Weekly Wrap Up: Grow-a-Reader Bookring, Read My Own Books Challenge Update, and the April Happiness Calendar

Read...

I am a new fan of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, which I finished this week. It's the story of a family's move to the industrial north of England after the pastor father has doubts about his convictions, and about the strike that takes place in the mills shortly after the family's arrival. The antagonism between mill owners and mill workers is contemporary, and it left me thinking about working relations in a new way. My review of North and South is here.

I finished the very fun North American Pirates and Their Lost Treasure by W. C. Jameson. It's published by August House, a company that focuses on storytelling. What kid wouldn't love to read this book about pirates and lost treasure? My review of North American Pirates is here.

I wavered and wavered on my rating of An American Marriage: A Novel by Tayari Jones. Chapter one left me breathless. Has anyone captured the dynamics of a marriage as well as Tayari Jones in chapter one? Five stars. I wasn't as pleased with the ensuing chapters, the time Roy spent in prison. Roy's reaction to being in prison and the reactions of his family and friends to his being in prison seemed muted. Three stars. And then my rating changed further at the end of the story. My full review is here.

 

I also read and reviewed these children's picture books:

One Fox: A Counting Book Thriller by Kate Read

Mom Loves Little Jumbo by Yasushi Muraki

The Blue Pebble by Anne-Galle Balpe and Eve Tharlet
My Little Chick by Geraldine Elschner and Eve Tharlet
The Wild Wombat by Udo Weigelt and Melanie Freund

I Need to Wee! by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet

Click the links to go to the full reviews.

Reading...

Tales from Shakespeare 
by Charles and Mary Lamb

Book-ish...

I opened an old copy of A Kiss for Little Bear I had on my shelf last week, and I became awash in memories. This book was part of a bookbox sent to families around America through my Grow-a-Reader Bookring on BookCrossing. The parent read the books with the children, and parent and child signed the inside front cover of the books they read. Then they passed the books on to another person. In the end, the books returned home to me. Happy memories.

I've finished six of ten books in My Own Books Reading Challenge set by Anne of My Head is Full of Books. The challenge ends on May 15th. 

I heard poets Fady Joudah and Carmen Giménez Smith at the Margaret Root Brown Reading Series last week. My post about the event is here.

Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon began at 7 am CST on Saturday, April 6 and runs through Sunday at 7 am. I'm hoping to read at least some of the stack of eleven books I put together for the 'Thon.




Baking, photography, drawing, happiness, and other projects...

I've downloaded my April Action for Happiness Calendar. You can download or print your own calendar here. 

The Sunday Salon 

Last Sunday I visited Anne's blog, My Head is Full of Books, and I read her post about attending the Michelle Obama book event. I loved hearing her thoughts about the event and Obama's book. I was especially struck with this thought from her blog post: 

"There was a moment during the campaign, which she described in the book, where she was sitting in someone's living room. She looked around at the doilies on the tables. The doilies reminded her of her great-aunt and it was at this point that she realized we are all the same, really. It changed the way she campaigned." 

I worked for the Census Bureau twenty years ago, and I had a similar experience. Being welcomed into people's homes and sitting with them and asking questions and recording their answers was a profound experience for me. Over and over, I told myself that this is what politicians need to do. 

This is what I want for Sunday Salon. I want it to be a place where we can hold little conversations with others, and share our experiences. We can talk about books and speak about the ideas we are thinking about and have a time to talk together. We can, look around and see the doilies on others' tables.

I would encourage you to stop by my blog, Readerbuzz, here and post a link to your blog each week. I hope you can visit other blogs and share your thoughts with others. The Sunday Salon was created twelve years ago to spark conversations, and I hope to do the same by sharing links and visiting others’ blogs. I will keep also the Facebook group for Sunday Salon for the same purpose.

I would be very happy if you would spread the word about the Sunday Salon. Encourage others to post here and/or on Facebook. Post the graphic on social media. 

Other places where you may like to link up are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. If you wish to also post a link at Facebook, you can also do that. My hope is that you will post here and/or at FB and then visit other bloggers. Sunday Salon is to encourage conversations about books and book-ish things.