Marfa Bookstore

I'd never have expected a bookstore like this in Marfa, Texas, population 1,819.

Lots of comfortable reading spots.

The selection of books is sharply eclectic.

You'd never find these children's books in a typical bookstore.

A huge Texas themed collection.

And someone is fond of a certain reclusive Texas writer.

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.

The Ten Books I'd Have Every Elementary Student Read If I Could*

Because of Winn-Dixie

A Wrinkle in Time

Homer Price

The Phantom Tollbooth

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Where the Red Fern Grows

Anne of Green Gables

The Little Prince

Little House on the Prairie

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

*These are ten I love, and they are all great choices, but I'd never say they are for every elementary student....that's why we have libraries: make your own choices.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

My Twentieth First-Day-of-School as a Teacher and Librarian! and My Week in Books

I don't know how many first-day-of-schools I've experienced. I was only two when our across-the-street neighbor, Mrs. McCain, graciously allowed me to attend her playschool as a favor to my mom who was exhaustedly expecting the arrival of my younger sister. I had three years at Mrs. McCain's school, and then private kindergarten, and on to eleven years of grades 1-12 (I skipped second grade), three years of college (finished early), and five years of graduate school, my own kids' first-days, and my years of first-days as a teacher and a librarian. 

There's nothing like the first-day-of-school.  The sewing of school clothes (for my mom, this was an all-summer task). The school supply shopping. The anticipation. Arrival at the school. All the kids in shiny-shiny clothes, with shiny-shiny shoes. The box of perfect crayons. The desk with a label on it, your name in careful print: Debbie or Debbie A. or Deborah A. Your name tag. Brand-new black-and-white composition book. Sharpening the pencils for the first time, on and on and on. Complete silence. Even the class bad boy.

This is a momentous first-day for me: it could be my last first-day. It's my twentieth first-day as a teacher and a librarian and I'll turn sixty in November. Do the math, and you'll see that next year at this time I could be sunning on a beach in the Caribbean somewhere. 

Or not. Maybe I'll be at school again. The call to first-day-of-school is strong in me, almost like sap rising in sugar maples in spring. 

Whatever happens, I'm going to enjoy every day this year like it's my last first-day and second-day and thirty-third day and one-hundred-and-forty-seventh day. Like we should live every day of our lives.

What Arrived in the Mail Be the Change: A Grandfather Gandhi Story Still a Work in Progress by Jo Knowles         The Littlest Bigfoot by Jennifer Weiner What I Finished  Moon Over Manifest I read all the Newberry books a few years ago, but they just keep awarding the Newberry Award to new books. Moon Over Manifest is one of these...more When Breath Becomes Air A sad story. I knew that, going in. I knew the author, not even finished completely with his education, had cancer and would die. I knew Paul Kalanith...more Somebody's Heart is Burning: A Woman Wanderer in Africa How long have I had this book sitting on my shelf? Months? Years, even? Somebody's Heart is Burning is a memoir of the author's time in Africa. She has...more Sea Change by Frank Viva Poor Eliot. His parents are sending him off to Nova Scotia to stay with relatives for the summer when all he wants to do is piddle around his own town...more What I'm Reading Now So happy I discovered this series, both the books and the videos.

What are you reading today? Have you read any of these? 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.

Writing Retreat at Sul Ross University in Far West Texas

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.

Ten Books That Have Been On My Shelf From Before I Started Blogging That I STILL Haven't Read Yet and Yet I Can't Bring Myself to Give Away

Yes, the whole thing is ridiculous. These are books that have sat on my shelves for over eight years, but I can't bring myself to read or, worse, give away. I keep thinking I will read them. Someday.

Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara
Thoughts:  This is a tiny book. It was recommended highly. What am I waiting for?

Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout
Thoughts: I am wild about Olive Kitteridge. I saw Strout speak in Houston. What am I waiting for?

The Eight by Katherine Neville
Thoughts: I've been told this book is similar to The Secret History, which I loved. What am I waiting for?

Collected Stories by Carol Shields
Thoughts: I've read everything else by Carol Shields. Except this book. What am I waiting for?

Beloved by Toni Morrison
Thoughts: "It's my favorite story ever." People have told me this, over and over. What am I waiting for?

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Thoughts: You've read this one, haven't you? I know you have. Everyone has. Except me. What am I waiting for?

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
Thoughts: Kawabata won the Nobel Prize. What am I waiting for?

A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
Thoughts: I've seen this on zillions of Favorite Book lists. What am I waiting for?

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Thoughts: A huge hit that's science fiction. And I haven't read real science fiction in eons. What am I waiting for?

