Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan

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

“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever.” Henry kept chanting the line out loud over the roar of the helicopter’s engine.

-- from Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan.

I loved the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, so was excited when my book club picked this for our next discussion. I'm now well into it and have been enjoying it, but not nearly as much as the CRA trilogy. Maybe the shine has worn off Kwan's style, or maybe this one is just a little too much. It's still a ton of fun, and I am very happy to be reading it, but it doesn't feel fresh and exciting like his first books.

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 Lies and Weddings:

Eden couldn’t fathom what the countess was referring to, but she knew the only appropriate response at this moment was to nod. She had been aware since a very young age that the countess didn’t consider the Tongs as equal to the Greshams —as the family doctor, Thomas Tong was barely a notch above the butler, and Eden merely a playmate for her children when it suited them.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Rufus Leung Gresham, future Earl of Greshambury and son of a former Hong Kong supermodel has a problem: the legendary Gresham Trust has been depleted by decades of profligate spending, and behind all the magazine covers and Instagram stories manors and yachts lies nothing more than a gargantuan mountain of debt. The only solution, put forth by Rufus’s scheming mother, is for Rufus to attend his sister’s wedding at a luxury eco-resort, a veritable who’s-who of sultans, barons, and oligarchs, and seduce a woman with money.
. . . .
Can the once-great dukedom rise from the ashes? Or will a secret tragedy, hidden for two decades, reveal a shocking twist?

April 2025 Reading Wrap Up -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

April 2025 Monthly Wrap Up

April was gorgeous here in Portland. We had April showers, but they brought April flowers. The magnolias, cherry trees, camelias, dogwoods, and all the rest seemed particularly stunning this year, maybe because we never got an ice storm or hard freeze. 

As beautiful as the flowers were, they didn’t distract me from reading 14 books last month. Several were fantastic, all were worthwhile. There wasn't a clunker in the mix.

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

• Just One Evil Act by Elizabeth George. This is book 15 of 18 in her Inspector Lynley/Barbara Havers series. I greatly enjoy the books but am determined to finish the series. 

• Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue by Sonia Purnell. My favorite of the month! Harriman was an intriguing person who lived an extraordinary life. She was was married to Winston Churchill's son Randolph during WWII, then Broadway producer Leland Hayward, and finally banker and diplomat Avril Harriman. She had many other love affairs and was quite the jet setter. She was Bill Clinton's Ambassador to France and died in Paris in 1997, just shy of her 77th birthday. My husband gave this to me for Christmas and I included it in my TBR 25 in '25 list. 

• The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen with [and by] Nigel Slater. This is the first of four "Kitchen Diaries" books by Slater. I started off intending to read it over the course of the year, but couldn't hack that pace. I bolted it. I love his books, this one included. That said, I am not fond of his baking recipes, which feature a lot -- A LOT -- of candied citrus peel and dried fruit. I am not a fan of either. This was another TBR 25 in '25 for me.

• The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim. I've been intending to read this classic for a long time and finally found a beautiful Folio edition (without slipcase) at a friends of the library shop. I waited until April to read it, of course. I know I will reread this one. This could count as my Italy book for the 2025 European Reading Challenge, although I'd like to find and read a book by an Italian author. 

• Hidden Libraries: The World’s Most Unusual Book Depositories by D.C. Helmuth. A friend gave me this for Christmas and it is fascinating.

• Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller. My book club picked this for our April meeting. It is a sad, sometimes frustrating, story but we all loved the rural gothic vibe.  

• Ripley Underground and Ripley’s Game by Patricia Highsmith, books two and three in her Ripley series. I read The Talented Mr. Ripley a while back, but wasn't moved to read the sequels right away. The first one left me cold. I like the bad guys to get caught in the mystery books I read, not crime fiction about bad guys getting away with murder. But I had these two in the same omnibus edition, and I'm a completist, so I read them. Interesting stories, but not my favorite. I think there are two or three more in the series, but I've had enough. 

