The Sunday Salon: What Mad Universe

 

Welcome! I am delighted that you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. 

What is the Sunday Salon? 

The Sunday Salon is a place to link up and share what we have been doing during the week. It's also a great opportunity to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

I enjoyed a great week, at Power Pump class, at Barre, at Yoga, at Step class, at book club, mass producing granola, visiting with my sister, talking with friends, writing every day (thank you, Joy, for a great idea) and, oh yes, of course, reading and reading and reading. 

We were supposed to be at my husband's brother's 75th birthday party this weekend, but because of anticipated icy roads (we don't know how to drive on roads like this), the party was postponed. We are shivering here, with temps reaching down into the 20s F each night.

What I Read Last Week:

The Eyes & the Impossible by Dave Eggers (Newberry)

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Nonfiction)

What I'm Reading Now:

The Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Classic)

What Mad Universe by Frederic Brown (Science Fiction)

Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn (Nonfiction)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Our Hibiscus Blooms!

Goals for 2026

Bite by Bite: Nourishments & Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Rental Person Who Does Nothing: A Memoir by Shoji Morimoto: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

I began to list 3 Good Things every day during the pandemic. Now I've established a regular routine of writing down my 3 Good Things. Here are 3 Good Things from last week:

Good Thing #1:

Step class.

Good Thing #2:

Homemade pizza in

the air fryer. Two thumbs up!

Good Thing #3:

We started planning 

for my dad's birthday party.

He'll be 100

early next year.

Weekend linkup spots are listed below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

I hope you will join the linkup for Sunday Salon below.

Rental Person Who Does Nothing: A Memoir by Shoji Morimoto: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

 

Today's Featured Book: 

Rental Person Who Does Nothing: A Memoir

by Shoji Morimoto

Genre: Memoir

Published: January 9, 2024

Page Count: 158 pages

Summary: 

Shoji Morimoto was constantly being told by his boss, "It makes no difference whether you’re here or not," and that his presence contributed nothing to the company. Morimoto began to wonder whether a person who "does nothing" could still have actual value and a place in the world. Perhaps he could turn "doing nothing" into a service? With one tweet, Rental Person was born.

Thank you, Jinjer (The Intrepid Angleano).

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

@morimotoshoji I’m starting a service called Do-nothing Rental. It’s available for any situation in which all you want is a person to be there. Maybe there’s a restaurant you want to go to, but you feel awkward going on your own. Maybe a game you want to play, but you’re one person short. Or perhaps you’d like someone to keep a space in the park for your cherry blossom viewing party... I only charge transport (from Kokubunji Station) and cost of food/drink (if applicable). I can’t do anything except give very simple responses. 

With this tweet, I became “Rental Person,” a Rental Person Who Does Nothing. At the time, I had 300 followers. Ten months later, I had 100,000. The number of requests has grown too, and now I get a steady flow of about three a day. I find it utterly amazing. Why on earth has it happened? When I started the service, I thought it might be interesting, but I never imagined it would result in a book, a manga or TV programs. And when I try to hide my surprise, people started talking about my “aura,” as though I’m some kind of star.

Morimoto, Shoji. Rental Person Who Does Nothing: A Memoir, p. 1. Kindle Edition. 

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne of Head Full of Books. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky. 

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

Which book pairs perfectly with a certain snack in your opinion? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer)

All books pair perfectly with coffee. In my very humble opinion.

Bite by Bite: Nourishments & Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

   

I have a lot of cookbooks in my TBR, and there is nothing my husband loves more than for me to cook. To inspire me, I took photos with 24 cookbooks I have and I've prescheduled one post a month for the next two years. I'll plan to link up with In My Kitchen, hosted by Sherry's Pickings, and Weekend Cooking, hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader (and Baker). To further inspire me, I've created a Cooking/Baking Challenge for me for 2026 in which I read and bake from and post about one cookbook a month.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil shares the foods of her life, food by food, bite by bite, and, in the process, tells the stories of her life. 

Some of the foods are exotic to me and I've never seen these: Pawpaw, lumpia, bangus, lychee, jackfruit, mangosteen, kaong, gyro, leche flan, halo-halo.

Some of the foods are foods I have heard of, but I've never cooked or baked with: Mango, mint, crawfish, gyro. 

Some of the foods are foods I have cooked with once: Risotto.

Some of the foods are foods I use often: Rice, pineapple, cinnamon, blackberries, vanilla, black pepper, apples, bing cherry, Concord grape, maple syrup, butter, waffles, sugarcane, coconut.

Some of the foods are so familiar to me that I actually grow them in my yard and cook with them all the time: Tomato, onion, watermelon, pecan, figs, potato.

Here's a recipe I make that uses several of these foods. You can choose to leave out any of the ingredients you don't like.

My Mom's Homemade Granola

Oats     Coconut     Sesame seeds

Sunflower seeds     Pecans     Walnuts

Vanilla     Cherries (dried)     Cinnamon

Maple syrup     Almonds (sliced)     Honey

Oil     Cranberries     Raisins

Mix together oats, coconut, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pecans, walnuts, almonds in a huge pot. Add oil and honey and vanilla and maple syrup and cinnamon and stir well. Put onto rimmed cookie sheets and bake at 325 degrees F for about an hour, turning and stirring several times to get a nice brown bake. Put the baked mix into storage containers and add in cranberries and raisins and cherries. Granola can be frozen. 

My mom would collect and refill our granola storage container every year as her Christmas gift to us. Even though she passed away fifteen years ago, I can still see my mom's faded blue letters: Deb and Jim's Granola Jar. Every time I make granola, I think of my mom.

Be a part of the friendly In My Kitchen (IMK) community by adding your post at Sherry's Pickings each month - everybody welcome!  We'd love to have you visit.  Tell us about your kitchen (and kitchen garden) happenings over the past month.  Dishes you've cooked, preserves you've made, herbs and veg. in your garden, kitchen gadgets, and goings-on.  And one curveball is welcome - whatever you fancy; no need to be kitchen-related. The link is open from the first of the month to midnight on the thirteenth of the month, every month.

Weekend Cooking was created by Beth Fish Reads and is now hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader (and Baker). It is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.  

For more photos, link up at Wordless Wednesday, Comedy Plus, Messymimi's Meanderings, Keith's Ramblings, Image-in-ing, Soul and Mind and So On, Wild Bird Wednesday, and My Corner of the World.

Goals for 2026

Talk less; listen more. I know I say this every year, but I'm practicing it this year. Really. I am.

Duolingo. A friend included me in her paid version of this app, and now I'm amping up my language practice. I'm focusing on Spanish and French. 

Sci fi and fantasy. I want to read more of science fiction and fantasy. Please share some titles I should read.

Barre. Power pump. Step. I'm trying some new classes at our rec center. I've loved everything I've tried so far.

Write each day. Ten minutes.

Blog at least once a week. My seventeenth year. Host a weekly gathering, welcome to all, The Sunday Salon. 

Nature. Learn more about it. Get out in it. Share it with others.

Reading/blogging challenges. I went a little overboard with these. 2026 Challenges: Nonfiction Reader Challenge. Back to the Classics Challenge. Nick's Chapter-a-Day Tolstoy Challenge. Speccy Fiction Challenge. Japanese Literature Challenge. Nature Reading Challenge. Creativity Reading Challenge. Happiness Reading Challenge. Immigration Reading Challenge. Contemplative Reading Project. A-Z Blogging Challenge. Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. Mount TBR Reading Challenge. Library Love Challenge. Baking/Cooking Challenge. My Perpetual Challenges: 1001 Children's Books, Classics Club. 

I shall continue to work to promote happiness and kindness and education and truth and gratitude and the common good in the world. How exactly shall I do this? I don't know, but I hope to figure it out each day.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.       

The Sunday Salon: Our Hibiscus Blooms!

I am happy you joined us at the Sunday Salon. Welcome!

What is the Sunday Salon? The Sunday Salon is a place to link up and share what we have been doing during the week. It's a good opportunity to visit other blogs and join in conversations there. 

What I Read Last Week:

Congratulations, By the Way: Some Thoughts on Kindness by George Saunders (Nonfiction)

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (Fiction; Japanese Literature Challenge; Novella)

What I'm Reading Now:

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Fiction)

On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Children's)

The Adventures of Cipollino by Gianni Rodari (Picture Book)

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: My Dad Turns 99 (!)

Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2026

My Year in Books for 2026: Meme

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

I began to list 3 Good Things every day during the pandemic. Now I've established a regular routine of writing down my 3 Good Things. Here are 3 Good Things from last week:

Good Thing #1:

Salman Rushdie at Inprint in Houston.

Good Thing #2:

Grandkids Annie, 10, and Wyatt, 6, play 

their first basketball games of the season.

Good Thing #3:

First time our hibiscus has bloomed.

Weekend linkup spots are listed below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

I hope you will join the linkup for Sunday Salon below.