Big Wonderful Thing; Kindness December; and Justice

I finished the big wonderful Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas by Stephen Harrigan, weighing in at 925 pages. It was a huge book that touched down briefly to alight on everything-Texas, from the Alamo to Barbara Jordan.  I'm zig-zagged through an audiobook version of Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light, as author David Downie stops by some of the less well-known spots in Paris. I also followed author Alex Kotlowitz into a violent summer in Chicago in An American Summer: Life and Death in Chicago. 

    

I started reading Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Harvard professor Michael J. Sandel during the Thankfully Reading Weekend. It's a wonderful and thoughtful book that carefully considers the ethics of actions, and I was reading along in it quite briskly until Bonnie of Bonnie's Books shared with me the videos of Sandel's lectures at Harvard on Justice, and now I'm reading a little and watching a little and thinking a lot. Thank you, Bonnie.

Just for fun, here's Michael J. Sandel speaking with Stephen Colbert:

I've joined the Thankfully Reading Weekend hosted by Jenn of Jenn's Bookshelves. There are no rules to the weekend; we’re simply hoping to devote a good amount of time to reading, and perhaps meeting some of our reading challenges and goals for the year. We thought it’d be fun if we cheered each other on a bit. If you think you can join in, grab the button and sign up here.

And, just for fun, I created a Thankfully Reading BINGO game. To add a little excitement, I'm offering a $25 gift card to Book Depository to one person who plays and links up on my blog. Again, there are no real rules with the BINGO game; do as little or as much as you want. Join in until Sunday, December 1 at the end of the day CST.

Here are the Nonfiction November posts I wrote for the month:

Nonfiction November: The Kinds of Nonfiction I Like Best (Plus My Absolute Favorite Top Ten Nonfiction Books)

Nonfiction November: My Year in Nonfiction (So Far)

Nonfiction November: Fiction / Nonfiction Book Pairing: Moby Dick, In the Heart of the Sea and Other Assorted Fiction and Nonfiction About Moby Dick

Nonfiction November: Be the Expert: Books About Nature 

Nonfiction November: 100+ Nonfiction Books I Want to Read.

I've read 197 out of 222 Cybils picture books and board books. Books are arriving daily. It still feels like I have a lot to read, with 25 more books to go.

Here is the December Action for Happiness calendar, the Kindness Calendar. Download your own Kindness Calendar here. 

We've turned the corner into the busy lane of the year, haven't we? I read and reviewed Easy Cake Cookbook last week, and it has perfect easy recipes for cakes that you can make about as quickly as you can pop into the grocery, find a cake, and buy it. I imagine I'll be using it a lot in the next few weeks.

I'm very happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. I am delighted when you link up here and let us know what you have been doing. I hope you will visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about here:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

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. 

The Thankfully Reading Weekend: A Few Days of Relaxing Reading Plus a $25 Gift Card Giveaway

It's the Thankfully Reading Weekend hosted by Jenn of Jenn's Bookshelves. 

There are no rules to the weekend; we’re simply hoping to devote a good amount of time to reading, and perhaps meeting some of our reading challenges and goals for the year. We thought it’d be fun if we cheered each other on a bit.We’ll also be checking in on Twitter and Instagram using hashtag #thankfullyreading. Join in for the weekend or for only a single day. No rules, no pressure! If you think you can join in, grab the button and sign up here.

I'm excited to spend a few days reading, relaxing, and maybe nibbling on a little bit of turkey and pie. Just for fun, I created a Thankfully Reading Weekend Tic-Tac-Toe Game. 

Want to join me in playing? Start any time. Do as much or as little as you like. Talk about it on your blog (or Twitter or wherever you like to talk books) as little or as much as you like. When you are finished (with a square, a row, or all the squares) link up here and throw your name into the hat to win a $25 gift card from Book Depository. The BINGO game Linky will be open from November 27th through the end of the day CST December 1, and it is open to anyone in the world who can receive books from Book Depository. 

WEDNESDAY

What are my plans to celebrate Thankfully Reading Weekend? I have a lovely stack of nonfiction books, both from the library and from my own shelves, that I will have to choose from this weekend. I'll be cooking and visiting family as well. 

I'm printing out my BINGO board and I'm hoping to do a blackout.

Now where to start?!

