23 Days to Christmas!

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday!  I am so pleased to host in December because it just adds to my general giddiness this festive time of year.

MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).  Marcia is looking for someone to take over tour organizing duties.  Many people have volunteered, but I don't know that there is a final plan for 2014.

MY THEME THIS WEEK: HOLIDAY BOOK TRADITIONS

Do you have any book-related holiday traditions? Please share!

MY TRADITION: Everyone in my immediate family loves to read, so I've developed a little Christmas tradition of filling a gift bag with books for each of them.  It is so fun to have a big stack of books to play with on Christmas day and to anticipate a new year of reading enjoyment. 

With that tradition in mind, I went to my two favorite Friends of the Library used book stores in Oregon: Booktique in Lake Oswego and Second Hand Prose in Oregon City.  My family members don't mind that the books are used and getting them from the library stores means they cost so little everyone gets a BIG bag.

MY BOOKS: I can never hit those stores without finding something for myself.  Many somethings.  Including these:



Amarcord: Marcella Remembers by Marcella Hazan. I have several of her cookbooks and her life story of growing up in Italy during WWII sounds fascinating.



The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I know this was hugely popular, but I somehow missed it.



Lulu in Marrakech
by Diane Johnson. I like her books and am in the mood to read fun stuff.



Vintage Murder by Ngaio Marsh. I am always in the mood for a vintage mystery and adore her Inspector Roderick Allyn series.

YOUR BOOKS

What books came into your house last week?  Leave your link below or in a comment.  If you don't have a blog but want to play along, leave a comment listing your new books.

24 Days to Christmas!

Every year, I count down the days to Christmas with vintage postcards. Here is the first for 2013. 

I love vintage postcards for all holidays. I am particularly fond of those with books in them, although they are not easy to find. 

Book Beginning: A Simplified Map of the Real World by Stevan Allred

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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 now has a Facebook page. I plan to 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, or click the button over there in the right hand column.  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 am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY



MY BOOK BEGINNING

This all begins when I come home from visiting Mother in the rest home last week and taking her down into the Norse Hall for the monthly dinner. 

 -- from "His Ticky Little Mind," the first story in A Simplified Map of the Real World: The Renata Stories by Stevan Allred, published by Forest Avenue Press.

Curling up with this interconnected collection of short stories set in the fictional town of Renata, Oregon is the perfect, stress-free way to enjoy a long holiday weekend.

What do you read during the holidays?

Gobble! Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Teaser Tuesday: Bleak House by Charles Dickens

“A good deal is doing, sir. We have put our shoulders to the wheel, Mr. Carstone, and the wheel is going round.”

-- Bleak House by Charles Dickens.

This is a lawyer's response to his client's demand to know what is happening in the expensive, long drawn out probate lawsuit in which he is involved. The lawyer's answer is less than candid – pushing a wheel around doesn't move anything forward.

I used this and many other quotes from Bleak House when I gave a presentation last week on Ethical Lessons from Charles Dickens Bleak House. It was a Continuing Legal Education seminar for lawyers, who all got one ethics CLE credit.  I had a lot of fun doing it and met many other literature-loving lawyers.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Mailbox Monday

I'M HOSTING IN DECEMBER
PLEASE COME BACK NEXT WEEK TO JOIN IN!

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 (details here).

Crystal at I Totally Paused is hosting in November.  Crystal reviews books from a variety of genres including mysteries, YA, historical fiction, and classics, and also blogs about pop culture and life as she sees it.  Please visit her blog and say hello.

Two books came into my house last week.  While they couldn't be more different, they both look really interesting.



Sinful Folk by Ned Hayes.  The book is due out in January, but it looks like you can get the kindle edition now.

Sinful Folk is a "novel of the Middle Ages" based on real events in England in 1377.  When five children died in a house fire, a group of villagers set out to travel over 200 miles in midwinter to seek justice from the King in London.  It's part mystery, part survival story, part pilgrimage.  Maybe a cross between Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Game of Thrones?

Watch the trailer for Sinful Folk.



Report from the Interior by Paul Auster.  This is a new memoir from the author of The New York Trilogy and, more recently, another memoir, Winter Journal.

The Boston Glob reviewed Report from the Interior here; The Seattle PI's review is here. 

Book Beginnings: The Complaints by Ian Rankin

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 now has a Facebook page. I plan to 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, or click the button over there in the right hand column.  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 am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY



MY BOOK BEGINNING

 

There was a smattering of applause as Malcolm Fox entered the room.

