15 Days to Christmas!

 

Water Fire Steam by Mitzi Zilka -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

What are you reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) with us here on Book Beginnings on Fridays! You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you rae not reading it right now. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Thick smoke filled the morning air.

-- from Water Fire Steam by Mitzi Zilka (2022, Maxfiggy Press). This lively novel is based on real life events in the 1880s when a fire swept through Spokane Falls, Washington and the city's fancy new water system was blamed for not quenching the flames. A young East Coast engineer, Rolla Alan Jones, was scapegoated for the catastrophe and forced to resign. Jones had to fight his way back from ignominy or leave the community he thought was his new home. 

Water Fire Steam is a wonderful book of historical fiction with a timeless story of redemption and forgiveness. It has definite holiday gift potential and would make a good book club pick. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please leave a link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

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THE FRIDAY 56

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.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Water Fire Steam:

The buffalo did not flinch. Rolla found a log, waived it over his head, and roared like a grizzly, a trick his father taught him when frightening off animals bigger than himself. 

16 Days to Christmas!

 

17 Days to Christmas!

 

18 Days to Christmas!

 

19 Days to Christmas!

 

20 Days to Christmas!

 

21 Days to Christmas!

 

22 Days to Christmas!

 

Winterland by Rae Meadows -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

How are you this first Friday in December? I'm starting the month as I'm sure it will continue, in a blur of work and holiday activity. So much so that I forgot to post early yesterday!

Please join me now on Book Beginnings on Fridays to post the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. Or you can share from a book that caught your fancy and you want to highlight this week.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Katerina smoothed back her hair, tucking in a dark strand that had come loose from her bun. The tips of her fingers were cold and leached of color.

-- From Winterland by Rae Meadows (2022, Henry Holt).

This exciting new novel tells the story of Anya, tapped at eight years old to join the prestigious USSR gymnastics program. The story weaves the threads of Anya's rise through the ranks of the fiercely competitive program with the mystery of her mother's disappearance from Siberia years earlier. 

Just look at this gorgeous cover! Winterland looks like the perfect book for a cold winter weekend.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please leave a link to your Book Beginnings post in the linky box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings. 

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THE FRIDAY 56

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.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Winterland:

She knew that, knew she couldn't keep her hair long forever, but he had been so quick, so heartless. The scissors splayed open obscenely on the desk, hair caught between the blades.

23 Days to Christmas!

 

24 Days to Christmas! An Advent Calendar Tradition

ADVENT: COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS

Every year, I count down the days to Christmas with a daily post of a vintage holiday card. I've kept up this advent calendar since I started Rose City Reader back in 2008.

I love holiday traditions and vintage ephemera. If you also like vintage cards and want to see more, click on the "Advent" or "vintage postcard" tags at the bottom of these posts (or bottom of the page) to find hundreds of images from past years. You will find trees, ornaments, Santas, elves, cats, birds, dogs, deer, gifts, candles, bells, and lots more!

THIS YEAR'S THEME? WILL THERE BE ONE?

Some years I have a theme for the advent calendar, sometimes it's a hodgepodge. I've done all cats, all houses, all animals, all Santas. My goal is to use different pictures every year and it's getting harder to keep with a theme, so I'll probably mix it up this year. 

When it comes to real time Christmas cards, do you send them? I do! I still send old-fashioned cards out of a box, usually with a picture of me and Hubby stuck inside. 

I did order printed cards from Zazzle for my law firm. I was lucky to snap this picture with my law partner before she left for maternity leave! 

DECEMBER BLOGGING

Do you have special holiday-themes blogging you do in December? Besides this advent countdown, I don't do much Christmas-themed blogging. I don't really do Christmas-themed reading that lends itself to Christmas-themed blogging. Although I like the idea of reading Dickens in December so I'm reading Our Mutual Friend.

I get excited about next year's reading challenges this time of year, although with so much else going on, it is hard to get all the posts up before the end of the year. I usually end up planning in December and posting in January.

