Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for June 18, 2025

Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

Humorous Book Titles

Thursday Thoughts June 12, 2025

Over Memorial Day weekend, a good friend of mine flew out to see Kenny Chesney in concert.  She’d just been here in February, but Kenny has long been her favorite and her birthday was that weekend.  She told me, “Kenny wants me here.”  Who am I to argue with her?

The show was amazing – he’s truly an entertainer.  He sounded fantastic and engaged with the audience regularly.  Which is something some artists don’t bother with, and others try and fail at.  However, this post isn’t so much about Kenny, but something that happened to me during the show.

My friend’s favorite song is “Old Blue Chair”, something that he doesn’t perform live much these days.  Mine has been “Anything But Mine” since the first time I heard it all those years ago.  Neither of us had expected him to play these songs because hers was never a single, and mine was just really old.  (Heavens, I just looked and it released in 2004.)

Anyway, about halfway through the show, he stops to tell the audience that the next song hadn’t originally been on the playlist, but he’d gotten a request, so he was going to do it – and it turned out to be “Old Blue Chair”.  Sometime after the first chorus, I burst into tears.  I don’t know why, but there I was, sobbing.

During his encore, Kenny so kindly played “Anything But Mine”, during which, I burst into tears a second time.  This song, however, always gets me emotional.  So, it wasn’t such a surprise that it had stirred so much feeling within me.  Thankfully, he ended the set with “American Kids” which is fun and upbeat so I didn’t leave looking like I’d just been in a fight.

This did get me thinking of all the times I’ve been brought to tears by a song.

“Who You’d Be Today”, also by Kenny Chesney, gets me every time.  First time I’d ever heard it was days after learning a good friend had fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed his truck, dying in the accident.

“Andy (I Can’t Live Without You)” by Ashley McBryde gets me as well.  It’s her calling out her partner for all his faults but also admitting that she loves him despite it all.  This is the kind of song that probably resonates with anyone who has ever been in a long-term relationship.  Because even when you have a fantastic partner, they still drive you crazy at times.

I’ll probably get teased about this, but “If Everyone Cared” by Nickelback hits me like a brick if I haven’t heard it in a while.  Especially now, with all the craziness in the world.  I think we could all use a little bit more empathy for others.

How about you?  Are you a sap like I am who cries at random songs (and occasional commercials)?  What song has moved you to feel things strongly, even if it didn’t bring you to tears?

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for June 11, 2025

Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

Favorite Things to do in the Summer

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for June 4, 2025

Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

Favorite Book Covers and Why

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for May 28, 2025

Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

Books That Need a Sequel

Top Ten Tuesday: Animal Companions


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

My favorite sorts of stories about animal companions are the ones that focus on the relationships between humans and their dogs, cats, birds, elephants, horses, ferrets, spiders, and other animals. There’s nothing like reading about cross-species relationships and how they can thrive!

1. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

2. That Quail, Robert by Margaret A. Stanger

3. Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O’Brien

4. The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony

5. King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian by Marguerite Henry

6. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Dave Manak

7. We Wish You A Ferret Christmas by Nikki Lynn Barrett

8. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

9. My Life with Leopards by Fransje van Riel

10. The Gift From Little Raccoon: A Pandemic Tale by Carolyn Watson-Dubisch

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for May 21, 2025

Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

Lessons I Learned from a Book Character

Top Ten Tuesday: Books that Feature Travel


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I generally prefer reading about travel to actually going anywhere myself. That way I can skip straight to the fun stuff and not have to stand in any long security lines or be squished by strangers on a plane on the way.

Here are ten books that feature travel.

1. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

2. Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy by Frances Mayes

3. Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart by Tim Butcher

4. Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town by Paul Theroux

6. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

7. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner

8. Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald

9. Tracks: A Woman’s Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback by Robyn Davidson

10. Kilimanjaro: One Man’s Quest to Go Over the Hill by M.G. Edwards

How do you all feel about travelling in real life?

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for May 14, 2025

Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

Books I Love that Became Films or TV Shows

Thursday Thoughts: May 8, 2025

Tomorrow would have been my husband’s 51st birthday, had we not lost him in 2019.  Thinking about his birthday, as well as Mother’s Day on Sunday, it really took my mind to things that he and I never got to do together.  And things that I know he’d have never, ever done on a bet (however, he’d have sent me off with a friend and stayed home with the kids).

So, what’s on my bucket list?

First, if you haven’t heard this song by Mitchell Tenpenny, you should give it a listen.  He’s one of my favorites right now and this song is just so good.

I’ve lived a pretty quiet, uneventful life. One that hasn’t included much traveling outside of a couple of cross country moves as a child and teen.  Last year, I did manage to achieve a couple of list items.  First, I was able to be in the path of totality for the solar eclipse last April.  Which was one of the most amazing and awe-inspiring things I’ve ever experienced.  After that, I left the US for the first time, ever, and visited Montreal.  It was also a wonderful experience, and I can’t wait to see more of Canada eventually.

Last year, I also finally made it to the Utah Shakespeare Festival, something I think everyone should experience at least once.  My friend and I also visited Bryce Canyon while we were there, which is gorgeous, even in the rain.  But the biggest part of this was that I drove my first actual road trip!  Prior to August, I’d always been the passenger.

What do I have planned for the future?

On a small scale, I’m finally getting to see Kenny Chesney in concert later this month.  I’m really excited about this because my friend is a huge Kenny fan.  It’s also her birthday, so we’ll be double celebrating.

I’d love to visit New Zealand and Australia.  As long as nothing horrible happens between now and next year, it looks like I will actually get to go to New Zealand at least.  But Australia is still on the list!

Out of the blue one day, my late husband made a suggestion that surprised me.  He said that every year, on or around Halloween, there’s a dinner party at Bran Castle, aka Dracula’s Castle, in Romania.  What surprised me was how willing he sounded to make the actual trip.  We didn’t make it, but this is high on my list of things to do before it’s too late.

A more achievable, less crazy trip I want to make is to Chicago.  Despite having been born in Illinois, I’ve never made it to Chicago.  And, as a lifelong Cubs fan, a day game at Wrigley has long been on my bucket list.  I’m sad that I never got to Wrigley while Harry Carey was still alive, but I did get to hear him sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” at the Astrodome in Houston back in the late ‘80’s.  Which was… an experience… to say the least.

There are more things I’d love to go and see and do, but I think this is enough for one post.  What about you?  What are some things you’d like to experience in the next few years?