Book Beginning: Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

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

EARLY BIRDS: I am experimenting with getting this post up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. We'll try it this way for a couple of months to see if people like the option of early posting. If you have feelings one way or the other, please comment.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY: 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 dying actress arrived in his village the only way one could come directly -- in a boat that motored into the cove, lurched past the rock jetty, and bumped against the end of the pier.

-- Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. Chapter 1 is headed April 1962, Porto Vergogna, Italy.

This is my Books Club selection for July and I can't wait to dive into it.

Review: Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane

Moonlight Mile picks up the story of Amanda McCready ten years after the end of Gone, Baby, Gone. Amanda is missing again and Patrick Kenzie gets roped in to find her, with help from his firecracker sidekick, Angie Gennaro.

Dennis Lehane knows how to pack in details, keep the action moving, and make the dialog snap. Between the Russian mob and assorted thugs and cons, there is no knowing who will shoot who next or where the story will land. It is exciting right up to the last page.


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

It is not necessary to read Gone, Baby, Gone before Moonlight Mile in order to understand the story. Moonlight Mile rehashes enough of the earlier story to give context. It also spoils the ending of Gone, Baby, Gone, so if you are inclined to read both, read them in order.

I won Moonlight Mile in a giveaway on Knitting and Sundries -- Thanks Julie!  I should have read it right away, but fell down in my blogger duties.  I finally read it now as one of my books for the TBR challenges I am doing this year:

• MT. TBR CHALLENGE (hosted by Bev on My Reader's Block) 
• OFF THE SHELF CHALLENGE (hosted by Bonnie on Bookish Ardour) 
• TBR PILE CHALLENGE (hosted by Adam on Roof Beam Reader)

Teaser Tuesday: Pet Goats & Pap Smears by Pamela Wible, MD

Fast forward sixty years and I realize I'm practicing medicine kind of like my dad -- minus the index cards [for medical records].

I'm a solo-solo doc -- that's solo with no staff.

 --  Pet Goats & Pap Smears: 101 Medical Adventures to Open Your Heart & Mind by Pamela Wible, MD.  Dr. Wible is a primary care doctor in Eugene, Oregon with an appealing way of practicing medicine that she is trying to encourage other doctors to follow.  Her new book "reveals the secrets to solving your waiting-room frustrations, slashing your medical bills, and securing first-rate health care now."

Dr. Wible is a champion of community healthcare, which she explains on her Ideal Medical Care website. You can learn more about her refreshing and sometimes funny approach to medicine on her personal blog, facebook, twitter, YouTube, and her Oregonian blog. 


She also has essays in two award-winning anthologies: Goddess Shift: Women Leading for a Change, along with Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, and Optimism: Cultivating the Magic Quality that Can Extend Your Lifespan, Boost Your Energy, and Make You Happy Now, along with Jimmy Carter and Steve Jobs.


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 this holiday weekend! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Tasha at Book Obsessed is hosting in July. Please stop by Tasha's busy blog, where she focuses on romance novels, with some mystery and suspense thrown in.

I got two books last week, one for book club and the other as a treat.



Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. I am looking forward to this one.



Plants and Their Application to Ornament: A Nineteenth-Century Design Primer by Eugène Grasset.  I've had my eye on this for a while and finally decided to spring for it.

Kitchen Remodel, Week Nineteen: Moving In!

The inside part of the kitchen remodel is almost finished.  Several details to go, like an Italian tile thing to hang behind the range, the pot rack above the island, and little punch list stuff.  But it is finished enough to move in.  Next week we can even start using it.

Of course, the cats wanted to help. Here is Ella Fitzgerald, posing as usual. She didn't like the plastic sandwich bags messing up the arrangement of canisters.  I agree.   

 

I still haven't read a food book in a long time. My plan had been to read either Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain or The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn for the Foodie Reading Challenge.

But my brain is a sieve so I forgot that plan and started reading Smiley's People by John le Carré, the third book in The Karla Trilogy that begins with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (reviewed) and The Honourable Schoolboy (reviewed).

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginning: Smiley's People by John le Carré.

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

EARLY BIRDS: I am experimenting with getting this post up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. We'll try it this way for a couple of months to see if people like the option of early posting. If you have feelings one way or the other, please comment.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY: 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

Two seemingly unconnected events heralded the summons of Mr. George Smiley from his dubious retirement.

-- Smiley's People by John le Carré.

This is the third book in The Karla Trilogy that begins with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (reviewed) and The Honourable Schoolboy (reviewed).

Freedom!

Happy Independence Day!

