List: The Oregon Book Award for Fiction

The Oregon Book Awards and Fellowships honor the state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, drama, literary nonfiction, and literature for young readers. In addition to financial support, the program produces the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour, which connects writers and readers throughout the state with readings, classroom visits, and workshops.

I hope to read the winners of the Fiction Award. Although so far, only Jump Off Creek is even waiting for me on my TBR shelf!

2015 Cari Luna, The Revolution of Every Day

2014 Ursula K. Le Guin, The Unreal and The Real: Collected Stories

2013 Ismet Prcic, Shards

2012 Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers

2011 Willy Vlautin, Lean on Pete

2009/2010 Jon Raymond, Livability: Stories

2008 Ehud Havazelet, Bearing the Body

2007 Alison Clement,Twenty Questions

2006 Justin Tussing, The Best People in the World

2005 Marc Acito, How I Paid for College

2004 Tracy Daugherty, Axeman’s Jazz

2003 Cai Emmons, His Mother’s Son

2002 Gina Ochsner, The Necessary Grace to Fall

2001 Molly Best Tinsley, Throwing Knives

2000 Craig Lesley, Storm Riders

1999 Ehud Havazelet, Like Never Before

1998 Peter Ho Davies, The Ugliest House in the World

1997 Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

1996 Tracy Daugherty, What Falls Away

1995 Chang-rae Lee, Native Speaker

1994 Diana Abu-Jaber, Arabian Jazz

1993 Diane Simmons, Dreams Like Thunder

1992 Ursula Le Guin, Searoad

1991 (no award)

1990 Molly Gloss, The Jump-off Creek

1989 Hob Broun, Cardinal Numbers

1988 Todd Grimson, Within Normal Limits

1987 Russell Working, Resurrectionists

NOTE

Updated July 16, 2016.

Teaser Tuesday: A Hunger for High Country

Like people, bears were unpredictable.  I couldn't tell the shy ones from the killers, so my reaction was to assume the worst about the, all.

-- A Hunger for High Country: One Woman’s Journey to the Wild in Yellowstone Country by Susan Marsh, published by the Oregon State University Press.

Marsh was one of the first women to work in the field for the US Forest Service. Her memoir is filled with evocative descriptions of the National Forests surrounding Yellowstone National Park where she worked, as well as adventures with bears, gun-toting mountain men, and sexist bureaucrats.

A Hunger for High Country offers a first-hand account of what it was like to live and work in a National Forest -- an area most of us see while driving to our vacation, but have never really thought about.

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. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

I got one book last week, and I am very excited to read it:



Liberated: A Novel of Germany, 1945 by Steve Anderson. This is the second in his "Kaspar Brothers" series. The main character, Harry Kaspar, is the older brother of Max Kaspar, the hero in The Losing Role, which I reviewed here. Steve has more stories involving the Kaspar brothers in the hopper.

PORTLANDERS: Steve is going to be reading from Liberated this Thursday, January 22, at Powell's Books on Hawthorne at 7:30. More details on the Powell's calendar.

Book Beginning: A Hunger for High Country

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

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

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

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

One task was left to me before leaving Montana, to bid farewell to Windy Pass.

-- A Hunger for High Country: One Woman’s Journey to the Wild in Yellowstone Country by Susan Marsh, published by the Oregon State University Press.

Marsh was one of the first generation of women to work in the field for the US Forest Service. Starting in the 1970s, Marsh worked in the National Forests surrounding Yellowstone National Park, first in Montana and then for many years in Wyoming.

A Hunger for High Country is Marsh's first-hand account of the adventures she lived, as well as a history of the region and the agency she worked for.

Mailbox Monday: A Hunger for High Country

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

I got one book last week, and I am very excited to read it:



A Hunger for High Country: One Woman’s Journey to the Wild in Yellowstone Country by Susan Marsh, published by the Oregon State University Press.

Marsh was one of the first women hired by the US Forest Service in the 1970s, working first in Montana and then for many years in Wyoming. A Hunger for High Country is her personal memoir and a history of the agency and region. I love these kinds of memoirs about real women building the kinds of adventurous careers I've never considered. They make me think more creatively and expansively about my own career.

