I Discover a New Bookstore in Galveston

 My friend, Cindy, and I came out of Taquilo's Tex-Mex with full stomachs, and walked toward the car.

"We could stop in the bookstore before we leave," Cindy said.

"It's not open on Tuesdays," I told her. I tried the bookstore twice before on a Tuesday. Closed.

"It is now," Cindy said, and we turned to walk a short distance down Postoffice St. 

Hurray! Cindy was right. It was open.

I was expecting a used bookstore, but, no, it has all the latest and best brand-new books. The owner, Lori, retired from working as a preschool teacher and librarian, and decided jump into bookselling after her daughter gave her a push. 

It's a gorgeous bookshop, and I want to go back and just hang around and talk to other book people and look carefully at all Lori has on her shelves. 

Of course I had to bring home a book, and after considering about fifty books I really wanted to buy and take home, I finally decided on Devotions by Mary Oliver.

I am certain I will be back soon. Those fifty books are waiting for me.

For more photos, link up at Wordless Wednesday, Comedy Plus, Messymimi's Meanderings, Keith's Ramblings, Create With Joy, Wild Bird Wednesday, and My Corner of the World.

Bookish Goals for 2025

My only goal is to read anything I want, any place I want, any time I want.*

What are your goals for 2025?

*I hope to be led by what M at Rain City Reads calls Whatever Sparkles At Me this year, by what Marie Kondo calls Choosing What Sparks Joy.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.    

The Sunday Salon: Incessantly On-the-Go; Incessantly Reading

 

Welcome! I am delighted that you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. 

What is the Sunday Salon? 

The Sunday Salon is a place to link up and share what we have been doing during the week. It's also a great opportunity to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

I hardly had an hour of free time last week; I was either on-the-go or deep into a good book.

On-the-go: A last get-together of my writing group before one of our members left for her new life in Italy...an outing to the Galveston Symphony...a holiday lunch with my Houston book friends...a little family gathering for my dad's 98th birthday...breakfasted with a new face-to-face book club...joined a cycling class at the rec center...naturalist club meeting featuring a snake expert...

Books: Hiroshima Diary is a chronicle of a Japanese doctor after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. I felt like I was right there with the doctor as he puzzled over the results of the bombing on his neighbors, family, friends, and fellow members of the Hiroshima community, and as he tried to treat both the initial burns and injuries they suffered as well as the radiation poisoning that developed over time. It was horrifying to read this account, but it also feels like something that needs to be widely read.

My friend who was moving to Italy left her copy of a much-loved book, Mary Oliver's Blue Horses, with me when she left, and I felt compelled to read it. Blue Horses is beautiful and wise, just like all of Mary Oliver's work, and I bought a copy of a collection of Oliver's best poetry, Devotions, when I visited a new bookstore in Galveston this week.

I've been befuddled since the election here in America, and I've been searching for ways to move forward in a world that feels intolerant and poorly informed. I latched eagerly onto One Bird, One Stone and Anam Cara, and both were deeply satisfying reads. I'm a poor reviewer, but if you are looking for wisdom that transcends the moment we are in, I encourage you to look for these. And if you have other recommendations for my wounded spirit, I'd love to hear them.

What I Read Last Week:

One Bird, One Stone: 108 Contemporary Zen Stories by Sean Murphy

Blue Horses: Poetry by Mary Oliver

Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician by Michihiko Hachiya

Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O'Donohue

What I'm Reading Now:

Roots by Alex Haley (Chapter-a-Day)

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold (Naturalist Book Club)

Devotions by Mary Oliver (Poetry)

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Face-to-Face Book Club)

The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber (Classics Club)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025

The Sunday Salon: A Tornado Hits

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

I began to list 3 Good Things every day during the pandemic. Now I've established a regular routine of writing down my 3 Good Things. Here are 3 Good Things from last week:

Good Thing #1:

I visited a new bookstore

in Galveston.

Good Thing #2:

I had such a great time at the 

Galveston Symphony Ba-Roque and Roll Concert

held at the1894 Opera House.

Good Thing #3:

My dad at 98!

Weekend linkup spots are listed below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

I hope you will join the linkup for Sunday Salon below.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Today's Featured Book: 

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

by James McBride

Genre: Literary Fiction

Published: August 28, 2023

Page Count: 400 pages

Summary: 

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • A NEW YORK TIMES READERS PICK: 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

WINNER OF THE 2024 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRIZE FOR AMERICAN FICTION

FROM ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE OF 2024

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR/FRESH AIR, WASHINGTON POST, THE NEW YORKER, AND TIME MAGAZINE

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023
 
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.
 