-- The Complaints by Ian Rankin.

I have been reading his John Rebus series.  The Complaints is the first book in a different series featuring another Edinburgh police detective, Malcom Fox.  Good stuff. 

Teaser Tuesday: Things We Set on Fire by Deborah Reed

The cardboard boxes stacked against the wall were decades old and soft as suede to the touch.  Vivvie carefully shoved as many as she could lift up onto the closet shelf while balancing atop a stepladder in the spare bedroom.

-- Things We Set on Fire by Deborah Reed.  This latest novel from Deborah Reed is a detail-rich family story that will suck you in from the first pages.  Start it when you have a few hours to devote because you will get lost in it.

Reed's debut literary novel, Carry Yourself Back to Me (reviewed here), shares the evocative prose and hardscrabble Florida setting of Things We Set on Fire.  She is also the author of two sassy thrillers, A Small Fortune (reviewed here) and Fortune's Deadly Descent (reviewed here), both published under her pen name, Audry Braun.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

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 (details here).

Crystal at I Totally Paused is hosting in November.  Crystal reviews books from a variety of genres including mysteries, YA, historical fiction, and classics, and also blogs about pop culture and life as she sees it.  Please visit her blog and say hello.

One book came into my house last week:



The Light and the Dark by C. P. Snow

I've been reading Snow's Strangers & Brothers series for a while now.  This 11-volume series, published between 1940 and 1974, follows several characters through careers in British academia and government.

The Light and the Dark is the fourth book in the story's chronology, but the second published.   I just finished reading the third book, The Conscience of the Rich, and while I am not ready to dive into the next one, I like having it on the shelf for when the mood next strikes.

Book Beginning: Things We Set on Fire by Deborah Reed

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 now has a Facebook page. I plan to 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, or click the button over there in the right hand column.  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 am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY



MY BOOK BEGINNING

The call came in the middle of the night, and at first Vivvie stood in the dark near her bed, trying to make sense of the hour.

-- Things We Set on Fire by Deborah Reed.

Deborah Reed is the author of the novel, Carry Yourself Back to Me (reviewed here), which followed close on the heels of her sassy thriller, A Small Fortune (reviewed here) published under her pen name, Audry Braun.

Things We Set on Fire is already generating a lot of buzz and some terrific reviews, like this one from Booklist:

In Reed’s engrossing examination of one family’s lifelong meltdown and possible resurrection, Vivien "Vivvie" Fenton’s story begins with a dark implication about the death of her husband 30 years ago in a hunting accident. Vivvie’s two adult daughters, Kate and Elin, have long since flown the coop in desperate efforts to find happiness. When Vivvie receives unexpected word that Kate is in the hospital and that her own two young daughters need someone to come get them, the past and all its wounds threaten to smash everyone’s lives yet again. Elin’s somewhat orderly life on the other side of the country is wildly upset when Vivvie calls her and begs for her help with her two nieces as Kate lingers on the precipice between life and death. The entanglements of a family burdened with dark secrets, personal motives, and an eventual implosion that still rocks each of their lives to the core quickly surface in the face of this new tragedy, propelling the story and its irresistible characters. Suggest this one to fans of Elizabeth Strout. —Julie Trevelyan

Review: Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Moss is beautiful. I love hiking through a lush and peaceful forest carpeted with moss, or contemplating how different kinds of mosses complete the composition of a Japanese garden.

Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (OSU Press) is a series of connected personal essays by scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer, who spent years studying mosses all over the world. Drawing as much on her Native American heritage and experiences as a mother as on science, Kimmerer explains how mosses live and uses the history and interconnectedness of moss with other species as a metaphor for living in the world.

Kimmerer won the John Burroughs Medal Award for Natural History Writing for Gathering Moss. It reminded me of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, but without so many bugs.

I wanted to read Gathering Moss because I am trying to incorporate more moss in my own landscaping. Kimmerer's essays turned out to be as inspirational as they are informative. Anyone with a curiosity about natural history and our connection with nature would enjoy this book.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like me to list your review of Gathering Moss or any other John Burroughs Medal Award winner, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

Teaser Tuesday: Trophy Cupcakes & Parties

The great thing about a rustic French buffet is that it's completely kid-friendly, so there's no need to make separate food for them. Baguettes with butter and ham or cheese and crunchy cucumbers, carrots, and haricots vert are a favorite among les petits-enfants.