The Gates of the Alamo by Stephen Harrigan
Thoughts: Loved Harrigan's Remember Ben Clayton. Saw Harrigan speak in Houston. What am I waiting for???



On the positive side, I am down to three small stacks of books in my TBR....Well, three small stacks of books plus the 88 pounds of books I dragged home from BookExpo!

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

The Happiness Tag and What I Read Lately

I've been tagged by Anne at My Head is Full of Books to complete The Happiness Tag.  Thank you very much, Anne!

Rules:
1. List 5 things that make you happy.
2. List 5 songs that make you happy.
3. List 5 bloggers that make you happy and let them know that they have been nominated.

So here goes...

5 Things That Make Me Happy

Reading

Paris, Chicago, and Other Travels

People I Love and People I Like

Walking and Swimming and Doing Yoga

God

5 Songs That Make Me Happy

This is quite easy. I have actually made myself a mix tape of songs that make me happy.

Happy. Of course. 

  Simon and Garfunkel's 59th Street Bridge Song

Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World

Bob Marley's Don't Worry Be Happy

Bing Crosby's Swinging on a Star

5 Bloggers That Make Me Happy You know who you are.  (There's a lot more of you than five.) So consider yourself tagged. If you wish. If it makes you happy.

What I Finished Lately I've gotten a bit behind with posting my reviews. This ought to catch me up. cover title author review The Nightingale Hannah, Kristin  You should write a review as soon as you finish a book, I think, and I would write this review for this book that I just finished if I could just stop ...more Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s Worth, Jennifer The power of this story is that it takes you to another world than our modern day, first world lives. A world where mothers have eight children and th ...more The Thirteenth Tale Setterfield, Diane The genre for this book is gothic novel. It was my mother's favorite kind of book. Because I didn't want to go against my mom, and because it was at l ...more With Any Luck I'll Drive a Truck Friend, David Ah, this one is good. You kids out there who love big machines? This one's for you. Read it and you can drive 'em all, too---18-wheelers...concrete mi ...more Return (Journey Trilogy, #3) Becker, Aaron Everything you want in a picture book...beautiful illustrations...fantastic story...adventure...action...magic....Journey. It was a Caldecott Honor bo ...more Quest (Journey Trilogy, #2) Becker, Aaron Everything you want in a picture book...beautiful illustrations...fantastic story...adventure...action...magic....Journey. It was a Caldecott Honor bo ...more Journey (Journey Trilogy, #1) Becker, Aaron Everything you want in a picture book...beautiful illustrations...fantastic story...adventure...action...magic....Journey. It was a Caldecott Honor bo ...more The Gingerbread Man Loose at The Zoo Murray, Laura  Is there a genre called "Gingerbread Man books"? There should be. There are so many of them. And there's a good reason for that...kids love gingerbrea ...more A Tiger Tail: Boldt, Mike Marvelous. Anya wakes up on the first day of school and discovers she has a tiger tale. Eek. What to do? Her parents aren't much help. Finally, she st ...more The Dragon's Hoard: Stories from the Viking Sagas James, Cate There's a reason why folk tales and fairy tales and sagas and legends last: they are good stories. The Dragon's Hoard is a collection of old stories t ...more Dark Matter Crouch, Blake  When you read a book in one sitting, it says something about the book. I read Dark Matter in one sitting. I couldn't stop reading. Jason teaches physic ...more How to Party with an Infant Hemmings, Kaui Hart  Mele tells her boyfriend that she's pregnant and he tells her he is engaged. Mele has her baby, Ellie, alone and joins a parent group for support. Tha ...more Top Secret Twenty-One (Stephanie Plum, #21) Evanovich, Janet  I got a little behind on the Stephanie Plum mysteries, so I got to enjoy two Plums this summer. Enjoy is a good word when it comes to the Plums. You a ...more A Weird and Wild Beauty: The Story of Yellowstone, the World's First National Park Peabody, Erin  Erin Peabody takes us along with a team of thirty-two men who headed out in 1871 to explore Yellowstone in the first scientific expedition there. It's ...more Thunderwith Hathorn, Libby Lara's mother dies and Lara is sent to live with a father she doesn't know and his new family. Her father's wife and her new sisters are not all eager ...more The Light of Paris Brown, Eleanor  It had Paris in the title and an Eiffel Tower on the cover...I'm helpless in the face of these things to stop myself from nabbing this book. It didn't ...more The Bookshop on the Corner Colgan, Jenny Nina has troubles. She's just lost her job. She's lost her home. She doesn't know what to do next. And then she gets a crazy idea. What would happen if ...more F Is