Empires by John Balaban and Creole Son by E. Kay Trimberger: Book Beginnings

It's Friday, time for Book Beginnings! Time to share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are featuring this week. What are you reading? What are you planning to read this weekend? What books are sitting on your desk that you have aspirations to read? Hmmmmm . . . . That hits close to home!

Please share your posts with a link below. Or play along on social media and leave a comment with your opening lines or a way to find you.

If you post or share on social media, please use the #BookBeginnings hashtag so we can enjoy each other's company.

Yes, I have several books stacked on my desk that look great and I'd like to spend some time with them. I hope this weekend will give me a chance. Here are two of them:

MY BOOK BEGINNINGS

After most of the bodies were hauled away
and while the FBI and Fire Department and NYPD
were still haggling about who was in charge, as smoke cleared,
the figures in Tyvek suits came, gloved, gowned, masked,
ghostly figures searching rubble for pieces of people,
bagging, then sending the separate and comingled remains
to the temporary morgue set up on site.

-- from "A Finger," the first poem in  Empires by John Balaban (Copper Canyon Press).

This eighth book of poetry from Balaban looks at key moments in history when culture shifts and imperial eras come to an end. Viking traders, Washington crossing the Delaware, a Romanian Jew waiting for the Nazis, and 9/11, all inspire Balaban's verse.

Mine is not the story of how an adopted son finds his birth parents and turns his life around.

-- Creole Son: An Adoptive Mother Untangles Nature and Nurture by E. Kay Trimberger (LSU Press). In 1981, Kay Trimberger became the single white mother of an adopted biracial son she raised in Berkeley, California. After watching him grow into a troubled youth struggling with addiction, Trimberger helped Marc reconnect with his biological Cajun and Creole biological relatives.

Trimberger's new memoir explores how biological heritage and the environment adopted children are raised in interact to shape adult outcomes. She hopes her book will provide support to all parents with troubled offspring. She also suggests a new model for adoption that creates an extended, integrated family of both biological and adoptive relatives.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda's Voice hosts The Friday 56, which is a natural tie in with this event. 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 TEASERS

FROM "BACK THEN" IN EMPIRES

One evening he spotted a mule dear
ambling up a hillside path
and he followed it to higher ground
as a huge moon rose off the ridge
and he caught the scent of pine needles.
So he kept on until dark, reaching a ledge
overlooking Phantom Lake and the ghost town.

FROM CREOLE SON

Our success at building a community sustained the household during these childless years. Our home hosted political meetings, study groups, consciousness-raising sessions, and book talks on feminist and progressive issues.

Books in the Attic: Mailbox Monday

I discovered a forgotten box of books in the attic!

Maybe this isn't exactly an adventure. It's not like I found a matching set of first edition Jane Austen or anything. And it's not like my attic is the romantic, trunk-filled garret of children's books.

My attic is really the top floor of my house, where my home office is. But confessing that I found a box of books I bought at the Friends of the Library store last December and then forgot about in holiday hubbub doesn't sound very exciting. It sounds like real life - messy and disorganized.

These are my "new to me all over again" books in the attic:

French Lessons by Ellen Sussman. The novel takes place in one day, as three Americans spend the day in Paris with their French tutors. Sounds like an interesting premise.

Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn. A novel that imagines what would happen if the Queen went on a little trip by herself.

A Pig in Provence by Georgeanne Brennan. An ex-pat memoir by a woman who moved to the south of France in the late 1970s with her husband and young child.

The White Russian by Tom Bradby. A murder mystery set in St. Petersburg in 1917, the last days of the tsars.

Radiant Angel by Nelson DeMille, the 7th book in the John Corey series, although I can't keep them straight.

The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett. Historical fiction about an antiquarian bookseller searching for the true identity of Shakespeare.

What looks good? What books did you get, or find, last week?

There were other books in the box. But they aren't for me. I bought them for my mom and my sister, intending to give them to them for Christmas, I'm sure. My sister's birthday is this week, so now she will get them for her birthday instead. We are planning to see each other for a six feet a-PARTY, since Portland is still shut down for coronavirus.

Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf host 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.

Best 99 Novels in English Since 1939 (to 1984), According to Anthony Burgess -- BOOK LIST

Anthony Burgess made a list of the Best 99 Novels in English. At least, they were the Best 99 Novels in English between 1939 and 1984, according to him.

Burgess was entitled to offer an opinion with some authority. Burgess was a British author who wrote 33 novels as well as poetry, biography, criticism, and other works. He was also a journalist, linguist, and music composer. He died in 1993. He is best known for his dystopian satire, A Clockwork Orange, an excellent book I put off reading for too long because the movie was so disturbing.

In 1984, Burgess published a book he called 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 (reviewed here). The time span of 1939 to 1984 is described as "a period that encompasses the start of a world war and ends with the nonfulfillment of Orwell's nightmare."

