Book Beginning: Sinful Folk by Ned Hayes

THANKS FOR A GREAT YEAR OF BOOK BEGINNINGS!

PLEASE JOIN ME ON FRIDAYS IN 2014 FOR MORE 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 now has a Facebook page. I plan to 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, or click the button over there in the right hand column. 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 am trying 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.

MR. LINKY



MY BOOK BEGINNING

In the end, I listen to my fear. It keeps me awake, resounding through the frantic beating in my breast. It is there in the dry terror in my throat, in the pricking of the rats' nervous feet in the darkness.

-- Sinful Folk by Ned Hayes,  due out in January, but available for pre-order.  You can read the first chapter on kindle now.

Based on a true story, Sinful Folk is a mystery and adventure tale set in England in 1377.  A group of villagers, including the narrator Mear (a former nun disguised as a mute man), set out on a desperate mid-winter journey to London to seek justice for the death of five children in a suspicious house fire.

It sounds like a cross between Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Game of Thrones. Watch the trailer for Sinful Folk.

2013 Challenge: Mt. TBR Final Checkpoint

COMPLETED!

I completed my Mt. TBR Challenge! 

For the final checkpoint, the challenge host, Bev from My Reader's Block, asks participants to provide the following information: 

1. Tell us how many miles you made it up your mountain (# of books read). If you've planted your flag on the peak, then tell us and celebrate (and wave!). Even if you were especially athletic and have been sitting atop your mountain for months, please check back in and remind us quickly you sprinted up that trail. And feel free to tell us about any particularly exciting adventures you've had along the way.

I signed up at the Mt. Vancouver level to read at least 36 books.  I waived from the top of that peak sometime in early September or so.  For the year, I read a total of 53 books from my TBR shelf, which means I made it to the top of Mt. Ararat.

My most challenging adventures were Independent People by Halldor Laxness (Nobel winner; reviewed here) and The Tin Drum by Günter Grass (reviewed here).  My most enjoyable adventure was The Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy (reviewed here).

2. My Life According to Mount TBR: Using the titles of the books you read this year, please associate each statement with a book read on your journey up the Mountain.

Are you male or female?: Bootlegger's Daughter
Describe yourself: She's Come Undone
Describe where you currently live: On the Edge
If you could go anywhere where would you go?: The Groves of Academe
Your favorite form of transportation: Parachutes & Kisses
What's the weather like?: A Taste for Death
Favorite time of day?: The Hour
Your relationships: Independent People
You fear: Mortal Causes
What is the best advice you have to give?: Care of the Soul
If you could change your name, you would change it to: The Vicar of Nibbleswicke
My soul's present condition: A Glass of Blessings 

2014 Challenge: Sign Up Post for the European Reading Challenge

This is my sign up page for the 2014 European Reading Challenge!

TO SIGN UP OR SEE DETAILS, GO TO THE MAIN CHALLENGE PAGE,

OR CLICK THE BUTTON ABOVE.

The gist: The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour.

It's my challenge, so I am signing up at the highest level, the Five Star (Deluxe Entourage) level, to read at least five books by different European authors or books set in different European countries.

MY BOOKS

So far, I have read the following:

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (Norway)

Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy (Greece; reviewed here)

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn (France; reviewed here)

Sinful Folk by Ned Hayes (United Kingdom; discussed here)

Pillar of Iron by Taylor Caldwell (Italy; Ancient Rome, really, but . . .)

Prague by Arthur Phillips (Hungary, despite its title)

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera (Czechoslovakia)

Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Holland)

Some other possibilities for 2014 from my TBR shelves include:

The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean (American; Russia)

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie (American; Russia)

The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker (Dutch; Holland)

Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz (Polish; Nobel)

How German Is It = Wie Deutsch Ist Es by Walter Abish (Germany; PEN/Faulkner)

I, the King by Frances Parkinson Keyes (American; Spain)

UPDATED: November 1, 2014

Merry Christmas!

1 Day to Christmas!

2 Days to Christmas!

Mailbox Monday: Murder and Poetry

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday!  December is a busy month, but getting to host MM makes it all the more festive for me.

MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).  Marcia is looking for someone to take over tour organizing duties.  Many people have volunteered, but I don't know that there is a final plan for 2014.

MY THEME THIS WEEK: HOLIDAY READING

Do you plan do do any reading this Christmas week? Which ones? Please share!

MY READING LIST: During Christmas week, I like to read a chunky classic from the "Great Yarn" school of fiction.  Classics go along with holiday traditions and I am never in the mood for a thriller or anything depressing.

This week, I am reading Kristin Lavransdatter, the historical epic, set in 14th Century Norway, by Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset. I have an omnibus edition that contains the entire trilogy.

MY BOOKS: I did get a couple of new books this week:



The Last Dead Girl by Harry Dolan.  This is the book I asked Santa to bring me, but I got an early copy from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program. Happy me!

This third book in Dolan's David Loogan series is actually a prequel to the first two books, Bad Things Happen (reviewed here) and Very Bad Men (reviewed here).  I loved both and can't wait to read this new one.



Tomorrow Too: The Brenda Monologues by Don Colburn, published by Finish Line Press.  This is Colburn's fourth book of poems, these based on the true story of a young woman facing breast cancer while pregnant. 

Colburn first wrote about Brenda in a series of newspaper articles for The Oregonian.


YOUR BOOKS

What books came into your house last week?  Leave your link below or in a comment.  If you don't have a blog but want to play along, leave a comment listing your new books.

3 Days to Christmas!

Announcement: 2014 European Reading Challenge

The 2014 European Reading Challenge
January 1, 2014 to January 31, 2015

It's time for the 2014 European Reading Challenge!  The SIGN UP PAGE is ready.  The challenge starts January 1, 2014.

The gist: The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour.

Sign up here. 

2013 PARTICIPANTS

The 2013 European Reading Challenge will wrap up in just over a month, on January 31, 2014.  Participants still have plenty of time to link to their reviews on THIS PAGE and their wrap-up posts on THIS PAGE.

4 Days to Christmas!

5 Days to Christmas!

Book Beginning: The Dean's December by Saul Bellow

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 now has a Facebook page. I plan to 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, or click the button over there in the right hand column.  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 am trying 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.

MR. LINKY



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Corde, who led the life of an executive in America – wasn't a college dean a kind of executive? – found himself six or seven thousand miles from his base, in Bucharest, in winter, shut up in an old-fashioned apartment.

-- The Dean's December by Saul Bellow, one of my very favorite authors. I enjoy Bellow more and more.  His dense, chewy prose takes time to get through, but that makes me feel like I am living the story along with the characters.

And, yes, I am reading this now because it has December in the title.

6 Days to Christmas!

7 Days to Christmas!

8 Days to Christmas!

Teaser Tuesday: Brave on the Page

Perfect sentences come to me when I'm out walking. I'm not intending it or waiting for it, but something about the steady pace, the absence of doing-ness, seems it to draw things up: the start of a story, a way of saying something I'd been reaching for, a connection of all the ideas in a piece I'm working on.

-- from "Move" by Jackie Shannon Hollis, one of the 42 essays in Brave on the Page: Oregon Writers on Craft and the Creative Life, edited by Laura Stanfill, published by Forest Avenue Press. Essays from Oregon authors about living the writer's life. 

I often have the same experience of figuring things out while I'm out on a walk.  Solutions to complicated legal issues and case strategies come to me when I'm walking around. I've read that, because walking involves both sides of your body, it activates both sides of your brain, resulting in creative, holistic thinking.  I don't know if that is scientifically sound, but I like the idea of it. 

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

9 Days to Christmas!

Mailbox Monday: Oregon River Books

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday!  I am so pleased to host in December.  It's a crazy-busy time of year, but I love the festivities!

MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).  Marcia is looking for someone to take over tour organizing duties.  Many people have volunteered, but I don't know that there is a final plan for 2014.

MY THEME THIS WEEK: BOOKS AS GIFTS (RECEIVING)

Do you hope to get any books as gifts this year? Which ones? Please share!

MY GIFT BOOKS: I hope Santa brings me a copy of Harry Dolan's new mystery, The Last Dead Girl. I would also like the first two volumes of a trilogy by Beverley Nichols. I somehow ended up with the third volume, Sunlight on the Lawn, but would like Merry Hall and Laughter on the Stairs. Since I don't think Santa reads my blog, I've sent him an email with the details.

MY BOOKS: I got couple of new books from OSU Press this week:



Meander Scars: Reflections on Healing the Willamette River by Abby Phillips Metzger. The lush cover is gorgeous and I am looking forward to reading this book of essays inspired by Metzger's lifetime of up-close exploration of Oregon's main river.



Bridging a Great Divide: The Battle for the Columbia River Gorge by Kathie Durbin. There have been battles over every man-made change in the Columbia Gorge -- dams, freeways, bridges, hotels, casinos, houses, and now the view-spoiling, bird-killing wind turbines.

Durbin spent years as a journalist writing about these challenges and changes, giving detail and depth to her readable history of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.


YOUR BOOKS

What books came into your house last week?  Leave your link below or in a comment.  If you don't have a blog but want to play along, leave a comment listing your new books.

10 Days to Christmas!

11 Days to Christmas!

12 Days to Christmas!

Book Beginning: Leave It to Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse

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 now has a Facebook page. I plan to 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, or click the button over there in the right hand column. 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 am trying 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.

MR. LINKY



MY BOOK BEGINNING

At the open window of the great library of Blandings Castle, drooping like a wet sock, as was his habit when he had nothing to prop his spine against, the Earl of Emsworth, that amiable and boneheaded peer, stood gazing out over his domain.

-- Leave It to Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse, from Chapter 1, "Dark Plottings at Blandings Castle."

I love P. G. Wodehouse! I've read several of his books, including most of the Bertie Wooster novels and short stories, but I never read his Psmith books. The "P" is silent, like in ptarmigan or psychology or, as Psmith once explains, Pshrimp.

My library recently got several new audio editions available for instant download. They are particularly good to listen to. I have also recently gone back and started reading his books in chronological order because many of the earlier books are available in free Kindle additions.

13 Days to Christmas!

Five Faves: Campus Novels

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.

 

FIVE FAVE CAMPUS NOVELS

 

Ivory Tower novels are big favorites of mine.  I don't think I could name five absolute favorites, but here is a list of five I really liked.  There are many other possibilities on my Campus Novel list.

• Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis 

• The Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy (reviewed here)

•  Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov

• The Human Stain by Philip Roth (reviewed here)

• The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams (reviewed here)

14 Days to Christmas!

15 Days to Christmas!

Teaser Tuesday: Put an Egg on It by Lara Ferroni

Still, it was many years before I thought adding an egg to sandwiches or pizza was a good idea. I don't quite remember what prompted it, but I do recall vividly that I was sitting in a plaza in Rome when I finally decided I should try an egg on a pizza and discovered what I been missing all those years.

-- from the author's Introduction to Put an Egg on It: 70 Delicious Dishes That Deserve a Sunny Topping by Lara Ferroni, published by Sasquatch Books. 

I have the same fond food memory of ordering a pizza in Italy and having it arrive with an egg on it. It was a mind-bending experience for a 19-year-old. 

This is a terrific cookbook! Full of simple but delicious recipes and lots of gorgeous, mouth-watering pictures. Perfect gift!

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

16 Days to Christmas!

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday!  I am so pleased to host in December because it just adds to my general giddiness this festive time of year.

MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).  Marcia is looking for someone to take over tour organizing duties.  Many people have volunteered, but I don't know that there is a final plan for 2014.

MY THEME THIS WEEK: BOOKS AS GIFTS (GIVING)

Will you give books as gifts this year? Which ones? Please share!

MY GIFT BOOKS: My gift book of choice this year is Things We Set on Fire by Deborah Reed.  This latest novel from Deborah Reed is an aching but beautiful  family story that you can get lost in.  Perfect for anyone who likes mother/daughter themes or books by Anne Taylor, Barbara Kingsolver, Anita Shreve or other popular but substantive women authors.  

Of course, there are plenty of men and a few women on my list who wouldn't read a mother/daughter story, no matter how excellent, on pain of death.  They'll get a lump of coal.  And a copy of Harry Dolan's new mystery, The Last Dead Girl.

MY BOOKS: I did get a couple of new books for myself this week.  They are completely different from each other, but both look very good:



Worthy Brown's Daughter by Phillip Margolin. Available now for pre-order; released January 21.

Margolin writes fast-paced contemporary thrillers like his hugely popular Gone, But Not Forgotten and the recent best seller,  Capitol Murder.

Worthy Brown's Daughter is a departure for Margolin -- it's a historical drama set in 19th-Century Oregon involving a freed slave trying to rescue his 15-year-old daughter.  There is still a murder, a complicated plot, and all the exciting twists and turns readers expect from a Margolin thriller.




The Art of Selling Real Estate by Patricia Cliff.

Cliff offers timely, practical advice for real estate sellers, whether seasoned professionals or newcomers. 

While focusing on real estate, Cliff's book is a guide for anyone in sales, with her goal to show how to make yourself indispensable to any transaction by being a consistent, authentic, remarkable deliverer of a high level of personalized service.


YOUR BOOKS

What books came into your house last week?  Leave your link below or in a comment.  If you don't have a blog but want to play along, leave a comment listing your new books.

17 Days to Christmas!

Advent-appropriate vintage postcard for a Christmas Sunday.

18 Days to Christmas!

19 Days to Christmas!

Book Beginning: Put an Egg on It by Lara Ferroni

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 now has a Facebook page. I plan to 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, or click the button over there in the right hand column.  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 am trying 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.

MR. LINKY



MY BOOK BEGINNING

It never fails.  When I look at a menu, my eyes magically zoom to any dish where an egg appears.

-- from the author's Introduction to Put an Egg on It: 70 Delicious Dishes That Deserve a Sunny Topping by Lara Ferroni. 

I absolutely LOVE this cookbook! The recipes are simple but creative and there are gorgeous pictures for almost every dish.  It would be a great gift for any cook, but the PERFECT gift for new cooks setting up house for the first time.

Put an Egg on It is another attractive and inspiring cookbook from Sasquatch Books, one of my very favorite independent publishers.

20 Days to Christmas!

21 Days to Christmas!

22 Days to Christmas!

Teaser Tuesday: A Simplified Map of the Real World by Stevan Allred

Uncle Lenny's arm rested on the open window of his car, and it was the arm with a tattoo on it, a heart with a dagger pierced through it and strange words written on the blade. There were drops of blood dripping off the tip of the dagger, and this is the arm I called the scary arm, but only to myself.

 -- from "A Simplified Map of the Real World," the title story in The Renata Stories by Stevan Allred, published by Forest Avenue Press.

The 15 linked stories in A Simplified Map of the Real World take place in the fictional town of Renata, Oregon -- a rural community Allred's wonderfully textured prose makes us remember even if we never lived in a small town.

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

23 Days to Christmas!