The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

                  

Today's Featured Book: 

The Good Earth

by Pearl S. Buck

Genre: Fiction

Published: 1931

Page Count: 356 pages

Summary: 

First published in 1931, ''The Good Earth'' by Pearl S. Buck, set in early 20th-century China, is the famous and memorable saga following the life of Wang Lung. It portrays an authentic, detailed picture of Chinese life and follows Wang Lung from a humble farmer to a prosperous landowner, highlighting themes of class mobility, family struggles, and the importance of the land.
Key themes include marriage, parenthood, human emotions, reverence for the land, and the conflict between old and new ways of life.

The novel won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and contributed to Buck receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature.

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

It was Wang Lung's marriage day.

Buck, Pearl S.. The Good Earth Trilogy: The Good Earth, p. 1. Kindle Edition. 

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne of Head Full of Books. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky. 

The old man slept day and night, and ate what was given him and there was still strength in him to creep about the dooryard at noon when the sun was warm. He was more cheerful than any of them and he quavered forth one day in his old voice that was like a little wind trembling among cracked bamboos, 

“There have been worse days—there have been worse days. Once I saw men and women eating children.” 

“There will never be such a thing in my house,” said Wang Lung, in extremest horror.

Buck, Pearl S.. The Good Earth, p. 56. Kindle Edition. 

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 quirkiest or most unexpected place you’ve ever read a book, and why? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer)

A cornfield.

 

Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read

No judgment, please. These are books I should have read. But I have not. If there is something on this list that you loved or if there is something you hated, please share your thoughts in the comments. If you have never read these either, I'd appreciate any commiseration you can offer. 

Dracula by Bram Stoker

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

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: My Library Card Collection, Nine 1001 Children's Books Read, and Ready for the 20 Books of Summer

 

Welcome! We are happy that 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. 

My dad's wife, Rosa, celebrated her 97th birthday, and we went to a baby shower for our soon-to-arrive great-nephew, Cooper, and the birthday party of our great-nephew, Jack, 2, last week. I went to my swimming class a couple of times, and it felt good to be back in the pool with my friends. I'm now an official member of the Flamingos, called the Flams for short, a 30-year-old writing group that meets every Friday in Galveston. 

What I Read Last Week:

South to America: 

A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation 

by Imani Perry (Nonfiction)

What I'm Reading Now:

The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss by Robert Macfarlane (Nonfiction)

Make Life Happier by Mark Williamson (Nonfiction)

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson (Nonfiction)

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (Fiction)

The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Arnim (Fiction)

The Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Children's Fiction)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Home from Georgia

My Favorite Books by My Favorite Authors

Summer Reading Challenges 2026

Sift: The Elements of Good Baking by Nicola Lamb

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

I do yearly challenges, but I also like to do perpetual challenges. Last week, I worked hard on one of my perpetual challenges, the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up challenge. Last week, I read some of these books I've found on Internet Archive, a library of books that you can read for an hour at a time online. Here's what I read last week:

The Lark and the Laurel by Barbara Willard

The Little Captain and the Pirate Treasure by Paul Biegel

Hurrah for St. Trinian's by Ronald Searle

Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver by Michael Ende 

Los suenos del sapo by Javier Villafañe (in Spanish)

El sapo que quería ser estrella by Oscar Alfaro (in Spanish)

Tatu and Patu in Helsinki by Aino Havukainen

Cuentos pintado y morales by Rafael Pombo (in Spanish)

 Mi reino por uno caballo by Ana Maria Machado (in Spanish)

Now I need to find and read the last 184 books I have left on the list. 

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 added two more library cards to my collection,

one from Georgia and one from North Carolina.

Good Thing #2:

We had nine inches of rain last week,

but we were dry, and the water quickly soaked into the ground.

Good Thing #3:

It was fun to get ready for the 20 Books of Summer

last week, and to see what all the other participants are reading.

I ended up adding a couple of good books to my list

from ideas others had listed.

How did your week go? 

Did you read anything you would recommend?

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.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Today's Featured Book: 

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

by Bill Bryson

Genre: Nonfiction

Published: 1998

Page Count: 279 pages

Summary: 

Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes—and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings. 
 
For a start there’s the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk. But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson’s acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America’s last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods is a modern classic of travel literature.

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

Not long after I moved with my family to a small town in New Hampshire I happened upon a path that vanished into a wood on the edge of town.