-- Trophy Cupcakes & Parties! Deliciously Fun Party Ideas and Recipes from Seattle's Prize-Winning Cupcake Bakery by Jennifer Shea, photographs by Rena Jordan.

This is the perfect present for the hip entertainer on your list!  Another lively and inspiring book from Sasquatch Books. 

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

Happy Anniversary! Happy Veterans' Day!

 

As well as giving thanks to our veterans, Hubby and I celebrate our (lucky) thirteenth wedding anniversary today. 

Mailbox Monday: Oregon Authors

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 (details here).

Crystal at I Totally Paused is hosting in November.  Crystal reviews books from a variety of genres including mysteries, YA, historical fiction, and classics, and also blogs about pop culture and life as she sees it.  Please visit her blog and say hello.

My mailbox was a celebration of local authors and publishers last week.  I got three books that all look really interesting:



A Simplified Map of the Real World by Steven Allred, published by Forest Avenue Press.  Interconnected short stories set in the fictional town of Renata, Oregon.



Brave on the Page: Oregon Writers on Craft and the Creative Life, edited by Laura Stanfill, published by Forest Avenue Press. Essays from 42 Oregon authors about living the writer's life. 



Paradox Lost: Uncovering Your True Identity in Christ by Jen Johnson and Catherine Skurja, published by Imago Dei Resources.  Jen is in my book club and worked on this project for a while. I look forward to reading it.

What books came into your house last week?

Book Beginning: Trophy Cupcakes & Parties!

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 now has a Facebook page. I plan to 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, or click the button over there in the right hand column.  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 am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY



MY BOOK BEGINNING

You could say that party planning is in my DNA. I'm not sure which of my ancestors was first bit by the hospitality bug, but I clearly come from a family of celebrators with a flair for festivities and a knack for fun.

-- From the authors introduction, "The Party Starts Here: Why I'm obsessed with creating joyful celebrations" in Trophy Cupcakes & Parties! Deliciously Fun Party Ideas and Recipes from Seattle's Prize-Winning Cupcake Bakery by Jennifer Shea, photographs by Rena Jordan.

The photos and ideas in Trophy Cupcakes & Parties would inspire any partygiver, whether looking to add panache to a grown-up party or find a new idea for a kid event.  When you need more than Pinterest, this would be the source to turn to.

This is another fun and beautiful book from Sasquatch Books.  They are on a roll!

Five Faves: Midwest Books

There are times when a full-sized book list is just too much; when the Top 100, a Big Read, or all the Prize winners seem like too daunting an effort. That's when a short little list of books grouped by theme may be just the ticket.

Inspired by Nancy Pearl's "Companion Reads" chapter in Book Lust – themed clusters of books on subjects as diverse as Bigfoot and Vietnam – I decided to start occasionally posting lists of five books grouped by topic or theme. I call these posts my Five Faves.

Feel free to grab the button and play along.  Use today's theme or come up with your own.  If you post about it, please link back to here and leave the link to your post in a comment.  If you want to participate but don't have a blog or don't feel like posting, please share your list in a comment.

FIVE FAVE MIDWEST BOOKS

My roots are in Nebraska and as the holidays roll around -- Thanksgiving especially -- nostalgia waxes for the flatlands of my childhood.

Any suggestion? What stories of the heartland tug on your heartstrings?

Here are five of my favorite books set in a celebrating the American Midwest.  You can tell from my list that my idea of "the Midwest" doesn't extend further east than about Davenport, Iowa.

• O Pioneers! by Willa Cather.  This very readable classic about prairie settlers is on the Radcliffe list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century -- the rival to the Modern Library's list. 

• The Road Home by Jim Harrison.  Harrison's inter-generational family story picks up where his earlier novel, Dalva, left off.  It has a permanent place on my personal Top 10 list and is probably my favorite American novel.

• The Echo Maker by Richard Powers.  Brain science and sand-hill cranes, no wonder it won the National Book Award.

• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (reviewed here).  Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for this uplifting and entertaining epistolary novel.

• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley.  It may be a little overwrought, but this Midwest Gothic deserves its Pulitzer Prize.  It also won the National Book Critics Circle Award and made it onto Erica Jong's list of Top 100 20th Century Novels by Women.

Teaser Tuesday: Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Like the forest above it, the moss turf is a patchwork of many species. And if you're down on your knees with your nose poked into the earthy smell, you'll see that the moss carpet is not unbroken green.

-- Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer (OSU Press), winner of the John Burroughs Medal Award for Natural History Writing.

Moss is beautiful.  I love hiking through a lush and peaceful forest carpeted with moss, or contemplating how different kinds of mosses complete the composition of a Japanese garden. 

I wanted to read Gathering Moss because I am trying to incorporate more moss in my own landscaping.  Kimmerer's series of personal essays turned out to be as inspirational as they are informative. 

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. 

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 (details here).

I'm getting a jump on the week with an early posting. 

Two books came into my house last week and I am super excited about both of them.
 


Things we Set on Fire by Deborah Reed, author of the excellent Carry Yourself Back to Me (reviewed here).

Reed's latest novel has been 16 years in the making and sounds like a slam dunk winner. It's a gothic drama with generations of tough but damaged women coming together to deal with a 30-year old tragedy that had splintered the family.  Looks like a great fireside read for a winter weekend.

Things We Set on Fire will be out on December 1, but is available for pre-order now.  I see that Kindle users can pre-order a copy at the ridiculous sale price of $4.99.



Put an Egg on It: 70 Delicious Dishes That Deserve a Sunny Topping by Lara Ferroni.  Santa's elves must have been reading the new Rose City Reader Facebook page, because I got this one early.  This is the cookbook I would have written if I could write a cookbook, because I think any savory dish is better with an egg on it.  Yum!

This is yet another beautifully photographed, well-constructed, and inspiring cookbook from Sasquatch Books.  This up-and-coming independent publisher is definitely one to watch!

Book Beginnings: Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer

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.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Barefoot, I've walked this path by night for nearly twenty years, most of my life it seems, the earth pressing up against the arch of my foot.

-- Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer (OSU Press), winner of the John Burroughs Medal Award for Natural History Writing.

Gathering Moss is a series of personal essays by scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer, who spent years studying mosses all over the world. Drawing as much on her Native American heritage and experiences as a mother as on science, Kimmerer explains how mosses live and uses the history and interconnectedness of moss as a metaphor for living in the world.

I want to use more moss in my own garden, so am reading this for practical advice as well as inspiration.  So far, it reminds me a lot of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, but without so many bugs.

Five Faves: Non-Fiction Francophile Books

There are times when a full-sized book list is just too much; when the Top 100, a Big Read, or all the Prize winners seem like too daunting an effort. That's when a short little list of books grouped by theme may be just the ticket.

Inspired by Nancy Pearl's "Companion Reads" chapter in Book Lust – themed clusters of books on subjects as diverse as Bigfoot and Vietnam – I decided to start occasionally posting lists of five books grouped by topic or theme. I call these posts my Five Faves.

Feel free to grab the button and play along.  Use today's theme or come up with your own.  If you post about it, please link back to here and leave the link to your post in a comment.  If you want to participate but don't have a blog or don't feel like posting, please share your list in a comment.

FIVE FAVE NONFICTION FRANCOPHILE BOOKS

For this, my inaugural Five Fave post, I have five of my favorite nonfiction books about France. This is a mix of classic food writing, contemporary advice, history, and memoir by non-natives who enjoy France.

What are your favorite nonfiction books celebrating France or all things French? I keep a French Connections list and am always looking for additions!

Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris by A.J. Liebling

Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl by Debra Ollivier (reviewed here)

The Food of France by Waverley Root (reviewed here)

My Life in France by Julia Child (reviewed here)

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

Happy Halloween!

Teaser Tuesday: Breaking Chains by R. Gregory Nokes

After granting territorial status to Oregon, Congress followed up on September 27, 1850, by enacting the Donation Land Act that offered free land in Oregon to white settlers and so-called "half-breeds," persons with mixed blood and at least 50 percent white. It excluded blacks, Hawaiians, Native Americans, and Asians.

 
-- Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Territory by R. Gregory Nokes. 


In his new book, Breaking Chains, former journalist Gregory Nokes uses the 1853 civil trial of a former slave against his Oregon owner as the frame for a broader look at slavery and racism in the American West. As the above passage shows, racism was built into the framework of the Oregon Territory. Nokes examines how that legacy played out in Pacific Northwest history.

Nokes is a former journalist and the author of Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon (reviewed here), the highly readable account of 34 Chinese gold miners murdered in Hell's Canyon in1887.  There is a new documentary, also called Massacred for Gold, based on the book (watch the trailer here).

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.