French Salons, Clafoutis aux Pêche, and Twenty-One Books Read and Reviewed

Since I finished nothing last week, it is to be expected that I finished a lot this week. But when I say I finished a lot of books, I mean a lot of books. Twenty-one books read and reviewed.

Paris in July Books

Children's Books

Miscellaneous Books

The links below take you to my reviews posted on Goodreads.

Morningstar: Growing Up with Books by Ann Hood

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Barefoot Books Children of the World

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan (cookbook)

Maigret by Georges Simenon (mystery)

No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre (play)

Barefoot Books Solar System (children's book)

Here and There (children's book)

A Place to Stay: A Shelter Story (children's book)

My Hair (children's book)

I'm Worried (children's book)

Barefoot Books World Atlas Sticker Book

The Okay Witch (graphic novel)

Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World (nonfiction)

Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief (mystery)

Catfulness: A Cat's Guide to Achieving Mindfulness

The Emperor of Ice-Cream and Other Poems by Wallace Stevens

The Shortest Way Home

Goodbye Paris

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein

I'm down to four books: Citizen by Claudia Rankine; France in the World: A New Global History edited by Patrick Boucheron; Each Tiny Spark by Pablo Cartaya; and The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne. I am also listening to a collection of Anton Chekhov's short stories, read by Stephen Fry.

Paris in July is almost over, sadly, but what a wonderful time we have had. This week I was delighted to read a post from Lisbeth at The Content Reader about French salons. She shares a definition of salon from Wikipedia as "a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to please or to educate" (Latin: aut delectare aut prodesse)." I'm fascinated with the idea of a salon as a place to either please or educate. That's a goal I would aim for with our Sunday Salon. And I certainly wasn't aware of all the various types of salons. Take a look at Lisbeth's post here.

One of my favorite children's book bloggers has to be Travis at 100 Scope Notes. I was intrigued with his repost of an old favorite, Enthusiasm at the Edges: Thinking Aloud About Book Reviews. Travis ponders whether, because the Zones of Enthusiasm are so alluring, we tend to push our reviews there, to the edges of I-love-this, I hate-this. Do I do that? I wonder.

I was happy to receive two books from Bryan from his Big Five-O Book Giveaway, celebrating his 50th birthday on his blog, Still An Unfinished Person. Claudia Rankine visited Houston last January, so I will be glad to read her book Citizen now that I have heard her speak. I’ve seen many raves about The Heart’s Invisible Furies. Thank you, Bryan!

We loved spending time with family, our two wonderful sons, their beautiful wives, and our two fabulous grandchildren last week. We hope to see our son and daughter-in-law in Chicago again soon.

I made my first clafoutis last week. I shared it on my blog post, Clafoutis aux Pêche (Peach Clafoutis) from Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan.

How was your week?

Did you read any good books? Please share them with us.

What other bookish things did you do? What else is going on in your life?

I'd love to have you to link up here and/or at the Sunday Salon page on Facebook each weekend (Saturday-Sunday-Monday) and let us know what you have been doing. I hope you will visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. If you have other blogging friends, I wish you would invite them to link up here and join us.

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.