Reading Madame Bovary in French...Very, Very Slowly

     

Welcome! I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. What is the Sunday Salon? The Sunday Salon is a place to link up and share what we have been doing during the week plus it's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

I've had trouble this week settling into a book. I'm working on Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens, and that's going well, at a pace of a chapter a day. I'm working on Madame Bovary in French, and that is going much more slowly; I've finally finished the first chapter after working on the story for a week. My naturalist group is reading How the Mountains Grew, and I'll be reading that all summer.

But I'd hoped to read some light fiction this summer, and everything I've tried so far---well, let's just say the library is getting a lot of my books back very, very quickly. Hopefully, something will work for me soon...

What I Read Last Week:

James by Percival Everett

The Road to Character by David Brooks

What I'm Reading Now:

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (in French)

Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Ozathon)

The Great Book of Journaling: How Journal Writing Can Support a Life of Wellness, Creativity, Meaning, and Purpose by Elsie Maigel and Lynda Mink (Writing)

How the Mountains Grew by John Dvorak (Naturalist Group Book Club)

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (1000 Books)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Baby Birds in My Sycamore Tree

Novels I Love

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Join Gather Together for a readalong of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - 831 pages - this summer:

• June: Ch. 1 - 16, pp 1 - 204
  Discussion post: June 30
• July: Ch. 17 - 31, pp 205 - 407
  Discussion post: July 31
• August: Ch. 32 - 46, pp 408 - 608
  Discussion post: August 31
• September: Ch. 47 - 65, pp 609 - 831 (end)
  Discussion post: September 30

You might like to join Emma at Words and Peace for a readalong of Madame Bovary in French this summer. 

My husband and I have participated in a citizen science project, Texas Butterfly Monitoring Network, since March of 2021. This week and next week we are using the data we have collected to draw some conclusions about the butterflies we have observed at a local park. We will be presenting our findings at the Advanced Training Day for our Texas Master Naturalist Group next weekend.

I began to list 3 Good Things every day during the pandemic. Now I've established a regular routine of writing down my 3 Good Things. Here are 3 Good Things from last week:

Good Thing #1:

Action for Happiness has a Joyful June calendar.

Good Thing #2:

I saw my first owl a few weeks back.

Now the owl has had owl babies!

Good Thing #3:

"Think of 3 things

you're grateful for

and write them down."

Excellent idea, Action for Happiness!

I think I will!

Weekend linkup spots are listed below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

I hope you will join the linkup for Sunday Salon below.

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Today's Featured Book 

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Genre: Novel

Published: October 1839

Page Count: 816 pages

Summary: 

"When Nicholas Nickleby is left penniless after his father's death, he appeals to his wealthy uncle to help him find work and to protect his mother and sister. But Ralph Nickleby proves both hard-hearted and unscrupulous, and Nicholas finds himself forced to make his own way in the world. His adventures gave Dickens the opportunity to portray an extraordinary gallery of rogues and eccentrics: Wackford Squeers, the tyrannical headmaster of Dotheboys Hall, a school for unwanted boys, the slow-witted orphan Smike, rescued by Nicholas, the pretentious Mantalinis and the gloriously theatrical Mr and Mrs Crummels and their daughter, the 'infant phenomenon'. Like many of Dickens's novels, Nicholas Nickleby is characterised by his outrage at cruelty and social injustice, but it is also a flamboyantly exuberant work"

 

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.

"There once lived, in a sequestered part of the county of Devonshire, one Mr. Godfrey Nickleby: a worthy gentleman, who, taking it into his head rather late in life that he must get married, and not being young enough or rich enough to aspire to the hand of a lady of fortune, had wedded an old flame out of mere attachment, who in her turn had taken him for the same reason. Thus two people who cannot afford to play cards for money, sometimes sit down to a quiet game for love.

Charles Dickens. Nicholas Nickleby (p. 18). Kindle Edition. "

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice, but Freda is currently taking a break and Anne of Head Full of Books is filling in. 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 with Anne and visit others in the linky. 

"Mr. Squeers’s appearance was not prepossessing. He had but one eye, and the popular prejudice runs in favour of two. The eye he had, was unquestionably useful, but decidedly not ornamental: being of a greenish grey, and in shape resembling the fan-light of a street door. The blank side of his face was much wrinkled and puckered up, which gave him a very sinister appearance, especially when he smiled, at which times his expression bordered closely on the villainous. His hair was very flat and shiny, save at the ends, where it was brushed stiffly up from a low protruding forehead, which assorted well with his harsh voice and coarse manner. He was about two or three and fifty, and a trifle below the middle size; he wore a white neckerchief with long ends, and a suit of scholastic black; but his coat sleeves being a great deal too long, and his trousers a great deal too short, he appeared ill at ease in his clothes, and as if he were in a perpetual state of astonishment at finding himself so respectable."

Charles Dickens. Nicholas Nickleby (p. 56). Kindle Edition. "

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.    

June 7th-13th - Summer often means more time for reading. Do you have a list of books you're eager to start reading during June's warm days? Do you have a summer reading goal? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

Yes, indeed. I made a list here: 

https://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-20-books-of-summer-and-big-book.html

Nicholas Nickleby is on the list. I'm trying to read a chapter a day, and there are sixty chapters.

Novels I Love

On Goodreads, I currently list 199 favorite books. As of today, here are my top ten favorites novels...

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers

Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

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. 

Baby Birds in My Sycamore Tree

     

Welcome! I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. What is the Sunday Salon? The Sunday Salon is a place to link up and share what we have been doing during the week plus it's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Summer is here, and this was a week of long hot days of swimming, bicycling, yoga, a museum outing, my writing group in Galveston, and baby Pileated Woodpeckers in my sycamore tree (see photo below). And, of course, reading!

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Books I Was Super Excited to Get My Hands on but Still Haven’t Read

The Sunday Salon: A Week in Which I Read Seven of the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

What I Read Last Week (Links take you to my review):

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis (Novel)

The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino (Fiction)

The King of the Copper Mountains by Paul Biegel (1001 Children's Books)

What I'm Reading Now:

How the Mountains Grew by John Dvorak (Naturalist Book Group)

The Road to Character by David Brooks (Nonfiction)

James by Percival Everett (Literary Fiction)

Updated as of the end of May

The summer challenges begin!

I began to list 3 Good Things every day during the pandemic. Now I've established a regular routine of writing down my 3 Good Things. Here are 3 Good Things from last week:

Good Thing #1:

Look what appeared in our sycamore tree!

Yes, two Pileated Woodpecker chicks.

Good Thing #2:

Hurray for Aqua Zumba.

Good Thing #3:

I've been doing Duolingo 

daily for a full year.

Weekend linkup spots are listed below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

I hope you will join the linkup for Sunday Salon below.