Sunday Salon, SuperB owl Sunday

The puzzle cats were busy helping Carly again this week.

Weather: Blue skies and windy right now. We went for a very brisk dog walk a few minutes ago and hurried home instead of taking the 'long route' we prefer to take on weekend days.

SuperB owl: We have been laughing every time TV networks weren't allowed to use the actual name 'Super Bowl' without paying for the rights to use the name. All week my daughter has been calling it the Superb Owl. It has become an hilarious thing and I dare say it will backfire on them. Anyway. Today two teams meet to play football and we are pretty ambivalent about who wins so we watch the game to see the commercials, which are always good.  

Family: We decided to bite the bullet and pay $$$ for our bathroom renovations and we've picked a team to do it all for us. Whew. That task is done. We will make the decision about carpet after that remodel is done.

Cybils: My role as a 2nd round judge for Cybils Book Awards is almost done. I met with the other nonfiction judges today on Zoom and we selected a winner in each of these three categories: Elementary Nonfiction; Middle School Nonfiction; and High School Nonfiction. I have been busting my butt to finish all 21 books (since the judging of finalists began on January 1st) and I almost made it. I still have about half of one book left, but I read enough of it to judge it fairly and will finish and review it for sure. All the Cybils winners will be announced on Feb. 14th. At that time I will post at least one review a day of the 21 nonfiction books I evaluated and next Sunday, after the announcement, I will post my reviews of the three nonfiction winners. I can't give anything away but let me say that we read some FABULOUS books this year and it was really tough picking a best of the best. Congratulations to all the authors of the finalists.

Books:

• Completed this week:
• No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History edited by Lindsay Metcalf. A children's finalist for Cybils. Very inspiring. Print.
• Jane Against the World: Roe v. Wade and the Fight for Reproductive Rights by Karen Blumenthal. A high school Cybils finalist. Every high school and public library needs this book. Wow. Print.
• Throw Like a Girl and Cheer Like a Boy: The Evolution of Gender, Identity, and Race in Sports by Robin Ryle. Another HS Cybils finalist. Another selection that every high school/public library should have in their collection. E-book/pdf.
• Walk Toward the Rising Sun: From Child Soldier to Ambassador fro Peace by Ger Duany. Horrifying and inspiring in equal measure. Ger Duany is one of the lost boys from Sudan. Print.
  
• Currently reading: (Other books I made progress on this week)
  
• Anxious People by Frederik Backman. After a two month hiatus I am back listening to this audiobook. 66%.
• A Promised Land by Barack Obama. Don and I listened to a few more minutes this week whenever we were in the car together. Audiobook, 49%.
• Ex Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Reread by Michiko Kakutani. A Christmas gift. I found myself clearing my palette between other nonfiction books by reading a few entries in this wonderful book. Print. 89%.
• The Cat I Never Named: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess. After a full court rush I wasn't quite able to finish this finalist about the Bosnian Genocide by the deadline. So well-written. Such a distressing topic. Print and audio. 61%.
  

Good news about the state of the nation and politics:

• Biden's Surprisingly Successful Start. (My sister posted this on Facebook. I'm assuming it is from the Washington Post but maybe it was picked up by her local newspaper, the Eugene Register-Guard.) Biden is off to a great start moving forward on many fronts but also he;s been busy "unfucking" many of Trumps executive orders.  (click on the photo then you can make it even larger to read it.)
  
  
  
  
  
• The secret history of the bipartisan shadow campaign that saved our democracy. A lot of  groups and organizations on both sides of the political spectrum came together to save our democracy and our elections. 
• “Every attempt to interfere with the proper outcome of the election was defeated,” says Ian Bassin, co-founder of Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan rule-of-law advocacy group. “But it’s massively important for the country to understand that it didn’t happen accidentally. The system didn’t work magically. Democracy is not self-executing.” (Time)
  

• Smartmatic is suing Fox for a gazillion dollars.
• With this action, Smartmatic says: Enough. Facts matter. Truth matters. Defendants engaged in a conspiracy to spread disinformation about Smartmatic. They lied. And they did so knowingly and intentionally. Smartmatic seeks to hold them accountable for those lies and for the damage that their lies have caused. (-CNN Business)

• COVID-19 numbers are bad but they are decreasing. Down 16% this past week which was down by 16% the week before. Click on this link to see a cool interactive map. (Axios)
  

 

Amanda Gorman recited one of her poems at the beginning of the Super Bowl. This one is about honoring health care workers. So inspiring. She is the first ever poet to recite a poem at this event!

What a moment. @TheAmandaGorman #SBLV pic.twitter.com/v8VM9uhPww

— NFL (@NFL) February 7, 2021

Bye!

-Anne