THURSDAY

I've finished the picture book Extinct: An Illustrated Exploration of Animals that Have Disappeared and mourned the loss of these beautiful and unique animals from our world, and then I moved on yesterday, amid the baking of the rolls and the Bailey's Irish Cream Bundt Cake, and read Alex Kotlowitz's deeply moving book, An American Summer: Life and Death in Chicago. I feel like I want to read something light, but I feel moved to go on to read Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael J. Sandel.

Bonnie, of Bonnie's Books, saw that I began reading Justice late this afternoon. She shared with me a link to author Michael Sandel's series of lectures that inspired the book. It has been fun reading a chapter and then watching a lecture.

FRIDAY

Midday, I'm about halfway through with Justice and about halfway through with the series of lectures by author Michael J. Sandel. 

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY

I'm still reading Justice, and I also started Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Helligman.

Follow-up: I had nine entries to my Thankfully Reading BINGO contest. My husband chose a number between 1 and 9, and he picked 7. The winner is Bonnie of Bonnie's Books! Congratulations!

Easy Cake Cookbook: 75 Sinfully Simple Recipes for Bake-and-Eat Cakes by Miranda Couse

The Easy Cake Cookbook arrived in my mailbox a few days ago. Perfect timing. I always need to make a cake quickly. Now I can.

Now, which cake to make? It's satsuma season around here, and I'd just had my friend and my dad bring me a bag of these lovelies. So maybe an orange cake?

Orange Coffee Cake it is then. A simple cake with a topping. Yum. Sounds good. Here's the recipe:

ORANGE COFFEE CAKE

From Easy Cake Cookbook by Miranda Couse

FOR THE CRUMB TOPPING:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1/4 teaspoon salt

FOR THE CAKE:

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) butter, melted

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

3 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup pulp-free orange juice

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with nonstick baking spray. Set aside.

2. For the topping, in a medium bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the flour, butter, sugars, orange zest, and salt together until the butter is well incorporated and the topping looks like wet sand. Set aside.

3. For the cake, in a large bowl, using the mixer on medium speed, beat the melted butter, sugar, sour cream, orange zest, and vanilla together until well combined. Add the eggs and beat until worked into the batter. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.

4. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients and orange juice to the large bowl in multiple additions, alternating back and forth between the two, starting and ending with the flour mixture and beating on medium speed. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and stir in any unmixed bits of batter with a spatula.

5. Spread the batter into the prepared baking pan with a spatula. Sprinkle the crumb topping on top of the batter, evenly distributing it. Baking until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 44 to 50 minutes.

6. Let the cake cool completely before serving. Cut into three strips lengthwise, then four strips widthwise, for 12 servings.

And it was easy. Easy-peasy. 

Hmmm, I can hear you saying. I don't see anything about icing in the recipe. What's going on here?

Well, it was easy, but for some reason I missed the part about using a 9-by-13-inch baking pan, and I tried to pour the batter (it fit, but barely) into a round cake pan, and then put the topping over it. I was worried (rightly, it turns out) when I put the cake pan into the oven about what was going to happen when the topping began to melt in the heat inside. (I am sure you have a picture in your mind.)

About ten minutes in, I checked on things and saw, to my horror, that the cake was dripping over the edges of the pan. Eek. I was ranting about the cookbook and how the author needed to test her recipes until I took a closer look at the recipe and realized my mistake. I took the whole mess outside and poured everything, cake and topping, into a baking pan, and mixed it all together. It actually baked well though it was the devil to get out of the pan. I decided to save the whole thing by using a cookie cutter to cut out circles from the cake and covering everything in a buttercream icing.

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.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Thankful: Six Books that Have Changed My Life

I'm going to say thank you to books today.

Thank you, books, for changing my life.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance changed the way I looked at the world. Completely. Totally. 

I was taught by school to rely on science. Suddenly here was this fellow, this scientist, Robert M. Pirsig, telling me that it is equally important to rely on your intuition, that it was important to do both, use science and use intuition, at the same time. I also saw how Pirsig, a very bright and clever fellow, lost his way when he overthought things. Pirsig tried to define something he came to call Quality, which we can roughly think of as the excellence in things, the good. 

”What is good, Phædrus, and what is not good—need we ask anyone to tell us these things?”

”The Good was not a form of reality. It was reality itself, ever changing, ultimately unknowable in any kind of fixed, rigid way.”

