Wednesday, October 21, 2026

My Century of Books

I am inspired by Lory of Entering the Enchanted Castle (who was inspired by other bloggers, notably Simon of Stuck in a Book) to I see whether I could select one book I’d read for each year of the twentieth century. Lory's goal was "to choose books that had some notable impact on me, leaving a distinct impression on my mind," and I've set that as my goal as well. The books in bold print are the same as Lory's for that year.

1900 – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum
1901 – Kim by Rudyard Kipling
1902 – The Hound of the Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle
1903 – The Story of My Life – Helen Keller
1904 – The Cherry Orchard – Anton Chekhov
1905 – The Gift of the Magi - O. Henry
1906 – White Fang - Jack London
1907 – Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief - Maurice Leblanc
1908 – Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery
1909 – The Girl of the Limberlost – Gene Stratton-Porter
1910 – The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
1911 – Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie
1912 – Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs
1913 – The Custom of the Country - Edith Wharton
1914 – Dubliners - James Joyce
1915 – The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
1916 – Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce
1917 -  Parnassas on Wheels - Christopher Morley
1918 – The Elements of Style - William Struck
1919 – Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson
1920 – The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
1921 – Main Street - Sinclair Lewis
1922 – The Enchanted April – Elizabeth von Arnim
1923 – The Waste Land - T. S. Eliot
1924 – A Passage to India - E. M. Forster
1925 – The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
1926 – Winnie-the-Pooh - A. A. Milne
1927 – Elmer Gantry - Sinclair Lewis
1928 – Millions of Cats – Wanda Gág
1929 – All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
1930 – Grand Hotel - Vicki Baum
1931 – The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck
1932 – Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
1933 – Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell
1934 – I, Claudius -Robert Graves
1935 – Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder
1936 – Ballet Shoes – Noel Streatfeild
1937 – The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
1938 – The Yearling – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1939 – The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
1940 – Caps for Sale - Esphyr Slobodkina
1941 – Make Way for Ducklings – Robert McCloskey
1942 – The Little House– Virginia Lee Burton
1943 – The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
1944 – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
1945 – Animal Farm - George Orwell
1946 – The World is Not Enough – Zoé Oldenbourg
1947 – The Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank
1948 – The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh
1949 – Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller
1950 – Henry Huggins - Beverly Cleary
1951 – The Sea Around Us - Rachel Carson
1952 – Excellent Women - Barbara Pym
1953 – Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
1954 – Half Magic - Edward Eager
1955 – A Night to Remember - Walter Lord
1956 – A Christmas Memory - Truman Capote
1957 – How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Dr. Seuss
1958 – Mrs. 'arris Goes to Paris - Paul Gallico
1959 – Mrs. Bridge – Evan S. Connell
1960 – Green Eggs and Ham - Dr. Seuss
1961 – The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster
1962 – A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L'Engle
1963 – The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
1964 – A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway
1965 – The Source - James A. Michener
1966 – Chancy and the Grand Rascal - Sid Fleischman
1967 – The Mouse and His Child – Russell Hoban
1968 – A Kiss for Little Bear - Else Holmelund Minarik
1969 – Rotten Island – William Steig
1970 – Frog and Toad are Friends - Arnold Lobel
1971 – The Hiding Place - Corrie ten Boom
1972 – Watership Down – Richard Adams
1973 – Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
1974 – Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
1975 – Wife - Bharati Mukherjee
1976 – Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry – Mildred D. Taylor
1977 – The Box Garden - Carol Shields
1978 – The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin
1979 – If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino
1980 – A Month in the Country - J. L. Carr
1981 – Happenstance - Carol Shields
1982 – Blue Highways - William Least Heat-Moon
1983 – The Color of Magic – Terry Pratchett
1984 – The House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros
1985 – Lonesome Dove – Larry McMurtry
1986 – Maus, Vol. I – Art Spiegelman
1987 – The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse - John R. Erickson
1988 – Where I'm Calling From - Raymond Carver
1989 – The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
1990 – Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience – Mihály Csíkszentmihályi
1991 – The Gold Bug Variations - Richard Powers
1992 – The Secret History – Donna Tartt
1993 – The Giver - Lois Lowry
1994 – Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
1995 – A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
1996 – Wilma Unlimited – Kathleen Krull
1997 – A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson
1998 – The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency – Alexander McCall Smith
1999 – Civility – Stephen L. Carter
2000 – Because of Winn-Dixie - Kate DiCamillo


