Book Beginnings: The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents

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.

Leave a link to your post.  If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

The Founding Fathers would be appalled by the modern presidency.

-- The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents: From Wilson to Obama by Steven F. Hayward.

This is exactly what I need for a refresher course on 20th+ Century Presidents. Hayward is as witty and irreverent as ever. And he gets right to the point with his system of grading US Presidents on how strictly they adhered to their oath to uphold the Constitution.  I'm learning while I'm laughing.

Opening Sentence: A Month of Sundays

Forgive me my denomination and my town; I am a Christian minister and an American.

A Month of Sundays by John Updike.

This rather coy beginning is understandable when the narrator, the Reverend Tom Marshfield, goes on to explain that he is spending a month in a rest home of sorts for disgraced clergy.   The novel takes the form of his daily journal entries describing, for the most part, his sexual exploits with the women in his congregation.

Teaser Tuesday: Understanding the Abuse of Adults

Quite often, by the time the relationship becomes sexualized, the victim is already deeply immersed; she has already heavily invested her heart in the relationship.  Many victims/survivors consider the religious leader to be a close friend; others have fallen in love with him/her, believing that s/he is "the one and only."

--  Understanding the Abuse of Adults by Catholic Clergy and Religious by Kathryn R, Byrne.

This book is a very well-written, accessible, and thoughtful discussion about a problem traditionally ignored.  It is a very good book.

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 at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

This month, Mailbox Monday moves north, to somewhere near Quebec, where Cindy at Cindy's Love of Books is hosting.  Please stop by to visit her blog and join in the fun.

I got two quirky but cool books from OSU Press last week.   I love how they publish some offbeat stuff.



The Wet Engine: Exploring Mad Wild Miracle of Heart by Brian Doyle.




Wild Delicate Seconds: 29 Wildlife Encounters by Charles Finn.

Review: The World of Herb Caen

Herb Caen was San Francisco's legendary newspaper columnist. Barnaby Conrad describes Caen's prodigious work product in his introduction to The World of Herb Caen: San Francisco 1938 – 1997:

For almost six decades staring on July 5, 1938 – and except for yearly vacations and a 3 ½-year stint in the Army Air Force during World War II – Herb's column appeared, appeared, sparkling and infallible, to entertain and enlighten San Franciscans half a dozen times each and every week. In a typical year, he dropped 6,768 names, got 45,000 letters, 24,000 phone calls. If laid end to end, his columns would stretch 5.6 miles, from the Ferry Building to the Golden Gate Bridge. . . . It is an astounding and unduplicated feat, by far the longest-running newspaper column in the country.

Conrad – an author, restaurateur, and longtime friend of Caen's – compiled samples of Caen's columns, snippets from dozens of others, photos, and anecdotes about San Francisco's favorite newspaper man. The book is pure delight for Caen fans or any lover of "Baghdad by the Bay."

One of the best parts is seeing collected many of the "Herbisms" Caen invented, many of which have become common lingo in and out of San Francisco. He coined "beatnik," "glitterati," and "Berserkeley," for example. And all San Franciscans recognize "The Washbag" (Washington Square Bar & Grill) and "Da Mayor" (Willie Brown), among others. Some of Caen's clever word plays haven't stuck, but are still entertaining, like "the car-strangled spanner" for the Bay Bridge or "Skid Rogues" for the panhandlers on Market Street.

The only drawback to the book is that it is too short at only 126 (oversized) pages, many crammed with photographs of Caen, celebrities, and city scenes. Perhaps if it had been organized by decade instead of its four thematic chapters, it could have included more from Caen's own columns. As it is, it is funny and charming and leaves the reader wanting to spend more time in Herb Caen's world.

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

This counts as one of my books for the Mt. TBR and Off the Shelf challenges.

Book Beginnings: Understanding the Abuse of Adults

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.

Leave a link to your post.  If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.


MY BOOK BEGINNING

Awareness of the problem of the sexual abuse of minors by clergy within the Catholic Church moved to the forefront at the beginning of this century.

--  Understanding the Abuse of Adults by Catholic Clergy and Religious by Kathryn R, Byrne.

