First Lines, June 2023 edition

The John Grisham shelf at the
Retirement Home library.
At my most recent visit, I did not find this
mini-collection.

Below are the first lines of the 7 books I finished reading in June.   Includes one history of medicine, one economic/political history, one essay collection, one young adult lit, one graphic book, one book of the bible + commentary, and two re-reads, for a total of 2,124 pages.

 

 

Book 1

The Woman in the Photograph

There’s a photo on my wall of a woman I’ve never met, its left corner torn and patched together with tape.

 

Book 2

Edmund Pettus Bridge

“Can you swim?”

“No.”

“Well, neither can I – but we might have to.”

 

 

Book 3

Sanzi had broken yet another rule, but she didn’t care.  It was night, and she was alone and on the forbidden edge.  To make matters worse, despite her mother’s numerous warnings, Sanzi crossed right over, leaving behind the safety of her swamp island home.

 

 

Book 4A

In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

Book 4 B

As far as Jesus and the New Testament writers were concerned, the Jewish Scriptures that Christians called the “Old Testament” were the Scriptures.

 

Book 5

Essays Don’t Die

The first time I remember seriously thinking about my own death, I was twenty-six years old and working on my first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars.

 

 

Book 6

September 1953 

Turtle Mountain Jewel Bearing Plant

Thomas Wazhashk removed his thermos from his armpit and set it on the steel desk alongside his scuffed briefcase.

Book 7

So pervasive is its influence that Americans today can scarcely imagine a world without the Federal Reserve.

Did not finish 

The Sign

Tommy Guptill had once owned a diary farm, which he’d inherited from his father, and which was about two miles from the town of Amgash, Illinois.

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot.  369 pages.  Published 2010.

At first I had the uncomfortable feeling that the author was downright stalking the family of Henrietta Lacks, and I felt like she should leave them alone.  But by the middle of the book I felt she was telling their story fairly, with justice in mind.  The author also explores the wider ethical dilemmas posed by the science of cell cultures.  But the very main thought I had throughout the book was how unfair our society is, that the family members of the very woman whose cells made possible numerous scientific advancements do not have any health insurance, and so could not seek their own medical care. THAT is injustice, for sure.

 

Book 2

March: Book One, by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, art by Nate Powell.  Graphic book.  121 pages. Published 2013.

This graphic telling of John Lewis’ story is well done. I read it for discussion at church (second reading).

 

Book 3

Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson.  416 pages.  Published 2022.

2023 Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award winner (but I did not know this when I selected and read it).  Children’s lit. 

A story well told, introducing a new piece of history to me.  In order to escape slavery, people lived in the Great Dismal Swamp.  This novel imagines what it might be like to live there.  Interesting characters and captivating plot.  Recommend, as long as you can get past the one annoying character-who-defies-the-grownups, obligatory in YA novels.

 

 

Books 4A and 4 B

Daniel (The Bible), by Anonymous.  12 pages. (Chapters 1-12)  Estimated date of first writing is 164 BCE.  NRSV.

I was interested to learn that large portions of the book were written in Aramaic, with the rest in Hebrew. But I read it in English.  The book was purportedly written around the time of the Maccabees, but the story is set much earlier, in the 600s to 500s BCE.

 

Daniel and the Twelve Prophets for Everyone, by John Goldingay. Daniel section: 63 pages.  

The thing that stood out to me on this reading was Chapter 4 about the egotistical king who was sent away from people to live in the wild, as a cure for his pride and his oppression of others.  And it works – the king learns that there is one who is greater than he, and he learns how to be kind.  Or at least it is so reported in the Bible.  

 

Book 5

These Precious Days, by Ann Patchett.  320 pages • Published 2021. 

Memoir-essays about amateur airplane pilots, writing, publishing, friendship, and more.  Good stuff.

 

Book 6

The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich  455 pages. Published 2020.

My third reading – this time for the other book club.

Book 7

America's Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve, by Roger Lowenstein.  368 pages, but ⅓ of those pages are endnotes. Published 2015.

Main takeaway: Elected officials were just as cantankerous 100 years ago as they are today. 

 

Part of me was annoyed by this book, because it frequently ignored the lack of agency of large groups of Americans in the 1910s.  Any time a history book talks of democracy it should be stated who could not participate.  In the era when the Federal Reserve Act was being formed (~1910-1913), women only had the right to vote in a few states, and Black and Native American men effectively did not have the right to vote in vast areas of the country. 

