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.

The King Was In His Counting House

That's my sign saying,
"Honk if you love democracy"

At dinner on June 14, 2025, the day of massive rallies nationwide against the excesses of the Trump regime, I discussed events with the Common Household Husband.

Me:  Alt National Park Service estimated, at around 2 PM, that attendance at today’s No Kings rallies had already exceeded the 5.5 million for the Hands Off rallies.  That’s nationwide, and only half-way through the day.

CHH:  But was it more people than attended the 2017 Presidential inauguration?

Was it more people than watched Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg address on public TV?

Was Frederick Douglass in attendance today?

Me, lamely:  Um, was it more people than the number of tacos served at Mar-a-lago?

CHH:  Were there any taco stands today?  Was the taco the official snack of the No Kings rally?

- - - - - - - - - -

On No Kings Day I went to a small, unpublicized sidewalk rally 5 minutes’ drive from my house.  Because of annoying but non-life-threatening health issues, I couldn’t go to a big rally in the city.  I didn't have time to make a new sign directly related to the No Kings theme.

Despite it being unpublicized, there were more than 60 people participating.  We stood or sat and held our patriotic pro-democracy signs and our US flags for an hour, and then went home.  My arms got sunburnt.  My soul was rejuvenated.  Most of my political activity this year has been calling/writing my US Senator.  A rally is a welcome change from that singularly unsatisfying but necessary kind of communication.

This chart doesn't include any activity in June, because I've been too busy to update the chart.

This year the blue section in the above chart means a hell of a lot of letters and phone calls to my US Senators.  Mainly saying “WTF, dude?!”  One of ’em rarely shows up for Senate votes but has time to travel to a foreign country to suck up to a would-be autocrat/genocide purveyor.  The other spends his time sucking up to our home-grown would-be autocrat and amassing bitcoin.  Both have proved worse than useless.  

My goal was to communicate to at least one Senator once a day but that has proved unsustainable.

Democracy is not saved yet, but it isn’t gone either.  The clown-king has almost installed himself, but not yet. 

For the love of democracy, if you can, please call/write your Senators to stop HB1 the One Big Butt-ugly Billionaire Bailout Bulls#!t Bill.  If the clause in it concerning judges passes, we are one more step closer to autocracy.

Happy Flag Day

First Lines: May 2025 edition

Below are the first lines of the six books I finished reading in May.  Short books because I am short on concentration.  And there was an election to attend to.  And a democracy to save from corruption and autocracy.    

 

Book 1

A Note to the Gentle Reader

It’s happened.  You’ve finally taken that dream trip to England.

 

 

Book 2

Chapter I

The Demise of the Author

I debated for a time as to whether I ought to open these memoirs at the beginning or at the end – that is, if I would start out with my birth or with my death.

 

Book 3

Police Constable Penny Rogers had been right on the bumper of the minibus, siren wailing and lights flashing, for several miles before it finally pulled on to the hard shoulder of the motorway.

 

 

Book 4

June 13, 2008

I glance down at a familiar number on my phone, one that traces back to NBC News in Washington.  Probably Dad checking in.  

Book 5

  i attack the day with energy and conviction [art shows a person still in bed]

  i make my own choices      i sit down in the shower

 

Book 6

My husband said something a few years ago that I often quote:  Eighty percent of everything that is true and beautiful can be experienced on any ten-minute walk.  Even in the darkest and most devastating times, love is nearby if you know what to look for.  

Prayer for the cosmos.  2022.  Still applies.

 

 

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village

Maureen Johnson with Jay Cooper (Illustrator)

128 pages • first pub 2021

A very fast read.  I needed this in order to get back into reading.  Having read numerous murder mysteries set in quaint English villages, I can say that this book is both amusing and accurate.  No plot, no characters.   Watch out for the vicar!

 

 

Book 2

The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas

By Machado de Assis, Flora Thomson-DeVeaux, Translator

240 pages • first pub 1881.  This translation

fiction classics

I first heard of this one on booktube - Tristan and the Classics.  I picked it because it sounded similar to Tristram Shandy*, and it promised to be amusing and short.  Then I mentioned it to my daughter and she started RAVING about it.  She read it as part of her big reading project to read, within one year, one book related to each country on a continent.  This one was for Brazil.

It’s a satire, mocking the upper class of colonial Brazil.  There are layers to the mockery, and I am sure I did not get everything there is to get about this book.  I think (not sure) it is also mocking the 19th century novel, and 19th century philosophers.  It seems to be a book ahead of its time.  I did get bogged down in the middle section (I stopped reading and then resumed a few weeks later).  It is composed of usually extremely short chapters.  Nevertheless, because I often wanted to look at the helpful footnotes, it was a slow read.

In a previous translation, the title is translated as Epitaph of a Small Winner.

I abandoned the ~200-page translation by Gregory Rabassa, mainly because it was a hardcover and the print was too small; the Rabassa translation was published in 1997, and I thought I could benefit from a newer version.  Translation can make a huge difference in the reader’s experience with a book, so I carefully researched and ended up buying the kindle version of Flora Thomson-DeVeaux’s translation.  (God and/or the Flying Spaghetti Monster will have to forgive me for giving that small amount of money to Amazon.)  It has helpful footnotes but not an overwhelming number of them.  I am very annoyed that the cover of the book does not name the translator!  This is unfair to Flora Thomson-DeVeaux.  Not only is that a name that is pleasant to say out loud, but for her efforts her name should be on the cover.

*Full title: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne, published in 1760, a good deal earlier than Bras Cubas.  My college Russian Lit teacher introduced me to Tristram Shandy, but it was not part of any curriculum.

 

 

Book 3

How to Age Disgracefully

By Clare Pooley

352 pages • first pub 2024

fiction contemporary

“Romp” could be a good word to describe this book.  It took me a while to get into it but once they started all the plotting I really started enjoying it.  There was nothing sinister (although there is some violence related to drug trade) – they were plotting how to save the community center and carrying out a bit of personal revenge.  And then I saw the reference to Iona Iverson, the main character in Pooley’s previous book, and I was all in.  Quirky, fun characters and plot.

 

 

Book 4

Look for Me There: Grieving My Father, Finding Myself

By Luke Russert

272 pages • first pub 2023

nonfiction memoir travel

A travel memoir by a lost soul looking to find himself.  The chapter where he escapes a coup is fascinating.  I ended up underwhelmed by the author’s discoveries about himself, but the travel descriptions were quite interesting.  Content warning: alcoholism, grief.  

 

 

Book 5

Conquer the Day: A Book of Affirmations

By Josh Mecouch

144 pages • published 2021. comic book

A very clever and often funny book, but also kind of depressing.  Be warned - the affirmations are ironic.

 

 

Book 6

Somehow: Thoughts on Love

By Anne Lamott

208 pages • first pub 2024

nonfiction essays

For book club in June.

A meaningful book.  An easy read, but also challenging because, let’s face it, there are people in this world whom I do not want to love.  Love is not an easy action.

 

- - - - - - - - - -

I had better get my concentration back soon, because in August, one book club has assigned me to read Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe.  441 pages • first pub 2018.  True crime.   Not my usual genre!

(More) Tales of a Reluctant Gardener

That shriek you heard all throughout the neighborhood on the afternoon

of Memorial Day was me being startled by a deer fawn which was very

close to our front door.  I am fairly sure it was as startled as I was. 

This was toward the end of a 60-minute weeding stint of our “mailbox garden”.  After shrieking briefly, grumpy old lady thoughts of “Youths, stay off my lawn!” entered my mind.

Actually I would love it if the human youth who showed up last week asking to be hired to mow our lawn would show up soon to plant some flahrs.

There are only 5 or 6
balloon flower plants left.

Last year at this time, this 4 x 4 plot was riotous with balloon flower plants.  There are hardly any this year.  I know that in spring and summer 2024 there was no gardening done in this household.  I was too busy trying to fight off autocracy / Project 2025 / whatever you want to call this Big Mistake America has entered into.    I still sob internally at the outcome of my efforts.   This is where my thoughts go on this Memorial Day – those who gave their lives for our country – is this what they fought for?

The plant on the upper right is 
definitely balloon flower.  Not so
sure about the other foliage.

I found it difficult to distinguish some plants.  The small leaves (on the left

in the photo) are being eaten by some insect, while the definite balloon

flower leaves (on the upper right) are not.

 

But maybe the ones on the left are just baby balloon flower leaves?  No

matter; those smaller plants are no more.  I pulled them all out.

I planted the bulbs from the teeny but tall daffodils-in-a-pot we bought at

Trader Joe’s in April.  In a fit of dubious gardening daring, I put them at

the foot of our Kwanzan cherry tree.  We will find out in a year if this too

is a Big Mistake.

Big Mistake?

We also went to our local county park.  And so did everyone else, although you can’t

tell from my photos.  It was a lovely day with perfect weather.

A family of ducks

A rare blue sky and perfect temperature

Remembering and honoring
those who died for our country.
May their sacrifice not be in vain.

More from the Reluctant Gardener:

Shallow Thoughts of the Reluctant Gardener (July 2013)

Perils in Suburbia (June 2010)

The Fake Isle of Suburbia (October 2008)