Rose City Reader

Thursday, September 4, 2025

Iris Chang and the Power of One by Randy Hopkins and Ying-Ying Chang -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Iris Chang and the Power of One by Randy Hopkins and Ying-Ying Chang

Thank you for joining me for 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

My daughter, Iris Chang, passed away on November 9, 2004. What happened on that terrible day is still so vivid in my memory.

-- from Iris Chang and the Power of One by Randy Hopkins and Ying-Ying Chang.

Iris Chang was a journalist and historian who shot to fame with her book, The Rape of Nanking. She later killed herself, in part because of depression linked to her historical research.

Historian Randy Hopkins wrote this book with Iris's mother, Ying-Ying Chang. They wanted to write a book about Iris's life, her influence, the causes of her death, and the ability of one person to change the world. It is an interesting format because it is not a straightforward biography. Instead, it is a compendium of materials about Iris, her life, and the impact she had. It is a collection of excerpts from other books, letters, photographs, speeches, eulogies, and other materials. Some of the key materials are reprinted in the back in Chinese and Japanese.

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

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Iris Chang and the Power of One:

No longer an unknown writer, Iris undertook a series of exhausting book tours to promote The Chinese in America. But, she could not escape The Rape of Nanking.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

This book is about Iris Chang and her world-changing influence. At age 29, Iris, a Chinese American, wrote the wildly popular and deeply controversial book The Rape of Nanking - exposing the atrocity now known as the Nanjing Massacre which followed the Japanese Imperial Army's 1937 capture of Nanking, China. She later wrote another massively researched book, The Chinese in America. At the age of 36, Iris took her own life.

The book first traces Iris' life and tragic end. Reasons leading to her death are covered, with elements that echo in today's headlines. The second part is a revelation of the positive influences Ms. Chang has had upon the world -- a highly graphic celebration of the 'ripples of light' emanating from her life's work.

Thursday, August 28, 2025

Highland Fling by Nancy Mitford -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Highland Fling by Nancy Mitford

Thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Albert Gates came down from Oxford feeling that his life was behind him.

-- from Highland Fling by Nancy Mitford.

I'm in the mood to read Nancy Mitford novels because I started watching Outrageous, the tv show about the Mitford sisters. I have a mild obsession with the sisters and a collection of books by them and about them. I want to do a deep dive and read all of them straight through, maybe even rereading the ones I've read before.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point.

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Highland Fling:

Albert sat next to Lady Prague, a spinsterish woman of about forty with a fat face, thin body and the remains of a depressingly insular type of good looks. Her fuzzy brown hair was arranged in a dusty bun showing ears which were evidently intended to be hidden, but which insisted on poking their way out.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In Highland Fling—Nancy Mitford’s first novel, published in 1931—a set of completely incompatible and hilariously eccentric characters collide in a Scottish castle, where bright young things play pranks on their stodgy elders until the frothy plot climaxes in ghost sightings and a dramatic fire.

Inspired in part by Mitford’s youthful infatuation with a Scottish aristocrat, her story follows young Jane Dacre to a shooting party at Dulloch Castle, where she tramps around a damp and chilly moor on a hunting expedition with formidable Lady Prague, xenophobic General Murgatroyd, one-eyed Admiral Wenceslaus, and an assortment of other ancient and gouty peers of the realm, while falling in love with Albert, a surrealist painter with a mischievous sense of humor. Lighthearted and sparkling with witty banter, Highland Fling was Mitford’s first foray into the delightful fictional world for which the author of The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate later became so celebrated.

The Bookman's Wake by John Dunning -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Bookman's Wake by John Dunning

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The man in St. Louis died sometime during the afternoon, as near as the coroner could figure it.

-- from The Bookman's Wake by John Dunning. This is the second book in Dunning's Cliff Janeway mystery series, featuring a Denver cop turned rare book dealer. I read the third book in the series, The Bookman's Promise, years ago and remembered liking it. That was back in the happy-go-lucky days when I wasn't so hung up on reading series in order. I am trying to get back to that approach.

The Bookman's Wake involves the theft of a rare edition of "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe and a bail-jumping young women suspected of the theft. A mystery and a book about books -- that's a winning combination for me.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point.