I am hosting the European Reading Challenge again in 2023 and a TBR 23 in '23 challenge. I will get those posts before the end of the year, I promise!

What are your blogging plans for December? Do they include planning or posting any 2023 reading challenges?

See you tomorrow when the advent calendar continues!

I Meant to Tell You by Fran Hawthorne -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

I Meant to Tell You by Fran Hawthorne

Fran Hawthorne's new novel, I Meant to Tell You, starts with the disclosure of a little secret and follows the ripple effects of that disclosure back through years and relationships.

Miranda and Russ are engaged to be married and Russ is ready to start a new job in the U.S. Attorney's office. As part of a routine FBI background check, both must disclose any criminal history. Miranda had never told Russ that years earlier, she tried to help a friend and her child leave the US for Israel during her friend's nasty divorce. Although Miranda did not know this trip was illegal, is was, and she and her friend were arrested at the airport. Miranda was sentenced for a misdemeanor, which was later expunged. Because the conviction was not on her record, she didn't mention it to Russ or the FBI. Big mistake.

The story unspools from there. Other family and marital secrets come to light. The characters wrestle with the ethical dilemmas created by balancing secrecy and honesty. Hawthorne narrates the book through the multiple voices of those involved. The story remains upbeat and it is a fairly quick read, but provides food for thought. It would be a terrific book club pick.

I Meant to Tell You launched this month, in time for holiday gift giving. It is Fran Hawthorne's second novel after her 2018 debut, The Heirs.

Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste by Luke Barr -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you celebrating our American tradition this week. It seemed to me like a perfect week to read about American food history.

One of the things I give thanks for are all you book blogging buddies who join me every week on Book Beginnings on Fridays! Thanks for gathering here each week to share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week (or just a book you feel like highlighting). 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

On a cool August morning in August 2009, I drove up a sloping, narrow driveway in Glen Ellen, California, on my way to visit the past. 

-- from Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste by Luke Barr.

In this opening scene, Barr describes visiting Last House, the home of his Great Aunt, legendary American food writer M.F.K. Fisher. Fisher lived in Last House for over 20 years before her death in 1992. 

This is one of my picks for Nonfiction November. If you like food writing or are interested in the history of American food, you can see from the publisher's description of this book why it is so appealing:

Provence, 1970 is about a singular historic moment. In the winter of that year, more or less coincidentally, the iconic culinary figures James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Richard Olney, Simone Beck, and Judith Jones found themselves together in the South of France. They cooked and ate, talked and argued, about the future of food in America, the meaning of taste, and the limits of snobbery. Without quite realizing it, they were shaping today’s tastes and culture, the way we eat now. The conversations among this group were chronicled by M.F.K. Fisher in journals and letters—some of which were later discovered by Luke Barr, her great-nephew. In Provence, 1970, he captures this seminal season, set against a stunning backdrop in cinematic scope—complete with gossip, drama, and contemporary relevance.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginning post in the linky box below. Use the hashtag #bookbeginnings if you share on social media, so we can find each other. 

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Provence 1970:

All this was percolating just as M.F., Child, Beck, Beard, and Jones gathered in Provence in December 1970. They would be joined by Richard Olney, a self-trained American cook who had long lived in France and had just published The French Menu Cookbook, outlining a bohemian version of the French ideal.

Midcentury Cocktails: History, Lore, and Recipes from America's Atomic Age by Cecelia Tichy -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Do you collect books on any particular subject -- gardening, outer space, sports, whatever?

I have a middling-sized collection of books about cocktails. They aren't all recipe books, although some are. They are books about cocktails culture and history, bartending guides, recipe books, books about entertaining with cocktails, and a couple of books about writers who enjoyed their cocktails, sometimes too much. I have a new one to share today on Book Beginnings on Fridays. 

