Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

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

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

-- from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. This is one of the most famous opening lines of any book. I am so glad to finally experience it for myself, in context. 

Anna Karenina is one of those classics I have wanted to read forever, yet it languished on my TBR shelf. I finally read War and Peace a couple of years ago as a chapter-a-day slow read. I don't do well with the slow read idea. I'm more of a bolter. I don't like to eke out a book. So no slow read of Anna Karenina for me. I'm reading it straight through. It is one of my TBR 25 in '25 books and on my Classics Club II list. 

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 Anna Karenina:

Immediately after dinner Kitty came in. She knew Anna Arkadyevna, but only very slightly, and she came now to her sister’s with some trepidation, at the prospect of meeting this fashionable Petersburg lady, whom everyone spoke so highly of.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

At its simplest, Anna Karenina is a love story. It is a portrait of a beautiful and intelligent woman whose passionate love for a handsome officer sweeps aside all other ties - to her marriage and to the network of relationships and moral values that bind the society around her. The love affair of Anna and Vronsky is played out alongside the developing romance of Kitty and Levin, and in the character of Levin, closely based on Tolstoy himself, the search for happiness takes on a deeper philosophical significance.

One of the greatest novels ever written, Anna Karenina combines penetrating psychological insight with an encyclopedic depiction of Russian life in the 1870s. The novel takes us from high society St Petersburg to the threshing fields on Levin's estate, with unforgettable scenes at a Moscow ballroom, the skating rink, a race course, a railway station. It creates an intricate labyrinth of connections that is profoundly satisfying, and deeply moving.

January 2025 Wrap Up -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

January 2025 Wrap Up

How did your reading year start? Thanks to a lull in my law work while I wait for a ruling from the Court of Appeals, I had more time than usual to read. I finished 15 books in January and hope to maintain that pace through the year.

Are there any on my January list that you’ve enjoyed or would like to read? 

GROUP READS

I participated in several group and buddy reads on Instagram, which I enjoyed very much. 

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh with a group working our way through all his novels, one every other month. Scoop was a reread for me and I appreciated the satire much more this second time around than when I first read it about 20 years ago. 

The Venetian Affair by Helen MacInnes was the first book for a MacInnes readalong project I organized on Bookstagram. Our next is The Salzburg Connection in March. If you are on Instagram and want to join us, DM me there @gilioncdumas. I'll add you to the group. 

Daphne du Maurier: The Secret Life of the Renowned Storyteller by Margaret Forster. This wraps up the Du Maurier Deep Dive project I participated in for the past three or so years. We read all du Maurier's fiction and then finished with reading a biography of our choice. I thought Forster's was excellent. 

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Because this is the 250th anniversary of Austen's birth, I want to reread her six major novels. I joined a bookstagram group doing the same so we can chat about them as we go. 

IRISH AUTHORS

II joined an Instagram chat group focusing on reading books by Irish authors this year. I don't know how intensely I will participate because I have a lot of books and reading goals for the year, but it it did help me read a few books that have lingered on my TBR shelves for a while. 

The Little Red Chairs by Edna O’Brien knocked my socks off. It was definitely the highlight of the month and a book that will linger with me for a long time. Read my review here. 

Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan. This was my first go at one of his books. I thought it was interesting, but it didn’t wow me. I thought he packed things into this family story (a black husband, a lesbian affair, and more) to be intentionally provocative. And the pacing was so uneven, I was distracted by trying to sort the timeline.  

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods engendered lively discussion in my IRL book club. Overall, the group enjoyed the historical fiction side of it, with its braided narrative switching between the 1920s and present day. But the magical realism caught most of us by surprised and didn't go over well. 

The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell. This retelling of events during the 1857 Indian Rebellion won the 1973 Booker Prize. The events and the writing are serious, but the absurdities of the colonial class system also gave Farrell opportunity to poke fun.

JUST BECAUSE

Dragon’s Teeth by Upton Sinclair, the 1943 Pulitzer Prize winner and one of my Classics Club II picks. This was way more engaging than I anticipated and felt very current. 

The Bean Book: 100 Recipes for Cooking with All Kinds of Beans, from the Rancho Gordo Kitchen by Steve Sando. My husband gave me this for Christmas because I could eat beans every day. It is a fantastic cookbook and I've already made a few things from it that were delicious. 

Absolute Truths by Susan Howatch is the final book in her “Starbridge” series of Church of England novels that take place in the mid-20th Century. Now I plan to move on to the "St. Benet Trilogy" set in a London parish in the later part of the century.

AUDIOBOOKS (NOT PICTURED)

Slough House by Mick Herron. This is the seventh book in his Slow Horses series. I'm racing through all of them. So far, there are eight novels and four novellas. A new novel comes out this September. 

The Patriarch by Martin Walker, the eighth novel in his Bruno, Chief of Police, series set in a French village. This is another series I love and am trying to complete, but it will take me longer because there are 18 novels and several novellas and short stories.  

We Solve Murders by Richard Osmond, the first in a new series. It was hard for me to switch from Thursday Murder Club to this new group of characters, but I'm sure it will grow on me.

Sleeping Giants by Rene Denfeld, a thriller set in Oregon. This is my IRL book club's pick for our next get together. The story, inspired by true events, really grabbed me.

TBR 25 IN ‘25 & THE EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE

Six of the books I read in January were from my TBR 25 in '25 list. These were the Waugh, Forster, Woods, Farrell, Sinclair, and Howatch. I wanted to start strong with that particular stack of books so they don't make me feel rushed later in the year.  

I traveled some for the European Reading Challenge, but not with any native speakers. I visited the UK, Italy, Ireland, Bosnia, and France. But none of the books I read were in translation and I have a goal to read more books by authors who do not write in English.  

There's still plenty of time to join both challenges if you want to. Click through to the main TBR 25 in '25 page and main European Reading Challenge page for details and to sign up. 

My Goal to Read 425 Vintage Penguin Green Tribands -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

My Goal to Read 425 Vintage Penguin Green Tribands

I wonder how many bookish goals we set with no intention of actually following through? One of my book goals -- more of a book fantasy -- is to read straight through my collection of vintage mysteries in Penguin green triband editions. 

For context, early Penguin paperbacks were issued without illustrations on the cover, just a band of color at the top, the title on an off-white band in the middle, then another band of the same color at the bottom. Hence, "triband" editions. They were color coded. Orange is the most common because it was used for general fiction. Green was for crime fiction -- mysteries, thrillers, and, less commonly, true crime. These early Penguins were not sold in the United States (for copyright reasons I don't understand). You can now find them here used, but not often. 

(Also, Penguin has, more recently, reissued some books with triband covers, along with triband coffee mugs that match the books. Those are cool in themselves, but not what I collect. I go for the vintage editions.)

I don’t have nearly all the original green tribands, but I have 425 of them. Almost all of mine (421) came in one job lot that I bought on eBay from a seller in England. A few are first Penguin editions, most are Penguin reprints, all are pretty tattered. It was during the covid lockdown and, like others, I did some retail therapy when I was cooped up at home and couldn't go anywhere. I had a set of shelves built in my little home office just for my collection of vintage Penguin paperbacks.  

But that was almost five years ago and I have only read a handful of them since I got them. This is why I fantasize about reading straight through the entire collection. I figure I could read them all in about two years if I really made an effort. But as much as I love vintage mysteries, I think doing so might have a deleterious effect on my brain chemistry. I’d see clues everywhere, always suspect foul play, and never be able to attend a dinner party without denouncing a guest as a murderer.

So I think the better plan would be to read them steadily, but salted in among other books. I just need to get going! The picture above shows a random selection of ten that should inspire me to get reading. 

Coroner’s Pidgin by Margery Allingham

Hag’s Nook by John Dickson Carr

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

Mystery in the Channel by Freeman Wills Crofts

Stealthy Terror by John Ferguson

That Yew Tree’s Shade by Cyril Hare

He Laughed at Murder by Richard Keverne

The Twenty-Third Man by Gladys Mitchell

The American Gun Mystery by Ellery Queen

The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer

The Hatter’s Ghost by Simenon

The Department of Dead Ends by Roy Vickers

See any you’ve read or would like to?

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

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

While still a young man, John Courteney Boot had, as his publisher proclaimed, "achieved an assured and enviable position in contemporary letters."

-- from Scoop by Evelyn Waugh.  

Not, on its face, the most humorous opening lines for what is one of the funniest books I've ever read. The laughs start when the wrong Boot -- William, not John -- gets sent by London's sensationalist newspaper, the Daily Beast, to cover an impending revolution in a (fictional) African nation. William Boot, far from having an enviable position as a contemporary author, lives a quiet life in the country and writes a weekly nature column for the Beast. And yes, the current online Daily Beast got its name from Waugh's book. 

Scoop is a first-rate satire of newspaper journalism and a contender to be my favorite of Evelyn Waugh's comic novels, right up there with Decline and Fall. I read it again in January as part of a Waugh readalong group on bookstagram and loved it even more than when I read it the first time. 

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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This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
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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 Scoop:

Mrs Earl Russell Jackson padded in stockinged feet across the bare boards of the lounge looking for a sizeable cigar-end, found one, screwed it into her pipe, and settled down in the office rocking-chair to read her bible. Outside--and, in one or two places, inside--the rain fell in torrents.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Lord Copper, newspaper magnate and proprietor of the Daily Beast, has always prided himself on his intuitive flair for spotting ace reporters. That is not to say he has not made the odd blunder, however, and may in a moment of weakness make another. Acting on a dinner party tip from Mrs. Algernon Stitch, Lord Copper feels convinced that he has hit on just the chap to cover a promising war in the African Republic of Ishmaelia.

So begins Scoop, Waugh's exuberant comedy of mistaken identity and brilliantly irreverent satire of the hectic pursuit of hot news.

The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien

The Little Red Chairs has been sitting on my TBR shelf for a while now because I planned to read Edna O’Brien’s more famous Country Girls Trilogy first. But I was daunted by tackling a trilogy, so decided to start with this shorter, more recent book. I’m still recovering!

O’Brien published The Little Red Chairs in 2015, when she was 85 years old. I’ve read her autobiography, but this is the first novel of hers I read. I didn’t have any expectations about the book, but I sure wasn’t expecting such a gut punch.

The Little Red Chairs is the story of a charismatic stranger who moves to an Irish village. He sets up shop as a “healer” and becomes immediately popular, offering herbs, tinctures, poetry, hot stone massages, nutrition advice, and smoldering good looks. So far, the story is charming and even a little funny, giving almost Maeve Binchy vibes. Things get a bit racy when he has an affair with the local beauty.

Then, WHAM-O! Things get really dark, really fast. It turns out the charming stranger is an evil war criminal, responsible for the death and rape of hundreds during the Bosnian war. O’Brien vividly depicts the war and its violence. But it is when that violence follows “Dr. Vlad” to Ireland that the story is almost too horrible to read. 

I have struggled with my reaction, wondering if the story was more effective for me because it involved one Irish woman instead of hundreds of nameless Bosnian women. I know it is human nature to respond with greater empathy to one, specific person we know (even if only as a character in a book) than to a generalized horror happening to a large number of unknown people. O'Brien, like all good storytellers, understands this and uses it to great advantage. But she could have told the story of a particular Bosnian woman and she chose not to. Instead, the victim was in Ireland, which made me think about how I responded viscerally to an attack on an English-speaking, middle class, Irish woman much more than I did to the descriptions of violence against the "foreign" Bosnians in whom I did not recognize myself. That made me think and I'm still mulling it over.

There is more to the book. Much more. The story moves on to London and its immigrant community, then to a war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Much of it was a tough read, but excellently executed. And it has a hopeful, if not happy ending. This one will stick with me for a long, long time. I consider it a Must Read. 

Have you read The Little Red Chairs? What did you think?

NOTES

If you have reviewed The Little Red Chairs and would like me to share your review, please send me a link in a comment and I will list it here. 

This was my first book for the 2025 European Reading Challenge. I am counting it as my Bosnia books (technically Bosnia and Herzegovina), although I could count it as my Ireland book. But I know I will read other Ireland books but doubt I will find another Bosnia book this year.