Brighton Rock by Graham Greene -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

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

Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him.

-- Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. Wow, that's some opening sentence! It sure got my attention. 

Graham Greene is one of my very favorite authors. He left a legacy of 26 novels (including two early ones that he “repudiated” and haven’t been in print since), several volumes of short stories, poetry, plays, screenplays, autobiographies, travel books, essays, criticism, two biographies, general nonfiction, and even children’s books.

I haven’t come close to reading, or even collecting, all of Greene’s books. I would like to read at least all his (existing) fiction. So far, I’ve read 11 of his novels and short story collections and one book of travel writing. 

One of my favorite Greene quotes is:

One’s life is more formed, I sometimes think, by books than by human beings: it is out of books one learns about love and pain at second hand. Even if we have the happy chance to fall in love, it is because we have been conditioned by what we have read . . .


― from Travels with My Aunt

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 Brighton Rock:

She didn't even know the name of a drink. In Nelson Place from which she had emerged like a mole into the daylight of Snow's restaurant and the Palace Pier, she had never known a boy with enough money to offer her a drink.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Graham Greene's chilling exposé of violence and gang warfare in the pre-war underworld is a classic of its kind. Pinkie, a teenage gangster on the rise, is devoid of compassion or human feeling, despising weakness of both the spirit and the flesh. Responsible for the razor slashes that killed mob boss Kite and also for the death of Hale, a reporter who threatened the livelihood of the mob, Pinkie is the embodiment of calculated evil. As a Catholic, however, Pinkie is convinced that his retribution does not lie in human hands. He is therefore not prepared for Ida Arnold, Hale's avenging angel.

The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope

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 was admitted by all her friends, and also by her enemies,—who were in truth the more numerous and active body of the two,—that Lizzie Greystock had done very well with herself.

-- from The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope. This is the third book in Trollope's "Palliser Novels" series. Unlike the others in the six-novel series, The Eustace Diamonds has little to do with Parliament or the characters in the other books. There is overlap, but this one stands on its own.

I'm reading this one, and the other Palliser books for a group read on Instagram. This is the only one of the six that I've read before. I greatly enjoyed it when I read it about 20 years ago and am loving the reread. This time, I'm reading it with my ears. 

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 The Eustace Diamonds: 

Mr. Camperdown's first attempt was made by a most courteous and even complimentary note, in which he suggested to Lady Eustace that it would be for the advantage of all parties that the family jewels should be kept together. Lizzie as she read this note smiled, and said to herself that she did not exactly see how her own interests would be best served by such an arrangement.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Following the death of her husband Sir Florian, beautiful Lizzie Eustace mysteriously comes into possession of a hugely expensive diamond necklace. She maintains it was a gift from her husband, but the Eustace lawyers insist she give it up, and while her cousin Frank takes her side, her new lover Lord Fawn states that he will only marry her if the necklace is surrendered. As gossip and scandal intensify, Lizzie's truthfulness is thrown into doubt, and, in her desire to keep the jewels, she is driven to increasingly desperate acts. The third in Trollope's Palliser series, The Eustace Diamonds bears all the hallmarks of his later works, blending dark cynicism with humour and a keen perception of human nature.

Show Game by Steve Anderson -- Book Beginning

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Show Game by Steve Anderson

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

I have the bastard, finally, I got him. Target number one.

-- from Show Game by Steve Anderson.

I'm a big fan of Steve Anderson's "Kaspar Brothers" series of WWII/Cold War thrillers. His new novel, Show Game, is a departure from the series. It is a modern-day psychological thriller about a vigilante targeting wrongdoers, starting with a pedophile priest. It looks pretty dark, but good!

Of course, Show Game caught my attention right away because of the priest angle. I've spent the last 18 years doing nothing but going after pedophiles and the institutions that harbored them. I've used the courts, not kidnapping, but I admit I can understand the vigilante idea.

Show Game launches in July, but is available for pre-order now. 

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 Show Game: 

There's no actual timer counting down but it's not a bad idea. Maybe in a future production.

This is going to be exciting! 

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

The pandemic may be over, but the world is not safe for those who prey on the innocent. A vigilante known by the alias "Alex" knows what these transgressors have done. And taking them captive is only the first step toward vengeance. In order to be set free, they must first play the Show Game . . .

A predatory priest, a double-dealing politician, a fraudulent philanthropist--Alex has ways of making them confess, on camera, for all the world to witness. But the Show Game is building toward a darkly personal finale: exposing society's most notorious and evil abuser.

As Alex gets closer to the main event, investigative reporter Owen Tanaka is determined to unmask the vigilante's true identity and motive. But when a shocking revelation hits close to home, Owen must decide whether to stop a criminal mastermind's devious scheme . . . or let the Show Game play its final round.

Real Tigers by Mick Herron -- BOOK BEGINNING

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Real Tigers by Mick Herron

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

Like most forms of corruption, it began with men in suits. 

-- from Real Tigers by Mick Herron, book three in his Slough House series. 

I just finished this one and loved it. The plots are intricate (sometimes confusingly so) and the characters are so wonderfully flawed. Jackson Lamb, the leader of the Slow Horses, says the most outrageous stuff! 

I've been trying to read as many of the series as I can before I start watching the tv show. That hasn't been difficult because The Tourist kept me enthralled for a couple of weeks, between seasons of Justified. We just started season four of Justified, so I still have time to read more of the Herron books. 

Have you read any of the Slough House books? Or watched the tv show?

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.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
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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 Real Tigers:

On the move, walking faster, she found her phone, re-called Lamb, and went straight to voicemail again. Disconnecting, she once more considered knocking on a stranger’s door: but then what?

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

When one of their own is kidnapped, the washed-up MI5 operatives of Slough House—the Slow Horses, as they're known—outwit rogue agents at the very highest levels of British Intelligence, and even to Downing Street itself.

London: Slough House is the MI5 branch where disgraced operatives are reassigned after they’ve messed up too badly to be trusted with real intelligence work. The “Slow Horses,” as the failed spies of Slough House are called, are doomed to spend the rest of their careers pushing paper, but they all want back in on the action.

12 Books Soon -- BOOK THOUGHTS

 

BOOK THOUGHTS

12 Books Soon!

This was a hair on fire week for me with work. The deadline in the Boy Scout bankruptcy to file all claims on behalf of sexual abuse survivors was May 31. I am happy to say that we now have everything filed on behalf of our 69 clients with claims, but it was insane getting it all done. 

I don't have the capacity to actually concentrate on a book, but I am unwinding by playing with my books. Here are twelve books I am either currently reading or hope to get to soon, which puts them on my TBR ASAP list.

See anything here you’ve read or would like to?

Warming Up Julia Child: The Remarkable Figures Who Shaped a Legend by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz. I bought this at the Smithsonian when I was there recently, after I finally visited Julia Child’s kitchen. I just finished it this morning. Read my thoughts, here. 

The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope. I'm in a Palliser Readalong group on Instagram and this is the next up in the series. It is the only book in the series that I've read before -- two times in fact -- but I am looking forward to reading it again, in context and with a discussion group. 

The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene. This novella (and a short story I can’t remember) are included in my Folio edition of The Third Man, which I read last month. I want to finish off the short pieces so I can move this book off my TBR shelf.

The Light of Day by Eric Ambler. I’m listening to the audiobook of this one, which won the Edgar Award for best mystery in 1964. It is funny, exciting, and quirky. This is the first Eric Ambler book I've read but it won't be the last. 

Lines of Deception by Steve Anderson, the latest in his Kaspar Brothers series of WWII/Cold War thrillers.

Last Chance in Paris by Lynda Marron. I am particularly excited to read this one so bought a copy from Blackwell's because it isn't available from US sellers yet.

Cabaret Macabre by Tom Mead. This is the third book in his series of historical, locked room mysteries featuring retired conjurer Joseph Spector. I was fortunate to get my hands on a review copy, but wanted to read the first two in the series before this one. I just finished the others and am looking forward to this one.

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle. A friend gave me this and I want to read it so we can talk about it.

The Messenger by Megan Davis. This is a review copy that I forgot about and am now burdened by guilt I haven’t read it yet.

Hanging the Devil by Tim Maleeny is another one! I made a stack of these and then forgot them. This one, about an audacious heist from a San Francisco museum, sounds great!

J by Howard Jacobson is next up on my TBR 24 in '24 list. Jacobson is one of my favorite authors, so I expect I will love it even though I am not a big fan of dystopian novels as a rule. 

The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy is another gift from a friend. I just can't decide if I should read the earlier books before this one.

How was your week? Better than mine, I hope! Here's to a relaxing weekend!