Opening Sentence of the Day: The Tricking of Freya

"You want a bit of Birdie?"

-- The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley

Odd first sentence. But it quickly becomes clear that the narrator is talking about her aunt, nicknamed "Birdie," and is about to tell a story about her.

In fact, the first couple of pages are odd, until you realize that the narrator is writing a letter to an unknown cousin, Birdie's child. Once things fall into place, the book takes off and is incredibly good.

I am reading this because I got it from LibraryThing and am diligently working through my Early Reviewer list so I can get back in LibraryThing's good graces. But it totally sucked me in. It is a complicated story, well told, and is all about Iceland and Icelandic immigrants -- a topic I know nothing about. It is really interesting and entertaining.

23 Days to Christmas

24 Days to Christmas

Time to start my blog advent calendar.

I love Christmas.

Teaser Tuesday: Good for the Jews

"'The anti-Semitism of the left. If you're going to see it anywhere, I guess it would be here in Madison.'"

-- Good for the Jews by Debra Spark

What I love about this book is that Spark doesn't shy away from showing the mixed-up muddle of people -- their thinking, their actions, their politics. Nothing is black and white.


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

Mailbox Monday

Between vacation, Thanksgiving, and putting up the Christmas tree this weekend, there wasn't any time for book shopping. But my Mailbox Monday list is not entirely blank, thanks to the communal stack of books at our rental cabin.  One of my favorite things about a vacation is finding books up for grabs, left behind by prior visitors. On this trip, I found one book left behind that I was excited about:

Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin



I'm looking forward to this one!

And in keeping with the community spirit, we left behind the book Hubby finished: In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic by Valerian Albano. For cabin visitors like my husband who really only enjoy a book if it involves sled dogs, glaciers, and cannibalism.