Happy Sunday! Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at ReaderBuzz. Check out her post and the links to see what other bloggers have been up to in the last week.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

If you have any Irish-themed content this week, please share it with British Isles Friday. We love celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, but the timing didn’t work out for me to write an Irish post this week. I want to see yours!

A gratuitous photo of Dingle Peninsula, Ireland, from our 2012 trip, to celebrate the day.

How’s the weather?

We had a couple of days of dramatic weather. I lost count of the number of times that the weather radio blared to tell us about a new watch or warning. The tornado sirens went off three times in a 24-hour period. At our house, we got rain and wind. I saw pictures on the news of car windows completely smashed by large hail.

Here’s what’s blooming in our neighborhood: daffodil, forsythia, pear, magnolia, and cherry.

What are you reading?

I finished Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld and already published a glowing review. If you’ve ever been a fan of Saturday Night Live, check it out.

I also finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I drafted a review of that but I’m waiting to publish until after a book club meeting in case that adds thoughts that I want to share.

Both of those books delighted me so much that it’s been a little hard to get going on something else. Fortunately, my turn at the library came up for the highly recommended Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, read by Meryl Streep.

I’m still waiting to commit to an e-book on my phone. Maybe tomorrow.

I’m in Chapter 12 of Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray by Rosalind Rosenberg and still learning so much. The two big things that I learned this week feel like something I should have figured out already, but they came together for me in reading this book.

In the 1960s, there was this notion (it still persists, with different wording) that “black matriarchy” was the source of all the problems in the black community. I’d heard that before, but I never connected the dots of how deeply sexist it was. The unstated corollary was that white families did well because of patriarchy. Yikes! Also, there’s no acknowledgment that white men did well because everything was rigged for white men to do better than everyone else.

I also learned how deliberately black women were pushed away from the spotlight during the March on Washington in 1963. I learned a lot about the unsung heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from At the Dark End of the Street by Danielle L. McGuire, but I wasn’t aware of exactly which women were present, available, and willing to speak that day but were denied the opportunity.

What are you watching?

I’m enjoying Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story on Netflix. For some reason, I didn’t get excited about it when it was released, but it’s working well for me now.

Next up, Season 13 of Call the Midwife, which I’ll watch with PBS Passport.

What are you doing?

My non-Irish British Isles Friday post honored the 25th anniversary of Shakespeare in Love winning the Academy Award for Best Picture. I enjoyed the fantasy travel of visiting the film locations, including the castle owned by the family of actor Ralph Fiennes.

How are you this fine Sunday?