Monday, August 31, 2015

Mailbox Monday



Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

Two fun books came into my house last week:



The Emergency Sasquatch Ordinance: And Other Real Laws that Human Beings Actually Dreamed Up by Kevin Underhill, author of the popular and very funny legal humor blog, Lowering the Bar.



The 52 Lists Project: A Year of Weekly Journaling Inspiration by Moorea Seal, coincidentally published by Sasquatch Books (not under an emergency ordinance). This isn't a book to read, it is a journal to keep, with beautiful pictures and prompts to inspire 52 weeks of journal writing.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Book Beginning: Exit Wounds



THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to 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. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

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.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, 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.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING



Despite more than a decade of occupation and armed conflict, there is one reality show American viewers are not offered. War.

-- Exit Wounds: Soldier's Stories - Life After Iraq and Afghanistan, from the author's Preface, "America is not at war. The Marine Corps is at war; America is at the mall."

Fifty men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan talk about why they went to war and how the war came home with them. Portraits by Jim Lommasson are interspersed with some of the soldiers’ own photographs from the war zones.


Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Teaser Tuesday: Landfall by Ellen Urbani





-- Landfall by Ellen Urbani, published by Forest Avenue Press. The lives of two mothers and their teenage daughters are torn apart by Hurricane Katrina in this debut novel that is catching a lot of attention.

Be the first book club in your state to read Landfall and your club will get a package of cool extras: autographs, invitations to special events, a chance to visit with Ellen by Skype (or in person?), and more. Check for details on The Book Club Challenge on the author's webpage.

Urbani is on an ambitious book tour for the next three months. Check the schedule to see if she will be in your area soon.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Mailbox Monday


Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

Three very different books came into my house last week:



Baker's Blues by Judith Ryan Hendricks. This is the third book in Hendrick’s Bread Alone Trilogy. Now I want to make a weekend project of reading all three of them.



Singing with the Sirens: Overcoming the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Sexual Exploitation by Ellyn Roberts Bell and Stacey Ault Bell, published by She Writes Press. The authors address the long term complex trauma that results from the sexual abuse and exploitation of girls and young women.

In my law practice, I work with adults who were sexually abused as children, so I want to read this to see if I can recommend it to some of my women clients.



Hiroshima and Nagasaki: An Illustrated History, Anthology, and Guide by Magnus Bartlett and Robert O'Connor, published by Odyssey Books & Maps.

This is definitely the "unique and eclectic book" it promises on the back cover, with a breadth of information on these twin cities, beginning with ancient Japan, through the WWII bombings, to a guide for modern visitors. It is packed with art reproductions, photos, illustrations, unusual graphics, maps, historical documents, essays, and quotes.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Book Beginning: Landfall by Ellen Urbani



THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to 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. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

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.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, 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.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING



For nearly nineteen years, Rose lived with a woman she barely knew.

-- Landfall by Ellen Urbani, published by Forest Avenue Press. Hurricane Katrina brings the lives of two mothers and their teenage daughters together, first in a fatal car crash, then as the survivors battle the rising flood in the Lower Ninth Ward.

Landfall is a stunning debut that has people talking already. Urbani is on an ambitious book tour for the next three months. Check the schedule to see if she will be in your area soon.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Teaser Tuesday: Building a Better Nest



I do believe in living in the moment, as in being attentive, awake, grateful for what is here, today. The moment, after all, is the only place we can live.

-- Building a Better Nest: Living Lightly at Home and in the World by Evelyn Searle Hess, author of To the Woods.

After living for 15 years in a tent and trailer in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range, Hess and her husband built a real house on their 20 acres. But they wanted their "better nest" to be off-grid, sustainable, and reflect the personal and community values they had developed during their years of camping life.

Building a Better Nest is available from Powell's, on kindle from Amazon, at OSU Press, or ask your local bookseller to order it!


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Mailbox Monday: Landfall and Exit Wounds



Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

Two books came into my house last week:



Landfall by Ellen Urbani, published by Forest Avenue Press. This novel set during Hurricane Katrina just came out last week and is generating a lot of buzz. People are crazy for it.



Exit Wounds: Soldiers' Stories Life After Iraq and Afghanistan by Jim Lommasson, published by Schiffer Publishing. This is the book that grew out of a collaborative photo and oral history project about the trials of homecoming coordinated between Lommasson and returning veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. It's powerful stuff.