As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

There was an old Jew who lived at the site of the old synagogue up on Chicken Hill in the town of Pottstown, Pa., and when Pennsylvania State Troopers found the skeleton at the bottom of an old well off Hayes Street, the old Jew's house was the first place they went to. 

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne of Head Full of Books. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky. 

"I have good news. I have found a wife."

"You found a what?"

"A wife."

Moshe, seated on the floor, stared up at him, stunned. "Why should I care that you found a wife? I have my own wife to worry about."

For the first time, the man in the doorway, his face brimming with confidence, seemed to wither. He looked genuinely hurt. "But you said I should get one."

"What am I, mashed potatoes? What do I care if you have a wife? My own wife is sick at this very moment. Pox on you that you should bother me at this time. Yellow and green, you should become. Take all the flour you want and go flap your tongue someplace else, you dumb Pole. Get away from me!"

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

January10th-16th - January is National Hobby Month. Do you have any pastimes or interests other than reading that go well with your love of books and literature? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

I read. That's what I love to do. But I am also crazy about my guitar, drawing, writing, photography, puppets, traveling, baking, gardens, and walking....and let's not forget serendipity and paradox....

Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2025

I've stepped away from current fiction and I'm more discerning about the current nonfiction I read. Still there are a few fiction and nonfiction books that will be published in 2025 that I will probably take a close look at once they are published.

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler

The Love Haters by Katherine Center

Katabasis by R. F. Kuang

Tilt by Emma Pattee

Counterculture: America from Bohemia to Hip-Hop by Alex Zamalin

Mark Twain by Ron Chernow

Perfect Communities: Levitt, Levittown, and the Dream of White Suburbia by Edward Berenson

The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings from History by Lawrence Rees

What have I missed?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.   

The Sunday Salon: A Tornado Hits

 

Welcome! I am delighted that you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. 

What is the Sunday Salon? 

The Sunday Salon is a place to link up and share what we have been doing during the week. It's also a great opportunity to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

A tornado destroyed Walt Disney Elementary School in my town last week while we were up in East Texas. School was out for winter break, and there were no injuries, so we are all grateful for that. 

But if you have ever been a teacher, you know how much of a teacher's own money and love goes into a classroom, and none of this is covered by insurance. The school district is working hard to get a building ready for the more than five hundred students in grades 3-5 that will return to the classroom on Monday, January 6th, and local people are holding supply drives for students and teachers. 

The Alvin ISD Education Foundation is accepting donations here.

What I Read Last Week:

The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami (Fantasy)

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Nonfiction)

The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede (Nonfiction)

Now or Never by Janet Evanovich (Mystery)

1984 by George Orwell (SciFi)

Zen Bender: A Decade-Long Enthusiastic Quest to Fix Everything by Stephanie Krikorian (Nonfiction)

Best of the Best American Poetry edited by Robert Pinsky (Poetry)

Baking with Dorie by Dorie Greenspan (Cookbook)

Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Children's Fantasy)

Kokoro by Beth Kempton (Nonfiction)

Quirky Tales by Paul Jennings (1001 Children's Books)

Josephine and Her Dolls by H. C. Cradock (1001 Children's Books)

What I'm Reading Now:

One Bird, One Stone: 108 Contemporary Zen Stories by Sean Murphy

Blue Horses: Poetry by Mary Oliver

Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician by Michihiko Hachiya

Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O'Donohue

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Starting My 2025 Reading a Little Early

Best Books I Read in 2024

My Year in Books

First Book of 2025 + One Word

I began to list 3 Good Things every day during the pandemic. Now I've established a regular routine of writing down my 3 Good Things. Here are 3 Good Things from last week:

Good Thing #1:

We baked and decorated cookies

while we were up in East Texas last week.

Good Thing #2:

A new Christmas ornament for our tree

from two-year-old g-granddaughter Lucy.

Good Thing #3:

Local individuals, businesses, churches, and organizations

are holding drives to help

Walt Disney Elementary.

The Alvin ISD Education Foundation

is accepting donations here.

UPDATE: Wow!

Here's a video of what has been donated to 

the teachers, students, and staff

of Walt Disney Elementary!

Weekend linkup spots are listed below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

I hope you will join the linkup for Sunday Salon below.