The Sunday Salon: Valentine's Day, Mardi Gras, Early Voting, The Great Backyard Bird Count, and More

 

I am delighted 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 have been doing during the week. It's also a great opportunity to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Valentine's Day. Mardi Gras. Early voting. Beginning of Lent. The Great Backyard Bird Count. Naturalist club meeting. Two book club meetings. Putting in our spring garden.

A busy week at home.

What I Read Last Week:

Native Nations: A Millenium in North America by Kathleen DuVal (History)

The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes (Poetry; Classics Club Spin; Black History Month)

This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page (Fiction)

Vigil by George Saunders (Fiction)

Profiles in Ignorance: How American's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber by Andy Borowitz (Nonfiction)

What I'm Reading Now:

The Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Classic)

Caraval by Stephanie Garber (Fantasy)

Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations by Frederick Buechner (Spirituality)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Happy Valentine's Day!

Books for Armchair Travelers

Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber by Andy Borowitz: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

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 voted.

Good Thing #2:

I cooked for Valentine's Day.

Manicotti and Italian Wedding Soup.

Good Thing #3:

I spent hours watching birds

last week during the Great Backyard Bird Count.

I saw or heard 56 species in my backyard

over the four-day event, including 

this Cooper's Hawk, who wildly flew at

some of the small birds around my feeders,

missing them all.

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.

Grace & Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Today's Featured Book: 

Grace & Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon

by Matthew Norman

Genre: Fiction

Published: October 14, 2025

Page Count: 337 pages

Summary: 

The new year had barely begun when Grace White and Henry Adler both lost their spouses. Now, nearly a year later, the first holiday season since their "Great and Terrible Sadnesses" approaches. Although their mothers scheme to matchmake the two surviving spouses, it’s clear that neither is ready to date again. Yet no one understands what they are going through better than each other, and a delicate friendship is born.

When Henry sees an ad for a Christmas movie marathon—once an annual tradition for him and his wife—Grace offers to watch some films with him, despite her aversion to a few of his picks. Her two young kids, Ian and Bella, also join in whenever possible—bedtimes permitting, of course.

With each movie, Grace and Henry’s shared grief eases as they start to see a life beyond the sadness. But as they draw closer, other romantic possibilities leave them uncertain about their future together. Is their bond merely the result of loneliness and shared circumstances, or have they found something that’s worth taking a shot at . . . again?

 

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.

All things considered, I'm doing okay. I get that sounds like something someone says when they're not doing okay. I also get that "all things considered" is putting in some real work there because I'm still wearing the black dress I wore to my husband's funeral this morning. But seriously. For real. I'm doing okay.

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. 

"I swear to God, Henry, if you ask me what I'm wearing..."

This is how Grace answers her phone.

"I won't, I promise."

"Actually, I already told you. Yea, Costco sweatpants. And I've combined them with my favorite lounging sweater. Last time I wore it home, my mom said she didn't know Goodwill had a section specifically for shut-ins."

"Jeez."

"She means well," says Grace. "I think. That's what I tell myself."

I really want to read a light holiday book. I've tried two others, and I read them to the end, but they were...well, ho-hum. 

This one is at least starting out well.

We shall see...

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.    

December 19th - Are you more of a plot-driven reader or a character-driven reader? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

Definitely, without-a-doubt, totally, completely...character-driven. I could care less if there is a plot. Just give me characters, please....

Nonfiction November 2025: Book Pairings

 

Week 3 (11/10-11/16) Book Pairings: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it's a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. Or maybe it’s just two books you feel have a link, whatever they might be. You can be as creative as you like! (Hosted by Liz at Adventures in reading, running and working from home).

It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (fiction)

Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine K. Albright (nonfiction)

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
— Sinclair Lewis

Sinclair Lewis presents an alarming look at the growth of fascism in America in his fiction book, It Can't Happen Here. Madeleine K. Albright outlines the signs of fascism in her nonfiction book, Fascism: A Warning.

Germinal by

Émile Zola (fiction)

Poverty by America by Matthew Desmond (nonfiction)

Germinal is a novel by the French writer, Émile Zola, first published in 1885. It tells the story of the wretched poverty of mine workers in Northern France.

Sociologist Matthew Desmond looks at the reasons why one in eight children lives in dire poverty in the richest country in the world, why corporations who make huge profits pay meager wages, and why people live and die on the streets in his book, Poverty by America.

