BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Unprintable by Julie Kaewert

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.

When you read this, I will be in Athens, Greece, with my mother and sister. (Leaving my beleaguered husband home without me.) Unprintable by Julie Kaewert is one of the books I brought with me to read on vacation.

I had to schedule the post, so let's hope it works. If not, my apologies. I'll be back August 21. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

There's nothing like the joy of placing pristine handmade paper in a press, clicking bits of type into a composing stick and breathing the exotic aroma of oil-based ink.

-- from Unprintable by Julie Kaewert.  

Julie Kaewert wrote a series of Un- books (Unsolicited, Uncatalogued, etc.), cozy-ish mysteries featuring Alex Plumbtree, owner of Plumtree Press. Unprintable is the only one I've read. It is the third in the series, but it doesn't seem necessary to read them in order. 

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 Unprintable :

Pulling up into the long drive with the crunch of gravel under the wheels, I relaxed. At least here there were no screaming hordes of journalists.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

It is possibly the most repugnant piece of fiction in all of England. So why is Plumtree Press, one of the country's most respectable publishing houses, about to add the hotly controversial new novel to its list? Publisher Alex Plumtree isn't talking. Hardly anyone knows he has taken on the project as a favor to the Prime Minister.

Forget the bad press and hateful reviews. Alex swiftly finds himself on the wrong side of a lawsuit, bugged, betrayed, roughed up, and implicated in murder. Suddenly Alex doesn't know who[m] to trust.

Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy

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.

I leave next week for vacation with my mom and sister. We will be gone three weeks (my husband is grumpy about this), so I am anxious about which and how many books to bring. 

Here's one I know I will bring. Over the next few weeks, you will see others I picked. I have to schedule the posts until I get back, so I am crossing my fingers they all work. I'll be back in real time on August 21.  

MY BOOK BEGINNING

It had been very dull and matter-of-fact in the coroner's court.

-- from the prelude to Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy.

Violet finished the library book and closed it with a snap. Yet again, a self-doubting, fluttery, bird-brain heroin had been swept away by a masterful man.

-- from Part One, 1940 - 1945, Chapter 1.

I'm a big Maeve Binchy fan, so I don't understand why I have never read Light a Penny Candle, her first and perhaps most popular novel. I love her long, shaggy "Aga sagas" full of big messes that get tidied up for a satisfactory and happy ending. 

 

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 Light a Penny Candle:

The air was so full of gratitude and re-examination of gifts that none of them except Elizabeth noted the anxious glances exchanged between Auntie Eileen and Uncle Sean. She couldn't interpret them —it was as if they alone had seen some hidden disaster.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

To escape the chaos of London during World War II, young Elizabeth White is sent to live a safer life in the small Irish town of Kilgarret. It is there, in the crowded, chaotic O’Connor household, that she meet Aisling—a girl who soon becomes her very best friend, sharing her pet kitten and secretly teaching her the intricacies of Catholicism.

Aisling’s boldness brings Elizabeth out of her proper shell; later, her support carries Elizabeth through the painful end of her parents’ chilly marriage. In return, Elizabeth’s friendship helps Aisling endure her own unsatisfying marriage to a raging alcoholic. Through the years, they come to believe they can overcome any conflict, conquer any hardship—as long as they have each other. Now they’re about to find out if they're right...

The Elements by John Boyne -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Elements by John Boyne

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 thing I do when I arrive on the island is change my name.

-- from The Elements by John Boyne. 

Well, that's a terrific opening sentence! Boyne knows how to spin a yarn. 

I've only read one book by John Boyne, A Ladder to the Sky. It was a well-executed and gripping story, but it left me cold. It has the same casual amorality that bothers me about Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley books. I like an anti-hero who is a grumpy curmudgeon, like Jackson Lamb in the Slow Horses books, but not an anti-hero who is an unrepentant, unconvicted, murderer. 

That explains why I have not been quick to pick up another Boyne book. But he has so many! I need to give him another chance. I was happy, for that reason, to get an ARC of his new book, The Elements from Henry Holt & Company.  The Elements launches on September 9, 2025.

The Elements brings together the stories of four people -- a mother seeking a new life, a young man on trial for sexual assault, a surgeon hobbled by past trauma, and a father trying to connect with his teenage son. Interestingly, the four stories were published as four separate books, Water (2023), Earth (2024), Fire (2024), and Air (2025). The Elements is an omnibus edition containing all four. 

I much prefer the UK cover to the American cover above. This is the UK cover. What do you think?

 

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 Elements:

I kept busy with the trappings of being an affluent, middle-class woman in South Dublin. I arranged spa days with my friends, had regular appointments with my hairdresser, became -- for a time -- obsessed with Bikram yoga.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In The Elements, acclaimed Irish novelist John Boyne has created an epic saga that weaves together four interconnected narratives, each representing a different perspective on crime: the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator, and the victim.

The narrative follows a mother on the run from her past, a young soccer star facing a trial, a successful surgeon grappling with childhood trauma, and a father on a transformative journey with his son. Each is somehow connected to the next, and as the story unfolds, their lives intersect in unimaginable ways.

Boyne’s most ambitious work yet, The Elements is both an engrossing drama and a moving investigation of why and how we allow crime to occur.

On My Honor: The Secret History of the Boy Scouts of America by Kim Christensen -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

On My Honor: The Secret History of the Boy Scouts of America by Kim Christensen

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

A few weeks after he left the White House in March 1909, Theodore Roosevelt sailed to Africa on a wildlife expedition to collect specimens for the Smithsonian Institute's new Natural History Museum.

-- from On My Honor: The Secret History of the Boy Scouts of America by Kim Christensen, Chapter 1, "Feuding Founders and the Boy Problem."

On My Honor exposes the Boy Scouts of America's long history of childhood sexual abuse and its cover up. Kim Christensen, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, worked on this book for years, although it was sadly published right after he died of cancer. Christensen poured through BSA's own "Perversion Files" on child molesters in Scouting and worked with lawyers like me to get the record straight. 

This book is heartbreaking for me because I've spent the past 18 years representing adults who were sexually abused when they were children in Scouting. I've heard all the stories and seen for myself the way sexual abuse left these men -- and several women -- emotionally and psychologically damaged. 

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 On My Honor:

"They fought tooth and nail that we didn't get those [Perversion] files, and they dumped them on us a week before trial," recalled Portland attorney Gilion Dumas, a member of the Lewis's legal team. . . . But even from her first-glance reading, Dumas said, clear patterns of children sexual abuse -- and the organization's response to it -- leaped out.

So, yes, I fidged on the page 56 part. This teaser is from page 114, but I wanted to use it because it's not every day I'm quoted in a book!

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Since its founding in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America has been the nation’s premier youth organization, espousing self-reliance and honor. More than 100 million Americans have been Boy Scouts, from Bill Gates to Martin Luther King Jr. Today, however, Scouting faces an existential threat of its own making: more than 82,000 former Scouts have filed claims alleging they were sexually abused—seven times the number of similar allegations that rocked the Catholic Church two decades ago.

On My Honor untangles the full story of the Boy Scouts of America, tracking its creation, growth, influence, and the massive generational trauma it has caused. Using the iconic institution to tell a story of American values over the last century, the book grapples with America’s changing understanding of what it means to “make men.”

June 2025 Reading Wrap Up -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

June 2025 Monthly Wrap Up

How about a big mug of coffee to go with a big stack of books!

I had a lull in my work schedule in June, giving me lots of time to read. I read 21 books last month, which is a personal record. Have you read any of these or do you plan to?

Here they are, in the order I read them. If they aren't in the picture, it's because I read them with my ears and don't have a physical copy. Oh, I also forgot to include a Ruth Rendell book in the picture, even though I read it with my eyes.

• Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Gartner. I loved this one and reviewed it here. I didn't know anything about Gartner before I read this, other than that she is called the Barefoot Contessa. Her story is inspirational!