Please share the opening sentence (or so) from the book you are reading this week. Or share froM a book that caught your eye.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

America at midcentury was a nation on the move, taking to wings and wheels along the new interstate highways and in passenger jets that soared to thirty thousand feet above the earth.

-- from Midcentury Cocktails: History, Lore, and Recipes from America's Atomic Age by Cecelia Tichy. 

This new book explores icons of midcentury American life -- such as commuter trains, tiki bars, suburban weekends, Playboy bunnies, bachelor pads, and Breakfast at Tiffany's -- and examines how they influenced and were influenced by cocktail drinking. After each chapter, there are recipes for related cocktails. 

The recipes are pretty simple because midcentury was the heyday of straightforward cocktails. Goofy early experiments had died off (for good reason) and today's crazy, anything goes cocktails had yet to be imagined. So there are several recipes in here that are not much more than put "very clear" ice cubes in an Old Fashioned glass, add 1 - 2 ounces of whatever liquor, and maybe stir in 4 ounces of soda water (the "recipe" for Scotch & Soda, for example). That's fine by me, since I live in a house where we consider ice a mixer. 

There are other recipes more elaborate, even frou-frou, especially in the tiki bar chapter. Those can be fun too, just not really my thing. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please leave the link to your Book Beginnings on Fridays post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings. 

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Midcentury Cocktails:

Page 56 has recipes, so here's one from the chapter on weekends in the suburbs: 

NEW YORK SOUR

    Ingredients:

1. 2 oz blended whiskey
2. Chilled dry red wine
3. 1/2 ounce lemon juice
4. 1 teaspoon sugar
5. 1/2 slice lemon

    Directions:

1. Put ample ice in shaker.
2. Vigorously shake whiskey, lemon juice, and sugar.
3. Strain into 6-ounce sour glass.
4. Fill glass with red wine.
5. Stir, garnish with lemon slice, and serve.

What do you think? Would you try it?

Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien -- Veterans' Day BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome to Book Beginnings on Fridays, where we share the opening sentence (or so) of the books we are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy or you want to highlight, even if you are not reading it right now. 

Since it is Veterans' Day weekend (or Armistice Day for many of you), I thought I'd feature a war book this week, one I just finished reading. And say thank you to all our veterans on this Veterans' Day!  

MY BOOK BEGINNING

It was a bad time. Billie Boy Watkins was dead, and so was Frenchie Tucker. 

-- from Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien. Well, that is a grim opening, but one to be expected for a book about the Vietnam War. 

O'Brien won the 1979 National Book Award for Going After Cacciato. I'm working my way through the National winners, which is why I finally read this. War books are not my usual cup of tea. This one was not quite what I expected. It is about the war, all about the war. But the premise is different, even whimsical. Private Cacciato goes AWOL and tells his buddies he's heading to Paris. On foot. The Lieutenant sends Cacciato's squad on a mission to find him. So they go after Cacciato, following him to Paris. The story about the war hangs on the story of their journey. No war book will be a favorite for me, but I liked this one much more than I thought I would. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please leave a link to your Book Beginning post in the box below. Please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings if you post on social media. 

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THE FRIDAY 56

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.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Going After Cacciato:

Or was there a chance, even one in a million, that it might truly be done? He walked on and considered this, figuring the odds, speculating on how Cacciato might lead them through the steep country, beyond the mountains, deeper, and how in the end they might reach Paris.

The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Wow! I'm late posting this week. A while back, knowing I was heading into a super busy patch at work, I spent a Saturday afternoon scheduling a bunch of Book Beginning posts in advance. But I forgot those scheduled posts ended last week! 

I just minutes ago finished writing an appeals brief in the Boy Scout bankruptcy case. Now the last bits to do are for my very competent law partner to add the index and table of authorities and my paralegal to finalize the exhibits. Then we will zip the whole thing off to our local counsel in Delaware and, finally, this project that has made me crazy for the last month will be in God's hands. 

