Hurricane Books

I've been through five memorable hurricanes. 

The first was Hurricane Carla in 1961. I was almost five years old. We stayed at my grandparents' home in Brazoria, Texas, a home my grandpap built of cinder blocks. The windows were all boarded up, and the power went out. The wind roared. The rain fell. I remember everything coming to a complete halt, and my dad saying, The eye is over us. Let's go out and see the eye. I remember being terrified, thinking I'd see a huge eye up in the sky and being disappointed when it was simply a lull in the storm. Later, as people did in that day, my family drove around where the storm had hit. Shingles were everywhere. Broken windows. Buildings blown down. Whole roofs blown off. Power lines down. 

In 1979, my town, Alvin, Texas, set the national record for most rainfall in a 24-hour period, 40 inches, during Tropical Storm Claudette. That record remains on the books. We were just married a year, and woke up in the night to a foot of water in our apartment. My parents, my in-laws, friends...we all spent months cleaning up from that one.

Hurricane Alicia skirted us in 1983, but caused a lot of damage in nearby Houston.

Ike came in 2008. Ike swept through but, amazingly, we were spared.

Harvey hit in 2017, and it rained and rained and rained, for days, and a half dozen friends and family got flooded. Many children from my school were flooded. We did not. 

I'd rather not see any more hurricanes. Don't you think that five is enough for one person?

Here are some excellent hurricane books.

Isaac's Storm.....The Storm of the Century.....Zeitoun.....Hurricane Season*.....

Nights in Rodanthe.....Yesterday We Had a Hurricane.....Hurricane.....

Five Days at Memorial.....Two Bobbies.....A Sudden Sea.....A Furious Sky*

Salvage the Bones*.....Stormy Weather.....A High Wind in Jamaica*.....Flood.....

In the Hurricane's Eye*.....Clifford and the Big Storm.....I Survived Hurricane Katrina.....

To Have or Have Not*.....Their Eyes Were Watching God.....Gullywasher.....

I've not yet read the books with asterisks. 

Have you read any of these?

Do you have any more hurricane books to recommend?

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.

Dragon Hoops, Vesper Flights, Good Blood, and the Return of the Hummingbirds

We've watched the terrible wildfires along the west coast this week. Keeping all of you in our thoughts and prayers.

My best reads of the week were all nonfiction: Dragon Hoops, Vesper Flights, and Good Blood. For my full review of these, follow the links below.

Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang

Gene Luen Yang tells the true story of the attempt of the basketball team at the high school where he works to win the state championship in this new ...more

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

In her introduction, author Helen Macdonald hopes Vesper Flights will serve as a Wunderkammer, a Cabinet of Curiosities, a cabinet of wonders. And it is...more

Good Blood by Julian Guthrie

News is usually bad news, and nonfiction is often more of the same. But Good Blood is different: Good Blood is good news. Good Blood is the story of a doctor...more

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy...76% read

Devotions by Mary Oliver...59% read

How to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life...42% read

The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You...24% read

1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List by James Mustich...3% read

The Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Plans have been made to make the reading series virtual this year, of course, so, sadly, I will not be joining friends in Houston for dinner and then enjoying the authors together in person this year. Instead, the nine authors will read from their books and talk about their books virtually. A season ticket this year includes five of the authors' books, mailed to the subscriber a week after the event; that is a lovely perk this year. And who will be part of the reading series this year? Marilynne Robinson. Julia Alvarez. Nick Hornby. Viet Thanh Nguyen. Jerico Brown. Yaa Gyasi. Lily King. Chang-Rae Lee. Sigrid Nunez. What a lineup! For more information, take a look here.

I wrote two book-related posts this week:

Books for My Younger Self, in which I shared books from the science fiction reading phase of my life.

1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List by James Mustich, in which I take on (another!) long-term challenge.

I also shared some of the live oak trees I see each day on my early morning walk:

Small Delights: Live Oak Trees

1. The hummingbirds are back!

2. My dad and his wife came over for a wonderful visit on the front porch.

Then we got to see my son and daughter-in-law and our grandkids in a from-the-car visit.

3. First cool front of the year. The high was only 88 degrees. Glorious.

How did your week go?

I'm very happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. I hope you will 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.

1000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List by James Mustich

"For years a thousand books felt like far too many to get my head around, but now it seems too few by several multiples. So let me say what already should be obvious: 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die is neither comprehensive nor authoritative, even if a good number of the titles assembled here would be on most lists of essential reading. It is meant to be an invitation to a conversation—even a merry argument—about the books and authors that are missing as well as the books and authors included, because the question of what to read next is the best prelude to even more important ones, like who to be, and how to live."