• Maigret and the Spinster by Simenon. I have a lot of Simenon's mystery books on my shelves, but have been slow to read them. I found Maigret to be odd, but charming. I want to read more. This is my France book for the 2025 European Reading Challenge. I'm trying to read more books in translation for the challenge. 

• A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg was a disappointment. Read my review here to learn why.

• A New Lease of Death by Ruth Rendell. Now that's I've wrapped up a few other mystery series, I plan to focus on Rendell's Inspector Wexford books. This is the second one. I thought it was terrific, but I haven't really gotten into the series yet. I have time -- there are 24 books in the series. 

• The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George. Her Inspector Lynley series is one I've doubled down on in the last few years. I enjoy the books immensely, this one in particular, but they are so very long! Fortunately, my library recently got many of the audiobooks and that has helped enormously. I can listen to a 24-hour-long audiobook faster than I can read a 900-page book, especially when I speed up the playback speed. 

• Table for Two by Amor Towels. I loved Rules of Civility and this collection of short stories and a novella is in the same spirit. The novella is a sort-of sequel to Rules of Civility. 

• A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler is an early international thriller, published in 1930. The plot was a little messy, but it was a lot of fun.

• A Burnt-Out Case by Graham Greene was excellent. It's the story of an architect who lost his passion for his work and his religious faith and goes to a leper colony in Africa to lose himself. 

• The Pilgrims Redress by C.S. Lewis. I wanted to like this Christian classic, but I struggle with allegory.

• The New Artisans: Handmade Designs for Contemporary Living by Oliver Dupon is a survey of contemporary arts and crafts. It was interesting, but a little dry to read straight through. 

• Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter. This short collection of three southern gothic novellas knocked my socks off. Porter is in the same school as Flannery O'Connor, with maybe a tough of Eudora Welty. 

• Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz, book five in his Hawthorne & Horowitz series. This is one of my very favorite series, but the fourth book, The Twist of the Knife, disappointed me. It was not as clever, more traditionally formulaic, than the first three. So I put off reading this fifth one when it first came out. I'm glad I finally read it because it is as snappy and fun as the first three.

• Meditations by Marcus Aurelias. Let’s just say, I’m not a stoic. This was a slog. 

• Transcription by Kate Atkinson. This story of WWII and Cold War espionage in London was a delight. I wish I read it earlier.

• Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki. This coming of age story about three sisters in Greece was fabulous, a highlight of my reading month. Another book in translation, this was my Greece pick for the European Reading Challenge. 

• Double Blind by Edward St. Aubyn. I greatly admire his Patrick Melrose books and Lost for Words is an all-time favorite, so I was excited to read this. It had way more brain science than I expected and not enough story about the human relationships, but it was good and I'm glad I read it.

• Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition by Roger Scruton. This one made me think! It's a survey of western conservative thinking from Plato to the 21st Century. 

• Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience, edited by Sean Usher. 125 letters from ordinary and famous people, with short introductions providing context. It's a fun glimpse into the historical record.

• The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan is his only kids book. It was a short, enjoyable read. 

• Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of a Fulfilled Life by Daniel Klein, At the other end of the lifespan spectrum, this a thoughtful consideration of old age.

• The Ice Saints by Frank Tuohy, a forgotten classic that won the 1964 James Tait Black prize. It is the story of a woman from London in the late 1950s who goes to Poland to visit her sister who had married a Polish soldier after WWII. The story is sweet, a little funny, and sad, providing a clear-eyed look at life behind the Iron Curtain. This was my Poland pick for the ERC, even though it is not in translation. 

As work slows down, my reading speeds up! I used to read eight or nine books a month, around 100 a year. The last few years, as I've started to wind down my law practice and turn it over to my junior partner, I've been reading 15 or 16 books a month. June was the first month I really didn't have a lot of work to do and it shows in the number of books I read. I hope this trend continues because I might just have a chance to read all the books on my TBR shelves!