Review: Beast in View

Beast in View won Margaret Millar the Edgar Award for the best mystery of 1956, the third year the award was given. Set in the seedier parts of 1950s Los Angeles, this psychological thriller involves a reclusive young heiress and her dysfunctional family members, all being harassed by threatening telephone calls.

Millar followed the hardboiled examples of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, but did it with a feminine twist.  In particular, she gave her female characters more edge, as shows even in this short snippet: 

June knocked on the door and waited, swaying a little, partly because the martini had been double, and partly because a radio down the hall was playing a waltz and waltzes always made her sway. Back and forth her scrawny little body moved under the cheap plaid coat.

Although the themes are a little stale and most of the characters now look like noir stereotypes – back alley pornographers, daytime drinkers, and closeted gays are just a few examples – the book is more than campy, vintage fun.  There is a lot going on and the plot has some decent twists to it.  Every one of the major characters, and a few of the minor ones, seem at one point or another like they could be the villain. 

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

Beast in View counts as one of my books for the Vintage Mystery Challenge.

Teaser Tuesday: The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman

And this is exactly how a woman agrees to see a man second time after finding him neither interesting, intelligent, nor compelling: He announces that he is a recent widower, vulnerable, like a man without an epidermis. That you are his first plunge into the treacherous waters of the Sea of Dates.

-- The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman. Her books are always fresh and fun -- perfect for summer. This one is about a socially inept surgery resident who finds herself dating a third-tier candy salesman.


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 this holiday weekend! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Tasha at Book Obsessed is hosting in July. Please stop by Tasha's busy blog, where she focuses on romance novels, with some mystery and suspense thrown in.

I was in Idaho last week, filing a new case, and stopped by a couple of local libraries to check out their sale shelves.  The Boise library has a particularly good Friends of the Library store inside the main branch where, along with the usual fiction, mysteries, romance books, and nonfiction selections they have a very nice collection of books by local authors and the local university press.

I ended up hauling home a stack of books:



Remembrance of Things Paris: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet, edited by Ruth Reichl (this looks great and is perfect for the Foodies Reading Challenge)



Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot, illustrated by Edward Gorey (these are the poems that inspired the musical Cats)



Adam and Eve and Pinch Me by Ruth Rendell (a stand alone mystery from an author I just started reading)



American Places by Wallace Stegner with photographs by Elliot Porter (a gorgeous coffee table book with text by one of my favorites)



The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty (Southern and perfect for summer)



The Cocktail Party by T. S. Eliot (something more serious than cats)



Death in Ecstasy by Ngaio Marsh (she is another new favorite of mine)



Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett (I hated Waiting for Godot, so don't know why I think I can read his novels, but it is on the Observer's Top 100 list)



Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney (I already listened to this, which I highly recommend, but wanted the book because Heany's Introduction is worth re-reading)

Kitchen Remodel, Week Eighteen: Tile Bravo

Finally! The white tile got here. Now the final kitchen dominoes can fall.  This week is was install tile, grout tile, caulk bottom of tile, and wax the soapstone counter tops.  This coming week will be seal the tile, finish the wood floors, and build the toe kicks.

There are other patches of white tile above other counter tops, but this is the largest patch.

There are still plenty of little things to finish inside, and some big things outside like stucco, bricks, patio stones, and plantings.  But getting the white tile in was a big deal to me because we couldn't wax the soapstone and make it black until the tile was in, so we couldn't see what the counters were really going to look like until today.

To make up for the lack  of food literature in my recent book diet, I've been reading about cookbooks. I have my heart set on getting a copy of the Toro Bravo cookbook by Liz Crain.  It doesn't come out until October, but it is generating a lot of foodie buzz already. The more I read about it, the more I want it!

The Toro Bravo restaurant is already a Portland legend.  I can't wait to try some of Chef John Gorham's recipes at home -- while reading his terrific stories as told by Liz Crain, one of the best up and coming food writers around. All good.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Book Beginnings: Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore

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

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY: 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.

UPDATE: SORRY FOR THE MISSING LINKY. OPERATOR ERROR. I WILL GET IT FIXED BY NEXT WEEK. THANKS FOR LEAVING YOUR LINK IN THE COMMENTS.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The great malady of the twentieth century, implicated in all of our troubles and affecting us individually and socially, is "loss of soul."

-- Care of the Soul:: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life by Thomas Moore.

I've read a couple of his other  books, but never this first one in his "Soul" series.  This one is certainly making me think.

Review: The Tin Drum by Günter Grass

Most books you can read, analyze, and review, but some you just have to accept. The Tin Drum by Günter Grass is a book I had to take on its own terms.

