Author I Never Thought I'd Meet: Margaret Atwood

What author have you met that you never thought you'd get the chance to meet?

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Online Resources for Book Lovers

Goodreads. I post all my reviews here and link to them through my blog. It’s nice to have everything in one spot.

LibraryThing. It’s one of the first spots I found and it’s still a sentimental favorite.

Canva. I enjoy making graphics for my posts. Canva is delightful.

My online library catalogs and WorldCat. I live in a small town just outside a major metropolitan area in the US. I can easily access a dozen city and county libraries nearby. And I can easily see where I can find books close to me via WorldCat.

Overdrive. Several of the nearby libraries where I have cards allow me to check out books through Overdrive. I relied on Overdrive almost exclusively during the early part of the pandemic.

Blogs. And my blog. And your blog. And all the other blogs I love.

I don't need anything more than these. Do I?

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.  

A Week of Forest Bathing in Arkansas

 

We are in the forested mountains of northwest Arkansas for a week of hiking and relaxing. I hope to share photos next week.

I downloaded a bunch of books from Overdrive at my library last week. I'm taking these along for our trip to Arkansas. We'll see what I decided to read, but it's nice to have lots of choices.

Renewal: How Nature Reawakens Our Creativity, Compassion, and Joy 

by Andrés R. Edwards

The Hummingbird's Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings by Sy Montgomery

How to Draw Anything Anytime: A Beginner's Guide to Cute and Easy Doodles

Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith by Henri Nouwen

Art Before Breakfast by Danny Gregory

The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay

Hummingbird Salamander: A Novel by Jeff Vandermeer

Extraordinary Insects: Weird. Wonderful. Indispensible. The Ones Who Run Our World.

by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson

On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor

Map: Collected and Last Poems by Wislawa Szymborska

New York Times Opinion, by Farhad Manjoo:

When Listening to a Book is Better than Reading It

Arkansas!

A week of hiking and relaxing in northwest Arkansas.

Good Thing #1

One of my friends, Elke, is a retired librarian, 

and she often forwards a Daily Ray of Hope

from the Sierra Club. You can subscribe here.

Good Thing #2

The Great British Baking Show is back.

Good Thing #3

I finished a cozy mystery set in a magical bookstore.

The bookstore will send just the book you need to you.

Our book club members will each be reading a Christmas cozy mystery

in December. Recommendations?

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. 

Shall We Spin to See What We Shall Read Next? The Next Classics Club Spin

The Classics Club has issued the announcement of the 28th Classics Spin.

What is the spin?

It’s easy. At your blog, before next Sunday 17th October, 2021, create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list.

This is your Spin List.

You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the spin period.

Try to challenge yourself. For example, you could list five Classics Club books you have been putting off, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favourite author, re-reads, ancients, non-fiction, books in translation — whatever you choose.)

On Sunday 17th, October, we’ll post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by the 12th December, 2021. That’s an eight week reading window for this spin. You may like to stack your list with books that you know are do-able for you within that time frame.

We’ll check in here on Sunday the 12th December, 2021 to see who made it the whole way and finished their spin book!

I picked the ten books I most wanted to read and added them each to the list twice. 

So here is my list.

1. Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett. Novel. 1896. 88 pages.

2. The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher. Cooking. 1954. 784 pages.

3. A Pony for Jean by Joanna Cannan. Children's. 1937. 156 pages. 

4. Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett. Novel. 1896. 88 pages.

5. The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber. Humor. 1945. 448 pages.

6. Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease. Children's Classic. 1940. 305 pages.

7. Mistress Masham's Repose by T. H. White. Children's. 1946. 260 pages.

8. A Pony for Jean by Joanna Cannan. Children's. 1937. 156 pages. 

9. Dubliners by James Joyce. Short Stories. 1914. 152 pages.

10. Oranges by John McPhee. Nonfiction. 1967. 160 pages.

11. The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber. Humor. 1945. 448 pages.

12. The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino. Novel. 1957. 320 pages.

13. Mistress Masham's Repose by T. H. White. Children's. 1946. 260 pages.

14. The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher. Cooking. 1954. 784 pages.

15. Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease. Children's Classic. 1940. 305 pages.

16. The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino. Novel. 1957. 320 pages.

17. Dubliners by James Joyce. Short Stories. 1914. 152 pages.

18. Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford. Novel. 1949. 284 pages.

19. The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino. Novel. 1957. 320 pages.

20. Oranges by John McPhee. Nonfiction. 1967. 160 pages.

Have you read any of these? Which would you most want to read? 

Wondrous Words: Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo

 

I'm getting ready for National Novel Writing Month in November, and to prepare myself, I've been reading If You Want to Write. First published in 1938, Brenda Ueland's If You Want to Write is said by some to be the ur-text to modern inspirational writing texts. 

Ueland compares the creative process to listening to God inside yourself:

"Now this creative power I think is the Holy Ghost. My theology may not be very accurate, but that is how I think of it. I know that William Blake called this creative power the Imagination, and he said it was God. He, if anyone, ought to know, for he was one of the greatest poets and artists that ever lived. Now Blake thought that this creative power should be kept alive in all people for all of their lives. And so do I. Why? Because it is life itself. It is the Spirit. In fact it is the only important thing about us. The rest of us is legs and stomach, materialistic cravings and fears."

She learned a lot about the process by reading van Gogh's letters:

"But the moment I read van Gogh's letter I knew what art was, and the creative impulse. It is a feeling of love and enthusiasm for something, and in a direct, simple, passionate, and true way, you try to show this beauty in things to others, by (recreating) it.

Ueland also learned about the creative process from her writing students:

"I learned from (my students) that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness. I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountaintop, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten--happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another."

All this reading about the creative process arising from the divine and inspiration and enthusiasm led me to look up the etymology of the words "inspiration" and "enthusiasm."  

So there you go. Apparently, this idea of writing as led by a divine spirit is an old one.

Let's hope I can be filled with enthusiasm and inspiration this November.

Photos: Top photo is a photo I took of a writer in a cafe in New York City in 2011. Bottom photo is a photo I took of a writer in a cafe in Paris in 2020.

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. 

Fabulous Books Set in Fabulous Book-ish Settings

Don’t you love Books-about-Books? I do. Books-about-Books is my favorite genre. I love reading about reading. I’m a reader who loves to read about readers. I’m always searching the library shelves for books set in book-ish places.

So how about if I share a list of fabulous books set in fabulous book-ish settings...

BOOKS SET IN BOOKSTORES

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

84, Charing Cross Road

How to Find Love in a Bookshop

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookshop

The Little Bookshop on the Seine

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

Eighty Days to Elsewhere

BOOKS SET IN LIBRARIES

The Midnight Library

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

The Librarian by Salley Vickers

The Archivist by Martha Cooley

The Library of the Unwritten

The Borrower

BOOKS SET IN BOOKMOBILES

Parnassus on Wheels

The Night Bookmobile

The Case of the Missing Books

The Uncommon Reader

BOOKS SET IN BOOK CLUBS

Reading Lolita in Tehran

The Jane Austen Book Club

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo

BOOKS SET IN A COMFORTABLE READING CHAIR

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair

BOOKS SET IN THE MOST BOOK-ISH OF SETTINGS...INSIDE A BOOK ITSELF!

Inkheart

The Book Jumper

A Book for Escargot

The Wall in the Middle of the Book

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

The Book in the Book in the Book

We Are in a Book

As comprehensive as this list feels to me, I know there are other Books Set in Book-ish Settings I have not yet read. I would love to have you share others with me!

And if this list of settings is not enough for you, take a look at my thirteen (yes, thirteen) Top Ten Tuesday lists of book settings from the past.

Thirteen Top Ten Tuesday Lists of Book Settings

Top Ten Settings I'd Like To See More Of

Fav Books Set in Libraries

Top Ten Settings In Books

Book-ish Worlds I'd Never Want To Live In

Awful Book-ish Worlds I’d Never Want to Live In

Books Set In Another Country

Historical Settings in Books that I Love

If I Could Visit Any Setting from a Book...

Top Ten Most Vivid Settings In Books

Some of the Best Books Set in Schools

Places I've Visited Through Books

Ten of My Favorite Books Set in the American West

Books That Awaken the Travel Bug In 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.  

1,000+ Pages of Reading This Week

 

My husband and I will be leaving for a hiking trip to Arkansas on Friday. My sister and her husband will be going with us. Doesn't a hiking trip sound great?

What I Read Last Week

I made these books big for a reason: These books ARE big. The Book of Form and Emptiness is 560 pages, and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is 487 pages. That's a combined total of more than 1,000 pages of reading last week. 

What did I think of them? Click on the book title to read my complete review.

What I Am Reading Now

I downloaded a bunch of books from Overdrive at my library last week. I'm taking these along for our trip to Arkansas. We'll see what I decide to read, but it's nice to have lots of choices.

Renewal: How Nature Reawakens Our Creativity, Compassion, and Joy 

by Andrés R. Edwards

The Hummingbird's Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings by Sy Montgomery

How to Draw Anything Anytime: A Beginner's Guide to Cute and Easy Doodles

Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith by Henri Nouwen

Art Before Breakfast by Danny Gregory

The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay

Hummingbird Salamander: A Novel by Jeff Vandermeer

Extraordinary Insects: Weird. Wonderful. Indispensible. The Ones Who Run Our World.

by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson

On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor

Map: Collected and Last Poems by Wislawa Szymborska

Which one should I read first?

Any recommendations?

I need your help! Public nominations for the Cybils end on October 15. There are still lots of wonderful books that have not yet been nominated. The Cybils social media director has made some great #Cybils2021 Idea Boards. Please take a look around the boards and nominate books here!

A petition by 400 parents in nearby Katy, Texas caused books written by Newbery-award winning author Jerry Craft to be pulled from the shelves of the schools' libraries and his upcoming speaking event to be postponed. Parents claim that his works promote critical race theory. New Kid, his first graphic novel for kids, is the story of a boy of color who is sent by his parents out of his neighborhood to a school in the affluent parent of town where there are few children of color. To find out more about this story, read newspaper articles here and here. For more about critical race theory, take a look at this NY Times article here.

Have any of these parents even read Craft's books? Have any of them met Craft or heard him speak? Have these parents looked into what critical race theory is? I have read his books and I have met him and heard him speak, and he and his books are the best of the best. I can't tell you how this saddens me. 

I've been eagerly anticipating turning 65 so that I can take a college class or two for free each semester Until then, I discovered the next-best thing: OLLI. OLLI is the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UTMB in Galveston, and it's designed for adults 55 and older. This semester OLLI offers an eight-week class on the poetry of Adrienne Rich, conducted through Zoom, and taught by a retired UH professor, Dr. John Gorman. Absolutely mesmerizing. 

Good Thing #1

I got my flu shot.

Good Thing #2

The temperatures dropped into the 60s at night this week.

Good Thing #3

We are headed off for a week of hiking and forest bathing in Arkansas!

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.