Review: Sam's Theory by Sarah Mendivel

Mendivel is a therapist who wrote this YA fantasy novel to use as a creative way to help young people heal from trauma. It is a terrific resource for young people dealing with difficulties because it offers practical help in a creative and entertaining way.

Sam's Theory is a fantasy adventure story about a 15-year-old girl named Same who runs away after she is abused. Hiding in the forest, Sam meets an old woman named Theory who helps her with some magic and sage advice. Scared for her little sister, Nova, and with the help of her friend, Dodger, and two other kids, Sam sets up a hidden camp in the wilderness and forms “The Orphan’s Collective.”

The book offers creative advice on how to cope in the face of trauma. It acknowledges the problems young people face, including depression, suicide, abuse, neglect, and loneliness, and provides positive tools and applied examples of healthy behavior changes.


NOTE

Read my Q&A author interview with Sarah Mendivel here to learn more about her book and her work with young people. 

Teaser Tuesday: Shores Beyond Shores: From Holocaust to Hope, My True Story by Irene Butter

The Star Camp was in the middle of Bergen-Belsen, almost entirely surrounded by other smaller camps. The camps were all sectioned by barbed wire.

-- Shores Beyond Shores: From Holocaust to Hope, My True Story by Irene Butter. Butter's family and Anne Frank's family were neighbors in Amsterdam before both were taken to concentration camps.

It was decades before Butter told the story -- outside a close circle of family and friends -- of her childhood escape from the Nazi death camp. She recently wrote about growing up with this silence in The New York Times.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday: Life Expectancy: Poetry by Kirsten Rian

On this last day of National Poetry Month, I'm so happy for my friend (and former college roommate!) Kirsten Rian, whose new book of poetry just came out this month, to much acclaim.

-- Life Expectancy: Poetry by Kirsten Rian, from Redbat Books.

What new books came into your house last week?

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Vicki of I'd Rather Be at the Beach.

Book Beginning: Ghost Writer: A Story About Telling a Holocaust Story

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

THURSDAY? SORRY! I JUMPED THE GUN THIS WEEK! OPERATOR ERROR!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

In the fall of 2008, my colleague, Peter, asked me if I might be interested in working with the Holocaust survivor, Joe Koenig, and his family to tell his story.

-- Ghost Writer: A Story About Telling a Holocaust Story by Beth Benedix. After Benedix ghost wrote a memoir for a holocaust survivor, at his urging, she wrote this book about her own experience of searching through his past and telling his story.

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

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

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

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Teaser Tuesday: Canada by Richard Ford

But for my parents, who drove away on Thursday morning completely innocent, with only a trivial debt owed to a small group of ineffectual Indians – something they could’ve ironed out successfully any number of ways – this kind of thinking didn’t occur. Although most certainly it did occur to them, even as soon as they were driving home to Great Falls the next day – as felons; any thoughts of getting away with what they’d done rising away from them into the flat summer sky.

-- Canada by Richard Ford. This is a great story!

Richard Ford is a favorite of mine, and it’s still taken me six years to get around to reading this one.

Any other Richard Ford fans? What’s your favorite? I like all the Frank Bascombe books, particularly the second one, Independence Day.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday: The River by Starlight

What books came into your house last week? I got a new, historical novel that looks terrific!



The River by Starlight by Ellen Notbohm. This debut novel is based on a true story about a homesteading couple in Montana in the early 1900s. Their initial fiery romance and financial success is threatened by world events, natural disaster, and Annie's mysterious illness.

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Vicki of I'd Rather Be at the Beach.

Book Beginning: Shores Beyond Shores: From Holocaust to Hope, My True Story by Irene Butter

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

When I got off the ship that brought me to the United States in 1945, the American relatives who took me in urged me to forget everything that had happened to my family -- and to me -- in the Holocaust.

-- Shores Beyond Shores: From Holocaust to Hope, My True Story by Irene Butter. Butter was Anne Frank's neighbor in Amsterdam before her family was taken to a concentration camp.

It was decades before she told her story outside a close circle of family and friends, as she recently wrote about in The New York Times.

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

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

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

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Storyline Serendipity: Dame Julian of Norwich

MEDIEVAL MYSTIC SERENDIPITY

IN TWO RECENTLY READ NOVELS

 

Dame Julian of Norwich came up in Larry's Party by Carol Shields and Scandalous Risks by Susan Howatch, two books I was reading at the same time this month.

Julian of Norwich (1342 - 1416) was a Christian mystic and theologian, known for her book Revelations of Divine Love, which is considered to be the first book written in English by a woman.

In Larry's Party, Larry's second wife is a woman's studies professor specializing in the lives of female saints. She breezily mentions one day that she is off to St. Julian's Church in Norwich to study Dame Julian. 

Scandalous Risks is part of Howatch's Starbridge Series of novels about the Church of England in the 20th Century, set in the fictional diocese of Starbridge. Dame Julian's name is dropped during pre-dinner cocktail banter among the cloister set.

WHAT IS STORYLINE SERENDIPITY?

A ONCE-IN-A-WHILE BLOG EVENT

Have you had the experience of something coming up in a book -- an event, place, idea, historical character, or even an unusual word -- and then shortly after, the same thing comes up in a different book completely by coincidence? I call this Storyline Serendipity.

I don't mean like when you take a class in Russian history and read two books about the Tsar. Or when you read two mysteries and there are dead bodies in each.

I mean random coincidence between two books. I like it when this happens because it makes me slow down and pay more attention to how the event or idea, place or character was treated in each book. I get a little more out of each book than I would have if the universe hadn't paired them on my reading list.

If you experience Storyline Serendipity, feel free to grab the button and play along. If you want to, please leave the link to your post in a comment. Or leave the link to your post on the Rose City Reader facebook page. If you want to participate but don't have a blog or don't feel like posting, please share your serendipity in a comment.

This is a once-in-a-while blog event that I'll post as I come across Storyline Serendipity. If you want to participate, post whenever you want and leave a comment back here on my latest Storyline Serendipity post. If it ever catches on, we can make it a monthly event.

Teaser Tuesday: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

It had crossed my mind that I ought to ready myself physically for a potential meeting with the musician by making a few improvements. Should I make myself over from the inside out, or work from the outside in?

-- Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I enjoy how this story unfolds bit by bit, as told by Eleanor, a most unreliable narrator. 

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday: Homing Instincts by Dionisia Morales

The snappy cover on this new book of essays by Dionisia Morales makes me want to dive right in!



Homing Instincts by Dionisia Morales, a collection of essays on how the idea of home plays out in daily life.

What books came into your house last week?

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Vicki of I'd Rather Be at the Beach.

Book Beginning: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

When people ask me what I do – taxi drivers, hairdressers – I tell them I work in an office. In almost nine years, no one’s ever asked what kind of office, or what sort of job I do there.

-- Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. This is hugely popular, but I had missed it until one of my book buddies recommended it to me a couple of months ago.  Since then, I've been seeing it everywhere, of course. It finally made it to the top of my hold list for the audio download at my library.

Who's read it? What did you think?

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

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

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

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Mailbox Monday: Two New Books About Holocaust Survivors and How to Tell Their Stories

What books came into your house last week? I got two books about Holocaust survivors that look fascinating.



Shores Beyond Shores: From Holocaust to Hope, My True Story by Irene Butter. Butter was Anne Frank's neighbor in Amsterdam before her family was shipped to a concentration camp. It was decades before she told her story outside a close circle of family and friends.



Ghost Writer: A Story About Telling a Holocaust Story by Beth Benedix. After Benedix ghost wrote a memoir for a holocaust survivor, he urged her to write her own story about what it was like to confront the challenge of telling someone else's history when it "swelled beyond its own boundaries."

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Vicki of I'd Rather Be at the Beach.

Book Beginning: The Lesser Bohemians

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I move. Cars move.

-- Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride, author of A Girl is a Half Formed Thing, which won the Baileys Women's Prize in 2013. Lesser Bohemians won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2016.

This isn't my favorite type of beginning, short and choppy. The first chapter starts with a stream of conscience scene of the protagonist, an 18-year-old Irish girl in London for drama school, at an audition.

