The Sunday Salon: Migration Celebration at the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge

 

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

What is the Sunday Salon? 

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

What I Read Last Week:

Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry (Novel)

The Temporary European: Lessons and Confessions of a Professional Traveler 

by Cameron Hewitt (Travel)

Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis (Science Fiction)

Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry by Ada Limón

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (Fantasy)

The Happiness Files: Insights on Work and Life by Arthur C. Brooks (Happiness)

The Irish Goodbye: Micro-Memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly (Memoir)

What I'm Reading Now:

The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss by Robert Macfarlane (Nonfiction)

The Museum of Lost Things: True Tales of Fabled Treasures, Legendary Cities, and Mythical Creatures That Vanished From History by Sam Kean (Nonfiction)

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (Fiction)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Little Women, Project Hail Mary, Shades of Gray, Spring Fling, Emily Dickinson, and Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon

Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon: April 18-19, 2026

April Showers: Eleven Books That Made Me Cry

The Museum of Lost Things: True Tales of Fabled Treasures, Legendary Cities, and Mythical Creatures That Vanished From History by Sam Kean: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

I'll be at the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge

 all weekend with Migration Celebration,

a huge outdoor activity event.

In years past, I've done face painting

and I've worked in the butterfly tent.

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 read for 16 out of the 24 hours at

the readathon last weekend.

I finished a total of 9 books.

Good Thing #2:

My husband and I learned about pollinators and

plants at UTMB's OLLI's Gardening Symposium last week.

Good Thing #3:

I won three ribbons for my nature photographs

at Migration Celebration.

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 Museum of Lost Things: True Tales of Fabled Treasures, Legendary Cities, and Mythical Creatures That Vanished From History by Sam Kean: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Today's Featured Book: 

The Museum of Lost Things: 

True Tales of Fabled Treasures, Legendary Cities, and 

Mythical Creatures That Vanished From History

by Sam Kean

Genre: Nonfiction

Published: September 15, 2026

Page Count: 400 pages

Summary: 

Discover the astonishing story of the world’s greatest lost treasures in this enthralling narrative by a writer with "the anecdotal flourishes of Oliver Sacks and the populist accessibility of Malcolm Gladwell." (Entertainment Weekly)

Spanning a million years of history, the mysteries in these pages include fabled relics, legendary cities, mythical species, and undeciphered languages that have bedeviled seekers for centuries.

 

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.

After amassing one of the largest empires in history, Alexander the Great died unexpectedly at age 32 in Babylon in 323 BC. His retinue reported embalmed him with honey and spices and placed him in a golden sarcophagus draped with gaudy purple tapestries. But rather than let him rest in peace, his successors turned his body into a pawn in a power struggle so complex that George R. R. Martin himself would have been baffled. 

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. 

Whatever his (many) failings, the amateur Schliemann had taken on thousands of better-heeled, better-read, and frankly smarter scholars---scholars who thought him a boorish ass and lying scoundrel---and proved every single one of them wrong. He never tired in pointing this out. It was the best story he ever told, and it was completely true.

A friend recommended The Disappearing Spoon and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements (my review is here) in 2021. I discovered Sam Kean is one of those marvelous writers who can explain complex ideas in a way that makes them easily understood by regular people. So when I asked a publisher's representative at the Texas Library Association Conference about new nonfiction, and she pulled this advanced reader copy out and gave it to me, I was delighted. And it's a captivating read. 

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.    

Imagine creating a book-themed board game—what kind of gameplay would it have? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer)

I would love to play Book-opoly or The Little Bookshop or any other bookish game that might be out there. I'd like to play some of the bookish games that have already been created before I try to make my own.

 

April Showers: Eleven Books That Made Me Cry

Note: I like books that make me cry. All of these are books I highly recommend.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

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: Little Women, Project Hail Mary, Shades of Gray, Spring Fling, Emily Dickinson, and Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon

 

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

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 saw a play, Little Women, at the college in my town. We heard our nephew play guitar and sing with his group, Shades of Gray. I went to see the movie, Project Hail Mary, with friends. A group of us enjoyed lunch together. I volunteered at Spring Fling, assisting visitors who came to see birds flying in for spring migration at the bird sanctuary at Quintana Beach. I went to my class on Emily Dickinson in Galveston. I went to Barre class and I went to swim class. I'm doing Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon this weekend. And I read five books and wrote five blog posts. Busy week!

What I Read Last Week:

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei (Memoir)

Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie (Nonfiction)

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh (Fiction)

Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett (Fantasy)

Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis (Science Fiction)

What I'm Reading Now:

Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry (Novel)

The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss by Robert Macfarlane (Nonfiction)

The Temporary European: Lessons and Confessions of a Professional Traveler by Cameron Hewitt (Travel)

The Happiness Files: Insights on Work and Life by Arthur C. Brooks (Happiness)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Spring Fling at Quintana Beach with Warblers and Tanagers and Orioles

Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon: April 18-19, 2026

Book Titles That Describe My Life

Everyday Dorie: The Way I Cook by Dorie Greenspan

Hannah Coulter: A Novel by Wendell Berry: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

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:

Project Hail Mary was so much fun.

I wasn't expecting that.

Good Thing #2:

The play at our town's college, 

Little Women, was

a musical.

Good Thing #3:

It was delightful to hear my nephew (blue shirt)

play and sing with his group,

Shades of Gray.

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.