The Elements by John Boyne -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Elements by John Boyne

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

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

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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 The Elements:

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.

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

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

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.

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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.”

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!

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.

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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 Democracy in America:

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.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

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

"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.

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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.