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

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

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

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Teaser Tuesday: Larry's Party by Carol Shields

He hums his thoughts out on the air like music; they’ve got a disco beat: My name is Larry Weller. I’m a floral designer, twenty-six years old, and I’m walking down Notre Dame Avenue, in the city of Winnipeg, in the country of Canada, in the month of April, in the year 1977, and I’m thinking hard.

-- Larry's Party by Carol Shields. Larry’s Party won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 1998, now called the Baileys Women’s Prize. The story follows Larry from his mid-20s to late 40s, through two marriages, fatherhood, and a successful career making garden mazes. Yes, garden mazes.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday: The Spirit Level by Seamus Heaney

In 1996, Seamus Heaney's The Spirit Level won the Costa Book of the Year Award (fka the Whitbread Award). I'm working my way through the winners, particularly slowly the poetry winners, so finally ordered a copy.



What new books came into your house last week?

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Vicki of I'd Rather Be at the Beach.

Happy Easter!

Book Beginning: Larry's Party by Carol Shields

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

By mistake Larry Weller took someone else's Harris tweed jacket instead of his own, and it wasn't till he jammed his hand in the pocket that he knew something was wrong.

-- Larry's Party by Carol Shields. Terrific first sentence! Larry’s Party won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 1998, now called the Baileys Women’s Prize.

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

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

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

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Teaser Tuesday: Letters of Note

Seeing a picture of you in today’s newspaper standing in front of a barbecue grilling quail, reminded me that I had never sent you the recipe of the drop scones which I promised you at Balmoral.

I now hasten to do so, and I do hope you will find them successful.

-- From Queen Elizabeth's letter to President Eisenhower, January 24, 1960, in Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience, compiled by Shaun Usher.

Letters of Note is just as absorbing as Lists of Note, Shaun Usher’s first irresistible compilation of ephemera. Letters is a collection of over 125 facsimiles of correspondences of consequence, usually because a famous person wrote the letter, or because the letter itself is historically important. All are fascinating.

My favorite is the note that John F. Kennedy scratched into the shell of a coconut when his WWII boat was hit by a Japanese destroyer and his crew was stranded in the Solomon Islands. He gave the coconut message to island natives to deliver to the PT base at Rendova so he and his crew could be rescued.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday: More Kingsley Amis Books

I'm still on a Kingsley Amis bender. What books came into your house last week?

The Riverside Villa Murders

I Want It Now

That Uncertain Feeling

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Vicki of I'd Rather Be at the Beach.

Book Beginning: H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Forty-five minutes northeast of Cambridge as a landscape I’ve come to love very much indeed. It’s where wet fen gives way to parched sand.

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. I'm listening to the audio edition, which is read by the author. I generally enjoy that experience with non-fiction books, but she is a particularly excellent reader.

I finally got around to this popular book because I am working on the list of Costa Book of the Year winners. H is for Hawk won in 2014.

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

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

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

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Teaser Tuesday: Smugglers & Scones by Morgan C. Talbot

"You're back. There's been another burglary, and someone's about to be killed." 

Smugglers & Scones by Morgan C. Talbot. Pippa Winterbourne owns Morehaven, a B&B and writer's retreat on the Oregon coast. She is also about to become an amateur sleuth in this first novel in Talbot's Moorehaven Mysteries series.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Blogiversary: Rose City Reader is 10 Years Old!

Wow! Rose City Reader has been around for 10 years! That might make me the Gray Lady of book blogs.

To commemorate, here is the list of Rose City Reader's "Top 10" posts. These are the posts that, according to google stats, have gotten the most page views since I started this blog on March 20, 2008.

• College Board's Top 101: This list of "101 Great Books Recommended for College-Bound Readers" is far and away the most popular post on RCR because it was linked on a website that provides resources for young people applying for college.

• Teaser Tuesday - Plainsong: I have no idea why this teaser post featuring Kent Haruf's novel is the second most popular RCR post. I think this book may get assigned in high school English classes and so get googled a lot.

• List - Anthony Burgess: The list of Anthony Burgess' favorite 99 English-language novels published between 1939 and 1984.

• Review - Rebecca: A book review of Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier.

• List - Pulitzer Prize/National Book Award Crossovers: Just what is sounds like, a short list of books that won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. I should see if it needs updating since I posted this in 2009!

