Nonfiction November 2022 is Coming!

 

It’s almost time for Nonfiction November! Nonfiction is one of my favorite genres, so you can be sure I'll be joining in.

Throughout the month of November, bloggers Jaymi (The OC Book Girl), Rennie (What’s Nonfiction), Christopher (Plucked from the Stacks), Rebekah (She Seeks Nonfiction) and Katie (Doing Dewey) invite you to celebrate Nonfiction November.

Here’s how it will work: Each Monday, a weekly host will post a topic prompt and include a “linky” where you can link your posts and connect with other bloggers. 

Week 1: (Oct 31-Nov 4) – Your Year in Nonfiction : Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions – What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November? (Katie)

Week 2: (November 7-11) – Book Pairing: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title (or another nonfiction!). It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story. Or pair a book with a podcast, film or documentary, TV show, etc. on the same topic or stories that pair together. (Rennie)

Week 3: (November 14-18) – Stranger Than Fiction: This week we’re focusing on all the great nonfiction books that *almost* don’t seem real. A sports biography involving overcoming massive obstacles, a profile on a bizarre scam, a look into the natural wonders in our world—basically, if it makes your jaw drop, you can highlight it for this week’s topic. (Christopher)

Week 4: (November 21-25) – Worldview Changers: One of the greatest things about reading nonfiction is learning all kinds of things about our world which you never would have known without it. There’s the intriguing, the beautiful, the appalling, and the profound. What nonfiction book or books has impacted the way you see the world in a powerful way? Do you think there is one book that everyone needs to read for a better understanding of the world we live in? (Rebekah) 

Week 5: (November 28-Dec 2) – New to My TBR : It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book! Pro tip: Start this draft post at the beginning of the month and add to it as your TBR multiplies. (Jaymi)

There is a folder of graphics to use for your posts – access them here: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10wjby96iR-8p4tn3EdDVAT2wgOClpY2N?usp=sharing

Will you be participating this year?

Book-ish Tombstones

 

Words I Love

Words I Love 

(along with some of my favorite photos,

which may or may not be related to the accompanying word)

My dad on his 93rd birthday.

10. Serendipity
Life is play.

9. Paradox
All deep truth is paradoxical.
No one knows why.

8. Quirky
My real friends call me this,
not the less flattering "crazy".

7. J'aime
In French, this is pronounced "jim" and means "I love".
My husband's name is Jim.
It is fun to say, "J'aime Jim." 

6. Zephyr
I like "z" words.

5. Whimsy
I wish we had more of this in life.
I wish we had more of this in algebra.

4. Czechoslovakia
I planned to name my two children
this and "Yugoslavia."
Sadly, I grew up
and named them Jon and Ben.

3. Maranatha
The beautiful word I use in silent prayer.
It means, "Come, Lord."

2. Books
Obviously.

1. Yes

Studies show that just hearing the word "yes"
makes people happy.




What are words you love? 
Please share them with me.

Other word-ish lists I've made...

Top Ten Words I Love

Top Ten Words I Love (Part 2)

The 200 Happiest Words in Literature

The Most Common Words in the Titles of the Last 500 Books I've Read

Books With Single-Word Titles

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.    

Just One Book Read, But It Was a Good One: The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

 

What I Read:

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

The link takes you to my review.

What I Am Reading:

A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy Lin

Freedom: The Story of the Black Panther Party by Jetta Grace Martin

Pixels of You by Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota

and a lot of Cybils Fiction Picture Book and Board Book nominees.

Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Solito and How to Live
Books I Read On Vacation
Author Erika L. Sánchez Comes to Houston

I finished The Marriage Portrait just in time to hear author Maggie O'Farrell read from her book at Inprint on Monday night. The publisher does not allow photos, so I had to satisfied with this snapshot of the empty stage.

Good Thing #1

No traveling this week, 

but we attended a field trip to Texas A&M-Galveston

for our naturalist group to learn about 

saving sea turtles and replanting trees in Galveston after Hurricane Harvey.

Good Thing #2

While we were at A&M-Galveston, we visited their Sea Life Center

where we saw a tank of alligators.

Good Thing #3

We participated in a Pollinator Bioblitz.

I saw two new-to-me species of butterflies,

Ceraunus Blue (l) and Dorantes Longtail (r).

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. 

Author Erika L. Sánchez Comes to Houston

"Literature deserves chandeliers," Inprint Executive Director Rich Levy says, as he welcomes us to the Erika L. Sánchez author reading at the Ballroom at Bayou Place in Houston.

"There are so many young Latinas who feel like they are not heard---I write for them," Erika L. Sánchez tells us. "Being poor...being an immigrant...growing up, anything could ruin us." Sánchez affirms Brene Brown's belief that vulnerability is a strength, and it is vulnerability that is her super power in her new memoir, Crying in the Bathroom.

