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.

      

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)

   

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/X8Ge3kG3qH
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dewey...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deweysreada...

 

Nonfiction November is coming soon! For more details, 

take a look at this post. 

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

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

Eleven Books with Autumnal Feels

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett: Friday Book Snippets 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:

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.

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett: 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.

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...

  

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.  

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.

    

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)

      

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

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: The Shorty September Challenge is Complete

Memorable Books I've Read with Others

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi: Friday Book Snippets 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:

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.