Saturday, August 8, 2020

The Reverse Readathon; Two Great Podcasts; and Matchy-Matchy Sisters




Paris in July is over for another year. It was truly the most appreciated virtual vacation I have ever taken. And now I'm back to the real world...Ah, but I can always escape into books, can't I?





The links will take you to my reviews.

Three picture books: One Little Bag: An Amazing Journey by Henry Cole; Hurry Up! A Book About Slowing Down by Kate Dopriak; and The Farmer and the Monkey by Marla Frazee.


Three fiction books: Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk; The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter; and Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center.




Most of these should look familiar. I've been reading on a couple of these for months:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy...65% read
Devotions by Mary Oliver...42% read
How to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life...30% read
Mythos by Stephen Fry...15% read
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout...10% read
The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You...10% read





It's time for the Reverse Readathon. It starts at 7 pm CST on Friday, August 7 through 7 pm CST on Saturday, August 8. I'm hosting for a couple of hours on Friday night, and then I'm planning to read through Saturday. I also am offering a Mini-Challenge: Share a Mood-Boosting Book. The winner will be randomly selected at midnight CST on Sunday night from those who left a suggestion for a mood-boosting book on the post and will win a free book from Book Depository. Here's my Reverse Readathon post. Did you join in the readathon this time?






Good Thing #1: Podcasts. 

Podcast #1: How to Fail. This week I listened to a fabulous new-to-me podcast with Elizabeth Day called How to Fail. It was Alain De Botton on embracing vulnerability in the age of Coronavirus.



Podcast #2: On Being. I also listened to several more of the On Being podcasts with Krista Tippett. My favorite was Falling Together with Rebecca Solnit. She has a lot to say about the good parts of going through bad experiences. 

Do you have any recommendations for other good podcasts out there? I'd love to hear them.

Good Thing #2: I Won! I won the adult reading prize at my public library. It was a random drawing but you got extra entries for more reading. I logged in 140 hours over June and July. Look at my wonderful new water bottle. (The cap and coffee mug are prizes from last year.) Thank you, Brazoria County Library System. You are the best.

Good Thing #3: Digitizing Old Slides. I was able to check out a machine from the library this week that converts old slides into digital images. My dad gave me a box of 700-800 old slides from the 60s and 70s, and I set to work. So. Much. Fun. Check out my sister and me...Matchy-matchy.





I'm very happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. There are no requirements for 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.

59 comments:

  1. I still can’t believe it’s August, where has the year gone? I love listening to podcasts, my current favourite is Dark Poutine, a true crime podcast from Canada, the guys who do are really good.

    Have a lovely week!

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    1. Podcasts are a new thing for me. Thank you for the recommendation.

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  2. My two favorite podcasts are book-related:

    He Read She Read (Curtis & Chelsea) http://hereadsheread.org/

    What Should I Read Next (Anne Bogel) - From the Modern Mrs. Darcy

    How fun to digitize those slides! I've been (very slowly) scanning our photos from pre-digital camera prints. I rarely ever look at photo albums anymore, so I make put together smaller (and thinner) books with some of the photos, using a service such as Shutterfly. I think it would be nice to have the slim books set out on a coffee table rather than storing the huge albums in a closet!

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    1. I have read Modern Mrs. Darcy's blog but I haven't heard either of those podcasts. Thanks, Les!

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  3. Congrats for winning your library Summer contest. Ours was very short this year, but I managed to secure 16 entries, so we'll see. How to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life looks so good. I never listen to podcasts, I feel it would take away too much time for my listening to books

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  4. I've been seeing posts and FB mentions about the Reverse Readathon. I hope everyone is having fun and reading some great books. Congratulations on your win! Digitalizing old slides sounds like a fun project. I need to go through our old photos . . . I hope you have a great week! Take care and stay safe.

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    1. The slide project is one I have been wanting to do for many years.

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  5. The Reverse Readathon sounds like fun. Maybe I'll catch it the next time around. Hope you have a great week!

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  6. Congratulations on the win! How neat that your library has a machine that converts old slides into digital images.

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  7. ah...another week gone...congratulations on the win

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  8. Oh congrats on the win and I love the whole competitive thing for reading. Other libraries should do something like this. I am glad you are doing safe..

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  9. Congrats on the win!! And those photos are awesome. I love that!

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    1. My mom made all our clothes, and she usually made us match.

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  10. I had scanned our old slides a few years ago. Luckily we didn't have a huge number of them.
    My sister and I were often in matching clothes as well. My mother also sewed.

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  11. Congratulations on your prize! And I LOVE the pics of you and your sister. I've got photos of me and my sister also in matching outfits, too:)). But how lovely to be able to update those old photos to modern media so they become more accessible. Have a great week, Deb:)

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    1. My sister has Photoshop and she's planning to help with these after they are scanned.

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  12. Hi Deb! Just checking in to say hi! I didn't do a Sunday Post, a bit hectic this side.

    Love those old photos. My grandfather also still had slides and it got lost somewhere. So sad about that.