I plan to spend this whole weekend in a stupor of good books and baked treats! Starting with my book for this week's Book Beginnings.

What are you reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) here on Book Beginnings on Fridays. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The first thing I noticed was the clarity of the air, and then the sharp green color of the land.

-- The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier. 

I'm reading this one as my first Bookstagram buddy read. I've had a hardback copy on my TBR shelf since 1983, when I was still in high school! It's about time I finally got to it. 

We started it this week. My hardback copy is missing its dustjacket, so I had no idea what to expect. Never in a million years would I have guessed hallucinogenic drugs and time travel! 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The House on the Strand:

When I lie I like to base the lie on a foundation of fact, for it appeases not only conscience but a sense of justice.  I stamped the envelope and put it in my pocket, and then I remembered that Magnus wanted bottle B from the laboratory sent up to him in London. 

Du Maurier is always a great one for melodrama!

I Meant to Tell You by Fran Hawthorne -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome back to Book Beginnings on Fridays, where participants share the opening sentence (or so) of the book they are reading this week. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

In her yellow car seat behind Miranda, Tali danced her soft stuffed fox on its two rear legs and sang loudly in a mix of Hebrew and English: “Here comes the sun. Here comes the ha-shemesh.”

-- from I Meant to Tell You by Fran Hawthorne.

Fran Hawthorne's new novel, I Meant to Tell You, follows the ripple effects of disclosing a startling secret.

As Miranda and Russ prepare for their wedding and Russ’s new job in the U.S. Attorney's office, both must disclose any criminal history as part of a routine FBI background check. Things get sticky when Miranda fails to disclose that she had been convicted of a misdemeanor many years earlier. She had tried to help a friend leave the US for Israel with her daughter during her friend's nasty divorce and they got caught. Her conviction had been expunged, so she didn’t think she needed to tell the FBI about it. Big mistake.

The story unspools from there, narrated through the multiple voices of those affected.

I Meant to Tell You launches in a couple of weeks, on November 15, and is available for pre-order. It’s the kind of meaty but entertaining story of family and friendship that would be perfect for the long Thanksgiving weekend.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginning post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings. Thanks!

  

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From I Meant to Tell You:

Six long-stemmed red roses fell next to Bill's brown loafers, while three more dangled from his left hand. The person getting off the escalator behind Miranda elbowed past her.

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION

When Miranda Isaacs’s fiancé, Russ Steinmann, is being vetted for his dream job in the U.S. attorney’s office, the couple joke about whether Miranda’s parents’ history as antiwar activists in the Sixties might jeopardize Russ’s security clearance. But as it turns out, the real threat emerges after Russ’s future employer discovers that Miranda was arrested for felony kidnapping seven years earlier – an arrest she’d never bothered to tell Russ about.

Winterland and Prisons Have a Long Memory -- MAILBOX MONDAY

MAILBOX MONDAY

A couple of interesting -- and different -- books came my way last week. 

Winterland by Rae Meadows (2022, Henry Holt)

This novel starts in the Soviet Union in 1973 when eight-year-old Anya is chosen to be part of the famed USSR gymnastics program.  It is a story of competitive sports and the story of Anya missing mother. 

Winterland comes out November 29 and is available for pre-order. I was lucky to get an early review copy from LibraryThing. 

From the publisher's description:

In the Soviet Union in 1973, there is perhaps no greater honor for a young girl than to be chosen to be part of the famed USSR gymnastics program. So when eight-year-old Anya is tapped, her family is thrilled. What is left of her family, that is. Years ago her mother disappeared. Anya's only confidant is her neighbor, an older woman who survived unspeakable horrors during her ten years in a Gulag camp--and who, unbeknownst to Anya, was also her mother's confidant and might hold the key to her disappearance. As Anya moves up the ranks of competitive gymnastics, and as other girls move down, Anya soon comes to realize that there is very little margin of error for anyone.

