to introduce you to my go-to for making housework anything but a pain and a bore: the fun world of aural storytelling.  

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