Theo of Golden by Allen Levi: 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.

Theo was in Golden for only a year, from springtime to springtime.

Levi, Allen. Theo of Golden, p. 1. 

Theo was not particularly comfortable with small talk. His own active mind and colorful thoughts were so engaging that shallow babble felt at times like an intrusion, an interruption, a subtraction. That said, and all because of his capacious spirit, sidewalk chats became a welcome part of his days.

Levi, Allen. Theo of Golden, 56%. 

Today's Featured Book: 

Theo of Golden

by Allen Levi

Genre: Fiction

Published: October 5, 2025

Page Count: 399 pages

Summary: 

One spring morning, a stranger named Theo arrives in the small Southern city of Golden. He doesn’t explain much about where he came from or why he’s there—but when he visits the local coffeehouse, where pencil portraits of the people of Golden hang on the walls, he begins purchasing them, one at a time, and giving each portrait to the person depicted. In exchange, he asks only for the person’s story. And so portrait by portrait, person by person, secrets are revealed, regrets are shared, and ordinary lives are profoundly altered.

A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is an unforgettable novel about the power of generosity, the importance of connection, and the quiet miracles that happen when we choose kindness and wonder.

There may be some spoilers below.

An old man arrives in a new town and he decides to buy portraits of people from the town and give them as a gift to the person portrayed in the portrait. 

It's a story of trying to heal oneself. In the process, others are healed. 

It's a story of change in perspective, in philosophy. 

It's a story of looking deeply at people, seeing them in all their sadnesses but also in their strengths.

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.     

Do you run more than one blog? If so, how do you manage your time? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer)

No. Readerbuzz is my one and only blog.

  

Memorable Books I've Read with Others

Have all my favorite books been books I've read with others? Maybe! All of these are books I read with others and they are all books on my favorite books list.

Books my mom read with me when I was just learning to read:

• Go, Dog, Go
• The Little House by Virginia Burton
• Caps for Sale

Books I read when I was a young person in a class in junior high, high school, or college:

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• The Odyssey
• Don Quixote

Readalouds in my classroom:

• Wrinkle in Time
• Where the Red Fern Grows
• Henry Huggins

Books with my kids and grandkids:

• A bajillion picture books
• Hank the Cowdog books
• The Hobbit
• Little House in the Big Woods

Books I read to kids as a librarian:

• The Little Match Girl
• I Want My Hat Back
• Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
• Martin's Big Words
• Pete the Cat
• Rotten Island
• Where the Sidewalk Ends

Books I've read with other bloggers:

• Moby Dick
• War and Peace
• The Thorn Birds
• The Narnia books
• The Oz books
• 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

Books I've read with my book clubs:

• Little Women
• Isaac's Storm
• Unbroken
• My Name is Asher Lev
• The Westing Game

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: The Shorty September Challenge is Complete

Welcome! We are glad 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. 

       

What I Read This Week:

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)

      

What I'm Reading Now:

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

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

The Librarians by Sherry Thomas (Mystery)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Waco-Bound

Dishing Up Some Wonderful Stories, with Pie

Save the Date! Nonfiction November is Coming Soon!

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake: Friday Book Snippets and Book Blogger Hop

Shorty September is Complete!   12 / 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 by Sid Fleischman (184 pages)

Denim Shorts (Modern Classic)

In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor (224 pages)

Ripped Shorts (Mystery/Horror/Thriller)

Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine They (144 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 by L. M. Montgomery (224 pages) 

Half-n-Half Shorts (Read the Book then Watch the Movie)

Train Dreams (130 pages)

Zip-Off Shorts (Nature Writing/Outdoors)

The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico (48 pages)

Runway Fashion Shorts (Translated)

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandra Solzhenitsyn (208 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:

We went on a tour of the site at

 the Waco Mammoth National Monument.

Those mammoths!

It was an amazing tour.

Good Thing #2:

We visited the Armstrong Browning Library on

Baylor University's campus

and took a look at some of the books

and artifacts of

poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Good Thing #3:

My sister made, 

and I'm starting to address, 

the invitations

for my dad's 100th birthday party

on January 2, 2027!

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. 

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

Fungi are everywhere but they are easy to miss. They are inside you and around you. They sustain you and all that you depend on. As you read these words, fungi are changing the way that life happens, as they have done for more than a billion years. They are eating rock, making soil, digesting pollutants, nourishing and killing plants, surviving in space, inducing visions, producing food, making medicines, manipulating animal behavior, and influencing the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways that we think, feel, and behave. Yet they live their lives largely hidden from view, and over ninety percent of their species remain undocumented. The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them.

Sheldrake, Merlin. Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, p. 3. Kindle Edition. 

The transformational power of yeast has long been personified as a divine energy, spirit, or god. How could it escape this treatment? Alcohol and inebriation are some of the oldest magics. An invisible force conjures wine from fruit, beer from grain, mead from nectar. These liquids alter our minds and have been enfolded within human cultures in many ways: from ritual feasting and statecraft, to a means to pay for labor. For just as long, they have been responsible for dissolving our senses, for wildness and ecstasy. Yeasts are both makers and breakers of human social orders.

Sheldrake, Merlin. Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, 56%. Kindle Edition. 

Today's Featured Book: 

Entangled Life:

How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures

by Merlin Sheldrake

Genre: Nature

Published: May 12, 2020

Page Count: 345 pages

Summary: 

When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave.

Fungi throw our concepts of individuality and even intelligence into question. They are metabolic masters, earth makers, and key players in most of life’s processes. They can change our minds, heal our bodies, and even help us remediate environmental disaster. By examining fungi on their own terms, Sheldrake reveals how these extraordinary organisms—and our relationships with them—are changing our understanding of how life works.

This is our naturalist group's book club selection for October and November. I know little about fungi, and I'm eager to learn more.

As a book lover, what’s your biggest fear? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer)

I will turn seventy in November. I'm beginning to fear that I may not have time to read every book before I die.

  

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.