Rose City Reader

Thursday, August 17, 2023

The Messenger by Megan Davis -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me here on Rose City Reader for Book Beginnings on Fridays! Please share the opening sentence or two from the book you are reading right now. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you it is not your current read.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

A shout from the darkness up ahead.

-- from the Prologue, “Christmas Eve[,] Montparnasse Cemetery,” in The Messenger by Megan Davis, out this month from Pegasus Books.

“Are you going to answer me?” my parole officer asks, her head on one side, brow heavy.

-- from chapter One, "Aubervilliers."

The Messenger is the debut novel by Megan Davis, a lawyer and screenwriter who lives in London. Set in Paris, it is the story of a 16 year old boy wrongly imprisoned for his father's murder. When he gets out of prison, he undertakes to find the real murderer. I love the premise and the Paris setting! This has all the hallmarks of a terrific thriller.

It is also going on my French Connections list!

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

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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 The Messenger:

On the next page, there's a map of the world. Auspicious death of a journalist is depicted by a red bullet hole.

I just started but I know I am going to race through this one!

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

A simple plan for a robbery takes a sinister turn when Alex's father is found dead. Despite protesting their innocence, Alex and Sami are imprisoned for murder. Seven years later, Alex is released from prison with a single purpose: discover who really killed his father.

As he searches for answers, Alex is tormented by his sense of guilt for his father (and for Sami) and, as he begins to uncover the truth about his father's killer, other shocking revelations with far-reaching consequences come to light. Will Alex be able to survive his own personal demons and, after all this time, bring the murderer to justice?

Thursday, August 10, 2023

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Please join me here on Rose City Reader every Friday for Book Beginnings! 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.

SOCIAL MEDIA: If you are on Instagram, Twitter, 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. Find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

It is a little remarkable, that—though disinclined to talk overmuch of myself and my affairs at the fireside, and to my personal friends—an autobiographical impulse should twice in my life have taken possession of me, in addressing the public.

-- from the "Introductory" to The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I believe his "first" autobiographical impulse was his earlier book, Twice Told Tales.

A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments, and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes.

-- from Chapter 1, "The Prison-Door."

I just finished rereading The Scarlet Letter as part of a classics read along on Instagram. I read and loved it in high school, but that read was over 40 years ago. It was, eventually, as entertaining and melodramatic as I remembered from when I was a teen ager. And the vivid themes of love, passion, religious zealotry, redemption, parenting, and revenge struck me fresh. What an excellent book!

But I had forgotten that the fist 50 pages or so are Hawthorne's semi-autobiographical "Introductory" before he even starts the story of Hester Prynne and her scarlet letter. Yes, it frames the story, but most of it is just Hawthorne describing his work at the Customs House and some of the eccentric people he met there.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Scarlet Letter:

The bright morning sun, therefore, shone on broad shoulders and well-developed busts, and on round and ruddy cheeks, that had ripened in the far-off island, and had hardly yet grown paler or thinner in the atmosphere of New England. There was, moreover, a boldness and rotundity of speech among these matrons, as most of them seemed to be, that would startle us at the present day, whether in respect to its purport or its volume of tone.

It took me a while to get used to the old-fashioned writing. But once I did, The Scarlet Letter raced right along.

Thursday, August 3, 2023

He Laughed at Murder by Richard Keverne -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

I don't usually show my face on the blog, but I was having fun organizing my vintage Penguins and snapped this picture.

During the 2020 lockdown, I did a little retail therapy in lieu of a vacation and bought a job lot of over 400 vintage green tribands. Early Penguin books were published in "triband" editions, with a color stripe, white stripe, color stripe. Different colors were used for different sorts of books. The Penguin orange tribands were general fiction and literature, for example. Green tribands were mystery and crime.

Shortly after I got the set, I started a trial (by zoom because it was lockdown) that lasted for six weeks. I put the tribands in boxes to await new bookshelves. I got the bookshelves last year, but by that time had forgotten that I had not entered all the books into my master LibaryThing spreadsheet. I only recently remembered and started entering them. It takes a long time because the books don't have bar codes or ISBN numbers. Here's the stack I entered today.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Ahead of him the Great East Road stretched away into a misty distance, a broad, black ribbon shining in the winter sun.

-- from He Laughed at Murder by Richard Keverne.

I grabbed this one because it was o the top of the stack. Richard Keverne is unknown today -- there isn't even the shortest Wikipedia article about him -- and his books are out of print. But he must have been popular back in the 1930 - 1950 period when he wrote mysteries because my copies of his books are all reprints.