The hero of this postwar German classic is Oscar Matzerath, who thought like an adult from the moment he was born.  At his birth, he heard his mother exclaim that he would get a tin drum on his third birthday, while his father announced that the baby would someday take over the family grocery store.  Having no interest in running a grocery store, baby Oscar determined that he would stop growing on his third birthday and remain forever a toddler with a tin drum.  Which he did.

Oscar can also shatter glass with his voice, which he does in dozens of creative and destructive ways.  (The scream singing and a glass shattering are reason enough to skip the movie adaptation.)

Oscar narrates his life story from an insane asylum where he is confined awaiting the outcome of an appeal of a criminal trial.  The story begins with his grandmother rescuing and marrying an escaping arsonist, continues through childhood with his two "presumptive fathers" (his mother's husband and her lover), follows Oscar as he tours with a troupe of performing dwarfs during World War II, to his later role as the leader of a youth gang, and finally his career as a jazz drummer in an avant-garde club where the customers eat raw onions.

So, yes, The Tin Drum is a crazy book, with so much imagery and so much going on and so many ideas swirling around that it is impossible to make sense out of it.  It's a book only a Ph.D. candidate could love.  I had to just let it roll on, laughing at the funny bits – and there are many – mulling over the ideas that grabbed me, and letting go of the rest of it.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

NOTES

I've had a copy of The Tin Drum on my TBR shelf forever, but it daunted me.  The whole notion of German literature daunts me.

But I saw that my library had an unabridged audio version of the new translation of this Nobel Laureate's classic, and decided to go that route.  I never would have gotten through the paper version.  I highly recommend the new audiobook from Blackstone Audio.  The reader, Paul Michael Garcia, was over-the-top good. 

Teaser Tuesday: Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy

Whenever, during the summer, he took a party of students abroad under his genial wing, catastrophic event attended him.  As he sat sipping his vermouth and introducing himself to tourists at the Flore or the Deux Magots, the boys and girls under his guidance were being robbed, eloping to Italy, losing their passports, slipping off to Monte Carlo, seeking out an abortionist, deciding to turn queer, cabling the decision to their parents, while he took out his watch and wondered why they were late in meeting him for the expedition to Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

-- Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy, which is on the Anthony Burgess list of Top 99 novels. Every sentence in this book is a gem. It is a short book, but I keep rereading sentences over and over because they are so wonderful.

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

Kitchen Remodel, Week Seventeen: Starved for Foodie Books

The tile phase of the kitchen is finally underway.  We are still waiting on the subway tile for the kitchen backsplash, but the tile guy came this week to put the tile floor in the powder room.

The subway tile is supposed to get here this week.  Also, we are crossing our fingers that they can start putting up the stucco on the outside walls.  To mangle Churchill, I think we are well passed the end of the beginning and on to the beginning of the end.  Knock wood.

My weekly reading was again food-free.  I took a break from The Autobiography of Mark Twain to listen to the audio edition of Prince of Fire, a Gabriel Allon thriller by Daniel Silva.  My family loves the series, but I hadn't read any until this one.  It was really good. Now I want to go back and read the others.

If I can power through the rest of Mark Twain this week, I'm going to treat myself to a foodie book for the Foodie Reading Challenge.  Either Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain or The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn.

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Mailbox Monday

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

Dolce Bellezza is hosting in June, where she also just launched the seventh Japanese Literature Challenge.  Be sure to visit her elegant and inspiring blog.

I'm leaving for Idaho for work this afternoon, so am posting my Mailbox Monday post early. 

I got one book last week, from the author who is a doctor in Eugene, Oregon. The cover is funny, but a little shocking:



Pet Goats & Pap Smears: 101 Medical Adventures to Open Your Heart & Mind by Pamela Wible, MD. "[T]his book reveals the secrets to solving your waiting-room frustrations, slashing your medical bills, and securing first-rate health care now."

Dr. Wible has a pioneering vision of community healthcare, which you can learn more about on her Ideal Medical Care website. She has essays in two award-winning anthologies: Goddess Shift: Women Leading for a Change, along with Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, and Optimism: Cultivating the Magic Quality that Can Extend Your Lifespan, Boost Your Energy, and Make You Happy Now, along with Jimmy Carter and Steve Jobs.

You can learn more about Pamela's enthusiastic and uplifting approach to medicine on her personal blog, facebook, twitter, YouTube, and her Oregonian blog.

Book Beginnings: Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy

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

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY: 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

When Henry Mulcahy, a middle-aged instructor of literature at Jocelyn College, Jocelyn, Pennsylvania, unfolded the President's letter and became aware of its contents, he gave a sudden sharp cry of impatience and irritation, as if such interruptions could positively be brooked no longer.

-- Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy, which is on the Anthony Burgess list of Top 99 novels. I love complicated opening sentences like this that put me right into the middle of the story.

