Sunday Salon, Feb. 9th

My constant companion on these rainy days.

Weather: Sunny and chilly. We have had record-breaking rains this past week, with flooding in nearby communities and mudslides, etc. So this sunny day is a nice respite from the wet.

GaNa: Our wonderful, smart, enchanting grandson (who's biased?) renamed us. I'm Na and Don is Ga, but when we are together we are now GaNa. Hs is such a delight.

Cybils: My work as a Round 2 judge for the JH/SH Nonfiction genre is done. Our team spent the weekend discussing our favorites and we came to consensus fairly easily, though all eleven of the finalists were so good. Now we wait until the world knows the winners when they are announced on February 14th. Stay tuned.

Found space: Both of our daughters are moving from one home to another so their stuff which has been stored at our house is trickling away, too. We are recovering space we haven't had in a long time, if ever. Don and I will drive later this week to San Fran with a pickup full of stuff for Carly. Can't wait to see her new place. Rita and her family dropped by to pick up Ian's bookshelf. Boxes of toys couldn't fit in the car so she'll retrieve them next time.

Disgusted and frightened: My reaction to the results of this past week with the "acquittal" of Trump in the Senate "trial." I'm sick. Just sick.

2020 Reading resolution: I was reading the new issue of Book Page (free from my library) and came upon a page where five of the magazine's editors made their one reading resolution for the year. (See photo above.) I decided right then and there to make one, just one, too. And here it is....drum roll, please...LONESOME DOVE. Years ago I binged watched the whole mini-series in one day. Now I will read the whole book in one year! (No excuses. Here I go!)

Books I've read since January 19th (the last time I posted a Sunday Salon). I know, I've been reading a lot lately:

• A Thousand Sisters: The Heroic Airwomen of the Soviet Union in World War II by Elizabeth Wein. E-Book. A Cybils selection.
• The Stonewall Riots: Coming Out In the Streets by Gayle E. Pitman. Print. A Cybils selection.
• The Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor. Audiobook. Part of the 'Strange the Dreamer' series. 
• Torpedoed: The True Story of the WWII Sinking of the "Children's Ship" by Deborah Heiligman. Print. A Cybils selection. 
• Mummies Exposed: Creepy and True by Kerrie Logan Hollihan. Print. A Cybils selection.
• Elizabeth Warren: Nevertheless, She Persisted by Susan Wood. Print. A children's book about a US Senator and a woman running for president. 
• One Person, No Vote: How All Voters Are Not Created Equally by Carol Anderson. Print. A Cybils selection.
• God Got a Dog by Cynthia Rylant. Print. A children's poetry book. Part of the new collection for our church library. A reread. 
• The Poison Eaters by Gail Jarrow. Print. A Cybils selection, the last I read of the batch.
• When God Made Light by Matthew Paul Turner. Print. A children's book which is part of the new collection for our church library.
• Ordinary Hazards by Nikki Grimes. Print. A 2020 Printz Honor winner, written in verse.

Currently reading:

• Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater. The first book in a new series, a side series from the Raven Cycle books. Audiobook. 34%.

Upcoming audiobooks cued up for our road trip:

• Motherless in Brooklyn by Jonathan Letham
• The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
• Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart
• The Yellow House by Sarah Broom

A new (old) role: I have accepted to be the volunteer librarian at my church. A friend, Jane, and I weeded the collection and removed four boxes of books and old videos. Then I had a small budget to buy some new books. I was in my element. Fun!

-Anne