Sunday, July 4, 2021

First Lines: May 2021 edition

Below are the first lines of the books I finished reading in May.  There are seven books here, including two children's books.

 

 

Book 1

The Field

Here is what happened one Monday in the month of September, in the last year of the last century. Matthew, Zoe, and Duncan Lang were on their way home from school. Usually they took the bus from the larger town, where they attended secondary school, to the smaller town, where they lived, but that morning their father had said he had an errand to run and would collect them.

 


 

Book 2

Trefan Morys is the name of my house in Wales, and I’ll tell you frankly, to me much the most interesting thing about it is the fact that it is in Wales. 

 

 

Book 3

People Do Strange Things

It was the first time that Paul had made duck à l’orange for friends since Becky left him for her personal trainer.


 

Book 4

Read by almost everyone at school, staged in theaters across the land, and long valued by conservatives as highly as by liberals, Shakespeare’s plays remain common ground, one of the few places where Americans can meet and air their disparate views.

 

 

Book 5

Henry Huggins was in the third grade.  His hair looked like a scrubbing brush, and most of his grown-up front teeth were in.


 

Book 6

May 12

Dear Mr. Henshaw,

My teacher read your book about the dog to our class.  It was funny.  We licked it.

Your freind,

Leigh Botts (boy)



Book 7

My birth certificate says that I was born on September 8, 1946, in Ziegenhain, Germany. It’s the wrong date, wrong city, wrong country.



The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

The Boy in the Field, by Margot Livesey. © 2020.   268 pages.

Excellent writing.  My reading of this book suffered from stopping when I was ¼ of the way through, and then resuming.  Another book (after reading Dutch House) about interesting whip-smart siblings.


 

Book 2

A Writer’s House in Wales, by Jan Morris  © 2002.  95 pages.

I chose this book because I wanted to read something short that would take me away to a different place.  It served me well.  This writer is a fascinating person.  Her house was most likely more cluttered than mine, which is a feat.  I enjoyed this book.

 


Book 3

My Italian Bulldozer, by Alexander McCall Smith.  © 2016. 232 pages.  I found it quite amusing.  I love the introspection of McCall Smith’s characters, and their self-justification for poor choices.  Book Club didn’t find it particularly stimulating but it was what I needed. 


 

Book 4

Shakespeare in a Divided America, by James Shapiro.   © 2020.  306 pages, but the text ends on page 224, followed by reference materials.   I read it too fast.  It’s interesting.  An account of the performance of Julius Caesar in Central Park provides bookends to 7 moments of Shakespearean theater history in America.  


Ulysses S. Grant was slated to play the role of Desdemona, as he was suited to playing female roles on the stage.  But then he went to war and grew a beard.  There was a riot at a theater in NYC in 1849, ostensibly over whether the British or the American Shakespearean actor should prevail on the stage (but it was really a class riot).  The final chapter details Americans’ reaction to the performance of Julius Caesar in late 2016 in the free public theater in Central Park.  It ain’t pretty.


 

Book 5

Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary.  © 1950.  155 pages.

A boy and his dog do just fine in the 1950s.


 

Book 6

Dear Mr. Henshaw, by Beverly Cleary. © 1983.  152 pages.  Read it for book club.


 

Book 7

I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir,

By Esther Safran Foer.  © 2020.  242 pages.

My review here.  


1 comment:

Melissa said...

I love that you revisited some Beverly Cleary!
I heard about that Julius Caesar production and how it went over. I knew right away from the opening lines they were talking about Shakespeare because I often chuckle when gearing up to teach it. His plays are full of stuff certain people would HATE if they ever actually read it, but because he's part of the canon, it gets a free pass every time. Fascinating example of the bias in literature.