24in48 Readathon, Dreyer's English, and 3 Good Things

You know what this week has been like. Waiting. Watching. Worrying. 

Let's share.

Dreyer's English by Benjamin Dreyer

"Only godless savages eschew the series comma." "Before we get to what you do use apostrophes for, let's recount what you don't use them for. Step back, I'm about to hit the CAPS LOCK key. DO NOT EVER ATTEMPT TO USE AN APOSTROPHE TO PLURALIZE A WORD. 'NOT EVER' AS IN 'NEVER.' You may reapproach." "Lately one encounters people referring to any full-length book, even a work of nonfiction, as a novel. That has to stop." "...Two Words Where One Will Do... free gift... join together... kneel down... last of all... lesbian woman...Come on, folks. Think." There. That should be a sufficient sample to let you decide if this is the book for you.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

"...life is less like a journey than it is a game of honeymoon bridge. In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions---we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come."

Rules of Civility is the story of Katey Kontent, twenty-five in 1938, child of Russian immigrants, working in a typing pool on Wall Street. She meets many people in that single year, and it is the people she meets and the opportunities they present that create her entire life.

Author Amor Towles has a beautiful way of setting up a scene and then closing the door, leaving the reader to imagine what is going on. He has created bright and entirely human characters, characters who have mysterious pasts and unexpected futures, much like the real people we see and meet every day. Towles captures the world of 1938, uncertain times following uncertain times, in New York City where people can become fast friends in the matter of a few days, and where everyone is in the process of making and remaking their lives with whatever chance brings to bear.

Rules of Civility offers the best things a novel can provide: complete immersion in another world, as well as thoughtful takeaways from the experience.

I'm reading: War and Peace; Gulf: The Making of an American Sea; Pauses for Lent; and Migrations: A Novel.

From the 24in48 Readathon:

And as more and more countries are implementing social distancing recommendations (if not actual quarantines), we decided it was time to find comfort in books and the community that loves them.

Which brings us to the Social Distancing Readathon.

Stay home.

Wash your hands.

Read books.

March 21 & 22.

It's that simple. No prizes. No hourly challenges. No requirements. Just a chance to reconnect with this amazing bookish community (online! no hand sanitizer required!) Read some good books, and talk about them with other readers. Sign up here. 

From Anne Bogel at Modern Mrs. Darcy:

These are wild times. Because of the coronavirus, I’m not leaving town to continue my book tour as planned. Everything is canceled. So here's what we’re doing now. We’re inviting authors whose in-person book events have been disrupted by COVID-19 to join us online for a virtual, stay at home book tour. We’ll keep the format of a bookstore author talk, but we’ll do it online. We’ll do multiple events over multiple days. We won’t do signings or selfies, but we hope to bring the DELIGHT of a good book tour event straight to you, wherever you are. 

We’ll be meeting via the video conferencing platform Zoom. We will email out Zoom invitations to these events several days prior to each event. To participate, click the invitation link to join the discussion. Find out more at Modern Mrs. Darcy.

What other bookish events do you recommend for these times?

We started all meetings off at school by sharing good things. It sounds hokey, but it seems to help me with stress.

So I decided to share 3 Good Things today.

#1 Good Thing

It's the first birthday of my grandson, Wyatt.

I painted this standee for his party. It's huge---8' x 4'. I originally cut out each face so that partygoers could pose for pictures, but, in light of social distancing, I decided to tape the faces in place and make it serve as a sign. It will be just grandparents and parents at the party. 

I probably spent 20+ hours making the sign, but it was oddly therapeutic to paint during these stressful times.

#2 Good Thing 

My son and daughter-in-law in Chicago have taken over the shopping for my daughter-in-law's parents and grandma. Her parents are elderly, her mom has diabetes, and her grandmother (who lives with her parents) is 95 and has dementia.

#3 Good Thing

Brenda at Log Cabin Library sent me her copy of Timmy Failure this week. It's a silly and wacky children's book. Fun. Thank you, Brenda.

Let me leave you with this short video from Ruah Spirituality Center at Villa de Matel in Houston, a retreat and meditation center.

What have you been doing to keep your spirits up 

and to keep up the spirits of those around you?

I'm very happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. There are no real requirements to linking up at Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is simply a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. Sunday Salon is a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• 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 over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below.