Book Beginnings: Independent People

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.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+ or other social media sites, please spread the word. You can use the hash tag #BookBeginnings.

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

In early times, say the Icelandic chronicles, men from the Western Islands came to live in this country, and when they departed, left behind them crosses, bills, and other objects used in the practice of sorcery.

-- Independent People by Halldór Laxness, first published in 1946. Laxness was Iceland's most famous author and only Nobel Laureate.

This story of subsistence sheep farmer Bjartur of Summerhouses is set in the 20th century, but feels like an ancient epic.  So far, it reads like a cross between J. R. R. Tolkien and Thomas Hardy.

Independent People counts as one of my choices for the 2013 European Reading Challenge.  It also brings me one step closer to my goal of reading at least one book by every Nobel Laureate.

Teaser Tuesday: Alice Waters and Chez Panisse

The menus for the week were posted every Monday. Lots of people, the clientele still being largely local, just strolled by, took a look at the hand-printed bill of fare in the picture frame on the front of the building, perhaps came in and discussed it with Alice or a cook, and made their plans accordingly..

-- Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution by Thomas McNamee.
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 (details here).

One of my favorite bloggers, Caitlin from Chaotic Compendiums, is hosting in March. Stop by her terrific blog! You'll be glad you did and, as promised, you may just find your next book.

I got one book last week:






Staying On by Paul Scott. This novel, described as a coda to his better-known Raj Quartet, is the story of two British colonials who stay on in India after the country's independence.  Scott won the 1977 Booker Prize for this tangentially related but stand-alone book.

Kitchen Remodel, Week Four: Canopy & Cocktails

Drywall is boring. Glad as I am to see walls in the new kitchen, there is nothing exciting about drywall. And drywall was the only thing that happened in our new kitchen this week.

Outside, we saw the beginning of a long-awaited canopy over the back door. It still needs its trim and the little copper roof like on the roof of the adjacent bump out. 

But already I can imagine finally having a stoop to set down the groceries with the canopy to keep off the rain -- instead of the meager concrete steps exposed to Portland's unfriendly weather that we've lived with for five years.

The stoop will connect with a concrete terrace on top of the garage, so I've also been daydreaming about warm summer evenings with the grill going and neighbors over.  The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto by Bernard DeVoto has me ready to start those evenings observing the sacred cocktail hour, the "pause in the day's occupation" that "marks the lifeward turn."




DeVoto wrote history books, novels, a magazine column for Harper's and this delightful homage to the cocktail hour.  First published in 1948, my edition is a reprint from Tin House with an introduction by Daniel Handler.

Written in a style Handler describes as "deadpan fascism," The Hour extols the virtues of the only two drinks DeVoto accepts as cocktails -- a "slug of whiskey" and a dry gin martini.  DeVoto advocates two of either at 6:00 o'clock with a few friends in a quiet setting as a necessary segue between the labors of the day and dinner.

He makes a good case.  And his pillorying of anything that falls outside his defined cocktail rituals is still very funny, even with his Dorris Day-era views on women.  His diatribe against rum, grenadine, mixers, anything sweet, olives, and novelty bar ware is a masterpiece of curmudgeonly eloquence.

NOTES

I read The Hour as one of my choices for the Foodies Read Challenge and as one of my non-fiction books for the TBR challenges I am doing this year.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginnings: The Hour

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.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I also recently signed up for Google+ and have a button over there in the right-hand column to join my circles or whatever it is. I don't really understand yet how that one works.

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

Oops! My beginning went missing there. Here it is:

We are a pious people but a proud one too, aware of a noble lineage and a great inheritance.

-- The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto by Bernard DeVoto.

DeVoto wrote history books, novels, a magazine column for Harper's and this delightful homage to the cocktail hour.  First published in 1948, my edition is a reprint from Tin House with an introduction by Daniel Handler.

Blogiversary!

Rose City Reader is FIVE years old today. Wow! That's an eternity in blog years. 

Teaser Tuesday: Word Up!

 

Next time you wonder whether to use one comma or two to set off a word or phrase in the middle of a sentence, imagine reaching in and lifting that word or phrase out with both hands. Does the sentence still make sense?

-- Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs (And Everything You Build from Them) by Marcia Riefer Johnston.

I love all kinds of "how to write well" books, from The Elements of Style to The Harvard Blue Book (that one dates me!) to Eats, Shoots and Leaves. This one is particularly good -- livelier than most and never pedantic, but with plenty of substance.

Word Up! debuts April 27, 2013 -- National Tell a Story Day. Print and e-book versions will be available from Powell’s, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.  Better yet, ask your local bookstore to carry it!


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

Mailbox Monday and GIVEAWAY Winners

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 (details here).

One of my favorite bloggers, Caitlin from Chaotic Compendiums, is hosting in March. Stop by her terrific blog! You'll be glad you did and, as promised, you may just find your next book.

I got one book last week:



The River Swimmer by Jim Harrison.   Harrison has long been a favorite of mine. He is one of a scant handful of authors whose works I buy new in hardback.

In the tradition of Legends of the Fall (yes, the one with Brad Pitt) and several other Harrison books, The River Swimmers is one volume containing two novellas.  I lean towards Harrison's longer novels, but some of the shorter pieces are exquisite.

GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Thanks to the dogged book publicist, Mary Bisbee-Beek, I gave away two copies Dry Rot: A Sage Adair Historical Mystery to lucky readers of Rose City Reader.  This was a "leap frog" giveaway, so both winners will get to host another giveaway for an additional copy.

Chosen by random.org, the winners are Pamela at Lavish Bookshelf and Squirrel Queen at The Road to Here. Happy reading!

Dry Rot: A Sage Adair Historical Mystery by S.L. Stoner

Set in 1902 Portland, Oregon, Dry Rot is the third mystery in Stoner's Sage Adair series, but is enough of a story to stand alone.

Sage's adventure involves a  losing labor strike, a union leader framed for murder, a ragpicker poet, and collapsing city bridges.  The historic details show a wild and wooly Portland of an earlier age -- an age of hobo jungles, lumber camps, brothels, saloons, and corruption.

Dry Rot is coming out on June 1.  Ask your local bookstore to order it for you or you can pre-order it on Amazon.

Kitchen Remodel, Week Three: Black & White and a Poetic Fritatta

The kitchen looks like it did last week, but with wall insulation and little metal boxes where light switches and outlets will go.

Meanwhile, we made ourselves crazy trying to choose black counter tops and white subway tiles. This is a white tile:

They all look alike. Until you hold them up to the Italian tile backsplash I've had stashed away in a kitchen-remodel hope chest for all these years.  Then I see that there are at least 37 shades of "white" tile -- none of which match the Italian backsplash.

Black counter tops are equally frustrating.  There are only so many slabs of soapstone in warehouses in Portland at a given point in time. I've looked at them all.  The good ones are on hold for other people.  The available ones have what looks like a map of the Columbia River watershed across the middle. Many aren't black, they are green.  Too little veining, too much veining, weird blotches.  None match the picture in my brain.

As with kitchen remodels, as with life.  You learn not to sacrifice the good in quest for the perfect.  No one but me will see that the tiles are off slightly and we'll hide the weird blotch in the soapstone under the toaster. Call it good.

In the midst of these petty frustrations, my dear friend Kirsten Rian was a saving angel.  She appeared on our porch with a care basket overflowing with goodness -- a pre-made salad, fresh bread, wine, homemade butternut squash soup, and an over-sized, over-stuffed frittata with roasted peppers, kale, smoked salmon, and goat cheese on a layer of thin-sliced potatoes.

Blessings on her head! Kirsten is an incredible poet, artist, musician, professor, and curator, and on top of it all she can mix up the best frittata I've ever eaten. I love this woman!

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginnings: Alice Waters and Chez Panisse

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.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I also recently signed up for Google+ and have a button over there in the right-hand column to join my circles or whatever it is. I don't really understand yet how that one works.

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

Late-summer sun streamed into the dining room, turning every westward surface gold – French gilt mirrors on ivory plaster walls, red wood trim, oak floors and flea-market oak chairs, mismatched flea-market china and flatware on red-and-white-checkered tablecloths, one great base of flowers with a white-linened table all to itself.

-- Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution by Thomas McNamee. That first sentence describes the opening night of Waters' famed Berkeley restaurant,Chez Panisse, in 1972.

