2014 Book Challenge COMPLETED: The Vintage Mystery Challenge

COMPLETED!

Every year I sign up for the Vintage Mystery Challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader's Block.  This year, Bev added a Silver level, but I only participated in the Gold level, reading mysteries published before 1960.

There is a BINGO theme this year, which mixed it up a bit.  Luckily for me, the rules allowed for one wild card or freebie, or I was stuck.

MY BOOK BINGO

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie (book with a COLOR in the title)

What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw (aka 4:50 from Paddington) by Agatha Christie (book with a NUMBER in the title)

Death in the Air (aka Death in the Clouds) by Agatha Christie (book with an AMATEUR detective)

A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh (book with a PROFESSIONAL detective)

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (book set in ENGLAND)

Enter a Murder by Ngaio Marsh (FREEBIE: book set in the ENTERTAINMENT world)

Book Beginning: Living with Thunder

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to 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.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, 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.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

The Pacific Northwest's landscape celebrate's volcanoes.  Visit any Northwest icon -- Mount Rainier, Haystack Rock, Multnomah Falls, Hells Canyon, or even the Owyhees' Leslie Gulch -- and geologists will likely identify a volcano as its progenitor. 

-- Living with Thunder: Exploring the Geologic Past, Present, and Future of Pacific Northwest Landscapes by Ellen Morris Bishop.

This oversized paperback is filled with glossy color photos and informative charts that make the geology of the Pacific Northwest immediately understandable.

Judging from the enthusiasm my husband has shown for the book ever since it arrived, I'd say it has great gift potential for several of the hikers, rock hounds, and generally curious on my holiday shopping list.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Teaser Tuesday: Children & Other Wild Animals

My daughter, age six, sleeps with her bare, also age six. My son, age three, sleeps with his basketball and a stuffed tiger, age unknown. My other son, also age three, sleeps with a can of anchovy fillets – King Oscar brand, caught off Morocco and distributed by the H. J. Nosaki Company in New York.

-- From “The Anchoviad” one of the most charming essays in Children & Other While Animals by Brian Doyle, published by OSU Press.

Brian Doyle is a Portland treasure and he writes some great books, fiction and non-fiction.  Children & Other Wild Animals is his latest from OSU Press, just in time for holiday gift giving!

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

Two new Oregon State Press books came to my house last week:



Living with Thunder: Exploring the Geologic Past, Present, and Future of Pacific Northwest Landscapes by Ellen Morris Bishop. With lots of gorgeous photographs and full color charts, this has huge gift potential!



Learning to Like Muktuk: An Unlikely Explorer in Territorial Alaska by Penelope S. Easton. The summary makes it sound great: "An unlikely adventurer visits post World War II Alaska and fights to preserve Native foodways while promoting public health across the territory."

Book Beginning: Children & Other Wild Animals

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

SORRY I'M A LITTLE LATER THIS WEEK. CRAZY DAY! 

Please join me every Friday to 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.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, 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.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

One time, years ago, I was shuffling with my children through the vast wet moist dripping enormous thicketed webbed muddy epic forest on the Oregon coast, which is a forest from a million years ago, the forest that hatched the biggest creatures that ever lived on this bruised blessed earth, all due respect to California and its redwood trees but our cedars and firs made them redwoods look like toothpicks, and my kids and I were in a biggest-creature mood, because we had found it slugs way longer than bananas, and footprints of elk that must have been gobbling steroids, and a friend had just told us of finding a bear print the size of a dinner plate, and all of us had seen whales in the sea that very morning, and all of us had seen pelicans too which look like flying pup tents, and how do they know to all hit cruise control at the same time, does the leader give a hand signal? as my son said, and one of us had seen the two ginormous young eagles who lived somewhere in this forest, so when we found the biggest stump in the history of the world, as my daughter called it, we were not exactly surprised, it was basically totally understandable that suddenly there would be a stop so enormous that it was like someone had dropped the dance floor into the forest, that's the sort of thing and that happens in this forest, and my kids of course immediately leapt up on it and started shaking their groove thangs, and dancing themselves silly, and I was snorting with laughter until one kid, the goofiest, why we did not name this kid Goofy when we had the chance in those first few dewy minutes of life I will never know, well, this kid of course shimmied over to the edge and fell off head over teakettle, vanishing into a mat of fern nearly as tall as me, but the reason I tell you this story is that while we were all down in the moist velvet dark of the roots of the ferns, trying to be solicitous about Goofy and see if he was busted anywhere serious but also trying not to laugh and whisper the word doofus, one of us found a newt! o my god! Dad! check it out!