Most of the green tribands in my collection are by authors still read today, like Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh. I love those, of course, but I am also fascinated by the random books by authors who have disappeared from popular culture.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

THE FRIDAY 56

Men were absurdly stupid when women flattered them so brazenly. And Michael was more stupid than she had expected.

From these snippets, I am curious about this book. Would you read it?

Wednesday, August 2, 2023

Books I read in July -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

MONTHLY WRAP UP

July 2023

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

See any of your own favorites here?

PICTURED

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NOT PICTURED

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

What were your standout reads in July?

Thursday, July 27, 2023

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome to Book Beginnings on Fridays, where participants share the opening sentence (or so) of the books they are reading this week. Please share yours! You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it this week.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

“Is it a hanging?” an eager newspaper delivery boy asked to no one in particular.

-- from Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson.

I'm a huge Kate Atkinson fan. Shrines of Gaiety is her most recent book, a novel about nightclub life in 1920s London. I just started the audiobook today and am already completely sucked in. Atkinson really knows how to spin a yarn.

Shrines is the perfect follow up to Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies that I finished last week. Both are about post-WWI, 1920s, London party life. The characters in Shrines even talk about the "Bright Young Things" in the society pages, which is exactly the framing for Waugh's book.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

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 Shrines of Gaiety:

When younger, Frobisher had imagined many qualities in his future wife, but he had not anticipated hysterical amnesia. Lottie’s story was tragic and complicated — again, something he had not predicted in his future wife.

A police officer with a mentally ill French wife, a librarian willing to go undercover as a nightclub hostess, missing girls, damaged war veterans, a nightclub queen looking to hand over her empire to her six children -- I'm only a quarter of the way through the book and am entranced.

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Favorite Genres -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

Here's a question for you: What are your favorite literary genres?

I will read most genres (except horror and erotica), but I mostly read literary fiction and mysteries. Within those broad categories, here are my favorite sub-genres.

CAMPUS NOVELS: My favorite type of novel! I keep a list of Campus Novels here on Rose City Reader. I like them snarky and glib. My favorites are the three originals – The Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy, Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, and Eating People is Wrong by Malcolm Bradbury. I also love David Lodge, Julie Schumacher, and Robertson Davies. My unpopular take? I didn’t care for Stoner by John Williams, although recently reprinted and quite popular. Too much of a downer for me.

CLOSED ROOM MYSTERIES: Country house weekends, creepy institutions, ships, remote locations, whatever. I love a mystery with a confined location and limited set of characters. Some of my favorite authors are Agatha Christie, P.D. James, Ruth Ware, and Lucy Foley.

AGA SAGAS: Nothing appeals to me more than a story about messy village life getting sorted by a friendly and competent, usually female, protagonist. Maeve Binchy was the queen of these books. I also enjoy Joanna Trollope, Rosamunde Pilcher, and Anne Tyler.

ADVENTURES OF WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE: I love stories about women about my age coming into their own. As with my campus fiction, I prefer funny over maudlin. Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan is a perfect example. I also like books by Erica Jong, Penelope Lively, Barbara Pym, Faye Weldon (when she isn’t too mean), and even nonfiction like Frances Mayes and anything by or about Julia Child.

MIDDLE-AGED MEN BEHAVING BADLY: I made this oe up, just like Adventures of Women of a Certain Age. But I enjoy this kind of book as much as campus novels. There’s often overlap between the two. So many of my favorite authors write these stories. Jim Harrison, Philip Roth, Kinsgley Amis, John Updike, Malcolm Bradbury, Howard Jacobson, Richard Ford, David Lodge, and Michael Frayn are all high on my list.

How about you? What are your favorite literary genres?

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Three Fires, by Denise Mina -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

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.

SOCIAL MEDIA: If you are on Instagram, Twitter, 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. Find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

It's late afternoon as a Fra Girolamo Savonarola shuffles onto the raised stage at the front of the Hall of the Five Hundred.

-- from Three Fires, by Denise Mina, out August 1 from Pegasus Books. This is the story of Girolama Savonarola, a Dominican frier in 15th Century Florence. Savonarola rose as a puritanical leader of Florence after his preaching against the greed and vice of the ruling Medici family led to their loss of power.

Savonarola’s hellfire preaching inspired a series of fires around Florence lit to publicly burn books, fancy clothes, art, playing cards, musical instruments, and other symbols of immorality. These fires became known as the Bonfire of the Vanities.

I’m excited to get my hands on this advanced copy of Three Fires. I plan to enjoy it with a cool adult beverage out on my porch.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

MY FRIDAY 56

From Three Fires:

Savonarola appears at the palazzo door and the crowd outside cheer enthusiastically, touch his cassock as he comes past. They part to let him through.

Thursday, July 13, 2023

One More Seat at the Round Table by Susan Dormady Eisenberg -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Please join me every Friday for Book Beginnings! 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.

SOCIAL MEDIA: If you are on Instagram, Twitter, 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. Find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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 BEGINNINGS

MY BOOK BEGGINING

No doubt about it, success has been an answered prayer that's causing tears for my friends Alan Lerner and Fritz Loewe.

-- from the Prologue, "Brock Remsen's Journal[,] August 29, 1958," in One More Seat at the Round Table: A Novel of Broadway's Camelot by Susan Dormady Eisenberg.

I don't have psychic powers, but at various times in my life, I've felt a prickle along my neck when something big was about to happen.

-- from chapter 1, "Two Big Breaks[,] Jane."

I like everything about the opening of this new book. I like that the chapters have titles, we know already when the story is set and that there will be multiple points of view, and both of these sentences offer the little details that hint at the story to come.

And while it isn't immediately obvious to anyone not a big fan of classic Broadway shows, Alan Lerner and Fritz Loewe are the real life writers of the music for the real Camelot musical. I like that the first sentence refers to them, so we know the story is based on historical events.

One More Seat looks like a highly entertaining story offering a glimpse backstage at a major production. My only question is whether I read it right away or save it for once the weather turns chilly. It looks like it fits the bill for either a breezy summer read or a cozy fireside read. What do you think?

MY FRIDAY 56

Crossing Fifth Avenue, I glanced up the block, thronged with people toting shopping bags, and saw the stone façade of St Patrick's with its neo-Gothic steeples looming over midtown. The cathedral had opened in 1879, a fact I learned at age twelve when my Girl Scout trooped toured the city.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Set backstage during the out-of-town chaos of Lerner and Loewe's now-classic 1960 musical, One More Seat at the Round Table portrays the struggles of feisty drama school grad Jane Conroy, who lands a plum Gal Friday job, and Bryce Christmas, a gifted, if insecure, actor on the verge of his big break. When Jane and Bryce fall helplessly in love during Toronto tryouts, their relationship is tested by mistakes they make and endless work woes . . . .

As Lerner, composer Loewe, and their stars, Richard Burton and Julie Andrews, trudge on to Boston, doubts besiege Jane who hopes to buck convention and skip marriage and Bryce who wants a wife. . . .

Thursday, July 6, 2023

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

It was clearly going to be a bad crossing.

-- from Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh.

Now that I see this book starts on a ship crossing the ocean, I would have brought it on my first cruise vacation! I just got back yesterday from a Baltic cruise with my mom and sis. None of us have ever been on a cruise before. I brought plenty of books, but this one would have been on-theme.

I read Vile Bodies years ago as an audiobook. Obviously it didn't sink in because I forgot it starts on a ship. I'm rereading it now as part of an Instagram buddy read. I hope to get more out of it by reading it with my eyes this time.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

THE FRIDAY 56

Another fun Friday event is The Friday 56. Share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your book, or 56% of the way through your e-book or audiobook, on this weekly event hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Vile Bodies:

"How pretty Nina Blount is," said Lady Throbbing, busy from the front row with her lorgnette, "but don't you think, a little changed; almost as though . . ."

"You notice everything, darling."

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In the years following the First World War a new generation emerged, wistful and vulnerable beneath the glitter. The Bright Young Things of 1920s London, with their paradoxical mix of innocence and sophistication, exercised their inventive minds and vile bodies in every kind of capricious escapade. In these pages a vivid assortment of characters, among them the struggling writer Adam Fenwick-Symes and the glamorous, aristocratic Nina Blount, hunt fast and furiously for ever greater sensations and the hedonistic fulfillment of their desires. Evelyn Waugh's acidly funny satire reveals the darkness and vulnerability beneath the sparkling surface of the high life.

Saturday, July 1, 2023

Books I read in June -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

MONTHLY WRAP UP

June 2023

This might look like a pretty short stack of books for a whole month of reading. But wait! June was the month I went on a Baltic cruise with my mom and sis. After much handwringing, I ended up taking seven books with me on the trip, five of which I read in June (the other two in July, on the plane home). But those five books are not in this picture because I passed them on to my cruising companions.

Here’s a list of the 11 books I read in June, along with a few amazing marzipan bon bons I picked up in Kiel, Germany:

PICTURED

Lucia's Progress by E. F. Benson, the second book in Volume Two of the Mapp & Lucia series. I love all these books, with their mix of village charm and catty snark. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Trouble for Lucia, also by E. F. Benson, the last book in the series. I definitely see myself reading all these again some day. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier, which I read with a lively group of women friends on Instagram. Who doesn’t love a sexy pirate? 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Horse by Geraldine Brooks. This was a birthday gift from a friend because I usually don't have brand new hardbacks. I am so glad she gave it to me because it is such an excellent book! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

NOT PICTURED

The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain, which my mom, sister, and I all read and loved. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Definitely a highlight. I look forward to the rest of the books in the series. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Grave Gourmet by Alexander Campion. Good premise, but I found it oddly off kilter. 🌹🌹🌹

Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman. Laugh out loud funny. My favorite of the trip. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

A Simple Country Murder by Blythe Baker, a surprisingly good WWII cozy. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny. I’m making definite progress with this favorite series. I read this one with my ears because they are such wonderful audiobooks. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Assignment in Brittany by Helen MacInnes, a WWII spy novel published in 1942, which I also read as an audiobook. It has a doppelgänger theme similar to Daphne du Maurier’s 1957 novel, The Scapegoat, although the plots are completely different. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

NOTE

I got behind on posting monthly wrap up posts this year. I'm going back and filling in some missing posts.

Thursday, June 29, 2023

The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

What's the last book you got because you saw it on a blog or social media?

The taxi had dropped her on the corner of the boulevard. She was barely fifty metres from home.

-- from The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain.

I've been seeing this book everywhere on other blogs and bookstagram. So I was happy to find a copy at a friends of the library shop a few weeks back. I am going to take it on vacation with my mom and sister because I think it is one we will all enjoy.

Have you read it? What did you think?

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

The pot-au-feu was beginning to bubble. In a few minutes he would add the vegetables he had part-cooked the night before: carrots, potatoes, leeks, turnips, celery, and two marrow bones.

That makes me hungry!

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Bookseller Laurent Letellier comes across an abandoned handbag on a Parisian street, and feels impelled to return it to its owner. The bag contains no money, phone or contact information. But a small red notebook with handwritten thoughts and jottings reveals a person that Laurent would very much like to meet. Without even a name to go on, and only a few of her possessions to help him, how is he to find one woman in a city of millions?

Thursday, June 22, 2023

The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back by Shannon McKenna Schmidt -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Seated in the dark, freezing bomb bay of a heavily gunned U.S. Navy bomber, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt finally arrived on Guadalcanal in the South Pacific in 1943.

-- from The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back by Shannon McKenna Schmidt.

This new book about Eleanor Roosevelt's personal involvement WWII reads like the most entertaining historical fiction but is a nonfiction biography. Author Shannon McKenna Schmidt did her research. The book comes to life through the primary sources she dug up and weaves throughout the text. The First Lady of World War II is an engaging and inspiring book about a little-known piece of American history.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post below. If you share on social media, please sue the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

THE FRIDAY 56

“They have the most miserable Red Cross headquarters,” Eleanor informed agency head Norman Davis in a nine-page report she submitted to him after the trip. Badly needed was a building for sailors who went ashore and had no place to sleep for the night.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In August 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt journeyed to the Pacific Theater, where the United States was at war with Japan. A goodwill tour, diplomatic mission, and fact-finding foray, the 25,000-mile trip was further, longer, and more dangerous than any previously undertaken by the well-traveled First Lady.

The First Lady of World War II follows Eleanor on this daring trek, taken under arduous conditions in a theater of war that sprawled over vast ocean distances. The trip, which demonstrated how dramatically she had transformed the role of First Lady, still stands — in the words of a reporter at the time — as "the most remarkable journey any president’s wife has ever made."

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Blood from a Stone: A Memoir of How Wine Brought Me Back from the Dead by Adam S. McHugh -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me each week on Friday to share the opening sentence (or so) from the book you are reading. Feel free to share instead from a book that caught your fancy or you feel like highlighting. Please hop around and visit the other participants!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

This is the story of how wine brought me back from the dead.

— from Chapter One, "Wine Happens," in Blood from a Stone: A Memoir of How Wine Brought Me Back from the Dead by Adam McHugh.

Blood from a Stone is Adam McHugh's memoir of his journey from a career as a hospice chaplain and grief counselor to the discovery of a new life in wine among the grapevines of the Santa Ynez Valley of California. It came out last fall from InterVarsity Press.

