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).

Yolanda at Notorious Spinks Talks is hosting in September.  One of my favorite things about participating in blog events is finding new-to-me blogs, like Yolanda's. Please pay her a visit!

My wonderful friend and renaissance woman Kirsten Rian gave me two books of poetry.  An accomplished poet herself -- along with being a writing professor, painter, and jazz singer -- Kirsten has been expanding my limited poetry horizons since we were roommates in college.



Journeyman's Wages by Clemens Starck.



Portland: Alive at the Center: Contemporary Poems from Portland, Oregon, published by Ooligan Press as part of the Pacific Poetry Project. Kirsten's poem "Night Landing" is included in this collection, which was edited by Susan Denning, Jesse Lichtenstein, and Leah Stenson.

Book Beginning: The Child in Time by Ian McEwan

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

Subsidizing public transport had long been associated in the minds of both government and the majority of its public with the denial of individual liberty. The various services collapsed twice a day at rush hour and was quicker, Stephen found, to walk from his flat to Whitehall and then to take a taxi.

-- The Child in Time by Ian McEwan. That is not the kind of beginning you would expect for a book about a couple whose life is shattered when their toddler is snatched from them.

The Child in Time won the 1987 Costa Book of the Year Award. The subject is horrifying, but McEwan is such a master storyteller that reading it is bearable. It is really a beautiful story.

Teaser Tuesday: The Edwin Drood Murders by Christopher Lord

"Welcome, Droodists," Bettina said from the dais. The 17th Triennial Conference of the United States Chapter (Western Sector) of the International Society of Droodists came to order.

-- The Edwin Drood Murders by Christopher Lord, to be released later this month.  

This is the second in Lord's series of mysteries set in the fictional Oregon town of Dickens Junction, featuring book store owner and amateur sleuth Simon Alastair.  Here, Alastair finds adventure while co-chairing of the regional Droodist convention celebrating Charles Dickens' unfinished last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

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).

Yolanda at Notorious Spinks Talks is hosting in September. Please pay her a visit!

I got two super cool books last week. Both would fall into the "novelty" category, but I don't mean that in a disparaging sense. They are just unique.

Both would make excellent gifts.



Nietzsche's Angel Food Cake: And Other "Recipes" for the Intellectually Famished by Rebecca Coffey.  This is an irreverent collection of literary riffs in the form of "recipes" inspired by authors and their works.  Full of puns and witty allusions, augmented by the author's line drawings and other illustrations, this would make a great gift for a bibliophile cook.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: For those who like cookery to insinuate the hard questions, it offers a funny, surprisingly informative, and entirely whirlwind tour of civilization. Not really a cookbook, it is for lovers of literature, history, art, music, and philosophy, for foodies, and for anyone with a good liberal arts education, no matter how vaguely they remember it.



The Wandering Goose: A Modern Fable of How Love Goes by Heather L. Earnhardt, illustrated by Frida Clements.  This is a beautiful little hardback from Sasquatch Books, with a tactile, letter-press type cover.  The illustrations are gorgeous and the fable is poignant and tender, reminding us that we are surrounded by enduring love, even in loss.

This is the perfect gift for anyone going through a breakup or other heartache.  It is wonderful.

Kitchen Remodel, Week Twenty-Eight: Bricks and Mortar

The bricks finally got here! So we now have the proper brick foundation in the new kitchen bump-out. I was a long time to wait for a small part of the project.

Now we can get the ugly blue tarp out of there and work on getting the new landscaping in. Then it will look as good on the outside as it does on the in.

Next up on the food book list is The Whole Fromage: Adventures in the Delectable World of French Cheese by Kathe Lison. I look forward to reading it this weekend, although it makes me hungry just looking at the cover!

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads