The Sunday Salon: Heading to Dallas This Weekend!

     

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. 

By the time you read this post, I will be in Dallas, headed to g-grandaughter Lucy's second birthday. We will spend time with Lucy and her mom, Bailey, and her dad, Daniel this weekend. I'll be home Sunday night, and then I will be back on the road Wednesday to see more grandchildren, Annie and Wyatt, and to take care of their family's two hundred chickens, turkeys, and horses while the family goes on a short trip. Wish me luck!

What I Read Last Week:

Jacqueline in Paris by Ann Mah (Paris in July)

A Taste of Paris: A History of the Parisian Love Affair with Food by David Downie (Paris in July)

Captain Fricasse by Théophile Gautier (Paris in July; 1001 Children's Books)

The Stolen Child by Ann Hood (Paris in July)

Germinal by Émile Zola (Paris in July; Classics Club)

What I'm Reading Now:

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (in French for Paris in July)

Writing on Empty by Natalie Goldberg (Writing)

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan (Birding)

Blog posts from last week:

Germinal by Émile Zola: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Why I Love Paris: My Favorite Photos From Paris: My First Day in Paris at the Gardens at Musée Rodin

Nine Great French Classics I Still Have Not Read

The Sunday Salon: A Classics Club Spin as We Recover from the Hurricane

16/20

5/5

Just two challenges left to finish for the year!

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:

How long has it been since I have participated in

Dewey's 2024 24-Hour Readathon?

It's this weekend. 

I hope to get in a few hours.

Good Thing #2:

I'm saving this to remind myself

when things get ugly in the next few months.

Good Thing #3:

Two movies for Paris in July:

Germinal (1993)

Le Silence de la Mer (2004)

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.

Germinal by Émile Zola: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Today's Featured Book: 

Germinal

 by Émile Zola

Genre: Fiction

Published: 1885

Page Count: 592 pages

Summary: 

"Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. Forced to take a back-breaking job at Le Voreux mine when he cannot get other work, he discovers that his fellow miners are ill, hungry, and in debt, unable to feed and clothe their families. When conditions in the mining community deteriorate even further, Lantier finds himself leading a strike that could mean starvation or salvation for all."

 

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.

"Over the open plain, beneath a starless sky as dark and thick as ink, a man walked alone along the highway from Marchiennes to Montsou,2 a straight paved road ten kilometres in length, intersecting the beetroot-fields. He could not even see the black soil before him, and only felt the immense flat horizon by the gusts of March wind, squalls as strong as on the sea, and frozen from sweeping leagues of marsh and naked earth. No tree could be seen against the sky, and the road unrolled as straight as a pier in the midst of the blinding spray of darkness."

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice, but Freda is currently taking a break and Anne of Head Full of Books is filling in. 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. 

'AT FOUR O‘CLOCK THE moon had set, and the night was very dark. Everything was still asleep at Deneulin’s; the old brick house stood mute and gloomy, with closed doors and windows, at the end of the large ill-kept garden which separated it from the Jean-Bart mine. The other frontage faced the deserted road to Vandame, a large country town, about three kilometres off, hidden behind the forest."

First Thoughts

I'm at only 37% as I write this post, but my first thoughts are how remarkable I find it that Zola chose to tell this story of the poor attempting to move against those who profited from their work. He was not popular for doing so; when Zola's own stage adaptation was about to go into production, theater censors banned it. 

I also am thinking about a discussion we had last night at book club. We were trying to come up with titles for 2025. "No, that's too long," was a frequent objection to a nomination. "Too bleak," was another. I did not dare to suggest Germinal.

My Review

Étienne Lantier finds work in at the Le Voreux coal mine in northern France. He soon sees the struggles of the miners, working, usually from childhood on, in passages under the earth prone to collapse and in which the air can lead to asphixiation, for wages that don't even pay for enough food to keep the family from starvation and for enough coal to keep the family warm. Conditions grow worse, and Étienne becomes a leader in the coal miners' community, urging the miners to strike. And the miners do strike, but what will be the result?

I have just finished this book, and I feel exhausted, somewhat defeated. The lives of all that Étienne comes to know are lives of struggle and pain: Vincent Maheu, who has worked in the coal mines for over fifty years; Maheude, Maheu's very tough wife; Catherine Maheu, their daughter, still only a child at sixteen, who takes up with a cruel lover, Chaval; Henri, Leonore, Jeanlin, Zacharie, Alzire---the other Maheu children, all who suffer deeply because of the mine and the strike; the Gregores, the spoiled and clueless owners of the mine; Monsieur Hennebeau, manager of the mine; Maigrat, the owner of the grocery store, who uses his ownership of the store to get favors from women; and Souvarine, a Russian revolutionary who mentors Étienne in labor relations.  

Zola does not drop his eyes from the brutalities of real life in the mines in France in the 1880s. I dare you to read this book and not come away from it changed.

 

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.    