• Penmarric by Susan Howatch was thoroughly engrossing. I love a big, shaggy, family saga and those written in the 1970s are the best of the. I didn’t know going into it that it is a retelling King Henry II’s family history. Clever!

• Literary Feasts: Inspired Eating from Classic Fiction by Sean Brand. I wanted to like this one more, but found it a little too fluffy. Still, it was a fun, quick read. It was one of the three little pipsqueak books I read.

• Freedom Feminism: Its Surprising History and Why It Matters Today by Christina Hoff Sommers. This was another pipsqueak in size, but it packed a punch in content. It includes the history of an overlooked side of early feminist efforts and argues for a more inclusive definition of feminism today.  

• I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats by Francesco Marciuliano. This was the third pipsqueak I read last month. It was funnier than I thought it would be.

NOT PICTURED -- AUDIOBOOKS

• The Body in the Castle Well by Martin Walker. This is book 12 of 18 in his Bruno, Chief of Police series of mysteries set in a small French village. This is another series I am focusing on finishing. 

• The People We Keep by Allison Larkin. This is my book club's pick to discuss in May. Found family stories about teen agers are not my favorite cup of tea, but this one was well done and kept my attention.

How was your reading month? Any knockouts? What are you looking forward to reading in May?

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

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 morning sky lightens, and snow falls on the cottage.

-- from Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller.

That is a peaceful opening sentence for what quickly becomes a dark story. Claire Fuller won the Costa Novel of the Year award in 2021 for Unsettled Ground. File that away as a future trivia answer because 2021 was the last year for the Costa Book Awards.   

I'm reading this for book club, am only about a quarter of the way into it, and like it a lot. Slow build, but it is already making me tense. I recently read another of her books, Bitter Orange, and it had the same, deceptively sleepy pace.

See the Publisher's Description below for more details. If you go for a rural gothic vibe, this one is right up your alley! 

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 Unsettled Ground:

Before Maude, all she’d have asked for was another dog – the one they’d had died of old age when Jeanie was fifteen – but Dot had always refused, saying they were too much trouble, too expensive. They’d managed with very little money, and Jeanie has always assumed this was because years ago Rawson had agreed not to charge them rent for the cottage.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

At fifty-one years old, twins Jeanie and Julius still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation in the English countryside. The cottage they have shared their entire lives is their only protection against the modernizing world around them. Inside its walls, they make music, and in its garden, they grow everything they need to survive. To an outsider, it looks like poverty; to them, it is home.

But when Dot dies unexpectedly, the world they’ve so carefully created begins to fall apart. The cottage they love, and the security it offered, is taken back by their landlord, exposing the twins to harsh truths and even harsher realities. Seeing a new future, Julius becomes torn between the loyalty he feels towards his sister and his desire for independence, while Jeanie struggles to find work and a home for them both. And just when it seems there might be a way forward, a series of startling secrets from their mother’s past come to the surface, forcing the twins to question who they are, and everything they know of their family’s history.

Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud

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

It wasn't until we were halfway through France that we noticed Maretta wasn't talking..

-- from Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud.

This semi-autobiographical novel tells the story of two young sisters, ages five and seven, who move to Morocco with their hippie mom in the early 1970s. The books was made into a movie starring Kate Winslet. The title comes from the little girls, who thought words like "hideous" and "kinky" were sophisticated and said them all the time. 

My book club is reading this now. We picked it because one of our members is moving (at least part time) to Morocco! Our next get together is her sending off party.  

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 Hideous Kinky:

As soon as Bea's clothes were ready she started school. I was swollen with envy and pride and fear for her.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Escaping gray London in 1972, a beautiful, determined mother takes her daughters, aged 5 and 7, to Morocco in search of adventure, a better life, and maybe love. Hideous Kinky follows two little English girls -- the five-year-old narrator and Bea, her seven-year-old sister -- as they struggle to establish some semblance of normal life on a trip to Morocco with their hippie mother, Julia. Once in Marrakech, Julia immerses herself in Sufism and her quest for personal fulfillment, while her daughters rebel -- the older by trying to recreate her English life, the younger by turning her hopes for a father on a most unlikely candidate.

