Rose City Reader

Thursday, July 27, 2023

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome to Book Beginnings on Fridays, where participants share the opening sentence (or so) of the books they are reading this week. Please share yours! You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it this week.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

“Is it a hanging?” an eager newspaper delivery boy asked to no one in particular.

-- from Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson.

I'm a huge Kate Atkinson fan. Shrines of Gaiety is her most recent book, a novel about nightclub life in 1920s London. I just started the audiobook today and am already completely sucked in. Atkinson really knows how to spin a yarn.

Shrines is the perfect follow up to Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies that I finished last week. Both are about post-WWI, 1920s, London party life. The characters in Shrines even talk about the "Bright Young Things" in the society pages, which is exactly the framing for Waugh's book.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
If this widget does not appear, click here to display it.

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 Shrines of Gaiety:

When younger, Frobisher had imagined many qualities in his future wife, but he had not anticipated hysterical amnesia. Lottie’s story was tragic and complicated — again, something he had not predicted in his future wife.

A police officer with a mentally ill French wife, a librarian willing to go undercover as a nightclub hostess, missing girls, damaged war veterans, a nightclub queen looking to hand over her empire to her six children -- I'm only a quarter of the way through the book and am entranced.

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Favorite Genres -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

Here's a question for you: What are your favorite literary genres?

I will read most genres (except horror and erotica), but I mostly read literary fiction and mysteries. Within those broad categories, here are my favorite sub-genres.

CAMPUS NOVELS: My favorite type of novel! I keep a list of Campus Novels here on Rose City Reader. I like them snarky and glib. My favorites are the three originals – The Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy, Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, and Eating People is Wrong by Malcolm Bradbury. I also love David Lodge, Julie Schumacher, and Robertson Davies. My unpopular take? I didn’t care for Stoner by John Williams, although recently reprinted and quite popular. Too much of a downer for me.

CLOSED ROOM MYSTERIES: Country house weekends, creepy institutions, ships, remote locations, whatever. I love a mystery with a confined location and limited set of characters. Some of my favorite authors are Agatha Christie, P.D. James, Ruth Ware, and Lucy Foley.

AGA SAGAS: Nothing appeals to me more than a story about messy village life getting sorted by a friendly and competent, usually female, protagonist. Maeve Binchy was the queen of these books. I also enjoy Joanna Trollope, Rosamunde Pilcher, and Anne Tyler.

ADVENTURES OF WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE: I love stories about women about my age coming into their own. As with my campus fiction, I prefer funny over maudlin. Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan is a perfect example. I also like books by Erica Jong, Penelope Lively, Barbara Pym, Faye Weldon (when she isn’t too mean), and even nonfiction like Frances Mayes and anything by or about Julia Child.

MIDDLE-AGED MEN BEHAVING BADLY: I made this oe up, just like Adventures of Women of a Certain Age. But I enjoy this kind of book as much as campus novels. There’s often overlap between the two. So many of my favorite authors write these stories. Jim Harrison, Philip Roth, Kinsgley Amis, John Updike, Malcolm Bradbury, Howard Jacobson, Richard Ford, David Lodge, and Michael Frayn are all high on my list.

How about you? What are your favorite literary genres?

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Three Fires, by Denise Mina -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

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.

SOCIAL MEDIA: If you are on Instagram, Twitter, 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. Find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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 BOOK BEGINNING

It's late afternoon as a Fra Girolamo Savonarola shuffles onto the raised stage at the front of the Hall of the Five Hundred.

-- from Three Fires, by Denise Mina, out August 1 from Pegasus Books. This is the story of Girolama Savonarola, a Dominican frier in 15th Century Florence. Savonarola rose as a puritanical leader of Florence after his preaching against the greed and vice of the ruling Medici family led to their loss of power.

Savonarola’s hellfire preaching inspired a series of fires around Florence lit to publicly burn books, fancy clothes, art, playing cards, musical instruments, and other symbols of immorality. These fires became known as the Bonfire of the Vanities.

I’m excited to get my hands on this advanced copy of Three Fires. I plan to enjoy it with a cool adult beverage out on my porch.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

MY FRIDAY 56

From Three Fires:

Savonarola appears at the palazzo door and the crowd outside cheer enthusiastically, touch his cassock as he comes past. They part to let him through.

Thursday, July 13, 2023

One More Seat at the Round Table by Susan Dormady Eisenberg -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Please join me every Friday for Book Beginnings! 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.

SOCIAL MEDIA: If you are on Instagram, Twitter, 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. Find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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 BEGINNINGS

MY BOOK BEGGINING

No doubt about it, success has been an answered prayer that's causing tears for my friends Alan Lerner and Fritz Loewe.

-- from the Prologue, "Brock Remsen's Journal[,] August 29, 1958," in One More Seat at the Round Table: A Novel of Broadway's Camelot by Susan Dormady Eisenberg.

I don't have psychic powers, but at various times in my life, I've felt a prickle along my neck when something big was about to happen.

-- from chapter 1, "Two Big Breaks[,] Jane."

I like everything about the opening of this new book. I like that the chapters have titles, we know already when the story is set and that there will be multiple points of view, and both of these sentences offer the little details that hint at the story to come.

And while it isn't immediately obvious to anyone not a big fan of classic Broadway shows, Alan Lerner and Fritz Loewe are the real life writers of the music for the real Camelot musical. I like that the first sentence refers to them, so we know the story is based on historical events.

One More Seat looks like a highly entertaining story offering a glimpse backstage at a major production. My only question is whether I read it right away or save it for once the weather turns chilly. It looks like it fits the bill for either a breezy summer read or a cozy fireside read. What do you think?

MY FRIDAY 56

Crossing Fifth Avenue, I glanced up the block, thronged with people toting shopping bags, and saw the stone façade of St Patrick's with its neo-Gothic steeples looming over midtown. The cathedral had opened in 1879, a fact I learned at age twelve when my Girl Scout trooped toured the city.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Set backstage during the out-of-town chaos of Lerner and Loewe's now-classic 1960 musical, One More Seat at the Round Table portrays the struggles of feisty drama school grad Jane Conroy, who lands a plum Gal Friday job, and Bryce Christmas, a gifted, if insecure, actor on the verge of his big break. When Jane and Bryce fall helplessly in love during Toronto tryouts, their relationship is tested by mistakes they make and endless work woes . . . .

As Lerner, composer Loewe, and their stars, Richard Burton and Julie Andrews, trudge on to Boston, doubts besiege Jane who hopes to buck convention and skip marriage and Bryce who wants a wife. . . .

Thursday, July 6, 2023

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

It was clearly going to be a bad crossing.

-- from Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh.

Now that I see this book starts on a ship crossing the ocean, I would have brought it on my first cruise vacation! I just got back yesterday from a Baltic cruise with my mom and sis. None of us have ever been on a cruise before. I brought plenty of books, but this one would have been on-theme.

I read Vile Bodies years ago as an audiobook. Obviously it didn't sink in because I forgot it starts on a ship. I'm rereading it now as part of an Instagram buddy read. I hope to get more out of it by reading it with my eyes this time.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

THE FRIDAY 56

Another fun Friday event is The Friday 56. Share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your book, or 56% of the way through your e-book or audiobook, on this weekly event hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Vile Bodies:

"How pretty Nina Blount is," said Lady Throbbing, busy from the front row with her lorgnette, "but don't you think, a little changed; almost as though . . ."

"You notice everything, darling."

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In the years following the First World War a new generation emerged, wistful and vulnerable beneath the glitter. The Bright Young Things of 1920s London, with their paradoxical mix of innocence and sophistication, exercised their inventive minds and vile bodies in every kind of capricious escapade. In these pages a vivid assortment of characters, among them the struggling writer Adam Fenwick-Symes and the glamorous, aristocratic Nina Blount, hunt fast and furiously for ever greater sensations and the hedonistic fulfillment of their desires. Evelyn Waugh's acidly funny satire reveals the darkness and vulnerability beneath the sparkling surface of the high life.

Saturday, July 1, 2023

Books I read in June -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

MONTHLY WRAP UP

June 2023

This might look like a pretty short stack of books for a whole month of reading. But wait! June was the month I went on a Baltic cruise with my mom and sis. After much handwringing, I ended up taking seven books with me on the trip, five of which I read in June (the other two in July, on the plane home). But those five books are not in this picture because I passed them on to my cruising companions.

Here’s a list of the 11 books I read in June, along with a few amazing marzipan bon bons I picked up in Kiel, Germany:

PICTURED

Lucia's Progress by E. F. Benson, the second book in Volume Two of the Mapp & Lucia series. I love all these books, with their mix of village charm and catty snark. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Trouble for Lucia, also by E. F. Benson, the last book in the series. I definitely see myself reading all these again some day. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier, which I read with a lively group of women friends on Instagram. Who doesn’t love a sexy pirate? 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Horse by Geraldine Brooks. This was a birthday gift from a friend because I usually don't have brand new hardbacks. I am so glad she gave it to me because it is such an excellent book! 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

NOT PICTURED

The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain, which my mom, sister, and I all read and loved. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Definitely a highlight. I look forward to the rest of the books in the series. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Grave Gourmet by Alexander Campion. Good premise, but I found it oddly off kilter. 🌹🌹🌹

Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman. Laugh out loud funny. My favorite of the trip. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

A Simple Country Murder by Blythe Baker, a surprisingly good WWII cozy. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny. I’m making definite progress with this favorite series. I read this one with my ears because they are such wonderful audiobooks. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Assignment in Brittany by Helen MacInnes, a WWII spy novel published in 1942, which I also read as an audiobook. It has a doppelgänger theme similar to Daphne du Maurier’s 1957 novel, The Scapegoat, although the plots are completely different. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

NOTE

I got behind on posting monthly wrap up posts this year. I'm going back and filling in some missing posts.

Thursday, June 29, 2023

The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

What's the last book you got because you saw it on a blog or social media?

The taxi had dropped her on the corner of the boulevard. She was barely fifty metres from home.

-- from The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain.

I've been seeing this book everywhere on other blogs and bookstagram. So I was happy to find a copy at a friends of the library shop a few weeks back. I am going to take it on vacation with my mom and sister because I think it is one we will all enjoy.

Have you read it? What did you think?

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

The pot-au-feu was beginning to bubble. In a few minutes he would add the vegetables he had part-cooked the night before: carrots, potatoes, leeks, turnips, celery, and two marrow bones.

That makes me hungry!

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Bookseller Laurent Letellier comes across an abandoned handbag on a Parisian street, and feels impelled to return it to its owner. The bag contains no money, phone or contact information. But a small red notebook with handwritten thoughts and jottings reveals a person that Laurent would very much like to meet. Without even a name to go on, and only a few of her possessions to help him, how is he to find one woman in a city of millions?

Thursday, June 22, 2023

The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back by Shannon McKenna Schmidt -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Seated in the dark, freezing bomb bay of a heavily gunned U.S. Navy bomber, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt finally arrived on Guadalcanal in the South Pacific in 1943.

-- from The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back by Shannon McKenna Schmidt.

This new book about Eleanor Roosevelt's personal involvement WWII reads like the most entertaining historical fiction but is a nonfiction biography. Author Shannon McKenna Schmidt did her research. The book comes to life through the primary sources she dug up and weaves throughout the text. The First Lady of World War II is an engaging and inspiring book about a little-known piece of American history.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

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 First Lady of World War II:

“They have the most miserable Red Cross headquarters,” Eleanor informed agency head Norman Davis in a nine-page report she submitted to him after the trip. Badly needed was a building for sailors who went ashore and had no place to sleep for the night.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In August 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt journeyed to the Pacific Theater, where the United States was at war with Japan. A goodwill tour, diplomatic mission, and fact-finding foray, the 25,000-mile trip was further, longer, and more dangerous than any previously undertaken by the well-traveled First Lady.

The First Lady of World War II follows Eleanor on this daring trek, taken under arduous conditions in a theater of war that sprawled over vast ocean distances. The trip, which demonstrated how dramatically she had transformed the role of First Lady, still stands — in the words of a reporter at the time — as "the most remarkable journey any president’s wife has ever made."

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Blood from a Stone: A Memoir of How Wine Brought Me Back from the Dead by Adam S. McHugh -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me each week on Friday to share the opening sentence (or so) from the book you are reading. Feel free to share instead from a book that caught your fancy or you feel like highlighting. Please hop around and visit the other participants!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

This is the story of how wine brought me back from the dead.

— from Chapter One, "Wine Happens," in Blood from a Stone: A Memoir of How Wine Brought Me Back from the Dead by Adam McHugh.

Blood from a Stone is Adam McHugh's memoir of his journey from a career as a hospice chaplain and grief counselor to the discovery of a new life in wine among the grapevines of the Santa Ynez Valley of California. It came out last fall from InterVarsity Press.

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 hashtag #bookbeginnings.

THE FRIDAY 56

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the church became the steward of Europe's grapevines, and the monks were the ones who tended them. Vineyards and the wine squeezed out of their fruit were a major economic engine for monasteries, as well as what filled the sacramental cup.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

"This is the corkscrewing tale of how I got to Santa Ynez, eventually, and the questions that came up along the way," he continues. "You and I are going to take a long wine tour together on our way there, and we will make plenty of stops for a glass and some local wine history. As you will see, I reached into the old, old story of wine in order to find my new story, which begins, as so many wine love stories do, in the French countryside."

With warmth and wit, Adam tells the story of what happens when things fall apart and when where you live no longer feels like home. From the south of France to Champagne to the California central coast, the trail winds toward new life and healing through the good gifts of wine, friendship, and a sense of place. Pour a glass and join the adventure.

Thursday, June 8, 2023

Plumbs for Months by Zaji Cox -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining me here on Book Beginnings on Fridays! Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

It's some kind of wolf -hawk biped, brown-gray with an aggressive V of anger, or maybe strength, on its brow.

-- From the first chapter, One Toy, in Plums for Months: Memories of a Wonder-Filled, Neurodivergent Childhood by Zaji Cox (2023, Forest Avenue Press).

Zaji Cox's new memoir is a collection of impressionistic essays about her childhood, living in a 100-year-old house with her single mother and sister. It is intimate, beautiful, and moving.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

THE FRIDAY 56

TIE IN: TheFriday 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’sVoice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Plums for Months:

It's language arts that's the best part of middle school for me.

My nose is always in a book outside of school anyway — sometimes literally, because how could you not smell that wonderful new book smell? — and so reading and studying reading and writing about reading is heaven for me.

All booknerds can sympathize with this passage, I'm sure!

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

As a neurodivergent child in a hundred-year-old house, Zaji Cox collects grammar books, second-hand toys, and sightings of feral cats. She dances and cartwheels through self-discovery and doubt, guided by her big sister and their devoted single mother. Through short essays that evoke the abundant imagination of childhood, Plums for Months explores the challenges of growing up mixed race and low-income on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon.

Saturday, June 3, 2023

Books I read in May -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

MONTHLY WRAP UP

May 2023

The merry month of May was a mixed-up reading month for me. I wanted to tackle a couple of classics that have been languishing on my TBR shelves. But I also went to visit my mom and we took a little road trip when I was there, so I had a chance to gulp down a few fluffier holiday reads.

Three of the book I read were from my TBR 23 in '23 list. Three were mysteries from series I’m trying to finish before a start a new series. Three were from my Classics Club list because my goal is to finish my 50 books by the end of the year. Do you have a Classics Club list? Check out the Classics Club website for details.

Do you spot any favorites on this list?

PICTURED

The Birds by Daphne du Maurier. I'm in a buddy read group on Instagram doing a Du Maurier Deep Dive and this was our pick for May. Short stories aren’t my thing, but these were gripping! 🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud, winner of the 1959 National Book Award, a Classics Club pick. More short stories, but these were also very good. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

A Cordial Water by M. F. K. Fisher is another on my Classics Club list and a TBR 23 in ’23 book. Interesting, but not my favorite M. F. K. Fisher book. It was a study of historical healing remedies, not personal essays, and I found it pretty dry. 🌹🌹🌹

More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin. I read Home Cooking last month and this sequel was just as good. Both are definitely tops with me for food books. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry was pure fun. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Quo Vadis by Nobel Laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz, another from my Classics Club list. I've wanted to read this classic novel about the early Christian Church forever. Worth reading, but it had its repetitive and draggy spots. 🌹🌹🌹

Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, an excellent short novel I avoided because some of his earlier books were so creepy. This one isn't creepy, just interesting. Another TBR 23 in ’23 read. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. I can’t believe it took me so long to get around to this one, also on my TBR 23 in ’23 list. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

NOT PICTURED

Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin. His John Rebus series is one I’m trying to finish. I left the book with my mom. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Mapp & Lucia by E. F. Benson was my highlight of the month. This is the fourth book in the series and the first book in Volume Two of the omnibus collection. 🌹🌹🌹🌹

Glass Houses by Louise Penny. Her Three Pines series is another I’m concentrating on. Some reviews complain she overreached on this one, but I was 100% in for the ride. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Deception on His Mind by Elizabeth George, the third series I’m trying to complete. This one stars Barbara Havers and Lynley isn’t in it at all, but I thought it was one of the best ones so far. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

What was your reading month like? What were your standout books?

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Horse by Geraldine Brooks -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thank you for joining my on Book Beginnings on Fridays! Please share the opening sentence (or so) from the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy or you otherwise want to highlight.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The deceptively reductive forms of the artist’s work belie the density of meaning forged by a bifurcated existence. These glyphs and ideograms signal to us from the crossroads: freedom and slavery, White and Black, rural and urban.

-- from Horse by Geraldine Brooks.

Those two opening sentences are as pompous and unwieldy as they sound! But they are the character's attempt to write a magazine article about a painting. He rejects them immediately, saying to himself: "No. Nup. That wouldn’t do. It reeked of PhD. This was meant to be read by normal people."

