Rose City Reader: 08/01/2024

Thursday, August 29, 2024

James by Percival Everett -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

James by Percival Everett

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

Those little bastards were hiding out there in the tall grass.

-- from James by Percival Everett.

My book club is reading this one for our next get together. It is a "reimagining" of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim the runaway slave, Huck's companion in adventure. Last week I reread the original before I read this one. The original is such a delight, I have mixed feelings about a retelling. But I like the concept so am looking forward to 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 James:

Nothing could have prepared me for what she said next. She said, "Miss Watson told Judge Thatcher that she was going to sell you to a man in New Orleans."

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

Thursday, August 22, 2024

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter.

--from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

My book club is reading James by Percival Everett for our next get together. James is a "reimagining" of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim the runaway slave, Huck's companion in adventure. I wanted to reread the original before I read the new novel.

I decided to read Huck Finn with my ears this time. The story depends so much on the dialects used that I want to hear them instead of imagine them in my head. I am about six chapters in and know this was a good decision. I have loved the book since I first read it in high school. The narrator of the audiobook, Patrick Fraley, really brings the story to life.

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

When breakfast was ready we lolled on the grass and eat it smoking hot. Jim laid it in with all his might, for he was most about starved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In recent years, neither the persistent effort to "clean up" the racial epithets in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn nor its consistent use in the classroom have diminished, highlighting the novel's wide-ranging influence and its continued importance in American society. An incomparable adventure story, it is a vignette of a turbulent, yet hopeful epoch in American history, defining the experience of a nation in voices often satirical, but always authentic.

Thursday, August 15, 2024

The Cheesemaker's Daughter by Kristin Vukovic -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Cheesemaker's Daughter by Kristin Vukovic

Marina gripped the rental car's wheel just as the heavens opened.

-- from The Cheesemaker's Daughter by Kristin Vukovic.

This debut novel just came out. It is the story of a woman in a shaky marriage who travels to Croatia to help her father with his cheesemaking business. It sounds charming! And it will count for a Croatia book for the European Reading Challenge. I've never read a book set in Croatia.

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

-- from The Cheesemaker's Daughter:

Luka picked up the heavy box with ease. She couldn't help but notice his fine build, how his biceps flexed under his black T shirt.

Oh, looks like there's more to the story than cheesemaking! Romance and travel -- a perfect book for the summer.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In the throes of an unraveling marriage, New Yorker Marina Marzic returns to her native Croatian island where she helps her father with his struggling cheese factory, Sirana. Forced to confront her divided Croatian-American identity and her past as a refugee from the former Yugoslavia, Marina moves in with her parents on Pag and starts a new life working at Sirana. As she gradually settles back into a place that was once home, her life becomes inextricably intertwined with their island's cheese. When her past with the son of a rival cheesemaker stokes further unrest on their divided island, she must find a way to save Sirana--and in the process, learn to belong on her own terms.

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Home Library -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

Home Library

The story of a library . . .

Back in 2009 when my husband and I bought a then almost-100-year-old house, I really wanted a home library. We could live with a dark, rabbit warren of a kitchen and a couple of outdated bathrooms, even with Burnt Sienna tile counters. Converting a bedroom into a home library was my priority. Well, along with getting rid of the asbestos pipe insulation in the basement. Before we moved in, we spent eight months on crucial renovations. And yes, the library was one of them.

We converted one of the bedrooms on the second floor by removing a closet and installing built-in book shelves on three walls. The fourth wall had an existing bay window that definitely had to stay. It was quite a project, made more difficult (no doubt) by my insistence on fixed shelving. Fortunately, we had an incredible architect/builder who designed the library and had a finish carpenter build the shelves. Each section of the shelves was built off site, installed as a piece, and then trimmed out with crown moulding, etc., when they were built into the walls.

The big problem was that the section pieces wouldn’t fit up the staircase. All ten of them had to be hauled up through the window on a complicated, counter-balanced, sled-like contraption built for the purpose. It was quite a project.

After all that effort, we hit an impasse. I really wanted to hang art from the shelves, in front of the books. I love that look. My husband was adamant that I should never hammer any nails into the shelves. That made sense, given what it took to get the shelves in there.

But since then, I’ve always had in the back of my mind the idea of hanging a picture or two on those shelves. The other day, I found a framed picture at one of my haunts. It was pretty, went with the room, and was lightweight enough for what I had in mind. Yes! It worked! I hung the picture from the wire on its back over a very heavy, well-balanced, bronze knickknack sturdy enough to hold the picture. No nails! And I can move it easily when I need to reach the books.

I have loved and used the library for 15 years. It is my favorite room in the house. Now I finally finished decorating the shelves the way I envisioned so long ago. The new picture is the cherry on top. It might seem like nothing to you or anyone else who sees it, but it makes me happy every time I go in there.

Thursday, August 8, 2024

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with two fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three-cornered hat and wig, at the rate of four miles an hour.

-- Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray.

I am finally, really reading Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair is one of those books I always think I’ve read but I haven’t. I’ve seen adaptations and started reading it a few times, but I’ve never actually read it. It's on my Classics Club II list of 50 classics to read in five years.

This time, I’m going read it with my ears, even though I have this pretty Modern Library edition. I like to read big classic doorstops as audiobooks. A good narrator parses those long sentences for me, so I can appreciate the writing without tripping over all the commas, and makes the story come alive with the different voices and all. I just sit back and enjoy the story.

