Saturday, November 8, 2025

The Sunday Salon: A Week of Birthday Celebrations, and Now I'm Off to the Texas Book Festival

  




Welcome! I am glad 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. 







I had a marvelous 69th birthday. Thank you for all the birthday greetings. I spent my actual birthday with the naturalist interns on a birding field trip, and it was perfect. We took a short cruise the night before up the San Bernard River with friends. The only one who forgot to wish me happy birthday this year was my dad, and he felt so guilty that he took me out to eat to celebrate! I even received some actual birthday cards (thank you, Tina!)

Thank you so much!






What I Read Last Week:










What I'm Reading Now:

Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Bluets by Maggic Nelson

The Common Good by Robert B. Reich









Week 1 of Nonfiction November 2025...What have you read this year? What did you enjoy the most?

Week 2 of Nonfiction November 2025...What are your favorite nonfiction topics? What might you read this month that would challenge you?






5 Reasons to "Do" the Book Instead of Just Reading It

Something I'm thinking about...





What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: It's My Birthday!











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:

I am at the Texas Book Festival 
in Austin this weekend.
Yay!



Good Thing #2:

A Reddish Egret was very cooperative
and posed nicely
during the birding field trip.





Good Thing #3:

My son and d-i-l gave me
this Smart Lightbulb
for my birthday.
It's so much fun!



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.


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Friday, November 7, 2025

The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and the Medical Miracle that Saved a Child's Life by Dr. Rachel Clarke: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

 






Today's Featured Book: 

The Story of a Heart:

Two Families, One Heart, and the Medical Miracle that Saved a Child's Life

by Dr. Rachel Clarke

Genre: Nonfiction

Published: September 10, 2024

Page Count: 253 pages

Summary: 

One summer day, nine-year-old Keira Ball was in a terrible car accident and suffered catastrophic brain injuries. As the rest of her body began to shut down, her heart continued to beat. In an act of extraordinary generosity, Keira’s parents and siblings immediately agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor. Meanwhile nine-year-old Max Johnson had been in a hospital for nearly a year, valiantly fighting the virus that was causing his young heart to fail. When Max’s parents received the call they had been hoping for, they knew it came at a terrible cost to another family—in what Clarke calls “the brutal arithmetic of transplant surgery.”

The act of Keira’s heart resuming its rhythm inside Max’s body was a medical miracle. But this was only part of the story. While waiting on the transplant list, Max had become the hopeful face of a campaign to change the UK’s laws around organ donation. Following his successful surgery, Keira’s mother saw the little boy beaming on the front page of the newspaper and knew it was the same boy whose parents had recently sent her an anonymous letter overflowing with gratitude for her daughter’s heart. The two mothers began to exchange messages and eventually decided to meet.

In this “profoundly moving…[and] beautiful, humane book” (Rob Delaney) Clarke relates the urgent journey of Keira’s heart and explores the history of the remarkable surgery that made it possible, stretching back over a century and involving the knowledge and dedication of surgeons, nurses and technicians, immunologists and paramedics. A powerful tale of two families linked by one heart, The Story of a Heart is a testament to compassion for the dying, the many ways we honor our loved ones, and the tenacity of love.





 


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.


This is the story of a boy, a girl, and the heart they share. 






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. 


It was hot and stifling in the cramped room. Emma stared at the ceiling as sirens punctuated the night from the ambulances ferrying luckless patients to the hospital. What preyed on her mind more than anything was whether Max would be able to enjoy, however briefly, Christmas dinner away from the ward with his family. She still struggled to compute the fact that, in October, Max had been going to school, yet now his heart was so enfeebled it could barely keep him alive...







A nine-year-old girl dies in a car crash, but her heart was resuscitated in the ambulance and, though she has no brain activity, her organs might be used to save other lives. Her family receives great consolation from giving Keira's organs to others, and four people are the recipients, changing their lives. One person receiving Keira's gift is Max, a young boy who desperately needs a heart.

