Opening Sentence of the Day: The Evolution of Shadows

Lian hears the wind in the trees outside and the creak of the house as its timbers contract in the cool night. 

-- The Evolution of Shadows by Jason Quinn Malott.  This is a novel about the Bosnian war, so it is pretty intense.




A Few More Pages hosts Book Beginnings every Friday.  The event is open for the entire week.

Review: Sacred Hunger

Barry Unsworth won the 1992 Booker Prize for Sacred Hunger, his incredible novel about independence, madness, duty, dominance, justice, suicide, loyalty, greed, hope, commerce, power, family, culture, desire, violence, education, marriage, politics, philosophy, self-doubt, government, fatherhood, adventure, friendship, and pride.

And slavery. Specifically, British slave trade in the 1700s. William Kemp stakes his failing fortunes on a slave ship to ply the "Triangle Trade" of selling English manufactured goods to African slavers, slaves to Jamaican sugar plantations, and sugar to England. He installs his nephew, Matthew Paris, a heretical and bereaved scientist seeking to escape his tragic past, as the ship's physician.

When things go horribly wrong with Kemp's plan, his son Erasmus vows to restore the family fortunes and good name, culminating in his obsessive journey to the swamps of colonial Florida to find a rumored Utopian society of ex-slaves and sailors, governed, he fears, by his hated cousin.

Whew! There is a lot going on in the 600+ pages of this gorgeous and horrible and wonderful story. To say that Sacred Hunger is engrossing barely touches the surface. True, Unsworth's main characters live in their heads more than their hearts – little is shown about their emotions beyond anger or pride. Instead, Unsworth focuses on the doubts and hopes that drive William, Erasmus, and Matthew, explaining that "doubt is the ally of hope, not its enemy, and together they made all the blessing" these men had in their tragic lives.

Sacred Hunger is a book that will keep any reader thinking for a long time after the amazing plot concludes.

OTHER REVIEWS

Hotchpot Cafe

If you would like your review of this or any other Barry Unsworth book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

Sacred Hunger counts as one of my Booker Prize choices for the 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version and as my final book for the 2011 Chunkster Challenge.

2012 Challenges: Books Published in the First Years of My Life and the Birth Year Reading Challenge

INCOMPLETE

FINISHED

Emma at Words and Peace is hosting the Books Published in the First Years of My Life Challenge. I am signing up for the Toddler level to read three books published in the first three years of my life. 

Click on the button or the link above to go to the main challenge page for details and to sign up.

It overlaps with the Birth Year Reading Challenge on Hotchpot Cafe, but with more years.

MY BOOKS

The Comedians by Graham Green (reviewed here; for the Graham Greene Challenge);

May We Borrow Your Husband by Graham Greene (reviewed here; also for the graham Greene Challenge).



NOTE

Updated December 26, 2012. I fell one book short of the First Years Challenge and only got one candle for the Birth Year Challenge.  Not so great, although I really enjoyed both of the books I read.

Teaser Tuesday: Side Trips from Cowboy

When the strings start popping and the package we have wrapped in our denial and delusions starts to come undone and chaos begins to spread as it does on sinking ships and airplanes falling out of the sky, even the most atheistic person on board says, "Oh, God!" And so did I.

-- Side Trips from Cowboy: Addiction, Recovery and the Western American Myth, by Sandy Compton. This is a book of personal essays that follow the author on his adventures through the Mountain States and his own 12 steps. It's good.

Compton is the author of the novel, Archer MacClehan & the Hungry Now, sort of a contemporary Western adventure, and Jason's Passage: From the Blascomb Family Chronicles, a collection of three related short stories.

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 at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Alyce at At Home With Books is hosting in January.  Please stop by her wonderful blog!

I got a stack of books last week:

Wild in the City: Exploring the Intertwine: The Portland-Vancouver Region's Network of Parks, Trails, and Natural Areas by Michael C. Houck and M. J. Cody (a good inspiration to get out there and do some hiking; from OSU Press)



Light on the Devils: Coming of Age on the Klamath by Louise Wagenknecht (from OSU Press and a good pick for the Memorable Memoirs challenge)



Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield (thanks go to Amused By Books because I won this in her December giveaway)



I got a stack of books from Second Glance Books to fill in a couple Santa forgot to bring:

Death at the President's Lodging by Michael Innes (a new to me author; this is the first in his Inspector Appleby series and perfect for the Vintage Mystery challenge)



A Comedy of Terrors by Michael Innes (the 6th Appleby mystery)



Arthur & George by Julian Barnes



My Life As a Man by Philip Roth



She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith (in a nice, but very plain, boxed edition with illustrations; this will be my "classic play" choice for the Back to the Classics challenge; it is on the Easton Press Greatest 100 list)