The Sunday Salon: Family Weekend!

  

Welcome! I am happy you joined us 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. It's also a great opportunity to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

We are delighted to spend the weekend with my son and his wife from Chicago as well as my son and his family from East Texas! 

What I Read Last Week:

Oh dear. Nothing. 

Instead of finishing anything,

I started three more books!

What I'm Reading Now:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Book Club)

On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Katmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer by Rick Steves (Nonfiction)

Cold Sassy Tree: A Novel by Olive Ann Burns (Fiction)

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert (Creativity)

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Fiction)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

Books that Inspire Me to Be a Better Person

The Sunday Salon: A Week in Which I Finish My Classics Club List

Wolf Hall by Hilary Martel

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:

Poetry Night 

at Rae's Reads Bookshop.

Good Thing #2:

Watercolor class.

Good Thing #3:

Dusky-blue Groundstreak

during Butterfly Monitoring.

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. 

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

   

Today's Featured Book: 

Wolf Hall

by Hilary Mantel

Genre: Historical Fiction

Published: October 13, 2009

Page Count: 614 pages

Summary: 

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

 

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.

“So now get up.” 

Felled, dazed, silent, he has fallen; knocked full length on the cobbles of the yard. His head turns sideways; his eyes are turned toward the gate, as if someone might arrive to help him out. One blow, properly placed, could kill him now. 

Blood from the gash on his head—which was his father’s first effort—is trickling across his face. Add to this, his left eye is blinded; but if he squints sideways, with his right eye he can see that the stitching of his father’s boot is unraveling. The twine has sprung clear of the leather, and a hard knot in it has caught his eyebrow and opened another cut. 

“So now get up!” Walter is roaring down at him, working out where to kick him next. He lifts his head an inch or two, and moves forward, on his belly, trying to do it without exposing his hands, on which Walter enjoys stamping. “What are you, an eel?” his parent asks. He trots backward, gathers pace, and aims another kick.

Mantel, Hilary. Wolf Hall: A Novel (p. 3). Kindle Edition. 

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. 

The cardinal’s not used the place since he built Hampton Court. They’ve sent messages ahead, but has anything been done? Make my lord comfortable, he says, and goes straight down to the kitchens. At Hampton Court, the kitchens have running water; here, nothing’s running but the cooks’ noses. Cavendish is right. In fact it is worse than he thinks. The larders are impoverished and such supplies as they have show signs of ill-keeping and plunder. There are weevils in the flour. There are mouse droppings where the pastry should be rolled. It is nearly Martinmas, and they have not even thought of salting their beef. The batterie de cuisine is an insult, and the stockpot is mildewed. There are a number of small boys sitting by the hearth, and, for cash down, they can be induced into scouring and scrubbing; children take readily to novelty, and the idea of cleaning, it seems, is novel to them.

Mantel, Hilary. Wolf Hall: A Novel (p. 56). (Function). Kindle Edition. 

I know a lot about Henry VIII. I know quite a bit about his first wife, Katherine. I’d say I know an enormous amount about his second wife, Anne Boleyn. I’d even say I know tons about Thomas More. But what did I really know about Thomas Cromwell? Not much. Until now.

So, this book. All about Thomas Cromwell. And Henry. And Katherine. And Anne and More. Even though I generally knew the story, every page, every sentence felt new. An excellent book. I honestly cannot imagine anyone who would not be enthralled with this one.

I plan to read the other two books in this series, and then I hope to watch the second part of the Wolf Hall series on PBS, coming on March 23, 2025.

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.    

March 14th - 20th - Do you only feature reviews on your blog? (submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver's Review)

I post book reviews.

I post travel pieces.

I post cooking experiments.

I post summaries of my week.

I post anything that interests me.

Books that Inspire Me to Be a Better Person

Here is a long list of secular books I've found in my life that inspire me to try to become a better person. These are a quirky mix of nonfiction with fiction, poetry, and even children's picture books. 

Could you pass this list along to some of the folks who are running America right now? Maybe some of them could use inspiration to be better people.

Have you read any of these? Are any of these on your list of books that inspire you?

If you have recommendations for me, I'd love to hear them.

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, the Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie ten Boom by Corrie ten Boom

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Eric Larson

Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Civility by Stephen L. Carter

The Common Good by Robert Reich

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Phosphorescence: On Awe, Wonder, and Things that Sustain You When the World Grows Dark by Julia Baird

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O'Donohue

I Really Needed This Today: Words to Live By by Hoda Kotb

Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Human by Kathleen Krull

Germinal by Émile Zola

Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living by Krista Tippett

Martin's Big Words: The Life of Martin Luther King Jr. by Doreen Rappaport

The Little Book of Saints by Christine Barrely

The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember by Fred Rogers

I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times by Monica Guzmán

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Every Day is a Gift: A Memoir by Tammy Duckworth

Chooch Helped by Andrea L. Rogers

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks

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.