Mailbox Monday: London Calling

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 event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

Two books arrived in my mailbox last week and they are super cool. London cool.



The London Magazine: A Review of Literature and the Arts, October/November 2014 edition. OK, it says it is a magazine. But it is the size of a paperback book, it looks like a book, and it arrived in my mailbox, so I'm counting it.

I might have been an English Lit major, but I'd never heard of The London Magazine. And here it was "first published in 1732" -- it says right on the cover. I now know that TLM is:

The UK's oldest cultural journal featuring the best original poetry, short fiction, cultural reviews and literary essays since 1732.

The London Magazine has been responsible for publishing some of the most significant literature in British history. From Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats to T. S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, Dylan Thomas and Doris Lessing, today it remains at the forefront with the best contemporary writing. Its writers on art have included John Richardson, Alan Bowness, Edward Lucie-Smith and Mel Gooding and it has featured original work by Graham Sutherland, Prunella Clough, Maggie Hambling and Frank Auerbach.

This edition is filled with essays, poems, reviews, and pictures.  I'm going to start with a movie review of a documentary Robert De Niro recently made about his father, a New York artist who made a splash in the 1950s.

Learn more about The London Magazine, including how to subscribe, at the magazine's website, facebook page, and twitter.



Goodbye Crocodile: Short Stories by Conor Patrick.  The London Magazine published this collection of 12 short stories by an American author living in England.  The book is available in America in a Kindle edition or from the published in a paperback edition.

The back cover describes Conor Patrick's stories as "crisp" and "captivating" and the snippets I grabbed as I flipped through so far have definitely been that -- lots of objects and moving and talking. I like that.

Book Beginning: Fallon's Orphans by Bill Kroger

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

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 & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

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YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Fallon MacEwen opened his eyes and stared at the lace canopy over the four-poster bed, marveling at the intricate patterns. . . . The Muslim call to prayer had wakened him, blasting from a loudspeaker not fifty feet from his Istanbul hotel, and he could smell breakfast being prepared the next floor down.

Fallon's Orphans by Bill Kroger, also available in a Kindle edition. I like the beginning because it really sets the scene, with an attention-grabbing mix of antique, modern, religious, and secular. This is a new thriller set in Cairo, Istanbul, and other exotic locals as a band of "orphans" goes after a terrorist group targeting an opposing religious sect.

Teaser Tuesday: Your Life is a Book by Brenda Peterson and Sarah Jane Freymann

Although you are likely the main character in your memoir, populate it with other vulnerable and petty, sometimes wonderfully generous, and often annoyingly or endearingly quirky people (and other creatures). The reader will feel greater warmth and kinship toward you if you aren’t always the main player or the humor.

-- Your Life is a Book: How to Craft and Publish Your Memoir by Brenda Peterson and Sarah Jane Freymann, published by Sasquatch Books.

The authors of Your Life is a Book break down the memoir-writing process into particular and palatable chapters. Each chapter includes practical and creative advice, as well as exercises, writing prompts, and publishing tips. Even if you are not writing for publication, this book may inspire and guide you to write your own “legacy memoir” to hand down to your family.

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 event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

My Book Club seldom picks mysteries but this time around we are reading a vintage classic, so I got a copy:



The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (voted greatest mystery novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990)

I also managed to get to the Grant High School used book sale this year and got a nice stack of books, including:



Steaming to Bamboola: The World of a Tramp Freighter by Christopher Buckley (one of his earlier books and hard to find)



The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina (I've been collecting her books, but have not read any of them yet)



Famous Houses and Literary Shrines of London by Arthur St. John Adcock (catnip for book geeks like me)

Happy Halloween!