Prisons Have a Long Memory: Life Inside Oregon's Oldest Prison, edited by Tracy D. Schlapp and Daniel J. Wilson (2022, Bridgeworks Oregon). 

This is a collection of essays, poems, and memoir written by prisoners at the Oregon State Penitentiary.  Schlapp and Wilson started and led a "storytelling" group inside the prison and then worked with an editorial board of adults in custody to compile this collection. 

This book is part of Schlapp and Wilson's efforts at Bridgeworks Oregon, which started with them forming the band Luther's Boots to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison album. I've known Danny since before we started college and I think this work he is doing in prisons is amazing. 

From the publisher's description:

Danny Wilson and Tracy Schlapp assembled the storytelling group Ground Beneath Us at Oregon State Penitentiary in May 2019. For the past three years, they have mentored men in writing about life inside, using questions posed by middle and high school students as a springboard. Over seventy thousand children in Oregon are impacted by incarceration. These kids have questions they may be afraid to pose to their family members who serve time: fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters. Prison life requires a person to do difficult personal work and redefine oneself. This writing is testimony to that work. The result is a rich anthology filled with poetry, essays, and memoir that together present a picture of life at OSP and an exploration of the internal struggle to atone, find peace, and create community. Adult in Custody editorial board members have assembled a selection of powerful stories to be shared with the outside world. Wilson and Schlapp provided editorial support and guidance to the writers. Prisons Have a Long Memory will be presented within prisons and neighboring communities throughout Oregon thanks to support from the Spirit Mountain Community Fund, Oregon Humanities, the Oregon Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Emma of Words and Peace graciously host Mailbox Monday.

The Man Who Came and Went by Joe Stillman -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome back to Book Beginnings on Fridays, where participants share the opening sentence (or so) of the book they are reading this week. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Before I can start this story, I have to tell you something that happened near the end of it.

-- from The Man Who Came and Went by Joe Stillman.

The Man Who Came and Went is a new type of Western, a character-driven story with elements of magical realism, fantasy, and metaphysics. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginning post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings. Thanks!

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Man Who Came and Went:

When Harold wrote about the encounter, he included the part where he and his cousin Marguerite outside Maybelle's diner. He wrote that he was skeptical about some supposedly mind-reading grill cook, but that he suddenly had an opening that morning and decided to go where the muse sent him.

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION

The Man Who Came and Went, a novel of the new west, is a magically realistic story for the modern era that will tease your understanding and beliefs, and draw you into the mysteries of the universe, from the brilliant mind of Joe Stillman, acclaimed Academy Award nominated co-writer of "Shrek."

Fifteen-year-old Belutha Mariah, our storyteller, is the oldest of three kids from three different fathers. Her life's goal is to keep her dysfunctional mom, Maybell, from procreating yet again and then to leave the coffin-sized town of Hadley, Arizona the second she graduates high school.

Along comes the new grill cook at Maybell's Diner, Bill Bill, a mysterious drifter with the ability to mind-read orders. As word spreads in Hadley and beyond, the curious and desperate pour into this small desert town to eat at Maybell's.

Some believe Bill knows the secrets of the universe.

Belutha figures he's probably nuts. But his cooking starts to transform the lives of locals and visitors, and Belutha finds her angry heart opening, as Bill begins to show her the porous boundary between this life and what comes after.

In a normal American town, something new and strange, and yet achingly familiar, begins to unfold.

It's Always 9/11 by Wendy Avra Gordon -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome back to Book Beginnings on Fridays, where participants share the opening sentence (or so) of the book they are reading this week. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

"All I do is sell food particles."

I was sitting at a picnic table overlooking the Pacific Ocean with Ryan, drinking Galactica Zinfandel from the bottle.

-- from It's Always 9/11 by Wendy Avra Gordon. 

