Rose City Reader

Thursday, October 3, 2024

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

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

The first ray of light which illumines the gloom, and converts into a dazzling brilliancy that obscurity in which the earlier history of the public career of the immortal Pickwick would appear to be involved, is derived from the perusal of the following entry in the Transactions of the Pickwick Club, which the editor of these papers feels the highest pleasure in laying before his readers, as a proof of the careful attention, indefatigable assiduity, and nice discrimination, with which his search among the multifarious documents confided to him has been conducted.

-- from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. That is the kind of long, shaggy opening sentence I love and anticipate from Charles Dickens.

It's October, which means it is time to read Victorian literature in celebration of Victober! Victober is the best thing I ever picked up from Instagram. Do you participate?

This year, The Pickwick Papers is my Victober choice. I'm a big fan of Dickens and, while there are a few of his books I've read multiple times, there are still a few I've never read. The Pickwick Papers is one of them. I don't know much about it, other than that it is one of his funnier books. I am only a few chapters in and I agree. So far, I love it.

The Pickwick Papers is a long book! You can see in the above picture that my edition fills three volumes. I decided to read it with my ears and the audiobook is 31 hours long!

Have you read it?

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 The Pickwick Papers:

Fastened up behind the barouche was a hamper of spacious dimensions--one of those hampers which always awakens in a contemplative mind associations connected with cold fowls, tongues, and bottles of wine--and on the box sat a fat and red-faced boy, in a state of somnolency, whom no speculative observer could have regarded for an instant without setting down as the official dispenser of the contents of the before-mentioned hamper, when the proper time for their consumption should arrive.

Mr. Pickwick had bestowed a hasty glance on these interesting objects, when he was again greeted by his faithful disciple.

Here, members of the Pickwick Club are embarking on a journey. I love the description of their picnic basket. It reminds me of scenes in The Wind in the Willows.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Journey through the English countryside with the inimitable Mr. Samuel Pickwick in Charles Dickens' first novel, a delightful tapestry of episodic misadventures, colorful characters, and sparkling wit. As founder of the Pickwick Club, Mr. Pickwick, accompanied by his loyal friends, embarks on a series of whimsical excursions. From the bustling streets of London to quiet country inns, their travels are punctuated by chance encounters, misunderstandings, and comic predicaments, all narrated with Dickens' signature blend of satire, humor, and keen observation of human nature.

Friday, September 27, 2024

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

Sorry I forgot to post last evening, or even this morning. The week got away from me!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Helen Cartwright was old with her life broken in ways she could not have foreseen.

-- from Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy.

Have you encountered this book yet? If not, you will. It has all the makings of a of a super popular hit book -- an an introverted, unhappy main character, living alone, who learns to embrace life once more. In this case, the protagonist is an 83-year-old lady just waiting to die, who finds redemption through her unlikely friendship with a little mouse.

It's got all the warm and fuzzies of books like A Man Called Ove and Elinore Oliphant is Completely Fine. If you liked those -- and I loved them -- you will love Sipsworth. I certainly did! I read it in two days. I plan to give it to my 85-year-old mother for Christmas.

Sipsworth is my book club's pick for next month. I know it will be popular.

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.

THE FRIDAY 56

This isn't a loud noise, but a persistent one.

Something is happening downstairs in her house on Westminster Crescent that hasn't happened before.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Following the loss of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss. She retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit: “Each day was an impersonation of the one before with only a slight shuffle—as though even for death there is a queue.”

Then, one cold winter night, a chance encounter with a mouse sets Helen on a surprising journey. Over the course of two weeks in a small English town, this reclusive widow discovers an unexpected reason to live.

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware

Do you ever read some random book and end up mesmerized by it? I found a vintage hardback hiding on my shelf and decided to give it a read. It was excellent! Come Fill the Cup is a 1952 novel by journalist-turned-fiction-writer Harlan Ware about journalism and alcoholism, with a little romance and gangsters thrown in.

The story follows Lew Marsh, a hard-bitten newspaperman and recovering alcoholic, on a side assignment from his publisher to dry out the drunken son of the publisher’s best friend. Boyd Copeland is a charming playboy with mommy issues that drive him to drink. Two women complicate the matter. One is Boyd’s wife Paula, who was a cub reporter working for Lew before she married Boyd. Lew is in love with Paula and wants her to divorce Boyd and marry him. The other is Maria de Diego, a lounge singer Boyd ran around with when he was on a bender. Maria is the girlfriend of gangland boss Lenni Garr. When Garr and his thugs go after Boyd, Lew has more trouble on his hands than trying to keep Boyd sober.

It’s a rollicking, hard-boiled tale, well told. A crowd of big characters jostle each other for attention. Chicago, with its energy, wind, tall buildings, sweltering summer, and snow-covered winter is a character in itself. For all its richness, the story simmers along slowly before coming to a rolling boil with an exciting ending.

Two things fascinated me about the book. The first was how Ware made the newsroom come alive. I worked for a newspaper for a year before law school, back when “copy aids” like me were employed to move paper copies of draft stories from reporters to editors to photographers to lay-out people. My first husband was a reporter, then editor at the same paper. I’ve never worked anywhere with such a bustling environment and tight-knit group of colleagues. Those newspaper folks spent all day together, then hung out in the evenings, ate at each other’s houses, partied, and even vacationed together – talking about news, politics, and current events all the while. Ware captured that energy and feeling of intense interaction.

The second thing was how Ware wrote about alcoholism. Boyd is an affable, but fundamentally destructive alcoholic, heading to divorce and an early death. Lew has been off the bottle for seven years and helped many of his fellow recovered drinkers by hiring them at the newspaper. But Lew is never free from the desire to drink. Every day, he fights the battle with the bottle. He’s antsy and has a very short fuse. Having worked with a dry drunk for many years, I thought it was a spot-on portrait of an ex-drinker. My former law partner, the recovering alcoholic, always told me, “You can take the alcohol out of the fruitcake, but you still have a fruitcake.” Reading this book helped me understand my law partner better than I ever did, even after working with him for seven years.

I know I bought this one for its campy, vintage cover. What a delight that it ended up being a terrific yarn.

NOTES

Come Fill the Cup was the basis for a movie starring James Cagney as Lew and Gig Young as Boyd. Young was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role. Confusingly, the movie came out in 1951, and the book the following year. I can’t find an explanation for the timing.

I was also charmed by the memories this book brought back. There is a price sticker on the back of my copy reminding me that I bought it off the $1 shelves at Powell’s City of Books here in Portland. Prior to the most recent glamorizing remodel, Powell’s had a run of shelves under the windows in the main fiction room stuffed with a haphazard collection of books for $1 each. I used to walk over there on my lunch hour to hunt for treasures.

This was one of the books I picked for the TBR 24 in '24 challenge, which I personally use to help me clear book off my shelf that have lingered the longest.

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud

It wasn't until we were halfway through France that we noticed Maretta wasn't talking..

-- from Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud.

This semi-autobiographical novel tells the story of two young sisters, ages five and seven, who move to Morocco with their hippie mom in the early 1970s. The books was made into a movie starring Kate Winslet. The title comes from the little girls, who thought words like "hideous" and "kinky" were sophisticated and said them all the time.

My book club is reading this now. We picked it because one of our members is moving (at least part time) to Morocco! Our next get together is her sending off party.

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.

THE FRIDAY 56

As soon as Bea's clothes were ready she started school. I was swollen with envy and pride and fear for her.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Escaping gray London in 1972, a beautiful, determined mother takes her daughters, aged 5 and 7, to Morocco in search of adventure, a better life, and maybe love. Hideous Kinky follows two little English girls -- the five-year-old narrator and Bea, her seven-year-old sister -- as they struggle to establish some semblance of normal life on a trip to Morocco with their hippie mother, Julia. Once in Marrakech, Julia immerses herself in Sufism and her quest for personal fulfillment, while her daughters rebel -- the older by trying to recreate her English life, the younger by turning her hopes for a father on a most unlikely candidate.

Thursday, September 12, 2024

The Half Life of Guilt by Lynn Stegner -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Half Life of Guilt by Lynn Stegner

From above, the airstrip is a dark scar on the land, an unnatural feature in the sprawling Vizcaino Desert with its soft shadings of buff and dun.

-- from The Half Life of Guilt by Lynn Stegner.

Stegner's new novel involves a married couple on an environmental mission in Mexico who are also wrestling with rough experiences in their pasts. It launched last week and looks terrific.

See the Publisher's Description below for more details. If you like a tear jerker, this one is for you!

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.

THE FRIDAY 56

He embraced his wife and tended his vineyards and tasted without tasting the wine; he read to the Twins stories, he fed them food, he took their hands when a father's hand was asked But these acts found no purchase in his heart, for nothing new could take root there, no living experience could grow in the hard pan of loss.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Stegner tells the story of Clair Bugato and Mason Comstock. Together they journey to the world's largest saltworks in Baja California, where a proposed expansion threatens the California gray whale population, recently come back from the brink of extinction.

In the midst of a conservation battle, they meet a mysterious son of Mexico, Rubio Cantú, who leads them to the powers that be. Their two-week journey sends Clair deep into the past, where she reviews the divergent paths she and her near-identical twin sister have taken away from a childhood tragedy. At the same time, Mason confronts his own unhappy past in Cornwall, England, with a father whose hate was stronger than his love.

No other work of fiction patterns the warp and weft of human guilt, the homesickness only love can cure, environmental crises, the intrinsic conflict between international commerce and planetary health, and the necessity of forgiveness. The Half-Life of Guilt is woven from these themes, delivering to the reader an engrossing and transformative literary experience.

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