James by Percival Everett -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

James by Percival Everett

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

Those little bastards were hiding out there in the tall grass. 

-- from James by Percival Everett. 

My book club is reading this one for our next get together. It is a "reimagining" of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim the runaway slave, Huck's companion in adventure. Last week I reread the original before I read this one. The original is such a delight, I have mixed feelings about a retelling. But I like the concept so am looking forward to it. 

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 James:

Nothing could have prepared me for what she said next. She said, "Miss Watson told Judge Thatcher that she was going to sell you to a man in New Orleans."

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

July 2024 -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

 

MONTHLY WRAP UP

July 2024

July was a blur. The month started well, with a super fun neighbor party at our house for Independence Day. But right after, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ordered supplemental briefing in the big Boy Scout bankruptcy case I'm working on. I spent the rest of the month feverishly pecking away at that brief and not paying attention to anything else. 

Even through the blur, I somehow managed to read 12 books, which surprised me.

See anything here you’ve read or want to? 

• Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh. This is the first book in Waugh's somewhat autobiographical Sword of Honor trilogy, based roughly on Waugh's service during WWII. It is less serious than his earlier satirical novels like Decline and Fall and Vile Bodies, but not as lyrical and contemplative as later books like Brideshead Revisited. I had a great time reading it with with a Waugh Together Now group on Instagram. It is also on my Classics Club II list. 

• The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett was a fun little bon bon about the Queen of England discovering her love of reading. It was a lot of fun, although not as delightful as I had anticipated. I think my expectations were too high. 

• Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope is the fourth book in his series of six Palliser Novels, also known as the Parliamentary Novels. It's wonderful to get caught up in Trollope's world where all the characters swirl around over the many volumes. 

• Out of the Shelter by David Lodge. I'm a big Lodge fan and this is his first book. It's the semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story of a young man in post-war England who takes his first steps into adulthood during a holiday with his sister in Heidelberg where she works for the American army. It is a charming story. This was on my TBR 24 in '24 stack.

• The Dark Vineyard by Marin Walker. This is the second in his Bruno, Chief of Police series set in a small French village. Now that I wrapped up Louise Penny's Three Pines series and Ian Rankin's John Rebus series, I have time to tackle this one. 

• Unjust Debts: How Our Bankruptcy System Makes America More Unequal by Melissa Jacoby. This one was for work, obviously, but still fascinating. I was pleased as punch to see that she cites one of my briefs in the Boy Scout bankruptcy!

• Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. I am working away at all Greene's books. This one is so good but so sad.

• J by Howard Jacobson is an odd book. It is a story of dystopian antisemitism set in the not-so-distant future. It is excellent, but a little murky, and the ending disturbed me. I feel like I missed the significance of part of the ending. This was another TBR 24 in ’24 pick.

NOT PICTURED 

I also read a few books with my ears. I always have an audiobook going. 

• God in the Dock by C. S. Lewis is a collection of all his essays that had not been collected before. I read it as another Instagram group read as part of my effort to read all his books. His essays always make me think more deeply about my own faith. 

• The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. This was my IRL book club pick last month and I loved it. It was my first McBride book but won’t be my last.

• Heat Wave by Penelope Lively. This is a novel about a mother watching her mistakes play out in her daughter's life. It was perfectly constructed, entertaining, moving, and startling. 

• Spook Street by Mick Herron, the fourth in his Slough House series. This is the other series I dove into after finishing the Penny and Rankin books. I absolutely love it, even more now that we started watching the TV series. I'm trying to stay ahead of the TV show with the books. 

How about you. Did you read anything outstanding last month? 

The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz

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 Oppenheimer Triplets — who were thought of by not a single person who knew them as “the Oppenheimer triplets” — had been in full flight from one another as far back as their ancestral petri dish.

-- The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz. 

This is my book club's latest pick. I am about two thirds of the way through it and love it. But I'm nervous that something might happen in the last third that turns me off the story. I read The Plot by the same author and loved the first half but thought the second half turned predictable and hated the ending. 