Reading this pitch perfect campus novel, first published in 1951, makes me want to create a list of academic-themed books, I enjoy them so. Any suggestions?

Review: Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin

In Lavinia, Ursula Le Guin reimagines the story of how Aeneas (of Virgil's Aeneid) fought the locals of Latinum, married the king’s daughter, and founded Rome. By telling this story from Lavinia’s perspective, Le Guin brings a domestic element to an otherwise military tale.

Le Guin relies on Virgil's account for the backbone of her story. Lavinia is an imperfect narrator because she lacks the personal knowledge needed to describe the battle scenes. So Le Guin provides Lavinia with the necessary information through a series of visions brought on by Lavinia's religious rituals. In these visions, Virgil visits Lavinia from the future and tells her the story of his Aeneid, which Lavinia uses to narrate her contemporaneous tale.

As Anita Diamant's The Red Tent did for the Old Testament, Lavinia brings a female and familial viewpoint to the epic myth of Roman civilization. Le Guin concentrates on the quotidian details and traditions of ancient Rome, admitting that she drew on her imagination as much as on known history.

For me, there was not enough home front content to balance out the battles. The most interesting part was the author's Afterword, where Le Guin explains her love of Virgil's Aeneid, particularly when read in Latin. If I had her devotion to the original classic, I would likely have greater appreciation for Le Guin's retelling.

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

I read Lavinia as one of my books for the TBR challenges I am doing this year:

• MT. TBR CHALLENGE (hosted by Bev on My Reader's Block) 
• OFF THE SHELF CHALLENGE (hosted by Bonnie on Bookish Ardour) 
• TBR PILE CHALLENGE (hosted by Adam on Roof Beam Reader)

Teaser Tuesday: Full-Rip 9.0 by Sandi Doughton

The earthquake that lashed the Pacific Northwest in 1700 ranks among the mightiest the Earth can yield. Scientists today call it a megaquake – a magnitude 9 monster that ripped the full length of the offshore fault where seafloor and continent collide, and unleashed a killer tsunami.

 -- Full-Rip 9.0: The Next Big Earthquake in the Pacific Northwest by Sandi Doughton, published by Sasquatch Books and reviewed in The Oregonian last Sunday.

Doughton is the science writer for the Seattle Times.  She explains -- in a clear and captivating way -- the science of why the Pacific Northwest is due for another megaquake.

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

Kitchen Remodel, Week 16: Mirror in the Bathroom

Other than getting an English Beat song stuck in my head, hanging a mirror in the new powder room didn't pack much of a punch.

But besides the mirror, the only thing going on with our kitchen remodel last week was the installation of a screened panel to hide the old steam radiator. Wow. That is really lame.  It's the tile.  We are still waiting on the tile.

And I didn't read anything about food last week either.  The Autobiography of Mark Twain has no references to food at all.  Nor does Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis.  I may have to take a break from both -- not because they don't talk about food, but because they are both long and . . . I hesitate to say boring.  How about, attention absorbing and important, but not 100% entertaining.

Apart from books, we had a fun eating weekend.  We went to a DIY wedding Friday night where the young bride and groom recruited their relatives to bake desserts.  Right after the ceremony, the guests were treated to a vast buffet of sweet treats.  It was nostalgic of church basement receptions, bake sales, and all things delicious.  Congratulations to Scott and best wishes to Emily! #Freywed!

WEEKEND COOKING

Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Mailbox Monday

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

Dolce Bellezza is hosting in June, where she also just launched the seventh Japanese Literature Challenge.  Be sure to visit her elegant and inspiring blog.

I got one book last week, from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program:



The Road to Burgundy: The Unlikely Story of an American Making Wine and a New Life in France by Ray Walker.

I am a sucker for any American ex-pat in Europe memoir.  This one looks particularly good because it involves starting a winery.  It hits all my armchair fantasies.

Book Beginnings: Full-Rip 9.0: The Next Big Earthquake in the Pacific Northwest by Sandi Doughton

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

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I am trying to follow all Book Beginning participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

MR. LINKY: 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

Stories passed down from that night don't tell us if dogs howled a warning. Huddled together in the cold, the animals might have sensed the first, faint vibrations while the people still slept.

 -- from the author's Introduction to Full-Rip 9.0: The Next Big Earthquake in the Pacific Northwest by Sandi Doughton, published by Sasquatch Books.

On a misty morning in October 2011, the Satsop nuclear plant's cooling towers floated like twin mirages above Washington's Chehalis valley.

-- from Chapter One, "An Odd Duck."

Doughton is the science writer for the Seattle Times.  She writes with a clear and captivating style that make this explanation of why Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver are the urban centers of a "mega-quake" terrifying but impossible to stop reading.