1,000+ Pages of Reading This Week

 

My husband and I will be leaving for a hiking trip to Arkansas on Friday. My sister and her husband will be going with us. Doesn't a hiking trip sound great?

What I Read Last Week

I made these books big for a reason: These books ARE big. The Book of Form and Emptiness is 560 pages, and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is 487 pages. That's a combined total of more than 1,000 pages of reading last week. 

What did I think of them? Click on the book title to read my complete review.

What I Am Reading Now

I downloaded a bunch of books from Overdrive at my library last week. I'm taking these along for our trip to Arkansas. We'll see what I decide to read, but it's nice to have lots of choices.

Renewal: How Nature Reawakens Our Creativity, Compassion, and Joy 

by Andrés R. Edwards

The Hummingbird's Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings by Sy Montgomery

How to Draw Anything Anytime: A Beginner's Guide to Cute and Easy Doodles

Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith by Henri Nouwen

Art Before Breakfast by Danny Gregory

The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay

Hummingbird Salamander: A Novel by Jeff Vandermeer

Extraordinary Insects: Weird. Wonderful. Indispensible. The Ones Who Run Our World.

by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson

On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor

Map: Collected and Last Poems by Wislawa Szymborska

Which one should I read first?

Any recommendations?

I need your help! Public nominations for the Cybils end on October 15. There are still lots of wonderful books that have not yet been nominated. The Cybils social media director has made some great #Cybils2021 Idea Boards. Please take a look around the boards and nominate books here!

A petition by 400 parents in nearby Katy, Texas caused books written by Newbery-award winning author Jerry Craft to be pulled from the shelves of the schools' libraries and his upcoming speaking event to be postponed. Parents claim that his works promote critical race theory. New Kid, his first graphic novel for kids, is the story of a boy of color who is sent by his parents out of his neighborhood to a school in the affluent parent of town where there are few children of color. To find out more about this story, read newspaper articles here and here. For more about critical race theory, take a look at this NY Times article here.

Have any of these parents even read Craft's books? Have any of them met Craft or heard him speak? Have these parents looked into what critical race theory is? I have read his books and I have met him and heard him speak, and he and his books are the best of the best. I can't tell you how this saddens me. 

I've been eagerly anticipating turning 65 so that I can take a college class or two for free each semester Until then, I discovered the next-best thing: OLLI. OLLI is the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UTMB in Galveston, and it's designed for adults 55 and older. This semester OLLI offers an eight-week class on the poetry of Adrienne Rich, conducted through Zoom, and taught by a retired UH professor, Dr. John Gorman. Absolutely mesmerizing. 

Good Thing #1

I got my flu shot.

Good Thing #2

The temperatures dropped into the 60s at night this week.

Good Thing #3

We are headed off for a week of hiking and forest bathing in Arkansas!

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. 

Paris Fashion in the Winter of 2020

 We saw a lot of beautiful fashions in the windows of Paris when we visited the city in the late winter of 2020, just before the pandemic hit.

Wedding dress

Men's shirts

Crocheted fashions

Elegant evening

I loved this...coat (?)

I thought my husband might like this suit.

My great-niece, Josie, was my fashion adviser on this trip.

She urged me to buy this lovely outfit.

Josie liked it because it was pink.

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Weekend Cooking was created by Beth Fish Reads and is now hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader (and Baker). 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. For more information, see the welcome post.

Bookish Pet Peeves

peeve   a source of annoyance or irritation

I have a lot of bookish peeves.

1. People who never read books.

2. People who must read books in order.

3. People who must finish every book they start.

4. People who sigh and say,

"I wish I could read as many books as you.

I just don't have time."

5. Books that have a great cover and go downhill from there.

6. Books that are made from movies.

7. Predictable plots in books.
8. Books with the Problem of the Month.

9. YA books that are sooo serious.

(Is life really that horrible at fourteen?)

10. And finally (and please forgive me if I step on toes) Vampire Books.

What are your bookish peeves?

Reblogged from March 11, 2011.

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.  

