Zoom, Zoom, and More Zoom

Writing...drawing...walking...Zoom book club...yoga at home...Zoom Christian meditation group...early BookExpo on Zoom...birds in the backyard...baking bread with cake flour...reading...checking in on people...people checking on me...a wee bit of coughing...Inprint Houston Reading Series with Colum McCann and Emily St. John Mandel on Zoom...Scrabble online...blogging...having conversations from afar with friends...putting on mask and gloves to pick up books at the library...All About Trees on Zoom...watching as others get haircuts and talk about returning to the Y and plan for the reopening of our town's museum, but not ready to join in...ordering pizza and watching the end of season three of The Good Place, and that's a big night...

That's my week.

Leave Only Footprints: My Acacia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park by Conor Knighton 

We forget, but there are lots of ways to read a book. I read a book last week. It was an immersive experience. The book is Leave Only Footprints: My...more

Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process by John McPhee

John McPhee shares his path to becoming a writer in this combination memoir/how-to-write book. I took lots of notes from this book, which I'll note...more

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Devotions by Mary Oliver

50 Ways to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life: Practical Lessons in Pencil and Paper

The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler

Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living by Krista Tippett

A Bad Birdwatcher's Companion by Simon Barnes

Ms. Bixby's Last Day by John David Anderson

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Afterlife by Julia Alvarez

Letters to a Young Writer by Colum McCann

I wrote three posts this week.

My Favorite Books-That-Recommend-Books

The Little Library Cookbook

Leave Only Footprints: There Are Lots of Ways to Read a Book

Good Thing #1. My library has begun curbside pickup. Happily, my library has Seinfeld on DVD. It's been a long time since we watched Seinfeld.

Good Thing #2. My husband and I participated in the Texas Invasive Species Bioblitz this week. So far, we've photographed seven invasive species in our area. It was nice to get out and walk around the county park for a couple of hours.

Good Thing #3. Quotes I ran across and wrote down this week. Former first lady Michelle Obama: "When they go low, we go high. And that ain't always easy, y'all." Author Graham Joyce, just before he died: "Why can't our job here on earth be simply to inspire each other?"

Bonus Good Thing. My grandson Wyatt is walking a little. He is so proud. I love the excitement of his four-year-old sister Annie, too.

I'm very happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. There are no requirements for linking up at Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is simply a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. 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.

Leave Only Footprints: There Are Lots of Ways to Read a Book

We forget, but there are lots of ways to read a book.

I read a book last week. It was an immersive experience. 

The book is Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park. It was written by Conor Knighton who undertook the journey to visit all fifty-nine* American national parks in a year. He filmed segments for CBS Sunday Morning along the way.

Happily, I found all twenty-four of the segments available online: On the Trail: CBS Sunday Morning.

I read a chapter, and then I watched a segment. 

National parks I've visited, like Yosemite and Yellowstone and Bryce Canyon and Crater Lake and Big Bend. Many more I wanted to visit and hadn't yet, like Smokey Mountain and Everglades and Glacier and Arches. Even more that I'd never heard of and didn't realize I wanted to visit, like Congaree and Isle Royale and Indiana Dunes. 

What a great way to read a book. What a great way to visit all the national parks. I didn't even leave any footprints.


*Note: There are now sixty-two national parks, with the addition of three new parks since 2016 when this book was written and the segments filmed.

Cookbook: The Little Library Cookbook

"Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably."  

---C. S. Lewis

I love to read.

I love to cook.

The Little Library Cookbook: 100 Recipes from Your Favorite Books is a book that seems to have been written just for me. 

The 100 books include many books that are literally (sorry) my favorites, including The Secret Garden (porridge); Anne of Green Gables (vanilla layer cake); Excellent Women (chicken casserole); Moby Dick (clam chowder); Anna Karenina (chicken with tarragon); and Green Eggs and Ham (self-evident). 

I've had this book for three years and I've tried several recipes. 

Today, I've decided to make a recipe from the book our book club will be discussing (virtually) next week, The Book Thief. Of course, since we are in lock-down, I will have to make do with what I have on hand, so some substitutions will be in order.

Potato & Leek Soup with Rye Bread

from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

1 tsp. canola oil (I subbed olive oil)

2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped

1 large leek, finely chopped (I subbed kale)

1 3/4 lbs. waxy potatoes, cut into 3/4" cubes

1 tsp. caraway seeds (I subbed sesame seeds)

2 bay leaves (no sub available)

Salt and pepper

1 3/4 pints vegetable stock

1. To make the soup, warm the oil over medium heat and then fry chopped onions until soft and translucent. Add the diced potatoes, caraway seeds, bay leaves, and salt and pepper. Pour in stock.

2. Simmer soup for twenty minutes before removing bay leaves and attacking it with potato masher. You could also use a blender, but I doubt even the Holtzapfels would have had one, and I like the not-quite smooth texture.

3. Continue to simmer until it reaches a texture you want (it will thicken as the water evaporates. Serve with bread.

Rye Bread

Makes 1 large loaf

4 cups rye flour (I subbed reg. bread flour)

3 cups white bread flour

1 tsp. salt

1 heaping T. fresh yeast

2 3/4 cups plus 2 T. lukewarm water

1 T. caraway seeds (I subbed toasted sesame seeds)

1. Pour the flours and salt into a mixing bowl and combine with your hand. Put the fresh yeast in a measuring cup and pour in the water. Mix with a fork. Leave the yeast until it is foaming slightly on top.

