Reading Poldark, My Computer on the Blink, and I'm Off to an Antiques Weekend

 Speaking American: How Y'all, Youse, and You Guys Talk, A Visual Guide by Josh Katz

Even Darkness Sings from Auschwitz to Hiroshima: Finding Hope in the Saddest Places on Earth by Thomas H. Cook

You can tell a good bit about my tv and movie preferences from a quick look at what I'm reading this week.

The Classics Club Spin fell on 5, and that means I shall be reading The Essential Rumi. That's ideal for me, as I have a copy of this book on my Kindle and I can linger over it through the spin time period that runs through the month of October. Perfect.

I shamelessly bragged last week about all the books I nominated for the Cybils that were either finalists or winners here. I'm working on my list of books to nominate this year. Have you made your list? The nominations open on October 1.

My computer keyboard on my Mac went down for the count and I had to pay a visit to the Apple store. Happily, it turns out that the keyboard is subject to a recall. But I have to wait until the part comes in for it to be fixed. I've been forced to blog this week on an old computer that has none of my important things saved on it. Frustrating.

It's antiques time in Warrenton, Texas, and I'm hoping to spend quite a bit of time visiting booths and enjoying country life over the next two weekends. Getting to the antiques fair can be a bit of a hassle, though....

What was your week like?

Did you read any good books? Tell us about them.

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

We'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, it would be wonderful if you'd tell others about our salon and encourage them to 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. 

It's (Almost) Time for 2019 Cybils Nominations!

It's almost time for nominations to be made for the 2019 Cybils. Nominations for the Cybils will open here on October 1st.

I love nominating good books for the Cybils. I spend a lot of time each year making up my list, and I set my alarm for early in the morning on October 1st so I can nominate my favorites each year.

I'm proud to say that I have nominated thirteen books that were chosen as finalists and three chosen as winners over the years. I've had finalists or winners in all of these categories: Poetry (2); Teen/Junior High Nonfiction (3); Young Adult Fiction; Easy Reader (3); Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction (2); Fiction Picture Books; and Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction. Here are the books I nominated that were either finalists or winners.

2018 Cybils Finalist: Junior High Nonfiction: 

Apollo 8: The Mission that Changed Everything by Martin W. Sandler

2018 Cybils Finalist and Winner: Poetry: 

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

2017 Cybils Finalist: Young Adult Fiction: 

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

2016 Cybils Finalist: Easy Reader: 

Elephant and Piggie Love Reading: We Are Growing by Laurie Keller

2016 Cybils Finalist: Junior High Nonfiction:

Bubonic Plague: When Plague Invaded America by Gail Jarrow

2016 Cybils Finalist and Winner: Middle Grade Nonfiction:

Some Writer! The Story of E. B. White by Melissa Sweet

2014 Cybils Finalist: Easy Reader:

My New Friend is So Fun by Mo Willems

2014 Cybils Finalist: Poetry:

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

2013 Cybils Finalist: Elementary/Middle-Grade Nonfiction:

Locomotive by Brian Floca

2013 Cybils Finalist and Winner: Fiction Picture Books:

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown

2012 Cybils Finalist: Easy Reader:

Bink and Golly: Two for One by Kate DiCamillo

2012 Cybils Finalist: Middle/Teen Nonfiction:

Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson

2010 Cybils Finalist: Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction:

Dragonbreath: Attack of the Ninja Frogs by Ursula Vernon

I'm working on my list for 2019. I wonder if any of these books will be finalists or winners.

Have you nominated Cybils in the past? Have any of your nominations been finalists or winners? Have you made up your list of nominations for 2019? Here is a list of categories. You can nominate a book for each category:

• Early Chapter Books
• Easy Readers
• Fiction Picture Books & Board Books
• Graphic Novels
  • Elementary/Middle-Grade
  • Young Adult
• Middle-Grade Fiction
• Nonfiction
  • Elementary/Middle Grade
  • Junior High/Senior High
• Poetry
• Speculative Fiction
  • Elementary/Middle-Grade
  • Young Adult
• Young Adult Fiction

Hiking in Utah: Antelope Canyon, Page, Arizona

We leave Utah for Antelope Canyon in Page, Arizona on Labor Day. Many people have recommended a hike into this famous slot canyon. The only way to visit Antelope Canyon is with a Native American guide, as the canyon is on a Native American reservation.

One photograph taken here in Antelope Canyon by Peter Lik in 2014, a black-and-white photo named Phantom, is believed to be the most expensive photograph in the world, selling for 6.5 million dollars. You can take your own million dollar photo at Antelope Canyon. Every photo is a million dollar photo.

Our guide is Leland Yellowfeather. He helps us take many beautiful pictures.

There have been many flash floods in Antelope Canyon. Flash floods are dangerous in slot canyons. Here's a video from a flash flood in 2013. We are glad we did not see this video before we visited Antelope Canyon.

Antelope Canyon Hike Statistics:

Monday, September 2, 2019

Page, Arizona

Antelope Canyon Upper Loop

.25 mi.

120 ft. deep

1 hr. 

Easy

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by A Web of Stories. 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 A Web of Stories.

What I Shall Be Reading This Fall

I'll mostly be reading a huge stack of fiction picture books, between 200 to 300, this fall. It’s Cybils time and I’ll be serving as a Cybils judge again for my twelfth year.

But I also hope to get around to some of these. Which ones look good to you?

  

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (read and reviewed)

She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment StoryThat Helped Ignite a Movement

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

The Water Dancer by Ta-nehisi Coates

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Don't You Forget About Me by Mhairi MacFarlane

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.