Sánchez reads from her new memoir.

After the reading, Sánchez has an on-stage conversation with Jasminne Mendez, author of the YA memoir Island of Dreams. Sánchez tells us her YA novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, has been banned all over, and Mendez says it's been banned here. "That's disappointing, Texas," Sánchez says, and we are all reminded, as fellow believers in the power of the written word, the obstacles we face these days. 

"What are you hoping readers take away from this book?" Mendez asks. "I didn't want to suffer like my mother did. Women, especially Brown women, Black women, are expected to give, give, give, to never take anything for ourselves. I want to tell young Latinas that your voice matters. It's going to be hard. There will be rejection. I was toiling, working, even crying in the bathroom. But it was worth it."

Erika L. Sánchez is the author of the National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestseller I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. According to The New York Times, “This gripping debut about a Mexican-American misfit is alive and crackling,” and Juan Felipe Herrera adds, “This book will change everything…. A perfect book about imperfection.” The novel is currently being adapted into a film directed by Emmy award-winning actress America Ferrera. A poet by training, Sánchez is also the author of the poetry collection Lessons on Expulsion,“a fierce, assertive debut” (The Washington Post) that challenges notions of femininity, race, religion, and sexuality. She has received fellowships from Princeton, the Chicago Public Library Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Foundation. Her nonfiction work has appeared in The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Salon, and Cosmopolitan for Latinas, where she was the sex and love advice columnist.

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.

Books I Read On Vacation

One of the things I like to do when I go on vacation is to take along books set in the place I'm visiting. Here are the books I've carried along and read and loved while I was on vacation...

Chicago

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago by Alex Kotlowitz

The Coast of Chicago by Stuart Dybek

Becoming by Michelle Obama

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at 100 by George Will

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser

Native Son by Richard Wright

Crying in the Bathroom by Erika L. Sánchez

Montana

A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean

Montana 1948 by Larry Watson

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Mark Richardson

The Wolves of Yellowstone: A Rewinding Story by Catherine Barr

Paris

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

L'Assommoir by Émile Zola

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik

Dear Paris: The Paris Letters by Janice MacLeod

Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris by A. J. Libeling

Paris in Winter: An Illustrated Memoir by David Coggins

Mrs. 'arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico

Crêpes by Suzette by Monica Wellington

I could also give you wonderful lists of books to read if you are planning to visit...

Utah

Arizona

Italy

New Mexico

Yellowstone Park

California

New York City

Oregon...

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.    

Solito and How to Live

 

Two weeks ago I was in Chicago visiting family and last week I was in North Texas visiting family. Whew. A lot of traveling.

A story: I raced home last Monday so I'd make it to hear author Javier Zamora speak about his new memoir, Solito, that night. I got home after driving for five hours, rested for a bit, and then drove into Houston to hear Zamora. Just as I was about to arrive at the venue, my husband called. "I think you better come home," he told me. I left immediately for home. His blood pressure had been a little high when he visited the doctor while I was gone, and, after I left for the Zamora event, he went to Walgreen's and bought a blood pressure monitor. He took his blood pressure and it was over 200! So he called me to come home and then he called his sister, a nurse. Chris immediately recognized that he was taking his blood pressure wrong and showed him how to take the pressure correctly. His blood pressure, when taken correctly, was a little elevated, but nowhere near 200! By that time, I was home. 

So that's why I missed the Zamora event. But, hey, I'd much rather come home to a husband with a red face than one that had dangerously high blood pressure.

And here's Zamora's interview on the Today show:

It's a fantastic read. I encourage you to look for Solito.

What I Read:

How to Live: What the Rule of St. Benedict Teaches Us About Happiness, Meaning, and Community by Judith Valence 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

The links will take you to my reviews.

What I Am Reading:

Villette by Charlotte Bronte (Chapter-a-Day)

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (Classic)

Bake: My Best Ever Recipes for the Classics by Paul Hollywood (Cookbook)

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell (Author Event)

Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:

Wrigley Field in Chicago: My First Real, Outdoor Baseball Game!
Bookstores I've Visited
The Sunday Salon: Other Birds and Lucy by the Sea

It's your opportunity to nominate your favorite children's books and young adult books of 2022 for the Cybils Award. Please take a look at the guidelines and nominate here on or before October 15. Need ideas for what to nominate? Take a look at our idea boards here. 

Good Thing #1, 2, and 3

I spent a week with these lovely family members in the wilds of North Texas.

I slept in a little cabin my son has down the hill from his house.

The kids and I did some drawing and I read a million books to them

and I helped my daughter-in-law sell her art at Canton.

Great fun!

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.