Gordon's second novel came out last year. Set in a dystopian "not to distant future," It's Always 9/11 is the story of a family trying to live a normal life in the middle of increasingly difficult daily circumstances and scary political developments. Until they decide they can't sit passively by, waiting for things to change. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginning post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings. Thanks!

   

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From It's Always 9/11:

"Children's books are hardly a state secret, are they? There's an online competition, and if I get enough votes, I get free fabric."

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION

Most people say wait it out.

After all, President Kaspar isn't as bad as expected. He's banned fracking, improved medical care, even provided every American over eight with a free cell phone! So what if the number of news channels has shrunk to three, and no one can afford email anymore? Even when a health crisis in New York City shakes the country to its core and raises the specter of authoritarianism, President Kaspar explains it all calmly in his cardigan sweater.

Most people say wait it out.

New York City transplant Tessa lives in a leafy Portland, Oregon neighborhood with her husband Larry and teenage son Holden. They are 3,000 miles away, but that is too close for comfort.

They can't wait it out. They take a different path--one that will shatter their lives, their identities, and change the course of a nation.

The Sturgeon's Heart: A Novel by Amy E. Casey -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome back to Book Beginnings on Fridays, where participants share the opening sentence (or so) of the book they are reading this week. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Howard Wright was always cold, even during the fleeting Duluth summers. Part of it was the chill of the night wind that came in through his upstairs apartment window, bearing with the news of the lake's ever-shifting mood.

-- from The Sturgeon's Heart: A Novel by Amy E. Casey.

Described as a "contemporary monster story," Amy E. Casey's debut novel came out earlier this year from Gibson House Press. 

I admit that the premise is a little offputting to me because I don't like magical realism, fantasy, or the like. But a lot of people do. The story is about three people drawn together as their lives are falling apart. One of them is becoming transparent. Literally. His skin is becoming see-through. 

Read the publisher's description below. What do you think? Maybe it would make a perfect book for Halloween time. Would you read it?

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginning post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings. Thanks!

  

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Sturgeon's Heart:

In case she ever needed to leave quickly, she could load the station wagon until it was full, and the cabin would look like nothing more than an abandoned vacation home fallen into disrepair. She had planned it out twenty-eight different times.

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION

Three people in the same northern city of Duluth, Minnesota, are vanishing in different ways.

Howard Wright finds his skin turning transparent, revealing the bloody workings of musculature beneath. His body becomes otherworldly and insistent, spinning him into visions that echo trauma from his childhood.

Sarah Turnsfield is living under an assumed identity, on the run from her past as a meteoric scientific prodigy. Content to work as a grocery clerk, she is determined to live a life on her own terms, where the landscape of her mind is hers alone.

Jo Breckmier seeks a new start in Duluth after a bitter divorce. She moves into the apartment unit across from Howard’s, leaning on alcohol and a stubborn will to reinvent herself. The woods and the lake seem to call to her as she laments her shipwrecked life.

When instinct, the swiftly warming spring, and Howard’s monstrous body conspire to bring the three together, each will discover how long they can hide―Jo from her loneliness, Sarah from her rising paranoia, and Howard from his intensifying transformation.

On one remarkable night along the rugged shore of Lake Superior, the lines between reality and legend intersect. Identities are broken and remade.

In this contemporary monster story, the earth itself amplifies both the grotesque and the beautiful.

 

The Mad, Mad, Murders of Marigold Way by Raymond Benson -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome back to Book Beginnings on Fridays, where participants share the opening sentence (or so) of the book they are reading this week. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Friends, this is a little tale about some murders.

-- from The Mad, Mad, Murders of Marigold Way by Raymond Benson (2022, Beaufort Books).

This new dramedy mystery comes out next week, on October 4, and is available for pre-order now. Not only is the book brand new, the story is set in a Chicago suburb during the covid pandemic, so feels like it takes place right this minute.

I scored an ARC from the LibraryThing early reviewer program. It looks like a perfect book to read during the October spooky season. Not too scary but just enough to put me in the mood for Halloween!