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (fiction)

The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt (nonfiction)

A new regime begins in Ireland, and small terrible things begin to happen to ordinary people. Scientist Eilish Stack is horrified to find that her husband, the father of her four children, has been carted off by the secret police. And that's just the beginning in the novel Prophet Song.

Author Hannah Arendt looks at the beginnings and characteristics of totalitarian governments, focusing on two totalitarian governments in our time, Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, in her nonfiction book, The Origins of Totalitarianism.

A Bakery in Paris by Aimee K. Runyan (with Croissants): Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

 

Today's Featured Book: 

A Bakery in Paris

by Aimie K. Runyan

Genre: Historical Fiction

Published: August 1, 2023

Page Count: 384 pages

Summary: 

1870: The Prussians are at the city gates, intent to starve Paris into submission. Lisette Vigneau—headstrong, willful, and often ignored by her wealthy parents—awaits the outcome of the war from her parents’ grand home in the Place Royale in the very heart of the city. When an excursion throws her into the path of a revolutionary National Guardsman, Théodore Fournier, her destiny is forever changed. She gives up her life of luxury to join in the fight for a Paris of the People. She opens a small bakery with the hopes of being a vital boon to the impoverished neighborhood in its hour of need. When the city falls into famine, and then rebellion, her resolve to give up the comforts of her past life is sorely tested.

1946: Nineteen-year-old Micheline Chartier is coping with the loss of her father and the disappearance of her mother during the war. In their absence, she is charged with the raising of her two younger sisters. At the hand of a well-meaning neighbor, Micheline finds herself enrolled in a prestigious baking academy with her entire life mapped out for her. Feeling trapped and desperately unequal to the task of raising two young girls, she becomes obsessed with finding her mother. Her classmate at the academy, Laurent Tanet, may be the only one capable of helping Micheline move on from the past and begin creating a future for herself. 

Both women must grapple with loss, learn to accept love, and face impossible choices armed with little more than their courage and a belief that a bit of flour, yeast, sugar, and love can bring about a revolution of their own. 

 

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.

September 2, 1870 

“Come away from the window, Lisette. I don’t want anyone knowing we’re up here.”

Runyan, Aimie K.. A Bakery in Paris: Two Women, Two Eras, One Bakery of Courage, 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. 

Madame Dupuis ushered me in to her apartment with the warmth of someone welcoming an old friend. She walked with a cane, but she never allowed it to detract from her graceful comportment. She somehow managed to glide, despite being dependent on the stick for support. Though I had to be fifty years her junior, perhaps more, she made me feel awkward and gangly.

Runyan, Aimie K.. A Bakery in Paris: Two Women, Two Eras, One Bakery of Courage, p. 56. Kindle Edition.  

This book is two stories---one of a rich girl, Lisette, in 1870, who meets a man, Theo, fighting for the common people; and one of a young woman, Micheline, in 1946, waiting for the return of her mother after the war to relieve of her of the burden of caring for her sisters. 

Both stories involve baking, and both involve a bakery, and, for me, that's the best part of the story.

I shall attempt, for the first time, a croissant. From the book:

“Always start the morning before you plan to serve. Mix four cups flour, two spoonfuls of salt, one-third cup sugar, one spoonful of yeast, one-and-a-half cups milk, and one cup water. Mix well, place in oiled bowl, and chill in icebox or coldest part of cellar overnight. 

The next morning, take three-quarters of a pound cold butter and roll between two sheets of parchment. Shape into a square, roughly half an inch thick. Keep butter as cold as you can. Roll your dough into a square the same width, but twice the length of your square of butter. Fold the butter in the dough and seal edges. Fold the dough-and-butter sheets in half, and then again into thirds. Let dough rest and complete this process two more times. Roll out the dough and cut into triangles three inches at the base. Roll into the croissant shape, stretching the dough as you work. Let rest one hour. Brush the tops with egg whites and bake in a medium oven one half hour. Let cool one half hour before serving. Serve with butter and any variety of jams, jellies, or preserves."

Okay, these might have a few problems. I used the recipe (above) from the 1871 portion of this book, and I might have needed a little more guidance about temperature than "a medium oven," especially as I imagine this might have been a wood stove of some sort. There was a lot (a lake, if I am being completely honest) of melted butter halfway through the bake. They may not be beautiful, but they do have great flavor (as you might expect, with 3/4 lb. of butter in the recipe). 

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 11th - 17th - How many weekly bookish posts do you put on your blog and/or social media? (submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver's Review)

For seventeen years, I've aimed at posting once a week. I've now posted for 884 weeks and I've posted 2,794 times. That's an average of three times a week.