Rose City Reader: 10/01/2022

Thursday, October 27, 2022

I Meant to Tell You by Fran Hawthorne -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome back to Book Beginnings on Fridays, where participants share the opening sentence (or so) of the book they are reading this week. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

In her yellow car seat behind Miranda, Tali danced her soft stuffed fox on its two rear legs and sang loudly in a mix of Hebrew and English: “Here comes the sun. Here comes the ha-shemesh.”

-- from I Meant to Tell You by Fran Hawthorne.

Fran Hawthorne's new novel, I Meant to Tell You, follows the ripple effects of disclosing a startling secret.

As Miranda and Russ prepare for their wedding and Russ’s new job in the U.S. Attorney's office, both must disclose any criminal history as part of a routine FBI background check. Things get sticky when Miranda fails to disclose that she had been convicted of a misdemeanor many years earlier. She had tried to help a friend leave the US for Israel with her daughter during her friend's nasty divorce and they got caught. Her conviction had been expunged, so she didn’t think she needed to tell the FBI about it. Big mistake.

The story unspools from there, narrated through the multiple voices of those affected.

I Meant to Tell You launches in a couple of weeks, on November 15, and is available for pre-order. It’s the kind of meaty but entertaining story of family and friendship that would be perfect for the long Thanksgiving weekend.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From I Meant to Tell You:

Six long-stemmed red roses fell next to Bill's brown loafers, while three more dangled from his left hand. The person getting off the escalator behind Miranda elbowed past her.

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION

When Miranda Isaacs’s fiancé, Russ Steinmann, is being vetted for his dream job in the U.S. attorney’s office, the couple joke about whether Miranda’s parents’ history as antiwar activists in the Sixties might jeopardize Russ’s security clearance. But as it turns out, the real threat emerges after Russ’s future employer discovers that Miranda was arrested for felony kidnapping seven years earlier – an arrest she’d never bothered to tell Russ about.

Monday, October 24, 2022

Winterland and Prisons Have a Long Memory -- MAILBOX MONDAY

MAILBOX MONDAY

A couple of interesting -- and different -- books came my way last week.

Winterland by Rae Meadows (2022, Henry Holt)

This novel starts in the Soviet Union in 1973 when eight-year-old Anya is chosen to be part of the famed USSR gymnastics program. It is a story of competitive sports and the story of Anya missing mother.

Winterland comes out November 29 and is available for pre-order. I was lucky to get an early review copy from LibraryThing.

From the publisher's description:

In the Soviet Union in 1973, there is perhaps no greater honor for a young girl than to be chosen to be part of the famed USSR gymnastics program. So when eight-year-old Anya is tapped, her family is thrilled. What is left of her family, that is. Years ago her mother disappeared. Anya's only confidant is her neighbor, an older woman who survived unspeakable horrors during her ten years in a Gulag camp--and who, unbeknownst to Anya, was also her mother's confidant and might hold the key to her disappearance. As Anya moves up the ranks of competitive gymnastics, and as other girls move down, Anya soon comes to realize that there is very little margin of error for anyone.

Prisons Have a Long Memory: Life Inside Oregon's Oldest Prison, edited by Tracy D. Schlapp and Daniel J. Wilson (2022, Bridgeworks Oregon).

This is a collection of essays, poems, and memoir written by prisoners at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Schlapp and Wilson started and led a "storytelling" group inside the prison and then worked with an editorial board of adults in custody to compile this collection.

This book is part of Schlapp and Wilson's efforts at Bridgeworks Oregon, which started with them forming the band Luther's Boots to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison album. I've known Danny since before we started college and I think this work he is doing in prisons is amazing.

From the publisher's description:

Danny Wilson and Tracy Schlapp assembled the storytelling group Ground Beneath Us at Oregon State Penitentiary in May 2019. For the past three years, they have mentored men in writing about life inside, using questions posed by middle and high school students as a springboard. Over seventy thousand children in Oregon are impacted by incarceration. These kids have questions they may be afraid to pose to their family members who serve time: fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters. Prison life requires a person to do difficult personal work and redefine oneself. This writing is testimony to that work. The result is a rich anthology filled with poetry, essays, and memoir that together present a picture of life at OSP and an exploration of the internal struggle to atone, find peace, and create community. Adult in Custody editorial board members have assembled a selection of powerful stories to be shared with the outside world. Wilson and Schlapp provided editorial support and guidance to the writers. Prisons Have a Long Memory will be presented within prisons and neighboring communities throughout Oregon thanks to support from the Spirit Mountain Community Fund, Oregon Humanities, the Oregon Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

YOUR MAILBOX MONDAY BOOKS

What books came into your house recently?

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house lately. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught Our Eye.

Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf, and Emma of Words and Peace graciously host Mailbox Monday.

Thursday, October 20, 2022

The Man Who Came and Went by Joe Stillman -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Before I can start this story, I have to tell you something that happened near the end of it.

-- from The Man Who Came and Went by Joe Stillman.

The Man Who Came and Went is a new type of Western, a character-driven story with elements of magical realism, fantasy, and metaphysics.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

THE FRIDAY 56

When Harold wrote about the encounter, he included the part where he and his cousin Marguerite outside Maybelle's diner. He wrote that he was skeptical about some supposedly mind-reading grill cook, but that he suddenly had an opening that morning and decided to go where the muse sent him.

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION

The Man Who Came and Went, a novel of the new west, is a magically realistic story for the modern era that will tease your understanding and beliefs, and draw you into the mysteries of the universe, from the brilliant mind of Joe Stillman, acclaimed Academy Award nominated co-writer of "Shrek."

Fifteen-year-old Belutha Mariah, our storyteller, is the oldest of three kids from three different fathers. Her life's goal is to keep her dysfunctional mom, Maybell, from procreating yet again and then to leave the coffin-sized town of Hadley, Arizona the second she graduates high school.

Along comes the new grill cook at Maybell's Diner, Bill Bill, a mysterious drifter with the ability to mind-read orders. As word spreads in Hadley and beyond, the curious and desperate pour into this small desert town to eat at Maybell's.

Some believe Bill knows the secrets of the universe.

Belutha figures he's probably nuts. But his cooking starts to transform the lives of locals and visitors, and Belutha finds her angry heart opening, as Bill begins to show her the porous boundary between this life and what comes after.

In a normal American town, something new and strange, and yet achingly familiar, begins to unfold.

Thursday, October 13, 2022

It's Always 9/11 by Wendy Avra Gordon -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

"All I do is sell food particles."

I was sitting at a picnic table overlooking the Pacific Ocean with Ryan, drinking Galactica Zinfandel from the bottle.

-- from It's Always 9/11 by Wendy Avra Gordon.

Gordon's second novel came out last year. Set in a dystopian "not to distant future," It's Always 9/11 is the story of a family trying to live a normal life in the middle of increasingly difficult daily circumstances and scary political developments. Until they decide they can't sit passively by, waiting for things to change.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

THE FRIDAY 56

"Children's books are hardly a state secret, are they? There's an online competition, and if I get enough votes, I get free fabric."

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION

Most people say wait it out.

After all, President Kaspar isn't as bad as expected. He's banned fracking, improved medical care, even provided every American over eight with a free cell phone! So what if the number of news channels has shrunk to three, and no one can afford email anymore? Even when a health crisis in New York City shakes the country to its core and raises the specter of authoritarianism, President Kaspar explains it all calmly in his cardigan sweater.

Most people say wait it out.

New York City transplant Tessa lives in a leafy Portland, Oregon neighborhood with her husband Larry and teenage son Holden. They are 3,000 miles away, but that is too close for comfort.

They can't wait it out. They take a different path--one that will shatter their lives, their identities, and change the course of a nation.

Thursday, October 6, 2022

The Sturgeon's Heart: A Novel by Amy E. Casey -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Howard Wright was always cold, even during the fleeting Duluth summers. Part of it was the chill of the night wind that came in through his upstairs apartment window, bearing with the news of the lake's ever-shifting mood.

-- from The Sturgeon's Heart: A Novel by Amy E. Casey.

Described as a "contemporary monster story," Amy E. Casey's debut novel came out earlier this year from Gibson House Press.

I admit that the premise is a little offputting to me because I don't like magical realism, fantasy, or the like. But a lot of people do. The story is about three people drawn together as their lives are falling apart. One of them is becoming transparent. Literally. His skin is becoming see-through.

Read the publisher's description below. What do you think? Maybe it would make a perfect book for Halloween time. Would you read it?

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

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

THE FRIDAY 56

In case she ever needed to leave quickly, she could load the station wagon until it was full, and the cabin would look like nothing more than an abandoned vacation home fallen into disrepair. She had planned it out twenty-eight different times.

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION

Three people in the same northern city of Duluth, Minnesota, are vanishing in different ways.

Howard Wright finds his skin turning transparent, revealing the bloody workings of musculature beneath. His body becomes otherworldly and insistent, spinning him into visions that echo trauma from his childhood.

Sarah Turnsfield is living under an assumed identity, on the run from her past as a meteoric scientific prodigy. Content to work as a grocery clerk, she is determined to live a life on her own terms, where the landscape of her mind is hers alone.

Jo Breckmier seeks a new start in Duluth after a bitter divorce. She moves into the apartment unit across from Howard’s, leaning on alcohol and a stubborn will to reinvent herself. The woods and the lake seem to call to her as she laments her shipwrecked life.

When instinct, the swiftly warming spring, and Howard’s monstrous body conspire to bring the three together, each will discover how long they can hide―Jo from her loneliness, Sarah from her rising paranoia, and Howard from his intensifying transformation.

On one remarkable night along the rugged shore of Lake Superior, the lines between reality and legend intersect. Identities are broken and remade.

In this contemporary monster story, the earth itself amplifies both the grotesque and the beautiful.