A sign announced that this was no ordinary footpath but the celebrated Appalachian Trail. Running more than 2,100 miles along America’s eastern seaboard, through the serene and beckoning Appalachian Mountains, the AT is the granddaddy of long hikes. From Georgia to Maine, it wanders across fourteen states, through plump, comely hills whose very names—Blue Ridge, Smokies, Cumberlands, Green Mountains, White Mountains—seem an invitation to amble.

Bryson, Bill. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, p. 1. Kindle Edition. 

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne of Head Full of Books. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky. 

Then, with as much pride as if I had baked them myself, I brought out a little surprise—two packets of Hostess cupcakes. 

Katz’s face lit up like the birthday boy in a Norman Rockwell painting. 

“Oh, wow!” 

“They didn’t have any Little Debbies,” I apologized. 

“Hey,” he said. “Hey.” He was lost for greater eloquence. Katz loved cakes.

Bryson, Bill. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, p. 56. Kindle Edition. 

First review (1999): Bill Bryson. A middle-aged guy and a friend hike the 2,200 mile Appalachian Trail...or, at least, 890 miles of it. Funny.

Second review (2011): Reread: Oh, how I love Bill Bryson. He's everything I look for in an author. A good writer. Brave, but not too much. Human. And funny. Most of all, funny.

So last week I reread A Walk in the Woods. I reread it slowly. It was one of those books you don't want to end. All along the way you are laughing. You just have to laugh at Bryson. He tries to do the hard thing, but it's...well, hard. And his companion, Katz, is equally human. Quintessential Americans.

So much fun.

Third review (2026): I brought this book along on our trip to Georgia last week. My goal was to walk part of the Appalachian Trail. The start of the trail is in Georgia, but the start is nine miles from a highway. That wasn't doable for me. Instead, I found a place where the trail (1) crossed a main road, and (2) there was a parking lot for my car. 

I found it. Unfortunately, the trail was both rocky and steep. I did not want to fall. So I walked the Appalachian Trail. The entire width of it. Yes, about eighteen inches. And then I revised my hiking plan for the day and walked on a track running parallel to the Appalachian Trail, through the Chattahoochee National Forest, a path neither rocky nor steep. It was lovely. 

I'm still reading the book. It's still just as humorous as it was the first two times I read it. And now I have a much better idea of what Bryson and his sidekick experienced.

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.    

Does the headline “Must-Read Books” grab your attention? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer)

It depends on who wrote the headline. If it is a blogging friend, yes. If it is a publicity team, no. 

 

Sift: The Elements of Good Baking by Nicola Lamb

  

I have a lot of cookbooks in my TBR, and there is nothing my husband loves more than for me to cook. To inspire me, I took photos with 24 cookbooks I have and I've prescheduled one post a month for the next two years. I'll plan to link up with In My Kitchen, hosted by Sherry's Pickings, and Weekend Cooking, hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader (and Baker). To further inspire me, I've created a Cooking/Baking Challenge for me for 2026 in which I read and bake from and post about one cookbook a month.

I'm not a math-y person. I forced myself to take every math class I could find when I was young. I always had high hopes that one day I would find a math class that was just for me. It never happened. 

Sift is a baking book for math-y people. I've been told over and over that it is important to measure precisely when baking, but I just can't make myself do that. After all, my grandma baked biscuits and pies and cakes all ninety-eight years of her life without owning measuring spoons or cups. 

So, I read Sift and numbers and percentages and ratios floated through my brain. Nothing stuck. I didn't try making anything in the book. Why? Because I didn't want to. 

You, though, you who weigh your flour and carefully follow all directions? You who read math books for fun? This is a book for you. I will not rate this book because it is more a measure of my incompetence than of this baker/author's skills.

Be a part of the friendly In My Kitchen (IMK) community by adding your post at Sherry's Pickings each month - everybody welcome!  We'd love to have you visit.  Tell us about your kitchen (and kitchen garden) happenings over the past month.  Dishes you've cooked, preserves you've made, herbs and veg. in your garden, kitchen gadgets, and goings-on.  And one curveball is welcome - whatever you fancy; no need to be kitchen-related. The link is open from the first of the month to midnight on the thirteenth of the month, every month.

Weekend Cooking was created by Beth Fish Reads and is now hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader (and Baker). It is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.  

For more photos, link up at Wordless Wednesday, Comedy Plus, Messymimi's Meanderings, Keith's Ramblings, Image-in-ing, Soul and Mind and So On, Wild Bird Wednesday, and My Corner of the World.