Teaser Tuesday: Small Island

"A black man was running from four whites while several more black men chased them.  The ground tremored under their big boots."


--  Small Island by Andrea Levy.

I am back to reading Small Island, after having been distracted by Up in the Old Hotel for a couple of weeks. This one was slow for me to get into, but now that I am in, I don't want to leave. Great book!

This teaser is from a pivotal scene in which the hero, Gilbert Joseph, a British RAF volunteer from Jamaica stationed in England during WWII, finds himself in the middle of a Jim Crow-style standoff with American GIs in a movie theater, trying to watch Gone With the Wind.


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

Mailbox Monday

It was a busy book week for me. A couple even came in my mailbox, in time for Mailbox Monday.

Even more exciting for my book-consuming ways, after the World's Oldest iPod finally conked out, I got a new iPod in the mail. I have a hard time conceptualizing how this small device can actually be "bigger" than my laptop, but I was thrilled that (thanks to storing my iTunes library on an external hard drive) I was able to load 3,728 songs, 4557 photos, and all 73 of my stored-up audiobooks onto this tiny little thing.  It still has as more empty space on it than my original iPod had space.

So no more having to pick which precious few audiobooks got loaded onto the iPod. What book security! To have 73 books there at my fingertips wherever I go.

As for book-books, here's the list:

Food Lover's Guide to Portland by Liz Crain (I have been waiting for this ever since I interviewed Liz, here)



Peaceful Places Los Angeles: 110 Tranquil Sites in the City of Angels and Neighboring Communities by Laura Randall (from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program)



Enduring Love by Ian McEwan



How to be Good by Nick Hornby



Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld (this has guilty pleasure written all over it)

Review of the Day: Up in the Old Hotel

Up in the Old Hotel is a compilation of essays and short stories that Joseph Mitchell wrote for The New Yorker from the 1930s to the 1960s. Most were published as collections before, as McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr. Flood, The Bottom of the Harbor, and Joe Gould’s Secret. Five essays and two short stories were added to the McSorley’s section in this book.

With the exception of three fictional stories set in the Deep South of Mitchell’s youth, Mitchell wrote about colorful characters in and around New York City. He wrote about bar owners, street preachers, gypsies, bohemians, fish mongers, circus freaks, game wardens, shad fishermen, and anyone else he came to know. He could make anyone’s story fascinating.

And that is what makes Up in the Old Hotel such a terrific book – every story is mesmerizingly interesting. It makes no difference if the subject is a kook running his own museum in a brownstone basement or oyster harvesting around Manhattan Island, Mitchell holds the reader’s attention. The stories flow off the page with no distraction from the style of the writing – it is like the stories are absorbed whole instead of word-by-word.

Up in the Old Hotel deserves its spot on any Must Read list. It is a book to leave on the nightstand permanently, as every piece in it could be read over and over again.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review of this or any of Joseph Mitchell's books listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

NOTES

My friend Bob from Art Scatter left this note about Mitchell:

This book is just great, great personal journalism, and it brings back the flavor of a New York that will never be again. Mitchell was a staff writer for The New Yorker who spent the last 20 years or so of his life going to the office faithfully every day -- the routine became a legend at the magazine -- but, after an extraordinarily prolific career, never wrote another word. He'd simply written himself out.

Announcements!

First: the July issue of the Internet Review of Books is up now in time to impart some summer reading inspiration.  There are ten non-fiction reviews, including my review of Lunatic Express, a manageable three fiction reviews, two poetry reviews, and the always popular "Brief Reviews" section, along with a fun new "photos of libraries" feature.

Please visit the IRB. And, if interested, get involved! They are looking for volunteers and there are other ways to support the IRB.

Second: I am pleased to report that Laura at Musings has completed the Battle of the Prizes, American Version, Challenge! Here are links to her three challenge reviews, Tinkers, Let the Great World Spin, and Morte d'Urban.  Thanks for taking part Laura!

So far, three participants have completed this challenge. In addition to Laura at Musings, chaotic compendiums and 100 Books. 100 Journeys are also finished. Much to my shame as the host, I haven't even started!

The challenge goes until January 31, 2011, so there is still time to sign up.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Valley of the Dolls

"The temperature hit ninety degrees the day she arrived."

-- Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann.

I've always half wanted to read this book. Now I have an excuse because it was published the year I was born. I will read it and earn another candle in the Birth Year Reading Challenge hosted by the Hotchpot Cafe.


NOTE

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a Friday fun "opening sentence" event hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Post the opening sentence of the book(s) you started this week and see what other books people have going.

Hot!

This week's Booking Through Thursday question asks about "hot reading."  Specifically:

Well, folks, I don’t know about where you are, but right here, it’s HOT.
So … when you think about “hot reading,” what does that make you think of? Beach reading? Steamy romances? Books that take place in hot climates? Or cold ones?

I used to associate hot summer weather with reading long, fluffy novels with plenty of romance, empire building, and inter-generational conflict -- The Shell Seekers, for example, or Kane and Able. But once I started working, summer was no longer a special time to lollygag by the pool or on the back porch with a cool drink and a hot book.  Summer is just three more months in the office.

I am going to try this year to recreate those enjoyable summer reading experiences. I just got a copy of Valley of the Dolls. Now all I need is a sun hat and a G&T. 

Review of the Day: Fer-de-Lance

Fer-de-Lance is Rex Stout's first Nero Wolfe mystery and everything it is cracked up to be. I am torn between being appalled at myself for not reading the entire series earlier and giddy that I have the whole series to look forward to.

This first mystery introduces the portly genius and establishes him as an orchard-growing, beer-drinking eccentric who stays inside his New York brownstone while his intrepid sidekick, Archie Goodwin, does the legwork.  Stout creates intriguing context for the duo with several references to prior cases and earlier fame.

In this case, Wolfe is asked to find a missing Italian immigrant and ends up solving the murder of a golf-playing college president.  Throughout, Wolfe's somewhat pompous self-aggrandizement is balanced by Goodwin's wise-cracking narration.  The book is funny and clever and the plot itself is even pretty good, in a vintage, 1934 kind of way.

I am looking forward to the other 46 Nero Wolfe novels. I see another list coming on . . .

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review of this or any other Rex Stout book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

Teaser Tuesday: Lunatic Express

"Suddenly the power came on, the dim lights in the hall and my couchette revealing a world of dirt.  My mattress was so stained it looked like a bullet riddled soldier had died on it."

--What is good about Lunatic Express: Discovering the World . . . via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes by Carl Hoffman: vivid descriptions of traveling in the developing world, like this scene on a train in Africa.

"It was a cheap hotel -- thirty dollars -- but it seemed the most luxurious experience I could ever imagine. Yet a part of me wondered, imagining Ly in a noisy, cluttered home amid too many brothers and sisters and uncles and aunts, who was happier."

-- What is not so good about Lunatic Express: self pitying musings that make a mockery of the difficult conditions in which the people he meets actually live, like this one about an adult professional he met on that same train in Africa. Which one of them is "happier"? Give me a break. That's not a particularly relevant inquiry. 

I just finished this book to review for the Internet Review of Books. Overall, I liked it quite a lot, despite lingering a bit much on his mid-life crisis.

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

Mailbox Monday

There is only one book on my Mailbox Monday list, but I really like it. I spent a big hunk of Saturday afternoon flipping through it.

Only the Best: A Celebration of Gift Giving in America by Stuart E. Jacobson (not a good picture):



This is a coffee table book with lots of pictures. It is all little stories about real presents that famous people gave or received. I love it!

I found it at a church rummage sale and thought that it was brand new. It is in pristine condition. But it was published in 1985.

Opening Sentence of the Day: A Sudden Country

"He carried his girl tied to his front, the trapsack on his back, the rifle balanced like a yoke along his shoulders."

-- A Sudden Country by Karen Fisher.

I don't know about this one. I am halfway through it and I still don't really care about the story or the people. I'm interested enough to finish, but I find myself drifting some. Maybe it is the whole pioneer thing. Having grown up in Nebraska and Oregon, maybe I have had my fill of stories about wagon trains on the Oregon Trail.

This is one of the books I got when I was enrolled in The Book Passage First Editions Club. So I have a nice hardback first edition, signed by the author. I want to like it. I really do.

