First lines: June 2025 edition

 

Below are the first lines of the books I finished reading in June.  Flowers provided for solace.

 

 

Book 1

Prologue
The only impartial witness was the sun.  For days, it watched as the strange object heaved up and down in the ocean, tossed mercilessly by the wind and the waves.

 

 

Book 2

“I never went to my class reunion,” said Jamie.

 

Book 3

It was a glorious autumn day in the highlands and the normally lazy Police Constable Macbeth was moved by conscience out of the deckchair in the front garden of the police state in Lochdubh to make some overdue calls on some of the outlying croft houses.

 

Book 4

Act One

The lights come up in the studio.  IRVIN enters, carrying a microphone.  He is a tall, fleshy man who prides himself on his knowledge of blacks and his ability to deal with them.

 

Book 5

When the train stopped I stumbled out, nudging and kicking the kitbag before me.

 

 

Book 6

The body floats downstream.  But it is late November, and the Kennebec River is starting to freeze, large chunks of ice swirling and tumbling through the water, collecting in mounds while clear, cold fingers of ice stretch out from either bank, reaching into the current, grabbing hold of all that passes by.

 

Book 7

Ordinary

I know I’m not an ordinary ten-year-old kid.  

 

 

Book 8 - Second read

Early on, I could see.

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder

By David Grann

329 pages • first pub 2023

nonfiction history true crime

It started slowly, but once they went to sea, the story frothed up.  Sailing on an English military vessel in 1740 was extremely dangerous stuff.  Grann tells the tale well. Recommend if you want a terrifying sea tale with thorny ethical dilemmas.

 

 

Book 2

At the Reunion Buffet (Isabel Dalhousie #10.5)

Alexander McCall Smith

60 pages • first pub 2015

fiction mystery short stories

A short but fine story.

 

 

Book 3

Knock, Knock, You're Dead!  (Hamish Macbeth #30.5)

By M.C. Beaton  

25 pages • first pub 2016

This is a short short story.  The slimmest of books.  It was over before it even developed. Meh.

 

 

Book 4

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: A Play (The Century Cycle #3)

By August Wilson

112 pages • first pub 1984

fiction play

This first act just seemed like a lot of bickering, and it was really hard to get past the frequent use of the n-word.  The main message I got from this first play by August Wilson was that the 

White people took economic advantage of the Black people.  I hope to watch the movie sometime soon – plays are meant to be seen and heard, although I think having read this first will help me to understand the play better.   I read it for church anti-racism group discussion.

 

 

Book 5

A Month in the Country

By J.L. Carr

135 pages • first pub 1980

fiction classics historical literary

Poignant, at times funny, in depth but not overwrought.  Excellent writing.  This book was short-listed for the Booker Prize.  Top rating from me.

 

Book 6

The Frozen River

By Ariel Lawhon

432 pages • first pub 2023

fiction historical thriller

A murder mystery/ thriller that takes place in late 1700s northern Massachusetts (what is now Maine), based on the very good history book “A Midwife’s Tale” which is an examination of the daybooks of Martha Ballard, a midwife.  The history book is interesting but dry; this novel has a very exciting plot.   Any book that includes a fox and a hawk is bound to be a notch above, and this one does and is.

Book 7

Wonder (Wonder #1)

By R.J. Palacio

320 pages • first pub 2012.

fiction contemporary middle grade

Not your ordinary coming of age novel.  The characters were authentic and the plot developed in an interesting way.  A good read, with plenty to think about. For book club.

 

 

Book 8 - Second read - for book club

Vision: a Memoir of Blindness and Justice 

By David S. Tatel

352 pages • first pub 2024.  Nonfiction. Memoir.

The book club discussion went well, I thought.

Noticing Nature - Stinkbug and Wetlands in Winter

Well-built walkway through the wetlands
in our local county park.

The endeavor: noticing one thing in nature each day. And attempting to be grateful.

February 26th through March 6th

On Wednesday Feb 26th, nature presented itself in the form of a malfunctioning furnace.  As the morning wore on, I noticed that I was feeling colder and colder.  The thermostat was set on 69oF but the temp was 64oF.  After some vain attempts to ask the Common Household Husband if he had turned off the heat for some reason (no reply from the CHH), I called the furnace company.  Within an hour repairperson Dan showed up.  He claimed that the deteriorating body of a stink bug inside the furnace had prevented the igniter from igniting.    So stinkbug is our featured item in noticing nature for Wednesday.

Thank you, repairperson Dan.

On Thursday, on the way home from shopping at a small locally-owned grocer, I decided on a whim to stop off in the county park for a nature walk.  The county has built a raised wooden walkway through a wetlands area.  It was more wet than land on Thursday.  To get to the raised walkway, I had to splash through numerous puddles and swampy places.  I was grateful that whoever built that walkway did a good job.  I thought, it was sound government and non-corrupt workers and business who brought us that walkway.   Sound government keeps us all from sinking into the muck.  I was so glad for a chance to consider all the living creatures I could not see but who make the wetlands area alive and worthwhile.  As I turned to walk back to my car, a huge heron / egret flew past.  Magnificent!  HeronEgret is the nature feature for Thursday. (Nope, no photo of HeronEgret)

Puddle.  
See below for a few more photos 
of our little wetlands.

Friday.  Hmm.  I was very busy not buying anything.  Did I even go outside?

Sat, Sun - we had out of town visitors - Older daughter and her husband!  A quick but wonderful visit.  The Common Household Son made it home from his business trip in time to join us.  And we had a lengthy fun facetime with Younger Daughter.  I cooked Chicken on Sheet Pan 3 ways (I only did one way), Sheet-pan Veggie Shawarma, and oven-roasted potato wedges.  I had delicious berries on my waffle Sunday morning at the waffle place.  Food is our featured nature item for the weekend.

