A New Bookstore Opens in My Town

For more photos, link up at Wordless Wednesday, Comedy Plus, Messymimi's Meanderings, Keith's Ramblings, Create With Joy, Amanda's Books and More, and My Corner of the World.

Most Intriguing New Books of 2023

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.    

Starting Strong Out of the Gate in 2023

 

I took over the helm of one of the earliest book blogging memes, The Sunday Salon, four years ago this month. 

The Sunday Salon was created sixteen years ago to encourage book conversations. 

I love to have you stop by here and post a link to your blog. 

I also hope you will also visit others who post on the linky. 

WHAT I READ

I like to come out of the gate strong each year, so I start and don't quite finish a lot of books in December that I wrap up on January 1st. (Note: The Count of Monte Cristo by Ena Moriyama is a graphic novel of the classic.)

WHAT I'M READING

Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: It's Almost a Brand-New Year!

The First Book of 2023 + One Word for 2023

I Am Happy to Announce the 2022 Cybils Awards Picture Book and Board Book Finalists!

My Favorite Reads of 2022

Taking down the Christmas tree...using up the turkey leftovers in pies and soups...walking...watching the backyard birds...seeing to my dad's wife and my dad...

My 2023 Challenges:

2023 Nonfiction Reader Challenge 

 2023 Back to the Classics Challenge 

2023 Chapter-a-Day Challenge 

2023 Gaia/Nature Reading Challenge

2023 Super-Past-Due Reviews Challenge

Creativity Reading Challenge 2023

Good Thing #1

Last week was my dad's 96th birthday!

We did not celebrate because we are still helping his wife heal,

but we hope to celebrate later in the month.

Good Thing #2

My sister spent Christmas in Paris

and she brought me back my favorite French thing:

French butter.

Good Thing #3

My dad gave me one of his Keurig coffeepots 

(oddly, he had four!)

and my son gave me this wonderful coffee cup.

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. 

We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

Friday Book Friends: Book Beginnings on Fridays, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop 

I've been intending to join these fun book memes for many years, and I finally got around to trying these out on Fridays in December. I plan to continue participating in 2023.

Today's Featured Book:

We All Want Impossible Things 

by Catherine Newman

Genre: Fiction

Published: December 19, 2022

Page Count: 210 pages

Synopsis: Edith and Ashley have been best friends for over forty-two years. They’ve shared the mundane and the momentous together: trick or treating and binge drinking; Gilligan’s Island reruns and REM concerts; hickeys and heartbreak; surprise Scottish wakes; marriages, infertility, and children. As Ash says, “Edi’s memory is like the back-up hard drive for mine.” 

But now the unthinkable has happened. Edi is dying of ovarian cancer and spending her last days at a hospice near Ash, who stumbles into heartbreak surrounded by her daughters, ex(ish) husband, dear friends, a poorly chosen lover (or two), and a rotating cast of beautifully, fleetingly human hospice characters.

 

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.

She says, "What?" and Jude says, "Edi." She hears it in his voice, turns to him and says, "What?" again, but I'm already starting to cry a little bit.

"S---," she says. "No, no. You guys." She wrings her hands. "I'm not ready for this. Whatever this is. What is this?"

Here's what this is: Out in the hallway, Jude had asked about Edi's treatment. "Isn't she supposed to get her infusion today?" he'd said, and the nurse had said cheerfully, "Nope! We're all done with that." And so, it seemed, we were. Nobody exactly talked to us about this decision. It was like it had already happened, in some other time and place. You order a burger and the kitchen makes an executive decision in the back. "We're out of burgers," your server says. "There's just this plate of nothing with a side of morphine and grief."

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice. 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 Freda's Voice and visit others in the linky. 

Violet, paged away by another patient, calls back to me, "Get her to go in the hat, okay?" The hat is a kind of bucket in the toilet that measures something about the volume of urine or maybe its composition. But after we successfully navigate the wheelchair and the bathroom and the IV pole and the leggings, the fact of the hat makes Edi unable to pee. "Sorry," she says. "I'm having performance anxiety. Hang on."

"Please," I say. "Edi. Take your time. We're not in a massive rush to get home and lie around depressively."

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.    

January 6th - 12th - What was the first book you read this year? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to Happiness by Bill Bailey