Guest Review: Nurture Shock

Here is a guest review from a lady lawyer friend of mine who is also busy raising three young boys. Thanks Heather!



I just finished reading a great new book that distills some emerging science regarding child development and turns some “conventional wisdom” on its head. In particular I loved the chapter on a new preschool/kindergarten program called “Tools of the Mind” which teaches kids all the usual stuff plus self-control/self-direction and decision making, which turns out to be very important to later academic success – at least as much as raw native intellect. And it can be learned in a preschool or kindy classroom by kids from all kinds of backgrounds, ability levels, and special needs. It is worth reading for anyone looking for good behavior management techniques. The basic techniques can easily be incorporated into any classroom or home environment.

Get thee a copy of: Nurture Shock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman. Your library should have a copy. About 1/3 of the book is end notes, so it is a shorter read than it appears to be at first glance and I’m telling you, you’ll have a hard time putting it down. You might even learn a thing or two about yourself.

Happy summer reading! Sincerely, Heather

OTHER REVIEWS

Caroline Bookbinder

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

Opening Sentence of the Day: Lunatic Express

"Outside of Pul-I-Khumri, the bus shuddered to a halt on the dusty roadside and couldn't be restarted."

-- Lunatic Express: Discovering the World . . . via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes by Carl Hoffman.

I am reading this to review for the Internet Review of Books.  Although I had some mixed feelings from the description of it, I am tearing right through it. I roll my eyes sometimes at Hoffman's travel-induced navel gazing, and haven't quite figured out what his message is -- what his take away point is going to be. But some of the descriptions of the countries he travels through and his harrowing means of travel are riveting.


NOTE

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a Friday fun "opening sentence" event hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Post the opening sentence of the book(s) you started this week and see what other books people have going.

Review: Angler Management

Angler Management: The Day I Died While Fly Fishing and Other Essays by Jack Ohman.

Angler Management is cartoonist Jack Ohman’s first book of essays and shows that Ohman is as funny with words as he is with pictures.

In this collection, Ohman discusses the obsession that is fly fishing, writing about the compulsive collecting of gear, the frustration of trying to talk to a fly fisherman (even if you are one yourself), the secrecy of fishing spots, the aggravating hobby of tying your own flies (or even more loony, building your own rods), and other crazy-making aspects of what Tom Brokaw calls the “high church” of fishing.

Most of the essays cover general fly fishing topics. However, as Ohman is a self-described “delusional humorist with a fatal streak of nostalgia,” the best pieces are those involving his own experiences and memories, including his reminiscences on his boyhood stream, the Kinnikinnick in Wisconsin, and his story of “the day I died while fly fishing” on Kelly Creek in Idaho.  Even little asides such as this one in an essay on high-tech fishing equipment bring personality to the book:

I was raised by a PhD research scientist, and I can tell you firsthand that he viewed liberal arts majors as ethereal slacker stoners with no real understanding of how the world works, let alone how to turn on a Bunsen burner or create penicillin in a petri dish (when I was a child, my dad once gave me some penicillin that he personally created -- I can't even make a Manhattan without consulting the Internet). One way that we've figured out how to make ourselves feel, well, more scientific, is to inject science into art -- specifically, the art of fly fishing.

Anglers and non-anglers alike will get a chuckle out of Angler Management, but it is definitely aimed at fellow enthusiasts and their co-dependents. It is too late to recommend it for Father’s Day this year, but it would be worth stashing away a few copies for the fly fishermen on your Christmas list.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review of this or any other Jack Ohman book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

Teaser Tuesday: Up in the Old Hotel

From a list of reasons why 93-year-old Mr. Flood is "irreconcilable" to death:

"Third, he is a diet theorist -- he calls himself a seafoodetarian -- and feels obliged  to reach a spectacular age in order to prove his theory.  He is convinced that the eating of meat and vegetables shortens life and he maintains that the only sensible food for man, particularly for a man who wants to hit a hundred and fifteen, is fish."

-- From "Old Mr. Flood" in Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell.

I was so pleased that my copy of Up in the Old Hotel turned up in the lost-and-found at the gym that I have set aside Small Island and gone back to Mitchell's essays and short stories about New York.

