Books On My Summer 2021 TBR

I've managed to find a number of books at my library from the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read list. I have 285 273 left to read. I'm planning to read as many of these as I can before the end of the summer. None of these are known to me. Do you recognize any of these books? What do you recommend?

Rowan of Rin by Emily Ronda ✅

Swords of Quentaris by Paul Collins

Postcards from No Man’s Land by Aidan Chambers ✅

Knight’s Fee by Rosemary Sutcliff ✅

Clockwork by Philip Pullman ✅

Monster Blood Tattoo by C. M. Cornish

The Sterkarm Handshake by Susan Price

Nausicaä by Hayao Miyazaki ✅

Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin ✅

River Boy by Tim Bower ✅

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge ✅

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen ✅

The Wind Singer by William Nicholson

La vache orange by Nathan Hale (French)

Marlaguette by Marie Colmont (French) 

The Wool-Pack by Cynthia Harnett ✅

Time of Trial by Hester Burton

Grover by Vera Cleaver ✅

No Way of Telling by Emma Smith

The Friends by Rosa Guy ✅

Thunder and Lightnings by Jan Mark ✅

The Sentinels by Peter Carter ✅

Handles by Jan Mark

Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells

Alex by Tessa Duder ✅

Redwork by Michael Bedard

The Far-Distant Onus by Katharine Hull

How the Whale Became by Ted Hughes

A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley

Jennings and Darbishire by Anthony Buckeridge ✅

The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater

Winter in Wartime by Jan Terlouw

I’m King of the Castle by Susan Hill

Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter)

The Edge of the Cloud by K. M. Peyton

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.

The Rain Stops and the Heat Begins; Birding for Fun; and Jacqueline Woodson is Coming

  

The rain stopped this week, and the temperatures climbed. We got up to 90 degrees C every day last week, and it only cooled down to 80 degrees C at night. One of my friends told me she got sixteen inches of rain in May, so, I don't know...what's harder, lots of rain or lots of heat?

1001 Children's Books You Must Read:

Grover by Vera Cleaver ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thunder and Lightnings by Jan Mark ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Wool-Pack by Cynthia Harnett

In Lane Three, Alex Archer by Tessa Duder ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Friends by Rosa Guy ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Clockwork by Philip Pullman ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Knight's Fee by Rosemary Sutcliff ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Honestly, these were all great, but I especially liked Rowan of Rin and The Little White Horse and The Devil's Arithmetic. Clockwork was a beautiful jigsaw puzzle of a story. 

Have you read any of these?

Bewilderment: A Novel by Richard Powers...9% 

The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman (Nonfiction Challenge)...47%

Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz (Chapter-a-Day Read)...36%

Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants (Naturalist Book Club)...72%

I've been busy with 1001 Children's Books, and I've neglected my ongoing reads. Next week I will get some of these read.

Houston Inprint will be hosting a Cool Brains Event for Young People with the fabulous Jacqueline Woodson on June 27 at 4 pm. The event is online and free. Register here. Buy your copy of Jacqueline Woodson's new book from Houston independent bookstore, Blue Willow Books, here.

Swimming...counting butterflies...giving away tomatoes...baking lemon-blueberry bread and banana pecan bread...walking...planting some pecan trees...taking a Beginning Birding class online at the library...

When I start a challenge, I like to start big. I read books from my 1001 Children's Books list like crazy last week. That puts me at 10/20 books read for my 20 Books of Summer challenge.

It also brings me down to 275/1001 books left to read in my 1001 Children's Books challenge.

Good Thing #1: Have a Little Pun---and Groan a Little with Bonnie's Books. I adore puns. Even though sometimes I don't get them. I'm the clueless person who insisted on buying a Life's a Beach t-shirt, even though my sister said over and over, But you don't cuss. Huh? Because, well, life is a beach, right? 

Good Thing #2: I shared The Superior Person's Second Book of Weird & Wondrous Words last week. If you don't know CATACRESIS or HESTERNOPOTHIA, and you want to continue to call yourself a Superior Person, you better take a look at my post.

Good Thing #3: And speaking of Wondrous Words, why haven't you posted about your favorites? Mareli offers a Wondrous Words Wednesday every other week on her blog that's primarily run by her beautiful white cat, Elza Reads. Her next post will be on June 23. Hope you will join us!

I thank each and every one of you 

who has stopped by Sunday Salon

and left a comment

and linked up 

over the last year.

You have kept me going.

I'm 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. 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. 

Wondrous Words: The Superior Person's Second Book of Weird & Wondrous Words by Peter Bowler

  

My friend, Rae, gave The Superior Person's Second Book of Weird & Wondrous Words to me, and I spent a day reading through it, and I loved it so much that I looked up book one on Amazon and ordered it the same day.

It's a book of words, presented with a short definition and used in a sentence. It's snarky, to be sure. Here's a couple of example:

HESTERNOPOTHIA n. A pathological yearning for the good old days. You know---when World War II was in full swing, your children got diphtheria, and dentists used slow drills and no anesthetic.