His book included mini-reviews of the 99 novels (some are sets or series), which he chose on the basis of personal preference. Burgess described his process and his choices like this:

In my time, I have read a lot of novels in the way of duty; I have read a great number for pleasure as well. The 99 novels I have chosen, I have chosen with some, though not with total, confidence. I have concentrated on works which have brought something new – in technique or view of the world – to the form.

If there is a great deal of known excellence not represented here, that is because 99 is a comparatively low number. The reader can decide on his own hundredth. He may even choose one of my own novels.

The Anthony Burgess list of 99 Best Novels and Erica Jong's list of Top 20th Century Novels by Women are my go to lists when I'm looking for something good to read. There is some crossover with other Must Read lists, but a lot of originality. There are many authors I tried and books I read only because they were on the Anthony Burgess list and they are now all-time favorites.

Also, I would include Burgess's Earthly Powers book as the 100th. I think it deserves a spot on a top 100 midcentury novel list.

Here is the list, in the same chronological order by publication date that Burgess lists them in his book, with notes if I've read the book, it is on my TBR shelf, or if it is available in an audiobook from my library. So far, I've read 58 of the books on this list. There are a few I will most likely never read.

Party Going, Henry Green FINISHED

After Many a Summer Dies the Swan, Aldous Huxley FINISHED

Finnegans Wake, James Joyce (discussed here) FINISHED

At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brien TBR SHELF

The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene FINISHED

For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway FINISHED

Strangers and Brothers, C. P. Snow (an 11-novel series George Passant, reviewed here FINISHED; A Time of Hope, reviewed here FINISHED; The Consciousness of the Rich FINISHED; The Light and the Dark FINISHED; The Masters FINISHED; The New Men FINISHED; Homecomings TBR SHELF; The Affair TBR SHELF; Corridors of Power TBR SHELF; The Sleep of Reason TBR SHELF; Last Things TBR SHELF)

The Aerodrome, Rex Warner TBR SHELF

The Horse's Mouth, Joyce Cary FINISHED

The Razor's Edge, Somerset Maugham (reviewed here) FINISHED

Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh FINISHED

Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake (reviewed here) FINISHED

The Victim, Saul Bellow FINISHED

Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry FINISHED

The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene FINISHED

Ape and Essence, Aldous Huxley FINISHED

The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer (reviewed here) FINISHED

No Highway, Nevil Shute

The Heat of the Day, Elizabeth Bowen FINISHED

Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell FINISHED

The Body, William Sansom

Scenes from Provincial Life, William Cooper TBR SHELF

The Disenchanted, Budd Schulberg

A Dance to the Music of Time, Anthony Powell (a 12-novel series; my desert island pick; discussed here) FINISHED

The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger FINISHED

A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight, Henry Williamson (a 15-book series, not easy to find, and only gets Burgess's halfhearted endorsement)

The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk TBR SHELF

Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison FINISHED

The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway FINISHED

The Groves of Academe, Mary McCarthy (one of my favorite books ever; reviewed here) FINISHED

Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor FINISHED

Sword of Honour, Evelyn Waugh (a trilogy)  FINISHED

The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler FINISHED

Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis (I love this one) FINISHED TWICE

Room at the Top, John Braine FINISHED

The Alexandria Quartet, Lawrence Durrell FINISHED

The London Novels, Colin MacInnes (a trilogy) TBR SHELF

The Assistant, Bernard Malamud (reviewed here) FINISHED

The Bell, Iris Murdoch FINISHED

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Alan Sillitoe (I was supposed to read it in college but was hungover - the irony) TBR SHELF

The Once and Future King, T. H. White TBR SHELF

The Mansion, William Faulkner

Goldfinger, Ian Fleming FINISHED

Facial Justice, L. P. Hartley TBR SHELF

The Balkans Trilogy, Olivia Manning TBR SHELF

The Mighty and Their Fall, Ivy Compton-Burnett

Catch-22, Joseph Heller FINISHED

The Fox in the Attic, Richard Hughes TBR SHELF

Riders in the Chariot, Patrick White TBR SHELF

The Old Men at the Zoo, Angus Wilson (my favorite unknown novel) FINISHED

Another Country, James Baldwin ON OVERDRIVE

Error of Judgment, Pamela Hansford Johnson TBR SHELF

Island, Aldous Huxley TBR SHELF

The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing FINISHED

Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov (brilliant) FINISHED

The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark (my favorite Spark) FINISHED

The Spire, William Golding FINISHED

Heartland, Wilson Harris TBR SHELF

A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood (reviewed here) FINISHED

Defense, Vladimir Nabokov (also called The Luzhin Defense)

Late Call, Angus Wilson TBR SHELF

The Lockwood Concern, John O'Hara TBR SHELF

The Mandelbaum Gate, Muriel Spark (reviewed here) FINISHED

A Man of the People, Chinua Achebe

The Anti-Death League, Kingsley Amis (reviewed here) FINISHED

Giles Goat-Boy, John Barth TBR SHELF

The Late Bourgeois World, Nadine Gordimer

The Last Gentleman, Walker Percy FINISHED

The Vendor of Sweets, R. K. Narayan TBR SHELF

Image Men, J. B. Priestley (two volumes)