2. Pour the yeast into the flour mixture and combine with your hands. Add the caraway seeds, then knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Try not to add any more flour to the dough while you are kneading, but if it is unmanageably sticky, lightly flour your work surface and hands and then continue to knead. Return the dough to the mixing bowl, cover with a tea towel, and leave in a warm, draft-free place to rise until it has doubled in size.

3. After an hour or so, take the dough back out and flatten it. Reshape into a round loaf by stretching each edge out and then folding it back into the middle. Flip the loaf over so that the seam is underneath. Keep pulling the sides underneath the loaf with your palms to form a tight ball. Place the loaf on a lined baking sheet. Sprinkle liberally with flour and place the tea towel back on top. Leave to proof until doubled in size. When the bread has risen most of the way, preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.

4. When the dough is ready, transfer the tray to the oven. After 10 minutes, reduce the temperature to 400 degrees F. and bake for another 35 minutes. The loaf should be brown on top and should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

                                                

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.

Weekend Cooking was begun by Beth Fish Reads and is now being hosted by Marg of The Intrepid Reader. It is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. 

My Favorite Books-That-Recommend-Books

Good Books: A Book Lover's Companion by Steven Gilbar was one of the first books-that-recommend-books I read. I bought a copy long before computers could do the things they now do. I very carefully write down the books Gilbar recommended that looked good to me, and I took my list to the public library and looked through the library's card catalog (a real card file of book listings---ask your mother or grandmother if you don't know what I'm talking about) until I found copies of books I wanted to read. I also studied James Mustich's mail-order catalog, A Common Reader, (again, ask your mother or grandmother) each time it arrived, on the search for the good books. 

It wasn't long before I obtained a copy (probably from A Common Reader) of 100 One-Night Reads: A Book Lover's Guide. There is no better guide to short books.

Noel Perrin's A Reader's Delight arrived about the same time.

I remember thinking that 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die felt like one of the most comprehensive lists of good fiction I'd ever seen.

My marvelous friend, Louise, of A Strong Belief in Wicker, told me about 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. I have now read 700 of 1001 children's books you must read. Thank you, Louise.

I'll just say it: I prefer women authors, so 500 Great Books by Women was a natural choice for me.

I love fiction from around the world so Bloomsbury's Good Reading Guide: World Fiction is another perfect book for me.

I love Nancy Pearl. I first discovered Nancy Pearl as a librarian on NPR recommending books. That quickly led me to Book Lust, which led to More Book Lust, which led to Book Lust to Go, which led to Book Crush.

Side note: I had great fun with Book Lust. I sent out two copies of Book Lust through BookCrossing, and with each book I included a journal in which BCers could add books they recommend for each category listed in the Book Lust. The books traveled for seven years to seventy-four readers through twenty-seven states of the US, plus Canada, Portugal, Ireland, England, Finland, Netherlands, Germany, France, and Australia, and ended up back with me. So much fun!

This is the latest books-that-recommend-books I've read and loved. This is a library copy, but I hope to get a copy of my own soon.

Please share any good books-that-recommend-books with 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.

Simon the Fiddler and The Starless Sea; Drawing Every Day; and Fiddler on the Roof

I heard a crazy story this week about a tattoo parlor owner in East Texas that wanted to reopen despite our state's coronavirus restrictions. The owner invited a friend to help her, and her friend showed up toting an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. 

Sometimes it is embarrassing to be a Texan.

Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles

The National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry edited by J. Patrick Lewis

The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman

Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Mañanaland by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Up and down and all over the place. That's what my reading was like this week. I was disappointed with The Starless Sea which was mysterious and odd but seemed to go nowhere. I completely figured out the plot of Dear Mrs. Bird, but the characters were so charming that I enjoyed the book anyway. The photos and poems in The National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry were stunning; I might look for my own copy. It took me about half the book to get interested in Mañanaland, but I couldn't stop reading once I got vested in the story. My favorite book was Simon the Fiddler, a story of a post-Civil War musician and his friends in Texas.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Devotions by Mary Oliver

One Wild Bird at a Time: Portraits of Individual Lives by Bernd Heinrich

50 Ways to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life: Practical Lessons in Pencil and Paper

The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

     

This week I shared The Last Ten Books I Abandoned. I seem to abandon a lot of books these days. I wonder if everyone feels the same.

I also posted a list of Words for Peak Experiences.

1. New bird spotted this week. A female painted bunting? Vireo? Female orchard oriole? Goldfinch? Lesser goldfinch? Female lesser goldfinch? I've had all sorts of suggestions. 

2. I got 50 Ways to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life for Mother's Day. I am now drawing something every day. 

3. My sister and I and our husbands watched Fiddler on the Roof together (virtually) for our movie club this week. My brother-in-law hadn't seen this movie in thirty years and my sister had never seen it. We had a great discussion about family and change and tradition. 

I'm very happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. There are no real requirements to linking up at Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is simply a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. 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.