The Latecomer is a clever family story about three IVF triplets who never got along and couldn't wait to leave for college and away from each other. Their parents are wrapped up in their own miseries. What I like is the direction each of the triplets seem to be heading because their paths are decidedly different --different from each other but also different from typical characters in contemporary fiction. I hope they all end up fulfilled by their life choices. But I fear something unexpected might pop up and ruin everything. 

Have you read this one, The Plot, or any of Jean Hanff Korelitz's other books?

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 Latecomer:

Still, our father had been looking at paintings — often quite difficult paintings — for years by then, and because of that he was able to read an essential truth about those three tiny people — that they had arrived as they already were and would ever be: Harrison wild for escape, Sally preemptively sullen, Lewyn full of woe as he reached out for the others.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

The Latecomer follows the story of the wealthy, New York City-based Oppenheimer family, from the first meeting of parents Salo and Johanna, under tragic circumstances, to their triplets born during the early days of IVF. As children, the three siblings – Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally – feel no strong familial bond and cannot wait to go their separate ways, even as their father becomes more distanced and their mother more desperate. When the triplets leave for college, Johanna, faced with being truly alone, makes the decision to have a fourth child. What role will the “latecomer” play in this fractured family?

New Books for February Reading -- MAILBOX MONDAY

 

MAILBOX MONDAY

Do you generally buy new or used books? The books that come my way, while "new to me," are not usually new copies. I almost always buy used books (I'm particularly fond of library shops). But the universe conspired to bring four new books to me last week.

• The King's General by Daphne du Maurier I'm reading for a buddy read with some bookstagrammer friends. We've been reading a du Maurier book each month since November and The King's General is our February book. I needed a copy to start reading this past weekend so got this one when I was at Powell's last week. 

• The Promise of a Normal Life by Rebecca Kaiser Gibson launches on February 7 and sounds so wonderful that I jumped at the offer of a review copy. It is a coming of age story about a young Jewish-American woman who encounters adventure and colorful characters as she crisscrosses the US and the ocean to Israel, eventually finding herself on her journey.

• Thirst by K.L. Barron is another new book that sounded too good to pass up. I was happy to accept a review copy of this fascinating novel about a young woman living among the nomadic Tuareg people in Niger.

• The Maid by Nita Prose seems incredibly popular right now, so I was excited that my book club picked it for our next read. But it is so popular that there is a four-month wait for the audiobook from my library and used copies are selling for the same as new ones. I hope it lives up to the hype. We've had a bad streak at book club of picking popular books no one in book club ended up liking. 

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts. You can also find the hosts' favorites at posts titled Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Emma of Words and Peace graciously host Mailbox Monday.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towels -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

It's hot this week here in Oregon. Like most Oregonians, I complain when it rains all spring and then I complain that it is too hot. It's a summer ritual! But I live in a 110 year old house with no air conditioning, so hot gets hot. My cats sure love it. 

Book Beginnings will take my mind off melting. Please share the opening sentence (or so) from the book you are reading this week, or just a book you feel like sharing. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

June 12, 1954 – The drive from Salina to Morgan was three hours, and for much of it, Emmett hadn’t said a word.

-- The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towels. This is one of the books my Book Club picked for later this fall and I'm getting a jump on it because my library hold came up. 

Have you read it?

I loved A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility. I've heard this one drags in comparison, but I'm willing to read it through. A long slow book doesn't sound too bad for this long slow summer week. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please leave a link to your Book Beginning post in the Linky box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag. 

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Lincoln Highway:

I love it when life pulls a rabbit out of a hat. Like when the blue-plate special is turkey and stuffing in the middle of May.

That is an image that stuck with me when I read it. Although the idea of a Thanksgiving-style turkey dinner on this sweltering summer day sounds horrible! 

Love is Blind by William Boyd -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

I really am here on Friday with Book Beginnings. Sorry I didn't get the post up early! I was out of the office most of the day yesterday and forgot to post before I left!

