The Sunday Salon: Looking for Hope

 

 

Welcome! I am delighted that 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. It's also a great opportunity to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Bailey and Lucy at the beach in Galveston

I went with friends to the San Antonio Book Festival last weekend. Our wonderful granddaughter, Bailey, and her daughter, Lucy, came to stay with us for several days after that. We volunteered at Quintana Beach Neotropical Bird Sanctuary for Spring Fling on Friday. Saturday we are headed to a big get-together with my husband's family. Whew! Busy!

What I Read Last Week:

The Mirror & the Light: A Novel by Hilary Mantel (Historical Fiction)

With this book, I finish the Wolf Hall trilogy.

Highly recommended.

What I'm Reading Now:

Finger Exercises for Poets by Dorianne Laux (Writing)

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan (Reread)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Off to the San Antonio Book Festival and Then Company's a-Comin'

National Poetry Month: Antilamentation by Dorianne Laux

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:

The San Antonio Book Festival. 

We made a splash wearing shirts from our friend Rae. 

We loved hearing author Sandra Cisneros speak.

Good Thing #2:

G-granddaughter Lucy makes me proud

as she carefully examines 

a Little Wood Satyr butterfly

on a hike during her visit.

Good Thing #3:

Where do we find hope

amid this madness in America? 

Robert Reich is one of the voices I listen to.

I find hope by being out in nature,

visiting with family,

and listening for people who are speaking up in truth.

Please share how you are finding hope in these difficult times.

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.

National Poetry Month: Antilamentation by Dorianne Laux

It's National Poetry Month.

To celebrate poetry this month, I'm sharing a few lines from a poem I love along with a photo I took. I'll include a link to the entire poem below.

Antilamentation

Dorianne Laux

Regret nothing. Not the cruel novels you read

to the end just to find out who killed the cook.

Not the insipid movies that made you cry in the dark,

in spite of your intelligence, your sophistication...

The full poem, "Antilamentation" by Dorianne Laux, is here.

For more photos, link up at Wordless Wednesday, Comedy Plus, Messymimi's Meanderings, Keith's Ramblings, Create With Joy, Wild Bird Wednesday, and My Corner of the World.

The Sunday Salon: Off to the San Antonio Book Festival and Then Company's a-Comin'

 

 

Welcome! I am delighted that 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. It's also a great opportunity to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

The weather here was glorious last week. We are petitioning for more, more, more. 

I'm headed to San Antonio today, Saturday, for a day trip to the San Antonio Book Festival. On Sunday, our granddaughter and her daughter are coming to stay with us for a few days. Hurray!

What I Read Last Week:

Gringos by Charles Portis (Fiction)

What I'm Reading Now:

The Mirror & the Light: A Novel by Hilary Mantel (Historical Fiction)

Finger Exercises for Poets by Dorianne Laux (Nonfiction)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Houston Indie Bookstore Crawl Begins!

Celebrate Spring with Some Fantastic Bird Books

National Poetry Month: New Every Morning by Susan Coolidge

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:

We saw this beautiful Whirlabout

during our butterfly survey this week.

Good Thing #2:

A migrating Wilson's Warbler

hopped around in a shrub

right outside my window.

Good Thing #3:

This peacock was wandering

around the county park

while we were doing naturalist work

last week. Beautiful,

but non-native!

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.

National Poetry Month: New Every Morning by Susan Coolidge

It's National Poetry Month, if DT hasn't issued an executive order to banish it yet. (He seems determined to destroy everything I love, so I guess it's just a matter of time.)

To celebrate poetry this month, I'm sharing a few lines from a poem I love along with an illustration I drew or a photo I took. I'll include a link to the entire poem below.

       A new morning from my window in the Piedmont area of Italy, 2023

 

New Every Morning
Susan Coolidge 
 
...Every day is a fresh beginning;
Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain,
And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning,
And puzzles forecasted and possible pain,
Take heart with the day, and begin again.

 

The full poem, "New Every Morning" by Susan Coolidge, is here.

For more photos, link up at Wordless Wednesday, Comedy Plus, Messymimi's Meanderings, Keith's Ramblings, Create With Joy, Wild Bird Wednesday, and My Corner of the World.

Celebrate Spring with Some Fantastic Bird Books

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

North on the Wing: Travels with the Songbird Migration of Spring by Bruce M. Beehler

The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human by Noah Strycker

Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist: Your Guide to Listening by Donald Kroodsma

The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik

The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman

A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds by Scott Weidensaul

What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World by Jon Young

An Egg is Quiet written by Dianna Aston

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

Do you have books about birds that you love?

Please share them with 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.    

The Sunday Salon: Houston Indie Bookstore Crawl Begins!

 

Welcome! I am delighted that 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. It's also a great opportunity to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

What I Read Last Week:

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (Fantasy)

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (Fiction)

What I'm Reading Now:

The Mirror & the Light: A Novel by Hilary Mantel (Historical Fiction)

Gringos by Charles Portis (Fiction)

Finger Exercises for Poets by Dorianne Laux (Nonfiction)

I'm participating in the Houston Bookshop Crawl #HTXBookCrawl25 this month. I started with Then & Now Bookshop in Galveston. Let's see how many independent bookshops I can visit from the list this month.

April 26 is Indie Bookstore Day, and indie bookstores all over the US are hosting events. Take a look at the map here to see what is going on around you, if you live in the US.

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Everyone is Welcome Here

Books Steeped in Hilarity, Silliness, and Utter Foolishness

National Poetry Month: Everything is Going to Be All Right by Derek Mahon

The Mirror & the Light: A Novel by Hilary Mantel: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Paris in springtime?

I wouldn't miss it!

Lisa at Bookdock Ramblings and Erin at Still Life, with Cracker Crumbs are hosting another film watching event for springtime. It is six weeks, six movies, and very easy going. If you want to watch one or all or a few, they would love to have you join in. Just watch along and comment on their posts or post your own thoughts and link up.

I bought Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris when my sister and I celebrated her birthday with a We Love Paris Day a few years ago. The movie had just come out on DVD, so we ate wonderful Paris treats and watched the movie at my house. A lovely day!

I hadn't watched it since then, and I remember being mildly disappointed since I had just read the book and, face it, the movie is rarely as good as the book. 

But two years have passed, and I felt completely different about the movie this time. Maybe part of it is because the times are different, and the movie makes a slam against those folks (I think you know who I'm talking about) who seem to feel like rich people can do whatever they want. 

Our main character, Ada Harris, is a cleaner in London who wants to buy a Dior dress. She's clearly not the target market for Dior in 1957, but she is determined to buy a Dior dress anyway. What gumption Mrs. Harris has! I found it delightful that one of the rich snooty women Mrs. Harris encounters makes her money from picking up garbage, and, at the time of Mrs. Harris' visit, the garbage men are on strike. The movie is a fairytale for those of us who find Paris to be the most wonderful city in the world. 

Here are my thoughts about the book. 

(Some spoilers)

Mrs. Harris is a cleaning woman who sets her sights on a Dior dress, a dress that costs a year's wages, a dress she hasn't a place to wear, a dress that can only be obtained by traveling to Paris. Like a beautiful fairytale, all her dreams come true. And don't. And do.

You might find the Meaning of Life in this book. It's a new favorite.

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:

We rode across the ferry 

to Bolivar Peninsula

on our birding outing this week.

Good Thing #2:

Action for Happiness: 

Active April calendar

Good Thing #3:

I had some repairs made on my

50-year-old guitar

last week.

What a nice sound it has now!

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.