This teaser is from one of three three stories about the fictional Mr. Flood, a composite character of Mitchell's invention based on the curmudgeons who liked to hang around the Fulton Fish Market.  Like the essays in the book, the Mr. Flood stories are rich, colorful accounts of New York life in the 1930s and '40s -- mostly centered around the Fulton Market and the people involved in the fishing trade.

This is now one of my all-time favorite books. I wish I had read it years and years ago so I could be re-reading it now.



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

Mailbox Monday

It looked like I was going to have an empty mailbox this holiday weekend. But then I ran across an estate sale late yesterday afternoon -- on Independence Day! -- while I was heading out to get the fried chicken for our 4th of July picnic.  So it is another long list for Mailbox Monday.

First, a couple of fancy books:

The Prado by Santiago Alcolea Blanch (the picture doesn't do it justice, because it is a beautiful coffee table book in perfect condition -- really lovely, and the closest I'll get to the real thing in the foreseeable future)



Charles II by Antonia Fraser (another coffee table edition full of pictures)



Then, some fun stuff:

I got the first eight volumes of a nine-volume, Book Club edition of the Sherlock Holmes books. Since I've been in a vintage mystery mood lately, I thought I could start at the source. Of course, now I want to find the ninth volume.

I found several P. D. James books. I recently read her first Adam Dalgliesh mystery, Cover Her Face, and it made me want to work my way through the series. I picked up A Taste for Death, Devices & Desires, A Certain Justice,

Happy Independence Day!

Opening Sentence of the Day: Fer-de-Lance

There was no reason why I shouldn't have been sent for the beer that day, for the last ends of the Fairmont National Bank case had been gathered in the week before and there was nothing for me to do but errands, and Wolfe never hesitated about running me down to Murray Street for a can of shoe-polish if he happened to need one.

-- Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout.

This is a really great first sentence because it establishes that there are at least three characters in Nero Wolfe's world -- Wolfe, the narrator, and whoever was sent for the beer -- that there is some history as detectives, even though this is the very first Nero Wolfe novel, and they drink beer. I love it.

I have been on a classic mystery series jag for awhile. I recently started Dorthy L. Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey series, P. D. James's Adam Dalgliesh series, and now Rex Stout's famous Nero Wolfe series. I cannot believe that I have never read any of these before. But my dereliction means I can start at the beginning of each series and read them in order.



NOTE

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a Friday fun "opening sentence" event hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Post the opening sentence of the book(s) you started this week and see what other books people have going.

State of the Blog, Part Three: The Authors

Summer is finally here in Portland, so it is time for my quarterly, three-part, progress assessment. The first part addressed the book lists. Part Two covered the challenges I joined this year. Part Three, here, takes a look at the author lists.

So far this year, I have only read 12 books by my listed authors this year. I need ot make time for my favorites. 

THE AUTHORS

Kingsley Amis
Books read so far: 8/48
Books read in 2010: four (or two, depending how you count compilations):

1. One Fat Englishman (reviewed here); and
2. Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis (reviewed here), which includes the complete, previously published volumes:
• On Drink;
• Every Day Drinking; and 
• How's Your Glass

Books I hope to read in 2010: probably no more
Books on my TBR shelf: 5

Kate Atkinson
Books read so far: 2/8
Books read in 2010: one (Case Histories, for the Typically British Challenge)
Books I hope to read in 2010: 2

• One Good Turn
• When Will There be Good News?

Books on my TBR shelf: 2

Cara Black
Books read so far: 2/9
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one, if the one on my TBR shelf is the next in order
Books on my TBR shelf: one

William Boyd

Books read so far: 3/16
Books read in 2010: one (The New Confessions, reviewed here)
Books I hope to read in 2010: one more (A Good Man in Africa)
Books on my TBR shelf: 3

James Lee Burke
Books read so far: 13/17 (Dave Robicheaux series only)
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: 2 or 3 -- I'm almost done with them
Books on my TBR shelf: 3

Lee Child
Books read so far: 12/14
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: 2

• Gone Tomorrow
• 61 Hours

Books on my TBR shelf: zero

A. J. Cronin

Books read so far: 1/25
Books read in 2010: one (Three Loves, reviewed here)
Books I hope to read in 2010: that may be it for this year
Books on my TBR shelf: 5