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginning post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings. Thanks!

  

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Mad, Mad, Murders of Marigold Way:

As the truck approached, it slowed down. It crept past the empty Wilkins house, and then slowly moved on in front of Scott's home towards Temple Avenue. 

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION

For Scott Hatcher, a former television writer turned struggling novelist with a failing marriage to boot, social-distancing and mask-wearing feel like fitting additions to his already surreal life. When his wife Marie and neighbor John Bergman disappear in the middle of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, Scott is naturally mystified and disturbed, but he is also about to learn that his picturesque neighborhood hides more than just the mundane routines of suburban life.

When a fire claims the empty house for sale next door, the entire community is shocked when the charred remains of Marie and John are found inside. Stranger still, stockpiles of valuable Personal Protection Equipment, clearly stolen, were destroyed in the blaze alongside them. As the neighborhood reels from the loss, Scott and Bergman's earthy and enticing widow, Rachel, not only find themselves under investigation for the crime, but also inexorably drawn to one another. As tensions reach a fever pitch, the tale—which is at once familiar and ordinary, yet bizarre and eerie—shows that, just like life in 2020's uncertain times, dread and danger lurk below the hidden underside of everyday suburbia.

New Books of Poetry and Historical Fiction -- MAILBOX MONDAY

MAILBOX MONDAY

What new books came into your house lately?

I'm excited about these two new books, out recently. Although the books are completely different, I love both covers and how gorgeous they look together!

A Story Interrupted by Connie Soper (2022, Airlie Press)

This is Soper's first book of poetry. From the description and flipping through it, it looks like these are sort of poems I am drawn to. They are poems about actual places and experiences, not abstract ideas. I like something I can latch onto and relate to when I read a poem. I don't like to feel like the whole thing is going over my head. 

From the publisher's description:

Connie Soper’s first book of poetry invites readers to wander the trails of Oregon’s lush and fertile forests, and to celebrate its beaches, coastal cliffs, and headlands. She explores her native terrain with a reverence for the wild and untamed, as well as smaller moments spent in solitude. A Story Interrupted opens its map of place, memory, and inheritances—a map both familiar and uncharted. These poems offer glimpses, as well, of more distant traveled lands, always rooted in a keenly observed sense of place and belonging. These poems recall tender moments and conjure memories that connect us with our past, even if that past is sometimes difficult to acknowledge. Here, open-endedness is not melancholy but joy, each poem a small celebration.

Water Fire Steam by Mitzi Zilka (2022)

This new historical fiction novel is based on real life events and sounds excellent. The story sounds terrific and like it has broader themes that give it appeal beyond the exciting plot.

From the publisher's description:

The year is 1884. Rolla Alan Jones, an ambitious dreamer fresh out of an East Coast engineering school, is commissioned to design and build the first water system in Spokane Falls, Washington, a booming town of twenty-thousand. He is everyone's golden boy for five years until the city burns down on August 4, 1889. The once-celebrated engineer is scapegoated for the catastrophe alleging his system yielded inadequate water pressure. Asked to resign, betrayed by his friends, shunned by the community, and abandoned by his pregnant wife and three-year-old son, Rolla must find the strength to reinvent himself or return to New York as an abject failure. Based on a true story, Water Fire Steam is a story of forgiveness and redemption for anyone who has ever had to claw their way back from an unwarranted accusation.

 

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Velvet of VVB32 Reads graciously host Mailbox Monday. Velvet wants to hand off hosting duties so they are looking for a new helper. If you are interested, see the website for details.

Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom by Kathryn Olivarius -- BOOK BEGINNING

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome back to Book Beginnings on Fridays, where participants share the opening sentence (or so) of the book they are reading this week. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

One January morning in 1825, a white, seventeen-year-old boy from Newton, New Jersey, woke up with a case of “Mississippi Fever” – an insatiable urge to head west and south.