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Bookman's Wake:

He got a stern, fatherly look on his face and said, “I think that's a pretty nice book, sweetie, I'm gonna want twenty to thirty bucks for it." ... The next day I called my friend in Seattle and he sent me a good wholesale price, four hundred dollars.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Denver cop-turned-bookdealer Cliff Janeway is lured by an enterprising fellow ex-policeman into going to Seattle to bring back a fugitive wanted for assault, burglary, and the possible theft of a priceless edition of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." The bail jumper turns out to be a vulnerable young woman calling herself Eleanor Rigby, who is also a gifted book finder.

Janeway is intrigued by the woman -- and by the deadly history surrounding the rare volume. Hunted by people willing to kill for the antique tome, a terrified Eleanor escapes and disappears. To find her -- and save her -- Janeway must unravel the secrets of the book's past and its mysterious maker, for only then can he stop the hand of death from turning another page....

Thursday, August 21, 2025

The Summer Book by Tove Jannson -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

I'm finally back from my epic adventures with Mom and Sis. Thanks for sticking with Book Beginnings while I was gone. Although I see that there were fewer people around. I think lots of folks are on vacation in August. If you went somewhere fun, drop me a comment and tell me about your trip.

And thank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

It was an early, very warm morning in July, and it had rained during the night.

-- from The Summer Book by Tove Jansson.

Tove Jansson was born in 1914 in Finland to Swedish parents. She is best known for her Moomintroll character and related Moomin comic strip and books. But she also wrote a handful of books for adults, including The Summer Book, which I have in a pretty NYRB Classics edition. I wanted to read it in the summer to get the full experience. It is a beautiful, charming novel about a grandmother and her six-year-old granddaughter spending a summer month on a small island in the Bay of Finland.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point.

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Summer Book:

Grandmother walked up over the bare granite and thought about birds in general. It seemed to her no other creature had the same dramatic capacity to underline and perfect events – the shifts in the seasons and the weather, the changes that run through people themselves.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In The Summer Book, Tove Jansson distills the essence of the summer—its sunlight and storms—into twenty-two crystalline vignettes. This brief novel tells the story of Sophia, a six-year-old girl awakening to existence, and Sophia’s grandmother, nearing the end of hers, as they spend the summer on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. The grandmother is unsentimental and wise, if a little cranky; Sophia is impetuous and volatile, but she tends to her grandmother with the care of a new parent. Together they amble over coastline and forest in easy companionship, build boats from bark, create a miniature Venice, write a fanciful study of local bugs. They discuss things that matter to young and old alike: life, death, the nature of God and of love. “On an island,” thinks the grandmother, “everything is complete.” In The Summer Book, Jansson creates her own complete world, full of the varied joys and sorrows of life.

Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell

I got back from my vacation yesterday but I still pre-scheduled this post because I knew I would be jet lagged and have 1,000 to do after leaving my husband home without me for three weeks. So, again, my apologies if something goes wrong.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Scholarship asks, thank God, no recompense but Truth.

-- from Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell. This is the first of four legal mysteries featuring a pipe-smoking Oxford professor named Hilary Tamar. I wanted to read this one because it takes place in Venice and I read it when we were there last week. I also love mysteries with lawyers and campus novels, so this one ticked all my boxes.

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.

THE FRIDAY 56

The Venetians, it seems, adopted St Mark as their patron saint in the ninth century, at which time the mortal remains of the Evangelist were reposing in Alexandria. To demonstrate their piety, the Venetians set out a body-snatching expedition, which abstracted the sacred corpse from its resting-place and brought it back through Customs between two sides of pork, so discouraging investigation by the fastidious Muslims.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Set to have a vacation away from her home life and the tax man, young barrister Julia Larwood takes a trip to Italy with her art-loving boyfriend. But when her personal copy of the current Finance Act is found a few meters away from a dead body, Julia finds herself caught up in a complex fight against the Inland Revenue.

Fortunately, she’s able to call on her fellow colleagues who enlist the help of their friend Oxford professor Hilary Tamar. However, all is not what it seems. Could Julia’s boyfriend in fact be an employee of the establishment she has been trying to escape from? And how did her romantic luxurious holiday end in murder?

Thursday, August 14, 2025

Old Bones by Aaron Elkins -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Old Bones by Aaron Elkins

I'm at sea. I mean that literally, in that I'm on a cruise with my mom and sister. I pre-scheduled this post, so I hope it works.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

So still and silent was the fog-wreathed form that it might have been an angular, black boulder.

-- from Old Bones by Aaron Elkins.

Old Bones is the fourth of 18 books in Aaron Elkins's Gideon Oliver mystery series. I haven't read the first three and, normally, I don't read a series out of order. But I am trying to be less regimented about that and just jump right in. Old Bones is the only Elkins book I have on my TBR shelf. It won the Edgar Award for best mystery in 1988. Because I had it and am trying to read all the Edgar winners, I took the bold (for me) move of reading it first. Wish me luck!

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.

THE FRIDAY 56

They sat in silence as the Breton coast's wide sky and low dunes gave way to the rolling hills of the Rance estuary, and then to the somber heaths and dark little forests of the interior. At an intersection with a narrow graveled road a primitive wooden sign with the word "Ploujean” pointed left.

I love mystery books set in European countries, France especially.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

“With the roar of thunder and the speed of a galloping horse comes the tide to Mont St. Michel,” goes the old nursery song. So when the aged patriarch of the du Rocher family falls victim to the perilous tide, even the old man’s family accepts the verdict of accidental drowning.

But too quickly, this “accident” is followed by a bizarre discovery in the ancient du Rocher chateau: a human skeleton, wrapped in butcher paper, beneath the old stone flooring. Professor Gideon Oliver, lecturing on forensic anthropology at nearby St. Malo, is asked to examine the bones. He quickly demonstrates why he is known as the “Skeleton Detective,” providing the police with forensic details that lead them to conclude that these are the remains of a Nazi officer believed to have been murdered in the area during the Occupation. Or are they? Gideon himself has his doubts.

Thursday, August 7, 2025

The Austen Sisters by Dee Blankenship -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Austen Sisters by Dee Blankenship

I am still cruisin' with my mom and sister, so pre-scheduled this post. Apologies if there are any problems!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The eldest of the five sisters, Elinor Austen, is possessed with all the qualities expected of an older sister.

-- from the Prologue to The Austen Sisters by Dee Blankenship, subtitled "A Modern Day Tale of Pride, Persuasion, and Sensibilities."

Eleanor caught sight of the gate for her flight and let out a sigh of relief.

-- from Chapter 1, "Elinor."

I like the way The Austen Sisters starts. The first sentence of the Prologue sounds like something Jane Austen would have written, with old fashioned words. A modern translation might be, "The oldest of the five sisters, Elinor Austen has the typical personality of an older sister." Then the first sentence of Chapter 1 makes is very clear we are in modern times because she is at an airport. Cleverly done.

2025 marks the sestercentennial* of Jane Austen's birth. I'm commemorating the event by rereading her six main novels in publication order, one every other month. I finished Emma (my favorite) in July and have only Northanger Abby and Persuasion left.

I had intended to incorporate Austen fan fiction into my celebration, but am not really a fan of fan fiction. Then I saw The Austen Sisters and knew I had found an homage I wanted to read.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point.

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from The Austen Sisters:

With an easy grin, Frank Churchill spoke up. "One of our buddies isn't feeling his best this morning, so we were hoping to charm one of you lovely ladies into joining us."

Frank Churchill is a flirtatious charmer in Emma. I like that the characters in The Austen Sisters have the names and mannerisms of the characters in Jane Austen's books.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In this contemporary reimagining of Jane Austen’s beloved novels, five sisters, each embodying the spirit of Austen’s heroines, gather at the luxurious Mansfield Park Resort for their cousin Fanny’s wedding.

As the festivities unfold, tensions rise, misunderstandings abound, old flames reignite, and the sisters find themselves swept up in a whirlwind of romance that feels strangely familiar. After all, love, even in the modern day, still follows the timeless wisdom of Austen’s pen.

* Of all the potential words for a 250th anniversary -- semiquincentennial, sestercentennial, bicenquinquagenary, and bisesquicentennial -- sestercentennial is the only one I can possibly pronounce, so I'm sticking with it. I've also seen quarter millennium, but that just sounds wrong.

