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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kitchen Remodel, Week Two: Crock Pot Pork Roast

Let there be light!

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

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

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

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

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

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Review: The Sense of an Ending

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

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

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

Or, as Tony muses:

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

OTHER REVIEWS

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

NOTES

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

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

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

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

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

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

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

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

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

THE GIVEAWAY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teaser Tuesdays: The Gun Seller

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

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

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

Mailbox Monday and Giveaway Winners

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

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

GIVEAWAY WINNERS

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

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


 

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

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

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

MY MAILBOX

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



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



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

Kitchen Remodel, Week One: Sci-Fi Salmon

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

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

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

 James Builder and James Husband go over plan details

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginnings: Lincoln and Oregon Country

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

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

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Are They Reading? Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

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

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

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

ANGRY HOUSEWIVES EATING BON BONS BY LORNA LANDVIK

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

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

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

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

Hotel by Arthur Haley

Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver

Middlemarch by George Eliot (read it)

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

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

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

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

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

Dr. Faustus by Thomas Mann (read it)

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

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

Fear of Flying by Erica Jong (read it)

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

The Total Woman by Marabel Morgan

Roots by Alex Haley

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

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

Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

My Home is Far Away by Dawn Powell

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen

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

Out on a Limb by Shirley McClain

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler (read it)

West with the Night by Beryl Markham (read it)

The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West

The Awakening by Kate Chopin (read it)

Handling Sin by Michael Malone

The Stand by Stephen King

My Antonia by Willa Cather (read it)

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

The Beginning and the End by Naguib Mahfouz

Kristin Lavensdatter by Sigrid Undset (on my TBR shelf)

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

Eastward Ha! by J. S. Perleman

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

Review: Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik

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

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

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

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

OTHER REVIEWS

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

NOTES

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

Teaser Tuesday & GIVEAWAY: Warming Up

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

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

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

GIVEAWAY:

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

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

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

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

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

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

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

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

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



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

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

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

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

Way to go, Carolee!

Weekend Cooking: The Last Weekend

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

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

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

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

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginnings & GIVEAWAY: Warming Up

SEE GIVEAWAY DETAILS BELOW

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

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

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I'm a sucker for kind eyes.

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

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

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

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

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

THE GIVEAWAY

This is a "leap-frog" giveaway.  This means that I have three (3!) copies to giveaway to Rose City Reader readers, and each winner will get to host another giveaway for an additional copy, thanks to the wonderful book publicist, Mary Bisbee-Beek.

The contest is for readers in the USA and Canada and is open until Thursday, February 28, 2013, at 9:00 PST. There are five ways to enter and each one is worth a chance to win.  To enter, do any or all of the following, but you must leave a comment for each one:

1. Leave a comment on this post. You must include a way to contact you (email or website address in your comment or available in your profile). If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner. (1 entry)

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

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

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

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

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

This contest is open to entries from the U.S. and Canada only. The deadline for entry is 9:00 PM, Pacific Time, on Thursday, February 28, 2013. I will draw and post the winner's name in my Book Beginning post for March 1, 2013.

Review: Just Enough Liebling

A. J. Liebling is best remembered for the long piece journalism he wrote for The New Yorker from 1935 until his death in 1963. A native Manhattanite and avid gourmand, his favorite subjects were food, Paris, boxing, and horseracing.

Just Enough Liebling: Classic Work by the Legendary New Yorker Writer is a collection of his best pieces from that magazine and other publications. Organized by category, the articles cover dining in Paris; Liebling's experiences as a World War II correspondent in Tunisia, liberated France, and a merchant marine convoy; life on the make in New York; boxing; journalism; and Earl Long of Louisiana, Huey Long's brother who stepped into the gubernatorial seat after Huey's assassination.

Like John Mitchell (Up in the Old Hotel), his friend and contemporary at The New Yorker, Liebling delighted in his subjects and had a keen eye for the kind of detail that makes a story blossom. He put himself into the stories as an active narrator, often with self-deprecating humor. For example, one of the strongest and most memoir-like of the essays, "Quest for Mollie," begins with Liebling passing a dead American soldier on a transport route through northern Tunisia and leads to him tracing the dead man's colorful history back to the bars and union halls of Hell's Kitchen. Liebling took his quest personally, concluding:

It cheers me to think there may be more like him all around me – a notion I would have dismissed as sheer romanticism before World War II. Cynicism is often the shamefaced product of inexperience.

It is just this personal connection with his subjects that make Liebling's essays as full of human interest today as when he first wrote them.

OTHER REVIEWS

Up in the Old Hotel by John Mitchell, here on Rose City Reader

If you would like your review of any of Liebling's books listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.  (If you reviewed Up in the Old Hotel and would like it listed, please leave a comment with a link on my review post for that book and I will add it there.)

NOTES

Just Enough Liebling is one of the non-fiction books I read for the TBR challenges I am doing this year. Because Liebling's first love was food, every piece in the book -- even those about boxing -- talk about food.  So this also counted as my first book for the 2013 Foodies Read Challenge.  Finally, at 534 pages, it was the first chunkster I read for the 2013 Chunkster Challenge.

I am also adding Just Enough Liebling to my French Connections list because of the section on dining in Paris and the WWII pieces about France.

Teaser Tuesdays: Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

Audrey spread across the chaise lounge like a studious centerfold, one hand pillowing her head, the other holding a book. Her long, pretty legs were crossed at the ankle, and one of her feet swayed back and forth, steady as a pendulum.

-- Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik.  This book is a lot of fun, although more serious than I anticipated.



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

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

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

I got two books last week, both ARCs, but coming soon and worth watching for:



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

I am a grammar geek and love all kinds of "how to write well" books, from The Elements of Style to The Harvard Blue Book (that one dates me!) to Eats, Shoots and Leaves. I read them cover to cover, like novels.  This one is particularly good -- livelier than most, but with plenty of substance.

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



Dry Rot by S. L. Stoner, a "Sage Adair Historical Mystery" set in 1902 wild and wooly Portland, Oregon during a big labor strike.  This is the third book in the series, but can stand alone.

You can pre-order a copy of Dry Rot from Epicenter Press.  It is due out on June 1, 2013.  Check back here in a couple of weeks when I host a giveaway for this new novel.

Book Beginnings: Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

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

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

A Fuller Brush salesman had the unfortunate task of trying to sell his wares to the women of Freesia Court during the fifth day of a March cold snap.

-- Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik. That's a great opening sentence because it creates a sense of time, location, and trouble.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This dorky picture is perfect for my Valentine's Day because my husband is out of town and I am spending the evening with my sister.  After we eat the big pot of fondue we are making, we will need outfits like these.

Review: The Tuesday Club Murders

The Tuesday Club Murders is a collection of 13 short stories by Agatha Christie and was the second published volume in her Miss Marples series. Christie organized the stories around the idea of Miss Marples and a group of her friends taking turns telling about a mystery in which they were personally involved and making the others try to solve it.

Each snappy little story is jammed with clues, but still satisfactorily resolved by Miss Marples after the others kick it around for a while. Jane is at her best – draped in lace shawls, knitting away, and drawing insight from homey village events.

The stories and their set ups are varied enough to keep the reader's attention, right up to the final piece, in which Miss Marples solves a contemporaneous village mystery with the help of Sir Henry Clithering, an ex-commissioner of Scotland Yard and one of the original members of the Tuesday Club.

Like any collection of short mystery stories, The Tuesday Club Murders lacks the heft of a full-length novel. But unlike a novel, these stories can be gobbled down like the stack of yummy Agatha Christy cookies that they are.


OTHER REVIEWS

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

NOTES

The Tuesday Club Murders was my first book for the 2013 Vintage Mystery Challenge, hosted by Bev on My Reader's Block.  The challenge has a "Scattegories" theme this year and this book counts as my "Calendar of Crime" choice.

Teaser Tuesdays: A Prefect's Uncle

Describing the hero Farnie's first day at a new boarding school:

Finally, on retiring to bed and being pressed by the rest of his dormitory for a story, he embarked upon the history of a certain Pollock and an individual referred to throughout as the Porroh Man, the former of whom caused the latter to be decapitated, and was ever afterwards haunted by his head, which appeared to him all day and every day (not excepting Sundays and Bank Holidays) in an upside-down position and wearing a horrible grin. In the end Pollock very sensibly committed suicide (with ghastly details), and the dormitory thanked Farnie in a subdued and chastened manner, and tried, with small success, to go to sleep.

-- A Prefect's Uncle by P. G. Wodehouse.

A Prefect's Uncle is Wodehouse's second published book. Like his first, The Pothunters, it is set in an English boarding school for boys. Except in the long passages describing cricket matches, it is a charming and funny book that hints at the hilarious style Wodehouse later perfected.

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

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

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

I got one book last week, from the intrepid book publicist Mary Bisbee-Beek. Check back here in a couple of weeks when I host a giveaway for this new novel.



Warming Up by Mary Hutchings Reed, coming in April from She Writes Press. I am excited to read a novel by a fellow "lady lawyer" -- and one set in Chicago, a city I love, is even better!

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

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

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

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

Birthday Celebration: Pie & Books

I celebrate my birthday. I prefer to stretch the celebration out for as many days as possible, take time off work, maybe go on a trip.

But at a bare minimum I celebrate on the day itself by doing anything I want to. Today, that means pie for breakfast. Not just any pie, but Random Order pie. Yum!

I am lucky enough to live within walking distance of Random Order, my favorite Portland coffee house and pie shop.  They make the best pie crust of any commercial establishment.  They make several variations of apple pie -- the salted caramel is my favorite -- and other fruit pies, but the cream pies are out of this world.  Love them!

And the greatest thing about eating pie at Random Order is that the also have a liquor license.  Pie is just that much better with an Irish coffee.

Then it's back to my couch to finish off the A.J. Liebling book I'm reading and make a dent in Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons, which struck me as the perfect book to read on my birthday.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Review: She's Come Undone

I put off reading Wally Lamb’s hefty novel She’s Come Undone, because I knew it is about a young girl who became fat, and I could not imagine reading 500-plus pages about being fat. But I should have known that Lamb could spin a great tale and just put myself in his capable hands.

So much happens in Dolores Price’s young life that her weight gain (and loss) is just a small part of this crowded story. Without giving anything away, Dolores survives family loss, endures trauma, makes mistakes, repeats mistakes, and finally builds a life that works for her.

The glory of Lamb’s story is that he makes it absolutely believable, no matter how awful or statistically improbable. From Dolores as a little kid riding her bike through her neighborhood; through her depressingly difficult teen years, her recovery, and her rash first marriage; to her ultimate contentment with the life she creates, Dolores is an authentic and endearing heroine.

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

She's Come Undone counts as the first chunkster I read for the 2013 Chunkster Challenge, and counts for one of my books for the three TBR challenges I am doing this year.

Book Beginnings: A Prefect's Uncle

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

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

MR. LINKY: Please leave a link to your post below. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Marriott walked into the senior day-room, and, finding no one there, hurled his portmanteau down on the table with a bang.

-- A Prefect's Uncle by P. G. Wodehouse.

The picture above is not my copy -- it is the first edition cover.  Since this novel is Wodehouse's second published book, first edition copies are rare and pricey.

My edition is from the Collector's series published by The Overlook Press, so also has a cool cover, but not a $5,000 cover.