The Sunday Salon: A Week in Which I Finally Finish (Happily) Madame Bovary in French

     

Welcome! I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. What is the Sunday Salon? The Sunday Salon is a place to link up and share what we have been doing during the week plus it's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

I encourage you to link up with us, and then visit as many of the other participants as you can.

I finished reading and discussing Madame Bovary in French. If you are serious about wanting to learn French, I encourage you to join us next summer when we attempt to read and discuss another book in French. If you think, oh no, my French is awful---well, trust me, your French cannot be worse than mine! Join in. It's fun.

I loved Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. I liked Teaching a Stone to Talk.

After reading three hundred poems written by Wallace Stevens in his Collected Poems, and though I admit I am still crazy about his poems, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" and "The Man with the Blue Guitar," I think I will step away from Stevens for a while.

Sandwich. Read it if you like stories about family dynamics. Know going in that there are possible triggers.

What I Read Last Week:

Madame Bovary (in French) by Gustave Flaubert (Classic)

The Collected Poems by Wallace Stevens (Poetry)

Writers and Their Notebooks edited by Diana Raab (Writing)

Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard (Nature)

Sandwich by Catherine Newman (Fiction)

What I'm Reading Now:

Rinkitink by L. Frank Baum (Ozathon)

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (Fiction)

Census by Jesse Ball (Fiction)

Jack Spratt Investigates the Big Over Easy: A Nursery Tales Crime by Jasper Fforde (Fiction)

Ben & Me: In Search of a Founder's Formula for a Long and Useful Life by Eric Weiner (Nonfiction)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

Jack Spratt Investigates the Big Over Easy: A Nursery Tales Crime by Jasper Fforde

Posts I’ve Written That Give You the Best Glimpse of Me

The Sunday Salon: Book Serendipity

Two challenges left to finish...

I began to list 3 Good Things every day during the pandemic. Now I've established a regular routine of writing down my 3 Good Things. Here are 3 Good Things from last week:

Good Thing #1:

A class on making Bird-friendly Landscapes

at Osher Livelong Learning Institute (OLLI) UTMB

Good Thing #2:

A Bookcrossing science fiction bookbox

Good Thing #3:

Fish tacos 

at Lucine's in Galveston

Weekend linkup spots are listed below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

I hope you will join the linkup for Sunday Salon below.

Jack Spratt Investigates the Big Over Easy: A Nursery Tales Crime by Jasper Fforde: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

 

Today's Featured Book 

Jack Spratt Investigates the Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime Novel

 by Jasper Fforde

Genre: Fiction

Published: July 25, 2006

Page Count: 383 pages

Summary: 

"Meet Inspector Jack Spratt, family man and head of Reading’s Nursery Crime division. He’s investigating the murder of ovoid D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Dumpty, ex-convict and lover of women, found shattered to death beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. Yes, the big egg is down, and all those brittle pieces sitting in the morgue point to foul play.

Spratt and his new partner, Sergeant Mary Mary, search through Humpty’s sordid past in hopes of finding the key to his death. Before long, Jack and Mary find themselves immersed in a bizarre case that reaches into the highest echelons of Reading society and business."

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

"Now, it says here one reprimand: You struck Detective Inspector Flowwe with an onyx ashtray. Why was that?"

"The table lamp was too heavy," she replied, truthfully enough, "and if I'd used a chair, it might have killed him."

"Which is illegal, of course," added Briggs, glad for an opportunity to show off his legal knowledge...

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne of Head Full of Books. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky. 

"Anyway, what can I do for you?"

"Just routine stuff, Mrs. Grundy," said Jack. "We need you to confirm the whereabouts of your husband on the night of the Spongg Charity Benefit."

"Is he a suspect?" she asked.

"We need to eliminate your husband from our inquiries, Mrs. Grundy."

"Please," she said as she removed a hair clasp to allow acres of luxuriant auburn hair to tumble into her lap, and the sofa, and the coffee table, and the floor, "call me Rapunzel."

Jack and Mary exchanged glances as her long red tresses lapped at their feet like the incoming tide. They had the same thought: the twenty-eight foot human hair found at Grimm's Road.

I was in the mood for something light. They probably don't get any lighter than this.

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

Are you a member of any book clubs, and if so, what has been your most memorable book to discuss with them? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

I've been a member of my town's book club since 2011. Our discussion this month on The Midnight Library by Matt Haig was excellent. Here's the list of all the titles we have discussed so far. I'd love to hear what other books have provoked good discussions for book clubs you have attended.