Books Read in 2014

This is the list of the 104 books I read in 2014, in the order that I read them. I started the Dumas Law Group in 2014, my own law firm, so I didn't review many books. It was all I could do to read them!

I rate books 1 to 5, but only give five stars to a very few all-time favorites. Four stars go to books I think are really good and would recommend to anyone. I rate a book a 3 if I liked it personally, but wouldn't think of recommending it. Most books get 3.5, which means that I liked it and would recommend it to people who like that genre or type of book. See this post for details.

One of Ours by Willa Cather (3.5/4; Pulitzer)

The Bridal Wreath: Kristin Lavransdatter, Vol.1, by Sigrid Unset (4/4; Nobel)

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn (3/4)

The Society Ball Murders by Jack Albin Anderson (3/4)

Candida by George Bernard Shaw (3/4; Nobel)

William Tell Told Again by P. G. Wodehouse (3/4)

The Gold Bat by P. G. Wodehouse (3/4)

Kate Remembered by A. Scott Berg (4/5)

Coastliners by Joanne Harris (3/5)

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin (3.5/5)

Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy (3/5; reviewed here)

The Wife: Kristin Lavransdatter, Vol. II, by Sigrid Unset (4/4; Nobel)

A Wanted Man by Lee Child (3.5/4)

A Shooting Star by Wallace Stegner (3.5/5)

C. S. Lewis - A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet by Alister McGrath (4/5)

The Cross: Kristin Lavransdatter, Vol. III, by Sigrid Unset (4/4; Nobel)

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie (3.5/5)

Deception by Philip Roth (3.5/5)

The Difficult Sister by Judy Nedry (3.5/5)

What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw (aka 4:50 from Paddington) by Agatha Christie (3.5/5)

Death in the Air (aka Death in the Clouds) by Agatha Christie (3.5/5)

Remembering Laughter by Wallace Stegner (3.5/5)

Economic Facts and Fallacies, 2nd edition by Thomas Sowell (4/5)

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan (3.5/5)

The Life of the Party by Irvin S. Cobb (3/5)

Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding (3.5/5)

1939: The Last Season by Anne De Courcy (3.5/5)

The Alice Behind Wonderland by Simon Winchester (3.5/5)

The Rich Are Different by Susan Howatch (3.5/5)

The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter (4/5)

Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott (3/5)

I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away by Bill Bryson (3/5)

A Pillar of Iron by Taylor Caldwell (4/5; reviewed here)

Snobs by Julian Fellows (4/5; reviewed here)

The Head of Kay’s by P. G. Wodehouse (3/5)

A Few Green Leaves by Barbara Pym (3.5/5)

Night In Shanghai by Nicole Mones (4/5)

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (3/5)

The Glassblowers by Daphne du Maurier (3/5)

In the Last Analysis by Amanda Cross (3.5/5)

The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin (3.5/5)

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing (3.5/5; Nobel, All-TIME Top 100)

Sinful Folk by Ned Hayes (4/5)

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (5/5; reviewed here)

Still Life by Louise Penny (3.5/5)

You Take It From Here by Pamela Ribon (2.5/5)

The View from Penthouse B by Elinor Lipman (3/5)

20,000 Days and Counting: The Crash Course for Mastering Your Life Right Now by Robert D. Smith (2.5/5)

A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh (3.5/5)

Sister Age by M.F.K. Fisher (3.5/5)

Stoner by John Williams (3.5/5)

Nickel Mountain by John Gardner (3.5/5; BOMC Well-Stocked Bookcase)

The Principles of Uncertainty by Maria Kalman (3.5/5)

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (4/5)

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (3/5)

Bonjour, Happiness! by Jamie Cat Callan (3.5/5)

Bridget Jones's Guide to Life by Helen Fielding (3/5)

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene (4/5)

The Gem Collector by P. G. Wodehouse (3/5)

Memento Mori by Muriel Spark (3.5/5)

Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen (3/5)

The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope (4/5)

Risk by Dick Francis (3.5/5)

Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (3.5/5)

French Women for All Seasons by Mirabelle Guiliano (3/5)