-- From “A Newt Note” the first essay in Children & Other While Animals by Brian Doyle, published by OSU Press.

Brian Doyle is a Portland treasure and he writes some great books, fiction and non-fiction. I loved his book, The Grail, about making Oregon pinot noir wine (see my review, here).

I'm afraid that this first sentence -- yes! one sentence -- demonstrates what I find charming and annoying about some of his writing.  The exuberant run-on sentence is fun the first time, but gets exhausting fast.

Teaser Tuesday: Goodbye Crocodile

When the Northwestern Circus train derailed in the woods outside of Leonard, Alabama, and a train car carrying three Bengal tigers overturned, it took five hours for the first one to find its way into town. It appeared in the hardware aisle at Jonathan's General Goods when it crashed through the ceiling onto a display of discounted screwdrivers and ratchets.

-- from "Three Tigers," in Goodbye Crocodile: Short Stories by Conor Patrick.  That is the best beginning to a story I have read in forever!

Goodbye Crocodile, published by The London Magazine, is a collection of 12 short stories by an American author living in England.  The book is available in America in a Kindle edition or from the published in a paperback edition.

The London Magazine was first published in 1732, making it the UK's oldest cultural journal.  Every issue features original poetry, short fiction, reviews, and literary essays. Learn more about The London Magazine, including how to subscribe, at the magazine's website, facebook page, and twitter.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday: Montana Treasures

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

I was in polar-cold Montana last week for work and found several books at the Friends of the Library shop in the Missoula Library. It is one of my favorites and I always stop there when I am in town.



The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall. This was very popular, but I have not read it yet.



Apple of My Eye by Helene Hanff. A memoir about Manhattan by the author of 84, Charring Cross Road, one of my favorites.



Flush: A Biography by Virginia Woolf. This is the novel-like biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cocker spaniel.



Eleanor Roosevelt's Book of Common Sense Etiquette. How fabulous is this vintage treasure!

Book Beginning: Goodbye Crocodile

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to 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.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, 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.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

On my 12th birthday, my father came to my bed in the quiet of night.

-- from "The Late Train to Santa Fe," the first story in Goodbye Crocodile: Short Stories by Conor Patrick. Don't worry, it is not as creepy as the first sentence suggests!

The London Magazine published this collection of 12 short stories by an American author living in England.  The book is available in America in a Kindle edition or from the published in a paperback edition.

The London Magazine is the UK's oldest cultural journal -- first published in 1732! It features original poetry, short fiction, cultural reviews, and literary essays. Learn more about The London Magazine, including how to subscribe, at the magazine's website, facebook page, and twitter.

Challenge Wrap Up: 2014 European Reading Challenge -- COMPLETED!

The European Reading Challenge
January 1, 2014 to January 31, 2015

COMPLETED!

This is my wrap-up post.

TO ADD YOUR OWN WRAP UP POST, GO TO THIS PAGE 

TO POST A REVIEW, GO TO THIS PAGE

The gist: The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour.

I host this challenge, so I signed up at the highest level, the Five Star (Deluxe Entourage) level, to read at least five books by different European authors or books set in different European countries. I read a total of eight books, but I didn't review many of them. I was pretty busy starting my own law firm this year, so didn't have the time or attention to review many of the books I read. I barely had time to read them!

MY BOOKS

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (Norway)

Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy (Greece; reviewed here)

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn (France; reviewed here)

Sinful Folk by Ned Hayes (United Kingdom; discussed here)

Pillar of Iron by Taylor Caldwell (Italy; Ancient Rome, really, but . . .)

Prague by Arthur Phillips (Hungary, despite its title)

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera (Czechoslovakia)

Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Holland)

Thank you, Veterans!

Teaser Tuesdays: Fallon's Orphans by Bill Kroger

Sarah, amazingly calm, jumped into action now, pulled the knife from the deputy's side, grabbed George by the arm and began to pull him from the area. "We must go now before the police come. Quick!"

