Before getting to the first lines, I have a question. What is a great book club book that you have read within the past year?
Below are the first lines of the three books I finished reading in June, all of which featured women and girls figuring out how to do life despite the obstacles in front of them.
Book 1
November 28, 1905
Princeton, New Jersey
The Old North bell tolls the hour, and I realize that I’ll be late. I long to break into a sprint, my voluminous skirts lifted, my legs flying along the Princeton University pathways.
Book 2
Reviving Ophelia was my attempt to understand my experiences as a mother of a teenage daughter and a therapist for adolescent girls.
Book 3
On November 21, 2019, I walked through the door of Room 1100 of the Longworth Office Building in Washington D.C., to appear before the House Intelligence Committee.
The titles and authors revealed:
Book 1
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray. 347 pages. 2021.
The book started slowly, but about half-way through the pace picked up. The characters and plot were interesting. Based on historical persons. I read it for book club.
Book 2
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (25th Anniversary Edition), by Mary Pipher, PhD, and Sara Pipher Gilliam. Published 2019. 399 pages.
Difficult material, but well presented. I had to skip some chapters because the subject matter was too difficult for me. It made for a helpful, deep, and searing discussion at book club. Mary Pipher is adamantly against social media.
Book 3
There is Nothing For You Here, by Fiona Hill. Published 2021. 432 pages.
This is the memoir of the expert on Russia who testified to Congress related to the first impeachment of President Donald Trump. She has an interesting story. Some of it is a bit repetitive but the overall main points are good ones, I think.
Working on
The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Translated by Larissa Volokhonsky, Richard Pevear. First published 1879. This translation first published 1990. 796 pages.
Up to about page 531 (Part III, Book Nine; 62% of the total) by end of June. The murder has now occurred. Dmitri Karamazov is being questioned.
Did not finish
Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson. Published 1995. 322 pages. Nonfiction.
I thought this book would be mostly about Scotland. I read a few chapters and there was nothing about Scotland. Those chapters were quite amusing, so I might return to it. But I had other more pressing reading assignments, and library books appeared on my kindle before expected. And I kinda wanted to read about Scotland.
Please do let me know what you are reading these days.
