Sunday Salon: Henna and Holmes

Sunday Salon

I haven’t done a Sunday Salon post in the better part of a year, and when I have done them in the past, I’ve always hosted them over at my book blog, Bibliotica, but I felt like talking about what I’ve been reading, and I felt like putting it here.

Over the last month, I’ve re-energized Bibliotica thanks, mostly, to TLC Book tours and Pump Up Your Book. Both companies are women owned/women run, which is something that matters to me. Whatever are personal opinions about politics, religion, fashion, or the perfect espresso drink, I believe it’s important for women to support other women.

In any case, Bibliotica has at least three posts a week already scheduled through mid-November (and I’m booking December and January now).

I read quickly, and I find time to read in between doing other things, when I have to, because not-reading makes me cranky. I read in the bathroom, in the bathtub and during meals if Fuzzy and I aren’t eating together. I read in bed, I read out by the pool…you get the idea.

There are some books that I enjoy and never think of again, and some that stick with me. Of the latter type that I’ve read in the past few months, Michael Perry’s Visiting Tom: A Man, A Highway, and the Road to Roughneck Grace is a favorite, because Perry’s memoirs are always incredibly vivid and honest.

Dora Machado’s The Curse Giver was a beautiful, lyrical fantasy with a great balance of romance and action.

Painted Hands, by Jennifer Zobair is a great glimpse into the life of the modern Muslim-American woman, shows us that there is such a thing as Muslim Feminism, and taught me that some women hide their hopes and dreams in their henna tattoos when getting mendhi on their hands for weddings.

For the last week, I’ve been immersed in The Displaced Detective series by Stephanie Osborn, which gives us a new version of Sherlock Holmes, set in a time and place that is essentially our own (and includes references to Stargate, and the Eleventh Doctor, among other lovely details.)

Those books won’t be featured until next week, but they’ve not only kept me vastly entertained, they’ve also rekindled my ever-present-but-often-dormant love of all things Sherlockian, and a little more Holmes in one’s life is never a bad thing. (Actually, Tabz gets some of the credit for that, as well.)

Today, I’m finishing a book about having a healthy voice (that’s for tomorrow’s review) and puttering around the house. I might catch up on Project Runway. I might just play with the dogs or do some laundry. My eyes are still really tired – I scratched my right cornea early last week, and was essentially offline Wednesday and Thursday because I couldn’t see – and I’m trying to limit computer time on weekends, because there’s such a thing as being TOO plugged in.

I love puttery Sundays with no real plans, almost as much as I like soaking in the tub while listening to NPR on Saturday evenings, and frou-frou coffee.

Speaking of which, I talked about all of those things in this week’s Sunday Brunch, which is subtitled On Being a Fan.

Happy Reading, and Make it a Great Week.