In my law practice at O'Donnell Clark & Crew, I work with many people who were abused as children by clergy and other trusted adults.  I do not usually work with people who were sexually abused as adults, which is what this book addresses.  I am interested to learn more. 

Review: Tinkers

 

Tinkers is a short book, but irritated me in a way that usually takes a longer book to do. I wanted to like it because I liked the idea of a dark horse Pulitzer winner, but it didn't do anything for me. I can't write an impartial, third person review, because the reasons I didn't like the book are more personal.

First, I wasn't absorbed by the story. George Crosby is dying and recollecting his life. It could be an interesting life the way a seemingly ordinary marriage and career (as a clock fixer) can be made fascinating in a good novel. But I never felt engaged with his story.

Second, the story confused me. George remembers his own life, but he also remembers the lives of his father and grandfather as if he was those men, not just remembering what he had learned about them. The narrative moves among the lives of the three men indiscriminately. It was hard to know which story was happening when. Some scenes are so obscure I could not understand if they were descriptions of events or deathbed imaginings.

Finally, I didn't like George. He cheats his clock customers. He isn't very nice to his family. He has charming moments, but I never warmed to him.

There were bits and pieces I enjoyed – little glimmers of humor, scenes that were clever, a few endearing family moments. But overall, the book rubbed me the wrong way.

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

Tinkers counts as one of my two Pulitzer picks for the Battle of the Prizes, American Version.  It also counts as one of my books for the Audio-Book Challenge.

We read this for my book club.  The opinions were somewhat mixed, although most people didn't care for it.

Review: World Without End

World Without End is the sequel to Ken Follett's spectacular Pillars of the Earth. Pillars takes place in the 1100s, during the construction of the fictional Kingsbridge cathedral; World takes place 200 years later, also in Kingsbridge, but lacks a single event as a unifying focus.

It is the lack of focus that makes World disappointing. It is entertaining, but a pale shadow of Pillars. The story starts with the need to build a new bridge for Kingsbridge. Roughly the last third of the story is about the plague coming to England. There are ongoing storylines about the conflicts between the honest and hardworking heroes and heroines and the greedy, corrupt, or violent villains.

But it often feels like Book Without End, as the storylines drag on and repetitively on for over 1,000 pages. Pillars was long too, and had plenty of soap opera-like side stories, but was grander in scope and it provided loads of interesting historical information along with an exciting tale. World, on the other hand, feels like a modern story involving characters with very modern sensibilities crammed into a Medieval setting.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

NOTES

World Without End counts as my first book for the Tea & Books Challenge (books over 750 pages), as well as one of by books for the following challenges: TBR Pile, Mt. TBR, Off the Shelf, and Chunkster.

Teaser Tuesday: Light on the Devils

As late as March, the Klamath still flowed high and muddy, still churned with rocks and snags and root wads.  In that month, Happy Camp's deputy sheriff drowned, victim of his own hubris and the terrible indifferent power of the river.

-- Light on the Devils: Coming of Age on the Klamath by Louise Wagenknecht, published by OSU Press.  This is an incredible, well-told story about growing up in a remote lumber town in the 1960s and '70s. 

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 at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

This month, Mailbox Monday moves north, to somewhere near Quebec, where Cindy at Cindy's Love of Books is hosting.  Please stop by to visit her blog and join in the fun.

I got two books last week, both through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program:



Ronald Reagan in Quotations: A Topical Dictionary, with Sources, of the Presidential Years by Ronald Reagan, compiled by David B. Frost.  I already know that this will be the perfect Father's Day gift!



The Wisdom of John Muir: 100 Selections from the Letters, Journals, and Essays of the Great Naturalist by Anne Rowthorn.

Happy Easter!

Weekend Cooking: German Cookbooks & Zwetschgendatschi

There are three German cookbooks in my cookbook library.  Given my Bavarian roots, I would think I'd have a few more.  But given the . . . um . . . limited range of German cooking, perhaps three is all anyone really needs.

I have:



The German Cookbook: A Complete Guide to Mastering Authentic German Cooking by Mimi Sheraton.  This is my authoritative (wait, it's German, maybe "authoritative" goes without saying), go to book when I want to make a sauerbraten or one of the other standby dishes I really do love. 



The Cooking of Germany - Foods of the World Series by Time Life Books. This offers 1960s, Americanized versions of my childhood favorites, with kitchy pictures.



Bayerisch Kochen by Brigitta Stuber. This is a cute little book my cousin gave me, in German, of Bavarian recipes.

The problem is that none of these books has a recipe for my favorite Bavarian treat, a zwetschgendatschi -- a flat yeast-dough cake covered with sour plums.

My sister just moved back to Portland from Bavaria, where she has been working as a chef at a five-star hotel outside of Munich for the last two years.   I could have asked her to make any number of fancy dishes for Easter, but what I really, really wanted was a zwetschgendatschi.  I even froze the plums last summer for just this moment.

Luckily, I found a recipe on-line and she made me what I wanted (we tweaked it to make it the version we prefer).  I looks terrific and tastes even better.  We kicked off Easter weekend with 'datschi and coffee this morning.

BAVARIAN PLUM CAKE: ZWETSCHGENDATSCHI

1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. warm milk
1 1/2 pkg. active dry yeast
3 c. flour
Pinch of salt
4 tbsp. butter
2 eggs
2 lb. plums
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
4 - 8 more tbsp. softened butter
About 1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon


Stir a pinch of sugar into warm milk and sprinkle with yeast. Let stand 5 minutes or until the surface is frothy. Stir gently to moisten any dry particles remaining on top. Sift flour, remaining sugar and salt into a medium bowl.

Melt butter; cool slightly. Lightly beat butter and eggs into yeast mixture. Pour into floured mixture, beating to make a dough. On a floured surface, knead dough lightly. Cover and let rise in a warm place 1 hour. Grease a 13 x 9 inch cake pan.

Wash and pit plums; cut lengthwise into halves. Knead risen dough lightly; roll out to fit cake pan. Place dough in greased pan. Pierce dough all over with fork. Arrange plums cut sides up in rows on dough. Sprinkle nuts on top, more between the plums then on them.  Dot each plum half with a dab of soft butter.  Let rise in a warm place 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until plums are wilted and yeast pastry is puffed up and golden between plums. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon while still warm. Cool slightly in pan, then cut into squares.

YUMMY! Or, as they say in Bavaria, schmackofatz!

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginning: Light on the Devils

Sorry I messed up the post this morning! Insane week. 

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.

Leave a link to your post.  If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



My Book Beginning:

In a town called Happy Camp, beside a river that he had known all his life, a man drove into the deserted parking lot of an abandoned lumber mill, sat for a while in the cab of his pickup truck, and then blew his brains out.

-- Light on the Devils: Coming of Age on the Klamath by Louise Wagenknecht (from OSU Press and a good pick for the Memorable Memoirs challenge).

Wow! I wasn't expecting such a shocking beginning.


Thanks go to Becky at Page Turners for starting this weekly event, and to Katy at A Few More Pages, who graciously hosted for a year and a half.

Review: The Black Tower

P. D. James's mysteries are book yoga for me. They follow an anticipated sequence, starting with a gentle warm up to the story, moving on to stretch the plot, progressing through a series of moves and poses, with variations and repetitions to accommodate all the characters and clues, culminating in increasingly difficult moves, and winding down to a contemplative final end. Namaste.

The Black Tower follows the same pattern and is just as satisfying as the first four Adam Dalgliesh novels. Like the others, it involves mysterious deaths in a closed society, this time a private seaside hospital for disabled adults. Dalgliesh, recovering from a serious illness, incorporates a visit to an old family friend into his convalescence, only to arrive at Hope Cottage to learn that his friend had died. He stays around, reluctantly drawn in to solve the mystery.

Inspector Dalgliesh is one of my very favorite sleuths because he is a complicated, fully-formed character. He is world-weary, but not callous. He reads books and writes poetry. He is patient with the weak, but does not suffer fools. Most importantly, he is interesting but does not dominate the stories – he is a foil for the varied personalities of the suspects, victims, and villains.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

NOTES

This counted as one of the audio books I read with my ears for the Audio-Book Challenge. 

Review: Murder in Belleville

Murder in Belleville is the second mystery in Cara Black’s exciting, Paris-based series featuring the sassy, half-American, half-French Aimée Leduc. Once again, Leduc is drawn away from her regular job providing corporate security to solve a murder mystery, this one involving illegal Algerian immigrants and the car-bombing of a cabinet minister’s mistress.

There is more to the story and the narrative flows much more smoothly than Black’s debut novel, Murder in the Marais. But the plot gets needlessly confusing, with not enough explained until a rush at the end. Some of the scenes are even irritatingly difficult to picture, in a spacial sense. For instance, when a backup set of bad guys show up while Leduc is in the middle of a confrontation with their boss, it is not clear just where the new men are located. Are they close enough for Leduc to touch? Close enough to shoot her? Or just within her line of sight? Trying to figure out things like that takes the reader out of the story.

But the book is still entertaining and Leduc is a fun, feisty heroine. The kinks of the first two get ironed out by the third in the series, Murder in the Sentier, when Black seems to hit her stride, hinting at better things to come in the other nine books of the series.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book or any of Cara Black's other books, please leave a comment with a link and I will list it here. 

NOTES

This counts as my France choice for the European Reading Challenge.  It also knocks another one off my TBR Challenges. It has been on my TBR shelf, and my French Connections list, for several years.

Teaser Tuesday: Glow

The woman was a gifted healer.  From elements as common as honey and soot she could resolve almost anything that ailed him.

-- Glow by Jessica Maria Tuccelli. This is quite a back-woods yarn.  It's getting a lot of deserved buzz.

Thanks go to book publicist extraordinaire, Mary Bisbee-Beek, for getting me an early copy of Glow.


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 at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

This month, Mailbox Monday moves north, to somewhere near Quebec, where Cindy at Cindy's Love of Books is hosting.  Please stop by to visit her blog and join in the fun.

Thanks to a stop at the Friends' store of the Deschutes County Library in Bend, I snagged three vintage paperbacks for only 50 cents each.

 

Darkness Visible by William Styron. His classic memoir about his own depression.



The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth. On the All-TIME list of best 100 novels.



May We Borrow Your Husband? by Graham Greene.  A possibly odd choice for the Graham Greene Challenge.

Opening Sentence: The Hapless Valet

 

As soon as he stepped from the ladder, the trap door slammed shut above him.

-- The Hapless Valet by Lenhardt Stevens.   Read my interview of Len here.

I got this one because it is by a Portland author, it sounds good, the cover is terrific, and it only cost $.99!


Reading book on the Kindle app on my iPhone is not optimal, but it is handy.  I was killing time yesterday while Naomi's rewired a lamp for me, and buzzed through the first exciting three chapters. Now I am hooked. 

From the Kirkus Indie review:

In Stevens’ debut novel, a celebrity with a history of eco-terrorism, a 1950s film noir star’s mysterious past and a jazz club owner looking to make fast money collide in rainy Portland with professional valet Draper Burns (that’s the jack-of-all-trades servant kind, not the kind that parks cars).

Book Beginning: Glow

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.

Leave a link to your post.  If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

No matter what trouble he stirs up, what law he breaks, Obidiah Bounds will always be her cool sip of hyssop nectar on a sunny day.

-- Glow by Jessica Maria Tuccelli. That's laying it on a bit thick, but it looks like this is going to be a great read.

This is my first book for the Southern Literature Reading Challenge.

Thanks go to intrepid book publicist, Mary Bisbee-Beek, for getting me an early copy of Glow.


Thanks go to Becky at Page Turners for starting this weekly event, and to Katy at A Few More Pages, who graciously hosted for a year and a half.

2012 Challenge: Southern Literature Reading Challenge

INCOMPLETE

I signed up late for the Southern Reading Challenge, hosted by The Introverted Reader, but it is one that definitely has captured my fancy.   Click the picture or the link for more details or to sign up.

This is my first year participating, so I am starting slow, at the two-book, "pull up a seat and stay a while" level.

BOOKS, REVIEWS, & POSSIBILITIES

UPDATE: I only finished one book for this challenge and didn't even review that one. I read The General's Daughter by Nelson DeMille, which was set on a military base in Georgia. It was a book that made the most of its Southern setting, so was a good choice for the challenge. But I wish I had read more qualifying books.

