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...

January 2024 -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

 

MONTHLY WRAP UP

January 2024

I made a strong start to the reading year, finishing 13 books in January, including six TBR 24 in '24 books. I wanted to get a jump on that one and not wait until the end of the year like I did in 2023.

See any here that you’ve read or want to? 

The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh, for a bookstagram read along. This short novel satirizes Hollywood and the American funeral industry. It is dark but very funny. 

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, as part of a Du Maurier Deep Dive group I'm in, also through Instagram. I loved every melodramatic page. 

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope, the first book in yet another buddy read, this one a read through of Trollope's Palliser novels. 

Rates of Exchange by Malcolm Bradbury, a TBR 24 in ’24 book about a college professor on a cultural exchange to a Soviet Bloc country in the early 1980s. Definitely a highlight of the month. 

Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz, another TBR 24 in ’24. I loved this book. Hitz examines the joys of intellectual pursuits, how “leisure” differs from “recreation,” and why our regular jobs are not (usually) intellectually fulfilling. 

Rather be the Devil by Ian Rankin, from his John Rebus series that I love but want to wrap up.

Need Blind Ambition by Kevin Myers, a fantastic new campus thriller.

My Almost Cashmere Life by Margie Adams, TBR 24 in ’24 nonfiction. I admit read this memoir about the end of a dysfunctional but long-term marriage because I know the husband. I wanted the inside scoop.

Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription by William F. Buckley, Jr., my favorite title of the month and another TBR 24 in ’24.

Quentins by Maeve Binchy, my feel good TBR 24 in ’24. I love her Aga Sagas. 

Political Woman: The Big Little Life of Jeane Kirkpatrick by Peter Collier, more TBR 24 in ’24 nonfiction and a fascinating slice of recent history.

🎧 NOT PICTURED 🎧

Beartown by Fredrik Backman. More serious than his other books I’ve read, I thought this was a compassionate and insightful handling of teenage sexual assault and its repercussions in a small community. 

In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin, which leaves only two to go. I want to finish this series before I start any new ones. I have my eye on Mick Heron's Slow Horses series. 

There wasn’t a clunker on that list. I loved them all. Now, on to February. What book are you excited to read this month? 

Books I read in July -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

MONTHLY WRAP UP

July 2023

I finished 13 books in July, including three from my TBR 23 in '23 stack. There wasn’t a clunker in the bunch.

 
See any of your own favorites here? 

PICTURED

French Ways and Their Meaning by Edith Wharton, a collection of WWI-era essays aimed at teaching American soldiers about France. One of my TBR 23 in '23 books. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham. This is an August buddy read, but I jumped the gun. As usual, I enjoyed the book much more than the movie, which I watched when it came out in 2006. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu, which I loved. Yu won the 2020 National Book Award for this funny, insightful satire of Hollywood. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

A Passionate Man by Joanne Trollope. I love a good Aga Saga and Trollope always delivers. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Italian Fever by Valerie Martin is the story of a woman who goes to Italy when the novelist she works for dies there and she needs to wrap up his affairs. The details were more than a bit odd, but it kept me interested. 🌹🌹🌹1/2

The Sellout by Paul Beatty won the 2020 Booker Prize. It was a little scattered and magical for me, but I appreciate the talent it took to create it. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

S. by John Updike is a 1988 novel inspired by the Rajneeshees here in Oregon. It sagged for me some in the middle, but had a couple of twists that perked up the ending. All in all, a highlight of the month. It will stick with me. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Foxed Quarterly Vol. 77, the Spring 2023 issue. I keep track of when I finish these so I know which ones I’ve read. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks, because I always seem to be about 20 years behind with popular sociology books. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh, a buddy read over on Instagram. So good! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner by Elizabeth George, another in her Inspector Lynley series I’m marching through. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

A Better Man by Louise Penny. I enjoyed this one as much as always and now only have three left! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

NOT PICTURED

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson, which I read with my ears. What a fantastic book! This shaggy novel set in 1920s London was the perfect companion to Vile Bodies, almost an homage. Another favorite. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

What were your standout reads in July?