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 meme (details here).

Jennifer at Mrs. Q: Book Addict is hosting in July.  Please stop by her fun and pretty blog to see what she has been reading.

I still have a GIVEAWAY going for a new memoir called Even If I Am by Chasity Glass.  Go here for details and to enter for a chance to win one of three copies. 

I got a big stack of books last week, thanks to a stop by Second Glance Books and a Thrift Books mini-spree.


The Girls of Slender Means,  Loitering with Intent, and The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark (the third one has the same cover, but I can't find a picture of it)



The Dangling Man by Saul Bellow



Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw



The Poetry of Robert Frost by Robert Frost



Wise Blood, The Violent Bear It Away, The Complete Stories by Flannery O' Connor (an omnibus edition)



The Silent Miaow: A Manual for Kittens, Strays, and Homeless Cats by Paul Gallico (I love the cover)



The Sandcastle and The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch



An Alphabet for Gourmets and Among Friends by M. F. K. Fisher



Mystical Paths by Susan Howatch

Book Beginnings & GIVAWAY: Even If I Am

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.

TWITTER: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the has tag #BookBeginnings. My Twitter handle is @GilionDumas.

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.

MY BOOK BEGINNING & GIVEAWAY

I have THREE copies of my BB book to GIVE AWAY, thanks to intrepid book publicist Mary Bisbee-Beek.  Sign here up to win an early copy. Details below.

People are really romantic about the beginning of things.

-- Even If I Am by Chasity Glass. Perfect opener for a Book Beginnings event!

This is an interesting book for me. I got a paper book because that is what I read. But the e-book version (on Apple's iPad and the Kindle Fire) is enhanced with pictures, audio interviews, music, and web links that, as the author explains, "permit a truer and more personal telling."

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: The true story of one woman's discovery of youthful innocence, blighted hope, and fleeting faith. Told through emails, blogs, and personal narratives, this honest and raw e-memoir will leave you desperately wanting more.

THE GIVEAWAY:

This is a "leap-frog" giveaway.  This means that I have THREE copies to giveaway to Rose City Reader readers, and each winner will get to host another giveaway for an additional copy.

Winners will have the choice of a paper ARC or the enhanced e-book version.

The contest is for readers in the USA and Canada and is open until Friday, August 3, 2012. There are five ways to enter and each one is worth a chance to win.  To enter, do any or all of the following, but you must leave a comment for each one:

1. Leave a comment on this post. You must include a way to contact you (email or website address in your comment or available in your profile). If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner. (1 entry)

2. Blog about this giveaway. Posting the giveaway on your sidebar is also acceptable. Leave a separate comment with a link to your post. (1 entry)

3. Subscribe to my rss feed, follow me on blogger, or subscribe via email (or tell me if you already are a subscriber or follower). Leave a separate comment for this. (1 entry)

4. Tweet this post on Twitter. Leave me a separate comment with your twitter user name. (1 entry)

5. Post this on facebook, pin it on Pinterest, Stumble it, digg it, technorati fave it, or otherwise put it out there in the social network. Leave a separate comment with a link or explaination. (1 entry)

There are a lot of ways to enter (maximum of five entries), but you must LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT for each one or they will not count. I will use random.org to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is open to entries from the U.S. and Canada only. The deadline for entry is 9:00 PM, Pacific Time, on Thursday, August 2, 2012. I will draw and post the winner's name in my Book Beginnings post for August 3, 2012.

Review: Paradise Postponed

When it comes to humorous literature, I see a continuum from books that are almost purely funny, with only a fragile plot for framework, to serious literature written by a witty author able to leaven a heavy story with a little comedy. I personally put P. G. Wodehouse at the one end and Jim Harrison at the other, with Christopher Buckley, Nick Hornby, Kingsley Amis, David Lodge, and Kate Atkinson in the middle, more or less in that order subject to aberration for particular books.

With that in mind, I can't say that I was disappointed with Paradise Postponed, the first book I've read by John Mortimer, an English author noted for his humorous books (including his popular Rumpole series), but I was thrown off. Without rational basis, I had it in my head that his books were going to be closer to the Wodehouse end of the scale and Paradise Postponed was much closer to the Harrison end – somewhere between Lodge and Atkinson. It took a while for me to enjoy the story while my expectations readjusted.

I ended up enjoying Paradise Postponed well enough, even if I didn't love it. It is my favorite kind of comic story about English village life with the requisite nutty vicar, illicit lovers, country doctor, and mix of difficult and lovable family members, all involved in a series of funny adventures. The story moves between the present in the 1980s back to post WWII days, as two middle-aged brothers try to figure out why their father, a communist clergyman, left his estate to a Conservative cabinet minister.

None of the characters were very likeable, and snarky jibes at Thatcherism have lost their bite after twenty-some years, but the story pulled me in and there were plenty of funny bits. I'm up for the sequel, Titmuss Regained, and will give barrister Rumpole a try.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

NOTES

This counted as one of my books for the TBR challenges I am doing this year.

Teaser Tuesday:

As far as I was concerned, this meeting was over. We'd covered the walk down memory lane, and I'd squashed the clumsy recruiting pitch, so unless Junior wanted to hear that his father had actually been a government stool pigeon, or wanted to hear about my feelings on the subject of his father pulling some strings to get my tax returns examined, or seducing my wife, then there was little else to talk about –- unless he wanted to talk about the night his father was murdered.

-- The Gate House by Nelson DeMille.

This is the sequel to his incredibly popular book, The Gold Coast. No need to go back and read or re-read the first one -- he gives a lot of reminders like the passage above.

It is still a lot of fun and very funny. 

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 meme (details here).

Jennifer at Mrs. Q: Book Addict is hosting in July.  Please stop by her fun and pretty blog to see what she has been reading.

I got two books last week.

Even If I Am by Chasity Glass.

This is an interesting book for me. I got a paper book because that is what I read. But the e-book version (on Apple's iPad and the Kindle Fire) is enhanced with pictures, audio interviews, music, and web links that, as the author explains, "permit a truer and more personal telling."

Please visit Rose City Reader this Friday, July 27, for the "launchette" of Even If I Am.  I will share the opening sentence(s) on my Book Beginnings on Fridays post and announce the details of a GIVEAWAY. Please check back for an opportunity to win your own copy of this amazing new memoir.

Winter Journal by Paul Auster. I have his New York Trilogy on my TBR shelf. This memoir keeps popping up on my radar, so I am going to try to read it while it is still au courant.