M. F. K. Fisher
Books read so far: 4/27
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: 2, but I have not decided which ones
Books on my TBR shelf: 4

F. Scott Fitzgerald
Books read so far: 8/13
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: probably zero, this is a future goal
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Penelope Fitzgerald
Books read so far: 2/9
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (The Bookshop, for the Bibliophilic Books Challenge)
Books on my TBR shelf: 2

Richard Ford
Books read so far: 5/10
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: undecided
Books on my TBR shelf: 3

Dick Francis
Books read so far: 4/47
Books read in 2010: two

1. Second Wind (reviewed here); and
2. Under Orders.

Books I hope to read in 2010: probably no more
Books on my TBR shelf: 4

Jim Harrison
Books read so far: 20/20 (prose only)
Books read in 2010: one (Farmer's Daughter, reviewed here)
Books I hope to read in 2010: no more
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Nick Hornby
Books read so far: 2/11
Books read in 2010: one (The Polysyllabic Spree, reviewed here)
Books I hope to read in 2010: 2 more

• Housekeeping vs. the Dirt
• Shakespeare Wrote for Money

Books on my TBR shelf: 3

John Lescroart
Books read so far: 16/17 (Dismus Hardy series and spin offs)
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (A Plague of Secrets)
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Elinor Lipman
Books read so far: 4/10
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (Then She Found Me)
Books on my TBR shelf: 2

David Lodge
Books read so far: 2/15 (fiction only)
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least 2, but I don't know which ones
Books on my TBR shelf: 9

Ian McEwan
Books read so far: 5/13
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least one, but I do not have any on my TBR shelf
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Jack Ohman
Books read so far: 5/10
Books read in 2010: one (Angler Management, but I haven't reviewed it yet)
Books I hope to read in 2010: no more

Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Anthony Powell
Books read so far: 13/32
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (Venusberg)
Books on my TBR shelf: one

Philip Roth
Books read so far: 8/30
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least one, but I haven't decided which one
Books on my TBR shelf: 5

Martin Cruz Smith
Books read so far: 6/6 (Arkady Renko series only)
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: zero, unless I get my hands on Three Stations,
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Julia Spencer-Fleming
Books read so far: 5/7
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (I Shall Not Want)
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

William Styron
Books read so far: 2/10
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: probably zero
Books on my TBR shelf: 3

Anne Tyler
Books read so far: 4/18
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: one (Breathing Lessons, for my Pulitzer pick for the Battle of the Prizes challenge)
Books on my TBR shelf: 5

John Updike
Books read so far: 8/26
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: at least one, but I do not know which one
Books on my TBR shelf: 9

Andrea U'ren
Books read so far: zero/2
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: hopefully both of them
Books on my TBR shelf: zero

Simon Winchester
Books read so far: 5/16
Books read in 2010: zero
Books I hope to read in 2010: two

1. The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
2. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded

Books on my TBR shelf: one

Teaser Tuesday: Small Island

"The English woman was still looking at me when I entered the hallway. Perusing me in a fashion as if I was not there to see her stares."

--  Small Island by Andrea Levy.


Although I started Small Island last week, I have only read a few pages because I got sucked back into Up in the Old Hotel.

But, since I left Up in the Old Hotel in the locker room at the gym (I've lost track of how many times I have done this -- I need to tattoo a reminder on the back of my hand), I have turned to Small Island for my teaser. From the first chapter, when Hortense first arrives in London.


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

Mailbox Monday

I only got one new book last week, and it did not come in the mail. I found it at a garage sale. So I have another very short list for Mailbox Monday.

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. This one got so much buzz that I finally decided to read it.

Cookbook Library: Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook

Probably no cookbook maven inspires the love/hate reaction that Martha Stewart does.  I don't think I am alone in this. I have at least nine of her cookbooks, not to mention a box of the little "Dinner of the Month" cards from her magazine that I have ripped out and saved for years, but I seldom cook from any of them.  I find that the recipes are either needlessly complicated (fine if you have staff on hand to help) or just go wrong, like she hides a booby trap in there designed to destroy the amateur's cooking confidence.

