Mailbox Monday

What books came into your house last week? Three books came into mine:



Tangier by Stephen Holgate. This debut novel goes back and forth between the modern day story of a "disgraced Washington power broker" and the mystery he sets out to solve about his father, a French diplomat who supposedly died in a Vichy prison during WWII. It looks fantastic!

Steve Holgate is giving an author talk at Browser Bookshop in Olympia, Washington this Friday, June 23, 2017 at 7:00 pm.



The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith. This is the second book in his Child 44 Trilogy. I read and loved Child 44. The third book, Agent 6, is already on my TBR shelf.



The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff. I've seen this around and found a copy at my local consignment shop. I know nothing about it. Is it good?

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Vicki of I'd Rather Be at the Beach.

Book Beginning: The Story of a New Name

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

In the spring of 1966, Lila, in a state of great agitation, entrusted to me a metal box that contained eight notebooks.

-- The Story of a New Name: Neapolitan Novels, Book Two by Elena Ferrante. I'm finding this one to be heavy going. If I weren't reading it with my ears, and at 1.25 speed, I don't know that I would get through it.

Has anyone read all four of the series? What did you think?

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

What Are They Reading? Slay Ride by Dick Francis

Authors tend to be readers, so it is natural for them to create characters who like to read. It is always interesting to me to read what books the characters are reading in the books I read. Even if I can't say that ten times fast.

Usually, the characters' choice of books reflects the author's tastes or, I sometimes think, what the author was reading at the time. But sometimes the character's reading material is a clue to the character's personality, or is even a part of the story.

This is an occasional blog event. If anyone wants to join in, grab the button, put up a post, and leave leave a comment with a link to your post.

SLAY RIDE BY DICK FRANCIS

I'm a big Dick Francis fan and am working my way through his 47 mystery novels. His mysteries are known for their horse racing themes, a subject he came to naturally after his own career as a prize-winning jockey. He is the only author to win the Edgar Award three times.

Slay Ride is one of his earlier books, published in 1973. David Cleveland, chief investigator for the British Jockey Club, goes to Norway to investigate the disappearance of an English jockey. While there, the local police detective sets him up with a driver, the officer's brother, described as an author who doesn't make much money so would like the work. The author-turned-driver is quite literary, and while he sits in his car waiting for Cleveland, he reads The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing.

The choice struck me because, unlike some authors, Dick Francis doesn't do a lot of book name dropping. His characters are usually racing horses, making movies, climbing mountains, or doing other hands-on activities that make for action-filled plots. So having a middle-aged Norwegian man reading Lessing's 1962 feminist classic jumped out at me.

Mailbox Monday

I picked up two books at BookMarx in Springfield, Missouri when I was there for work last week. What books came into your house last week?



Vladimir Nabokov's Lectures on Literature, edited by Fredson Bowers, introduction by John Updike. This is a collection of Nabokov's lectures to undergraduates on Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, Bleak House by Charles Dickens, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Luis Stevenson, Swann's Way by Marcel Proust, "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka, and Ulysses by James Joyce.



The Broken Estate: Essays on Literature and Belief by James Wood. I bought this on an impulse and suspect it will be a long time before I get to it.

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Vicki of I'd Rather Be at the Beach.

Book Beginning: An Oxford Tragedy by J. C. Masterman

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

If you open the Oxford University Calendar and turn to St Thomas's College you will find my name -- Francis Wheatley Winn, Vice-President and Senior Tutor. A note at the bottom of the page will make it clear to the initiated that I won, in my youth, some academic distinction, and that I take my part in the administrative side of University life.

-- An Oxford Tragedy by J. C. Masterman. Set in the fictional Oxford college of St. Thomas's, the narrator is an Oxford don who plays Watson to the novel's Sherlock Holmes, an amateur sleuth named Ernst Brendel, a Viennese lawyer visiting the college as a guest lecturer.

The above is a picture of my edition. The Penguin edition is particularly adorable!



I won my copy several years ago from Bev at My Reader's Block in a giveaway she had as part of her Vintage Mystery Challenge. I credit Bev for turning me on to vintage mysteries, both from the Golden Age (pre-1960) and the Silver Age (1960 - 1989).

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING