Lord Peter: The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories by Dorothy L. Sayers -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends! I hope you are enjoying this long holiday weekend. I love Thanksgiving because it is such an American tradition and it is the gateway to Christmas!

I am particularly thankful this Thanksgiving because I just finished by final appellate brief in the Boy Scouts sex abuse bankruptcy.  I've been working on Boy Scout sex abuse cases for 17 years, these particular cases for 13 years, and this bankruptcy for almost four years.  It has been a long, hard slog.  It is not over yet, but getting this last brief done is a huge step. 

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?  

Thank you also for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays this holiday weekend. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, or just a book that caught your eye. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The Egoists’ Club is one of the most genial places in London. It is a place to which you may go when you want to tell that odd dream you had last night, or to announce what a good dentist you have discovered.

- from "The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers," the first story in Lord Peter: The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories by Dorothy L. Sayers. 

I love Sayers's Lord Peter mysteries. I finished the novels a couple of years back but the short stories still sit on my TBR shelf. I am never drawn to short stories, so often find myself with a favorite author's collection of stories left to read after I've finished the novels I was drawn to.  I often just skip them. But Sayers is such a favorite of mine that I want to read these. The long Thanksgiving weekend is the perfect opportunity to get cracking. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginning post in the linky box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings. 

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Lord Peter:

"Bless you, child, I didn’t send out the invitations, but I suppose your brother and that tiresome wife of his will be there. Do come, of course, if you want to."

-- from the story, "The Interesting Episode of the Article in Question."

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 

Best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!

Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays! Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week, or just a book that caught your fancy.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

We, Seth, Emperor of Azania, Chief of the chiefs of Sakuyu, Lord of Wanda and Tyrant of the Seas, Bachelor of the Arts of Oxford University, being in this the twenty fourth year of our life, summoned by the wisdom of Almighty God and the unanimous voice of our people to the throne of our ancestors, do hereby proclaim . . .

-- from Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh (ellipses in original).

For the last several months, I've been reading Evelyn Waugh books as part of a buddy read group on Instagram.  Our book this month is Black Mischief. I have two copies to chose from. One is an omnibus edition that also includes Vile Bodies, one of our earlier reads. (Some of the same characters appear in both.) The other is a Penguin edition with a Peter Bently cover. The print is a smidge bigger in the Penguin book, so I’m going with that one.

I love Evelyn Waugh books. But this one sat on my TBR shelf for a long time. It is farcical satire about Seth, the Oxford-educated emperor of Azania, a fictional African nation. Seth brings in his college chum Basil Seal to head up Azania’s new Ministry of Modernization.

I’ve dragged my feet over reading it because, given the premise, I feared it wouldn’t have aged well. Apparently, while contemporary readers struggle with Waugh’s depiction of race, his contemporary readers complained the book was anti-Catholic. I decided to read it it with the idea of learning from past cultural mistakes – racial and religious – not glorifying them. That’s always my approach to older books that don’t match our current standards.

But it isn't as dated as I feared. It is really hilariously funny and mostly a send up of soft colonization.  I say soft because Azania is an independent nation. But the island is overrun with western diplomatic legations, missionaries from half a dozen churches, European mercenaries, and an international set of adventurers and tradespeople. The humor is extremely dry and situational, not based on witty comments people make.  

Have you read Black Mischief? Would you?

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. And please use the #bookbeginnigns hashtag if you share on social media. 

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark. 

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post. 

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Black Mischief:

"I wonder if you know anything about this cable. Can't make head or tail of it. Isn't in any of the usual codes. Kt to QR% CH."

That's longer than two sentences, but it only makes sense this way. This statement from the head of the British legation sets up a comic scene later. The "code" he can't figure out is a chess move one of the young people is playing by correspondence. Later, the British butler copies the "code" because he is spying for the head of the French legation. The French guy thinks it is a clue to proving that the British are plotting a takeover of the country. When, in reality, the British guy is a dolt who shirks his job and plots nothing more sinister than how to grow asparagus so he doesn't have to eat it from a can.  