Thursday, July 31, 2025

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Unprintable by Julie Kaewert

When you read this, I will be in Athens, Greece, with my mother and sister. (Leaving my beleaguered husband home without me.) Unprintable by Julie Kaewert is one of the books I brought with me to read on vacation.

I had to schedule the post, so let's hope it works. If not, my apologies. I'll be back August 21.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

There's nothing like the joy of placing pristine handmade paper in a press, clicking bits of type into a composing stick and breathing the exotic aroma of oil-based ink.

-- from Unprintable by Julie Kaewert.

Julie Kaewert wrote a series of Un- books (Unsolicited, Uncatalogued, etc.), cozy-ish mysteries featuring Alex Plumbtree, owner of Plumtree Press. Unprintable is the only one I've read. It is the third in the series, but it doesn't seem necessary to read them in order.

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.

THE FRIDAY 56

Pulling up into the long drive with the crunch of gravel under the wheels, I relaxed. At least here there were no screaming hordes of journalists.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

It is possibly the most repugnant piece of fiction in all of England. So why is Plumtree Press, one of the country's most respectable publishing houses, about to add the hotly controversial new novel to its list? Publisher Alex Plumtree isn't talking. Hardly anyone knows he has taken on the project as a favor to the Prime Minister.

Forget the bad press and hateful reviews. Alex swiftly finds himself on the wrong side of a lawsuit, bugged, betrayed, roughed up, and implicated in murder. Suddenly Alex doesn't know who[m] to trust.

Thursday, July 24, 2025

Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy

I leave next week for vacation with my mom and sister. We will be gone three weeks (my husband is grumpy about this), so I am anxious about which and how many books to bring.

Here's one I know I will bring. Over the next few weeks, you will see others I picked. I have to schedule the posts until I get back, so I am crossing my fingers they all work. I'll be back in real time on August 21.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

It had been very dull and matter-of-fact in the coroner's court.

-- from the prelude to Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy.

Violet finished the library book and closed it with a snap. Yet again, a self-doubting, fluttery, bird-brain heroin had been swept away by a masterful man.

-- from Part One, 1940 - 1945, Chapter 1.

I'm a big Maeve Binchy fan, so I don't understand why I have never read Light a Penny Candle, her first and perhaps most popular novel. I love her long, shaggy "Aga sagas" full of big messes that get tidied up for a satisfactory and happy ending.

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.

THE FRIDAY 56

The air was so full of gratitude and re-examination of gifts that none of them except Elizabeth noted the anxious glances exchanged between Auntie Eileen and Uncle Sean. She couldn't interpret them —it was as if they alone had seen some hidden disaster.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

To escape the chaos of London during World War II, young Elizabeth White is sent to live a safer life in the small Irish town of Kilgarret. It is there, in the crowded, chaotic O’Connor household, that she meet Aisling—a girl who soon becomes her very best friend, sharing her pet kitten and secretly teaching her the intricacies of Catholicism.

Aisling’s boldness brings Elizabeth out of her proper shell; later, her support carries Elizabeth through the painful end of her parents’ chilly marriage. In return, Elizabeth’s friendship helps Aisling endure her own unsatisfying marriage to a raging alcoholic. Through the years, they come to believe they can overcome any conflict, conquer any hardship—as long as they have each other. Now they’re about to find out if they're right...

Thursday, July 17, 2025

The Elements by John Boyne -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Elements by John Boyne

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The first thing I do when I arrive on the island is change my name.

-- from The Elements by John Boyne.

Well, that's a terrific opening sentence! Boyne knows how to spin a yarn.

I've only read one book by John Boyne, A Ladder to the Sky. It was a well-executed and gripping story, but it left me cold. It has the same casual amorality that bothers me about Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley books. I like an anti-hero who is a grumpy curmudgeon, like Jackson Lamb in the Slow Horses books, but not an anti-hero who is an unrepentant, unconvicted, murderer.

That explains why I have not been quick to pick up another Boyne book. But he has so many! I need to give him another chance. I was happy, for that reason, to get an ARC of his new book, The Elements from Henry Holt & Company. The Elements launches on September 9, 2025.