for France: A Curious Cabinet of French Wonders Eatwell, Piu Marie  It's a trivia book. It's an encyclopedia. It's a curious cabinet of wonders. And it's all about the most wonderful place on earth, France. You really ...more Of All Sad Words: A Dan Rhodes Mystery(Sheriff Dan Rhodes #15) Crider, Bill  We listened to two mystery audiobooks, one on the way to West Texas, and one on the way home, both by my favorite mystery writer, Bill Crider. That's ...more The Little Paris Kitchen Khoo, Rachel I finally finished my foodie Paris books, The Little Paris Kitchen and Bonjour Kale. I've had The Little Paris Kitchen for a while, but I've been savi...more Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life David, Susan I can't say enough good about Emotional Agility. It is sad to realize that in this day of plenty so many people suffer from depression and anxiety. Em ...more A Mammoth Murder(Sheriff Dan Rhodes #13) Crider, Bill  We listened to two mystery audiobooks, one on the way to West Texas, and one on the way home, both by my favorite mystery writer, Bill Crider. That's ...more Bonjour Kale: A Memoir of Paris, Love, and Recipes Beddard, Kristen  I finally finished my foodie Paris books, The Little Paris Kitchen and Bonjour Kale. I've had The Little Paris Kitchen for a while, but I've been savi...more The Sun Also Rises Hemingway, Ernest Good grief. How did I get to be almost-sixty without reading this book? It's a brilliant story of a group of lost souls drifting, drifting, drifting, ...more Satori in Paris & Pic Kerouac, Jack This confirms it for me: I'm not and never will be a fan of Jack Kerouac. Oh my, how this man does ramble. About nothing. On and on and on. And carous ...more The Story of Diva and Flea Willems, Mo It's Mo Willems. It's (surprise!) a chapter book. It's (surprise!) not illustrated by Mo himself, but by the wonderful Tony DiTerlizzi. It's a sweet ( ...more Tricky Vic: The Impossibly True Story of the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower Pizzoli, Greg Having known Greg Pizzoli from his fun little picture books like Number One Sam and Templeton Gets His Wish, I was taken aback when I saw he's written ...more Girl in Dior Goetzinger, Annie How serendipitous it was to read this book at the same time I read Mrs. 'arris Goes to Paris. Both take on Dior and fashion and Paris as they were, an ...more Bonjour tristesse Sagan, Françoise This could be the ultimate French book. A young narrator, Cecile, drifting into adulthood, in France, is learning about the pleasures of a first love ...more Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris Gallico, Paul (Some spoilers) Mrs. Harris is a cleaning woman who sets her sights on a Dior dress, a dress that costs a year's wages, a dress she hasn't a place to w ...more In the Café of Lost Youth Modiano, Patrick Yes, it's brilliant and true, but it's full of sadness, too. Ennui on every page. Louki is the poor daughter of a single mother and she has lost out o...more Takedown Twenty(Stephanie Plum, #20) Evanovich, Janet  If you are thinking about reading this book, the twentieth book in the Stephanie Plum series, I don't need to tell you much about the plot. You alread ...more Paris Is Always a Good Idea Barreau, Nicolas A little mystery...a little romance...and, of course, Paris. That's the gist of this book. Rosalie is the owner of a tiny postcard shop in Paris. One ...more 750 Years in Paris Mahé, Vincent Now isn't this fun? Mahé takes a building in Paris from the time it was first built until the present day, stopping now and then to take a close look ...more Five Nights in Paris: After Dark in the City of Light Baxter, John John Baxter takes on yet another tour of Paris, this time at night. Baxter spouts out story after story as he leads us around the city in the dark for ...more The Runaway Wife Birkelund, Elizabeth  No, the setting isn't France, but it's so close that you can see France just over the border. To add to the book's France factor, most of the characte ...more Sixty: A Diary of My Sixty-First Year: The Beginning of the End, or the End of the Beginning? Brown, Ian I'm turning sixty this year, and my husband did so last month, and all my old friends either just have or are just about to, so how could I pass up th ...more Sacred Clowns Hillerman, Tony My first Tony Hillerman mystery. We took it along with us on our trip to New Mexico at the suggestion of some book blogger friends. It was a great sug ...more Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story Baskin, Nora Raleigh  Whew. I finished this book an hour ago and I'm still crying a little. Let me see if I can stop this weeping and tell you about the story. Four kids wit ...more My Mrs. Brown Norwich, William Ah, Mrs. Brown. You probably didn't notice her as she's quiet and modest and dresses plainly and sews and cleans up to make a small living. She's the ...more

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.