I'm a list person. The minute I first heard about this book at a library conference, I knew this would be a book I'd love to read. And reread. And reread.

It's true. I put this book on hold at the library long before it was published. I checked it as soon as it was available for me. I bought a hardcover copy of it. I bought it in an e-book. 

James Mustich is a name I recognized. Long, long ago, Mustich created a book catalog, A Common Reader. I received that catalog. I bought many of the books Mustich recommended. 

And now I've decided to join in for a challenge with this book. It took me a morning to make my own copy of the list, and then save it to my ongoing challenges list. Now I'm going to take my time with the list, and go through the book again, and add reviews on Goodreads for books on the list I've read in the past. That will take a while. Then I think I will (slowly) start reading books on the list that I haven't read. 

Here's a nice clean copy of the list, if you'd like to take a look. James Mustich has a site online for this book, too, and if you go there, you can make your own online list of the 1000 Books. You can add comments about the books you have read there. You can also help Mustich make his next list.

Will I read all the books on this list before I die? Unlikely. Not sure I even want to. But to give it a try will definitely add something good to my life.

Have you read it? Do you like big challenges like this?

Small Delights: Live Oak Trees

 Live oak trees...on my early morning walk around my town....

    

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Books for My Younger Self

Let's go back in time, shall we?

Way, way back.

My reading tastes were quite different back when I was young.

You might not even recognize me then.

Yes, I was a science fiction reader.

Real science fiction.

Invasion stories. Post-apocalyptic stories. Alternate worlds. I read all of it.

True story: On my first date with my husband, we discovered we were reading the same Ray Bradbury book. 

Here's my favorite science fiction from my younger self.

Row 1   Ray Bradbury novels and short stories

Row 2   Best Of Series (short stories from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s)

Row 3   Hugo and Nebula Award winning novels of the 50s, 60s, 70s

Did you ever go through a science fiction phase?

Have you read any of these?

What are some good recent science fiction novels? (Anything past the 70s is recent to 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.

Wild Girl, Harlem Grown, Blue Ticket, Breath, and Zippy Chippy

 

It was a very slow week. 

My husband and I are trying to figure out a new time to walk each day when (1) the temperature is still below 80 degrees, and (2) traffic is not heavy, and (3) the sun is up but not in our eyes. We may go back to walking in the park instead of trying to walk around town. 

It's hot, yes, but that's just August and September in Texas. It's hot, but it really never gets above 95 degrees, and it's much cooler than that in the shade under our live oak trees. And next week we are expecting our first cool front. It will get down at night into the 60s. Bring out the sweaters...at least for a couple of days.

We are getting ready to paint our computer room next week. We had to wait until cooler weather so we could open the windows and avoid the fumes from the primer. This room has a built-in bookshelf, and I also hope to reorganize (meaning cull books from the shelves for my Little Library) the bookshelf, too.

I went to an online baby shower for my niece last week, and that was fun. It was nice to see the faces of family and friends. So far this year, I've attended an online baby shower, an online graduation ceremony, an online birthday party, an online wedding, and an online funeral. Strange times.

My favorite reads of last week were:

Wild Girl: How to Have Incredible Outdoor Adventures by Helen Skelton

Harlem Grown: How One Big Idea Transformed a Neighborhood by Tony Hillery

Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor

The True Story of Zippy Chippy: The Little Horse That Couldn't by Artie Bennett

Have you read any of these? 

Any good book selections for me? 

I made a little progress on my ongoing reads. I may drag all of these out for the entire year, it seems.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy...73% read

Devotions by Mary Oliver...49% read

How to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life...42% read

The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You...12% read

My posts from last week:

Books that Make Me Hungry: The Best Memoirs About Learning to Cook and Bake

Small Delights: A Walk at Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge

Years and Years of the Cybils

The deadline to apply to be a Cybils Awards judge is September 7, 2020. Apply to be a first or second round judge for Fiction Picture Books, Easy Reader / Early Chapter Books, Graphic Novels, Elementary / Middle Grade Speculative Fiction, Middle Grade Fiction, Nonfiction, or YA Fiction. Apply here. 

1. I reached 1,000,000 page views on Readerbuzz last week. Happy.

2. I got yeast from my bi-weekly grocery pickup today for the first time since March. 

This baker is very happy.

3. Hurricanes that appeared in the Gulf last week = 0. So happy.

I'm very happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. I hope you will 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.

Small Delights: A Walk at Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge

 

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.