Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Friday Book Friends: Book Beginnings on Fridays, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop... I've been intending to join these fun book memes for many years, and I finally got around to trying these out on Fridays in December.  I plan to continue participating in 2023.

Today's Featured Book 

 Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries 

by Heather Fawcett

Genre: Fantasy

Published: January 10, 2023

Page Count: 320 pages

Summary: 

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, muddle Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

 

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.

"Shadow is not at all happy with me. He lies by the fire while the chill wind rattles the door, tail inert, staring out from beneath that shaggy forelock of his with the sort of accusatory resignation peculiar to dogs, as if to say: Of all the stupid adventures you've dragged me on, this will surely be the death of us. I fear I have to agree, though this makes me no less eager to begin my research."

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice. 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 Freda's Voice and visit others in the linky. 

"For the first time, he looked at me as if I had surprised him. I guess he'd never had much reason to bargain with mortals when he could simply sing them senseless and then drain their hearts dry."

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.    

February 3rd - 9th - What was your favorite genre to read as a child? Do you still read that genre, or do you read something else now? (submitted by Mark @ Carstairs Considers)

Magical stories! 

Edward Eager's books, 

like Half Magic and The Time Garden and Magic by the Lake.

A Wrinkle in Time.

Fairy tales.

I loved magical stories when I was a kid.

I still love them,

but I have a hard time finding them now that I'm a grownup.

Dinosaur Fossil Hunting in the Badlands of Montana

The only legal way to hunt for dinosaur fossils in the US is to hunt on private land.

We visited a fabulous ranch outside of Glendive in eastern Montana last week. We saw right away that Glendive is the right place for a dinosaur fossil hunt.

We started with a short tour of what others have found on the ranch.

How about this dinosaur femur?

The ranch owner found this ostrich-like ancient creature.

Our guide instructed us on how to hunt for dinosaur fossils.

Then we were off in the ranch wagons for a hour-long ride to a distant part of the ranch.

The Badlands are rough country. 

The winds were whipping up to 40 mph. 

The temperatures rose up into the 90s F.

It was fun to meet our fellow fossil hunters and see what they found.

One of our fellow hunters, Breckin, has been fossil hunting several times.

He made a short video for us about how to get bone out of the rock.

We got pretty good at finding fossils (left to right): 

dinosaur bone (under screwdriver), plant impression, dinosaur tooth.

My husband has been wanting to come here for years.

He was little-kid-excited when he unearthed a dinosaur bone bigger than his hand.

Our guide helped him glue it and wrap it for the trip home.

What an adventure!

For more info:

Baisch's Montana Dinosaur Digs

dailydinosaurdigs.com

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Back from Montana with Four Books Read, a Few Sapphires Found, and Fifteen Pounds of Dinosaur Bones

 

I surprised myself by reading four books while we were gone to Montana. 

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance will always be the book I say is my favorite book because it was life changing when I first read it in 1976. Mark Richardson takes to the road on a cycle, following the path of Robert Pirsig in his now-classic philosophical book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle, in Zen and Now. Montana 1948 is the story of one family's struggles after learning a family member has committed a crime. A River Runs Through It is the semi-autobiographical story of Norman Maclean and his relationship to his brother, Paul.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance 

by Mark Richardson

Montana 1948 by Larry Watson

A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean

Another Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Everyday by Clemency Burton Hill (Nonfiction)

Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression by Studs Terkel (Nonfiction)

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (Chapter-a-Day)

Falling Up: Poems and Drawings by Shel Silverstein

My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: What Shall I Bring You from Montana? Dinosaur Fossils? Or Sapphires?

Bookish Wishes

Bibliophile: Avid Readers in France

A sincere thank you to all of you kind people who sent me a book from my Bookish Wishes list! Very unexpected.

Paris in July is coming soon. I will be co-hosting Paris in July this year with the wonderful Tamara from Thyme for Tea.

The aim of the month is to celebrate our French experiences through reading, watching, listening, observing, cooking and eating all things French!

There will be no rules or targets in terms of how much you need to do or complete in order to be a part of this experience – just blog about anything French and you can join in! Some ideas might include;

• reading a French themed book – fiction or non-fiction,
  
• watching a French movie,
  
• listening to French music,
  
• cooking French food,
  
• experiencing French, art, architecture and travel
• tasting French wine, or testing French cocktails
• celebrating le quatorze juillet or Bastille Day

Whatever it is that you love about France---share it with us all! And pass the word...

Tamara's signup post is here.

My husband and I had a fantastic time in Montana. We hunted for sapphires. We hunted for dinosaur fossils. We visited three independent bookstores. We saw nine new-to-us bird species and two new-to-us butterfly species. A good trip!

Good Thing #1

We found three sapphires.

Good Thing #2

We mailed home fifteen pounds of

dinosaur bones and teeth

and other fossils.

Good Thing #3

The Western Tanager was my favorite new-to-me bird 

we discovered in Montana.

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

What Shall I Bring You from Montana? Dinosaur Fossils? Or Sapphires?

 

If all has gone as we hope, I am somewhere in the wilds of Montana. I may have found stacks of dinosaur fossils. I may have piles of sapphires. Which would you like me to bring you?

I finished reading:

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

I'm setting aside all my other books for right now and focusing on Montana-ish books:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Mark Richardson

The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich

Whistling Season by Ivan Doig

Montana 1948 by Larry Watson

A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean

Last week I posted:

The Sunday Salon: Hunting for Fossils and Sapphires: Heading to Montana This Week

Picture Books That Left Me Hanging

Les Galeries Lafayette: A Paris Paradise, Even for a Non-Shopper

Save the Date...Paris in July is Coming Soon

Good Thing #1:

Perhaps we have found dinosaurs fossils.

Good Thing #2:

Perhaps we have found sapphires.

Good Thing #3:

Perhaps we are enjoying the beauty of Montana.

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below.