The Sunday Salon: Shorty September

It's wonderful that 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. 

Please add your link below, visit other bloggers, and comment on their posts. 

We had a fabulous time visiting with our son and daughter-in-law, Ben and Lisa. We spent some time in Chicago where they live, and we also spent a few days in Traverse City, Michigan where Lisa worked when she was first out of college. The highs were in the 70s, and the temps dipped into the 50s at night. The weather was glorious and the company was more glorious. 

What I Read Last Week:

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (Novel)

     

What I'm Reading Now (for Shorty September):

In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor (Novel)

Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine They (Mystery)

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson (Novel)

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solhenitzen (Novel)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

Authors I've Met

The Sunday Salon: ♫ ♪ Chicago! Chicago! ♫ ♪

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser: Friday Book Snippets and Book Blogger Hop

SHORTY SEPTEMBER    8 / 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 (184 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 (224 pages) 

Zip-Off Shorts (Nature Writing/Outdoors)

• The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico (48 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:

A new-to-me butterfly in Chicago:

Small White.

Good Thing #2:

We shopped in a store where

everything---ice cream, syrup, salsa, and more---

was made from cherries.

Traverse City is 

the Cherry Capital of the World.

Good Thing #3:

We visited two bookstores in Traverse City,

including this one 

in a former mental asylum.

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. 

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser: 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.

When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, her total outfit consisted of a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, a small lunch in a paper box, and a yellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket, a scrap of paper with her sister's address in Van Buren Street, and four dollars in money. It was in August, 1889. She was eighteen years of age, bright, timid, and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth. Whatever touch of regret at parting characterised her thoughts, it was certainly not for advantages now being given up. A gush of tears at her mother's farewell kiss, a touch in her throat when the cars clacked by the flour mill where her father worked by the day, a pathetic sigh as the familiar green environs of the village passed in review, and the threads which bound her so lightly to girlhood and home were irretrievably broken.

Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie, p. 1. Kindle Edition. 

Carrie looked over the large bill of fare which the waiter handed her without really considering it. She was very hungry, and the things she saw there awakened her desires, but the high prices held her attention. "Half broiled spring chicken—seventy-five. Sirloin steak with mushrooms—one twenty-five." She had dimly heard of these things, but it seemed strange to be called to order from the list.

Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie, p. 56. Kindle Edition. 

   

Today's Featured Book: 

Sister Carrie

by Theodore Dreiser

Genre: Fiction

Published: 1900

Page Count: 464 pages

Summary: 

When Carrie Meeber runs away to Chicago, she has nothing to rely on but her beauty and a fierce determination to improve her life. She escapes work in a factory by becoming the mistress of first one man and then a more successful one but ultimately leaves them behind for success and fame on the stage in New York. 

Long hailed as one of the best novels of the twentieth century, Sister Carrie provides a panoramic view of the dynamic and relentless forces that still drive city life and American culture.

I brought three books set in Chicago along with me on my recent trip to visit my son and his wife. I think I have brought Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser along with me fifty times, and I've yet to read the whole things. This time I'm determined to finish.

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 could recommend one overlooked book, what would it be and why? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer

I'd recommend Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell. It's the story of a woman who is a homemaker of the 1940s, and each chapter is a page or so long, each one like a little Zen story.

  

Authors I've Met

Margaret Atwood! Wow!

Lots of great kids' authors:

Jayson Reynolds.             R. L. Stein                             Aaron Reynolds

Jacqueline Woodson.        Kate DiCamillo               Melissa Sweet

Rick Riordan

Mo Willems

Jon Klassen at my school!

Lots of wonderful adult authors:

Anne Lamott

Gretchen Rubin

Amy Krause Rosenthal                            Katherine Center

Jane Green

David Baldacci                      Mary Higgins Clark

Lots of authors I've met at Inprint in Houston:

Richard Powers                 Kiran Desai                   George Saunders

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi                   Salman Rushdie

My "twin," Janet Evanovich

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.