Celebrate Spring with Some Fantastic Bird Books

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

North on the Wing: Travels with the Songbird Migration of Spring by Bruce M. Beehler

The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human by Noah Strycker

Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist: Your Guide to Listening by Donald Kroodsma

The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik

The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman

A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds by Scott Weidensaul

What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World by Jon Young

An Egg is Quiet written by Dianna Aston

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

Do you have books about birds that you love?

Please share them with me.

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: Houston Indie Bookstore Crawl Begins!

 

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

What I Read Last Week:

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (Fantasy)

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (Fiction)

What I'm Reading Now:

The Mirror & the Light: A Novel by Hilary Mantel (Historical Fiction)

Gringos by Charles Portis (Fiction)

Finger Exercises for Poets by Dorianne Laux (Nonfiction)

I'm participating in the Houston Bookshop Crawl #HTXBookCrawl25 this month. I started with Then & Now Bookshop in Galveston. Let's see how many independent bookshops I can visit from the list this month.

April 26 is Indie Bookstore Day, and indie bookstores all over the US are hosting events. Take a look at the map here to see what is going on around you, if you live in the US.

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Everyone is Welcome Here

Books Steeped in Hilarity, Silliness, and Utter Foolishness

National Poetry Month: Everything is Going to Be All Right by Derek Mahon

The Mirror & the Light: A Novel by Hilary Mantel: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Paris in springtime?

I wouldn't miss it!

Lisa at Bookdock Ramblings and Erin at Still Life, with Cracker Crumbs are hosting another film watching event for springtime. It is six weeks, six movies, and very easy going. If you want to watch one or all or a few, they would love to have you join in. Just watch along and comment on their posts or post your own thoughts and link up.

I bought Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris when my sister and I celebrated her birthday with a We Love Paris Day a few years ago. The movie had just come out on DVD, so we ate wonderful Paris treats and watched the movie at my house. A lovely day!

I hadn't watched it since then, and I remember being mildly disappointed since I had just read the book and, face it, the movie is rarely as good as the book. 

But two years have passed, and I felt completely different about the movie this time. Maybe part of it is because the times are different, and the movie makes a slam against those folks (I think you know who I'm talking about) who seem to feel like rich people can do whatever they want. 

Our main character, Ada Harris, is a cleaner in London who wants to buy a Dior dress. She's clearly not the target market for Dior in 1957, but she is determined to buy a Dior dress anyway. What gumption Mrs. Harris has! I found it delightful that one of the rich snooty women Mrs. Harris encounters makes her money from picking up garbage, and, at the time of Mrs. Harris' visit, the garbage men are on strike. The movie is a fairytale for those of us who find Paris to be the most wonderful city in the world. 

Here are my thoughts about the book. 

(Some spoilers)

Mrs. Harris is a cleaning woman who sets her sights on a Dior dress, a dress that costs a year's wages, a dress she hasn't a place to wear, a dress that can only be obtained by traveling to Paris. Like a beautiful fairytale, all her dreams come true. And don't. And do.

You might find the Meaning of Life in this book. It's a new favorite.

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:

We rode across the ferry 

to Bolivar Peninsula

on our birding outing this week.

Good Thing #2:

Action for Happiness: 

Active April calendar

Good Thing #3:

I had some repairs made on my

50-year-old guitar

last week.

What a nice sound it has now!

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.

The Mirror & the Light: A Novel by Hilary Mantel: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

    

Today's Featured Book: 

The Mirror and the Light

by Hilary Mantel

Genre: Historical Fiction

Published: March 10, 2020

Page Count: 913 pages

Summary: 

With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with her peerless, Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage.

 

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.

Once the queen's head is severed, he walks away. 

Mantel, Hilary. The Mirror and the Light: A Novel (Wolf Hall Series Book 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. 

Jean de Dinteville had said to him once, have you ever considered, Cremuel, why do we lie and lie?

Mantel, Hilary. The Mirror and the Light: A Novel (Wolf Hall Series Book 3). Kindle Edition. 

I've decided to read all three volumes of the Wolf Hall series by Hilary Mantel before watching the final part of the series on PBS. 

It's comforting to watching the extreme political and religious devilry of the time of Henry VIII in light of the extreme political and religious devilry of our own times here in America.

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.    

April 4th - 10th - Who is your favorite "hobbit" from J. R. R. Toliken's Middle-Earth books? (submitted by Snapdragon @ Snapdragon Alcove)

Why, Bilbo, of course! 

National Poetry Month: Everything is Going to Be All Right by Derek Mahon

It's National Poetry Month, if DT hasn't issued an executive order to banish it yet. (He seems determined to destroy everything I love, so I guess it's just a matter of time.)

To celebrate poetry this month, I'm sharing a few lines from a poem I love along with an illustration I drew or a photo I took. I'll include a link to the entire poem below.

Today I'm sharing a poem I kept seeing everywhere during the pandemic. 

As long as the Crowpoisons keep popping up every spring, I think everything is going to be all right...

 

Everything is Going to be All Right

Derek Mahon

How should I not be glad to contemplate
the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
and a high tide reflected on the ceiling?
There will be dying, there will be dying,
but...

The full poem, "Everything is Going to Be All Right" by Derek Mahon, is here.

For more photos, link up at Wordless Wednesday, Comedy Plus, Messymimi's Meanderings, Keith's Ramblings, Create With Joy, Wild Bird Wednesday, and My Corner of the World.

Books Steeped in Hilarity, Silliness, and Utter Foolishness

To celebrate today, April Fool's Day, I bring you a list of the silliest books I've ever read. 

Perhaps you, like me, could use a bit of foolishness these days.

The Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Book by Jerry Seinfeld

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse

Hank the Cowdog: The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse by John R. Erickson

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A. J. Jacobs

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer

Potato Pants by Laurie Keller

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome

Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle

Please, please, please

share your silliest recommendations.

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.