But, being determined to make at least one new recipe from every cookbook on my shelves, I turned to Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook.  I had a whim to make pâté for a little backyard picnic, now that the weather has finally turned nice.  But the Silver Palate recipe I usually use is a little time-consuming -- mostly because it requires final oven cooking in a bain-marie.  Martha's recipe was simple and pretty quick, although I skimped on the soaking stage:

1/2 pound chicken livers, cleaned
1/4 cup brandy
1 tablespoon minced shallots
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp.
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
salt & pepper

A summary of instructions:

Soak the livers in the brandy for 3 to 4 hours in a cool place (I did this for one hour).Drain, but save the liquid.

Saute shallots in half the butter. Add livers, sage, salt and pepper and saute until livers are not pink inside (about 5 minutes).

Transfer to food prosessor, add remaining butter, and process until smooth. Add the brandy liquid. Proseess another 30 seconds.

Transfer to an earthenware bowl, cover, and refrigerate for 24 hours.

She recommends using a "Pullman loaf pan" and even provides the dimensions (good thing, because what is a Pullman loaf?): 16" x 3 1/2" x 3 1/2". Wait a minute. Look at the ingredients. There is, at most, one cup -- eight ounces -- of material involved in this recipe. If you poured it into a 16-inch long pan, even if only 3 1/2 inches wide, you would end up with a very thin, flat slab of pâté. I doubled the recipe and it still fit in a small crock not much bigger than a ramekin. 

OK. Having avoided the booby trap of the Pullman loaf pan, the recipe was easy enough and straightforward. I like a little cognac in pâté, so this seemed to be the recipe for me. I thought I had finally found a Martha recipe I would use often.

Oh, was I wrong. The cognac flavor was so overwhelming you could almost see the fumes rising off the cracker. Instead of tasting like pâté with a hint of brandy, it tasted like a liver-infused cocktail -- which is disgusting even to type.

Once again, Martha let me down. It was inedible. Our backyard picnic was heavy on cheese and olives.  The pâté went down the garbage disposal. 



NOTES

I am interested to know if anyone has ever had luck with Martha Stewart recipes. Anyone? Anything? Please share! I want to know the secret.

Beth Fish Reads hosts a weekly event called Weekend Cooking.  It dovetails nicely with my goal of making one new recipe from all the books in my Cookbook Library.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Small Island

"I thought I'd been to Africa."

-- from the Prologue to Small Island by Andrea Levy.

I've been hearing very good things about this book and am excited to finally start reading it. It is about Jamaican immigrants to Britain after WWII.

Oddly, the inside cover of my edition describes this as "an encapsulation of the most American of experiences: the immigrant's life." "American"? Oh well, the author didn't write the book jacket, so I'll have to let go of that one and not let it color my reaction to the book.

This book won the Orange Prize and the Costa Book of the Year. It is my book club's upcoming book and counts as one of the books I am reading for the Book Awards challenge. So I'll get to scratch this off several lists when I finish it -- how satisfying.


NOTE

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a Friday fun "opening sentence" event hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Post the opening sentence of the book(s) you started this week and see what other books people have going.

State of the Blog, Part Two: The Challenges

Summer is finally here in Portland, so it is time for my quarterly, three-part, progress assessment. The first part addressed the book lists. Part Two, here, deals with the challenges I joined this year. Part Three will take a look at the author lists.

I am hosting two "Battle of the Prizes" challenges this year and working on several others.  All are listed in the right-hand column.

CHALLENGES HOSTED BY ROSE CITY READER

Battle of the Prizes: American Version

National Book Award winners v. Pulitzer Prize winners, rules here. There is still time to sign up! And even though I haven't read any of my three books yet, chaotic compendiums and 100 Books. 100 Journeys. are already finished.

Books read so far: zero (how shameful!)

Books I'm going to read for this challenge: 3

1. Them by Joyce Carol Oates for my National winner;
2. Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler for my Pulitzer winner; and
3. The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter for my double dipper choice.

Battle of the Prizes: British Version

Man Booker Prize v. James Tait Black Memorial Prize, rules here. Again, there is still time to sign up!  

Books read so far: one (The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry for my James Tait Black winner; reviewed here) 

Books I'm going to read for this challenge: 2 more

1. The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch for my Booker winner; and
2. G by John Berger for my double dipper choice. 