A Conversation with Ruth Ozeki; Optimistic October; Plus Nominate Your Favorite Children's and YA Books for the Cybils

   

What I Read Last Week

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Saint Francis of Assisi by G. K. Chesterton ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sea Lions in the Parking Lot by Lenora Todaro ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Three Princes of Serendip by Rodaan Al Galidi ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Merci Suárez Can't Dance by Meg Medina ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I had a great reading week. I send a big thank you to those of you who recommended Crying in H Mart. It took me to that deeply sad place of loss that author Michelle Zauner experienced after the death of her mother. My only complaint would be that it might have also focused, for me, a bit too much on food. 

I also read three great new children's books. I put off reading Merci Suárez Can't Dance because I loved Merci Suárez Changes Gears so much, and I am always disappointed with sequels. Well, maybe there are some exceptions to that sequel disappointment...Merci Suárez Can't Dance was equal to the first book, and I might even say I loved it more than the first book. Rodaan Al Galidi shares his favorite childhood folk tales he first heard growing up in Iraq in The Three Princes of Serendip. These are fabulous stories. I was fascinated with Sea Lions in the Parking Lot, a nonfiction picture book about the reaction of animals around the world to the retreat of humans during the pandemic. Loved this one!

What I Am Reading Now

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (Fiction)

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown (Nonfiction)

The Gastronomical Me by M.F.K. Fisher (Food Nonfiction)

The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher (Food Nonfiction)

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (Classic)

 

It's time to nominate your favorite children's and YA books from 2021 for the Cybils Awards!

Please nominate your favorites here from now until October 15.

I heard the most marvelous conversation about books and writing through Inprint Houston last week. Elizabeth McCracken interviewed Ruth Ozeki about Ozeki's new book,The Book of Form and Emptiness. Both McCracken and Ozeki teach writing, and the ideas they shared...and their thoughts about Ozeki's book...marvelous.

The 2021 National Book Festival is over, but you can still experience it through the archive of authors here.

Keep your spirits up with the Optimistic October calendar from Action for Happiness. 

Good Thing #1

My comadre (my daughter-in-law's mother) bought this beautiful plate 

of cookies from Reuter's Bakery for me to take home

when we were in Chicago. Delicious.

Good Thing #2

My granddaughter, Annie, and her family spent the weekend with us

last week, and Annie made this handsome portrait of me for my refrigerator.

Good Thing #3

We had a party on our last day of water aerobics class.

We ate a yummy potluck breakfast with 

a spinach quiche, sausages, homemade bread,

fresh berries, deviled eggs, cinnamon rolls, and more.

We are planning to get together for an outdoor lunch once a month during winter.

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.  

Native American Words from My Recent Reading

I'm a person who is wild about languages. I learned English first, but later I've learned a lot of Spanish, a good bit of French, and a little Italian.

I've even learned a tiny bit of Japanese.

But I have never run across any words from languages spoken by Native Americans, the first languages spoken on my continent...

Or I hadn't until I read two books this week about Native Americans, one fiction and one nonfiction. Don't let the title put you off, but Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask is a fabulous nonfiction book (written by a Native American who asserts that it is perfectly fine to call Native Americans Indians) that poses and answers hundreds of good questions about Native Americans. The Firekeeper's Daughter is the story of a Native American who is asked to work as an undercover agent to help law enforcement stop a drug-running group on a reservation. 

Both of these books were filled with Ojibwe words. Ojibwe is, of course, but one language of many spoken by Native Americans. As the author writes in Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: "How many tribal languages are spoken in the Americas? There were around 2,300 tribal languages spoken in North and South America before sustained contact with Europeans (500 in what’s now the United States and Canada and 300 in Mexico, with the remaining 1,500 spoken in South America). There are now around 650 total in all of the Americas (with just 150 of those spoken in the United States and Canada), and the number is shrinking quickly...There are 56 Indigenous language families in North America and over three times that number in South America. Sometimes Native American languages spoken by groups that are next to each other (like Ojibwe and Dakota) are as different as Chinese and English."

Here are some of the words I took away from these two books.

Minobimaadiziwin, perhaps?

minobimaadiziwin: the good way of life—attained through love, humility, respect, honesty, bravery, wisdom, and truth.

wiijiindiwin: a word for when you no longer walk alone on your path but are together for the journey on this earth. 

manaadendamowin: to act without harm.

nibwaakaawin: to be wise by living with an abundance of sight.

debwewin: to know truth.

Aren't these beautiful words? These are words I think we need in our lives today.

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered, or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative! It was first created by Kathy over at Bermuda Onion and is now hosted at Elza Reads.