Posts I’ve Written That Give You the Best Glimpse of Me

My Favorite Costumes

My Non-Bookish Hobbies

Why I Love Being a Blogger/Reader/Librarian

Jon Klassen Comes to My School

Four Book Quotes that Remind Us of the Exquisite Joy to be Found in Small Moments

A Poem a Day: "The Orange"

My Favorite Stories about Memorable Authors I've Met

Doctor Buks and Other Fabulous Bookish Memories

The Pioneer Woman vs. Grandma

Ten of My Favorite Poems and an Excerpt from Each

What Happened to My America? And How Can We Fix Things?

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.  

The Sunday Salon: Book Serendipity

     

Welcome! I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. What is the Sunday Salon? The Sunday Salon is a place to link up and share what we have been doing during the week plus it's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

I encourage you to link up with us, and then visit as many of the other participants as you can.

There should be a name for this. You have probably had it happen to you. It happened to me last week. 

I'll call it Book Serendipity. I had been reading North Woods for a couple of days, and Here: A Novel came in for me at the library. Both of these are books about a specific location over time. 

No, it was not intentional. Yes, it was odd.

What I Read Last Week:

North Woods by Daniel Mason (Fiction)

Here: A Novel by Richard McGuire (Graphic Novel)

What I'm Reading Now:

Madame Bovary (in French) by Gustave Flaubert (Classic)

The Complete Poems by Wallace Stevens (Poetry)

Writers and Their Notebooks edited by Diana Raab (Writing)

Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard (Nature)

Rinkitink by L. Frank Baum (Ozathon)

The Edinburgh Book Festival (online)

I just saw that the Edinburgh Book Festival is a hybrid book festival this year. I so enjoyed attending virtually during 2020 and Covid. I'm hoping to listen to Matt Haig discuss his latest book.

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

Sandwich by Catherine Newman

Books That Have Changed the Way I Think About Relationships, Life, Right and Wrong, and My Place in the Universe...and That Might Change Your Thinking, Too

The Sunday Salon: Playing Reading Catch-Up

Happily, I've finished both of my summer reading challenges!

20 Books of Summer Challenge 

20/20

It's the tenth anniversary of the wonderful celebration of reading, 20 Books of Summer, hosted by Cathy at 746 Books.

There are very few rules...make a list of ten, fifteen, or twenty books...post the list...try to read them all starting on June 1st and finishing up on September 1st...drop a book from the list, if you wish, and replace it...change your goal from twenty to ten mid-summer, if you wish...

How the Mountains Grew: A New Geological History of North America by John Dvorak (Nonfiction; Naturalist Book Club)

Writing on Empty by Natalie Goldberg (Nonfiction; Writing)

The Stolen Child by Ann Hood (Historical Fiction)

The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl (Fiction; Paris in July)

Magpie Murders: A Novel by Anthony Horowitz (Mystery; Face-to-Face Book Club)

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan (Nonfiction; Memoir; Birding)

The Great Book of Journaling: How Journaling Can Support a Life of Wellness, Creativity, 

Meaning, and Purpose edited by Eric Maisel (Nonfiction; Writing)

North Woods by Daniel Mason (Fiction)

The Wedding People: A Novel by Alison Espach (Novel)

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson (Nonfiction)

Summer by Edith Wharton (Novel; Classic)

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (Novel; Classic)

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center (Novel)

Virgil Wander by Leif Enger (Novel)

James by Percival Everett (Novel)

Germinal by Émile Zola (Classic)

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Science Fiction)

Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Fantasy; Ozathon)

The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Fantasy; Ozathon)

French Windows by Antoine Laurain (Novel; Paris in July)

Clara Reads Proust by Stéphane Cartier (Novel; Paris in July)

Big Book Summer Challenge

6/6

Big Book Summer Challenge is hosted by Sue at Book By Book.

The Big Book Summer Challenge is an annual challenge that  begins on Memorial Day weekend (at the end of May) and runs until Labor Day (the first Monday of September). The idea is simply to read bigger books (400 or more pages)--just one or two or as many as a person wants to read. And readers have the whole summer to do it! I have several Big Books picked out. Hope you'll join Sue and me for the laid-back fun this summer!

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson - 565 pages

Germinal by Émile Zola - 596 pages

Magpie Murders: A Novel by Anthony Horowitz - 501 pages

Captain Fracasse by Théophile Gautier - 478 pages

How the Mountains Grew: A New Geological History of North America by John Dvorak - 464 pages

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - 831 pages

I began to list 3 Good Things every day during the pandemic. Now I've established a regular routine of writing down my 3 Good Things. Here are 3 Good Things from last week:

Good Thing #1:

It doesn't look like a good thing,

but we hope it will be...

My husband had a small surgery on his hand

this week to correct Dupuytren's Contracture.

Cross your fingers that the surgery

is successful!

Good Thing #2:

A friend who is moving to Italy

gave me 

a wonderful camera and a sewing machine.

Good Thing #3:

450 days of Duolingo French!

Weekend linkup spots are listed below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

I hope you will join the linkup for Sunday Salon below.