My other possibilities were these:

Glow by Jessica Maria Tuccelli

Swan Peak by James Lee Burke (which I read but realized didn't count because, unlike his other Dave Robicheaux books, this one was set in Montana!)

Lie Down in Darkness by William Styron

Teaser Tuesday: Wading for Bugs

In all my Okanagan River dike walking, I've found only three olive clubtail adults.  The first one I'd ever seen was camouflaged like a grey-green and black twig, perched flat on the dusty trail at Osoyoos Lake, almost at the U.S.-Canada border. 

Wading for Bugs: Exploring Streams with the Experts by Judith L. Li and Michael T. Barbour, Illustrations by Boonsatien Boonsoong, published by OSU Press. 

I'm not much of a bug person, but this would be a great book for a junior etymologist. 


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 at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here)

Diary of an Eccentric is hosting in March.  Please stop by her terrific blog to see what this "eccentric bookworm" is reading lately.

I got one book in the mail last week, from a young Portland author:

 100 Poems to Bestill Your Young Heart by Kenneth Woods.



I plan to get a review up soon. It looks like a great graduation gift for creative types.

State of the Blog: Part Three, The Challenges

Spring has finally come to Portland, after weeks of freaky cold and snow.  So it is time to take a look at the books I've read this year and see what kind of progress I've made on my book lists and reading projects.

2012 is still in its early days, so I haven't made much progress yet.  But with all the challenges I joined this year, I have made some.

This is the last of three quarterly blog assessment posts.  The first part addressed the book lists.  Part Two dealt with my favorite authors. 

The list of all the challenges I've joined (so far) this year is here.  There are some I haven't even started on yet, including for reasons I can't imagine, my favorite Foodie's Reading Challenge, hosted by Margot at Joyfully Retired.

Those I have made progress on are listed below.

First, the three challenges I am hosting here at Rose City Reader.  There is still plenty of time to sign up! Click on the title to go to the main challenge page.

EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE

• High Stakes by Dick Francis (UK; reviewed here)
• Serenissima by Erica Jong (Italy; reviewed here) 
• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Bosnia; reviewed here)

BATTLE OF THE PRIZES, AMERICAN VERSION

• Tinkers by Paul Harding (National; finished but not reviewed yet)
• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (Pulitzer; reviewed here)

BATTLE OF THE PRIZES, BRITISH VERSION

I haven't read any of these yet, but plan to get to my first Booker choice, Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, very soon.

Second, the challenges I've joined:

AUDIO BOOK CHALLENGE

I've read a lot of book with my ears, but haven't reviewed very many.

• The Coffee Trader by David Liss   
• High Stakes by Dick Francis (reviewed here) 
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (reviewed here) 
• Dracula by Bram Stoker (reviewed here) 
• My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas 
• Shroud for a Nightingale by P. D. James
• Blood Sport  by Dick Francis (reviewed here) 
• Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe by Thomas Cahill  (reviewed here)
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  
• Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie 
• What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza 
• The Black Tower by P. D. James

BACK TO THE CLASSICS and the CLASSICS CHALLENGE

• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (19th Century; reviewed here)
• Dracula by Bram Stoker (horror; reviewed here)
• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (award winner -- Pulitzer; reviewed here)

EASTERN EUROPE READING CHALLENGE

• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Bosnia; reviewed here)

HENRY GREEN WEEK (finished)

•  Living (reviewed here)

I LOVE ITALY READING CHALLENGE

• Serenissima by Erica Jong (reviewed here) 
• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here)
• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (reviewed here)

MEMORABLE MEMOIRS CHALLENGE

• My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas

MT. TBR, OFF THE SHELF, and the TBR PILE CHALLENGES

• The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here)
• A Case of Need by Michael Crichton
• Living by Henry Green (reviewed here)
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré (reviewed here)
• Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe. by Thomas Cahill (reviewed here)
• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (reviewed here)
• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (reviewed here)

NON-FICTION, NON-MEMOIRS CHALLENGE

• Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe by Thomas Cahill  (reviewed here)
• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (19th Century; reviewed here)
• What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza

VENICE IN FEBRUARY CHALLENGE (finished)

• Serenissima by Erica Jong (reviewed here)

VINTAGE MYSTERY CHALLENGE

• Dracula by Bram Stoker (reviewed here);
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (reviewed here);
• Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

WHAT'S IN A NAME CHALLENGE

• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (reviewed here)

State of the Blog: Part Two, the Authors

Spring has finally come to Portland, with our first really warm and sunny day after weeks of freaky cold and snow.  Now, if only I could be outside instead of in here doing my taxes!

