Rose City Reader

Thursday, October 24, 2024

The Resistance Man by Martin Walker -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Resistance Man by Martin Walker

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

It was shortly after dawn on a day in late spring that carried all the promise of summer to come.

-- from The Resistance Man by Martin Walker.

Martin Walker's "Bruno, Chief of Police" series is my current favorite mystery series. Bruno is the Chief of Police in the French village of St. Denis. He loves to cook, juggles a couple of women who are both reluctant to commit, enjoys his rural lifestyle, and solves crimes. The books are cozy, but not super cozy. I love them and am working my way steadily through the whole series. This one is book 6 of 18.

See the Publisher's Description below for more details.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Resistance Man:

“So that’s the second mystery, apart from the murder,” Bruno said over the smoked salmon. “What happened to the furniture?”

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

It's summer in St. Denis for chief of police Bruno Courrèges, and that means a new season of cases. This time there are three weighing on his mind. First, there’s the evidence that a veteran of the French Resistance is connected to a notorious train robbery; then, the burglary of a former British spymaster's estate; and, finally, the murder of an antiques dealer whose lover is conveniently on the lam.

As Bruno investigates, it becomes clear that they are connected--however, figuring out how will take every skill he possesses. Add in juggling the complex affections of two powerful women, maneuvering village politics, and managing his irrepressible puppy, Balzac, and Bruno has his hands full once again.

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Possible Reading Challenge -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

Possible Reading Challenge

How do you pick the books you are going to read?

I am not a “mood” reader. I don’t pick my next read on whim. If I did, I’d read mostly mysteries, with a few ex-pat memoirs and novels "by women, for women" thrown in. Classics, heavy fiction, history, chunky biographies, and short stories don't jump out at me. I love reading long books, serious books, genres outside my comfort zone, and even short stories when I read them. But I'm not typically in the mood to read them. I need some kind of structure to my reading plan to tackle those books. My two IRL book clubs, Instagram buddy reads, and blog challenges give me that kind of structure.

Today I had a crazy idea of organizing my reading based on the names of each month. (I didn’t say I need formality to find structure!) I occasionally see Instagram posts of stacks of books that spell the name of the month with the first letters of each title. Clever. Now I’m obsessed with the idea of reading a spelling stack of books each month for a year.

There are a total of 74 letters in the names of the twelve months. May is the shortest, with three letters. September and December are the longest, with nine letters each. A total of 74 books in a year is doable. I usually read close to twice that many, so I would have plenty of flexibility to work in other books.

I could come up with a whole new challenge based on this wild hare. It would need a clever name and I'm not good at that. I'd probably end up calling it the Spell the Month Challenge. Not very catchy. On the other hand, instead of a new challenge, I could use the idea as a theme for my TBR 25 in '25 Challenge and the Mt. TBR Challenge hosted each year by Bev at My Reader's Block. I signed up with Bev this year to read a total of 60 books off my TBR shelves. I could probably stretch it to 74.

Or the whole idea could fade away. But for now, here’s a stack of books spelling October. I picked mysteries because I’m already looking to game my own system and bring in the mystery books.

Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh
Come Away Death by Gladys Mitchell
Telling of Murder by Douglas Rutherford
On the Danger Line by Simenon
Bullets for the Bridegroom by David Dodge
Excellent Intentions by Richard Hull
Red Threads by Rex Stout

Happy reading, however you pick your next book!

Saturday, October 19, 2024

Spin Number 39 -- CLASSICS CLUB

CLASSICS CLUB SPIN

Spin Number 39

UPDATE: THE SPIN NUMBER IS 3, A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong

I started my first Classics Club list in January 2019, finished it by the end of 2023, and started my second Classics Club list in January this year. But in the six years I've been part of the Classics Club, I have missed every single CC Spin! Finally, I caught this one in time to participate.

The Classics Club is an online "Community of Classics Lovers" started in 2012 to “unite those of us who like to blog about classic literature, as well as to inspire people to make the classics an integral part of life.” To join, you create your own list of 50 "classics" (loosely defined) and read them in five years. Details are on the Classics Club website.

