Save the Date! Nonfiction November is Coming Soon!

It's almost time to put aside your novels, wrap up warm (or get out the spring clothes in the southern hemisphere!) and spend November reading and talking about nonfiction. Yes, Nonfiction November is back!

Week 1 November 2-8 - My Year in Nonfiction - Celebrate your year of nonfiction. What books have you read? What were your favorites? Have you had a favorite topic? Is there a topic you want to read about more?  What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November? 

Hosted by Heather. Heather is a veterinarian living in Ohio who blogs at Based on a True Story. She reads all genres but really loves nonfiction and fantasy.

Week 2 November 9-15 - Nonfiction Journeys - This week choose a book that reflects a journey for its author or for the reader or both.  This can be a physical journey,  an emotional, psychological or spiritual journey or a combination of these.   Any nonfiction title that leaves its author/protagonist and/or reader in a different place at the end from the start point is good for this challenge.   

Hosted by Frances. Frances is a poet, essayist and reviewer.  Her novel The Winchester Codex was published in 2024.  She lives in London with her husband and Suki the Golden Doodle.  Her blog can be found at volatilerune.blog  It covers books she happens to be reading – both fiction, non-fiction and poetry.  She especially enjoys biographies of writers and artists.  

Week 3 November 16-22 - Nonfiction Pairings - This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. Or maybe it’s just two books you feel have a link, whatever they might be. You can be as creative as you like!

Hosted by Liz. Liz is an ex-librarian, a freelance editor and transcriber, a runner and a volunteer and works part-time at a cooperative-owed community centre. She blogs about everything from social justice and geology nonfiction to YA romance and literary fiction at librofulltime.wordpress.com

Week 4 November 23-29 - What I've Added to my TBR - It's a month of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones made it into your TBR? Be sure to link up to the original blogger who posted about that book.

Hosted by Deb. Deb is a Texas librarian-for-life who loves to read nonfiction-that-reads-like-fiction, literary fiction, classics, and children’s picture books. Deb plays guitar, swims, draws, writes, thinks about happiness, and blogs at Readerbuzz 

I do hope you will be able to join us for Nonfiction November! #NonFicNov26

Dishing Up Some Wonderful Stories, with Pie

We do not get much autumn here along the Texas Gulf Coast.

I don't actually own a coat, for example.

So, no cold weather. No falling leaves. Mostly just Summer Lite.

What's autumn to me?

When I think of fall, I think of pie. Shall we celebrate the arrival of fall with a few pie books?

I've read a lot of books with a pie or two at the heart of the story. Some are picture books. Some are cookbooks. And some are adult novels.  

Any genre, any age group---I will take some pie, please. And welcome, fall!

PICTURE BOOKS (FICTION)

Enemy Pie by Derek Munson

Piggie Pie! A Halloween Book for Kids by Margie Palatini

Pecan Pie Baby by Jacqueline Woodson

Little Bitty Bakery

PICTURE BOOKS (NONFICTION)

Bring Me Some Apples and I'll Make You a Pie: A Story About Edna Lewis

Pies from Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott

COOKBOOKS

The Book on Pie: Everything You Need to Know to Bake Perfect Pies

Pie Squared: Irresistibly Easy Sweet and Savory Slab Pies

Art of the Pie: A Practical Guide to Homemade Crusts, Fillings, and Life

The Pie Academy

TRAVEL NARRATIVE

American Pie: Slices of Pie (and Life) from America's Back Roads

MG FICTION

Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer

Truth About Twinkie Pie by Kat Yen

ADULT FICTION

Rhododendron Pie by Margery Sharp

World of Pies by Karen 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

The Secret Ingredients of Wishes by Susan Bishop Crispell

The Help by Katherine Stockett

My Pie in Literature Award winners from Care at Care's Books and Pie:

2016...Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

2017...What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

2018...The Idiot by Elif Batuman

2019...The Lager Queen of Minesota by J. Ryan Stradal

2020...Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman

2021...The Resistors by Gish Jen

2022...The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty

2023...The Guncle by Steven Rowley

2024...The Book of Love: A Novel by Kelly Link

2025...Heart the Lover by Lily King

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: Waco-Bound

 

Welcome! We are happy 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. 

Please add your link below, visit other bloggers, and comment on their posts. 

We are in Waco this weekend, spending time with my sister, Cathy, and her husband. This photo is from the last time we visited when we rode Cathy's e-bikes all around town.

What I Read Last Week:

In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor (Novel)

       

What I'm Reading Now:

Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey (Mystery)

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson (Novel)

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Novel)

Yes, Nonfiction November is being planned for 2026!

Start assembling your stacks!