The Elements brings together the stories of four people -- a mother seeking a new life, a young man on trial for sexual assault, a surgeon hobbled by past trauma, and a father trying to connect with his teenage son. Interestingly, the four stories were published as four separate books, Water (2023), Earth (2024), Fire (2024), and Air (2025). The Elements is an omnibus edition containing all four.

I much prefer the UK cover to the American cover above. This is the UK cover. What do you think?

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.

THE FRIDAY 56

I kept busy with the trappings of being an affluent, middle-class woman in South Dublin. I arranged spa days with my friends, had regular appointments with my hairdresser, became -- for a time -- obsessed with Bikram yoga.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In The Elements, acclaimed Irish novelist John Boyne has created an epic saga that weaves together four interconnected narratives, each representing a different perspective on crime: the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator, and the victim.

The narrative follows a mother on the run from her past, a young soccer star facing a trial, a successful surgeon grappling with childhood trauma, and a father on a transformative journey with his son. Each is somehow connected to the next, and as the story unfolds, their lives intersect in unimaginable ways.

Boyne’s most ambitious work yet, The Elements is both an engrossing drama and a moving investigation of why and how we allow crime to occur.

Thursday, July 10, 2025

On My Honor: The Secret History of the Boy Scouts of America by Kim Christensen -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

On My Honor: The Secret History of the Boy Scouts of America by Kim Christensen

MY BOOK BEGINNING

A few weeks after he left the White House in March 1909, Theodore Roosevelt sailed to Africa on a wildlife expedition to collect specimens for the Smithsonian Institute's new Natural History Museum.

-- from On My Honor: The Secret History of the Boy Scouts of America by Kim Christensen, Chapter 1, "Feuding Founders and the Boy Problem."

On My Honor exposes the Boy Scouts of America's long history of childhood sexual abuse and its cover up. Kim Christensen, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, worked on this book for years, although it was sadly published right after he died of cancer. Christensen poured through BSA's own "Perversion Files" on child molesters in Scouting and worked with lawyers like me to get the record straight.

This book is heartbreaking for me because I've spent the past 18 years representing adults who were sexually abused when they were children in Scouting. I've heard all the stories and seen for myself the way sexual abuse left these men -- and several women -- emotionally and psychologically damaged.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point.

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from On My Honor:

"They fought tooth and nail that we didn't get those [Perversion] files, and they dumped them on us a week before trial," recalled Portland attorney Gilion Dumas, a member of the Lewis's legal team. . . . But even from her first-glance reading, Dumas said, clear patterns of children sexual abuse -- and the organization's response to it -- leaped out.

So, yes, I fidged on the page 56 part. This teaser is from page 114, but I wanted to use it because it's not every day I'm quoted in a book!

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Since its founding in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America has been the nation’s premier youth organization, espousing self-reliance and honor. More than 100 million Americans have been Boy Scouts, from Bill Gates to Martin Luther King Jr. Today, however, Scouting faces an existential threat of its own making: more than 82,000 former Scouts have filed claims alleging they were sexually abused—seven times the number of similar allegations that rocked the Catholic Church two decades ago.

On My Honor untangles the full story of the Boy Scouts of America, tracking its creation, growth, influence, and the massive generational trauma it has caused. Using the iconic institution to tell a story of American values over the last century, the book grapples with America’s changing understanding of what it means to “make men.”

Saturday, July 5, 2025

June 2025 Reading Wrap Up -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

June 2025 Monthly Wrap Up

How about a big mug of coffee to go with a big stack of books!

I had a lull in my work schedule in June, giving me lots of time to read. I read 21 books last month, which is a personal record. Have you read any of these or do you plan to?

Here they are, in the order I read them. If they aren't in the picture, it's because I read them with my ears and don't have a physical copy. Oh, I also forgot to include a Ruth Rendell book in the picture, even though I read it with my eyes.

Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Gartner. I loved this one and reviewed it here. I didn't know anything about Gartner before I read this, other than that she is called the Barefoot Contessa. Her story is inspirational!

Maigret and the Spinster by Simenon. I have a lot of Simenon's mystery books on my shelves, but have been slow to read them. I found Maigret to be odd, but charming. I want to read more. This is my France book for the 2025 European Reading Challenge. I'm trying to read more books in translation for the challenge.

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg was a disappointment. Read my review here to learn why.