Every now and again, the Classics Club organizes a CC Spin. The idea is to pick books from your CC list and on a certain date, the organizers pick a random number and you read that books by a specific date.

You can find more details here, but these are the basics:

Pick twenty books from your Classics Club list that you still want to read.
Post that list, numbered 1-20, on your blog before Sunday, 20th October.
Classics Club will randomly pick a number and announce it on their website on October 20.
Read that book by the 18th of December and share your review (if you write one) on the Classics Club website.

My CC Spin #39 list:

The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens, Booker Prize
Beat Not the Bones by Charlotte Jay, Edgar Award
A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong, Edgar Award
The Secret City by Hugh Walpole, James Tait Black
Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien, James Tait Black
England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell, James Tait Black
Unconditional Surrender by Evelyn Waugh
The Devil's Advocate by Morris West, James Tait Black
The Ice Saints by Frank Tuohy, James Tait Black
Langrishe, Go Down by Aidan Higgins, James Tait Black
Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen, James Tait Black
The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch, James Tait Black
Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge, Pulitzer Prize
The Aerodrome by Rex Warner, Burgess Top 99
Indian Summer by William Dean Howells, Burgess Top 99
The Fox in the Attic by Richard Hughes, Burgess Top 99
The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, The College Board
The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling, Easton Press Greatest
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Easton Press Greatest
The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, Easton Press Greatest

Thursday, October 17, 2024

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

It lay down in a hollow, rich with fine old timber and luxuriant pastures; and you came upon it through an avenue of limes, bordered on either side by meadows, over the high hedges of which the cattle looked inquisitively at you as you passed, wondering, perhaps, what you wanted; for there was no thorough-fare, and unless you were going to the Court you had no business there at all.
-- from Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. I

I like that opening sentence because you know there is going to be some kind of English country house involved in the story. Just my cup of tea!

Lady Audley's Secret was published in 1862 and became a Victorian best seller. It is a scandal-filled thriller with plenty of action, featuring a scheming heroine, a murder mystery, and plenty of twists. I understand why it was so popular!

This was the second book I read for Victober, a celebration of Victorian literature that takes place every October on Instagram.

See the Publisher's Description below for more details.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

THE FRIDAY 56

Seated in the embrasure of this window, my lady was separated from Robert Audley by the whole length of the room, and the young man could only catch an occasional glimpse of her fair face, surrounded by its bright aureole of hazy, golden hair.

Robert Audley had been a week at the Court, but as yet neither he nor my lady had mentioned the name of George Talboys.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Lady Audley's Secret was one of the first and most successful sensation novels of the late 19th century. A young gentleman of leisure, Robert Audley, is spurred into action when his friend George Talboys goes missing from Audley Court. As an amateur detective, Robert travels the length and breadth of the country, only to discover that the answer to the mystery lies in the true identity of his uncle's wife, Lady Audley. True to its genre, the novel brings danger home to the private sphere of the country house and questions the unassailable boundaries of class..

Thursday, October 10, 2024

The Breaking Point and Other Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Breaking Point and Other Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier

The Fentons were taking their usual Sunday walk along the Embankment.

-- from "The Alibi," the first story in The Breaking Point and Other Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier.

I'm in a Du Maurier Deep Dive group on Instagram. We are working our way through all of Daphne du Maurier's books. We started with the novels, with a brief diversion to read The Birds, probably her best-known collection of short stories. Now we are reading the other short story collections. The Breaking Point is our current read.

In general, I prefer novels to short stories. But I am also a completist when it comes to favorite authors like du Maurier. So I often find myself in the position of having finished the novels and have only short stories left to reach my goal. I've enjoyed the two collections of du Maurier stories we've read so far, but they are a little uneven. That's the thing about short stories, isn't it?

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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THE FRIDAY 56

It must have been during the fifth week that Marta West had tentatively suggested, first to Nurse Ansel and then to her husband, that perhaps when she returned home the night nurse might go with them for the first week. It would chime with Nurse Ansel's own holiday.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In this collection of suspenseful tales in which fantasies, murderous dreams and half-forgotten worlds are exposed, Daphne du Maurier explores the boundaries of reality and imagination. Her characters are caught at those moments when the delicate link between reason and emotion has been stretched to the breaking point. Often chilling, sometimes poignant, these stories display the full range of Daphne du Maurier's considerable talent.