What are you reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) with us here on Book Beginnings on Fridays. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Brodie Moncur stood in the main window of Channon & Co. and looked out at the hurrying pedestrians, the cabs, carriages and laboring drays of George Street.

-- from Part I, Edinburgh 1894, Chapter 1, in Love is Blind by William Boyd. This is historical fiction set at the turn of the 20th Century. It is a plot-driven novel about a Scottish piano tuner sent to manage the Paris branch of a piano company. He becomes professionally involved with an Irish concert pianist and romantically involved with that man’s Russian girlfriend. Things get even more complicated when their entire retinue relocates to St. Petersburg.

This is one of my book club's picks for this summer and I love it. I am just about finished with it and have enjoyed every page. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please leave a link to your Book Beginning post in the Linky box below. If you post on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so we can find each other. 

Speaking of social media, if you are on Instagram, you can find me at my new account, gilioncdumas. My old account got hacked and my many attempts to retrieve it were unsuccessful, so I started over. Find me at my new account! The new account is my name with my middle initial C. You should probably unfollow my old "giliondumas" account (no middle initial). The nasty hackers are quiet now but you never know when they might try to spam you or sell you cryptocurrency!

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Love is Blind:

“Paris, Brodie, Paris! The city of light. La ville lumineuse. How I envy you!”

Enjoy your weekend!

June Wrap Up - My June Books

 

JUNE WRAP UP

My June reading was a real mishmash! I read book from the lists I'm working on, challenges for 2021, things that caught my eye, and just at random. 

Here are the ten books I read in June, in the order I read them, not as they appear in the picture.

MY JUNE BOOKS

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr., a sci-fi classic. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but I’m still not a sci-fi fan. This is one of the 50 books on my Classics Club list. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Skios by Michael Frayn was a reread for me, for my book club’s first post-corona in-person get-together. This Greek island farce was just as fun the second time. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here For? by Rick Warren. This has been on my TBR shelf forever and I am glad I finally read it. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Martin Troost, a hilarious memoir and one of the best titles ever. He wrote two more memoirs about his expatriate adventures and now I want to finish the trilogy. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them by Roxanne J. Coady and Joy Johannessen. I love books about books, so this was right up my alley. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Conservative Sensibility by George F. Will - not pictured because I read it with my ears. Will's new history of American conservative thought I mostly found interesting although it got very long. He included an endless chapter on his own atheism and why conservatism doesn't depend on a belief in God. I agree you don't have to be a believer to be conservative, but I don't think the argument needed the long digression he gave it, especially when he got down in the weeds about Charles Darwin. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Eat Cake for Breakfast: And 99 Other Small Acts of Happiness by Viola Sutanto. This adorable new book is filled with happy illustrations. I needed a light spacer after Will's tome. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

A Place in the World by Amy Marone is the final book her Miramonde series and first-rate historical fiction. Read my interview with Amy Marone here. Her new series launches in September with the first book, Island of Gold, and it looks terrific! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Busman’s Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers, another audiobook, so not in the picture. This is the final novel in her Lord Peter Wimsey mystery series. I made an effort to finish the novels in the the series this year and have only the short stories to read. I have an omnibus edition of those and hope to finish them before the end of the year but don't know if I will get to them. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Twice Shy by Dick Francis, another horse-themed mystery, this one with a startlingly dated computer theme. Anyone remember learning to code Basic? 🌹🌹🌹🌹

BEST COVER THIS MONTH

May Wrap Up -- My May Books

MAY WRAP UP

Oh, the merry month of May! Apparently I spent most of it with my nose in a book. How about you?

During May, I made progress on my TBR 21 in '21 and Mt. TBR Challenges, but read nothing for the Vintage Mystery Challenge. I read one more for the European Reading Challenge and three for the Back to the Classics Challenge.

Here are the 14 books I read in May, in the order I read them, not the order they are stacked in the picture. Spot anything that looks good? 

Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt by Arthur C. Brooks, spot on and couldn’t be more timely. (TBR 21 in '21) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Consequences by Penelope Lively, an excellent novel about three generations of women. (Mt. TBR) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald, her fictionalized and lighthearted story of pre-WWII life on a chicken ranch in the PNW rainforest. This one counts as the "new to me author" pick for the Back to the Classics Challenge. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Day of the Jack Russell by Colin Bateman, the hilarious second book in his Mystery Man series. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Orchids & Salami by Eva Gabor, the most random book on my shelf, a TBR 21 in '21 pick and my "Hungary" pick for the European Reading Challenge. 🌹🌹🌹

The Kingdom of Speech by Tom Wolfe, his fascinating critique of linguistics, Darwinism, and a lot more! (Mt. TBR) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Jeeves in the Offing by P. G. Wodehouse, always funny. (Mt. TBR) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Dead Bell by Reid Winslow, a page-turner of a new mystery out this fall. Check back for my review and look for the book this September -- it may just have a Rose City Reader blurb on the back cover! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger, historical fiction about Depression-era orphans, Indian Schools, tent revivals, and other sad things by someone who really doesn’t like alcohol. (Book Club pick) 🌹🌹🌹

The Tender Bar by J. R. Moehringer, a memoir of growing up in a bar by someone who really did like alcohol. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Private Patient by P. D. James, the final book in her Adam Dalgliesh series. (Mt. TBR) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

A Really Big Lunch by Jim Harrison, a collection of later food essays by one of my favorite authors. (TBR 21 in '21) 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Mark Hampton: An American Decorator by Duane Hampton, a delightful anchor to my coffee table book collection. (Mt. TBR) 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham, a reread of an all time favorite. Every few years, I listen again to the audiobook narrated by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame and love it even more! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

How did May treat you? Anything good in store for June?

BEST COVER OF THE MONTH

Billy (the Kid), The Book of V., and Straight White Male: Mailbox Monday

Did you get any new books last week? It was a tumultuous week. Some of us were peeking out from our corona lockdowns for the first time. Others were taking to the streets in protest. Others were still under stay at home orders, following events online or staying as offline as possible.

I can understand pretty much every reaction to current events. I don't agree with all reactions or all events, but I try to understand. And then I mull. I did a lot of mulling last week.

And I acquired a few books, as always happens. Book shopping is my retail therapy. And I get a book here and there from authors or publishers, as I did last week. So there are always books wandering my way. Thank goodness.

Last week, three new books came into my house. Do any look good to you? How about you? What new books came your way last week?

Billy (the Kid) by Peter Meech. This alternate history imagines that Billy the Kid survived Pat Garrett's bullet and, in 1932, is a retired dentist living in Pueblo, Colorado. But when bootleggers start a war, the once-famous outlaw finds himself in the middle of the action, and fighting for his last chance at romance to boot.

The Book of V. by Anna Solomon. This is my book club pick for June. We've been meeting by Zoom, which isn't as fun as meeting in person, but it isn't bad. I don't miss not sitting in Portland traffic for an hour trying to get across town by 6:00. And no one has to worry about driving home after drinking wine. Not that our book club ladies drink wine. Yeah, right!

Straight White Male by John Niven. Oh my! OK, so I ordered this in May, before Pride Month and protests made it probably the least popular book of last week. I didn't dare post it on social media for fear of being banned for life.

I ordered it when I saw it had been short listed for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for best comic literature. It lost out to Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn, which may be the funniest book I've ever read, so if this came close, I had to have it.


MAILBOX MONDAY

Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf host Mailbox Monday every week where participants share the books they got the week before. Please visit and play along!

Book Beginning: Educated by Tara Westover

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS
THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I'm standing on the red railway car that sits abandoned next to the barn. The wind soars, whipping my hair across my face and pushing a chill down the open neck of my shirt.

-- Educated by Tara Westover. This is my book club's pick for our January meeting, so it is time I got around to one of the most popular books of last year.

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, Instagram, 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.

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Mailbox Monday: Book Club Books

Two nonfiction books came into my house last week. What books did you get last week?



