Stillness, Silence, Nonsense, and Big Magic

What I Read Last Week      After all the gloriously happy drama of last week (my birthday...a little flooding...and the arrival of my beautiful granddaughter), this week I had a reading week. November is my Birthday Book Club month and my first two birthday books, The Art of Stillness and Silence, arrived. Perfect. My son and his family moved into their own home last week and our house is now...well, still and silent, and I soaked it up. I jumped right into The Art of Stillness, a little sixty-six page TED book. I followed it up with Thich Nhat Hanh's Silence, subtitled The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise. Just reading these two books reminded me of the importance of taking time to sit in silence and stillness, and so I did.  I also finished off Nonsense, an exploration of how powerful it can be to not-know, which sounds a little out-there and, of course, it is, and it's full of wonderful paradoxes that will zing your brain one-two, one-two. Finally I read through the last couple of chapters of Big Magic, which will slay every silly illusion you have about creativity and well done, I say....It's about time creativity was looked at clearly and boldly instead of from bowed eyes, lying prone at its feet.       And I read 55 more Cybils fiction picture books. That should be my last huge week of reading for the Cybils. Now I have to wait for the books to arrive in the mail or at my five public library systems, one by one. That brings me up to 192 Cybils read out of 253. I'm quite happy with that. Next week at school, I'll be trying them out with the 700 children at my school. I don't know when I've read more wonderfully surprising Cybils and I can't wait to see what the children think.      I must share a photo of my first grand-child, Annie; it seems that I can't stop myself from doing that these days. But I know you want to see her, don't you?         My Annie

What Arrived Last Week Don't these look good? I've just started my latest 1001 Children's Book You Must Read, Noughts & Crosses. Quite promising.

What are you reading today?!

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week. 

 It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from! I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is now being hosted at The Book Date.