Teaser Tuesdays & GIVEAWAY Reminder: Dry Rot, a Sage Adair Historical Mystery

Sage lay with his cheek against the rough planks, his mind rebelling against the grim reality of his situation. The fading ribbons of light between the wall planks signaled the end of daylight.

-- Dry Rot: A Sage Adair Historical Mystery by S.L. Stoner.  Click on the GIVEAWAY post to enter to win one of two copies and an opportunity to host your own giveaway.

Set in 1902 Portland, Oregon, Dry Rot is the third mystery in Stoner's Sage Adair series, but is enough of a story to stand alone.

Sage's adventure involves a  losing labor strike, a union leader framed for murder, a ragpicker poet, and collapsing city bridges.  The historic details show a wild and wooly Portland of an earlier age -- an age of hobo jungles, lumber camps, brothels, saloons, and corruption.

Dry Rot is coming out on June 1.  Ask your local bookstore to order it for you or you can pre-order it on Amazon.  You can also sign up here to try to win one of two giveaway copies.

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

Kitchen Remodel, Week Two: Crock Pot Pork Roast

Let there be light!

The new windows are in the kitchen. We can already tell it will be a lot brighter than the old, dark kitchen with its two small windows.  The sink goes under these windows, above, which are all casement-style and will swing out to open.  

The windows below will have a bookcase running under them, with two sections for books and one to house the old cast-iron radiator that we will still use.

Our culinary adventure for the week was not terribly exciting. We bunged a pork shoulder into the crock pot in the morning and shredded it that night.  The novelty of our makeshift kitchen in the dining room has already worn off. 

Thanks to a glorious early spring weekend here in Portland, we can expand our options some by firing up the grill.  It doesn't make up for the inconvenience of washing our dishes in the bathtub, but it is better than another Big Salad for dinner.

I know I am getting culinary ants in my pants because the only books I want to read qualify for the 2013 Foodies Read Challenge (hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather be at the Beach).  First up is Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Review: The Sense of an Ending

Julian Barnes explores memory, loss, and lives built around the empty spaces in his Booker-winning novel, The Sense of an Ending. Ostensibly the reminiscence of the recently retired and contentedly divorced Tony Webster, the story deepens to tragedy when Tony reconnects with his college girlfriend and re-examines what he thinks he remembers about his past.

As Tony bit-by-bit abandons his understanding of passed events, he gives up the assumption that “memory equals events plus time” and realizes that “time doesn't act as a fixative, rather as a solvent.”

This scrutiny of memory makes the novel reverberate. Because I try cases on behalf of adults who were abused when they were children, I deal daily with imperfect memories, forgotten details, and re-created stories as my clients and the people we sue patch together their history. I’ve learned that truth – or as close as we can get – is three-dimensional and can be built only collaboratively.

Or, as Tony muses:

[A]s the witnesses to your life diminish, there is less corroboration, and therefore less certainty, as to what you are or have been. Even if you have assiduously kept records – in words, sound, pictures – you may find that you have attended to the wrong kind of record-keeping. What was the line Adrian used to quote? “History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.”

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

The Sense of an Ending deservedly won the 2011 Booker Prize.  

Book Beginnings & GIVEAWAY: Dry Rot, A Sage Adair Mystery

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.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I also recently signed up for Google+ and have a button over there in the right-hand column to join my circles or whatever it is. I don't really understand yet how that one works.

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

A fat raindrop smacked the back of his neck and slid down his spine like a cold knife edge.

-- Dry Rot: A Sage Adair Historical Mystery by S.L. Stoner.  This novel may be set in the Portland, Oregon of 1902, but that opening sentence described my walk this morning.

Dry Rot is the third mystery in Stoner's Sage Adair series, but is enough of a story to stand alone.  Here, Sage's adventure involves a  losing labor strike, a union leader framed for murder, a ragpicker poet, and collapsing city bridges.  The historic details show a wild and wooly Portland of an earlier age -- an age of hobo jungles, lumber camps, brothels, saloons, and corruption.

Dry Rot will be released in April.  Ask your local bookstore to order it for you or you can pre-order it on Amazon.  You can also sign up here to try to win one of two giveaway copies.

THE GIVEAWAY

This is a "leap-frog" giveaway. This means I have two copies to giveaway to Rose City Reader readers, and each winner will get to host another giveaway for an additional copy, thanks to the delightful book publicist, Mary Bisbee-Beek.

The contest is for readers in the USA and Canada and is open until Thursday, March 14, 2013, at 9:00 PST. There are five ways to enter and each one is worth a chance to win. To enter, do any or all of the following, but you must leave a comment for each one and you must put an email address in a comment:

1. Comment on this post. You must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner. (1 entry)

2. Blog about this giveaway. Posting the giveaway on your sidebar is also acceptable. Leave a separate comment with a link to your post. (1 entry)

3. Subscribe to my rss feed, follow me on blogger, or subscribe via email (or tell me if you already are a subscriber or follower). Leave a separate comment for this. (1 entry)

4. Tweet this post on Twitter. Leave me a separate comment with your twitter user name. (1 entry)

5. Post this on a social network. Put it on facebook, post it on Google+, pin it on Pinterest, Stumble it, digg it, technorati fave it, or otherwise put it out there in the social network. Leave a separate comment with a link or explaination. (1 entry)

There are a lot of ways to enter (maximum of five entries), but you must LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT for each one or they will not count. I will use random.org to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is open to entries from the U.S. and Canada only. The deadline for entry is 9:00 PM, Pacific Time, on Thursday, March 14, 2013. I will draw and post the winner's name in my Book Beginning post for March 15, 2013.

Teaser Tuesdays: The Gun Seller

But Rayner was also three inches taller than me, four stones heavier, and at least eight however-you-measure-violence units more violent. He was uglier than a car park, with a big, hairless skull that dipped and bulged like a balloon full of spanners, and his flattened, fighter’s nose, apparently drawn on his face by someone using their left hand, or perhaps even their left foot, spread out in a meandering, lopsided delta under the rough slab of his forehead.

-- The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie. This very funny spy spoof has been on my TBR shelf for too long. Heavily influenced by P.G. Wodehouse, Laurie manages to build a decent story, even encrusted as it is with comic gingerbread.

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

Mailbox Monday and Giveaway Winners

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 (details here).

One of my favorite bloggers, Caitlin from Chaotic Compendiums, is hosting in March. Stop by her terrific blog! You'll be glad you did and, as promised, you may just find your next book.

GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Three lucky book lovers won copies of Warming Up by Mary Hutchings Reed, coming in April from She Writes Press.

It's a great story about an out-of-work musical actress who's life turns around after an encounter with a homeless teen grifter.  


 

Chosen by the random number generator at random.org, the three winners are:

• Teddy Rose at So Many precious Books, So Little Time
• Tea norman at Bundles of Books
• Debbie at ExUrbanis

Apologies for the delay. I said I'd announce the winners on last Friday's Book Beginnings post, but I got buried at work.

MY MAILBOX

I went on a Thrift Book spree and got a stack of books I've been searching for for quite a while. The two I am most excited about are from my French Connections list:



French Ways and Their Meanings by Edith Wharton. This is a facsimile of the original 1919 edition and offers Wharton's firsthand observations on French life.



Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells. I have been cuddling up with this one, dreaming of the distant day when my kitchen remodel will be finished.

Kitchen Remodel, Week One: Sci-Fi Salmon

Nothing is left of our old kitchen except some 100-year-old lath and the cast-iron radiator waiting to be disconnected.  Demolition revealed a few surprises in the way of support beams sawed off in years past by impatient plumbers looking for the straightest pipe run and not concerned with structural integrity. But once those get shored up, we'll be ready to move on to framing-in the new powder room and pantry.

Meanwhile, we've set up our camping kitchen in the dining room, on the other side of that blue-taped door. No running water, but we have the old fridge and a microwave.

My hat tip goes to tv producer and sci-fi writer Morgan Gendel who first gave me the idea that you can microwave salmon filets with his funny but tasty-looking recipe for Kryptonite Noodles.  Maybe everyone microwaves salmon, but I didn't know. I've never been a big microwaver.  But we tried it this week and it was dead easy.  We added a little black sesame oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce and ate it on top of a tossed green salad.  We've found the mainstay of our kitchen remodel menu.
 

 James Builder and James Husband go over plan details

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginnings: Lincoln and Oregon Country

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.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, please tweet a link to your post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I also recently signed up for Google+ and have a button over there in the right-hand column to join my circles or whatever it is. I don't really understand yet how that one works.

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

The unexpected telegram from Washington, D. C., arrived in Springfield, Illinois, in mid-August 1849. Its message was direct and requested a quick answer: would the Honorable Abraham Lincoln, recently retired U.S. Congressman from Illinois, except appointment as secretary of the new Oregon Territory?

-- Lincoln and Oregon Country: Politics in the Civil War Era by Richard W. Etulain, published by OSU Press.

Did you know that Abraham Lincoln was asked to be the governor of the new Oregon territory? Just think how history would have been changed!

Etulain is a prolific author of lively, well-penned history books on a variety of subjects.  In this new book, he sets out to show how "men and women of the Oregon Country were personally and emotionally involved in the controversial ideas and events that inflamed the United States during the fractious era" of the Civil War.

Lincoln and Oregon Country would be a great gift for any Lincoln buff.  The book is already gathering praise:

Once again, historian Richard Etulain has provided a scholarly, lively, and definitive look at Lincoln and the Pacific Northwest. Lincoln himself thought the ‘Far Corner’ of Oregon simply too far to become his own home, but his close ties to many friends who did migrate there remained important in both elections and war. Etulain re-creates the pioneer spirit and political fractiousness of Oregon with a keen eye for both the sweep of history and the small anecdotes that make the best history books irresistible.

— Harold Holzer, Lincoln scholar and Chairman of the Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation.

What Are They Reading? Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

Authors tend to be readers, so it is natural for them to create characters who like to read.  It is always interesting to me to read what books the characters are reading in the books I read. Even if I can't say that ten times fast.

Usually, the characters' choice of books reflects the author's tastes or, I sometimes think, what the author was reading at the time.  But sometimes the character's reading material is a clue to the character's personality, or is even a part of the story. 

This is an occasional blog event. If anyone wants to join in, feel free to leave a comment with a link to your related post. And feel free to use the button.  If this catches on, I can pick a day and make it a weekly event.

ANGRY HOUSEWIVES EATING BON BONS BY LORNA LANDVIK

I thought that Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik (which I reviewed here) was as enjoyable as a yummy pot luck casserole, even if it was about as predictable.

The best part was the way it was structured around the monthly meetings of a neighborhood book club over a period of 30 years.  Each chapter started by listing the title of the book under discussion and the reason the hostess chose that book. 

Unfortunately, there was never much discussion of any of the books, but the ladies did come up with some good, or at least attention-grabbing, choices. Sometimes they were classics, sometimes they were popular titles for the time in which the club read them. They clearly did not follow my Book Club's rule against choosing super-long books!

The books highlighted in Angry Housewives are listed below, with my notes in parentheses. 

Hotel by Arthur Haley

Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver

Middlemarch by George Eliot (read it)

On the Road by Jack Kerouac (read it; on the Modern Library's Top 100 list)

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis (read it; on the Modern Library's Top 100 list)

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (read it; on the Modern Library's Top 100 list)

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (on my TBR shelf)

Dr. Faustus by Thomas Mann (read it)

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex but were Afraid to Ask by Dr. David Reuben

Fear of Flying by Erica Jong (read it)

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (read it; on the Modern Library's Top 100 list)

The Total Woman by Marabel Morgan

Roots by Alex Haley

The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank by Erma Bombeck

Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell (read it; on the Modern Library's Top 100 list)

Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

My Home is Far Away by Dawn Powell

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (read it)

Out on a Limb by Shirley McClain

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler (read it)

West with the Night by Beryl Markham (read it)

The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West

The Awakening by Kate Chopin (read it)

Handling Sin by Michael Malone

The Stand by Stephen King

My Antonia by Willa Cather (read it)

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (read it; on the Modern Library's Top 100 list)

The Beginning and the End by Naguib Mahfouz

Kristin Lavensdatter by Sigrid Undset (on my TBR shelf)

Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler (on my TBR shelf)

Eastward Ha! by J. S. Perleman

Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy (on my TBR shelf)

Review: Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons is not the chick lit fluff to be expected from the title. There's plenty of meat on those Bon Bon bones.

The title refers to the facetious name of a women's book club, suggested by one member's mean husband. The five Angry Housewives live on Freesia Court in the suburbs of Minneapolis. The story follows the women through 30 years of friendship and shared books, from young housewives with babies, through career choices, divorces, social upheaval, family deaths, and empty nests. Since a novel would go nowhere if the characters lead placid lives, the women face seemingly insurmountable obstacles – including abusive or philandering husbands, secret childhood shame, a brother damaged by Viet Nam, single motherhood, and cancer – but learn, of course, that their friendship will see them through.

Each chapter focuses on a different member of the group as they take turns hosting the book club. The chapters are headed with the name of the book under discussion and a little note about why the hostess chose the book or what food she served. The biggest disappointment is the lack of discussion about the books. Many chapters never mention the book at all, but for the title. If mentioned, the books typically only get a line or two, rarely any conversation. Another distracting drawback is that the chapters flip back and forth between third person narrative for some of the characters and first person narrative for others, making it difficult to sink all the way into the story.

Still, the book club theme is appealing and the story of friendships that grow over 30 years of shared experiences is rich and satisfying, if not original. Fans of Anne Tyler or Maeve Binchey would enjoy this American Midwest take on the Aga Saga genre.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

Angry Housewives counts as one of my books for the three TBR challenges I am doing this year.

Teaser Tuesday & GIVEAWAY: Warming Up

She was there, in part, because she’d not sung in public for the past ten years. Even at her own father’s funeral.

-- Warming Up by Mary Hutchings Reed, coming in April from She Writes Press.

That little tidbit is part of the set up for this heartening novel about a stuck-in-a-rut woman whose life is shaken up by an impulsive gesture. It's a good story. 

GIVEAWAY:

I have three copies of Warming Up to give away to book bloggers. Even better, the winners will get to host their own giveaways for additional copies! Go to THIS PAGE for details and to sign up. You have until this Thursday to sign up. Winners will be announced this Friday on my Book Beginnings on Friday post.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

Approaching forty, unemployed but well-off, talented but unknown, functional but depressed, former musical actress Cecilia Morrison reluctantly seeks therapy. Although she once won leading roles, Cecilia now can't bring herself to audition for parts. In the end it’s not therapy, but a runaway teenager who changes her life when he cons her out of sixty bucks.

Whether at the apex of one’s success or just starting out, Warming Up speaks to anyone who’s ever wondered, “What’s it all about?” or who finds themselves doing something they never thought they’d do.

Warming Up was a short list finalist for the 2011 William Wisdom-William Faulkner Prize for the Novel.  Ten percent of the author’s proceeds are donated to The Night Ministry, which provides temporary housing, transitional living, and parenting services to Chicago’s homeless youth.

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 (details here).

Audra at Unabridged Chick is hosting in February.  Stop by her terrific blog for reviews, giveaways, interviews, and more.

One book came into my house last week that means a lot to me:



The Journal of My Broken Life by Carolee J. Horning.

Carolee is my friend, my former client, and a wonderful, brave woman who came forward and sued the Portland Archdiocese for the sexual abuse she suffered as a young teenager at the hands of her priest.  While victims of sexual abuse have the right to sue without disclosing their name, Carolee wanted to use her own name and to get her story out in the hopes it would help other victims have the strength to come forward and talk about what happened to them.

Carolee drew on journal entries and work with her counselor to write this book -- her account of her abuse, her lawsuit, and her path from victim to survivor.  It is an honest, straight-from-the-heart story and I am so proud of her for telling it.

I would recommend this book for anyone who works with or supports child abuse victims, as well as any victims working on their own healing.

Way to go, Carolee!

Weekend Cooking: The Last Weekend

Now that I will be without them for the next four months, I cling to my cookbooks. The big kitchen remodel starts Monday, and the books are all going in boxes today. But I delay their banishment, flipping through pages and contemplating recipes.

There's nothing wrong with our current kitchen. It is big enough (just) and serviceable. It is just shabby and tired and its little inconveniences annoy us – like exhaust fan install backwards so it blows into the room instead of sucking the air out. And it is dark, with only two little windows and prime window space hidden behind a mudroom and an inconveniently located powder room.

It is all going away on Monday. The demolition crew shows up bright and early, no doubt as I am brewing my last pot of tea in the old kitchen. We'll be camping out in the dining room for the months to come with a refrigerator and a microwave, but no running water.

And when we move into the new kitchen this summer my favorite new feature will be double the book shelf space so all my cookbook collection can be right there with me.

WEEKEND COOKING

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