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera (3/5)

A Northern Christmas by Rockwell Kent (3/5)

Dodsworth by Sinclair Lewis (4.5/5)

Private Life by Jane Smiley (3/5)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (5/5)

Daughters-in-Law by Joanna Trollope (3.5/5)

The Truth About Lorin Jones by Alison Lurie (4/5)

California’s Over by Louis B. Jones (3.5/5)

A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George (3.5/5)

She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith (3.5/5)

A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny (3.5/5)

Prague by Arthur Phillips (4/5)

Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs (3/5)

C'est La Vie: An American Woman Begins a New Life in Paris and--Voila!--Becomes Almost French by Suzy Gershman (2.5/5)

The Pearl Diver by Sujata Massey (3/5)

Bad Boy Brawly Brown by Walter Mosley (3/5)

Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor (4/5)

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (3.5/5; College Board Top 101, Erica Jong Top 100, BMOC Well-Stocked Bookcase)

44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith (3/5)

Arthur & George by Julian Barnes (3.5/5)

Summer Lightning by P. G. Wodehouse (4/5)

Me before You by Jojo Moyes (1/5)

Style by Kate Spade (3.5/5)

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (4/5)

Delicious by Mark Haskell Smith (3.5/5)

Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir by Christopher Buckley (3.5/5)

A Man of Parts by David Lodge (3.5/5)

Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh (3.5/5)

An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (3.5/5; Costa BOTY)

If a Pirate I Must Be…: The True Story of "Black Bart," King of the Caribbean Pirates by Richard Sanders (3/5)

The Victim by Saul Bellow (3.5/5)

On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks by Simon Garfield (3.5/5)

The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt (4/5)

Smokescreen by Dick Francis (3.5/5)

Prospero's Cell: A Guide to the Landscape and Manners of The Island of Corfu by Lawrence Durrell (3.5/5)

The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan (3.5/5)

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula le Guin (3.5/5)

Captain Nicholas by Hugh Walpole (3.5/5)

The Spa Decameron by Fay Weldon (4/5)

Book Beginning: Their Name is Today

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

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

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

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

The cry of a newborn baby catches at the heart.

-- Their Name is Today: Reclaiming Childhood in a Hostile World by Johann Christoph Arnold, foreword by Mark K. Schriver.

I'm interested in learning more about this book's promised "creative ways to give children the time and space they need to grow" and how the author proposes to defend "the joy and wonder of childhood."

Book Beginning: Meet Your Baker by Ellie Alexander.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS IN 2105 FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

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

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

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

They say it takes a while to recover your land legs after years spent at sea.

-- Meet Your Baker by Ellie Alexander. This debut "Bakeshop Mystery" introduces Juliet Capshaw, a newly-graduated pastry chef turned amateur sleuth when one of the customers of Torte, her Ashland, Oregon bakery turns up dead. Since the victim is a board member of the world-famous Shakespeare Festival, the beating heart of the town, anyone could be a suspect.

Happy New Year!

Teaser Tuesday: David Copperfield

"Peggotty!" repeated Miss Betsey, with some indignation. "Do you mean to say, child, that any human being has gone into a Christian church, and got herself named Peggotty?"

-- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I like to start the year with a big, classic, chunkster and what better than Dickens? I'm just getting a bit of a jump.

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. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

Santa only brought me one book, but a stack of books came into my house last week.



The Days Trilogy, Expanded Edition by H. L. Mencken. Santa brought me this one because I read a great review of it by Terry Teachout.

An always-popular Christmas gift at our house is a big bag of books from the Friends of the Library book store. As always, I ended up with a stack for myself!



The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. I've wanted to read this for a long time.

.

The Stranger House by Reginald Hill. This is a stand-alone by the author of a popular British crime series that I haven't read. I figured this would give me an idea of his style.



Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Another one that's been on my radar a long time.



Under the Eye of the Storm by John Hersey. I loved the mid-century cover!

After Christmas, I stopped in at Crooked House Books & Paper to see my friend Rachelle. She was holding the vintage cookbook for me because I saw it on her facebook page and I found the two M. F. K. Fisher books among her many treasures. She has loyal customers all over the world, so check out her on-line inventory and make friends!