Thursday, October 3, 2024

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

The first ray of light which illumines the gloom, and converts into a dazzling brilliancy that obscurity in which the earlier history of the public career of the immortal Pickwick would appear to be involved, is derived from the perusal of the following entry in the Transactions of the Pickwick Club, which the editor of these papers feels the highest pleasure in laying before his readers, as a proof of the careful attention, indefatigable assiduity, and nice discrimination, with which his search among the multifarious documents confided to him has been conducted.

-- from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. That is the kind of long, shaggy opening sentence I love and anticipate from Charles Dickens.

It's October, which means it is time to read Victorian literature in celebration of Victober! Victober is the best thing I ever picked up from Instagram. Do you participate?

This year, The Pickwick Papers is my Victober choice. I'm a big fan of Dickens and, while there are a few of his books I've read multiple times, there are still a few I've never read. The Pickwick Papers is one of them. I don't know much about it, other than that it is one of his funnier books. I am only a few chapters in and I agree. So far, I love it.

The Pickwick Papers is a long book! You can see in the above picture that my edition fills three volumes. I decided to read it with my ears and the audiobook is 31 hours long!

Have you read it?

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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THE FRIDAY 56

Fastened up behind the barouche was a hamper of spacious dimensions--one of those hampers which always awakens in a contemplative mind associations connected with cold fowls, tongues, and bottles of wine--and on the box sat a fat and red-faced boy, in a state of somnolency, whom no speculative observer could have regarded for an instant without setting down as the official dispenser of the contents of the before-mentioned hamper, when the proper time for their consumption should arrive.

Mr. Pickwick had bestowed a hasty glance on these interesting objects, when he was again greeted by his faithful disciple.

Here, members of the Pickwick Club are embarking on a journey. I love the description of their picnic basket. It reminds me of scenes in The Wind in the Willows.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Journey through the English countryside with the inimitable Mr. Samuel Pickwick in Charles Dickens' first novel, a delightful tapestry of episodic misadventures, colorful characters, and sparkling wit. As founder of the Pickwick Club, Mr. Pickwick, accompanied by his loyal friends, embarks on a series of whimsical excursions. From the bustling streets of London to quiet country inns, their travels are punctuated by chance encounters, misunderstandings, and comic predicaments, all narrated with Dickens' signature blend of satire, humor, and keen observation of human nature.

Friday, September 27, 2024

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

Sorry I forgot to post last evening, or even this morning. The week got away from me!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Helen Cartwright was old with her life broken in ways she could not have foreseen.

-- from Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy.

Have you encountered this book yet? If not, you will. It has all the makings of a of a super popular hit book -- an an introverted, unhappy main character, living alone, who learns to embrace life once more. In this case, the protagonist is an 83-year-old lady just waiting to die, who finds redemption through her unlikely friendship with a little mouse.

It's got all the warm and fuzzies of books like A Man Called Ove and Elinore Oliphant is Completely Fine. If you liked those -- and I loved them -- you will love Sipsworth. I certainly did! I read it in two days. I plan to give it to my 85-year-old mother for Christmas.

Sipsworth is my book club's pick for next month. I know it will be popular.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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THE FRIDAY 56

This isn't a loud noise, but a persistent one.

Something is happening downstairs in her house on Westminster Crescent that hasn't happened before.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Following the loss of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss. She retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit: “Each day was an impersonation of the one before with only a slight shuffle—as though even for death there is a queue.”

Then, one cold winter night, a chance encounter with a mouse sets Helen on a surprising journey. Over the course of two weeks in a small English town, this reclusive widow discovers an unexpected reason to live.

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware

Do you ever read some random book and end up mesmerized by it? I found a vintage hardback hiding on my shelf and decided to give it a read. It was excellent! Come Fill the Cup is a 1952 novel by journalist-turned-fiction-writer Harlan Ware about journalism and alcoholism, with a little romance and gangsters thrown in.

The story follows Lew Marsh, a hard-bitten newspaperman and recovering alcoholic, on a side assignment from his publisher to dry out the drunken son of the publisher’s best friend. Boyd Copeland is a charming playboy with mommy issues that drive him to drink. Two women complicate the matter. One is Boyd’s wife Paula, who was a cub reporter working for Lew before she married Boyd. Lew is in love with Paula and wants her to divorce Boyd and marry him. The other is Maria de Diego, a lounge singer Boyd ran around with when he was on a bender. Maria is the girlfriend of gangland boss Lenni Garr. When Garr and his thugs go after Boyd, Lew has more trouble on his hands than trying to keep Boyd sober.

It’s a rollicking, hard-boiled tale, well told. A crowd of big characters jostle each other for attention. Chicago, with its energy, wind, tall buildings, sweltering summer, and snow-covered winter is a character in itself. For all its richness, the story simmers along slowly before coming to a rolling boil with an exciting ending.

Two things fascinated me about the book. The first was how Ware made the newsroom come alive. I worked for a newspaper for a year before law school, back when “copy aids” like me were employed to move paper copies of draft stories from reporters to editors to photographers to lay-out people. My first husband was a reporter, then editor at the same paper. I’ve never worked anywhere with such a bustling environment and tight-knit group of colleagues. Those newspaper folks spent all day together, then hung out in the evenings, ate at each other’s houses, partied, and even vacationed together – talking about news, politics, and current events all the while. Ware captured that energy and feeling of intense interaction.

The second thing was how Ware wrote about alcoholism. Boyd is an affable, but fundamentally destructive alcoholic, heading to divorce and an early death. Lew has been off the bottle for seven years and helped many of his fellow recovered drinkers by hiring them at the newspaper. But Lew is never free from the desire to drink. Every day, he fights the battle with the bottle. He’s antsy and has a very short fuse. Having worked with a dry drunk for many years, I thought it was a spot-on portrait of an ex-drinker. My former law partner, the recovering alcoholic, always told me, “You can take the alcohol out of the fruitcake, but you still have a fruitcake.” Reading this book helped me understand my law partner better than I ever did, even after working with him for seven years.

I know I bought this one for its campy, vintage cover. What a delight that it ended up being a terrific yarn.

NOTES

Come Fill the Cup was the basis for a movie starring James Cagney as Lew and Gig Young as Boyd. Young was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role. Confusingly, the movie came out in 1951, and the book the following year. I can’t find an explanation for the timing.

I was also charmed by the memories this book brought back. There is a price sticker on the back of my copy reminding me that I bought it off the $1 shelves at Powell’s City of Books here in Portland. Prior to the most recent glamorizing remodel, Powell’s had a run of shelves under the windows in the main fiction room stuffed with a haphazard collection of books for $1 each. I used to walk over there on my lunch hour to hunt for treasures.

This was one of the books I picked for the TBR 24 in '24 challenge, which I personally use to help me clear book off my shelf that have lingered the longest.

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud

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

-- from Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud.

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

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

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

THE FRIDAY 56

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

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

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

Thursday, September 12, 2024

The Half Life of Guilt by Lynn Stegner -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Half Life of Guilt by Lynn Stegner

From above, the airstrip is a dark scar on the land, an unnatural feature in the sprawling Vizcaino Desert with its soft shadings of buff and dun.

-- from The Half Life of Guilt by Lynn Stegner.

Stegner's new novel involves a married couple on an environmental mission in Mexico who are also wrestling with rough experiences in their pasts. It launched last week and looks terrific.

See the Publisher's Description below for more details. If you like a tear jerker, this one is for you!

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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THE FRIDAY 56

He embraced his wife and tended his vineyards and tasted without tasting the wine; he read to the Twins stories, he fed them food, he took their hands when a father's hand was asked But these acts found no purchase in his heart, for nothing new could take root there, no living experience could grow in the hard pan of loss.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Stegner tells the story of Clair Bugato and Mason Comstock. Together they journey to the world's largest saltworks in Baja California, where a proposed expansion threatens the California gray whale population, recently come back from the brink of extinction.

In the midst of a conservation battle, they meet a mysterious son of Mexico, Rubio Cantú, who leads them to the powers that be. Their two-week journey sends Clair deep into the past, where she reviews the divergent paths she and her near-identical twin sister have taken away from a childhood tragedy. At the same time, Mason confronts his own unhappy past in Cornwall, England, with a father whose hate was stronger than his love.

No other work of fiction patterns the warp and weft of human guilt, the homesickness only love can cure, environmental crises, the intrinsic conflict between international commerce and planetary health, and the necessity of forgiveness. The Half-Life of Guilt is woven from these themes, delivering to the reader an engrossing and transformative literary experience.

Thursday, September 5, 2024

Object: A Memoir by Kristin Louise Duncombe -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Object: A Memoir of Childhood Abuse and a Shocking Cover-Up at the Highest Ranks of Government by Kristin Louise Duncombe

You are twelve years old; it is dusk on a weekday evening, and your parents are drinking gin and tonics in the living room.

-- from Object: A Memoir of Childhood Abuse and a Shocking Cover-Up at the Highest Ranks of Government by Kristin Louise Duncombe.

I like those kinds of openings that put you immediately into the scene. And don't worry, if you are like me an are not a fan of second-person narration, Duncome drops it after the short Prologue and switches to first-person narration for the rest of the book.

Object is the difficult story of Duncome's sexual abuse as a preteen, the coverup that protected the perpetrator, and how she dealt with the trauma as she grew older. It's powerful stuff!

I loved Duncome's two earlier memoir about moving to Africa and then France, Trailing and Five Flights Up. She is an excellent storyteller, even when sharing the most personal details.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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THE FRIDAY 56

Over time, I became terrified people could tell, just by looking at me, that I was hiding something. I became animated, funny, big, to distract them from the truth about me.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Object is a coming-of-age story twice told: once when a little girl grows up too fast, and a second time, in middle age, when the woman she has become finally heals. This important book is a fierce indictment of the silencing of girls and women in the United States and abroad.

Thursday, August 29, 2024

James by Percival Everett -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

James by Percival Everett

-- from James by Percival Everett.

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

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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THE FRIDAY 56

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

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

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

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

Thursday, August 22, 2024

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter.

--from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

My book club is reading James by Percival Everett for our next get together. James is a "reimagining" of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim the runaway slave, Huck's companion in adventure. I wanted to reread the original before I read the new novel.

I decided to read Huck Finn with my ears this time. The story depends so much on the dialects used that I want to hear them instead of imagine them in my head. I am about six chapters in and know this was a good decision. I have loved the book since I first read it in high school. The narrator of the audiobook, Patrick Fraley, really brings the story to life.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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THE FRIDAY 56

When breakfast was ready we lolled on the grass and eat it smoking hot. Jim laid it in with all his might, for he was most about starved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In recent years, neither the persistent effort to "clean up" the racial epithets in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn nor its consistent use in the classroom have diminished, highlighting the novel's wide-ranging influence and its continued importance in American society. An incomparable adventure story, it is a vignette of a turbulent, yet hopeful epoch in American history, defining the experience of a nation in voices often satirical, but always authentic.

Thursday, August 15, 2024

The Cheesemaker's Daughter by Kristin Vukovic -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Cheesemaker's Daughter by Kristin Vukovic

Marina gripped the rental car's wheel just as the heavens opened.

-- from The Cheesemaker's Daughter by Kristin Vukovic.

This debut novel just came out. It is the story of a woman in a shaky marriage who travels to Croatia to help her father with his cheesemaking business. It sounds charming! And it will count for a Croatia book for the European Reading Challenge. I've never read a book set in Croatia.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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THE FRIDAY 56

-- from The Cheesemaker's Daughter:

Luka picked up the heavy box with ease. She couldn't help but notice his fine build, how his biceps flexed under his black T shirt.

Oh, looks like there's more to the story than cheesemaking! Romance and travel -- a perfect book for the summer.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In the throes of an unraveling marriage, New Yorker Marina Marzic returns to her native Croatian island where she helps her father with his struggling cheese factory, Sirana. Forced to confront her divided Croatian-American identity and her past as a refugee from the former Yugoslavia, Marina moves in with her parents on Pag and starts a new life working at Sirana. As she gradually settles back into a place that was once home, her life becomes inextricably intertwined with their island's cheese. When her past with the son of a rival cheesemaker stokes further unrest on their divided island, she must find a way to save Sirana--and in the process, learn to belong on her own terms.

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Home Library -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

Home Library

The story of a library . . .

Back in 2009 when my husband and I bought a then almost-100-year-old house, I really wanted a home library. We could live with a dark, rabbit warren of a kitchen and a couple of outdated bathrooms, even with Burnt Sienna tile counters. Converting a bedroom into a home library was my priority. Well, along with getting rid of the asbestos pipe insulation in the basement. Before we moved in, we spent eight months on crucial renovations. And yes, the library was one of them.

We converted one of the bedrooms on the second floor by removing a closet and installing built-in book shelves on three walls. The fourth wall had an existing bay window that definitely had to stay. It was quite a project, made more difficult (no doubt) by my insistence on fixed shelving. Fortunately, we had an incredible architect/builder who designed the library and had a finish carpenter build the shelves. Each section of the shelves was built off site, installed as a piece, and then trimmed out with crown moulding, etc., when they were built into the walls.

The big problem was that the section pieces wouldn’t fit up the staircase. All ten of them had to be hauled up through the window on a complicated, counter-balanced, sled-like contraption built for the purpose. It was quite a project.

After all that effort, we hit an impasse. I really wanted to hang art from the shelves, in front of the books. I love that look. My husband was adamant that I should never hammer any nails into the shelves. That made sense, given what it took to get the shelves in there.

But since then, I’ve always had in the back of my mind the idea of hanging a picture or two on those shelves. The other day, I found a framed picture at one of my haunts. It was pretty, went with the room, and was lightweight enough for what I had in mind. Yes! It worked! I hung the picture from the wire on its back over a very heavy, well-balanced, bronze knickknack sturdy enough to hold the picture. No nails! And I can move it easily when I need to reach the books.

I have loved and used the library for 15 years. It is my favorite room in the house. Now I finally finished decorating the shelves the way I envisioned so long ago. The new picture is the cherry on top. It might seem like nothing to you or anyone else who sees it, but it makes me happy every time I go in there.

Thursday, August 8, 2024

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with two fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three-cornered hat and wig, at the rate of four miles an hour.

-- Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray.

I am finally, really reading Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair is one of those books I always think I’ve read but I haven’t. I’ve seen adaptations and started reading it a few times, but I’ve never actually read it. It's on my Classics Club II list of 50 classics to read in five years.

This time, I’m going read it with my ears, even though I have this pretty Modern Library edition. I like to read big classic doorstops as audiobooks. A good narrator parses those long sentences for me, so I can appreciate the writing without tripping over all the commas, and makes the story come alive with the different voices and all. I just sit back and enjoy the story.

I’m almost three quarters of the way through and love it. I need the paper copy (and the wikipedia article) with me for when I get tangled up in the dozens of characters. But it’s such a treasure!

Have you read Vanity Fair?

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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THE FRIDAY 56

-- from Vanity Fair:

Old Miss Crawley was certainly one of the reprobate. She had a snug little house in Park Lane, and, as she ate and drank a great deal too much during the season in London, she went to Harrowgate or Cheltenham for the summer.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder. Her sentimental companion Amelia, however, longs only for caddish soldier George. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry glamour of Regency society, battles--military and domestic--are fought, fortunes made and lost. The one steadfast and honourable figure in this corrupt world is Dobbin with his devotion to Amelia, bringing pathos and depth to Thackeray's gloriously satirical epic of love and social adventure.

Wednesday, August 7, 2024

July 2024 -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

MONTHLY WRAP UP

July 2024

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

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

See anything here you’ve read or want to?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NOT PICTURED

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

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

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

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

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

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

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