Teaser Tuesday Twofer: The Melon by Amy Goldman & Frank's Revenge by Don DuPay

I have two teasers this week because I have stacks of new books on my desk!

These types of plants may not be as easy to grow as tomatoes, but you don’t need a staff of gardeners and a greenhouse, either. If you are blessed with a long, warm, dry summer, and a garden with lots of room to sprawl, plants produce flavorful fruit in just a few months.

The Melon by Amy Goldman. Goodman is a gardener, writer, and heritage seed advocate, Her latest book is a voluptuous, picture-filled celebration of melons and watermelons, a revamp of her original melon book. It would make a great holiday gift for gardeners, heritage seed savers, and anyone who loves beautiful photography.

Our summers here in Portland are typically cool and damp, not warm and dry. We do not grow melons here (although Hermiston, Oregon in the eastern part of the state is known for a particularly sweet melon variety), but the gorgeous pictures in this book make me wish we did.

Bart turned and staggered out the back door leaving his empty Hennessey bottle on the poker table. Roosevelt tucked the .38 back in his belt, and the two men looked at each other, both taking deep breaths and looking out the window at Bart’s disappearing, bobbing head, bent forward and slumping down the darkened street.

Frank's Revenge: Albina After Dark by Don DuPay. This new crime novel set in 1970s Portland is as gritty as it gets. DuPay is a former homicide cop and his debut novel is great urban noir.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from the book they are reading or featuring. Please remember to include the name of the book and the author. You can share your teaser in a comment below, or with a comment or link at the Teaser Tuesday site, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Book Beginnings: The Preserve by Steve Anderson and Choosing Diversity Diversity by Lance Izumi

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS
THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please pardon my delay this week. I was arguing an appeal yesterday in the Oregon Court of Appeals, which is not my usual law work, and I forgot to post Book Beginnings. I only just realized this morning that I forgot to put my post up yesterday.

I have two book beginnings this week because I am still working my way through the stack of new books on my desk.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Wendell Lett had tried to catch up on his sleep but only ended up in another nightmare episode.

-- The Preserve by Steve Anderson. This fast-paced thriller is set in Hawaii just after WWII and is based on true events. Wendall Lett is a war hero and deserter trying to cure his combat trauma at The Preserve. But his sanctuary turns deadly when he discovers a secret plot that runs all the way to General Douglas MacArthur.

Allan Pickens's life was in a downward spiral. Not only had there been constant physical conflict in his school life, violence was claiming those he knew.

-- Choosing Diversity: How Charter Schools Promote Diverse Learning Models and Meet the Diverse Needs of Parents and Children by Lance Izumi. This book profiles 13 charter schools with different approaches, methods, and experiences available to families.

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading or featuring, 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.

SOCIAL MEDIA: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, 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. Please find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING




TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Preserve:

Two men approached, the athletic types with angular faces, their expressions relaxed. They wore Army coveralls like mechanics or tankers, but their khaki was spotless, with creases even.

From Choosing Diversity:

For the students at the online high school, there is a large common area where they can do their self-directed learning activities. There are always credentialed teachers in there, a couple of lab supervisors, and support staff if needed.

Teaser Tuesday Twofer: Generation Share and Listening at Lookout Creek

I have two teasers today because I have so many new books stacked up on my desk. Just like I've double dipped for Book Beginnings posts lately, here are two teasers:

"The Share Shed is trying to cut down on stuff that people buy by sharing and borrowing instead. I want people to think, 'Could I borrow that instead of buying it?'"

Generation Share: The Change Makers Building the Sharing Economy by Benita Matofska and Sophie Sheinwald, a new release from Policy Press. This new book features interviews and photos highlighting 200 case studies of the new worldwide sharing movement.

I admit I have mixed feelings about the quote above. I have warm fuzzy feelings about a sharing tool shed. Sharing sheds are popular in Portland, where I live. On the other hand, what if you owned the neighborhood hardware store or you were the tool manufacturer? Tony, who runs the Beaumont Hardware Store in my neighborhood, is a nice guy, trying to make a living. He'd like people to buy a  hammer.

I like a book that gets me thinking.

The bottom line is this: Different forests have different spirits about them. The spirit of the woods is a  spirit of a particular place located in a specific region's biota and culture.

-- Listening at Lookout Creek: Nature in Spiritual Practice by Gretel Van Wieren, a new memoir from OSU Press. Van Wieren went to the Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon’s western Cascade Mountains to reconnect with the natural world. It is a beautiful book.

And now I have to go look up "biota."

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from the book they are reading or featuring. Please remember to include the name of the book and the author. You can share your teaser in a comment below, or with a comment or link at the Teaser Tuesday site, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday: Mysteries and Memoirs

Three new books came my way last week:



Beyond a Reasonable Stout: A Sloan Krause Mystery by Ellie Alexander. This is the third mystery in Alexander's cozy Sloan Krause series set in Leavenworth, Washington, a charming Bavarian-like town in the northern Cascade mountains.

Brewer and amateur sleuth Sloan Kraus is back to run Nitro, her craft brewery, and solve the murder of a local politician. She gets some help from her business partner and love interest Garret Strong.



A Cup of Holiday Fear: A Bakeshop Mystery by Ellie Alexander. Yes, Alexander had two book come out almost in the same week! She's on a roll. This one is the latest, the tenth, in her popular Bakeshop Mystery series set in Ashland, Oregon.

There is nothing cozier than a culinary cozy, set at Christmastime, with a murder at a Dickens Feast at a historic inn in a Shakespeare-themed village. Treat yourself!



The Mountains of Paris: How Awe and Wonder Rewrote My Life by David Oates. This new memoir is out now from OSU Press and looks wonderful and uplifting. The back cover says:

In luminous prose, Oates invites readers to share a sense of awe -- whether awakened by a Vermeer painting or a wilderness sojourn, by the night sky, a loved one, or echoing strains of music -- lifting the curtain on a cosmos filled with a terrifying yet beautiful rightness.

What books came into your house last week?

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf.

Book Beginning Twofer: Frank's Revenge by Don DuPay & Celibate by Maria Giura

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS
THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

I have two again this week because my stack of new books is still teetering!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Anyone watching her would say she was showing a lot of cleavage.

-- Frank's Revenge: Albina After Dark by Don DuPay, author of Behind the Badge: A Portland Police Memoir. Frank's Revenge is a new mystery novel, a noir thriller set here in Portland. The author, Don DuPay, is a former homicide detective. I like the opening sentence!

DuPay's book caught my attention because it has a blurb on the front cover by my favorite former Oregonian newspaper columnist, Phil Stanford, who wrote a book I loved, Portland Confidential: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Rose City and, more recently, Rose City Vice: Portland in the 70's - Dirty Cops and Dirty Robbers.

I first noticed Father Infanzi in the way that matters during his second year at Saint Stephen's.

-- Celibate by Maria Giura. This new memoir is by a woman who fell in love with a Catholic priest and struggled with their relationship for 10 years before finding her true calling. From Apprentice House Press, a student-managed book publisher at Loyola University Maryland.

I just watched the second season of Fleabag, so I am definitely intrigued.

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.

SOCIAL MEDIA: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, 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. Please find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING





TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

Frank's Revenge:

Cunningham stood behind his desk, seething, his chest rising and falling with each angry inhalation of breath. He glanced at Lt, Hatch who said nothing, just sat and smiled, amused at the proceedings.

Celibate:

"We used to have a lot of Sisters in this house, every bedroom occupied, so we really needed the space. Now we're two Sisters and two novices."