Four times a year, I review the books I've read to that point and see what kind of progress I've made on my books lists and reading projects.  2012 is still in its early days, so I haven't made much progress yet.  But with all the challenges I joined this year, I have made some.

This is the second of three quarterly blog assessment posts.  The first part addressed the book lists. Part Three will deal with the challenges I joined this year.

My lists of my favorite authors are over in the right-side column. These are now divided into General favorites and Mystery favorites.

NOTE: If you are working on any of these lists, please leave a comment here or on the post for the list (click on the title below or in the right-hand column) and leave a link to any related post. I will add the links on the list post.

So far in 2012, I have only read the following five books by my favorite authors. I'm listening to another Dick Francis book now, so it is easy to see that I am in a mystery mood.

GENERAL FAVORITES

P. G. Wodehouse

• The Pothunters (reviewed here)

MYSTERY FAVORITES

Dick Francis

• High Stakes (1975) (reviewed here)
• Blood Sport (1967)

P. D. James

• Shroud for a Nightingale (1971)
• The Black Tower (1975)

Book Beginnings: Wading for Bugs

I am very pleased to announce that I am taking over hosting duties for Book Beginnings on Fridays!

Thanks go to Becky at Page Turners for starting this weekly event, and for kindly giving inspiration credit to the Opening Sentences posts here on Rose City Reader.  Becky passed the torch to Katy at A Few More Pages, who hosted graciously since October 2010.

I am very excited to take over!  I even made a new button:

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or two*) 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.

*Myself, I'm a stickler for just the first sentence, because I've been keeping track of first sentences for several years.  It's almost a scientific experiment.  But this is supposed to be fun, so feel free to include more if you prefer.

Leave a link to your post.  If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.

Whether turning over stream rocks, chasing damselflies at stream's edge, or watching the dance of mating mayflies, children and adults alike have long delighted in the diversity of stream insects. 

Wading for Bugs: Exploring Streams with the Experts by Judith L. Li and Michael T. Barbour, Illustrations by Boonsatien Boonsoong.

I can't honestly say I am one of the people delighting in stream insects or any other bugs. But I get a kick out of these funny books published by OSU Press.

State of the Blog: Part One, the Lists

Spring may have sprung on the calendar, but it snuck up on me since it is still very cold, rainy, and even a little snowy here in Portland. 

Four times a year, I review the books I've read to that point and see what kind of progress I've made on my books lists and reading projects.  2012 is still in its early days, so I haven't made much progress yet.  But with all the challenges I joined this year, I have made some.

This is the first of three quarterly blog assessment posts.  This first part addresses the book lists. Part Two, coming soon, will take a look at the author lists.  Part Three will deal with the challenges I joined this year.

My book lists are over in the right-side column. These are now divided into Prize Winners and "Must Reads" and include lists of books I have read or intend to read for some reason or another. Also in the right-side column are lists of my favorite authors. I add to these lists of lists from time to time.

NOTE: If you are working on any of these lists, please leave a comment here or on the post for the list (click on the title below or in the right-hand column) and leave a link to any related post. I will add the links on the list post. 

THE PRIZE WINNERS

COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR

Books read in 2012: none so far

EDGAR AWARD

Books read in 2012: A Case of Need by Micheal Crichton (as Jeffery Hudson)

JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE

Books read in 2012: The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge).