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 hashtag #bookbeginnings.

THE FRIDAY 56

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the church became the steward of Europe's grapevines, and the monks were the ones who tended them. Vineyards and the wine squeezed out of their fruit were a major economic engine for monasteries, as well as what filled the sacramental cup.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

"This is the corkscrewing tale of how I got to Santa Ynez, eventually, and the questions that came up along the way," he continues. "You and I are going to take a long wine tour together on our way there, and we will make plenty of stops for a glass and some local wine history. As you will see, I reached into the old, old story of wine in order to find my new story, which begins, as so many wine love stories do, in the French countryside."

With warmth and wit, Adam tells the story of what happens when things fall apart and when where you live no longer feels like home. From the south of France to Champagne to the California central coast, the trail winds toward new life and healing through the good gifts of wine, friendship, and a sense of place. Pour a glass and join the adventure.

Thursday, June 8, 2023

Plumbs for Months by Zaji Cox -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me here on 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's some kind of wolf -hawk biped, brown-gray with an aggressive V of anger, or maybe strength, on its brow.

-- From the first chapter, One Toy, in Plums for Months: Memories of a Wonder-Filled, Neurodivergent Childhood by Zaji Cox (2023, Forest Avenue Press).

Zaji Cox's new memoir is a collection of impressionistic essays about her childhood, living in a 100-year-old house with her single mother and sister. It is intimate, beautiful, and moving.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

THE FRIDAY 56

TIE IN: TheFriday 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’sVoice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Plums for Months:

It's language arts that's the best part of middle school for me.

My nose is always in a book outside of school anyway — sometimes literally, because how could you not smell that wonderful new book smell? — and so reading and studying reading and writing about reading is heaven for me.

All booknerds can sympathize with this passage, I'm sure!

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

As a neurodivergent child in a hundred-year-old house, Zaji Cox collects grammar books, second-hand toys, and sightings of feral cats. She dances and cartwheels through self-discovery and doubt, guided by her big sister and their devoted single mother. Through short essays that evoke the abundant imagination of childhood, Plums for Months explores the challenges of growing up mixed race and low-income on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon.

Saturday, June 3, 2023

Books I read in May -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

MONTHLY WRAP UP

May 2023

The merry month of May was a mixed-up reading month for me. I wanted to tackle a couple of classics that have been languishing on my TBR shelves. But I also went to visit my mom and we took a little road trip when I was there, so I had a chance to gulp down a few fluffier holiday reads.

Three of the book I read were from my TBR 23 in '23 list. Three were mysteries from series I’m trying to finish before a start a new series. Three were from my Classics Club list because my goal is to finish my 50 books by the end of the year. Do you have a Classics Club list? Check out the Classics Club website for details.

Do you spot any favorites on this list?

PICTURED

The Birds by Daphne du Maurier. I'm in a buddy read group on Instagram doing a Du Maurier Deep Dive and this was our pick for May. Short stories aren’t my thing, but these were gripping! 🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud, winner of the 1959 National Book Award, a Classics Club pick. More short stories, but these were also very good. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

A Cordial Water by M. F. K. Fisher is another on my Classics Club list and a TBR 23 in ’23 book. Interesting, but not my favorite M. F. K. Fisher book. It was a study of historical healing remedies, not personal essays, and I found it pretty dry. 🌹🌹🌹

More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin. I read Home Cooking last month and this sequel was just as good. Both are definitely tops with me for food books. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry was pure fun. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Quo Vadis by Nobel Laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz, another from my Classics Club list. I've wanted to read this classic novel about the early Christian Church forever. Worth reading, but it had its repetitive and draggy spots. 🌹🌹🌹

Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, an excellent short novel I avoided because some of his earlier books were so creepy. This one isn't creepy, just interesting. Another TBR 23 in ’23 read. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. I can’t believe it took me so long to get around to this one, also on my TBR 23 in ’23 list. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

NOT PICTURED

Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin. His John Rebus series is one I’m trying to finish. I left the book with my mom. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Mapp & Lucia by E. F. Benson was my highlight of the month. This is the fourth book in the series and the first book in Volume Two of the omnibus collection. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Glass Houses by Louise Penny. Her Three Pines series is another I’m concentrating on. Some reviews complain she overreached on this one, but I was 100% in for the ride. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Deception on His Mind by Elizabeth George, the third series I’m trying to complete. This one stars Barbara Havers and Lynley isn’t in it at all, but I thought it was one of the best ones so far. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

What was your reading month like? What were your standout books?

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