The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS O FRIDAYS

The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien

Yikes! I did it again. I forgot to post. To be honest, I forgot what day it was and only realized this morning that it is Saturday already and I had forgotten (again) to post Book Beginnings.

There's been a break in my work while I wait for a big decision from the Court of Appeals. But I can't keep track of time or days without a work schedule. If I'm this bad when I'm only on a break, what will it be like when I retire? I better find a good calendaring system!

A big thank you to those of you who come back to add your Book Beginnings on Fridays post late. I'll see all of you back next week when I post on time. I Promise!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The town takes its name from the river. 

-- from The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien. 

Edna O'Brien sprang to literary fame, or notoriety, in 1960, with the publication of her first novel, The Country Girls (later expanded to The Country Girls Trilogy). The book scandalized Ireland with its honest portrayal of female sexuality. O'Brien continued to write books for decades, until she was almost 90 years old. The Little Red Chairs was her penultimate book, published in 2015 when she was 85.

I'm reading this now and it is fantastic. It's the story of a mysterious man claiming to be from Montenegro who moves to a small Irish village. Things are not what they seem. It's a great yarn, full of warmth, humor, intrigue, and anguish. I love it and plan to read more of her books. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the linky box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag so we can try to find you. 

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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 is 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 The Little Red Chairs:

We were fifteen in all, boys and girls, and we walked in pairs through the town, over the bridge and about one mile more to Killooney Wood. We sang as we walked and when we could remember no more songs, the Doc sang folk songs from his own country, in his own tongue.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

One night, in the dead of winter, a mysterious stranger arrives in the small Irish town of Cloonoila. Broodingly handsome, worldly, and charismatic, Dr. Vladimir Dragan is a poet, a self-proclaimed holistic healer, and a welcome disruption to the monotony of village life. Before long, the beautiful black-haired Fidelma McBride falls under his spell and, defying the shackles of wedlock and convention, turns to him to cure her of her deepest pains.

Then, one morning, the illusion is abruptly shattered. . . . The Cloonoila community is devastated by this revelation, and no one more than Fidelma, who is made to pay for her deviance and desire. In disgrace and utterly alone, she embarks on a journey that will bring both profound hardship and, ultimately, the prospect of redemption.

Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair

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. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Lanny Budd was the only occupant of a small-sized reception-room. He was seated in a well-padded armchair, and had every reason to be comfortable, but did not appear so.

-- from Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair. 

Upton Sinclair won the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Dragon's Teeth, a chunky novel set in the 1930s in the lead up to WWII.  It is the third book in his "World's End" series featuring Lanny Budd, American playboy and son of an international arms dealer. I'm reading it because I'm working my way through all the Pulitzer Prize winners. It is one of my picks for the Classics Club. 

The story is dense with family matters (Lanny and his rich wife just had their first baby), high class living (yachts, the Riviera, mansions, Long Island, fancy parties, servants, etc.), social history (the Great Depression, the rise of Hitler), and politics (revolutionaries, reactionaries, Pinks, Reds, and Fascists). I expected it to be entertaining, in the way I love about shaggy novels written in the mid-1900s. I didn't expect it to feel so current. But the themes and conflicts of the 1930s seem very on-point to the issues of today. I' getting a lot of insight from it and think it deserves a bigger audience.  

See the Publisher's Description below for more details. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

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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 is 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 Dragon's Teeth:

I am to fly and join the yacht at Lisbon, and as soon as I can set a date, I will telegraph you. In the meantime, say nothing, and my father and I will be the only persons in the secret.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, Lanny Budd’s financial acumen and his marriage into great wealth enable him to continue the lifestyle he has always enjoyed. But the devastation the collapse has wrought on ordinary citizens has only strengthened Lanny’s socialist ideals—much to the chagrin of his heiress wife, Irma, a confirmed capitalist.

* * * 

Winner of the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Dragon’s Teeth brilliantly captures the nightmarish march toward the Second World War. An astonishing mix of history, adventure, and romance, the Lanny Budd Novels are a testament to the breathtaking scope of Upton Sinclair’s vision and his singular talents as a storyteller.

My Sign Up Post -- 2025 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE

 

THE 2025 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE

My Sign Up Post

This is my sign up post for the 2025 European Reading Challenge. To join the challenge yourself (and I hope you do), go to the main challenge page, here. 

Even though this is the 13th year I've hosted the challenge, I haven't been very good about my own participation. Last year, I even forgot to do a sign up post! I resolve to do better in 2025. 

I haven't picked any particular books for the challenge. Those in the photo are possibilities. My real goal is to read books by authors from, or set in, countries I don't often visit in books. I always read many books set in the UK or by UK authors. France is a close follow up. I usually manage to visit Italy, Greece, and a couple of Scandinavian countries (thanks to Nordic Noir). But I seldom get to the Baltics, Balkans, or micro states. And I read pathetically few books in translation. I hope to address both these weaknesses this year.

I want to pay particular attention to the Balkans this year because my sister and I are taking our 85-year-old mother on a cruise this summer. We will go to Greece, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy. I want to read a book by an author from each of these countries, preferably set in each country, before I go. 

Any suggestions? Here's what I came up with as possibilities:

GREECE: Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis

MONTENEGRO:

CROATIA:

SLOVENIA:

ITALY: Bread and Wine by Ignazio Silone

I have no ideas for the three countries left blank. I could be talked out of the two I picked for Greece and Italy. I picked books on my TBR shelves. 

I'm going to go back to the review pages for prior years of this challenge and see if I can find any for the missing three countries. 

  

A New Year of Book Beginnings!

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

A Fresh Start for the New Year!

Good grief! I had such Christmas Brain I forgot to post Book Beginnings on Fridays two weeks in a row! I've been late posting many times, but I've never forgotten entirely until now. Sorry! And thanks for coming back.

Please join me again in 2025 to post the opening sentence (or so) from the book you are reading this week. You can also post from a book that caught your attention and you want to highlight, even if you are not reading it right now. Leave the link to your Book Beginnings post in the Linky box below.

A natural tie-in with Book Beginnings is The Friday 56, now hosted by Anne at My Head is Full of Books. 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. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

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MY BOOK BEGINNING

Two men sat in a darkened room.

-- from The Venetian Affair by Helen MacInnes. 

I love Helen MacInnes's Cold War thrillers. The protagonists are usually always smart, competent, and classy. The heroes are gentlemen, usually with an intellectual bent, and the women are all very intelligent, but can outrun bad guys even in high heels. 

Lately, I've fallen out of the habit of reading her books, but hope to change that this year. For starters, I'm doing a readalong of The Venetian Affair with some bookstagram buddies on Instagram. If you are on the 'gram and want to join us, follow me @gilioncdumas and I'll add you to the group chat. 

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Venetian Affair:

Fenner had a small, quiet room to himself, with old acquaintance Dade keeping so much in the background that he was practically a crack in the plaster. There was a stenotypist tapping noiselessly on a small machine that obediently sucked in every syllable and spewed out a continuous sheet of paper covered with compressed symbols.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Fenner burned Rosenfeld’s message, reminding himself wryly that he was behaving in the very best tradition. This was a game not too difficult to learn, he thought. A game? A game in deadly earnest. A vacation in Venice that was grim business. A girl constantly beside him who wasn’t his. How the hell had he walked into this upside-down world? Where, he wondered suddenly, would Venice lead?

The 2025 European Reading Challenge -- WRAP UP PAGE

 

THE 2025 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE

WRAP UP PAGE

THIS IS THE PAGE FOR WRAP UP POSTS

TO LIST YOUR REVIEWS, GO TO THIS PAGE

TO SIGN UP, GO TO THE MAIN CHALLENGE PAGE, HERE, OR CLICK THE BUTTON ABOVE

LINK YOUR POST

When you complete the 2025 European Reading Challenge at whatever level you signed up for, please do a wrap up post and enter a link to your post here. Please link to your wrap up post, NOT the main page of your blog or social media profile.

A wrap up post can be very simple. You can do a separate post on your blog or social media platform. Or, if you participate in the challenge on your blog and just update your original post without doing a separate wrap up post, that's OK too. Just post a link to your updated post here. If you participate on social media, please do some kind of wrap up post listing the books you read and link it here.

OR LEAVE A COMMENT

If you want, you can also simply leave a comment below listing the books you read. Please include your name, the names of the books, the authors of the books, and the countries of the books.

WANT THE PRIZE? WRAP IT UP!

Without some kind of wrap up post, I don't have any way to know if you finished the challenge. I like to know so I can visit everyone. But it is more important if you are competing for the Jet Setter Prize. If you want to compete for the prize, you have to leave a wrap up post or I will have no way to know if you visited more countries than the other people competing with you. This is also why you need to identify the country of your book. I don't want to guess and I don't want to research.

When I announce the prize winner, Honorable Mention will go to the participants who visited the most countries (but not as many as the winner), with links to their wrap up posts. If you don't link a wrap up post, I won't be able to find you.

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NOTE ABOUT DATES

You have until December 31, 2025, to finish reading the books. You have until January 31, 2026, to finish your reviews and your wrap up post. I will announce the winner as soon as possible after January 31, 2026.