Book Beginning: Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

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.

EARLY BIRDS: I am experimenting with getting this post up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. We'll try it this way for a couple of months to see if people like the option of early posting. If you have feelings one way or the other, please comment.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

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 dying actress arrived in his village the only way one could come directly -- in a boat that motored into the cove, lurched past the rock jetty, and bumped against the end of the pier.

-- Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. Chapter 1 is headed April 1962, Porto Vergogna, Italy.

This is my Books Club selection for July and I can't wait to dive into it.

Review: Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane

Moonlight Mile picks up the story of Amanda McCready ten years after the end of Gone, Baby, Gone. Amanda is missing again and Patrick Kenzie gets roped in to find her, with help from his firecracker sidekick, Angie Gennaro.

Dennis Lehane knows how to pack in details, keep the action moving, and make the dialog snap. Between the Russian mob and assorted thugs and cons, there is no knowing who will shoot who next or where the story will land. It is exciting right up to the last page.


OTHER REVIEWS

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

NOTES

It is not necessary to read Gone, Baby, Gone before Moonlight Mile in order to understand the story. Moonlight Mile rehashes enough of the earlier story to give context. It also spoils the ending of Gone, Baby, Gone, so if you are inclined to read both, read them in order.

I won Moonlight Mile in a giveaway on Knitting and Sundries -- Thanks Julie!  I should have read it right away, but fell down in my blogger duties.  I finally read it now as one of my books for the TBR challenges I am doing this year:

• MT. TBR CHALLENGE (hosted by Bev on My Reader's Block) 
• OFF THE SHELF CHALLENGE (hosted by Bonnie on Bookish Ardour) 
• TBR PILE CHALLENGE (hosted by Adam on Roof Beam Reader)

Teaser Tuesday: Pet Goats & Pap Smears by Pamela Wible, MD

Fast forward sixty years and I realize I'm practicing medicine kind of like my dad -- minus the index cards [for medical records].

I'm a solo-solo doc -- that's solo with no staff.

 --  Pet Goats & Pap Smears: 101 Medical Adventures to Open Your Heart & Mind by Pamela Wible, MD.  Dr. Wible is a primary care doctor in Eugene, Oregon with an appealing way of practicing medicine that she is trying to encourage other doctors to follow.  Her new book "reveals the secrets to solving your waiting-room frustrations, slashing your medical bills, and securing first-rate health care now."

Dr. Wible is a champion of community healthcare, which she explains on her Ideal Medical Care website. You can learn more about her refreshing and sometimes funny approach to medicine on her personal blog, facebook, twitter, YouTube, and her Oregonian blog. 


She also has essays in two award-winning anthologies: Goddess Shift: Women Leading for a Change, along with Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, and Optimism: Cultivating the Magic Quality that Can Extend Your Lifespan, Boost Your Energy, and Make You Happy Now, along with Jimmy Carter and Steve Jobs.


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 this holiday weekend! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Tasha at Book Obsessed is hosting in July. Please stop by Tasha's busy blog, where she focuses on romance novels, with some mystery and suspense thrown in.

I got two books last week, one for book club and the other as a treat.



Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. I am looking forward to this one.



Plants and Their Application to Ornament: A Nineteenth-Century Design Primer by Eugène Grasset.  I've had my eye on this for a while and finally decided to spring for it.

Kitchen Remodel, Week Nineteen: Moving In!

The inside part of the kitchen remodel is almost finished.  Several details to go, like an Italian tile thing to hang behind the range, the pot rack above the island, and little punch list stuff.  But it is finished enough to move in.  Next week we can even start using it.

Of course, the cats wanted to help. Here is Ella Fitzgerald, posing as usual. She didn't like the plastic sandwich bags messing up the arrangement of canisters.  I agree.   

 

I still haven't read a food book in a long time. My plan had been to read either Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain or The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn for the Foodie Reading Challenge.

But my brain is a sieve so I forgot that plan and started reading Smiley's People by John le Carré, the third book in The Karla Trilogy that begins with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (reviewed) and The Honourable Schoolboy (reviewed).

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads