The Royal Secret by Lucinda Riley -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Royal Secret by Lucinda Riley

Thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

“James, darling, what are you doing?”

-- from The Royal Secret by Lucinda Riley, a story of scandal and mystery within a fictional British royal family, set in the 1990s. I found this on my TBR shelf and it looks good. I thought I'd give it a go.

This book has an interesting history. According to the author's note in the beginning, it is a surprise it ever got published. She submitted it in 1998, shortly after Princess Di's death and before the Queen Mother's 100th birthday. Apparently, England wasn't ready for a thriller set amid the royal family, even if the family was fictional. Not only did her publisher cancel the book contract, Riley found herself cancelled before the term cancel culture even existed. She ended up taking years off from writing, concentrated on raising her kids, and only started publishing books again after she took a new last name. Finally, in 2018, she got a deal to publish The Royal Secret, although even then she used The Love Letter as the UK title. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point. 

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post. 

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Royal Secret:

The next was a large, creased brown envelope, addressed in spidery writing so indecipherable she was amazed it had even reached her. She tore it open and took out its contents.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

When Sir James Harrison, one the greatest actors of his generation, passes away at the age of ninety-five, he leaves behind not just a heartbroken family but also a secret so shocking, it could rock the English establishment to its core.

Joanna Haslam, an up-and-coming reporter, is assigned to cover the legendary actor’s funeral, attended by glitzy celebrities of every background. But Joanna stumbles on something dark beneath the glamour: the mention of a letter James Harrison has left behind—the contents of which many have been desperate to keep concealed for over seventy years. As she peels back the veil of lies that has shrouded the secret, she realizes that she’s close to uncovering something deadly serious—and the royal family may be implicated. Before long, someone is on her tracks, attempting to prevent her from discovering the truth. And they’ll stop at nothing to reach the letter before she does.

Three Books I Always Recommend -- BOOK THOUGHTS

Three Books I Always Recommend, and Why

BOOK THOUGHTS

When you are a reader, people always ask for book recommendations. Which book(s) do you recommend wholeheartedly? Three of my go to books I always recommend are Play It as It Lays, What’s Bred in the Bone, and Cold Comfort Farm. Here’s why I picked these three:

Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion is a 1970 novel about a former actress facing the meaninglessness of her life in Hollywood. It’s a spare, powerful novel I think everyone should read, particularly women who I think might get more out of it. As an overlooked classic, it’s an excellent choice for a “serious” book.

What’s Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies is thoroughly entertaining. Published in 1985 as the second novel in his Cornish Trilogy, it works perfectly as a standalone. It’s a long, shaggy story about a Canadian art collector and restorer caught up in an elaborate scheme to spy on and defraud Nazi’s in Germany during WWII. It falls square into the category of “a good yarn” and is the book I recommend when anyone tells me they just want something good to read. 

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons is a cozy blanket of a novel. This 1932 modern classic is funny (very funny), warmhearted, and worth binging on a winter evening, followed by the movie version featuring a young and dreamy Rufus Sewell. This one is more popular than the others, and justifiably so. But there are still a few readers out there who haven’t succumbed to its charms and they should really give in.

These are not the only three books I recommend to people. I could play the "recommend three books" game all day long. But these three are solid choices for great reads. I'll keep pondering and come back with more three-book lists with specific themes or genres.   

As you see, the backlist is my happy place. How about you? I prefer the patina of time to the shiny new. I definitely prefer the buzz to wear off before I decide if I want to read a book or skip it for something that’s been percolating on my TBR shelf for a while.

Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano

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

Christopher was dead.

-- from Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano. Well, that's as good a way as any to start a mystery book! Straight to the point.

Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead is the second book in Elle Cosimano's mystery series featuring a novelist and single mom mistakenly thought to be a contract killer. I haven't read the first book, Finlay Donovan is Killing It, but found this one on my TBR shelf and am in the mood to give it a try. 

Have you read any of the Finlay Donovan books? What do you think of them?

 

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 Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead:

"She's their babysitter, Steven!" 

"And I'm their father! I want to see my kids."

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Finlay Donovan is—once again—struggling to finish her next novel and keep her head above water as a single mother of two. On the bright side, she has her live-in nanny and confidant Vero to rely on, and the only dead body she's dealt with lately is that of her daughter's pet goldfish.

On the not-so-bright side, someone out there wants her ex-husband, Steven, out of the picture. Permanently. Whatever else Steven may be, he's a good father, but saving him will send her down a rabbit hole of hit-women disguised as soccer moms, and a little bit more involvement with the Russian mob than she'd like.

Regeneration by Pat Barker -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Tiny Vices by Linda Dahl

Thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Finished with the War[,] A Soldier's Declaration

I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority, because I believe the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. 

-- from Regeneration by Pat Barker. 

Regeneration is the fictionalized story of real-life poet Siegfried Sassoon. The novel opens with the text of Sassoon's actual 1917 anti-war declaration, a declaration that landed him in military hospital for the "mentally unsound."

Regeneration is the first book in Pat Barker's World War I trilogy, followed by The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road, for which she won the Booker Prize in 1995. The three have been on my TBR shelf for a long, long time. Now that the audiobooks are available on Spotify, I am going to finally read them. It may seem weird to read books with my ears when I have the book books right here to read with my eyes, but I need a shortcut or I won't ever get to all the unread book on my shelves! 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point. 

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post. 

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Regeneration:

"I told him, time enough to do summat for the Empire when the Empire's done summat for you."  

"It's natural for the young to be idealistic."

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In 1917 Siegfried Sassoon, noted poet and decorated war hero, publicly refused to continue serving as a British officer in World War I. His reason: the war was a senseless slaughter. He was officially classified "mentally unsound" and sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital. There a brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. William Rivers, set about restoring Sassoon’s “sanity” and sending him back to the trenches. This novel tells what happened as only a novel can. It is a war saga in which not a shot is fired. It is a story of a battle for a man's mind in which only the reader can decide who is the victor, who the vanquished, and who the victim.
 
One of the most amazing feats of fiction of our time, Regeneration has been hailed by critics across the globe.  More than one hundred years since World War I, this book is as timely and relevant as ever.

Rereadings, edited by Anne Fadiman -- BOOK REVIEW

 

Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love

BOOK REVIEW

I wanted to like this book more than I did. Anne Fadiman's collection of essays about books and reading, Ex Libris, was wonderful. Her book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, is some of the finest nonfiction writing I've ever encountered. I grabbed Rereadings off my shelf with those two experiences in mind. 

Only then did I catch the subtitle and realize that Fadiman didn't write the essays in this book. She is the editor of this collection of essays by 17 other writers. Specifically, these are essays originally published in a literary quarterly called The American Scholar, written on the theme of revisiting a book originally read prior to age 25. 

I was disappointed that Fadiman wasn't the author, but the premise still appealed to me. I'm a subscriber and big fan of Slightly Foxed, a literary journal dedicated to celebrating backlist books. The essays in Rereadings sounded like those I gobble up whenever a new issued of Slightly Foxed arrives. I didn't recognize any of the essay writers in Rereadings, but I don't recognize the essay writers in Slightly Foxed either, and that doesn't dampen my enthusiasm. 

What did dampen my enthusiasm -- and my spirits -- was the tone of most of the essays. In Slightly Foxed, people write about books they love and want you to read. Some are books they have reread many times, sometimes they only reread a book in order to write about it in Slightly Foxed. But they are excited to explain the joys of the book and encourage you to read it.  By the time I finish an issue of Slightly Foxed, my book wish list is noticeably longer. 

In Rereadings, most of the essays were about how a book the writer loved as a child, teen, or college student didn't stand up to reading again as an adult. Maybe the story seemed too simplistic when read with adult eyes, or the book hit wrong to current sensibilities, but for whatever reason, the magic was gone. Well, OK. But I'm an adult reading about these books now. I can't experience what it was like to read them as a teen ager so share their lessened appeal on rereading. Reading about why they are disappointing to an adult reader was a downer. I finished Rereadings with a list of books people no longer liked. 

That's not to say the essays were poorly written. They weren't. They were all polished and well-argued. But they didn't inspire me to read more, certainly not to reread. 

NOTE

Rereadings was one of the books from my TBR 26 in '26 list. I'm glad the challenge got me to finally read this one, but I won't be rereading it, that's for sure!