Saturday, September 12, 2020

Dragon Hoops, Vesper Flights, Good Blood, and the Return of the Hummingbirds



We've watched the terrible wildfires along the west coast this week. Keeping all of you in our thoughts and prayers.





My best reads of the week were all nonfiction: Dragon Hoops, Vesper Flights, and Good Blood. For my full review of these, follow the links below.

Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang
Gene Luen Yang tells the true story of the attempt of the basketball team at the high school where he works to win the state championship in this new ...more

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald
In her introduction, author Helen Macdonald hopes Vesper Flights will serve as a Wunderkammer, a Cabinet of Curiosities, a cabinet of wonders. And it is...more

Good Blood by Julian Guthrie
News is usually bad news, and nonfiction is often more of the same. But Good Blood is different: Good Blood is good news. Good Blood is the story of a doctor...more






War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy...76% read
Devotions by Mary Oliver...59% read
How to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life...42% read
The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You...24% read
1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List by James Mustich...3% read






The Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Plans have been made to make the reading series virtual this year, of course, so, sadly, I will not be joining friends in Houston for dinner and then enjoying the authors together in person this year. Instead, the nine authors will read from their books and talk about their books virtually. A season ticket this year includes five of the authors' books, mailed to the subscriber a week after the event; that is a lovely perk this year. And who will be part of the reading series this year? Marilynne Robinson. Julia Alvarez. Nick Hornby. Viet Thanh Nguyen. Jerico Brown. Yaa Gyasi. Lily King. Chang-Rae Lee. Sigrid Nunez. What a lineup! For more information, take a look here.


I wrote two book-related posts this week:


Books for My Younger Self, in which I shared books from the science fiction reading phase of my life.

1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List by James Mustich, in which I take on (another!) long-term challenge.

I also shared some of the live oak trees I see each day on my early morning walk:






1. The hummingbirds are back!
2. My dad and his wife came over for a wonderful visit on the front porch.
Then we got to see my son and daughter-in-law and our grandkids in a from-the-car visit.
3. First cool front of the year. The high was only 88 degrees. Glorious.


How did your week go?






I'm very happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. I hope you will 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.

56 comments:

  1. Hummingbirds are delightful, I’ve got a robin that keeps me happy!

    It’s getting cooler here too, it was near freezing when my husband went to work.

    That’s great you where able to see family, I miss proper family gatherings.

    We have new restrictions are about to come in to place to limit gatherings so I think a proper family reunion is a long way off still.

    Have a good week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We are a long way from freezing, but it has been great to see the temperatures drop a bit.

      Delete
  2. What a good batch of books -- and so many wonderful things this week. I'm so glad you are able to be with your family!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Excellent review of Vesper Flights. I, too, am enjoying the (somewhat) cooler weather.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Interesting books. I hope you enjoy them and have a great week!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm currently listening to Vesper Flights, and so enjoying it! Have a nice weekend

    ReplyDelete
  6. Outside, socially distanced visits are so important right now for our sanity! We have quite a lot of migratory birds coming around our feeders so that's fun. And, Dragon Hoops was wonderful; so glad you liked it

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love watching hummingbirds. Yay for a visit.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Deb! I only saw your Books to my younger self post now. Love it!

    Glad you had some visits and visitors. We've been quite social the last couple of weeks and it makes me happy.

    I'm still in awe for the 1000 books you need to read before you die. But I do believe we'll be quite amazed to see how many we have actually read.

    Hope you will have a good week with good hair days! (Read my post, you'll understand)

    Lots of love,

    Elza & Mareli
    The Sunday Post #11

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We are going to try a real life get together for book club this week.

      Delete
  9. We are going to venture out for a meal with family on the 24th. I checked with them to make sure they are not running around mixing with everyone and anyone!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sounds like a wonderful week! I have yet to enjoy visits with people outside this place...but we are going to the dining room again.

    Loving my books and watching streaming shows everyday. I am addicted! LOL

    Have a great week!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nonfiction books are some of my favorite books. I always have a few on hand that I read ongoing in between my fiction ones. Is that you dressed like Lea? Love that you revisited a phase in your teen life! Sci-fi was not my thing when I was a teen but I liked it later in life.

    I love book lists too! I start my own challenges all the time but I lack time what with working full time and with two teens still in the house. Maybe when I retire I will be able to make it through all my lists!

    ReplyDelete
  12. My week was pretty great. I forgot to mention I went to Chicago and it was pretty great to see some of the leaves changing during the six hour ride.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've never seen leaves changing except for photos on blogs.

      Delete
  13. That is an amazing author lineup! I'm sorry you don't get to attend in person this year but at leaat the organizers are still trying to make it a nice event. Yay for family visits, even socially-distanced ones! I'm glad you're cooling off a bit there! We're getting smoke from the wildfires, which is making it very cool and dark here. I don't think we've gotten above 65 since Wednesday. I imagine that makes things a bit easier for the firefighters so I won't complain. It's so funny to see you excited to see the hummingbirds when all my friends back home are sad they're leaving! I don't have a feeder here so I only see them occasionally when we're hiking. I hadn't noticed they'd left. Enjoy your week!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is funny. It reminds me that my gain is often another's loss.