The Glamour Magazine After Five Cookbook by Beverly Pepper



Dubious Honors by M. F. K. Fisher



A Welcoming Life: The M.F.K. Fisher Scrapbook compiled and annotated by Dominique Gioia. The picture is misleading because this is more a coffee table book.

Book Beginning: Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter

HAPPY BOXING DAY!

I hope that everyone who celebrated Christmas got wonderful books for presents!

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

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

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

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Barcelona at dawn. The hotels are dark.

-- from "Am Strande von Tanger," the first story in Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter. This won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1989.

Merry Christmas!

1 Day to Christmas!

Teaser Tuesday: The Spa Decameron

I read the advertisement while she mixed the bleach, and she gave me permission to go to Castle Spa and indulge myself.

Thus it was that Bev booked me in for the ten days of Yuletide.

-- The Spa Decameron by Fay Weldon

I love reading a book set at Christmastime at Christmastime and this is pure indulgence.  I don't know why I've never read a Fay Weldon book before, but I can tell already that I am going to be a big fan.

The set up is a modern take on the classic Decameron, with ten high-achieving London ladies luxuriating at a spa, entertaining each other with stories of their lives.

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

2 Days to Christmas!

3 Days to Christmas!

4 Days to Christmas!

5 Days to Christmas!

6 Days to Christmas!

Book Beginning: For Keeps

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

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

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

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

My mother's eyes follow the lines of my dress, and I can tell my body passes inspection this time, because my hair receives more attention this time.

-- from "Every Eyelash, Mole, and Freckle" by Carrie Kabak, the first essay in For Keeps: Women Tell the Truth About Their Bodies, Growing Older, and Acceptance, edited by Victoria Zackheim

This is the last book that I am reading for my personal 2014 TBR challenge. I love the exuberance of the cover!

7 Days to Christmas!

8 Days to Christmas!

Teaser Tuesday: Learning to Like Muktuk

Sometimes the children expressed a desire to taste food prepared for the staff and different from theirs. In the case of olives, they said, “Whitemen’s food doesn’t taste good.”

-- Learning to Like Muktuk: An Unlikely Explorer in Territorial Alaska by Penelope S. Easton, published by OSU Press.

Easton first went to Alaska after serving in WWII. She was working as a "dietary consultant" for the Alaskan Health Department and was fascinated by the foods of indigenous Alaskans, such as muktuk (strips of whale skin and blubber). She learned about Native Alaskan peoples and their food cultures, appreciating that public health personnel should know and honor the dietary traditions and adaptations of the region. Easton became an advocate for preserving native food customs.

Using her detailed field reports, photographs, letters, and personal memories, Learning to Like Muktuk provides a rare description of native Alaskan foodways from the period between the end of WWII and statehood.

I love these kind of "random memoirs" about ordinary people doing interesting things. Easton returned to Alaska for further reasearch from 1996 through 2005. She now lives in Durham, North Carolina, where she wrote this book, her first, at the age of ninety-one.

GIFT GUIDE: I'd recommend Learning to Like Muktuk for those interested in Alaskan history, indigenous food, and adventure travel with a vintage vibe.

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

9 Days to Christmas!

10 Days to Christmas!

11 Days to Christmas!

2015 CHALLENGE: 2X15 & Mt. TBR -- COMPLETED!

COMPLETED!

2X15: A PERSONAL TBR CHALLENGE

Like I did last year, I am combining the Mt. TBR Challenge with my own, idiosyncratic TBR challenge. I am going to read 30 books for this part of the challenge, one from each of the separate shelves on my TBR bookcases – 23 fiction books, and 7 non-fiction books. Instead of picking any book that looked good from each shelf, I picked the 15th book on each shelf.

This formulaic selection process yielded a random assortment of books. There are a couple of prize winners on the list, a few classics, some pop fiction, and a bunch of crazy stuff that tells me I either have diverse and wide-ranging taste or I need to clean out my TBR shelves! I like this goofy method of picking the books for my TBR challenge because it gets be reading the books that have sat on my shelves for too long.