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Shorty September

Books on My Fall 2026 To-Read List

In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor: Friday Book Snippets and Book Blogger Hop

Shorty September   9/12

Hometown Shorts (Local Author/Setting)

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (64 pages)

Hairy Shorts (Animal Character)

Wesley the Owl (244 pages)

Cargo Shorts (Helpful in a Pickle)

Jingo Django (184 pages)

Denim Shorts (Modern Classic)

In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor (224 pages)

Crochet Shorts (Independent Publisher)

Little Bird (96 pages)

Postal Shorts (Set in a Country You’re Likely to Have a Penpal In)

Emily of New Moon (224 pages) 

Zip-Off Shorts (Nature Writing/Outdoors)

The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico (48 pages)

Elton John’s Wedding Shorts (Something Outrageous)

Trash! A Garbageman’s Story by Simon Paré-Poupart (192 pages)

Patchwork Shorts (Blend of Genres)

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel (242 pages)

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:

A friend and I went to a lecture

by an amateur historian and model ship builder

on Captain James Cook

at University of Texas Medical Branch's

Osher Livelong Learning Institute in Galveston.

Good Thing #2:

A group of us went to see a play, The 39 Steps, 

a comedic version of the classic thriller, 

in which 150 characters were played

by just four actors.

Good Thing #3:

We finally got rain!

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.

In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor: Friday Book Snippets and Book Blogger Hop

Friday Book Snippets is a weekly blogging event co-hosted by 

Anne@HeadFullofBooks and Olivia at Bemused and Bookish. 

Share two snippets (a sentence or short paragraph) from:

 a. the book's beginning and 

b. page 56 (or another page) 

in the book you are currently reading. 

No spoilers, please.

Join the fun every Friday.

‘After all, I am not a young girl to be intimidated by her,’ Kate decided, as she waited outside her mother-in-law’s house.

Taylor, Elizabeth. In A Summer Season (Virago Modern Classics Book), p. 1. Kindle Edition. 

When they were sitting together in the bus, she felt completely happy, without knowing that to feel so is such a rare experience that it might never come to her again.

Taylor, Elizabeth. In A Summer Season (Virago Modern Classics Book), p. 56. Kindle Edition. 

Today's Featured Book: 

In a Summer Season

by Elizabeth Taylor

Genre: Fiction

Published: 1961

Page Count: 224 pages

Summary: 

Kate Heron is a wealthy, charming widow who marries, much to the disapproval of friends and neighbours, a man ten years her junior: the attractive, feckless Dermot. Then comes the return of Kate's old friend Charles - intelligent, kind and now widowed, with his beautiful young daughter. Kate watches happily as their two families are drawn together, finding his presence reassuringly familiar, but slowly she becomes aware of subtle undercurrents that begin to disturb the calm surface of their friendship. Before long, even she cannot ignore the gathering storm . . .

This is exactly the sort of story that I read exclusively for many years as a young woman. It's the kind of story written by a woman author that gets inside people's heads, that doesn't have a great deal of action, and that focuses on the lives of women. It's the genre we  once called women's fiction, but I'm not sure that term is still used. Whatever you want to call it, it was my favorite then, and it is still one of my favorites.

How then have I just come, after almost seventy years of reading, to this author, Elizabeth Taylor? Elizabeth Berg, Ann Hood, Anne Tyler, Elizabeth Strout---I've read most everything by these writers, but Elizabeth Taylor, who writes in much the same fashion? No.

This is a story that feels perfect in many ways. Sensible Kate, after losing her first husband and settling into middle-age, marries reckless, much younger Dermot. The two are madly in love, but that's all they have in common. Kate's son, Tom, and her daughter, Lou, suffer from their own love foibles, and then there is her neighbor, Charles, and his beautiful daughter. The author skillfully takes us into the minds of all these characters as they interact and go through the day-to-dayness of life with them. 

If you have read any other books by this author, please share them with me. I am eager to read more.

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.    

What’s the best investment you’ve made for your blog? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer)

Oh dear. I've never spent money on my blog. Blogging is, for me, a hobby, fun, a joy, but I don't expect it to give me any cold cash.

  

Books on My Fall 2026 To-Read List

Some of these have already been published, some are just being published, and some are yet to be published.

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

A Planet Called Happy by Riley August

Kitten by Stacy Yu

You'll Love It Here by Natalie Sue 

Man Overboard by Kathleen Rooney

The Bookshop Woman by Hanako Hanada (September 15)

The Butterfly Season by Lea Korsgaard (September 15)

Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel (September 15)

Life Out of Order by Audrey Niffenegger (October 6)

The Rush by Nathaniel Philbrick (October 6)

Partita by Barbara Kingsolver (October 6)

An Unlikely Visitor by Joanna Cannon (October 20)

Dead Batteries by Kate Maupin (October 27)

America Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the Hidden Wonders of the United States (November 10)

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.