On Monday, after spending close to an hour outside rallying for Ukraine, my frozen toes were a reminder of nature.   It is extraordinary good fortune that we were able to quickly get back in the car and restore toes to life.  The prospects for Ukraine, however, are uncertain.  Likewise, our own country.

Tuesday.  It was quite warm today. I went out to get the mail after sunset, without having to put on outerwear as if I was going searching for Ernest Shackleton.  The sky was still a beautiful dark blue and I noticed the “evening star” e.g. planet.  At the apex of the sky was the faithful crescent moon, along with some stars twinkling through the bare tree branches.  

Wednesday was when I realized I had forgotten to take my meds for 3 straight days. I NOTICED the nature of heartburn, for sure.  But this is proof that this drug works.  This particular med is to me a miracle and I am thankful for it.  I am counting as nature the way such chemicals work in the human body.

Thursday March 6th.  It snowed a bit today and was blustery.  The furnace is still working fine.  Yay!I didn’t go out until evening, when it was time to go to a Dem committee meeting.  I was grateful that the meeting was packed.  I hope these people stick around for the hard work.

* * * * * * * * * *

I wrote this on March 6th, back when it was still actual winter, but the rapid advance of fascism has made me too busy to post it until now.

History of this spot.

Three benches sunken into the wet.
This seems like a pointless place to put benches.
Who wants to sit there?!

The rushing creek.

Flora encroaches on the walkway,
near the end of it.

Lots of standing water. 
I mean, it is wetlands.

Poster of tiny life forms.

Four good things

 It’s been a horrible week.  I don’t believe in just tossing it off and saying everything will be fine all the time.  I can’t pay attention to all of it, but I intend to remain aware of reality in at least some arenas.  

However.  Right now, in a desperate attempt to save my sanity I am going to list some good things about the past week.  

1. We unfroze the frozen water pipes in the kitchen.  No burst pipes.  

2. Yesterday it was finally warm enough to do one outside task: I got my car washed.

While the modern car wash itself is the moderately terrifying inside task of sitting in the car surrounded by soap and large brushes coming at you, it is mainly an outside task because of the vacuuming of the car interior. 

I found a nickel as I was vacuuming.  Thomas Jefferson’s image is on the nickel.  We know his story.  What is Tom thinking right now?

3.  Celtic folk music.  

While looking for a recording of "The Canticle of the Turning," possibly the hymn most defiant to the patriarchy (based on this scripture), I found this:

Siskin Green: Will Your Anchor Hold?  A recasting of a stodgy old hymn.

One of my children sent me some videos by this vocalist.  The video is weird, but I love when she sings “We’ll all go together.”

4.  I returned my two physical library books.

Our public library is undergoing a renovation so we went inside to look around.  In the children’s section they have an axolotl!  For some reason that makes me happy.  Also this week I did a deep dive into some blog posts about books.  (That said, most of the books I am reading right now are not terribly optimistic.)

New England just completely
broke away from the
United States of Cookie.  Apt.

We made it through a vortex

Thank you, Valiant But Tiny Hair Dryer.

It’s been quite a week, even besides all the national fuckery.

Friday a week ago, I was upset about the weather forecast. 

Me:  Is it going to snow tonight?  And when is the polar vortex coming?!

Common Household Husband:  [burps loudly].  That was it.  That was the polar vortex.

If only it were that simple. 

Sunday the CHH pulled something out of his sweatshirt pocket, and said, “I wonder why I have this in my pocket?”  It was a tiny glass duck.  Reminds me of the time I cleaned out my purse and found a small plastic dinosaur, left over from mom-of-small-children times.  The CHH put the duck back into his pocket.

Wednesday morning I discovered that our hot water pipe at the kitchen sink was frozen.  It's been years since this happened.  We used to have to drip the faucet if the weather got cold, but then we fixed it, by encasing that pipe in lots of insulation and closing up the area behind a drywall panel in the garage ceiling.  Since then we haven't dripped the faucet in cold weather, and the pipe has not frozen.

But this week’s polar vortex hell-freezing-over cold was too much for it.  And the cold water pipe froze too, at the kitchen sink faucet.    

It was COLD.  “How cold was it?”  It was around -12 F overnight (without the wind chill) and wasn’t much warmer during the day.  Hell has, in fact, frozen over, and all its inhabitants resurfaced this week in the nation’s capital.

The Common Household Husband cut his work day short to come home. We set to work in the 10-degree-F cold garage.  He unscrewed all six screws and removed the panel.  This took a while because we are not Michelangelo and we’re not used to working at the ceiling level.  

He pulled out the thick insulation, and pushed our Valiant But Tiny Hair Dryer up in there.   It died after about a minute.  I felt the universe telling me, “You’re gonna need a bigger hair dryer.”

Not a great place for a hair dryer

I was on hair dryer resurrection duty.  First I went upstairs to vainly look for another hair dryer.

Back to the basement.  I coaxed VBT Hair Dryer to life.  It ran for a few more minutes, enough to get one of the water pipes flowing!  Yes! 

Success!

Then to get the other water pipe freed, we had to go to the other side of the wall, in the basement.  At least there is no panel there.  VBT Hair Dryer quit twice more, but I resurrected it each time.  

Sticking the hair dryer WAY into the wall.

Although he was victorious against the polar vortex, the CHH was covered in drywall dust, and got some in his lungs (not good!), which periodically set him coughing.  He put his sweatshirt in the washing machine.  Later, in the dryer, I found the tiny glass duck that he had had in his pocket.

The duck survived.  I am trying to decide if that is a portent.

Resilient duck.