Does It Count? Yes or No?

I've been working diligently to read as many of the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up as I can. I've now read 700 of the 1001 books.

I've faced many challenges along the way. Many of the books on the list are tricky to find. I've had dilemmas that I had to resolve. Here are some of the most difficult:

DOES IT COUNT?  YES OR NO?

PROBLEM?
I found a book in the right series,
but it isn't the exact book listed in 1001 Children's Books.

DOES IT COUNT? YES OR NO?
Yes. I decided to count any book in the series
if it is a picture book.

PROBLEM?
It's the right series, but it's not the exact book.
It's a picture book version.

DOES IT COUNT?  YES OR NO?
No. I think I will keep trying to find the original version of the book.

PROBLEM?
It's the right book, but it's not in English.

DOES IT COUNT?  YES OR NO?
Yes. I decided to go ahead and read books in other languages
(1) if the book was a picture book with limited text that I could easily translate online and
(2) if I was unable to find a copy in English.
So far, I've "read" books in 

Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Japanese. 

(The Japanese book was "read" by following the story in the pictures.)

PROBLEM?
It's the right book, but it's not in English.

DOES IT COUNT? YES OR NO?
No. It's 340 pages. In Italian.

PROBLEM?
It's the right book, but it has the wrong title.

DOES IT COUNT? YES OR NO?
Yes. I think it is the same as The Big Birkett.

PROBLEM?
It's the right book, but it is written in the wrong format. 

This book is written as a play.

DOES IT COUNT? YES OR NO?
I'm not sure. What do you think? 

I have 301 books left to read. Many are not available in English. Many are not available in America. Some seem to be impossible to find in the world. 

How will I read these 301 books?

Cape May Warbler and Other Birds We Have Seen This Year

April 22 is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. In honor of Earth Day I am sharing photos  of birds I've taken in the past year.

Carolina chickadee at my feeder.

Cardinal (female) at the birdbath.

Cardinal (male) in the pecan tree.

House wren at my feeder.

Willet at the beach at Freeport, Texas last fall.

Common terns at the beach in Freeport, Texas last fall.

Very fat pigeon in Paris in January

Cape May Warbler, at Spring Fling 

at Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, Quintana Beach, Texas

(Of course Spring Fling is cancelled this year, but you can still visit GCBO 

and look for migrant birds stopping at Quintana to refuel 

after a long flight over the Gulf of Mexico.)

Do you have these birds in your part of the world?

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by A Web of Stories. To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at A Web of Stories.

The 50th Anniversary of Earth Day: Books You Might Like to Read Now

Earth Day is April 22 of every year. April 22, 2020 will mark 50 years of Earth Day. The first Earth Day was a unified response to an environment in crisis — oil spills, smog, rivers so polluted they literally caught fire.

On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans — 10% of the U.S. population at the time — took to the streets, college campuses and hundreds of cities to protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet.

The first Earth Day is credited with launching the modern environmental movement, and is now recognized as the planet’s largest civic event.

For more on Earth Day, see the Earth Day 2020 website.

I remember the first Earth Day. I was thirteen, and I immediately became deeply worried about our world. 

It's fifty years later, and I'm still deeply worried. Now I am focused on doing things. Today I'd like to share with you some of my favorite books about nature that you might like to read.

MEMOIRS FROM NATURE-LOVERS

Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward Abbey

Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams

Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves by Farley Mowat

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

No-Impact Man by Colin Beavan

NATURE CLASSICS

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Adventures With a Texas Naturalist by Roy Bedichek

Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward Abbey

Wilderness Essays by John Muir

Goodbye to a River: A Narrative by John Graves

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves by Farley Mowat

Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

My First Summer in the Sierras by John Muir

The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

Karankaway Country by Roy Bedichek

The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich

The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson

PLACES WE LOVE

A Weird and Wild Beauty: The Story of Yellowstone, the World's First National Park by Erin Peabody

The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea by Jack E. Davis

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

TREES

Around the World in 80 Trees by Jonathan Drori

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries From a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben

Trees by Verlie Hutchens

Can You Hear the Trees Talking? by Peter Wohlleben

Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness by Qing Li

The Forest in the Trees by Connie McLennan

BIRDING AND BIRDS

The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik

The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman

North on the Wing: Travels with the Songbird Migration of Spring by Bruce M. Beehler

Bird Count by Susan Edwards Richmond

My Book of Birds by Geraldo Valerio

ANIMALS

The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife by Lucy Cooke

Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves by Laurel Braitmann

American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Observation in the West by Nate Blakeslee

Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures by Nick Pyenson

Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey

Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds by Joy Adamson

The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea by Philip Hoare

NATURE BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

Redwoods by Jason Chin

Life-Sized Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya

Extinct: An Illustrated Exploration of Animals that Have Disappeared by Lucas Riera

Wild Lives: 50 Extraordinary Animals that Made History by Ben Lerwill

An Egg is Quiet by Diana Hutts Aston

Butterflies and Moths by Nic Bishop

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Being Frog by April Pulley Sayre

One Beetle Too Many: The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin by Kathryn Lasky

Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea by Steve Jenkins

Bubble Homes and Fish Farts by Fiona Bayrock

Follow the Moon Home: A Tale of One Idea, Twenty Kids, and a Hundred Sea Turtles by Philippe Cousteau

About Penguins by Catherine Sill

My Book of Birds by Geraldo Valerio

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai

Beehive by Jorey Hurley

Bird Count by Susan Edwards Richmond

The Moose of Ewenki by Gerelchimeg Blackcrane

The Forest in the Trees by Connie McLennan

Where Else in the Wild? by David M. Schwartz

Can You Hear the Trees Talking? by Peter Wohlleben

Dolphin Baby! by Nicola Davies

NATURE NONFICTION THAT MIGHT PROVOKE YOU INTO ACTION

Half-Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life by Edmund O. Wilson

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

Visit Sunny Chernobyl: And Other Adventures in the World's Most Polluted Places by Andrew Blackwell

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai

Rewilding: Meditations, Practices, and Skills for Awakening in Nature by Micah Mortali

Water from Stone: The Story of Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve by Jeffrey Green

Creating Sanctuary by Jessi Bloom

FICTION WITH A STRONG NATURE THEME

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Walkabout by James Vance Marshall

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Violet Mackerel's Natural Habitat by Anna Bradford

NATURE BOOKS I WANT TO READ

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen

Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams

Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction by Mary Ellen Hannibal

The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery

The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs by Tristan Gooley

Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez

Have you read any of these?

What have I left out?

What do you recommend to me?

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 Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

What did I do this week? Read. Pretty much all the time. 

I finally seem to have gotten into the quarantine reading spirit; I finished eleven books last week and eight of them were adult titles. 

I heartily want to recommend The Splendid and the Vile. I started this year deeply saddened by the mean-spirited political climate in America, and I began the year reading only mood-boosting books. The Splendid and the Vile would be an excellent addition to that list. It's perfect for this awful time in the world. The Splendid and the Vile tells the story of Winston Churchill, prime minister of England during the terrible days, weeks, months of bombing from Nazi Germany. I felt heartened by reading the words of Churchill. We could all become better people if we modeled ourselves after that man (well, we might skip the cigars and whiskey). 

I also loved the novel Migrations. There's an end-times feel to Migrations, with the main character, Franny Stone, attempting to follow the last migration of the last of the Arctic terns from the north all the way to Antarctica. Franny is an unreliable narrator and the world feels unreliable, too, with mass extinctions occurring everywhere. There is the sense that everything is falling apart; there is uncertainty in how to act in these sorts of times. Migrations will be published in August of this year.

I also finished:

 In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Wild Lives: 50 Extraordinary Animals That Made History by Ben Lerwill (5 stars)

Happiness Is...500 Ways to Be in the Moment by Lisa Swerling

The Paris Hours by Alex George

The Candy Mafia by Lavie Tidhar

The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea by Jack E. Davis (5 stars)

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman

Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler (5 stars)

I'm reading four wonderful books right now:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

The Emergency Poet: An Anti-Stress Poetry Anthology edited by Deborah Alma

Weather: A Novel by Jenny Offill

Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse

Lots of articles about Quarantine Reading:

What Your Go-To Quarantine Reading Says About You from Literary Hub

Miss Travel? Explore the Country in Quarantine Through These Books from LA Times

What to Read in Quarantine by The Harvard Crimson

The Exquisite Pain of Reading in Quarantine in The Atlantic

Several bookish events going on now or soon:

The Classics Club Spin #23

The Cybils TBR Reading Challenge

Off the Grid Readathon

1. I had a cough this week with aches and maybe a touch of fever. That doesn't sound like a good thing, does it? But the cough was not a dry cough, and it seems to be diminishing, and the fever and aches are gone. My daughter-in-law, son, and two grandchildren all had something similar the last time we saw other human beings, three weeks ago. 

2. Sunny, cool days.

3. Our daughter-in-law and son in Chicago mailed us a package this week. Hurray! 

How are you doing this week?

Thank you for coming to the Sunday Salon. There are no real requirements for linking up at Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is 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.