      Delete
  14. That is an amazing author lineup! I'm sorry you don't get to attend in person this year but at leaat the organizers are still trying to make it a nice event. Yay for family visits, even socially-distanced ones! I'm glad you're cooling off a bit there! We're getting smoke from the wildfires, which is making it very cool and dark here. I don't think we've gotten above 65 since Wednesday. I imagine that makes things a bit easier for the firefighters so I won't complain. It's so funny to see you excited to see the hummingbirds when all my friends back home are sad they're leaving! I don't have a feeder here so I only see them occasionally when we're hiking. I hadn't noticed they'd left. Enjoy your week!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Adding Good Blood to my TBR. Are the hummingbirds coming your way from the north. What type visit your feeder? Our poor little Anna's Hummingbirds are having to put up with very smokey air.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I think the hummingbirds are headed toward Mexico and Central America. One of my neighbors shares photos of hummingbirds via a group email on some days. He has taken photos of Black-Chinned, Ruby-Throated, and Rufous Hummingbirds in recent days.

      Delete
  16. I thought of you during my daughter's friend's Zoom Parisian Birthday Tea Party this morning. It was really cute. Her other friend's tea party birthday is going to be Anne of Green Gables--that's this afternoon.

    I love hummingbirds! I am so glad you have some visiting you. I am also glad you were able to get together with family, even if from a distance. You should have seen us yesterday when my daughter's friend and her parents dropped off the bags for today's virtual tea party--we were all outside waving and smiling and so happy to see each other after all these months. I'm not a hugging person generally, but I wish I could have hugged them all.

    I hope you have a great week! Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes, a Parisian Birthday Tea Party! That sounds like a party I'd have loved to attend.

      Delete
  17. I hardly ever see hummingbirds around here but I get excited when I do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think I need to get a couple more hummingbird feeders.

      Delete
  18. I'm glad you got your cool front! We had a little bit of a warming trend, but unfortunately that also brought high winds and very low humidity. The wildfires have been terrible and we were on high alert this past week. I'm planning to share a post about it later today. The good news is that our hummingbirds have returned, too. They have been very busy in spite of the smoky air.

    ReplyDelete
  19. What a relief that the weather is finally cooling down for you:)). And how lovely to get to see family members - even if it is socially distant... And what a bonus to have hummingbirds in your lives. Wishing you more hummingbird goodness in your life during the coming week.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I love hummingbirds and am really missing birds in general this season! We live in the middle of downtown in a 10th floor apartment and there aren't many birds to be seen - only the occasional pigeon which doesn't count! The family visits sound lovely! I have A Novel Cure on my TBR. It sounds like it would provide some entertaining choices.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Was it your son who lives in Chicago? Did they travel there? That's great to visit. I hope to read Vesper Flights sometime. I too like hummingbirds ... and put up a feeder up at my parent's place. 88 degrees seems pretty hot to me. it's just 59 here today in the afternoon!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, we haven't gotten to see my son in Chicago and his wife for months. We'd planned a trip there for the spring, but that was cancelled. We miss them so much.

      Delete
  22. What good things, to be able to read, and read about reading, and visit family. Hope you have a blessed and beautiful week ahead!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Love this week's good things.. I am definitely seeing more hummingbirds as well now.. just not close enough to capture them by camera ..
    And those books sound like books I need to read (each one of them!)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Nice looking bunch of books. I'm glad you are still getting in family visits. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
  25. we are having a tropical storm running through and we are never quite sure of what we will have. so far a bit of wind i'm not sure is even strong even to knock off dead tree branches and a bit of rain. sounds like you had a good week
    sherry @ fundinmental

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh gosh, yes, I saw you've got a storm coming through. Stay safe.

      Delete
  26. I enjoyed my week off last week but I found it harder to be productive than when I use to not work from home.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I've been participating in the 1000 Books Before You Die challenge as well with another blogger friend. It got a bit sidetracked on my end with the pandemic hitting but I hope to make it up somewhere along the way! Glad you were able to get some cooler weather your way!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I should take a closer look to see what others are doing with the challenge. Right now I'm trying to go back and write reviews for books I read long ago.

      Delete
  28. I have that same hummingbird feeder! I love seeing the itty bitty birds. I hope you have a good week!

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Yay for visits - we have to take them as we can right now! And yay for hummingbirds! They are so darn cute!

    ReplyDelete
  30. The hummingbirds visit my Mexican Petunias outside my back door regularly. I can sit in my chair and watch them. II'm glad you feed them.

    ReplyDelete

I hope you will leave a comment so I know you have visited. If you stop by my blog, I will always stop by yours.

Note: Disqus commenting is only available on the web version of the blog. Please switch to the web version if you are using a mobile device.