MAN BOOKER PRIZE

Books read in 2012: none so far

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

Books read in 2012: none so far

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

Books read in 2012: none so far

NOBEL LAUREATES

Books read in 2012: none so far

ORANGE PRIZE

Books read in 2012: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun

PEN/FAULKNER

Books read in 2012: none so far

PULITZER PRIZE

Books read in 2012: A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (reviewed here; for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, American Version)

THE "MUST READS"

1899 TOP 100

Books read in 2012: none so far

ALL-TIME TOP 100

Books read in 2012: none so far

ANTHONY BURGESS

This list is from 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 by Anthony Burgess, which I reviewed here. 

Books read in 2012: The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge).

BBC'S BIG READ

Books read in 2012: none so far

BOOK CLUB

Books read in 2012: People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (reviewed here)

COLLEGE BOARD

Books read in 2012: none so far

COOKBOOK LIBRARY

Books read in 2012: none so far

EASTON PRESS

Books read in 2012: Dracula by Bram Stoker (reviewed here)

ERICA JONG

Books read in 20112: none so far

FRENCH CONNECTION

Books read in 2011:

• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here)
• Murder in Belleville by Cara Black

LT EARLY REVIEWERS

Books read in 2012: none so far

MLA'S 30

Books read in 202: none so far

MODERN LIBRARY

Books read in 2012: zero (finished this list a couple of years ago).

OBSERVER'S TOP 100

Books read in 2012: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré (reviewed here)

OREGON BOOKS

Books read in 2012: none so far

RADCLIFFE'S TOP 100

Books read in 2012: none so far

ROSE CITY READER'S TOP 10

Books read in 2012: none so far. Who knows if the list will change this year.

VENICE BOOKS

This is a new list that I just created in 2011. I made more progress in 2012 when I participated in the Venice in February Challenge.

Books read in 2012:

• The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here);
• Serenissima by Erica Jong (reviewed here)

WELL-STOCKED BOOKCASE

Books read in 2012: none so far

Review: A Bell for Adano

John Hersey won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for A Bell for Adano, the story of an American Army officer in Sicily during World War II.  The Italian-American Major Joppolo wins the hearts and minds of the people of the town of Adano by, among other things, helping them find a replacement for the town bell, which the Fascists had melted down for cannon parts.

What is so fascinating about the book is that Hersey wrote it in 1944, while the war was still going on.  This explains both its lively, action-oriented style and its slightly forced tone of rally-the-troops enthusiasm.

It isn't a deep retrospective of the war or the politics of invasion.  It is breezy and fresh and filled with funny character sketches and set pieces involving the people of Adano and their interactions with the American officers running their town.

A Bell for Adano is a quick and entertaining read.  It is definitely worthwhile for its first-hand perspective on an aspect of World War II most of us never consider -- life on the "home front" of Italy after the Allies invaded.

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

This counts as one of my Pulitzer choices for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, American Version. 

It also counts for three TBR challenges: the Mt. TBR Challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block, the  Off the Shelf challenge hosted by the team at Bookish Ardour, and the TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader. And the I Love Italy Challenge, hosted by the Library of Clean Reads.

It's My Blogiversary!

Wow! Four years ago today I started this blog on a whim.  I didn't expect that it would be so much fun or that I would keep at it for this long.

To celebrate my 4th blogiversary, I've pondered the four best things about my Rose City Reader experience:

1)  The hundreds of book conversations I've had with people when they learn I have a book blog.  Most of these people will never read my blog, or any other book blog, but when they learn I have one, they talk to me about what books they like, what I would recommend, books clubs, new books, classics, etc.  I enjoy these conversations and the common ground they create.

2)  Reading challenges. I love them. I can't resist a list and challenges give me so many excuses to read books from the lists I'm working on, make new lists, make lists of reviews, tally my progress, see other people's lists.  All wonderful fun for me.

3)  Focusing my thinking about what I'm reading.  I was never a big book reviewer before I started this blog.  I've become a more conscious reader knowing that I will probably write a review, and have gotten more out of my reading as a result.

4)  The new friends I've made.  We've all heard it and said it before, but book bloggers as a whole make up a very friendly on-line community.  I enjoy my new "virtual" friends.  But I have really enjoyed the new face-to-face friends I've met because of my blog.  Many are fellow bloggers, but I've also gotten to know several authors, publishers, publicists, and other book people.  It's been great meeting so many people outside of my usual social and professional circles.