Books from Lory's list that I have not read that I might want to read:
1901 - My Brilliant Career – Miles Franklin 
1906 – The Story of the Amulet – E. Nesbit
1910 – Old Mother West Wind– Thornton Burgess
1912 – The Montessori Method – Maria Montessori
1913 – Le Grand Meaulnes – Alain-Fournier
1914 – Pygmalion – George Bernard Shaw
1915 – Herland – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
1917 - Prufrock and Other Poems – T.S. Eliot
1919 – Christopher and Columbus – Elizabeth von Arnim
1921 – Scaramouche – Rafael Sabatini
1924 – The Home-Maker – Dorothy Canfield Fisher
1926 – Lud-in-the-Mist – Hope Mirlees
1930 – Miss Mole – E.H. Young
1933 – Modern Man in Search of a Soul – C.G. Jung
1935 – Gaudy Night – Dorothy Sayers
1940 – The Bird in the Tree – Elizabeth Goudge
1948 – The Plague and I – Betty MacDonald
1949 – The Lady’s Not for Burning – Christopher Fry
1953 – Troy Chimneys – Margaret Kennedy
1955 – An Episode of Sparrows – Rumer Godden
1956 – Till We Have Faces – C.S. Lewis
1957 – Moominland Midwinter – Tove Jansson
1958 – The King Must Die – Mary Renault
1963 – False Colours – Georgette Heyer
1965 – Up the Down Staircase – Bel Kaufman
1966 – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead – Tom Stoppard
1968 – The Silver Crown – Robert C. O’Brien
1970 – Smoke from Cromwell’s Time – Joan Aiken
1974 – The Perilous Gard – Elizabeth Marie Pope
1975 – World of Wonders – Robertson Davies
1977 – Charmed Life – Diana Wynne Jones
1978 – Beauty – Robin McKinley
1979 – The Madwoman in the Attic – Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar
1980 – A Ring of Endless Light – Madeleine L’Engle
1981 – Masquerade – Kit Williams
1984 – Archer’s Goon – Diana Wynne Jones
1991 – Tam Lin – Pamela Dean

What would be on your list? And what do you think of mine?

Tuesday, October 20, 2026

My Perfect Day


A perfect day is made up of all the things that make me happy:

People. Friends. Family. Acquaintances. Strangers. 

Activity. Swimming. Walking. Biking. Yoga. Zumba. Dancing around the kitchen.

Learning. Reading. Practicing my uke. Finch. Duolingo. 

Creativity. Writing. Drawing. Baking. Photography.

Nature. Butterflies. Birds. Bioblitzes. My naturalist group.

Serendipity. Surprise. Wonder. Fun. Laughter. Paradox. 

Good food. Yogurt. Salad. Fruit. Bread. Ice cream.

Good sleep. Getting to bed at nine and sleeping through the night to five.


What makes up your perfect day?


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.  

Saturday, October 17, 2026

The Sunday Salon: A Week in Which I Go to a Family Reunion, I Solve Nature Riddles at Fall Field Day, and I Am Presented with a Magnificent Painting

 





Welcome! We're happy you joined us 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. 




October is always a busy month for me, and last week was classically busy October; I went to a family reunion, my last (until spring) ukulele class, our naturalist group's Fall Field Day at Brazos Bend State Park, and a play at our town's college, in addition to my normal swim classes.





      Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym | Goodreads

What I Read Last Week:

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures 
by Merlin Sheldrake (Nonfiction)

The Librarians by Sherry Thomas (Mystery)

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym (Fiction)




The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett | Author of The Help Returns ...   Sons (House of Earth, #2) by Pearl S. Buck | Goodreads

What I'm Reading Now:

The Calamity Club by Katherine Stockett (Fiction)

Sons by Pearl S. Buck (Fiction)








Dewey's October 2026 Readathon

October 17-18
8 AM to 8 AM Eastern time / 2 PM to 2 PM CEST


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:

My dad (left), 99, and 
my cousin, Ray, 90,
at our family reunion.
Good genes, indeed!



Good Thing #2:

My cousin, Chuck, is an artist,
and he made this amazing painting
just for my husband and me.
I still can't quite believe it.



Good Thing #3:

We had to solve 25 nature riddles
and take photos of the answers
during our naturalist group's 
Fall Field Day this week. 




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.

Friday, October 16, 2026

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett: Friday Book Snippets and Book Blogger Hop


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





Birdie. 

September 1933

Downtown Drugstore had a bell on the door that made a single tink sound when you opened it. Oxford Pharmacy had two bells on its door so it was more of a ta-tink, though nothing to startle over. But the Gathright-Reed Drug Co. door bore a foot-long strip of brass sleigh bells on its knob, which, when turned, sent metal balls clanging to announce somebody's coming in the dang store so you better turn around and look see who it is. And if you did, you'd see me.

Stockett, Kathryn. The Calamity Club, p. 1.






Birdie.

I dragged myself through an unlatched gate, and up a brick path, past a carriage block chiseled with the name Tartt. I was not looking or feeling my best, nor was their yard. A limb had fallen in the azalea bushes that lined the front porch, I reckon from the storm that had just blown through here. At the time, it'd seemed wise just to walk from the train depot instead of spending twenty-five more cents on a taxicab ride.

Stockett, Kathryn. The Calamity Club, p. 56.. 








Today's Featured Book: 

The Calamity Club

by Kathryn Stockett

Genre: Fiction

Published: May 5, 2026

Page Count: 640 pages

Summary: 

Abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve, eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. Now one of the unadoptable "big girls" at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, she fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed.

Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she’s left behind. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister’s seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies.

Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman running low on luck with little left to lose. When their fates—and Meg’s—converge, Charlie comes up with an audacious plan for them to take control of their lives. But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife and women’s freedom is fragile, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences.







I am barely 10% into the story, but the characters are compelling and the pages seem to turn themselves. 







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.    

If you designed a book-themed escape room, what puzzles would be part of it? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer)

I would be the last person you'd want to design an escape room since I'm not terribly sure I know what that is, and because I'm not a mystery reader, and as the math-y portion of my brain got beat up by my word-y brain part in my childhood---well, you see where I'm going...

  

Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Eleven Books with Autumnal Feels







The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts

The Overstory by Richard Powers

The Book of Birds by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris

Babel by R. F. Kuang

The October Country by Ray Bradbury

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Possession by A. S. Byatt

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pam



Have you read any of these?
Thoughts?



Thanks to the prompt from Wordy Witterings.



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.  

Saturday, October 10, 2026

The Sunday Salon: Exit Party, Theo of Golden, and The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances

 




We are happy you are 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. 




We got a tiny bit of a cool front this week, and the temps dipped down into the low 70s F at night. This is a beautiful time to live along the Gulf Coast of Texas. 

I had a wonderful, busy week, with butterfly monitoring, swimming, my ukulele lesson, Empty Bowls, a library league meeting, book club, lunch with a friend, a butterfly walk with my naturalist group, and a family reunion.







  The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon  

What I Read Last Week:

The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon (Science Fiction)

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi (Book Club)

Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel (Science Fiction)





      Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym | Goodreads

What I'm Reading Now:

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake (Nonfiction)

The Librarians by Sherry Thomas (Mystery)

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pam


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:

Wicked Pt 1: The Original Motion Picture Score by covercollector on ...Wicked: Part 2

Good Thing #1:

I talked my husband into spending two nights with
Wicked, Part One and Part Two, this week,
with pizza.



Good Thing #2:

Look at these beautiful, locally crafted bowls 
we took home from the Empty Bowls fundraiser.



Good Thing #3:

A lovely little Gray Hairstreak
we saw on our butterfly walk.




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.