    Olive Kitteridge is next on my kindle! I'll hopefully start with it this week still. Are you enjoying it?

    I did mark the readathon, but it just didn't happen. My black cat is still sick, he has tick-bite-fever and he's been quite sick. Better today. So not much happened in my week!

    Hope you will have a good week!

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    1. Gosh, I'm sorry you didn't get to do a post today. Even if not much happened (and who really has a lot going on right now?!) it is still fun to see what's going on.

      I'm still enjoying Olive a lot. She's a fascinating character.

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  13. Oh you and your sister are cute!
    Congrats on your reading prize, our library offers regular challenges for children but none for adults. I may have to suggest it.

    Wishing you a great reading week

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    1. You should suggest it. Kids read when they see their parents doing it.

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  14. I didn't realize you could borrow a machine from the library to do that! I love the images. Ah, Paris. Maybe someday. Have a wonderful week and enjoy your books!

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  15. It's awesome that you found a machine like that at your library. Our library supposively rents out video equipment and tri-pods and stuff and I've been interested in doing it but I haven't quite yet.

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  16. Congratulations on your win. I want to read Mary Oliver.
    www.rsrue.blogspot.com

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  17. I want to read Mythos by Stephen Fry! I love him. Did you see his docuseries on America that he put out I wanna say in 2009? I loved it. I didn't know about the readathon or I would have joined in at least for a bit. I love those old pics you find. It's good to be reminded of where we've come from. Loved that you shared those fun pics. And congrats on your library win!

    I love podcasts! 1619 is a fantastic one from the New York Times. NPR has quite a few of my favorites like Code Switch. RadioLab is a must for science and humans stories all rolled into one. Ted Radio Hour is great. For some science I love StarTalk with Neil Degrasse Tyson, Sean Carroll's Mindscape, and Science VS is a fun one too. There are so many good ones out there! Have fun trying to listen to all of them.

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  18. Wow. Lots of podcast recommendations. Thanks. I will check these out, Heather.

    Mythos is such a good read. I'm reading it today. Stephen Fry is slyly funny. I have never seen his docuseries, but I'll look for it.

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  19. I have been meaning to read Olive Kitteridge...I've seen the mini-series and enjoyed it.

    I would love to learn how to digitize tapes...but I no longer have any, since my "movers" left most of my movies and books behind. I can hold a grudge, I guess! LOL.

    Enjoy your books and your week, and here are my WEEKLY UPDATES

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    1. You would enjoy Olive Kitteridge, I think. Olive is a strong woman. Too strong sometimes.

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  20. I enjoy listening to the Life is Short by Justin Long podcast. Happy listening and reading.

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  21. I wanted to do the Reverse Readathon but the weather was so gorgeous I spent most of it outdoors! I read mostly in the evenings.

    You must have gone down through memory lane while digitizing your photos! I love looking through my old pics.

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    1. It has been lovely to see faces of my grandparents and other loved ones that I haven't seen in a long time.

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  22. I'm so bad at participating in readathons, I either always forget when they are about to start or I'm in the mood to read something else.

    I listened to my first podcast this weekend, it obviously was about books (a program in Dutch) but I felt inspired to read even more. I feel like people should talk about books more on the radio and televsion. I really don't understand why they don't.

    Have a wonderful week!

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    1. I agree, Lynn. We should talk more about books on the radio and television.

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  23. Your library has a machine you can check out that digitizes slides? I wonder if my library has one. I'll have to find out as we have a bunch to do. I look forward to seeing what you think of Olive Kittridge.

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    1. Yes, they have a lot of equipment and other things you really don't need every day.

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  24. I am happy to see Things You Save In The Fire ....that is on my list to read this year and I hear its great. Especially with a female firefighter. Hope you enjoyed it.

    Hope you have a good week...happy reading.

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  25. I've been enjoying podcast Backlisted very much. Book discussions about books written in the past and can be very funny.

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    1. I will look for it. It sounds like a podcast I'd enjoy.

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  26. Those good things this week are cool.. and those digitized slides look so cool.. not sure if I have any to digitize though.. and those picture books you have sound so good (so do the others but I will just add the picture books to my TBR for now...!)

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  27. Congrats on your win! My brothers and I really have to get a move on with the digitalizing old slides before the colors all fade.

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    1. Some are worse than others. But, overall, it's much better than I expected.

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  28. Sounds like a good week. I'm sure looking at those old slides is fun. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

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  29. Glad you enjoyed Things You Save in a Fire. (I flicked over to your review to see!. I loved it too. I enjoy quite a few podcasts and did listen to On Being for quite a while. I do enjoy Gretchen Rubin and her sister on Happier. Always wise.

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  30. Looks like a great week! And I'm really exciting you are digitizing the slides. That'll mean a lot in time!

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  31. So was the machine at the library that converted the slides to digital images hard to use? Does it take awhile to do that? I'd like to do some too -- so many old slides! Glad to see you're rereading Olive Kitteridge .... ha, Olive is never too far away. I really enjoyed the sequel recently. Have a great week.

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