Hanging the Devil by Tim Maleeny -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays! 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. You can also share from a book you want to highlight, even if you are not reading it right now.

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.

SOCIAL MEDIA: If you are on Instagram, Twitter, 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. Find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

TIE IN: Freda at Freda's Voice is taking a break from hosting her weekly blog event, The Friday 56, a natural tie in with this event. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your book, or 56% of the way through an e-book or audiobook. Many people, including me, are still posting Friday 56 teasers while Freda takes a break. Please visit her Freda’s Voice blog even if there currently is no place to link your post.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Grace stared at the Buddha, but the Buddha didn't blink.

-- from Hanging the Devil: A Cape Weathers Mystery by Tim Maleeny. 

This art heist caper sounds like a roller coaster of fun. It is set in San Francisco, which I always love because I lived there for a while, and starts when a helicopter crashes into the Asian Art Museum. It is the fifth book in Maleeny's series featuring private detective Cape Weathers. I have a feeling I'm going to want to read the whole series. 

Hanging the Devil launches November 14 (next week) from Poisoned Pen Press. It is available for pre-order. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please share the pink to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

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MY FRIDAY 26

From Hanging the Devil:

He wanted to ask Maria if that was a compliment or an insult, but his mouth was full. He'd ordered a lot of pancakes.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

When a helicopter crashes through the skylight of the Asian Art Museum, an audacious heist turns into a tragedy. The only witness to the crash is eleven-year-old Grace, who watches in horror as her uncle is killed and a priceless statue stolen by two men and a--ghost? At least that's how the eerie, smoke-like figure with parchment skin and floating hair appears to Grace. Scared almost to death, she flees into the night and seeks refuge in the back alleys of San Francisco's Chinatown.

Grace is found by Sally Mei, self-appointed guardian of Chinatown. While Sally trains Grace in basic survival skills, her erstwhile partner Cape Weathers, private detective and public nuisance, searches for the mysterious crew behind the robbery before they strike the museum a second time. As the clock winds down, Cape enlists aid from some unlikely allies to lay a trap for a ghost who has no intention of being caught--nor of leaving any witnesses alive to tell the tale.

Dr. Wong by Don Engebretson -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Dr. Wong by Don Engebretson (2023)

Billed as Volume 1 in what will be a series of Cole Ember spy thrillers, Dr. Wong is an irreverent romp through the world of international espionage. The adventure follows special operative Cole Ember and Canadian Intelligence Officer Olivia Laidlaw as they race to stop archvillain Dr. Wing Duck Wong from executing his destructive plans.

Engebretson is a seasoned magazine and short story writer. His debut novel, Welcome to Kamini, followed a man in a failed marriage and professional tailspin to the Canadian woods of northern Ontario. Dr. Wong has the same strong plotting, memorable characters, and captivating writing, but with non-stop action and laughs on every page.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Cole Ember is an operative for CASPER, a black ops force so black it’s rumored only in CIA bathroom stalls. Unbeatable in a fistfight, deadly with a gun, and dense as a paving stone, Ember’s laughable IQ test score was grossly inflated by a bitter, underpaid CIA behavioral scientist as a “screw you” to his employer before retiring. Crossing paths with famed genetic scientist Dr. Wing Duk Wong, Ember slowly—very slowly—discovers that Wong has created a ruthless army of genetically modified humans to aid in his heinous plot to acquire vast wealth via the boldest, and most peculiar, terrorism attack in history.

Also on Wong’s tail is Canadian Intelligence Officer Olivia Laidlaw. She’s skilled, clever, beautiful, and deadly, albeit armed only with a combat knife and bear spray, per restrictions imposed by the Canadian government. Can this hapless pair find and defeat Wong before the world’s financial centers collapse, and thousands of innocent people die? Are you kidding?

FROM THE AUTHOR

My new novel is Dr. Wong—A Cole Ember Spy Thriller. First in a series. We had all the great Ian Fleming James Bond novels at the cabin, and I devoured them in my teens. Regurgitated decades later, naturally it was spewed across the page as a spy spoof. Too many people have told me that it’s spit-your-coffee funny for me not to tell you that it’s spit-your-coffee funny.