Saturday, August 15, 2015

What Are They Reading? The View from Castle Rock



Authors tend to be readers, so it is natural for them to create characters who like to read. It is always interesting to me to read what books the characters are reading in the books I read. Even if I can't say that ten times fast.

Usually, the characters' choice of books reflects the author's tastes or, I sometimes think, what the author was reading at the time. But sometimes the character's reading material is a clue to the character's personality, or is even a part of the story.

This is an occasional blog event. If anyone wants to join in, feel free to leave a comment with a link to your related post. And feel free to use the button. If this catches on, I can pick a day and make it a weekly event.




Munro may convert me to a short story fan, I enjoyed this collection so much. The View from Castle Rock is a later collection of her stories, more autobiographical than most, even drawing on primary source material from some of Munro's immigrant forebearers.

One of my favorite stories is "The Hired Girl" about a teen-age girl from a small rural Canadian town who gets a job working for a family at their summer house on an island in Georgian Bay because "Mrs. Montjoy needed a country girl for the summer who was trained to do housework."

I love the story for nailing the excruciating awkwardness of first teenage jobs, especially for a bookish, unsocial girl too trapped in her own head to read the people around her. Elsa feels intellectually superior to her boss because she recognizes that the island is named for Nausicaa, a princess in Ulysses, not a character from Shakespeare as Mrs. Montjoy tells her. Elsa tries to establish their social equality from the get go by immediately announcing that, back home, they refer to the maids as hired girls, which Mrs. Montjoy simply ignores. There is a steady conflict between Elsa never admitting she is a servant and Mrs. Montjoy so absorbed with her own concerns to think of Elsa as anything but, and a temporary one at that.

Cutting across the tension in the story is Mr. Montjoy, who only shows up on weekends and spends most of them drinking and reading in the library. He is the only adult who treats Elsa more as an equal. When they first meet, he is reading Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dineson. He later gives her the book as a going away present. I hope Elsa accepted it as a sign that she would be one of the grown ups eventually.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Book Beginning: Flambé in Armagnac



THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to 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. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

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.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, 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.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING



A hot-air balloon was slipping into the clouds above a herd of wild horses. A village of rustic chalets hewn from rustic logs stood silently on a ridge against a blue sky.
-- Flambé in Armagnac by Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noel Balen. Well, that certainly sets an idyllic scene!

This is the fifth book in the "winemaker detective" series featuring amateur sleuth Benjamin Cooker. The has already been made into a TV show in France. I have dived into this cozy but I want to go back and start at the beginning of the series.

Find the winemaker detective series and several other mystery and thriller series on my new favorite timesuck, the Le French Book website.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Review: The Rise and Fall of Great Powers



Tom Rachman's debut novel, The Imperfectionists, about an ex-patriot newspaper in Rome, knocked my socks off. The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, like so many sophomore efforts, is a major letdown.

The heroine, Tooly Zylberberg, is a 32-year-old bookshop owner in Wales with a profound disinterest in selling any books and a befuddling lack of knowledge about the internet. The story of her adventuresome past is told through a series of flashback-and-forths between her as a 9-year old in Bangkok, a 20-year-old in New York, and present day.

My big gripe is that the secret of her past was made so mysteriously obscure that there was almost no plot to the first half of the book, lest the secret be given away. Her activities in the flashback scenes are intentionally unmoored from full explanation until the final chapters, to build up the mystery. It got pretty boring, floating around, waiting for a story to turn up.

Of course, the trouble with a big build up like that is that it has to deliver. I was disappointed. Tooly’s unorthodox childhood turned out to have a pretty banal explanation. And she wasn't even likable. She couldn't do anything for herself, including finishing school, getting a job, making any money, or being a friend. I slogged on to the end to find out what happened to her, but by then I barely cared.

OTHER REVIEWS

New York Times

If you would like your review of any Tom Rachman novel listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

This is one of the books I read for my personal 2015 TBR challenge:

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Teaser Tuesday: An Irish Volunteer by Juliet Cardinal



Upstairs in her sister's house on the south side of the city in Ranelagh, Grace heard the blast as well. It was about three in the morning, and she had been lying in the bed, staring at the ceiling.

-- An Irish Volunteer by Juliet Cardinal.

In 1916, while Britain was fighting Germany in WWI, the British Empire also faced revolution in Ireland. In her debut novel, Julia Cardinal tells the fact-based story of star-crossed lovers, Joe Plunkett and Grace Gifford, who risked their love to fight for a free Irish Republic.

An Irish Volunteer is a compelling story, well-told, and would make a great book club choice.

