Sunday Salon: March 19, 2023

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon. 

• The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson
• Northern Spy by Flynn Berry

• Normal People by Sally Rooney
• The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Feeds Success in Work and Life by Shawn Achor

Sit back and relax, this is a long one! 😀

Sunday--I am learning about the relaxed atmosphere and slow-to-get-going attitude here in Mexico. It's good for me as I always rush around at home. After a late breakfast we drove to the town of Tepoztlan, which is right up against the mountains. It's got cobblestone streets, steep hills, and a street market with local artisans. It's got nice boutiques as well. I was very restrained in my purchasing, only buying local chocolate (of course!) and an ornament for my Christmas tree. On the way back we had dinner at the home of my friend Alexia's parents; they are wonderful people, so welcoming and friendly. It's great to see the REAL Mexico and just not the tourist areas.

Monday--Alexia's mom took me out to breakfast while Alexia and Corey worked. What a sweet woman. I took a bus to the Mexico City airport (about 1.5 hours away) and it was great to see more of the country on the drive. I met up with my former colleague and friend, Dither, and we did a driving tour of Mexico City (Presidential palace, cathedral, national archives, various neighborhoods, etc). We had dinner and explored the Monument de Revolucíon, which was really cool.

There is graffiti all over the city from the International Day of the Woman, it seems like Mexico City women were really making their voices heard! I hope it has an impact.

Tuesday Dither and I went to The Blue House, Frida Kahlo's house. It was pretty cool. We also went to Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo's house/studio, which was far less interesting and a bit disappointing. We both wanted more of their art rather than architectural drawings of the house we were in. We went to one of the cathedrals ( In an odd twist, outside the cathedral we ran into King Tut and had fun taking photos with him.) and ate yummy churros in a city park. I love the way Mexico has a community part in each area/district/neighborhood. A super fun day and way to end my visit here.

On my plane trips, I managed to watch 2 movies (thank you American Airlines for having free entertainment): CODA and The Banshees of Inisherin. I enjoyed both of these very much. Now I just need to see Everything Everywhere all at Once.

Last night I went to the symphony and they played all John Williams music (Harry Potter, Star Wars, ET, Lincoln, JFK, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Superman). It was absolutely wonderful and nostalgic; his movie scores evoke such strong memories. And, about 10 of the musicians played in most of his movies so they told stories in between each piece, which really made it all very fun.

I realize that I am not a sit-by-the-pool kind of person, but I did enjoy some time in the shade reading in Cuernavaca.

Here is is the current state of my 2023 challenges. At this point, I am counting individual books for multiple categories in each challenge, but I'll replace them with other books throughout the year.