-- from Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom by Kathryn Olivarius.

This nonfiction book explores the history and sociology of yellow fever in New Orleans in the 19th Century. It looks like a fascinating piece of American history. 

I admit I wouldn't have come across this book on my own. But I'm working on a sexual assault case here in Oregon with the author's mother, an attorney named Ann Olivarius, and Ann gave me a copy. I will definitely read it!

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginning post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings. Thanks!

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Necropolis:

Early on, Anglo-Americans were genuinely scared that yellow fever would throw a wrench in the wheels of American government. the disease killed so many migrants that it embarrassed American authority.

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION

Antebellum New Orleans sat at the heart of America's slave and cotton kingdoms. It was also where yellow fever epidemics killed as many as 150,000 people during the nineteenth century. With little understanding of mosquito-borne viruses--and meager public health infrastructure--a person's only protection against the scourge was to "get acclimated" by surviving the disease. About half of those who contracted yellow fever died.

. . . .

The question of good health--who has it, who doesn't, and why--is always in part political. Necropolis shows how powerful nineteenth-century white Orleanians--all allegedly immune--pushed this politics to the extreme. They constructed a society that capitalized mortal risk and equated perceived immunity with creditworthiness and reliability. Instead of trying to curb yellow fever through sanitation or quarantines, immune white Orleanians took advantage of the chaos disease caused. Immunological discrimination therefore became one more form of bias in a society premised on inequality, one more channel by which capital disciplined and divided the population.

Muse: Uncovering the Hidden Figures Behind Art History's Masterpieces by Ruth Millington -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

Muse: Uncovering the Hidden Figures Behind Art History's Masterpieces by Ruth Millington (2022, Pegasus Books)

Ruth Millington is an art historian and author, specializing in modern and contemporary art. In Muse, she explores the stories of the people depicted in 30 famous portraits and the relationships they had with the artists who painted them. Millington challenges the idea that muses are young women who pose for old male artists. The muses in her book are women and men, young and old, and all play a more active role in inspiring and influencing the art they are a part of.

Millington writes in a breezy, journalistic style that makes her book approachable to readers who might be interested in but unfamiliar with the artists she examines. The only drawback to the book is that she describes a lot of works of art and there are no pictures or illustrations of them, other than one black and white sketch at the beginning of each chapter. This is understandable because the book would be enormous if it included pictures of all the art described. But be prepared to spend some time on google looking up the artwork as curiosity dictates, which it will.

The artists and the muses who inspired them featured in Millington's book are:

Diego Velázquez and Juan de Pareja

Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar

Gustav Klimpt and Emilie Flöge

David Hockney and Peter Schlesinger

Artemisia Gentileschi (herself)

Frida Kahlo (herself)

Sunil Gupta (himself)

Nilupa Yasmin (herself)

Marlene Dumas and Helena Dumas

Awol Erizki and Beyoncé

Fukase Masahisa and Fukase Sukezo

Alex Katz and Ada Katz

Francis Bacon and George Dyer

Sylvia Sleigh and Lawrence Alloway

Salvador Dalí and Gala Dalí

Pixy Liao and Moro

Marina Abramović and Ulay

Keith Haring and Grace Jones

Tim Walker and Tilda Swinton

Paula Rego and Lila Nunes

Sir John Everett Millais and Elizabeth Siddall

Sir Sidney Nolan and Sunday Reed

Augustus john and Lady Ottoline Morrell

Gabriele D'Annuzio and Marchesa Luisa Casati

Andrew Wyeth and Anna Christina Olson

Chris Ofili and Doreen Lawrence

Lucian Freud and Sue Tilley

Kim Leutwyler and Ollie Henderson

Kehinde Wiley and Souleo

Muse is a fascinating look at the stories behind some of art history's most significant and recognizable master works. Artists and art lovers will be enlightened and entertained by Millington's new book.