Books on My Fall 2023 To-Read List

I've unexpectedly become a mood reader. 

Here is what I am in the mood for right now...

 

...recently published fiction...

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

...nature...

What an Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman

The Secret World of Weather by Tristan Gooley

...rereading...

The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

...because I want more Italy...

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

Cuore by Edmondo DeAmicis

...encouragement to write my novel...

Daily Rituals: Women at Work by Mason Currey

..classic...

Complete Stories by Franz Kafka

...book club...

The Fishermen and the Dragon: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast by Kirk W. Johnson

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: Italia! (Italy!)

 

Welcome! I'm 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 plus it's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Even wonderful things must end. I'm on my way home to the US on a ten-and-a-half-hour flight from Italy this weekend. I hope to alternate resting up from my travels and visiting all of you as soon as I get home. I promise to share our Italy adventure fully with you soon.

We spent some time on our last days here wandering the old streets of Bisceglie, Italy. It's hard for this American to think about places, like the town where we are staying, that was first settled in the fourteen hundreds.

We've eaten so many great seafood dishes here in Puglia. This is an octopus, squid, and shrimp salad.

Readerbuzz is happily touring Italy in September.

I've scheduled a Sunday Salon that will post early each Saturday morning in September.

I plan to visit everyone's blogs as usual while I am away...

Here is what I am reading while I'm away in Italy...

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories

The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino

Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes ✔

Italian Lessons by Beppe Severgnini ✔

I finished one more book, and I plan to work on My Brilliant Friend on the ride home.

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 Sunday Salon: Io Sono in Italia! (I Am in Italy!)

  

                                        

Welcome! I'm 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 plus it's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Since I've last seen you, we have visited Cinque Terre (above) and Piedmont in Italy. On Thursday, we rode the train from Milan to where we will stay in Puglia for the last week of our time in Italy. 

Here's a photo of the excellent stuffed pasta with hazelnuts I ate as well as the fantastic local wine I drank in Piedmont in northern Italy. I promise more to come when I have a little more time.

Readerbuzz is happily touring Italy in September.

I've scheduled a Sunday Salon that will post early each Saturday morning in September.

I plan to visit everyone's blogs as usual while I am away...

Here is what I am reading while I'm away in Italy...

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories

The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino

Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes ✔

Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

Italian Lessons by Beppe Severgnini

I actually finished Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes on the train. I highly recommend this translation of a book by an excellent Italian author.

And I crossed Daniel Deronda off my list. Not in the mood for this right now.

Italian Lessons by Beppe Severgnini, a book about the reasons we love the Italians, on the other hand, is just light enough for a read right now. I do hope to get to My Brilliant Friend and/or If on a Winter's Night a Traveller before I head for home late next 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.

The Sunday Salon: Adoro l'Italia! (I Love Italy!)

 

Welcome! I'm 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 plus it's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Hi, everybody! Yes, I realize this post looks oddly like last week's post. I was pretty sure I wouldn't have a lot of time to write while I'm off in Italy, so I threw together something to suffice while I'm gone. Please bear with me.

We are staying in a lovely house in Piedmont, in the northern part of Italy. Today we took a walk through the vineyards in Borolo and tasted several different types of Borolo wines, some of which grow in sandy soils and some of which grow in clay soils, at a tasting room. It was so fun!

I haven't read much but we walked 18,000 steps the first day we were here and today we walked 10,000...so we have been a little busy.

I hope all is well with you, and I plan to check in on you when I get back from our adventures tomorrow at a nearby island.

Readerbuzz is happily touring Italy in September.

I've scheduled a Sunday Salon that will post early each Saturday morning in September.

I plan to visit everyone's blogs as usual while I am away...

Here is what I am reading while I'm away in Italy...

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories

The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino

Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes

Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

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 Sunday Salon: Sono in Italia! (I'm in Italy!)

 

Welcome! I'm 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 plus it's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Readerbuzz is happily touring Italy in September.

I've scheduled a Sunday Salon that will post early each Saturday morning in September.

I plan to visit everyone's blogs as usual while I am away...

Here is what I am reading while I'm away in Italy...

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories

The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino

Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes

Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

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 Sunday Salon: Culture Week

 

Welcome! I'm 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, plus it's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

In the last seven days, I went to...

                            ...a play at a theater...

                            ...a jazz concert...

                            ...an author reading...

                            ...and a museum exhibit.

Culture week for me. And, no, I haven't even left for Italy yet...

What I Read Last Week:

I Never Thought of It That Way by Mónica Guzmán (Communication)

Ottavia e i Gatti di Rome / Ottavia and the Cats of Rome by Claudia Cerulli (Reading in Italian)

Love & Saffron by Kim Fay (Cook the Books Bookclub)

What I'm Reading Now:

The Poetry Prescription: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Mind, Heart, and Soul by William Sieghart (Happiness; Poetry)

Shark Heart by Emily Habeck (Novel)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

Fourteen of the Best Books You Might Like to Take Along on Your Next Trip to Italy

The Sunday Salon: Thinking About Loss

It's time to apply to be a Cybils Awards judge, a judge for the Children's and Young Adult Book Lovers' Literary Awards. The application is here, and applications will be open until 9/8/2023. 

I'm on-track for the completion of my challenges by year-end.

The link to my challenges is here.

I've also completed my two summer challenges.

1. Mrs. Bridge by Evan Connell

2. The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat

3. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

4. Pictures from Italy by Charles Dickens

5. How the Light Gets in: Writing as a Spiritual Practice by Pat Schneider

6. Mrs. Plansky's Revenge by Spencer Quinn

7. Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells by Helen Scales

8. The Italians by John Hooper

9. French Milk by Lucy Knisley

10. A Woman's Story by Annie Ernaux

11. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter 

12. An Astronomer in Love by Antoine Laurain

13. Vango: Between Sky and Earth by Timothee Fombelle

14. Mother Nature is Not Trying to Kill You by Rob Nelson

15. Eating My Through Italy: Heading Off the Main Roads to Discover the Hidden Treasures of the Italian Table by Elizabeth Minchilli

16. Got Your Number by Mike Greenberg

17. Food Americana by David Page

18. My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith

19. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

20. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

20/20

Completed!

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (736 pages)

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1276 pages)

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (560 pages)

Vango: Between Earth and Sky by Timothee Fombelle (432 pages)

A Prince Without a Kingdom by Timothee Fombelle (464 pages)

5/5 

Completed!

How are your 2023 challenges coming? 

Have you completed your summer challenges?

I began to list 3 Good Things every day during the pandemic. I found I greatly increased my happiness when I did this. 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:

Two fellows from my hometown performed a jazz concert

in my hometown at a bookstore, Rae's Reads, here.

Good Thing #2:

I heard author James McBride read from his latest novel, 

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store,

last week. 

He got a standing ovation 

after sharing his thoughts about writing and democracy and life

 with interviewer and journalist Melanie Lawson.

I can't wait to read this book from this wise man.

Good Thing #3:

On my morning walk, I saw a new mural in my town.

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.