July 26th-August1st - Do you have a favorite novel that captures the enchantment of summer nights or has unforgettable moments set under the stars? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

If I ever get it written, my memoir about my summer working in Yellowstone Park will capture the enchantment of summer nights and have unforgettable moments set under the stars. If I ever get it written...

Why I Love Paris: My Favorite Photos From Paris: My First Day in Paris at the Gardens at Musée Rodin

That first time I went to Paris...

It was 2010.

I went with my sister and my two nieces.

It was lunchtime and we were tired from the eight-hour plane ride,

but we ate at a lovely outdoor restaurant.

We met up with my sister's sister-in-law, an airplane pilot,

who just happened to be in Paris at the same time we were.

Me, my sister, my niece, my sister's sister-in-law, my niece

Then we headed for what became one of my favorite spots in Paris, 

the gardens at Musée Rodin.

What a lovely place to walk.

And, oh, the flowers.

And the sculptures.

The scents of the flowers...oh my.

 

It was all there on that first day: the food, the conviviality, the beauty, the art, the scents, the light.

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.

Il est Juillet et il est temps pour le merveilleux Paris in July, hosted by Emma at Words and Peace.

Nine Great French Classics I Still Have Not Read

• François Rabelais La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel (Gargantua and Pantagruel)
• Stendhal – Le rouge et le noir (The Red and the Black)
• Victor Hugo – Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame)
• George Sand – La petite Fadette
• Honoré de Balzac – La comédie humaine (The Human Comedy)
• Guy de Maupassant – Bel ami
• Colette – Gigi
• Georges Perec – La vie mode d'emploi (Life A User's Manual)
• Marcel Proust – À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time)

Have you read or attempted any of these? 

Il est Juillet et il est temps pour le merveilleux Paris in July, hosted by Emma at Words and Peace.

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: A Classics Club Spin as We Recover from the Hurricane

    

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. 

My dad finally got power back, and he's actually hired someone to cut up the ten trees Hurricane Beryl knocked to the ground on his property (originally, he planned to have us four kids do this...we who range in age from 75 to 60!) The debris trucks are hauling off and mulching all the downed limbs and leaves around town. The town's museum took a hit with a leaky roof and it's indefinitely closed, but the library's damage was quickly repaired. We are slowly coming back from the hurricane, though the heat and the mosquitoes are horrific right now.

What I Read Last Week:

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (1000 Books You Must Read; Classics Club)

Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge (Paris in July)

Joie: A Parisian's Guide to Celebrating the Good Life by Ajiri Aki (Paris in July)

Paris and Her Cathedrals by R. Howard Bloch (Paris in July)

What I'm Reading Now:

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (in French for Paris in July)

Germinal by Émile Zola (Paris in July; Classics Club)

A Taste of Paris: A History of the Parisian Love Affair with Food by David Downie (Paris in July)

Captain Fricasse by Théophile Gautier (Paris in July; 1001 Children's Books)

"Read the best books first, 

or you may not have a chance to read them at all."

                ---Thoreau

The Classics Club has issued the announcement of the 38th Classics Club Spin.

What is the spin?

It’s easy. At your blog, before next Sunday, July 21st, create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list.

This is your Spin List.

You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the spin period.

Try to challenge yourself. For example, you could list five Classics Club books you have been putting off, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favourite author, re-reads, ancients, non-fiction, books in translation — whatever you choose.)

On Sunday July 21st, The Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by Sunday, September 22nd. 

Let's see who can make it the whole way and finished their spin book!

So here is my list.

1, 11 Lost Horizon by James Hilton

2, 12 The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

3, 13 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

4, 14 Pigeon Post by Arthur Ransome

5, 15 The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather

6, 16 Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford

7, 17 Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens

8, 18 Village School by Miss Read

9, 19 The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber

10, 20 The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

I've just finished 848 pages of Nicholas Nickleby and I'm reading Zola's Germinal and Madame Bovary in French, so I've chosen ten titles to throw into the spin machine that are (1) titles that are fairly short and (2) titles that are somewhat frothy. 

Followup:  Okay, the spin stopped today on the least short and the least frothy book in this stack...The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens. It looks like there are 560 pages but only 302 poems. We have until September 22nd to finish this spin book. That is roughly 60 days, so it works out to five poems a day. I think I can...I think I can...

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

Why I Love Paris: My Favorite Photos from Paris: An Alley in Paris

Ten Things I Love About The Little Prince

The Sunday Salon: We Face Off with Hurricane Beryl

Clara Reads Proust by Stéphane Cartier

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 new list to add to my perpetual challenges:

The New York Times' 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.

Good Thing #2:

We had a Paris in July Zoom get-together

this week.

How wonderful it was to talk books

with other bloggers!

Thank you, Emma,

for organizing this.

Good Thing #3:

We celebrated 

our 46th wedding anniversary

this week!

(Note: This is an old photo...we were not actually in Paris this week.)

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.