JUMENTOUS a. Pertaining to the smell of horse urine. So says the dictionary. But what could possibly be pertaining to the smell of horse urine? And how could it so pertain? Is this word really necessary?

Fun, right?

Besides just enjoying reading all the weird & wondrous words and reading the odd ways the author used them in a sentence, I ran across words I would actually like to add to my vocabulary:

KALOKAGATHIA n. A condition or state in which the good and the beautiful are combined. Wouldn't that be helpful? If you saw something beautiful and knew it was also good? Like The Good Witch of the North in Wizard of Oz?

EUMOIROUS a. Lucky or happy as a result of being good. Which, had I been in charge of creating the universe, would always happen.

EPISTEMOPHILIA n. An abnormal preoccupation with knowledge. I might have just a touch of this.

CATACHRESIS n. Misapplication of a word. Never. That I will admit.

QUADDLE v. To grumble. Quaddling sounds so much better than grumbling.

WITZELSUCHT n. An emotional state characterized by futile attempts at humor. I've seen this so many times. It's so futile. And it's hard to watch. Will I remember the proper name for this behavior the next time I see it? Unlikely.

Finally, I leave you with: 

SAXICOLOUS. a. Living or growing among rocks. Guys, my husband has been a rock collector since he was a little boy. He has an entire shop filled with rocks. Since I learned this word I have delighted in telling him how happy I am that I am married to a saxicolous man. Saxicolous. Such a great word.

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.

I Want More: Thirteen Unique Reading Experiences I Wish I Could Replicate

Is it just me? Or does everyone look for books like the books we just read and loved? 

It’s a difficult path to take. Too much like a book we just finished and the new book feels like a rip-off. Too different and it’s unsatisfying. 

And some books are so novel that it seems almost impossible to find another book with the same qualities.

Here are some books that I have loved in the past, but are so unique that I’ve never found their like. I’ve listed them below, along with the qualities I loved about each, a combination of qualities I’ve never been able to find again, (except, to a certain extent, in other books by the same author).

The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers. Romance + science + dual timelines.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Mystery + college students + evil in ordinary people.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Old age + reflection + acceptance of the rough parts of life.

Watership Down by Richard Adana. Animals as distinct and genuine characters - sloppy sentimentality.

The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman. Observations of life + pictures + philosophy.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. Western philosophy + memoir + zen + travel.

The World is Not Enough by Zoe Oldenbourg. Historical fiction + careful research + genuine characters with voices and actions that are remarkably different from us today.

Possession by A. S. Byatt. Romance + poetry + dual timelines. 

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Short vignettes + the pain of growing up + Hispanic culture.

Encyclopedia of Ordinary Life by Amy Krause Rosenthal. Novel format + memoir.

A Year in Japan by Kate T. Williamson. Travel + Japan + illustrations.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. Zaniness + romance + unpredictability.

The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Daré. Strong girl/woman + unique voice + poetic language.

Have you read any of these?

Do you have any recommendations for 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.

In Which I Want to Shout About The Girl With the Louding Voice

 

I left the house every day in the last weeks, and I can't remember when I was this active. I started to work on reading my 1001 Children's Books, and I also finished one fabulous adult book. Swimming, walking, going to my meditation group and church, enjoying our movie/pizza night with my sister and her husband...and now we're planning a Father's Day get-together for my 94-year-old dad and we're contemplating going on a rock dig. I think I did more in the last two weeks than I did in all of 2020!

Who recommended The Girl With the Louding Voice to me? I thank you. As you recommended, I listened to it on audio. Adunni is my new favorite character, and The Girl With the Louding Voice is my new favorite read.

Bewilderment: A Novel by Richard Powers...7% 

The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman (Nonfiction Challenge)...47%

Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz (Chapter-a-Day Read)...35%

Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants (Naturalist Book Club)...10%

For the 11th year, Tamara from Thyme for Tea will be hosting Paris in July. Watch for more details on her blog soon. I'm planning my reads for July, including two children's books in French. Will you do Paris in July this year?

My 20 Books of Summer challenge is underway. I've got a nice stack of books from the library ready to go. I've read a book a day, so far, but I know I won't be able to keep that up.

Sue at Book by Book has officially kicked off her Big Book Summer Challenge. Join in the big book fun by reading at least one big book from Memorial Day to Labor Day. A big book is any book over 400 pages. I have several books on my might-read list that would qualify including A Tale of Two Cities and two 1001 Children's Books.

The theme for June for Action for Happiness is finding joy, even when things are difficult. Get your Joyful June calendar here.

Good Thing #1

I got a new phone!

I had an iPhone 6, and this one is an iPhone 12. 

When I couldn't download apps because the iOS wouldn't update...

I think I am in love.

Good Thing #2

We've planted lots of new native plants,

including salvias, milkweed, blue sage, and coneflowers.

Good Thing #3 

We watched the Friends Reunion Show,

and I'm up to episode 6 of Gilmore Girls.

Other recommendations?

I'm 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. 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.