I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and Crying in the Bathroom

 

What I Read Last Week:

The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

What I'm Reading Now:

Villette by Charlotte Bronte (Chapter-a-Day)

Uncommon Type: Some Stories by Tom Hanks (Book Club)

I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong (Nonfiction)

Crying in the Bathroom: A Memoir by Erika L. Sánchez (Author Reading)

Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark (Fiction)

Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Challenge Update
Books I Loved So Much I Had to Get a Copy for My Personal Library
Castles in the Loire

Erika L. Sánchez will speak about her books, 

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and Crying in the Bathroom, 

at Inprint Houston on Monday night.

It's the last weekend to apply for the Cybils...the deadline to apply is this Monday! If you enjoy reading and reviewing children's or young adult books, you might take a look at this post about one judge's experiences here, read about who we are looking for here, and perhaps you will apply to be a judge this year here.

Good Thing #1

Gasoline prices are finally coming down here.

Who would have ever thought I'd be happy to see gas for $2.89 a gallon?!

Good Thing #2

I have been thinking about it all summer,

and I finally bought an Apple Watch this week.

Good Thing #3

We are off to Chicago 

next Friday

to visit our son and his wife!

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.  

Castles in the Loire

The Loire region in France is the land of castles.

I couldn't resist stopping and taking photos of castles when we saw them as we drove through the countryside.

Château de Montsoreau.

Château d'Azay-le-Rideau

Château Golf des Sept Tours. Our husbands played golf here and we all ate lunch on the grounds.

Château d'Ussé

Château de Saumur.

Château de Villandry. We visited the gardens here.

Château de Chenonceau. We toured inside this castle.

Château de Vaujours. Sadly, time hasn't been good to this castle.

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Books I Loved So Much I Had to Get a Copy for My Personal Library

I don't keep many books anymore. 

This is a photo of my favorites shelves. 

Here's a list of some of my favorites that I loved so much I had to keep a copy...

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

I, Claudius by Robert Graves

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

The Little Prince (in English, Spanish, and French) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers

Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam

Zen and Zen Classics by R. H. Blyth

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman

Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott

Book Lust by Nancy Pearl

1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

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.   

Challenge Update

 

It's the end of summer, 

and it's time for an update to my challenges.

YEARLY CHALLENGES (3)

Here's a summary of my 2022 yearly challenges:

I'm where I'd like to be or better on all three of these.

Now, here are the breakdowns of books read/yet to read for each of these three yearlong challenges:

The 2022 Nonfiction Reader Challenge:

1. Social History...How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith

2. Popular Science...I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong

3. Language...In Other Words by Christopher J. Moore

4. Medical Memoir...Patient Zero by Lydia Kang

5. Climate/Weather...The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

6. Celebrity...The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs

7. Reference...The Happiness Dictionary: Words from Around the World to Help Us Live a Richer Life

8. Geography...An Atlas of Extinct Countries by Defoe Gideon

9. Linked to a Podcast...Don't Overthink It by Anne Bogel

10. Wild Animals...Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by F.B.M. de Waal

11. Economics...Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression by Studs Terkel

12. Published in 2022...Read Dangerously by Azar Nafisi

11/12

The Back-to-the-Classics Challenge:

1. A 19th century classic. The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett.

2. A 20th century classic. Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham.

3. A classic by a woman author. The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton.

4. A classic in translation. Nana by Émile Zola. 

5. A classic by BIPOC author. Native Son by Richard Wright.

6. Mystery/detective/crime classic. Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux.

7. A classic short story collection. Dubliners by James Joyce.

8. Pre-1800 classic. The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.

9. A nonfiction classic.  My First Summer in the Sierras by John Muir.

10. A classic that's been on your TBR list the longest. Lost Horizon by James Hilton.

11. A classic set in a place you'd like to visit. First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir.

12. Wild card classic. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot.

9/12

The 2022 Chapter-a-Day Read-along: A Year of Classic Women Authors:

• Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield: January 1 to January 12 (12 chapters = 12 days)
• Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton: January 13 to February 27 (46 chapters = 46 days)
• Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: February 28 to March 6 (7 chapters = 7 days)
• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy: March 7 to April 6 (31 chapters = 31 days)
• Madame de Treymes by Edith Wharton: April 7 to April 16 (10 chapters = 10 days)
• Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell: April 17 to May 24 (38 chapters = 38 days) 
• The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot: May 25 to September 3 (57 chapters = 57 days)
• Villette by Charlotte Bronte September 4 to October 14 (41 chapters = 41 days)
• Agnes Grey by Emily Bronte: October 15 to November 8 (25 chapters = 25 days)
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte: November 9 to December 31 (53 chapters = 53 days)

7/10

SUMMER CHALLENGES (2)

Summer is over and here's how I did on my two summer challenges...

The 20 Books of Summer challenge:

1. First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir.     

2. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

3. The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis.   

4. Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression by Studs Terkel.  

5. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot.  

6. Bloomsbury Girls.   

7. The Anomaly: A Novel by Hervé Le Tellier.  

8. The Little Prince  

9. The Mystery of the Yellow Room.   

10. The Martins by David Foenkinos.   

11. Nana by Emile Zola.   

12. Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases. 

13. Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny.  

14. The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles.   

15. This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger.   

16. Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times.

17. Happy for You.   

18. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.

19. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.   

20. Lessons in Chemistry.

20/20

The Big Books of Summer:

1. First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir.   (400 pgs.)  

2. Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression (480 pgs.)   

3. Nana by Émile Zola (432 pgs.)

4. The Anomaly: A Novel by Hervé Le Tellier (400 pgs.)

5. Simple French Food by Richard Olney (480 pgs.)  

6. Patient Zero (432 pgs.)   

7. This Tender Land  (464 pgs.).  

8. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (416 pgs.)

9. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (418 pgs.)

10. Around the World in 80 Books by David Damrosch (432 pgs.)

BONUS: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (400 pgs.)

BONUS: The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah (468 pgs.)

BONUS: The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot (993 pgs.)

13/10

Have you taken on any challenges this year?

How did your challenges go this summer?

Good Thing #1

We loved playing a new game, Trekking the National Parks,

with a goal to visit (own?) all the parks.

Checked it out of the library.

Good Thing #2

Two helpful audiobooks (both on Hoopla) this week:

Happy Now: Let Playfulness Lift Your Load and Renew Your Spirit

Living Life as a Thank You: The Transformative Power of Daily Gratitude

Good Thing #3

We are visiting family in Dallas and East Texas this week.

S'mores, anyone?

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.