First Lines: May 2026 edition

 

Yarn bombing at the local library

Below are the first lines of the books I finished reading in May. 

 

Book 1

They didn’t say anything about this in the books, I thought, as the snow blew in through the gaping doorway and settled on my naked back.

 

Book 2

Book I: The Story (Beginning, Middle, and End)

I’m the best auctioneer in the world, but no one knows it because I’m a discreet sort of man.  My name is Gustavo Sanchez Sanchez, though people call me Highway, I believe with affection.  I can imitate Janis Joplin after two rums.  

 

 

Book 3

Introduction: Beyond Scarcity

You open your eyes at dawn and turn in the cool bedsheets.  A few feet above your head, affixed to the top of the roof, a layer of solar panels blinks in the morning sun.  

 

 

Book 4

When I say the word bitch, what comes to mind? Let me guess: that girl you went to high school with—the one with the small nose who wore Britney Spears perfume and never invited you to her house parties.

 

Book 5

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.

Fishing, but not in the Gulf Stream
 off the coast of Cuba

 

Book 6

Dear growing one, when you were born you couldn’t say anything, and your caregivers had to figure out everything you needed.

 

 

Book 7

Prologue

It was a standard bathroom.  The kind you’d find in a 1950s timber home just about anywhere in New Zealand, with a dark linoleum floor and small handbasin – enough of a bowl to wash your hands, but not enough to contain all the water while you do it.

 

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

All Creatures Great and Small (#1)

By James Herriot.  437 pages • 1972.

nonfiction classics memoir

What a relief to read this book, which essentially ignores most of the world’s ills and focuses on the ills of animals, and by extension the narrow subset of humans living in the Yorkshire Dales of the 1930s.  I had read it a loooong time ago and enjoyed it then, but the only story I remembered from my first read was the one about the pajamas.  On my kindle, the book was 532 pages, and the book did seem longer than I had remembered.  This was for book club.

 

Book 2

The Story of My Teeth

By Valeria Luiselli with Christina MacSweeney (Translator)

184 pages • first pub 2013

fiction contemporary

This was a weird book.  It was replete with violence, funny-sad events, and references to writers and artists.  I almost gave up, but about ¾ of the way through, it all pulled itself together.  The Afterword by the author further elucidates; if you finish the book, definitely read the Afterword.

I would have enjoyed it even more if I knew anything about the writers and artists mentioned.  And if I had been able to better see the visual art depicted in the book.  The main point I drew was that humans rely on stories to draw meaning from objects and from life itself.  True, that.  Allegories for the win!  I am sure I did not get most of the references.  I can only imagine the challenge it was to translate it.

My teeth

 

Book 3

Abundance

Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson

288 pages • first pub 2025

nonfiction economics politics sociology

I read this because a friend whose opinion I value said I should.  I mistrust Ezra Klein: hard to explain why.  After reading this book, I still don’t trust him.  He is too smart by half.  I feel he’s trying to sell us a progressive version of trickle-down economics.

This book comes along, in which two white men tell us all how we are wrong.  There are no specific policy solutions suggested here, just a framework for how to ask questions.  I agree that stating the positives of how we want our future to look is a valuable exercise, and asking good questions is part of that.  I do like the Pollyanna-ish world presented in the opening chapter.  Big blame goes to both progressive and conservative policies, but it seems to me that they place the bigger blame on progressives.  

And yet they acknowledge that the progressive policies solved problems in their time.  They rightly blame Reagan’s conservative policies for hamstringing America’s progress in climate change solutions.

But let’s look at what the authors sidestep.  There are no uses of the words “racism” or “racist”.  Seven uses of the word “Black”/”black” but only two which pertain to race:

In much of San Francisco, you can’t walk twenty feet without seeing a multicolored sign declaring that Black Lives Matter, Kindness Is Everything, and No Human Being Is Illegal. Those signs sit in yards zoned for single families, in communities that organize against efforts to add the new homes that would bring those values closer to reality. San Francisco’s Black population has fallen in every Census count since 1970. Poorer families—disproportionately nonwhite and immigrant—are pushed into long commutes, overcrowded housing, and street homelessness. (page 33)

One use of the word “non-white” which obliquely references racism:

Of course, the [zoning] rules also often kept non-white Americans out of owning in rich parts of the city.

Yes, these are injustices which no political party has fixed.

The authors offer no indication on how our potential policies to fix housing, climate change effects, stodginess in science research can overcome our innate racism and sexism.  If I weren’t so tired from battling fascism in this moment, I might engage in discussions on how to bring about the utopia the authors imagine at the start of the book.  But I’m getting old and it’s time for younger people’s ideas to take the stage.  And I’d like to hear what women have to say about the future.

 

 

Book 4

Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

Amanda Montell

291 pages • first pub 2019

nonfiction feminism sociology

I came across this book because I’ve been thinking a lot about the prevailing gender (male) in the language of the church and Christianity.  The closest this book comes to addressing that is a translation of Genesis 1:1 into Polari, a cant slang used by gay people in Britain in the twentieth century: 

“In the beginning Gloria created the heaven and the earth. . . . And the fairy of

Gloria trolled upon the eke of the aquas. And Gloria cackled, Let there be sparkle: and there was sparkle.”

which is rather marvelous.

But the book has plenty else to consider about using language to exemplify and battle the patriarchy.  It’s possibly the most obscenity-laden book I have ever read; an audio version would definitely be NSFW.  

 

 

Book 5

The Old Man and the Sea

By Ernest Hemingway

96 pages • first pub 1952

fiction classics literary

I had to read this in high school, and hated it.  I have little interest in the manly pursuits of fishing and baseball.  I have only read one other book by Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, which I appreciated a great deal.  

I still dislike The Old Man and The Sea, although I get that it is an apt metaphor about The Human Struggle to Survive in a Cruel World.  There are poignant, succinct observations about the paradoxes in human existence.  Once the shark attacks started, I skimmed it and managed to finish.  Older Daughter listened to the audio book, which won an award.  She thought it was great - truly poetical.  She said the shark attacks were the main point of the book.

Hemingway is a great writer, but I am under the impression that reading his works now will not help me fight against the patriarchy.  There are only three major characters in this story, including the big fish, and none of them is female.

 

I just couldn't bear to read about sharks.

 

Book 6

An ABC of Democracy

Paulina Morgan, Nancy Shapiro

52 pages • first pub 2022

Children’s lit.

I have to wonder at what age children can begin to understand the concepts introduced here.  I read it in about 15 minutes on my kindle.  I can’t judge the art work, as the kindle is not a friend to art-in-literature.

 

 

Book 7

A Different Kind of Power

By Jacinda Ardern

352 pages • first pub 2025

nonfiction memoir politics

Memoir by the former Prime Minister of New Zealand.  It is available from the library in both audio and kindle format, so it’s a possible option for one of my book clubs. 

Overall, I found her story engaging and significant, although I felt the book dragged for the first quarter.  Under Ardern’s leadership, New Zealand had a better outcome in the face of the pandemic than many other countries.  And yet, as vaccines became available and the brutal phase of the pandemic lessened, NZ experienced the same mistrust of vaccines and blame of authorities as we have seen here in the US.

Standing in the freezing cold with
a rally sign is a different
kind of power.

2nd quarter of a seasonal book  

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

Margaret Renkl

270 pages • first pub 2023  

nonfiction essays nature

Now that we have entered the spring season, I read the “Spring” portion of this book.  The re-awakening of the world.  But also, as T.S. Eliot taught us, spring can be a cruel time of year.

Spring, breeding lilacs out of the
dead land, as the poet says.
This lilac bush has been our
most successful gardening effort,
bar none.