I’m almost three quarters of the way through and love it. I need the paper copy (and the wikipedia article) with me for when I get tangled up in the dozens of characters. But it’s such a treasure!

Have you read Vanity Fair?

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

-- from Vanity Fair:

Old Miss Crawley was certainly one of the reprobate. She had a snug little house in Park Lane, and, as she ate and drank a great deal too much during the season in London, she went to Harrowgate or Cheltenham for the summer.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder. Her sentimental companion Amelia, however, longs only for caddish soldier George. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry glamour of Regency society, battles--military and domestic--are fought, fortunes made and lost. The one steadfast and honourable figure in this corrupt world is Dobbin with his devotion to Amelia, bringing pathos and depth to Thackeray's gloriously satirical epic of love and social adventure.

Wednesday, August 7, 2024

July 2024 -- MONTHLY WRAP UP

MONTHLY WRAP UP

July 2024

July was a blur. The month started well, with a super fun neighbor party at our house for Independence Day. But right after, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ordered supplemental briefing in the big Boy Scout bankruptcy case I'm working on. I spent the rest of the month feverishly pecking away at that brief and not paying attention to anything else.

Even through the blur, I somehow managed to read 12 books, which surprised me.

See anything here you’ve read or want to?

Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh. This is the first book in Waugh's somewhat autobiographical Sword of Honor trilogy, based roughly on Waugh's service during WWII. It is less serious than his earlier satirical novels like Decline and Fall and Vile Bodies, but not as lyrical and contemplative as later books like Brideshead Revisited. I had a great time reading it with with a Waugh Together Now group on Instagram. It is also on my Classics Club II list.

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett was a fun little bon bon about the Queen of England discovering her love of reading. It was a lot of fun, although not as delightful as I had anticipated. I think my expectations were too high.

Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope is the fourth book in his series of six Palliser Novels, also known as the Parliamentary Novels. It's wonderful to get caught up in Trollope's world where all the characters swirl around over the many volumes.

Out of the Shelter by David Lodge. I'm a big Lodge fan and this is his first book. It's the semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story of a young man in post-war England who takes his first steps into adulthood during a holiday with his sister in Heidelberg where she works for the American army. It is a charming story. This was on my TBR 24 in '24 stack.

The Dark Vineyard by Marin Walker. This is the second in his Bruno, Chief of Police series set in a small French village. Now that I wrapped up Louise Penny's Three Pines series and Ian Rankin's John Rebus series, I have time to tackle this one.

Unjust Debts: How Our Bankruptcy System Makes America More Unequal by Melissa Jacoby. This one was for work, obviously, but still fascinating. I was pleased as punch to see that she cites one of my briefs in the Boy Scout bankruptcy!

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. I am working away at all Greene's books. This one is so good but so sad.

J by Howard Jacobson is an odd book. It is a story of dystopian antisemitism set in the not-so-distant future. It is excellent, but a little murky, and the ending disturbed me. I feel like I missed the significance of part of the ending. This was another TBR 24 in ’24 pick.

NOT PICTURED

I also read a few books with my ears. I always have an audiobook going.

God in the Dock by C. S. Lewis is a collection of all his essays that had not been collected before. I read it as another Instagram group read as part of my effort to read all his books. His essays always make me think more deeply about my own faith.

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. This was my IRL book club pick last month and I loved it. It was my first McBride book but won’t be my last.

Heat Wave by Penelope Lively. This is a novel about a mother watching her mistakes play out in her daughter's life. It was perfectly constructed, entertaining, moving, and startling.

Spook Street by Mick Herron, the fourth in his Slough House series. This is the other series I dove into after finishing the Penny and Rankin books. I absolutely love it, even more now that we started watching the TV series. I'm trying to stay ahead of the TV show with the books.

How about you. Did you read anything outstanding last month?

Thursday, August 1, 2024

The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz

The Oppenheimer Triplets — who were thought of by not a single person who knew them as “the Oppenheimer triplets” — had been in full flight from one another as far back as their ancestral petri dish.

-- The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz.

This is my book club's latest pick. I am about two thirds of the way through it and love it. But I'm nervous that something might happen in the last third that turns me off the story. I read The Plot by the same author and loved the first half but thought the second half turned predictable and hated the ending.

The Latecomer is a clever family story about three IVF triplets who never got along and couldn't wait to leave for college and away from each other. Their parents are wrapped up in their own miseries. What I like is the direction each of the triplets seem to be heading because their paths are decidedly different --different from each other but also different from typical characters in contemporary fiction. I hope they all end up fulfilled by their life choices. But I fear something unexpected might pop up and ruin everything.

Have you read this one, The Plot, or any of Jean Hanff Korelitz's other books?

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

Still, our father had been looking at paintings — often quite difficult paintings — for years by then, and because of that he was able to read an essential truth about those three tiny people — that they had arrived as they already were and would ever be: Harrison wild for escape, Sally preemptively sullen, Lewyn full of woe as he reached out for the others.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

The Latecomer follows the story of the wealthy, New York City-based Oppenheimer family, from the first meeting of parents Salo and Johanna, under tragic circumstances, to their triplets born during the early days of IVF. As children, the three siblings – Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally – feel no strong familial bond and cannot wait to go their separate ways, even as their father becomes more distanced and their mother more desperate. When the triplets leave for college, Johanna, faced with being truly alone, makes the decision to have a fourth child. What role will the “latecomer” play in this fractured family?

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