 

But about half-way through the book, the author points out that Carter Glass, one of the major actors in bringing the Federal Reserve into being, was a white supremacist, plain and simple:

For Glass, every political issue was interpreted through the narrow prism of its potential effect on white supremacy. Any position that might drive southern bankers into the arms of the Republicans threatened to uproot the system of racial exclusion—and was to be avoided at all costs.

The last part of the book was as close to a page-turner as is possible for the story of how legislation happens.  Which ain’t pretty.  Woodrow Wilson, a.k.a. The Grinch, held Congress hostage right before Christmas until they got it done.

Did not finish 

Anything Is Possible, by Elizabeth Strout.   272 pages.  Published 2017. 

I stopped reading in the third chapter on about page 65 (30% of the way through the book) because I could not stand what I was reading.  And I had lost track of which character was which.   A shorter book is not always an easier read.

Three Dinner Guests

Cheerful dinner guests

 

If you could invite three people, living or dead, to dinner with you, whom would you invite?

This is the question that a cousin posed to my 88-year-old aunt, in order to get my aunt’s mind off her troubles.  If memory serves, my aunt would invite FDR, George Washington, and Queen Elizabeth II.  

My aunt and her sister, my mother, were captivated by Elizabeth and Margaret, who were just slightly older.  When I was a girl my mother gave me her book about the princesses, written before 1952 when Elizabeth became queen.  I was intrigued but not overly enamored of royalty.  

At the same age, I was also quite taken with a book my father read from, called Van Loon’s Lives, in which the narrator in fact has dinner with prominent people from long-ago history.  This was my first introduction to a guy named Erasmus.  Most of this book went over my head, because I was unfamiliar with most of the personages and wasn’t very interested in history at that time, but the whole idea of having these people for dinner fascinated me. 

The full title of the book is Van Loon's Lives: Being A True and Faithful Account of A Number of Highly Interesting Meetings With Certain Historical Personages, From Confucius and Plato to Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson, About Whom We Had Always Felt A Great Deal of Curiosity and Who Came to Us as Our Dinner Guests in A Bygone Year.  And the author is Hendrik Willem Van Loon.  

My aunt recently asked my siblings and me the same question about three dinner guests.  My immediate answer was that I would invite my three children.  I said I made this choice because I know I could make a dinner that they would eat, whereas making dinner for Queen Elizabeth II would be too much pressure.  My siblings objected that nobody said that I had to cook the meal.  Yeah, right.  But my real reason is that I immensely enjoy my children’s company (although I’m still not sure if they are ready to dine with the Queen), and it’s been a while since I’ve been in their presence all together.

If I was forced to limit myself to non-family dead-or-alive dinner guests, I suppose my three might be prominent historical figures.  But maybe it would be cool to invite the historians who know all about the historical figures - how about Jill Lepore, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Eddie S. Glaude?  Or Hendrik Willem Van Loon?  Nothing like a good argument among historians over dinner.

I recently had dinner with a man who, when he was a teenager, shook the hand of Malcolm X. Amazing! I guess that’s as close as reality can bring me to having dinner with prominent historical figures.

The cat helping my Dad cook something with
bacon and zucchini, sometime in the 1990s.

First Lines: May 2023 edition

Two of my progeny reading
on a bench in Philadelphia in 2012.
Because what else is there to do in Philadelphia?

Below are the first lines of the 8 books I finished reading in May, 2 of which were children’s lit.  This was election month, with a candidate in the house, doors to knock, and deadlines to meet.  (The candidate and his slate won the primary election - on to November!)  But also we went on vacation (after the election) which meant I had a little extra time to read these 2,381 pages.

 

 

Book 1

Lenni

When people say “terminal,” I think of the airport.

 

 

Book 2

You may think you know what’s inside, but you don’t.

You see the boxy buildings, brick or concrete – flanked by lush green athletic fields, a primary-colored playground, or a crumbling blacktop spiked with rusted basketball hoops – in front of which yellow buses groan exhaustive sighs before depositing or collecting lines of chattering bag-backed students.

         Look deeper.

 

 

Book 3

Kneeling in the fragrant moist grass of the village green Clara Morrow carefully hid the Easter egg and thought about raising the dead, which she planned to do right after supper. 

 

Book 4

Jane and Prudence were walking in the college garden before dinner.