“Man is not the source of all things, as the subjective idealists would say. Nor is he the passive observer of all things, as the objective idealists and materialists would say. The Quality which creates the world emerges as a relationshipbetween man and his experience. He is a participant in the creation of all things. The measure of all things—it fits.“

”I think that if we are going to reform the world, and make it a better place to live in, the way to do it is not with talk about relationships of a political nature, which are inevitably dualistic, full of subjects and objects and their relationship to one another; or with programs full of things for other people to do. I think that kind of approach starts it at the end and presumes the end is the beginning. Programs of a political nature are important end products of social quality that can be effective only if the underlying structure of social values is right. The social values are right only if the individual values are right. The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there. Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle.”

ZAMM has always been my go-to book when I am confused about the world or feeling anxiety about life. Time for ZAMM reread, I think to myself, and I head back to the book, and everything falls into place again.

Material World: A Global Family Portrait is the project of photographer Peter Menzel. Menzel traveled all around the world, found a family typical of a country, and photographed each family in front of the family’s home, with all the possessions of the family brought out in front of the house.

No one could read Material World and not become aware of the disparities between peoples.

It’s one chapter I was especially drawn to in Studs Terkel’s masterpiece, Working. Terkel was a journalist who interviewed people and recorded their answers. In Working, Terkel asks questions about the work people do. Most people seemed to find their work as something separate from themselves. But one person, a person working as a waitress, Dolores Dante, described her work as her expression of herself, serving people in a manner to make people have an excellent experience at her restaurant. I read that chapter and I read it again and I read it again, and I decided to make my work in the world like that of the waitress, a creative and deeply felt act. (Terkel's interview with Dante is on page 389 here, if you'd like to read it for yourself.)

Natalie Goldberg had the revelation that changed her life when she saw a small book of poetry called Fruits and Vegetables by Erica Jong at a bookstore. “You mean you can write about something like that?” Goldberg asked herself. And then she shared that with us in Writing Down the Bones, and I felt transformed.

I read Civility by Stephen L. Carter long, long ago, and I don’t even know how I stumbled upon it or why in the world I picked it up to read, but I’ve never forgotten this wonderful book about the simple way we should all be speaking to each other in our democracy. If I was in charge of the world, I’d make this assigned reading for a few prominent people who run our country and most of the people on Twitter.

Be Happy: A Little Book to Help You Live a Happy Life by Monica Sheehan is a picture book for adults, advice with a cartoon to remind you of everything you need to do to be happy.

"Face your fears."

"Want what you have."

"Read books." Of course.

I'd love to hear about the books that have changed your life.

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.

Nonfiction November: 100+ Nonfiction Books I Want to Read

Nonfiction November is hosted this year by Julie (JulzReads), Sarah (Sarah’s Book Shelves), Katie (Doing Dewey), Rennie (What’s Nonfiction) — is a month-long celebration of everything nonfiction. Each week, they’ll be a different prompt and a different host looking at different ideas about reading and loving nonfiction.

Week 5 (Nov. 26 to Nov. 30)

New to my TBR (Hosted by Rennie at What’s Nonfiction?)
It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book!


What nonfiction have I added this month to my TBR?
Are you ready for this ridiculously long list of books I'm determined to track down and read? To simplify things, I'm sorting the nonfiction by themes. Thank you for sharing your favorites with me this month! 

Art/Creativity/Poetry

The Point of Poetry: How Poetry Can Teach Us About the Things in Life Which Really Matter by Joe Nutt, recommended by Rather Too Fond of Books.

The Pursuit of Art: Travels, Encounters, Revelations by Martin Gayford, recommended by Adventures in Reading, Running, and Working from Home.

Books-about-Books

Books That Saved My Life: Reading For Wisdom, Solace and Pleasure by Michael McGirr, recommended by Brona's Books.

Packing My Library: An Elegy and Ten Digressions by Alberto Manguel, recommended by Words and Peace.

Food

Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef's Journey to Discover America's New Melting-Pot Cuisine by Edward Lee, recommended by Based on a True Story

Eight Flavors: The Untold Stories of American Cuisine by Sarah Lohman, recommended by What's Nonfiction.

Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love, and Food by Ann Hood, recommended by Unruly Reader and Gulfside Musing.

More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin, recommended by What's Nonfiction?

A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression by Jane Ziegelman, recommended by Gulfside Musing.

History

Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves by Adam Hochschild, recommended by Just One More Page.

The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin, recommended by Still Life, with Cracker Crumbs.

Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny by Witold Szablowski, recommended by What's Nonfiction.

Escape from Paris: A True Story of Love and Resistance in Wartime France by Stephen Harding, recommended by JulzReads.

Expeditions Unpacked: What the Great Explorers Took Into the Unknown by Ed Stafford, recommended by JulzReads.

Forty Autumns: A Family’s Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall by Nina Willner, recommended by JulzReads and Novel Visits.

The Hidden Places of World War II: The Extraordinary Sites Where History Was Made During the War That Saved Civilization by Jerome M. O’Connor, recommended by JulzReads.

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff, recommended by Sarah's Bookshelves, Tina Says, TBR, Etc., and Novel Visits.

Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved, and Died Under Nazi Occupation by Anne Sebba, recommended by The Paperback Princess.

Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich, recommended by Maphead's Book Blog.

Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men After the First World War by Victoria Nicholson, recommended by Books Please.

When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940-1944 by Ronald Rossbottom, recommended by TBR, Etc.

Memoir/Biography

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, recommended by Bookishly Boisterous, The Lowrey Library, and Read All the Things.

Educated by Tara Westover, recommended by The Cozy Reading Nook, Orange County Readers, The Lowrey Library, and An Adventure in Reading.

I Miss You When I Blink: Essays by Mary Laura Philpott, recommended by Mind Joggle, Tina Says, Reading Ladies' Book Club, and Sarah's Bookshelves.

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro, recommended by Gulfside Musing and Reading Ladies' Book Club,

Kick: The True Story of JFK's Sister and the Heir to Chatsworth by Paula Byrne, recommended by The Paperback Princess.

Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan, recommended by Sincerely Stacie.

Wine Girl: The Obstacles, Humiliations, and Triumphs of America's Youngest Sommelier by Victoria James, recommended by TBR, Etc.

Miscellaneous

Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner, recommended by NancyElin.

Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise by Katherine Rundell, recommended by Reading With Jade.

Science/Nature

21st Century Yokel by Tom Cox, recommended by Cracker Crumb Life.

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Franz de Waal, recommended by Maphead's Book Blog.

Around the World in 80 Trees by Jonathan Drori, recommended by Superfluous Reading.

The Armchair Birder: Discovering the Secret Lives of Familiar Birds by John Yow, recommended by Words and Peace.

City of Trees by Sophie Cunningham, recommended by Brona's Books.

Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer, recommended by An Adventure in Reading.

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach, recommended by An Adventure in Reading.

The Hidden World of the Fox by Adele Brand, recommended by Book Dilettante.

How to Raise a Wild Child: The Art and Science of Falling in Love with Nature by Scott D. Sampson, recommended by Still Life With Cracker Crumbs.

Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds by Olivia Gentile, recommended by Words and Peace.

Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces that Make Us Who We Are by Bill Sullivan, recommended by JulzReads and What's Nonfiction?

Rewild Yourself: 23 Spells for Making Hidden Things Visible by Simon Barnes, recommended by Still Life With Cracker Crumbs.

Rewild Yourself: Becoming Nature by Rachel Corby, recommended by Still Life With Cracker Crumbs.

The Source: The Secrets of the Universe, the Science of the Brain by Tara Swart, recommended by Orange County Readers.

Superlative: The Biology of Extremes by Matthew D. LaPlante, recommended by Superfluous Reading.

Tamed: Ten Species That Changed Our World by Alice Roberts, recommended by Kate Vane.

Twelve Patients: Life and Death in Bellevue Hospital by Eric Mannheimer, recommended by Hopewell's Public Library of Life.

Vitamin N: 500 Ways to Enrich the Health and Happiness of Your Family and Your Community by Richard Louv, recommended by Still Life With Cracker Crumbs.

Where the Hornbeam Grows: A Journey in Search of a Garden by Beth Lynch, recommended by What Cathy Read Next.

The Wild Remedy: How Nature Mends Us - A Diary by Emma Mitchell, recommended by Reading With Jade.

The World of the Salt Marsh: Appreciating and Protecting the Tidal Marshes of the Southeastern Atlantic Coast by Charles Seabrook, recommended by The Cozy Reading Nook.

Why Birds Sing: A Journey into the Mystery of Bird Song by David Rothenberg, recommended by Words and Peace.

Self-Help/Happiness/Health

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker, recommended by Unruly Reader.

Any Ordinary Day: Blindsides, Resilience, and What Happens After the Worst Day of Your Life by Leigh Sales, recommended by Brona's Books.

Bird Therapy by Joe Harkness, recommended by Rather Too Fond of Books.

Create Calm by Kate James, recommended by Brona's Books.

The Dark Side of the Mind: True Stories from My Life as a Forensic Psychologist by Kerry Daynes, recommended by Rather Too Fond of Books.

The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz, recommended by Books Are My Favourite and Best.

The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 by Jonathan Rauch, recommended by Howling Frog Books.

Home Sweet Maison: The French Art of Making a Home by Danielle Postel-Vinay, recommended by Unruly Reader.

How to Eat Better: Simple Science to Supercharge Your Nutrition by James Wong, recommended by louloureads.

Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy by Irvin Yalom, recommended by Books Are My Favourite and Best.

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig, recommended by Beverley A Baird.

Small Wrongs: How We Really Say Sorry in Love, Life, and Law by Kate Rossmanith, recommended by Books Are My Favourite and Best.

The Talking Cure: Normal People, Their Hidden Struggles, and the Life-Changing Power of Therapy by Gillian Straker and Jacqui Winship, recommended by Books Are My Favourite and Best.

Welcoming the Unwelcomed by Pema Chödrön, recommended by Lovely Bookshelf 

Simplicity

Bohemian Living: Creative Homes Around the World by Robyn Lea, recommended by Brona's Books.

Chasing Slow: The Courage to Journey Off the Beaten Path by Erin Loechner, recommended by Monica Baker.

Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have by Tatiana Schlossberg, recommended by Reading the End.

Mini-Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre by Brett L. Markham, recommended by Based on a True Story

Social Issues

Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News by Kevin Young, recommended by Plucked From the Stacks.

Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, recommended by NancyElin.

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy, recommended by BermudaOnion's Weblog.

Factfulness: Ten Reasons Why We're Wrong About the World---And Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, recommended by Silver Button Books.

Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. Chung, recommended by Hopewell's Public Library of Life.

Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal by Alexandra Natapoff, recommended by Reading the End.

Teacher: One Woman's Struggle to Keep the Heart in Teaching by Gabbie Stroud, recommended by NancyElin.

The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes Us or Breaks Us by Paul Tough, recommended by Tina Says.

Spirituality/Philosophy

Church of the Small Things: The Million Little Pieces That Make Up a Life by Melanie Shankle, recommended by The Cozy Reading Nook.

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, recommended by Lisa Notes.

Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again by Rachel Held Evans, recommended by The Lowrey Library

My Bright Abyss: A Spiritual Meditation by Christian Wiman, recommended by Words and Peace.

A Prayer Journal by Flannery O'Connor, recommended by The Lowrey Library

The Problem of God: Answering a Skeptic's Challenges to Christianity by Mark Clark, recommended by Never Enough Novels.

Searching For Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church by Rachel Held Evans, recommended by The Bookworm Chronicles

The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe by Richard Rohr, recommended by Monica Baker.

Travel

Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez, recommended by Reading With Jade.

Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000 Mile Adventure by Monisha Rajesh, recommended by Reading With Jade.

Bitter Lemons of Cyprus by Lawrence Durrell, recommended by Books Please.

Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found on the Mississippi Delta by Richard Grant, recommended by Adventures in Reading, Running, and Working from Home.

In Foreign Fields: How Not to Move to France by Susie Kelly, recommended by Superfluous Reading.

In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin, recommended by For Book Lovers and Random People.

Letters from Iceland by W. H. Auden and Louis MacNeice, recommended by Adventures in Reading, Running, and Working from Home.

Library of Ice: Readings from a Cold Climate by Nancy Campbell, recommended by Adventures in Reading, Running, and Working from Home.

Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland by Sarah Moss, recommended by Rather Too Fond of Books.

The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World: Twin Towers, Windows on the World, and the Rebirth of New York by Tom Roston, recommended by Musings of a Literary Wanderer

The Salt Path: A Memoir by Raynor Winn, recommended by For Book Lovers and Random People.

Travels on Horseback Through Eastern Turkey by Christina Dodwell, recommended by Adventures in Reading, Running, and Working from Home.

Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert MacFarlane, recommended by Doing Dewey.

Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches by John Hodgman, recommended by What's Nonfiction.

What did you add to your TBR this month?

Did I miss any good titles? Is that even possible?!