Rose City Reader

Thursday, October 17, 2024

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

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

It lay down in a hollow, rich with fine old timber and luxuriant pastures; and you came upon it through an avenue of limes, bordered on either side by meadows, over the high hedges of which the cattle looked inquisitively at you as you passed, wondering, perhaps, what you wanted; for there was no thorough-fare, and unless you were going to the Court you had no business there at all.
-- from Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. I

I like that opening sentence because you know there is going to be some kind of English country house involved in the story. Just my cup of tea!

Lady Audley's Secret was published in 1862 and became a Victorian best seller. It is a scandal-filled thriller with plenty of action, featuring a scheming heroine, a murder mystery, and plenty of twists. I understand why it was so popular!

This was the second book I read for Victober, a celebration of Victorian literature that takes place every October on Instagram.

See the Publisher's Description below for more details.

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 Lady Audley's Secret:

Seated in the embrasure of this window, my lady was separated from Robert Audley by the whole length of the room, and the young man could only catch an occasional glimpse of her fair face, surrounded by its bright aureole of hazy, golden hair.

Robert Audley had been a week at the Court, but as yet neither he nor my lady had mentioned the name of George Talboys.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Lady Audley's Secret was one of the first and most successful sensation novels of the late 19th century. A young gentleman of leisure, Robert Audley, is spurred into action when his friend George Talboys goes missing from Audley Court. As an amateur detective, Robert travels the length and breadth of the country, only to discover that the answer to the mystery lies in the true identity of his uncle's wife, Lady Audley. True to its genre, the novel brings danger home to the private sphere of the country house and questions the unassailable boundaries of class..

Thursday, October 10, 2024

The Breaking Point and Other Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Breaking Point and Other Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier

The Fentons were taking their usual Sunday walk along the Embankment.

-- from "The Alibi," the first story in The Breaking Point and Other Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier.

I'm in a Du Maurier Deep Dive group on Instagram. We are working our way through all of Daphne du Maurier's books. We started with the novels, with a brief diversion to read The Birds, probably her best-known collection of short stories. Now we are reading the other short story collections. The Breaking Point is our current read.

In general, I prefer novels to short stories. But I am also a completist when it comes to favorite authors like du Maurier. So I often find myself in the position of having finished the novels and have only short stories left to reach my goal. I've enjoyed the two collections of du Maurier stories we've read so far, but they are a little uneven. That's the thing about short stories, isn't 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

It must have been during the fifth week that Marta West had tentatively suggested, first to Nurse Ansel and then to her husband, that perhaps when she returned home the night nurse might go with them for the first week. It would chime with Nurse Ansel's own holiday.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In this collection of suspenseful tales in which fantasies, murderous dreams and half-forgotten worlds are exposed, Daphne du Maurier explores the boundaries of reality and imagination. Her characters are caught at those moments when the delicate link between reason and emotion has been stretched to the breaking point. Often chilling, sometimes poignant, these stories display the full range of Daphne du Maurier's considerable talent.

Thursday, October 3, 2024

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

The first ray of light which illumines the gloom, and converts into a dazzling brilliancy that obscurity in which the earlier history of the public career of the immortal Pickwick would appear to be involved, is derived from the perusal of the following entry in the Transactions of the Pickwick Club, which the editor of these papers feels the highest pleasure in laying before his readers, as a proof of the careful attention, indefatigable assiduity, and nice discrimination, with which his search among the multifarious documents confided to him has been conducted.

-- from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. That is the kind of long, shaggy opening sentence I love and anticipate from Charles Dickens.

It's October, which means it is time to read Victorian literature in celebration of Victober! Victober is the best thing I ever picked up from Instagram. Do you participate?

This year, The Pickwick Papers is my Victober choice. I'm a big fan of Dickens and, while there are a few of his books I've read multiple times, there are still a few I've never read. The Pickwick Papers is one of them. I don't know much about it, other than that it is one of his funnier books. I am only a few chapters in and I agree. So far, I love it.

The Pickwick Papers is a long book! You can see in the above picture that my edition fills three volumes. I decided to read it with my ears and the audiobook is 31 hours long!

Have you read 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

Fastened up behind the barouche was a hamper of spacious dimensions--one of those hampers which always awakens in a contemplative mind associations connected with cold fowls, tongues, and bottles of wine--and on the box sat a fat and red-faced boy, in a state of somnolency, whom no speculative observer could have regarded for an instant without setting down as the official dispenser of the contents of the before-mentioned hamper, when the proper time for their consumption should arrive.

Mr. Pickwick had bestowed a hasty glance on these interesting objects, when he was again greeted by his faithful disciple.