Cocksure, Mordecai Richler TBR SHELF

Pavane, Keith Roberts TBR SHELF

The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles FINISHED

Portnoy's Complaint, Philip Roth FINISHED

Bomber, Len Deighton

Sweet Dreams, Michael Frayn TBR SHELF

Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon ON OVERDRIVE

Humboldt's Gift, Saul Bellow FINISHED

The History Man, Malcolm Bradbury FINISHED

The Doctor's Wife, Brian Moore TBR SHELF

Falstaff, Robert Nye TBR SHELF

How to Save Your Own Life, Erica Jong (reviewed here; I love all the Isadora Wing books) FINISHED

Farewell Companions, James Plunkett TBR SHELF

Staying On, Paul Scott (Booker Prize winner) FINISHED

The Coup, John Updike TBR SHELF

The Unlimited Dream Company, J. G. Ballard

Dubin's Lives, Bernard Malamud TBR SHELF

A Bend in the River, V. S. Naipaul FINISHED

Sophie's Choice, William Stryon (reviewed here) FINISHED

Life in the West, Brian Aldiss

Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban TBR SHELF

How Far Can You Go?, David Lodge (reviewed here) (one of my favorites) FINISHED

A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole FINISHED

Lanark, Alasdair Gray

Darconville's Cat, Alexander Theroux

The Mosquito Coast, Paul Theroux FINISHED

Creation, Gore Vidal

The Rebel Angels, Robertson Davies (reviewed here; my love of Davies started with this one) FINISHED

Ancient Evenings, Norman Mailer TBR SHELF


NOTES

Updated July 3, 2025.

Book Beginning: The Narcissism of Small Things by Michael Zadoorian

Another week and another chance to share our Book Beginnings! Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are featuring this week.

Leave a link to your post with the linky widget below. Or play along by posting your opening lines in the comments. You can also participate on social media and leave a comment letting us know where to find you.

If you post anything on social media, please use the hashtag #BookBeginnings so we can find each other.

Read more about Book Beginnings here.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

"Are we weird?"
Joe closed his eyes and quietly sighed. Not another on of these conversations.

The Narcissism of Small Things by Michael Zadoorian, new from Akashic Books.

I don't usually include more than the very first sentence, but I like the way this beginning rolls out.

Everything about this book appeals to me. I love the juicy cover, the retro font, the indecipherable title that is so fun to say. And mostly I am curious to read the story about an aging hipster and his long-term girlfriend in Detroit in 2009.

The jacket copy describes the book like this:

Joe Keen and Ana Urbanek have been a couple for a long time, with all the requisite lulls and temptations, yet they remain unmarried and without children, contrary to their Midwestern values (and parents' wishes). Now on the cusp of forty, they are both working at jobs that they're not even sure they believe in anymore, but with significantly varying returns. Ana is successful, Joe is floundering--both in limbo, caught somewhere between mainstream and alternative culture, sincerity and irony, achievement and arrested development.

What do you think? Does The Narcissism of Small Differences appeal to you?

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

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TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with Book Beginnings. Post a teaser from page 56 of your book, or 56% of the way through an ebook or audiobook. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

Incredulous, Ana looked at her. "What? You know what I'm going to say?"

Book Beginnings: Burn Down this World and Her Sister's Tattoo

Please join me to share your book beginnings on Fridays and join Freda on Freda's Voice to share a teaser on The Friday 56. Read details about both events here.

I have a Book Beginnings twofer this week because these two new books share a theme. I think it is cool how they dovetail. Both are sibling stories with a past story line about Vietnam War protests and a more contemporary story line.

Reading them together is a particularly rich experience, a way to immerse yourself in the Vietnam war period by looking at the similar stories told in different ways.

It was the summer of fire, 1998. The east coast of Florida burned.

Burn Down this World by Tina Egnoski (Adelaide Books). The two stories in Burn Down this World involve a sister and brother who both protested the Vietnam war at the University of Florida but then parted ways. The other part of the story takes place during the 1998 Florida wildfires when the siblings reconnect and try to reconcile -- with each other and their past.

The August air was charged with whiffs of marijuana and patchouli oil, the sulfur stench of asphalt softening in the heat, and the distant admonition of tear gas.

Her Sister's Tattoo by Ellen Meeropol (Red Hen Press). Egnoski uses a "braided narrative" format, going back and forth between events in 1972 and 1998. Meeropol moves chronologically, starting with two sisters joining in anti-war protests in Detroit in 1968, following events through 1980, then jumping to a final section set in 2003.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

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MY FRIDAY 56

From Burn Down this World:

Dad came into the kitchen. He was in his uniform, ready to leave for work.

From Her Sister's Tattoo:

Under the table, he rested his hand on Rosa's thigh. "Conspiracy is what they charge when they really want to nail you big time."