Book Beginnings: We the Enemy

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, ETC:If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I also recently signed up for Google+ and have a button over there in the right-hand column to join my circles or whatever it is. I don't really understand yet how that one works.

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

The young woman laughed and swung the child back and forth.

-- We the Enemy by Ray Rhamey.  This is a sadly timely story because it was a school shooting several years ago in California that inspired Rhamey to write the book.  He wrote it to address the issue of gun violence.

I met Ray when we were on a panel together at the Wordstock book festival.  He is a writer and editor and has a very fun blog called Flogging the Quill, where he offers to critique the first page of someone's manuscript, with readers' comments and votes on whether they would read past the first page.

My Star Rating System

My book rating system is pretty little loosey goosey.  I don't include star ratings on my reviews, only on my annual list of books read that year.  This means that I sit down at the end of the year and decide how many stars to give each book, even books that I read months and months ago.  Under this system, a book may do better or worse, depending on how it has lingered in my mind since I read it.

This is a subjective rating system, based on my likes and dislikes, although my subjective judgment usually correlates to objective criteria. That is, if a book is poorly written, has clunky dialog, flat characters, or plot flaws, I am probably not going to like it and will give it a low rating. On the other hand, if a book is technically good and I enjoy it, I will give it a high rating.

These subjective and objective notions meet in a muddled middle in my 3/5 rating. I give a lot of books 3/5, either because I was entertained and glad to have read them, but did not think they were all that well-written, or because I thought the book was excellent from an objective standpoint, but I did not care for it personally (most Henry James novels come to mind). 

I also rate a lot of books 3.5/5, which means that I liked it and would recommend it to certain people who I think would enjoy it, usually because they like that genre or type of book, but I would not make a general recommendation.

Otherwise, half a point added means my judgment is on the borderline.

With those general ideas in mind:

• 5/5 means it is an all-time favorite, but I rarely give anything five stars; 

• 4/5 means I liked it and either would recommend it generally, or at least think it worthy of general recommendation, even if no one takes me up on it; 

• 3/5 means either that I enjoyed it for what it was or think it is a "good" book, but would probably not recommend it; 

• 2/5 means I did not like it; and 

• 1/5 means I really, really disliked it. 

No rating does not mean 0/5. It just means that I read the book too long ago to remember it enough to rate it, I am not qualified to rate it (poetry, for instance) or I simply forgot to rate it.

What Are They Reading? Cutting for Stone

Authors tend to be readers, so it is natural for them to create characters who like to read.  It is always interesting to me to read what books the characters are reading in the books I read. Even if I can't say that ten times fast.

Usually, the characters' choice of books reflects the author's tastes or, I sometimes think, what the author was reading at the time.  But sometimes the character's reading material is a clue to the character's personality, or is even a part of the story. 

This is an occasional blog event. If anyone wants to join in, feel free to leave a comment with a link to your related post. And feel free to use the button.  If this catches on, I can pick a day and make it a weekly event.

CUTTING FOR STONE BY ABRAHAM VERGHESE

My book club read Cutting for Stone a while back but I didn't get to it because I knew I was going to miss that meeting. Everyone loved it and now that I am reading it, I can understand why -- it is such an engrossing story about medicine and doctors and Africa and twins and religion and so much more.

There is a part where the narrator and his twin brother are still tiny, preemie babies and the brother suffers from "apnea of prematurity" that causes him to stop breathing when he sleeps.  The two doctors take turns watching him in the night so they can jiggle him when he stops breathing so that he starts again.

To stay  awake, the doctors read through a set of classic novels, starting with Middlemarch by George Eliot.  Reading the same book gives them something to talk about besides their work and the fate of the baby twins.  They always had a bantering, flirtatious relationship, so it is easy to guess where all that book talk led to . . .  

New Year's Teaser Tuesday: See's Old Time Candies

See's trademark buttercream tastes great for a very good reason. Sugar, cream, and other ingredients are caramelized at 248°F in Paul Bunyan-sized copper kettles over a gas flame.

--See's Famous Old Time Candies: A Sweet Story by Margaret Moos Pick.

Reading this book makes me want to postpone any New Year's resolutions that require me to stop eating candy. I think I'll celebrate every one of the 12 days of Christmas and only start my resolutions after January 5.

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

Happy New Year!