Here, members of the Pickwick Club are embarking on a journey. I love the description of their picnic basket. It reminds me of scenes in The Wind in the Willows.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Journey through the English countryside with the inimitable Mr. Samuel Pickwick in Charles Dickens' first novel, a delightful tapestry of episodic misadventures, colorful characters, and sparkling wit. As founder of the Pickwick Club, Mr. Pickwick, accompanied by his loyal friends, embarks on a series of whimsical excursions. From the bustling streets of London to quiet country inns, their travels are punctuated by chance encounters, misunderstandings, and comic predicaments, all narrated with Dickens' signature blend of satire, humor, and keen observation of human nature.

Friday, September 27, 2024

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

Sorry I forgot to post last evening, or even this morning. The week got away from me!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Helen Cartwright was old with her life broken in ways she could not have foreseen.

-- from Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy.

Have you encountered this book yet? If not, you will. It has all the makings of a of a super popular hit book -- an an introverted, unhappy main character, living alone, who learns to embrace life once more. In this case, the protagonist is an 83-year-old lady just waiting to die, who finds redemption through her unlikely friendship with a little mouse.

It's got all the warm and fuzzies of books like A Man Called Ove and Elinore Oliphant is Completely Fine. If you liked those -- and I loved them -- you will love Sipsworth. I certainly did! I read it in two days. I plan to give it to my 85-year-old mother for Christmas.

Sipsworth is my book club's pick for next month. I know it will be popular.

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

This isn't a loud noise, but a persistent one.

Something is happening downstairs in her house on Westminster Crescent that hasn't happened before.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Following the loss of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss. She retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit: “Each day was an impersonation of the one before with only a slight shuffle—as though even for death there is a queue.”

Then, one cold winter night, a chance encounter with a mouse sets Helen on a surprising journey. Over the course of two weeks in a small English town, this reclusive widow discovers an unexpected reason to live.

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Come Fill the Cup by Harlan Ware

Do you ever read some random book and end up mesmerized by it? I found a vintage hardback hiding on my shelf and decided to give it a read. It was excellent! Come Fill the Cup is a 1952 novel by journalist-turned-fiction-writer Harlan Ware about journalism and alcoholism, with a little romance and gangsters thrown in.

The story follows Lew Marsh, a hard-bitten newspaperman and recovering alcoholic, on a side assignment from his publisher to dry out the drunken son of the publisher’s best friend. Boyd Copeland is a charming playboy with mommy issues that drive him to drink. Two women complicate the matter. One is Boyd’s wife Paula, who was a cub reporter working for Lew before she married Boyd. Lew is in love with Paula and wants her to divorce Boyd and marry him. The other is Maria de Diego, a lounge singer Boyd ran around with when he was on a bender. Maria is the girlfriend of gangland boss Lenni Garr. When Garr and his thugs go after Boyd, Lew has more trouble on his hands than trying to keep Boyd sober.

It’s a rollicking, hard-boiled tale, well told. A crowd of big characters jostle each other for attention. Chicago, with its energy, wind, tall buildings, sweltering summer, and snow-covered winter is a character in itself. For all its richness, the story simmers along slowly before coming to a rolling boil with an exciting ending.

Two things fascinated me about the book. The first was how Ware made the newsroom come alive. I worked for a newspaper for a year before law school, back when “copy aids” like me were employed to move paper copies of draft stories from reporters to editors to photographers to lay-out people. My first husband was a reporter, then editor at the same paper. I’ve never worked anywhere with such a bustling environment and tight-knit group of colleagues. Those newspaper folks spent all day together, then hung out in the evenings, ate at each other’s houses, partied, and even vacationed together – talking about news, politics, and current events all the while. Ware captured that energy and feeling of intense interaction.

The second thing was how Ware wrote about alcoholism. Boyd is an affable, but fundamentally destructive alcoholic, heading to divorce and an early death. Lew has been off the bottle for seven years and helped many of his fellow recovered drinkers by hiring them at the newspaper. But Lew is never free from the desire to drink. Every day, he fights the battle with the bottle. He’s antsy and has a very short fuse. Having worked with a dry drunk for many years, I thought it was a spot-on portrait of an ex-drinker. My former law partner, the recovering alcoholic, always told me, “You can take the alcohol out of the fruitcake, but you still have a fruitcake.” Reading this book helped me understand my law partner better than I ever did, even after working with him for seven years.

I know I bought this one for its campy, vintage cover. What a delight that it ended up being a terrific yarn.

NOTES

Come Fill the Cup was the basis for a movie starring James Cagney as Lew and Gig Young as Boyd. Young was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role. Confusingly, the movie came out in 1951, and the book the following year. I can’t find an explanation for the timing.

I was also charmed by the memories this book brought back. There is a price sticker on the back of my copy reminding me that I bought it off the $1 shelves at Powell’s City of Books here in Portland. Prior to the most recent glamorizing remodel, Powell’s had a run of shelves under the windows in the main fiction room stuffed with a haphazard collection of books for $1 each. I used to walk over there on my lunch hour to hunt for treasures.

This was one of the books I picked for the TBR 24 in '24 challenge, which I personally use to help me clear book off my shelf that have lingered the longest.

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