Fallon's Orphans by Bill Kroger, is a new thriller set in Cairo, Istanbul, and other exotic locations. A ragtag band of skilled amateurs, or "orphans" to their leader Fallon MacEwan, rally to revenge the terrorist murder of MacEwan's girlfriend.  They get some help from an ancient religious sect sworn to oppose the terrorists.  Filled with international intrigue and contemporary world politics, this is a perfect read-in-a-weekend thriller for any reader looking for a new voice in a crowded genre.

Fallon's Orphans is also available in a Kindle edition.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday: London Calling

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

Two books arrived in my mailbox last week and they are super cool. London cool.



The London Magazine: A Review of Literature and the Arts, October/November 2014 edition. OK, it says it is a magazine. But it is the size of a paperback book, it looks like a book, and it arrived in my mailbox, so I'm counting it.

I might have been an English Lit major, but I'd never heard of The London Magazine. And here it was "first published in 1732" -- it says right on the cover. I now know that TLM is:

The UK's oldest cultural journal featuring the best original poetry, short fiction, cultural reviews and literary essays since 1732.

The London Magazine has been responsible for publishing some of the most significant literature in British history. From Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats to T. S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, Dylan Thomas and Doris Lessing, today it remains at the forefront with the best contemporary writing. Its writers on art have included John Richardson, Alan Bowness, Edward Lucie-Smith and Mel Gooding and it has featured original work by Graham Sutherland, Prunella Clough, Maggie Hambling and Frank Auerbach.

This edition is filled with essays, poems, reviews, and pictures.  I'm going to start with a movie review of a documentary Robert De Niro recently made about his father, a New York artist who made a splash in the 1950s.

Learn more about The London Magazine, including how to subscribe, at the magazine's website, facebook page, and twitter.



Goodbye Crocodile: Short Stories by Conor Patrick.  The London Magazine published this collection of 12 short stories by an American author living in England.  The book is available in America in a Kindle edition or from the published in a paperback edition.

The back cover describes Conor Patrick's stories as "crisp" and "captivating" and the snippets I grabbed as I flipped through so far have definitely been that -- lots of objects and moving and talking. I like that.

Book Beginning: Fallon's Orphans by Bill Kroger

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to 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.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, 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.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING

Fallon MacEwen opened his eyes and stared at the lace canopy over the four-poster bed, marveling at the intricate patterns. . . . The Muslim call to prayer had wakened him, blasting from a loudspeaker not fifty feet from his Istanbul hotel, and he could smell breakfast being prepared the next floor down.

Fallon's Orphans by Bill Kroger, also available in a Kindle edition. I like the beginning because it really sets the scene, with an attention-grabbing mix of antique, modern, religious, and secular. This is a new thriller set in Cairo, Istanbul, and other exotic locals as a band of "orphans" goes after a terrorist group targeting an opposing religious sect.

Teaser Tuesday: Your Life is a Book by Brenda Peterson and Sarah Jane Freymann

Although you are likely the main character in your memoir, populate it with other vulnerable and petty, sometimes wonderfully generous, and often annoyingly or endearingly quirky people (and other creatures). The reader will feel greater warmth and kinship toward you if you aren’t always the main player or the humor.

-- Your Life is a Book: How to Craft and Publish Your Memoir by Brenda Peterson and Sarah Jane Freymann, published by Sasquatch Books.

The authors of Your Life is a Book break down the memoir-writing process into particular and palatable chapters. Each chapter includes practical and creative advice, as well as exercises, writing prompts, and publishing tips. Even if you are not writing for publication, this book may inspire and guide you to write your own “legacy memoir” to hand down to your family.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

My Book Club seldom picks mysteries but this time around we are reading a vintage classic, so I got a copy:



The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (voted greatest mystery novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990)

I also managed to get to the Grant High School used book sale this year and got a nice stack of books, including:



Steaming to Bamboola: The World of a Tramp Freighter by Christopher Buckley (one of his earlier books and hard to find)



The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina (I've been collecting her books, but have not read any of them yet)



Famous Houses and Literary Shrines of London by Arthur St. John Adcock (catnip for book geeks like me)