CHALLENGES I AM PARTICIPATING IN

Bibliophilic Books Challenge



A challenge to read books about books. The home page is here.

I signed up for the "Bibliomaniac" level, which means I have 12 to read by the end of the year. I do not have a final list yet, but I have several in mind.

Books read so far: 2

1. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby (reviewed here);
2. The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris by Edmund White (reviewed here);
3. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman (reviewed here); and
4. A Year in the World by Frances Mayes (reviewed here).

Books I may read for this challenge (so many to chose from):

1. Housekeeping vs. the Dirt by Nick Hornby;
   
2. Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby; 
3. Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love, edited by Anne Fadiman; 
4. 99 Novels by Anthony Burgess;
5. The Well-Educated Mind by Wise S. Bauer;
6. How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom;
7. Studies in Classic American Literature by D. H. Lawrence;
8. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald;
9. The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte; 
10. Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon;
11. At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries by Estelle Ellis;
12. The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World by Guillaume de Laubier;
13. Literary Essays by Mark Twain;
14. Speak Memory by Vladimir Nobokov;
15. Saul Bellow: A Biography of the Imagination by Ruth Miller;
16. Oscar Wilde: A Certain Genius by Barbara Belford;
17. Capote by Gerald Clarke;
18. Greene on Capri: A Memoir by Shirley Hazzard; and
19. Walks in Hemingway's Paris: A Guide To Paris For The Literary Traveler by Noel Fitch

Birth Year Reading Challenge 

This challenge is to read one or more books published in the year you were born, hosted by Hotchpot Cafe. My main post for this challenge is here.

Books read so far: one (Indian Summer by John Knowles; reviewed here)

I really want to read The Valley of the Dolls by Jaqueline Susann (what a great excuse!), but I don't have a copy yet.


Book Awards Challenge

The challenge involves reading ten books that won ten different prizes by November 1, 2010. The home page is here. Many of my picks overlap with other challenges, but I better get hopping.

Books read so far: 4

1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (National Book Critics Circle winner;
2. The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips (Discover Award winner; reviewed here);
3. Citizen Vince by Jess Walter (Edgar winner; reviewed here);
4. The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (Costa winner; reviewed here). 

Books I may read for this challenge:

1. Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (Pulitzer winner);
2. Them by Joyce Carol Oates (National winner);
3. The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch (Booker winner);
4. G by John Berger (James Tait Black winner);
5. Small Island by Andrea Levy (Orange winner);
6. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (Nobel winner); and
7. Seaview by Toby Olson (PEN/Faulkner winner).

Chunkster Challenge

I signed up for the "Mor-book-ly Obese" level, meaning I will read six 450+-page books (or three 750+-pagers). Caribousmom hosts this challenge.

Books read so far: one (Three Loves by A. J. Cronin; reviewed here). Again, I better get those pages turning! I am behind on this challenge.

Books I may read for this challenge: 

1.  Them by Joyce Carol Oates (which I am reading for my Battle of the Prizes: American Version challenge); 
2. The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch (which I am reading for my Battle of the Prizes: British Version challenge);
3. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (on the Radcliffe list); and
4. one more that I haven't come up with yet because I was thinking of using Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell, but then realized it is a book of essays and that does not count.

100+ Challenge

I signed up for this because I am pretty sure I'll read more than 100 books this year. But I do not have my own post for it. The challenge home page is here.

I keep a book cover list of the books I've read this year in the right-hand column of this blog, although books don't show up over there if they are missing a cover picture on my LibraryThing library. I am up to 57 books so far this year if I didn't forget something. That happens.


Typically British Challenge (FINISHED)



I signed up at the "Cream Crackered" level to read eight "Typically British" novels. I blew through all eight pretty quickly, since probably half of the books I read qualify. The challenge home page is here.

So this is the first challenge I have completed this year. Jolly good!

Books read so far: 8

1. One Fat Englishman by Kingsley Amis (reviewed here);
2. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (finished, not reviewed);
3. The New Confessions by William Boyd (reviewed here);
4. Three Loves by A. J. Cronin (reviewed here);
5. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster (reviewed here);
6. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells (reviewed here);
7. Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis by Kinglsey Amis (reviewed here); and
8. The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (reviewed here).