• Teaser Tuesday - A Simplified Map of the Real World: A teaser post about the title story in Steve Allred's Renata Stories, one of the first books published by Forest Avenue Press.

• Author Interview - Pat McCord Amacher: A recent interview with one of the authors of The Only Woman in the Room: The Norma Paulus Story, by Norma Paulus, Gail Wells, and Pat McCord Amacher, published by OSU Press.

• List - National Review's Top 100 Non-Fiction Books of the 20th Century: I think this one is popular because it is hard to find anywhere else.

• Book Beginnings & GIVAWAY - Even If I Am: One of the first Book Beginning events I hosted, and I had a book by Chasity Glass to give away.

• Author Interview - Sarah Mendivel: A very recent interview of Sarah Mendivel, who wrote Sam's Theory, a YA fantasy adventure with a practical twist. Sarah happens to be having a promo today and Sam's Theory is available as a free Kindle download until midnight tonight.

Now I think I'll go eat a cupcake and celebrate!

Book Beginning: Eating People is Wrong by Malcolm Bradbury

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Term had just begun. Professor Treece, head of the department of English, sat at his desk, his back to the window, with the cold, clear October light shining icily over his shoulders on to the turbulent heaps of paper upon his desk, on to the pale young faces of his three new students.

-- Eating People is Wrong by Malcolm Bradbury. This is my favorite book title ever. What's yours?

I love Campus Novels and Eating People is Wrong is an early classic I've been looking forward to for quite a while. I've been laughing out loud while reading it, although when I read the funny bits to my husband, he doesn't share my amusement. He thinks I'm an English Major nerd. .

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

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

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

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Review: The Days When Birds Come Back by Deborah Reed

The Days When Birds Come Back by Deborah Reed

The Days When Birds Come Back is the story of June Byrne, who returns to her grandparents' home on the Oregon coast, in recovery and trying to recover from her broken marriage. She hires Jamison Winters to restore the bungalow, not knowing that his life is also a wreck.

June is not an easy heroine. On the one hand, she went through a lot as a kid and is damaged, still fragile, and sympathetic. On the other, she can be prickly, and she acts pretty nuts. In one of my favorite scenes, she overshares with Jamison, shouting to him over the phone that she is a “dry drunk.” It’s an expression I know well because I’ve worked with many recovering alcoholics, both as clients and co-workers. One of my former law partners (may he rest in peace) used to joke/not joke about himself that you can take the liquor out of a fruitcake, but you still have a fruitcake.

The book hit me hard because June reminds me so much of so many real people. Reed captures what it’s like to be around a former drinker trying to stop – that sense that what is going on on the outside is just a half step out of sync with what’s going on inside. Reed lets the story unfold without forcing June to be better than she is. And it is that tension in the pacing that makes The Days When Birds Come Back such a beautiful story of grief and kindness and love.


NOTES

Read my interview of Deborah Reed.

The Days When Birds Come Back, is Reed's fourth novel. She has written three previous novels: Olivay, Things We Set on Fire, and Carry Yourself Back to Me, and two popular thrillers under the pen name Audrey Braun. Deborah splits her time between Germany, where she co-directs the Black Forest Writing Seminars at the University of Freiburg, and her home at the Oregon coast.

Teaser Tuesday: Austerlitz by W. J. Sebald

And just as Austerlitz had broken off with these words that first evening, so he continued his observations the following day, for which we had arranged a meeting on the promenade beside the Schelde. Pointing to the broad river sparkling in the morning sun, he spoke of a picture painted by Lucas van Valckenborch toward the end of the sixteenth century during what is now called the Little Ice Age, showing the frozen Schelde from the opposite bank, with the city of Antwerp very dark beyond it and a strip of flat countryside stretching toward the sea.

Austerlitz by W. J. Sebald. There is a rule for writers, "Don't tell, show." This book does the opposite. The entire novel is Jacques Austerlitz telling his life story to an unnamed narrator. His fictional life is interesting, but he goes off on digressions about walled fortifications, moths, exotic birds, Liverpool Station, Turner aquatints, and a dozen other things. It's like following someone click through random Wikipedia articles.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.