Julia Cardinal is a author and private investigator who works on capital murder cases. An Irish Volunteer is published by Salthill Press.

PORTLAND BOOK EVENT:

Juliet will be reading from An Irish Volunteer this Thursday, August 13, at 7:30 at Powell’s on Hawthorne.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Mailbbox Monday: Le French Book!



Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

I got one book last week, and I am very excited to read it because it is my first from Le French Book, an American publisher of French mysteries that I only just discovered for myself. What a goldmine!



Flambé in Armagnac by Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noel Balen. Benjamin Cooker is the "winemaker detective" -- the hero of a series of mysteries that have already been made into a TV show in France. I can't wait to read the book! And I hope the show comes to Netflix soon!

Find the winemaker detective series and several other mystery and thriller series on the Le French Book website. But be ready for a timesuck!

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Author Interview: Juliet Cardinal



During the 1916 Irish Revolution, a star-crossed pair of lovers teamed up to fight the British for an independent Irish Republic. Joe Plunkett was Catholic, the son of a Count, a poet, and one of the leaders of the rebellion; Grace Gifford was a Protestant and a rising artist.

Juliet Cardinal's new novel, An Irish Volunteer, tells the remarkable true story of their love and the risks they took for their country's freedom.

Juliet recently took time from her day job as a criminal investigator to answer some questions for Rose City Reader.

How did you come to write An Irish Volunteer?

My job is pretty stressful sometimes. I’m a private investigator and I work on defense teams in capital murder cases, meaning that my clients are facing the death penalty. The stakes are high, the scrutiny is pretty intense, and there’s a lot of darkness and dysfunction. About three years into this work it started to get to me and I was getting really anxious and stressed out. I kind of hit a wall because I hadn’t really learned how to deal with it—didn’t have a lot of perspective yet. After a couple of weeks in this addled state it occurred to me that I would be fine if I could just get away to Ireland for a little while.

A few weeks later I was in Dublin where I toured a historical prison there called Kilmainham Gaol. I was entranced by the personal stories of the leaders of the 1916 Rising. They were a pretty motley crew of philosophers, poets, professors, and activists who decided to take on the British Empire—they were totally idealistic underdogs. The love story of Joseph Plunkett and Grace Gifford was particularly striking because of its romance and tragedy. He was a Catholic nationalist and she was a unionist Protestant. He was getting ready to lead rebel troops into battle and she was in the midst of being rejected by her family because of her love for him. They were falling for each other in the months leading up to the Rising. It was terrible timing for them but also a beautiful story.

What is your family background? How did it lead you to write your book?

I have a lot of ancestors that came over to the US from Ireland during the Great Hunger in the late 1840s but I didn’t know that when I started writing the book. I’ve always been a little obsessed with Ireland without understanding why. About a year after I started my research for An Irish Volunteer I was home sick for a few days and went on ancestry.com to pass the time. That’s when I learned about my Irish heritage.

How much of your novel is based on true, historical events?

I researched An Irish Volunteer extensively. The parts of the book that are totally fictional are things like personal conversations and interactions or internal dialog about characters’ motivations and doubts—that kind of thing. Even then, I reviewed a lot of personal letters and notebooks to learn as much as I could about them. One of my goals in writing this book—besides to entertain and hopefully inspire—was to teach readers as much as I could about this fascinating historical moment. The political scene in Dublin at the time was complex but also compelling. The revolution itself was difficult and exciting and led to the eventual establishment of the independent Republic of Ireland. I loved the idealism and sacrifice the leaders showed. They were madly in love with their country and their cause.

How did you research the historical information and detail found in your book?

I read everything I could get my hands on about Joe, Grace, and the Rising. I also read a lot of archived personal accounts and hundreds and hundreds of pages of Joe’s personal papers, notebooks, and documents at the National Library of Ireland. I spent all the time I could in Dublin, scouting all of the historical locations that are still standing, and went on several tours of Kilmainham Gaol—the prison is featured in the story. I spoke to all the amateur historians I could find online and at the pubs, and took a ferry ride to Holyhead, Wales and back to Dublin. My book opens on that ferry route. I read old Dublin newspapers. I was also lucky enough to have Shane MacThomais, a well-known Dublin historian and writer, review my manuscript for any historical inaccuracies.

There were some smaller details that I couldn’t find—like what type of guns Joe had with him during the Rising. I knew he had three pistols but I couldn’t find the information on the make or model anywhere. Finally I found a man through social media who had seen a collection of the guns owned by Joe’s family at the time. He remembered the three pistols in the collection so I used those in the book. It was a guess but a fairly educated one.

Can you recommend any other books or resources about the Irish Revolution?

My favorite general book on the Rising is Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion by Charles Townsend. I also really liked Enchanted by Dreams, Joe Good’s personal account of his participation in the fight for Ireland’s independence. He traveled from England to Ireland to fight in the Rising and his insights and observations were invaluable! I love him. He’s actually in my book a couple of times but I didn’t give his name.

What did you learn from writing your book – either about the subject of the book or the writing process – that most surprised you?

I guess the most surprising thing I learned is that I could do it. Maybe I shouldn’t admit that! I was too obsessed with the story to be practical when I decided to write this book but there were so many times I didn’t know how I’d get through that next scene.

Who are your three (or four or five) favorite authors? Is your own writing influenced by who you read?

I’ve always loved J.D. Salinger and Jane Austin. Catcher in the Rye and Nine Stories changed me, I think. It’s all about the characters for me! I also loved Maugham’s, Of Human Bondage and The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway.

The writer I’ve been the most excited about in the last couple of years is the Irish crime writer, Ken Bruen. I’m not into all of his books—many come off a little cold, almost sociopathic—but his Jack Taylor series is great. It’s a PI series set in Galway, on the west coast of Ireland. It’s very dark—even darker than most noir stuff—but it’s also very funny and deeply human. Bruen’s writing style is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It’s like he’s dumped all the rules and is recreating them from scratch—very liberating! Jack Taylor is a huge mess—in constant trouble with addiction, depression, violence, and self-sabotaged relationships—but he’s also incredibly well developed, soulful and irresistible. I’m glad I’m in love with him in the books instead of in real life. Safer that way!

What kind of books do you like to read? Do you have a favorite genre? And guilty pleasures?

When I’m not reading non-fiction for research I mainly like crime writing and historical fiction.
I really like Adrian McKinty, especially his first book, Dead I Well May Be. He’s a Northern Irish crime writer. Although his character development isn’t on a par with Bruen’s Taylor series, his style is taut, edgy and dynamic.

As far as modern historical fiction goes, my favorite right now is Hilary Mantel. I loved her book about the French Revolution, A Place of Greater Safety. She creates characters that are as multidimensional, compelling and interesting as any I’ve ever read. When I got within about 75 pages of the end of A Place of Greater Safety I started to panic a little because I didn’t know what I’d do without those fascinating people in my life. I’d love to find more writers that can do that for me!

I’d love to be influenced by any of these writers but I don’t know that I have been. I’ll keep reading them with the hope that I can soak up a little of their brilliance.

What are you reading now?

Right now I’m reading The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. It’s compelling and a lot of fun, and the character development is almost painfully intimate.

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as an author?

Oh god, I don’t know! I wish I’d asked for more advice before I started!

I guess the most important piece of advice was to stop waiting for the perfect time and to just start writing. I just showed up every morning whether I wanted to or not and wrote as much as I could. Sometimes I was feeling inspired—often I wasn’t—but I got some words on the page. Janet Evonovich’s book, How I Write, had a lot of that kind of very practical advice. I also read a book called The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists by Andrew McAleer which was great because it made the whole thing feel more possible.

Do you have any events coming up to promote An Irish Volunteer?

Yes! I have a reading at 7:30 on Thursday, August 13 at Powell’s on Hawthorne. I’m so excited about that because it’s one of my very favorite places.

THANKS, JULIET!

YOU CAN BUY AN IRISH VOLUNTEER FROM POWELL'S OR AMAZON (PAPERBACK OR KINDLE) OR ASK YOU LOCAL BOOKSTORE TO ORDER IT!

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Book Beginning: An Irish Volunteer



THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to 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. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

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.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, 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.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING



Tribe after tribe, the Celts arrived like waves. One generation after another ventured across the water to conquer and claim a portion of this land at the end of the world.

-- An Irish Volunteer by Juliet Cardinal.

During the 1916 Irish Revolution, a star-crossed pair of lovers teamed up to fight the British for an independent Irish Republic. Joe Plunkett was Catholic, the son of a Count, a poet, and one of the leaders of the rebellion; Grace Gifford was a Protestant and a rising artist.

Cardinal's new novel tells the remarkable true story of their love and the risks they took for their country's freedom.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Storyline Serendipity: 9/11


9/11 SERENDIPITY
IN TWO BOOKS I RECENTLY READ


I read these back-to-back, not realizing that the  Julia Glass book had anything to do with 9/11 until I got into it.

