Still Coughing, Mildred D. Taylor Books, and Free Library Cards

I'm still coughing, but I have (hopefully) turned a corner this week and I'm coughing much less. I'm still not sure what I had (or have) but I'm trying to do all the things I've seen suggested for getting well. I'm staying away from others, of course, but I'm also eating citrus, taking an elderberry supplement, taking a Cold-Eze tablet each day, finishing my antibiotic, getting outside each day for a shot of sunshine, and drinking lots of hot water with lemon. 

Anyone else have any home remedies for a cold or the flu? 

The first time I read Mildred D. Taylor's Newberry-winning novel, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, I almost wept. Taylor's story is based on stories of her father and his extended family in Mississippi in the 1930s. The story is set on a farm that the family just manages to keep going during the difficult times of the Great Depression, with the father and mother both working additional jobs in order to keep their land. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry sounded like the stories my dad told of his growing up years in north Louisiana, not thirty miles from where Roll of Thunder takes place, but with one key difference: the Logans were black and my dad's family was white. I felt compelled to question my dad about the differences. Did the white children have a bus that took them to their white school while the black children walked, often miles, to school? Yes, my dad told me, that was true. Were black adults made to defer to white children on the sidewalks of town? Yes, again my dad said that was true. Were black people generally under the control of the white plantation owners on which they were sharecroppers? Yes, true again. And on and on. I was shocked.

All the Days Past, All the Days to Come by Mildred D. Taylor takes place just before and during my own childhood, and I could remember hearing about the efforts of black people to be allowed full equality with whites, by lunch counter sit-ins and voting test preparations and bus rides through the south. This time, though, I was sitting at the counter with Cassie, facing white restaurant owners refusing to serve her, and I was with Cassie preparing black friends to take grueling voting tests on which blacks were quizzed about details of the Mississippi Constitution and I was riding in a car with Cassie and just ahead was a white roadblock, with men who held guns and had the power to take Cassie and me to jail on a whim.

You can't read this story and not be changed.

The Houston Public Library is currently offering free library cards to anyone in Texas. (Non-Texas residents may purchase a one-year membership for $40.) Through Hoopla and Overdrive, I've been able to find just about everything I'd like to read. Of course, there are long lines for the ebooks on Overdrive as these can only be checked out one at a time. I'm reading books as they come in for me at Overdrive.

I celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day with a listing of all my favorite nature books for adults and for children: The 50th Anniversary of Earth Day: Books You Might Like to Read Now.

In my quest to read all of the 1001 Children's Books, I have run up against many obstacles, and this week I posed the question, Does It Count? Yes or No, to you, asking for help in resolving difficulties I've had in deciding whether I have truly read a book or not.

The City Nature Challenge 2020 is a citizen science project taking place all around the world. It begins on Friday, April 24 and runs through Monday, April 27. It is open to adults, teens, and children, and it is designed to find and document wild plant life and wild animal life using an easy phone app called iNaturalist. If you'd like to find out more or join in, take a look here.

1. I'm coughing less.

2. I haven't had to go to the doctor's office.

3. My husband hasn't gotten sick.

Thank you for coming to the Sunday Salon. There are no real requirements for linking up at Sunday Salon. 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.

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