These are the books in alphabetical order by author. I was planning on reading them in this order, but decided to mix them all up instead.

I also swapped a couple from the original list. Instead of Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which I found impossible, I read The View from Castle Rock and became a late but stalwart Alice Munro fan. Instead of The Mansion, which I didn't realize was the final book in Faulkner's Snopes Trilogy, I am going to read The Marriage Plot.

THE 2X15 LIST

Difficulties with Girls by Kingsley Amis FINISHED

Oscar Wilde: A Certain Genius by Barbara Belford FINISHED

A Bromfield Galaxy by Louis Bromfield (Early Autumn, The Green Bay Tree, A Good Woman) FINISHED

Getting It Right by William F. Buckley Jr. FINISHED

Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens FINISHED

I was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley FINISHED

Oh. Play that Thing by Roddy Doyle FINISHED

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides FINISHED

The Book of Jonah by Joshua Max Feldman FINISHED

The Whole World Over by Julia Glass FINISHED

The New York Stories by Elizabeth Hardwick FINISHED

Extra Virgin: A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera, Where Every Month is Enchanted by Annie Hawes FINISHED

Fling: Short Stories by John Hersey FINISHED

Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala FINISHED

Southern Ladies & Gentlemen by Florence King FINISHED

Nice Work by David Lodge FINISHED

Wickford Point by Marquand FINISHED

Peyton Place by Grace Metalious FINISHED

A Writer’s House in Wales by Jan Morris FINISHED

The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro FINISHED

Collected Stories by Dorothy Parker FINISHED

Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parker (Edgar winner) FINISHED

The Rise & Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman FINISHED

A Thousand Bells at Noon: A Roman Reveals the Secrets and Pleasures of His Native City by G. Franco Romagnoli FINISHED

The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth FINISHED

Duplicate Keys by Jane Smiley FINISHED

Felicia’s Journey by William Trevor FINISHED (Costa BOTY)

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall FINISHED

Things Invisible to See by Nancy Willard FINISHED (reviewed here)

On Writing Well by William Zinsser FINISHED

I hope to get through many more TBR books, but hit or miss, whatever catches my fancy. I’ll list those here as I go along.

OTHER MT. TBR BOOKS

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (chunkster)

For Keeps: Women Tell the Truth About Their Bodies, Growing Older, and Acceptance, edited by Victoria Zackheim (2014 TBR Challenge)

Portrait of a Woman in White by Susan Winkler (reviewed here)

The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov (chunkster; 2014 TBR Challenge)

Skios by Michael Frayn

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (chunkster)

Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi (chunkster; Erica Jong)

The Lyre of Orpheus by Robertson Davies

Night Fall by Nelson DeMille (chunkster)

The Untouchable by John Banville

How to be Good by Nick Hornby

Comeback by Dick Francis

The Treasure Principle: Discovering the Secret of Joyful Giving by Randy Alcorn

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

The Butcher's Boy by Thomas Perry (Edgar winner)

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie

Cat Chaser by Elmore Leonard

A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie

The Charm School by Nelson DeMille (chunkster)

Promised Land by Robert B. Parker

The Spire by William Golding

Big Money by P. G. Wodehouse

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates



UPDATED: December 26, 2015

12 Days to Christmas!

13 Days to Christmas!

Book Beginning: Learning to Like Muktuk by Penelope S. Easton

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

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

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

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Learning to Like Muktuk tells of my journey as a dietary consultant in the Territory of Alaska in the forgotten period between World War II and statehood in 1959.

-- From the author’s Preface to Learning to Like Muktuk: An Unlikely Explorer in Territorial Alaska by Penelope S. Easton

Trains and mail deliveries punctuate life in some places, but in Juneau, it was ships.

-- From Chapter 1, “Juneau, Home Base”

I love these kind of "random memoirs" about ordinary people who did really interesting things in their lives -- things I never think about people doing, in places I never think about.  Learning to Like Muktuk is particularly good because it is written in a very no-nonsense tone that packs in a lot of detail.

GIFT GUIDE: I'd recommend Learning to Like Muktuk for curious middle school or high school girls who want to travel and work with international charities or NGOs.