A New Lease of Death by Ruth Rendell. Now that's I've wrapped up a few other mystery series, I plan to focus on Rendell's Inspector Wexford books. This is the second one. I thought it was terrific, but I haven't really gotten into the series yet. I have time -- there are 24 books in the series.

The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George. Her Inspector Lynley series is one I've doubled down on in the last few years. I enjoy the books immensely, this one in particular, but they are so very long! Fortunately, my library recently got many of the audiobooks and that has helped enormously. I can listen to a 24-hour-long audiobook faster than I can read a 900-page book, especially when I speed up the playback speed.

Table for Two by Amor Towels. I loved Rules of Civility and this collection of short stories and a novella is in the same spirit. The novella is a sort-of sequel to Rules of Civility.

A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler is an early international thriller, published in 1930. The plot was a little messy, but it was a lot of fun.

A Burnt-Out Case by Graham Greene was excellent. It's the story of an architect who lost his passion for his work and his religious faith and goes to a leper colony in Africa to lose himself.

The Pilgrims Redress by C.S. Lewis. I wanted to like this Christian classic, but I struggle with allegory.

The New Artisans: Handmade Designs for Contemporary Living by Oliver Dupon is a survey of contemporary arts and crafts. It was interesting, but a little dry to read straight through.

Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter. This short collection of three southern gothic novellas knocked my socks off. Porter is in the same school as Flannery O'Connor, with maybe a tough of Eudora Welty.

Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz, book five in his Hawthorne & Horowitz series. This is one of my very favorite series, but the fourth book, The Twist of the Knife, disappointed me. It was not as clever, more traditionally formulaic, than the first three. So I put off reading this fifth one when it first came out. I'm glad I finally read it because it is as snappy and fun as the first three.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelias. Let’s just say, I’m not a stoic. This was a slog.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson. This story of WWII and Cold War espionage in London was a delight. I wish I read it earlier.

Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki. This coming of age story about three sisters in Greece was fabulous, a highlight of my reading month. Another book in translation, this was my Greece pick for the European Reading Challenge.

Double Blind by Edward St. Aubyn. I greatly admire his Patrick Melrose books and Lost for Words is an all-time favorite, so I was excited to read this. It had way more brain science than I expected and not enough story about the human relationships, but it was good and I'm glad I read it.

Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition by Roger Scruton. This one made me think! It's a survey of western conservative thinking from Plato to the 21st Century.

Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience, edited by Sean Usher. 125 letters from ordinary and famous people, with short introductions providing context. It's a fun glimpse into the historical record.

The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan is his only kids book. It was a short, enjoyable read.

Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of a Fulfilled Life by Daniel Klein, At the other end of the lifespan spectrum, this a thoughtful consideration of old age.

The Ice Saints by Frank Tuohy, a forgotten classic that won the 1964 James Tait Black prize. It is the story of a woman from London in the late 1950s who goes to Poland to visit her sister who had married a Polish soldier after WWII. The story is sweet, a little funny, and sad, providing a clear-eyed look at life behind the Iron Curtain. This was my Poland pick for the ERC, even though it is not in translation.

As work slows down, my reading speeds up! I used to read eight or nine books a month, around 100 a year. The last few years, as I've started to wind down my law practice and turn it over to my junior partner, I've been reading 15 or 16 books a month. June was the first month I really didn't have a lot of work to do and it shows in the number of books I read. I hope this trend continues because I might just have a chance to read all the books on my TBR shelves!

Thursday, July 3, 2025

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays on this Fourth of July. If you are here in the US, I hope you have fun plans for the holiday. We're having neighbors over for a pot luck, which I am really looking forward to.

As always on Book Beginnings, 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

Amongst the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of conditions. I readily discovered the prodigious influence which this primary fact exercises on the whole course of society, by giving a certain direction to public opinion, and a certain tenor to the laws; by imparting new maxims to the governing powers, and peculiar habits to the governed.

-- from Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.

Democracy in America seems like a good pick for Independence Day. De Tocqueville was a French political scientist and diplomat who travelled extensively in the United States in 1831. He wrote Democracy in America to record his observations of the government, culture, literature, and attitudes of the new country.

I think Democracy in America is one of those classics that is appreciated for its existence more than it is actually read. My copy, pictured above, belonged to my husband when he was in law school in the 1970s. I can see from his margin notes that he, like I did in law school 15 years later, read "in" the book but didn't read the whole book. Fair enough. It's dense.

Have you read Democracy in America? Or read in it? I still plan to read the whole thing, which is why I hang onto my husband's vintage copy. Although now that I take a closer look at the cover, I see this edition is "specially edited and abridged for the modern reader." I'm such a completist, I think I will have to find an unabridged version if I ever get around to reading it.

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.

THE FRIDAY 56

When a nation modifies the elective qualification, it may easily be foreseen that sooner or later that qualification will be entirely abolished. There is no more invariable rule in the history of society: the further electoral rights are extended, the greater is the need of extending them; for after each concession the strength of the democracy increases, and its demands increase with its strength.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-59) came to America in 1831 to see what a great republic was like. What struck him most was the country's equality of conditions, its democracy. The book he wrote on his return to France, Democracy in America, is both the best ever written on democracy and the best ever written on America. It remains the most often quoted book about the United States, not only because it has something to interest and please everyone, but also because it has something to teach everyone.

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Transcription by Kate Atkinson -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

MY BOOK BEGINNING

"Miss Armstrong! Miss Armstrong! Can you hear me?".

-- from Transcription by Kate Atkinson.

Transcription came out in 2019 and sat unread on my shelf until last week. I regret not reading it immediately because I loved it.

It is the story of a young woman who gets recruited during WWII to work for MI5. After the war, she goes to work for the BBC, but her past intrudes on her new life. Atkinson tells the exciting, comlpicated story with her usual charm and subtle humor.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Please add the link to your book beginning post in the linky box below. If you participate or share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so other people can find your post.

THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 asks participants to share a two-sentence teaser from their book of the week. If your book is an ebook or audiobook, pick a teaser from the 56% point.

Anna at My Head is Full of Books hosts The Friday 56, a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please visit My Head is Full of Books to leave the link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from Transcription:

Nor did they have any idea that Godfrey Toby worked for MI5 and was not the Gestapo agent to whom they thought they were bringing traitorous information. And they would have been very surprised to know that the following day a girl sat at a big Imperial typewriter in the flat next door and transcribed those traitorous conversations, one top copy and two carbons at a time.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In 1940, eighteen-year old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever.

Ten years later, now a radio producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, on a different battleground, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat. A bill of reckoning is due, and she finally begins to realize that there is no action without consequence.

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Favorite Books -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

Favorite Books

Here are two dozen of my favorite books. Think of this as a sort of Meet the Book Blogger post. I pulled these favorite fiction and favorite nonfiction books off my shelves to illustrate the types of books I like to read. They aren't my favorite books of all times, but they are favorites that I've kept around. All have survived several shelf purges, proving they really are favorite books.

One thing you can tell from these favorites is I don't run out to read the latest book. My TBR shelves overflow with dated popular fiction, "modern" classics from the 20th Century, and books that were never popular but caught my eye. I read a lot of crime fiction and dabble with a few romance novels now and again, but there are several genres I rarely, if ever, read, like sci-fi, fantasy, erotica, and horror.

As for nonfiction, I love food writing, travel writing of the expat memoir variety, biographies of Midcentury socialites (there's a sub-genre for you!), style guides (as in writing style, not clothes), coffee table books about home decorating, and books about books.

Do we share any tastes in books? Here are some of my favorites.

FAVORITE FICTION

📗 The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch

📗 Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

📗 The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark

📗 Independence Day by Richard Ford

📗 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

📗 Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion

📗 Mating by Norman Rush

📗 Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

📗 Transcription by Kate Atkinson

📗 Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

📗 Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding

📗 American Tabloid by James Ellroy

FAVORITE NONFICTION

📘 Merry Hall by Beverley Nichols

📘 The Library Book by Susan Orlean

📘 Wait for Me! By Deborah Mitford

📘 The King’s English: A Guide to Modern Usage by Kingsley Amis

📘 Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O’Connor

📘 Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell

📘 My Life in France by Julia Child

📘 The Food of France by Waverley Root

📘 Eats Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss

📘 The Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue by Sonia Purnell

📘 Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government by P.J. O’Rourke

Have you read any of these? Would you?

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