Breakfast Mama Adventure

I've been blessed to have over twenty years with a group of wonderful friends. We got together for breakfast when our kids were little, so we came to be known as the Breakfast Mamas. We don't get together as often nowadays. But every now and then we break loose and head off on an adventure. 

This time we headed for Galveston.

We have to eat when we get together. We tried Miller's Seawall Grill. Here's Tish at the restaurant with her beautiful granddaughter.

The obligatory group photo. Tish and Terry and Janet had to head back home after lunch, but the rest of us forged on.

Peggy chauffeured us on a wonderful Galveston Island Tree Sculpture Tour. During Hurricane Ike in 2007, lots of old trees in Galveston were inundated with salt water and died. Artists have taken the dead trees and carved them into fabulous art. Here's the Tin Man and Toto in front of a house where one of the creators of the Wizard of Oz movie once lived. (For an entire post on the Galveston Island Tree Sculpture Tour, take a look here.)

We tried to get a good shot of a cruise ship as it was leaving Galveston. Peggy followed it for blocks. The only shot I could get was through the gates at this (apologies!) government facility.

We're always on the lookout for a nice fixer-upper for our future Widows' Home. What do you think?

And then...the beach! An amazing sight after so many weeks of rain.

My crazy friends!

Lisa had to take a walk on that warm sand.

What a great day!

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at West Metro Mommy Reads.

An Absurdly Long and Quite Random List of the Best Books-About-Books

The Shelf

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader

Fahrenheit 451

84, Charing Cross Road

Book Lust

An Uncommon Reader

Inkheart

Reading Lolita in Tehran

A Passion for Books

So Many Books, So Little Time

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair

Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading

The Polysyllabic Spree

The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared

How Reading Changed My Life

Used and Rare

The Jane Austen Book Club

Possession

Book! Book! Book!

Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books

The Book Thief

Book by Book

Rereadings

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Read This Next

My Ideal Bookshelf

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

The Novel Cure

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through the Great Books

Among the Gently-Mad

Kelsey Green: Reading Queen

Classics for Pleasure

The Fault in Our Stars

The Book That Changed My Life

Wild about Books

The Bookseller of Kabul

The Book Lover's Cookbook

The Case of the Missing Books

The Library at Night

The Night Bookmobile

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore


That's totally overwhelming, isn't it?

To add a little order, these can be roughly grouped into several subcategories:

Lists of Good Books
Book Challenges
Essays about (Mostly) Books
Children's Books about Books
Novels/Memoirs in Which Books Play a Significant Role

Now, let's see if I can group the above into these subcategories.

Lists of Good Books
Book Lust
Read This Next
My Ideal Bookshelf
The Novel Cure
Classics for Pleasure
The Book that Changed My Life

Book Challenges
The Shelf
Tolstoy and the Purple Chair
The Reading Promise
Voracious
Rereadings

Essays about (Mostly) Books
Ex Libris
A Passion for Books
So Many Books, So Little Time
Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading
The Polysyllabic Spree
How Reading Changed My Life
Used and Rare
Ruined by Reading
Book by Book
Among the Gently Mad
The Library at Night

Children's Books about Books
Inkheart
Book! Book! Book!
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Kelsey Green
Wild about Books

Novels/Memoirs in Which Books Play a Significant Role
Fahrenheit 451
84, Charing Cross Road
An Uncommon Reader
Reading Lolita in Tehran
The Jane Austen Book Club
Possession
The Book Thief
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
The Fault in Our Stars
The Bookseller of Kabul
The Case of the Missing Books
The Night Bookmobile
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore



More? Thoughts? I hope you will share them in the comments.

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Summer = Reading

It's summer and for me summer means reading. And have I ever been doing some reading this summer?!

I was happy to discover the writing of Frank Waters this summer while we were traveling in New Mexico. His novel, People of the Valley, is a beautifully written story of a powerful Native American woman and her fight with the government to stop a dam from coming into the valley in which her people live. I'd never heard of Waters until this summer, but now I want to read the novel for which he is most famous, The Man Who Killed the Deer. In that odd, serendipitous way life works, a friend I was talking to when I got home told me she thinks she may have that novel on her bookshelf. She said she'd bring it for me this week if she does.

Two more wonderful 1001 Children's Books You Must Read finished, Where the Lilies Bloom and I Am David, and both were spectacular. A new StoryCorps compilation, Callings, this one centering on stories about jobs people loved, is out and like all the StoryCorps books I've read, this one will have you laughing and crying. I continued my reading of deeply spiritual books with The Naked Now, Henry Nouwen, and Meditations on the Parables of Jesus; I feel sure I will reread these. A book of Natalie Goldberg essays. A new children's book, Hour of the Bees, which, surprisingly, might be classified as magic realism, and which I immediately recommended to my friend who chooses Battle of the Books for New Mexico. A couple of memoirs, one of which, Call the Midwife, completely wowed me. And the funny and surprising The Invoice, about a man who receives an invoice for all the happy experiences of his life.

What's next for me? I'm getting books together for Paris in July, of course. Tamara at Thyme for Tea has the sign up post here for this month long event. It's the seventh year for Paris in July, and I hope you will join in, too.

What I Finished Lately cover title author review I Am David Holm, Anne Imagine what you might be like if you had spent your entire childhood in a concentration camp. That is the main character of our story, David. And the ...more The Great Spring: Writing, Zen, and This Zigzag Life Goldberg, Natalie Natalie Goldberg has always been this wonderful mishmash of an all-too-human person with a saint. And she uses this wonderful combination of self to e ...more The Invoice Karlsson, Jonas A man lives a simple life. He finds an invoice in his mail. It’s for all the happinesses he has experienced in his life. And it’s for a huge amount of ...more Henri Nouwen: Writings Selected with an Introduction Nouwen, Henri J.M. (Side note: Don’t let the chapter called “an introduction” fool you. It’s sixty solid pages of introduction about Henri Nouwen, and it puts all of wha ...more The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See Rohr, Richard I’ve had this book recommended to me for years, and when I got a gift card for Mother’s Day, I finally plunged in and bought it. So glad I did. The aut ...more Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End Worth, Jennifer This was a book club read and I must admit I didn’t go eagerly into reading it, as I’m not one who tends to read books that have been made into tv sho ...more Only in Naples: Lessons in Food and Famiglia from My Italian Mother-in-Law Wilson, Katherine How does anticipation effect one’s ultimate rating of a book? I expected little from my last book, and I ended up having it wow me. I had very high ho ...more Death Comes for the Archbishop Cather, Willa Who knew I’d be traveling in a book the same places I was traveling in real life when I picked up Death Comes for the Archbishop? It was the perfect b ...more Hour of the Bees Eagar, Lindsay  Carolina is forced to spend her summer with her family helping ready her grandfather’s home for sale. Carol hasn’t had much contact with her dad’s fat ...more Mountain Dialogues Waters, Frank Frank Waters examines his world of northern New Mexico through a look at its water, air, mountains, spirits, and air. He looks with Indian eyes at his ...more People Of The Valley Waters, Frank I learned about Frank Waters while I was visiting New Mexico. I stayed at the Frank Waters room at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos, and I was curi ...more Callings: A Celebration of Lives of Purpose and Passion Isay, Dave I've read several of the StoryCorps books and I've been taken with them all. This collection of stories centers on people who love their work. Given t ...more Where the Lilies Bloom Cleaver, Vera What a story! Mary Call is thrust into the position of provider for the three siblings after her father sickens and dies. She and her brother covertly ...more Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia Garrels, Anne  If you are headed to Russia, you couldn't have a better guide than Anne Garrels; Garrels knows the stories in Russia and she can tell them better than ...more Meditations on the Parables of Jesus Keating, Thomas Thomas Keating takes a close look at the parables of Jesus and what a rich experience this is. This is the kind of book I could read over and over.

What have you been reading lately? Can you share any recommendations? 

           

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.

BookExpo: The Authors!

Larry Watson

Jonathan Safran Foer

Jennifer Niven

Mo Willems

Kwame Alexander

Jane Hamilton

Amy Krause Rosenthal

Herve Tullet

Mariam Gates

Matthew Cordell

Richard Russo

Jamie Lee Curtis

David Shannon

Frank Viva

Eric Litwin and Tom Lichtenheld

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at West Metro Mommy Reads.

I Am Now an Expert on Books Set in New Mexico, I Think

I spent the last ten days in the wilds of New Mexico. You may (or may not) recall that I have suffered greatly in the past when I've visited the wild, including a scorpion bite, a close encounter with flat tires, and an adventure with a rattlesnake. This time, we very nearly ran into a black bear, almost drove off the edge of a cliff, and came within a few miles of a New Mexico wildfire. Despite all our difficulties, I returned home safely yesterday, and I'm certain I'll get rested up from my vacation in a few days.

What I Finished Last Week I read some great books set in New Mexico last week. Death Comes for the Archbishop Two Frank Waters books: People of the Valley and Mountain Dialogues Hour of the Bees I'm still reading a couple with New Mexico connections. Sacred Clowns (audiobook) by Tony Hillerman The Great Spring: Writing, Zen, and the Zigzag Life by Natalie Goldberg Thanks to everyone who shared great books set in New Mexico!

What Arrived Last Week Quite a stack of books poured in my mailbox while I was gone last week.   Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story The It Girl Trouble the Water by Frances O'Roark Dowell A Tiger Tail (Or What Happened to Anya on Her First Day of School) The Invoice

What were you doing while I was out of town? Did you read anything I should pick up? I'm glad to be back. I missed you!

           

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.