Book Beginning: Things Invisible to See

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.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

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

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

In Paradise, on the banks of the River of Time, the Lord of the Universe is playing ball with His archangels.

-- Things Invisible to See by Nancy Willard.

Magical realism and baseball are two things I steer clear of in novels, but I'm giving this one a go because it is on Erica Jong's list of Top 100 Novels by Women and was one of the books I randomly selected for my personal TBR challenge this year.

Teaser Tuesday: I was Told There'd be Cake

8. Names I am most often called by telemarketers: Simone, Slain, Siobhon, Flo, Stacey, Susan, Slater, Leanne, and Slow. (Yes, my parents named me "Slow.")

-- I Was Told There'd be Cake by Sloane Crosley, from an essay called "Bastard out of Westchester."

Crosley's essays about growing up in the suburbs of New York and her post-college single days in the city are charming enough on a chilly weekend.  Nothing is gut-busting funny; but nothing is in off-putting bad taste either.

My favorite essay is the one quoted above in which she muses on her name.  Having an unusual name myself -- Gilion Dumas -- I could relate to every one of the funny experiences on her list.  Telemarketers typically call me Jillian (I pronounce mine with a hard G), Julianne, Geeyon, or Garion. And, of course, we all know how they say my last name.

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

Book Beginning: American Dreamers

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.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

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

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Though it was over sixty years ago, I still remember every detail.  It was June 2, 1952, and I finally had a date with the girl of my dreams.

-- American Dreamers: How Two Oregon Farm Kids Transformed an Industry, a Community, and a University by Ken Austin with Kerry Tymchuk, published by OSU Press.

Ken Austin rose from humble roots in rural Oregon to build A-Dec, one of the largest dental equipment makers in the world. His wife and partner, Joan is the visionary behind The Allison -- a world-class destination spa in the heart of Oregon wine country.

Five Faves: Favorite Reads of 2014

Looking over the list of books I read last year, a main theme seems to be secondary works by favorite authors.  It was not a year for lights-out great reading for me.  I enjoyed spending time with some old friends, but nothing really knocked my socks off and I didn't fall in love with any new authors.

But there were several books that stuck with me.  These five were my solid favorites (in the order I read them):

• C. S. Lewis - A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet by Alister McGrath

• The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter

• Snobs by Julian Fellows (reviewed here)

• The Truth About Lorin Jones by Alison Lurie

• The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt

FIVE FAVES

There are times when a full-sized book list is just too much; when the Top 100, a Big Read, or all the Prize winners seem like too daunting an effort. That's when a short little list of books grouped by theme may be just the ticket.

Inspired by Nancy Pearl's "Companion Reads" chapter in Book Lust – themed clusters of books on subjects as diverse as Bigfoot and Vietnam – I decided to start occasionally posting lists of five books grouped by topic or theme. I call these posts my Five Faves.

Feel free to grab the button and play along. Use today's theme or come up with your own. If you post about it, please link back to here and leave the link to your post in a comment. If you want to participate but don't have a blog or don't feel like posting, please share your list in a comment.

Teaser Tuesday: Liberated by Steve Anderson

Our ride back was like some harebrained rum run. Colonel Spanner drove hard and fast, shouldering the steering wheel one way, then the other, a blur of trees and fields, and he whooped as we caught our breath for the next turn and I couldn't get a word in even if I dared try.

Liberated: A Novel of Germany, 1945 by Steve Anderson.  Liberated is the second book in Anderson's WWII "Kaspar Brothers" series, following, The Losing Role, which I reviewed here. Harry Kaspar, the hero in this book, is the older brother of the main character of the earlier book, Max Kaspar.

Steve has been busy lately.  In addition to Liberated, in 2014 he published another exiting novel set during WWII called Under False Flags.  He explains the real life war adventure that inspired Under False Flags in this essay, War as a Deadly Swindle.

And his translation of a German thriller, Mark of Cain by Marcus Hünnebeck, is available now in a Kindle edition, soon to be released in paperback.

Read my earlier interview of Steve Anderson, here.

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