 

Book 5

Prologue

Every historian writes in – and is impacted by – a precise historical moment.  My moment, this book’s moment, coincides with the televised and untelevised killings of unarmed human beings at the hands of law enforcement officials, and with the televised and untelevised life of the shooting star of #Black Lives Matter during America’s stormiest nights.

 

Book 6

At the end of the century before last, in the market square of the city of Baltese, there stood a boy with a hat on his head and a coin in his hand.

 

Book 7

Mma Ramotswe had by no means forgotten her late white van. 

 

Book 8

(The book begins with graphic pages)

“Happy birthday to Youuuuuuuu.”

“What’s this, Donald?”

“This is your birthday present. It is a Ulysses Super-Suction, Multi-Terrain 200X!  Happy birthday.”

“It’s a vacuum cleaner.”

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot, by Marianne Cronin.  Published 2021.  323 pages. 

Quite amusing in parts, despite the centrality of death in the story.  Made me cry at the end.  Everyone in book club loved it.

 

Book 2

The Teachers: A Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable, Important Profession, by Alexandra Robbins. Published 2023.  338 pages.

In which it is credibly posited that teachers have a very hard job, sometimes with untenable working conditions.  I am a little untrusting of books that try to make a point with just anecdotes, but this book intersperses national statistics with a deep dive into the stories of three particular teachers.  I am descended from teachers and in general have respect and fondness for teachers and the teaching profession.  I tend to agree with the author that many teachers in the US are not adequately compensated for their jobs.

 

 

Book 3

The Cruelest Month (Chief Inspector Gamache #3) by Louise Penny.  311 pages. Published 2007.

In which it is acknowledged that this tiny town in Quebec has a morbid past.  Enjoyable, and funny at times.  Includes murder and  baby waterfowl.

 

Book 4

Jane and Prudence, by Barbara Pym.  222 pages. First published 1953.

I was delighted to find this Pym novel that I had not known about.  The story is akin to Jane Austen’s Emma, but set in the 1950s. Pym excels at depicting nervous wives of clergy and workplaces where it is unclear what kind of work is being done.  Prudence works in Dr. Grampian’s office, where there is grave uncertainty about the usefulness of the work and the workers:   

Dr. Grampian was some kind of an economist or historian, she believed. He wrote the kind of books that nobody could be expected to read.

 

His voice droned on, dictating endless sentences without verbs.

 

The characters' names are sometimes Dickensian:  the office co-workers Mr. Mortlake (Deadpool?!) and Miss Trapnell, the villagers Miss Doggett and Mrs. Arkright.  In a Pym novel there is usually at least one character named obliquely in reference to church terminology:  In another book there is Father Greatorex; in this book perhaps it is Mr. Manifold.  As in “Join with all nature in manifold witness To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.”  And in several scripture verses.

  

This book fulfills my need for tea featured in writing.  Pym would have us believe that pouring out tea is a challenging skill and also a great honour. Perhaps in 1953 England she was correct.  Of course, there are some things that Simply Are Not Done:

         ‘Have you some garlic?’ Prudence asked.

         ‘Garlic?’ echoed Jane in astonishment. ‘Certainly not!  Imagine a clergyman and his wife going about the parish smelling of garlic!’

 

Book 5

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi, 592 pages. Published 2016.

A few adjectives for this book: all-encompassing, challenging, necessary, damning, and in the end, hopeful.  The author makes his excellent and difficult point repeatedly, but repetition is necessary, because his thesis upends just about every way I have had of thinking about the role of racist ideas in our history.  The book examines major figures who spoke and acted on racial justice, diving into where each famous figure exhibits antiracist and, yes, racist thinking.  It’s mind-blowing to read about how W.E.B. Du Bois or Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. or William Lloyd Garrison promoted antiracist ideas at this point, but racist ideas at that point. 

 

I am grateful to my friend Tracy for pointing me to this book.  I’m planning to read it again at some point.  I think there’s a children’s adaptation.  Regarding page count in the version I read: the text ends at page 510 and the rest are endnotes, discussion questions, and other info. 

 

 

Book 6

The Magician's Elephant, by Kate DiCamillo with Yoko Tanaka (Illustrator).  224 pages. Published 2009.

It was okay. As with the other DiCamillo stories I have read, an animal features prominently.   I enjoyed DiCamillo’s  The Beatryce Prophecy and Flora and Ulysses a bit more than this one.

Book 7

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #12) by Alexander McCall Smith.  213 pages. Published 2011.

The familiar thoughtful characters, and a not too strenuous plot. Includes talking shoes.  Good for vacation reading.

 

 

Book 8

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo with K. G. Campbell (Illustrator)  240 pages. Published 2013.

My second reading.  It’s a favorite.  Recommend.

First Lines: April 2023 edition

 

Below are the first lines of the 6 books I finished reading in April.   I see a faint outline of a common theme this month: imprisonment, literal or figurative, not of the character’s own making.

 

 

Book 1

Session One

My name is Cara Romero, and I came to this country because my husband wanted to kill me.  Don’t look so shocked.  You’re the one who asked me to say something about myself.

 

 

Book 2

The hills of Jerusalem are a bath of fog.  Rami moves by memory through a straight stretch, and calculates the camber of an upcoming turn.

 

 

Book 3

Though the sun was hot on this July morning Mrs Lucas preferred to cover the half-mile that lay between the station and her house on her own brisk feet, and sent on her maid and her luggage in the fly that her husband had ordered to meet her. 

 

Book 4

Answelica was a goat with teeth that were the mirror of her soul—large, sharp, and uncompromising.

 

Book 5

A Wild and Lonely Place

Fortrezza, Near Bondeno, 1561

Lucrezia is taking her seat at the long dining table, which is polished to a watery gleam and spread with dishes, inverted cups, a woven circlet of fir.   

 

Book 6

Day 1,299 of My Captivity

Darkness suits me.

Each evening, I await the click of the overhead lights, leaving only the glow from the main tank.  Not perfect, but close enough.

 

 

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, by Angie Cruz.  2022.  208 pages.

Hilarious and yet poignantly sad, all at the same time.  Recommend.

I read this for book club, for the discussion in July or August.  But these days, when the book arrives on my kindle from the library (due to an injustice that is just added to other much greater injustices in the world), I have to read it.

 

Book 2

Apeirogon, by Colum McCann • first pub 2020.  480 pages.

A singular book that requires a lot of effort by the reader because of the narrative style.  I usually admire a book that has a structure that reflects the book’s theme – this one has that in spades.  The subject is difficult; the characters are fascinating and likeable.  I gave it 5 stars on StoryGraph but caution that it takes concentration to read.  The author classifies this book as fiction, but it is very much based on real people and real events, centering around the killing of two girls, one Israeli and one Palestinian.  The page count is somewhat misleading, as there is more than usual blank space on each page.  I read it for book club, which is where I learned that the narrative structure is called "kaleidoscope."

 

Book 3

Queen Lucia, by E.F. Benson.  The Mapp & Lucia Novels #1.  1920. 

244 pages. 

I chose to read this because some list somewhere tagged it as a comedy of manners. Sometimes a reader requires a 1920s comedy of manners in order to escape current events.  I stopped reading this one in order to finish some book club books.  And when I came back to it, I had forgotten some of the details about the characters.  The characters are amusing, but the woman who wants to be “queen” of her little town gets a bit tiresome after a while.  

 

 

Book 4

The Beatryce Prophecy, by Kate DiCamillo with Sophie Blackall (Illustrator).  2021.  256 pages.

For those who may think that children’s literature has nothing to tell us, I will just say that this book is set in a culture that does not allow girls to learn how to read.  Much to my own surprise, I currently live in a country where the powers in charge want very much to oppress women and girls, and want certain people to just stay in their place, and want the entire populace to be ignorant of history.  This book is about a person who fights against such things. It also has the best-named goat I have ever encountered in literature.

 

Book 5

The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O’Farrell.  2022.  333 pages

I can’t say this was a joyful book to read, but Maggie O’Farrell’s writing just carries the reader right along.  In a certain way this book reminded me of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, which deals with a toy rabbit who has no agency of his own.  The main character here is the unfortunate teen Lucrezia de Medici who becomes the child bride of the Duke of Ferrara in the 1550s, and despite being part of a rich family, seems to have precious little agency. 

 

I spent 5 minutes on the internet looking up general European history at that time.  There was an awful lot of beheading and burning people at the stake; this book features yet other ways of doing in your royal enemies, including members of your own family.  What fun!  And yet, somehow, the book seems relevant to our situation today, in which basic bodily autonomy is being reversed, using justification not quite from the 16th century, but with similar results in the personal agency category. 

I read this for book club.  There will be plenty to discuss.

 

I think the book cover design is brilliant.

 

 

Book 6

Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt.  Published 2022.  355 pages.

An enjoyable story, with interesting plot and enjoyable characters, including an octopus.  Includes an excellent heavy metal band name.