The Whole World Over by Julia Glass (2006)

Greenie Duquette owns a popular bakery in Greenwich Village but, with her marriage in the doldrums, she decides to shake things up by accepting a surprise offer to become the in-house chef for the Governor of New Mexico. She takes her young son west and leaves her grumpy husband in New York to sort himself out.

As with her earlier National Book Award winner, Three Junes, there are multiple, complicated plots, here eventually coalescing around 9/11. Glass bustles the reader along all these story paths, gently drawing attention back to the characters, their dilemmas, and their decisions, which are complex enough to keep you thinking even after the book wraps up.

It was interesting to me to read a literary book with 9/11 woven into the plot. Apparently, Glass started writing the book in the spring of 2001 and stopped when the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred. When she was ready to start writing again, she decided to incorporate the event into the story and write about how such an enormous public tragedy affected their personal choices.

Night Fall by Nelson DeMille (2004)

This is another 500+ page book that takes place partially in Manhattan and culminates with 9/11. And it is proof that two books addressing the same subject can be completely different. DeMille is the master of the page-turning thriller. Night Fall isn't as breathtaking as Cathedral -- it is more of a police procedural -- but it is still fast-paced, wise-cracking, and pure entertainment.


WHAT IS STORYLINE SERENDIPITY?
A ONCE-IN-A-WHILE BLOG EVENT

Have you had the experience of something coming up in a book -- an event, place, idea, historical character, or even an unusual word -- and then shortly after, the same thing comes up in a different book completely by coincidence? I call this Storyline Serendipity.

I don't mean like when you take a class in Russian history and read two books about the Tsar. Or when you read two mysteries and there are dead bodies in each.

I mean random coincidence between two books. I like it when this happens because it makes me slow down and pay more attention to how the event or idea, place or character was treated in each book. I get a little more out of each book than I would have if the universe hadn't paired them on my reading list.

If you experience Storyline Serendipity, feel free to grab the button and play along. If you want to, please leave the link to your post in a comment. Or leave the link to your post on the Rose City Reader facebook page. If you want to participate but don't have a blog or don't feel like posting, please share your serendipity in a comment.

This is a once-in-a-while blog event that I'll post as I come across Storyline Serendipity. If you want to participate, post whenever you want and leave a comment back here on my latest Storyline Serendipity post. If it ever catches on, we can make it a monthly event.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Teaser Tuesday: At the Hearth of the Crossed Races



In July 1831, the intermittent fever first descended upon the Kalapuyans of the Willamette Valley. . . . By 1833 the fever had spread as far south as California's Sacramento Valley, likely transmitted by the HBC trapping brigades.

At the Hearth of the Crossed Races: A French-Indian Community in Nineteenth-Century Oregon, 1812-1859 by Melinda Marie Jette.

Jette re-examines the traditional history of the Pacific Northwest that put Anglo-American settlers at the center of the story. Instead, she looks at the role of French-Canadian fur trappers, their Native American wives, and the Kalapuyan people they married into.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Monday, August 3, 2015

Mailbox Monday: The Girl on the Train



Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

I got one fun for summer book last week:



The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. I've been reading some good, but heavy books lately, so I am looking forward to something fast and exciting. I am going to read this right away.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Review: The Lemon Cookbook



Ellen Jackson has produced the cookbook equivalent of a cheery bowl of lemons, The Lemon Cookbook: 50 Sweet & Savory Recipes to Brighten Every Meal. Everyone should have one on their kitchen counter.

This is not a big book, but it is perfect. Jackson, a classically trained pastry chef and food stylist, gets all the details right, from the bright, sunny cover, to the beautiful photographs and watercolor illustrations, to the selection of recipes.

The recipes are a reasonable mix of simple and more complex, with nothing too difficult for home cook. All try to have something a little novel to them, like charring the lemon for the chimichurri, adding parmesan and pepper to make a savory lemon biscotti, and using brown sugar in a meringue. The book could get by on its charm, but the recipes really do look good!

The Lemon Cookbook is my new Go To gift for weekend visits, new kitchens, house warmings, wedding showers, and for everyone living in a sunny climate with a lemon tree in their backyard. Yes, Mom and Dad, I mean you.

OTHER REVIEWS

The Oregonian

If you would like your review of The Lemon Cookbook listed here, please leave a  comment with a link and I will list it.