The Sunday Salon: Happy New Year!

 

Welcome! I am very glad that you are here at the Sunday Salon. 

What is the Sunday Salon? 

The Sunday Salon is a spot to link up and share what we have been doing during the week. It's also a great opportunity to visit and join in the conversations on other blogs. 

We had a lovely holiday this week. We are keeping the tree and the stockings up because our granddaughter, Bailey, is coming to visit.

What I Read Last Week:

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (fiction)

Saint Francis of Assisi by Demi (nonfiction picture book)

The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage by Richard Rohr (spirituality)

Dear Writer: Pep Talks and Practical Advice for the Creative Life by Maggie Smith (writing)

The Penguin Book of Haiku edited by Adam L. Kern (poetry)

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (classic; writing)

Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green (nonfiction)

String Too Short to Be Saved: Recollections of Summers on a New England Farm by Donald Hall (memoir)

Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff (classic; children’s)

Bird Talk: Hilariously Accurate Ways to Identify Birds by the Sounds They Make by Becca Rowland (nature)

Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love by Samin Nosrat (foodie)

A Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare (play)

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (children's)

Evensong by Stewart O'Nan (fiction)

What I'm Reading Now:

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Stoic philosophy)

Theo of Golden by Allan Levi (Fiction)

The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika Jaouad (Journaling)

The Poetry Pharmacy Returns by William Sieghart (Poetry)

Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Baking Adventure by Felicity Cloake (Foodie travel)

 

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Odyssey  by Felicity Cloake: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

My First Book of the Year: 2026 and My One Word for 2026

Everything I Wanted to Tell You (and More Than You Probably Wanted to Know) About the Books I Read in 2025

Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf

The Sunday Salon: Our Holiday Movie Marathon: The Bishop's Wife, It's a Wonderful Life, and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

We are on an old movie kick around here.

We watched Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) this week.

Hmmm...fire coming up out of the ground, but 

the astronaut was able to walk around...the astronaut kept opening

his helmet, saying the air on Mars had too little oxygen...

he seemed to be cold at first, but then he eventually took to wearing thin, handsewn clothes...

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 have been cooking

some great meals.

Good Thing #2:

A murmuration of birds.

Good Thing #3:

Frost flowers.

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.

Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Odyssey by Felicity Cloake: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Today's Featured Book: 

Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Odyssey

by Felicity Cloake

Genre: Nonfiction

Published: June 2, 2022

Page Count: 383 pages

Summary: 

If there’s one thing that truly unites Britain, from Aberdeen to Aberystwyth, St Ives to St Pancras, it’s an obsession with breakfast.

We all have an opinion on the merits of brown sauce versus ketchup on our morning bacon sarnie. In this eagerly awaited follow-up to One More Croissant for the Road, the nation’s favourite taster-in-chief Felicity Cloake sets off on a cycle trip of condimental proportions to investigate and celebrate the legendary Great British Breakfast. Travelling the length and breadth of the UK to establish once and for all what makes a perfect fry-up, she rates them on criteria from the crispness of the bacon to how long they keep her pedalling. But a woman cannot live by All Day Breakfast alone, so as well as recipes for the Savoy's Omelette Arnold Bennett and proper Scottish porridge, she lavishes her attention on the regional specialities she encounters along the way, from a desi breakfast in Birmingham to a Greggs Geordie stottie cake. This is a freewheeling gastronomical tour like no other.

 

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.

Many people spent 2020 homeschooling their children, or trying to work at the same kitchen table as their four flatmates. I spent it holed up with a taciturn cairn terrier and a huge map of the UK.

Cloake, Felicity. Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Odyssey, p. 1. 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. 

Gulping down muddy instant coffee and gummy malt loaf, I try not to think about the county’s vertiginous villages and stunning cliffs; such things, so pleasingly dramatic on foot, hold less charm on a fully laden bike with an angry hamstring. Beggars can’t be choosers, however, and having decided to take on one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations during a half term when it’s all but impossible to go abroad, and a fortnight before the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, I must pay the price in pain. We have beds at Gemma’s parents’ house in Falmouth, and by hook or by crook, that’s where we’ll be this evening. What time this evening, however, is less clear.

Cloake, Felicity. Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Odyssey, p. 56.  Kindle Edition. 

I loved reading Felicity Cloake's journey around France on a bicycle, sampling French food on the way, One More Croissant for the Road. I've always wanted to read Cloake's book, Red Sauce Brown Sauce, but it took some time for it to become available on our library's Hoopla audio. But I finally borrow it, and when I started listening, I realized quickly that I needed to actually read Red Sauce Brown Sauce; I was not familiar (What the heck is black pudding?) with British breakfast jargon. Happily Red Sauce Brown Sauce was discounted on Kindle to 1.99 this week, and now I'm able to look up the words as I read along, and Google pictures of the food Cloake is talking about. I'm astounded at what the British consider a traditional breakfast. Apparently 71% like baked beans with their eggs (!) and Cloake has ongoing discussions with those she meets about whether folks prefer red sauce (ketchup) or brown sauce (some kind of Worcestershire concoction) with their breakfast. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, so I may come away from reading this book with some new inspiration for my breakfast menu.

And who knew? Apparently Felicity Cloake has gone on yet another foodie bicycle excursion, Peach Street to Lobster Lane: Coast-to-Coast in Search of Real American Cuisine. And this book, too, was heavily discounted on Kindle this morning. I may have to read this book next.

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.    

Which genre are you eager to jump into more next year, and what draws you to it? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer)

I want to get back to reading more fantasy and science fiction. I haven't read much of either of these genres since I was in my twenties, so I eagerly welcome suggestions!

My First Book of the Year: 2026 and My One Word for 2026

So what is First Book?  First Book, hosted by Sheila of Book Journey, is the first book you plan on reading in the New Year.  It can be a long-coveted read you have not had time for, a guilty pleasure read like a re-read of a favorite…  really it can be anything – it is, after all, YOUR First Book. 

It was hard to decide which book to choose.

I wanted to pick a book that would encourage me to move forward, filled with hope and optimism.

My First Book of the Year...

...is Theo of Golden by Allan Levi. My sister recommended this book to me, and she rarely recommends books, so I just had to read it for my first book of the year.

My #OneWord for 2025? For three New Year's Days, I stuck with the same word, Play. It reminded me to be in the moment, to be spontaneous, to enjoy my life, to draw upon the spirit of love and joy that abides within us at all times. Play. 

But in 2022, I chose a new One Word. Love. It encouraged me to engage Love as my default reaction to all situations. Love. Love got me through several difficult situations in 2022 and 2023 and 2024 and 2025, so I'm keeping Love for 2026. My One Word. Love.

What I hope to read in 2026...