So have no fear, Horse is completely engaging, with no reek of PhD. I really enjoyed Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book, which my book club read a while back. So when one of my book club friends gave me a copy of Horse for Christmas, it went straight to my nightstand to be read ASAP.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

THE FRIDAY 56

From Horse:

He watched her, a slight white shape in the dark, running up the rise to the house. Instead of taking the shallow stone steps to the grand front entrance, she slipped around the side porch.

Horse is historical fiction with a "braided narrative" going from 1850 to 1954 to 2019. The story is based on a real racehorse in the 1950s named Lexington.

Thursday, May 25, 2023

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

MY BOOK BEGINNING

When Sean Devine and Jimmy Marcus were kids, their fathers worked together at the Coleman Candy plant and carried the stench of warm chocolate back home with them.

-- from Mystic River by Dennis Lehane.

That's a great opening sentence, in my opinion, because it immediately pulls you into the story. You know the two main characters will be Sean and Jimmy; you know they have history together but are now adults; and you get a hint at their lives from the fact that their fathers worked in a factory, so you know they grew up with a blue collar background. I'm not sure "stench" and chocolate ever go together, but that's a quibble.

I am glad I finally read this one! It has been on my TBR shelf a long time. I finally read it as one of my TBR 23 in '23 books.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

THE FRIDAY 56

“You ever think how the most minor decision can change the entire direction of your life? Like, say you miss your bus one morning, so you buy that second cup of coffee, buy a scratch ticket while you're at it."

Have you read this book? Or seen the movie? What did you think?

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh -- WHAT ARE THEY READING?

WHAT ARE THEY READING?

Authors tend to be readers, so they often create characters who like to read or stick real books into their stories. I always like it when a real book gets a shout out in the book I'm reading.

How do you think an author picks the books the characters read? I usually assume the characters' choice of books reflects the author's tastes or, maybe, what the author was reading at the time. But sometimes a character's reading material is a clue to the character's personality or is even a part of the story.

This is an occasional blog event. If you want to play along, please do! Grab the button, put up a post, and leave leave a comment with a link to your post.

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED

I first read Brideshead Revisited in high school, after watching the tv miniseries with Jeremy Irons and Anthony Edwards on Masterpiece Theater. I read it again in 2004 when I was working my way through the Modern Library's list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century. I got a lot more out of it reading it in my 30s than I had as a teenager!

Recently, I read it again and loved it even more. Part of my enjoyment came from reading it with my ears this time. Jeremy Irons narrated the audiobook and did a terrific job. I think I also enjoyed it more now because I've read many other Evelyn Waugh books and had a better sense for his humor and the cultural references.

Which is probably why I noticed more which books the characters mentioned. There were several, but the two that I remember are Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey and Antic Hay by Aldous Huxley.

Eminent Victorians was published in 1918 and is one of the few books the protagonist Charles Ryder took with him when he started college at Oxford. It contains biographies of four leading figures of the Victorian Era, Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Arnold and General Charles Gordon. Because it was irreverent, witty, and debunked the pretensions about Victorians, the book was highly popular and made Strachey famous.

Antic Hay is a comic novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1923, which made it a new-release when Anthony Blanche was reading it in Brideshead Revisited. Blanche described his reading experience to Ryder over drinks:

"Picture me, my dear, alone and studious. I had just bought a rather forbidding book called Antic Hay, which I knew I must read before going to Garsington on Sunday, because everyone was bound to talk about it, and it's so banal saying you have not read the book of the moment, if you haven't."

I haven't read Eminent Victorians, but now I want to. I read and enjoyed Antic Hay, but all I remember now are a lot of beautiful young things running around post-WWI London, day drinking and talking about sex.

Friday, May 19, 2023

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Well, I was on vacation and got back too late last night to post in time. So here is a very late Book Beginnings on Fridays post!

I took this Emily Henry book because it seems like the perfect travel book. I loved it and ripped through it on the plane ride home from Omaha.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

On vacation, you can be anyone you want.

-- People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry.

I don’t typically read “romance” books. But there’s a fuzzy line between full on romance novels and the chicklit I secretly love — when it’s clever and sassy.

A while back, I found a copy of Emily Henry’s Book Lovers in a Little Free Library in my neighborhood. It was definitely clever and sassy! I wanted to read her other books so took People We Meet on Vacation with me when I visited my mom in Nebraska. It is completely different but just as funny and fun.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

THE FRIDAY 56

“There is literally no one on earth better equipped to have a magical vacation than a travel journalist with a big-ass media conglomerate’s checkbook. If you can’t have an inspired trip, then how the hell do you expect the rest of the world to?”

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )