My Head Is Full of Books: Sunday Salon -- celebrating the last days of summer

"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Saturday, September 6, 2025

Sunday Salon -- celebrating the last days of summer

Rainier National Park: Reflection Lake, View of the Cascades with Mt. Adams in the far background, Box Canyon, and Eastside Trail alongside Ohanapecosh River

Weather: (A few hours before game time in Eugene) Overcast. (Praying) It won't be booger hot during the game.

Summer season 2025 officially over: Here are some silly final updates:

Yearly licence plate game -- We look for and record all 50 states' licence plates + Washington, DC between Memorial Day and Labor Day-- How'd we do? We saw 47 states. States not seen: Rhode Island, Delaware, Mississippi, and Washington, DC.
Number of National Parks visited -- Two: Glacier and Mt. Rainier (See photo above of our day after the last day of summer trip to Mt. Rainier.)
Book Challenges:

20 books of Summer Challenge: I read 47 books. (I was a reading monster this summer!)
Big Book 2025 Summer Challenge: Nine of the above mentioned books were over 400 pages long.
Goodreads Summer Challenge: Another nine books on the list qualified for the Goodread challenges, which I completed.
Paris in July Challenge: I had a lot of fun doing French-related things all July which included reading two books set in Paris, making three french recipes, watching the Tour du France, and attempting to read a middle grade book in French.
See my blog post summary of these challenges here.

Grand Adventure 2.0: Boys playing in surf and sand; a tailgate picnic; GPS thinks we are in the middle of the Pacific when we drive onto the beach (allowed in Washington State) and everyone thought this was hilarious; boys on the tsunami tower in Westport; the book I was reading while wrapped up in a coat and beach towel; the fog is so thick I can't see the ocean and the boys are just dark smudges; we did get one kite up but this one vexed us.

Update on the Grand Adventure 2.0 (Grandparents + grandsons): We really had a lot of fun but the weather was a challenge. A weird phenomenon occurs at the coast sometimes when it is really hot inland. We experienced cold and foggy weather at the beach, especially in the morning. If you look at the grey photo in the collage it is a photo of my husband and the boys down at the surf. I am standing at the high tide line and can't even see the ocean from where I am standing. We listened to audiobook version of How to Train Your Dragon. It was a perfect choice for us. As my husband said, "It is a boy book."

"Puff the Magic Dragon": Wednesday was the last day babysitting a grandson during the school day. For the past seven years, since his older brother, Ian, was an infant, we've watched a grandson at least one day a week during the school year. Jamie starts Pre-K next week so this precious time with our grandsons has come to an end. As Don was driving Jamie home, "Puff the Magic Dragon" came up on the playlist of kid songs. One verse begins with the line: "A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys." Don says he quietly choked up while he and Jamie were singing along to Peter, Paul & Mary. So sweet.

Don and his brother meet up for a quick chat before the game starts. The skies were overcast until the 3rd quarter and then it started to get hot but booger hot.

Football Season has begun: We are in Eugene for our first football game of the year this weekend. You'll get sick of hearing about this since we have season tickets and go to every home game. One bonus to all the driving we'll be doing is lots of extra audiobooks completed. I'm already creating a list in my head of all the books I want us to listen to together.

Books and blogging:

Currently reading

Tiny Habits: Small Changes that Change Everything by Fogg. I am practicing some of suggestions for making new habits. Print, 52% complete.
How to Solve Your Own Murder by Perrin. A mystery. Audiobook, 11% complete.
Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict. A book club selection about an actual person. Print. 5% complete.
Isola by Goodman. A historical novel based on a real event from the 1500s. Audiobook. 73% complete.

Completed since last update:

Candide by Voltaire. Don and I listened to this together. Thank goodness, too. I needed him to explain its significance to me.
How to Train Your Dragon by Cowell. Audiobook we listened to on our Grand Adventure with the boys. Good choice.
Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights edited by Perez. An excellent resource on the perils of book banning and censorship. Pint.
The Final Solution by Chabon. An unfortunate choice for the audiobook selected for a car trip with our daughters. None of us liked it. Carly rated it highest at 2.75 and Rita with a 1 star rating was the lowest. Don and I rated between those numbers, which makes our average around 2 stars. Ugh.
The Names by Knapp. A book club selection for this month. Audiobook.
Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown by Candace Fleming. A YA book about in the infamous Jonestown massacre. Print.