This is the story of a miracle for Max, told through the remembrances of Max's family, Keira's family, and the doctors and nurses who made the miracle happen








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.    

November 7th - How many "book" bags do you have? Do you use all of them? (submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver's Review)

Let me answer this question with photos taken with my haul from library conferences long ago:




Yes, let's just say that I have book bags aplenty.


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Tuesday, November 4, 2025

The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf

Okay...here goes...completely random...





My first, and probably still one of my favorite, books-about-books.


Basketball - when it's the only thing that can get you off the streets.


A wonderful memoir, a Pulitzer Prize winner, by
a high school English teacher just down the road from me.


The series of books that belonged to my Grandpap
that I chose to keep in his memory.


Always gives me a lift.


We all need a pretty good joke book, I think.


Poetry in traditional forms.


A gift from my mother-in-law after we married:
What a Young Wife Needs to Know.
Published in 1901.


A book from my childhood: Grimm's Fairy Tales.


On our first date, my (future) husband claimed to be reading
the exact same Ray Bradbury book I was.




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.      

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Monday, November 3, 2025

Nonfiction November 2025: Choosing Nonfiction

 






Week 2 (11/3-11/9) Choosing Nonfiction: There are many topics to choose from when looking for a nonfiction book.  For example:  Biography, Autobiography, Memoire, Travel, Health, Politics, History, Religion and Spirituality, Science, Art, Medicine, Gardening, Food, Business, Education, Music.  Maybe use this week to  challenge yourself to pick a genre you wouldn’t normally read?  Or stick to what you usually like is also fine.  If you are a nonfiction genre newbie, did your choice encourage you to read more? (Hosted by Frances at Volatile Rune).


What are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book?

I am always looking for a nonfiction book, with a subject of interest to me (and I have a lot of subjects which are of interest to me!) that reads like fiction.


Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to?

Here goes...

  • nature, especially birds and ocean creatures and trees...
  • spirituality...
  • memoirs...
  • Paris...
  • philosophy...
  • history...
  • books about books...
  • building community...
  • travel books...
  • food books...
  • books about happiness...
  • stories of heroic people...


What do you look for in a nonfiction book?

What topics do you particularly like to read?

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Saturday, November 1, 2025

The Sunday Salon: It's My Birthday!

 




I am glad that you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Welcome! 

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






It's my 69th birthday on November 1st! I'm delighted to be healthy and happy and to have family and friends both in real life and here online! 

We had a blowout in Houston on the way to East Texas last week. And, yes, it began to pour down rain, and, yes, the spare was dry-rotted, but we managed to find a place to get a new tire, and we popped into the wonderful Arandas Bakery next door while we waited. I decided this is the perfect birthday cake for me!





What I Read Last Week:

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah (Book Club)

Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford (Fiction)

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Children's Fiction)

and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Evan (Nonfiction)







What I'm Reading Now:

Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and a Medical Miracle by Rachel Clarke

Nine Black Robes: Inside the Supreme Court's Drive to the Right
and Its Historic Consequences by Joan Biskupik

Butterflies of Houston and Southeast Texas by John L. Tveten

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder






Nonfiction November has begun! 

What nonfiction did you read in 2025? What nonfiction did you like best? What are your favorite types of nonfiction to read? 

The first week's writing prompts are hosted by Heather at Based on a True Story. I hope you will join in!






What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: My (Hopefully!) Last Hyper-Busy Week for a While








I began to list 3 Good Things every day during the pandemic, and 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:

I love my Aqua Zumba class in the spring 
and summer and fall, but do I have what it takes to 
swim outdoors in the winter?
I did it---outdoor temperature: 49 degrees.



Good Thing #2:

My aunt found the fudge recipe
she used when I was little...
on the back of a comic book.



Good Thing #3:

I'm getting ready for our Thanksgiving trip to Chicago
by borrowing a friend's red wool cape.
I like it so much I think I might
see if I can buy it from her.



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.
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