Temperance Creek: A Memoir by Pamela Royes. My book club is reading this for our September meeting. It is my turn to host, so by tradition, dinner should be inspired by the book. I may be making some kind of cowboy camp cookout, by the looks of this!

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Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste by Bianca Bosker. My "cheater" book club* is reading this for October and we are all bringing a bottle of wine to do a blind tasting, which we know will be a joke.

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Vicki of I'd Rather Be at the Beach.


* I have my real book club. and I have my "cheater" book club that I read with on the side. Several of the ladies in my book club have similar arrangements and we try to be very discreet and sophisticated about it, but sometimes when the wine is flowing, the accusations start to fly!

Book Beginning: Zeitoun

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.

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

On moonless nights the men and boys of Jableh, a dusty fishing town on the coast of Syria, would gather their lanterns and set out in their quietest boats.

-- Zeitoun by David Eggers. This is the non-fiction story about a Syrian immigrant living in New Orleans with his American wife and family when Hurricane Katrina hit. It's our Book Club book this month.

Teaser Tuesday: The Light Between Oceans

"I swore I'd stay with you through thick and thin, Isabel, thick and thin! Well, all I can say is, things have got pretty bloody thin," he said, and strode away down the hall.

-- The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman.

My book club is reading this for out March book. The story is more exciting -- and agonizing -- than I anticipated.

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

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday this holiday weekend! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Tasha at Book Obsessed is hosting in July. Please stop by Tasha's busy blog, where she focuses on romance novels, with some mystery and suspense thrown in.

I got two books last week, one for book club and the other as a treat.



Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. I am looking forward to this one.



Plants and Their Application to Ornament: A Nineteenth-Century Design Primer by Eugène Grasset.  I've had my eye on this for a while and finally decided to spring for it.

Review: The Gathering by Anne Enright

It is comforting to think of memory as a recording of past events that can be played back anytime. But the brain does not store memories – especially traumatic memories – in such an orderly and retrievable fashion. In The Gathering, Anne Enright grapples with the chaotic, fragmented, and twisted ways we remember the traumas of childhood.

The memories belong to Veronica, one of the nine surviving Hegarty siblings, gathered for the funeral of their brother Liam. Veronica tries to deal with her grief and make sense of her brother's death by piecing together their family history. She uses her imagination and objective clues to give context to distressing images from the time she and Liam lived with their grandmother.

Veronica's struggle is authentically idiosyncratic. Her grief and the secrets she carries drive some kooky behavior and alienate her from her husband, her mother, and her own daughters. She can be an unattractive, if believable, heroine.

Veronica's off-putting conduct and Enright's sometimes too-obtuse prose makes The Gathering a difficult book. But Enright earned her Booker prize for tackling a harrowing subject and concluding with the important lesson that a problem cannot be solved until it is acknowledged.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it. 

NOTES

The Gathering is one of the books I read for the MT. TBR CHALLENGE (hosted by Bev on My Reader's Block) and the OFF THE SHELF CHALLENGE (hosted by Bonnie on Bookish Ardour).

Review: Cutting for Stone

Despite its enormous popularity, including with the ladies in my book club, I thought that Abraham Verghese's hefty novel, Cutting for Stone was only so-so.  It is an interesting story about two brothers and their families – natural and adopted – but it went on too long for me and the medical details weighed it down.

The story really gets going with the traumatic birth of twin brothers, Shiva and Marion, at Missing Hospital in Ethiopia. The sons of an Indian nun and a British surgeon, both boys grow up to become doctors. Their story has roots in India, takes them to New York and Boston, embroils them in the political upheavals in Ethiopia, and tears the brothers apart over a woman before uniting them for good.

The multiple storylines are absorbing. But when they all spectacularly converge, the climax is startlingly hard to believe and throws off the pacing of the rest of the book.

Cutting for Stone is worthwhile, but would have benefited from a stronger hand on the editing reigns.

OTHER REVIEWS

Man of la Book

If you would like your review of Cutting for Stone listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.