Roses and book review, 2018
Below are the first lines of the books I finished reading in August: 4 fiction and 2 non-fiction. Two books feature Halley’s Comet prominently. I didn’t plan it that way.
Before getting to the first lines, a question for all y’all. One of the authors I read this month is John Green. I haven’t read any of his fiction: Looking for Alaska (2005), An Abundance of Katherines (2006), Paper Towns (2008), The Fault in Our Stars (2012), Turtles All the Way Down (2017).
Do you have any recommendations from this list? Not that I need more to read. But I do like his nonfiction writing style.
First lines:
Book 1
Southeast Alaskans call it a sucker hole when a patch of blue opens in the clouds and suckers you into thinking the sky is clearing. Tourists fall for them regularly.
It did not rain near us that day.
Book 2
When I visit the back corners of my life again after so long a time, littlest things jump out first. The oilcloth, tiny blue windmills on white squares, worn to colorless smears at our four places at the kitchen table.
Book 3
The single drop of pee made a pitiful splash. Fred sighed as he stood over the cracked toilet bowl that, like him, had seen better days.
Book 4
Around the turn of the nineteenth century, the Scottish tinkerer and chemist James Watt began working on a new project. He had already achieved fame and success for making steam engines more efficient, helping to fuel the industrial revolution that would radically reshape human history.
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| This train is only pretending to be a steam engine. Hogwart's Express, Universal Studios Park |
Book 5
Prologue
Comet Halley reached perihelion—the far side of the sun—on April 10, 1910. It swung in a great arc and began hurtling toward Earth at 120,000 miles per hour, just as Stephen Pike was unpacking his case at the halfway house.
When I searched my photo library for "comet"
this came up. Wrong kind of Comet.
Santa's Stable in gingerbread, 2014 (not made by me)
Book 6
Belgian Shoes
Angus Lordie, portrait painter, citizen of Edinburgh, husband of Domenica Macdonald and owner (custodian, perhaps, according to modern sensibilities) of Cyril, the only dog in Scotland to have a gold tooth; that Angus Lordie stood in a room of his flat at 44 Scotland Street, wondering what to wear.
1/4
Everywhere, from sunup to sunup, the world is full of song. The days are hot, hot, and all the hot day long I listen to the bees lifting from flower to flower, to the watchful chipmunk sounding its chock chock chock alarm while the red-tailed hawk wheels, crying, high in the sky.
Did not finish
This morning, my mother sat in front of me, covered neck to toe in a red-checkered, black-streaked wax tablecloth we’d been using as a hairdresser cape for a few years – fastened with a binder clip, of course.
The titles and authors revealed:
Book 1
Chasing Alaska: A Portrait of the Last Frontier Then and Now
By C.B. Bernard
280 pages. 2013.
nonfiction essays travel
Very good. Well titled. The author relates his own experience in Alaska along with a history of his cousin who was a bona fide arctic explorer. The author is none too pleased with cruise ship tourists, of which I was one while reading the book. He’s not wrong. The book contains some hope for the preservation of species and habitats. But so much has changed politically since this book was published in 2013 that I have to wonder if that hope is still warranted.
Book 2
The Whistling Season
Ivan Doig
345 pages • first pub 2006
fiction historical
I enjoyed this story of a family in Montana, trying to make it forward after a big loss. Overlaying the 1909-1910 story is a framework of a top educator in the late 1950s. I appreciated the emphasis on the effect a good teacher can have, the pros and cons of a one-room school-house, and Halley’s comet as a plot device. This is sort of a coming-of-age story–there are no grisly scenes–and it introduces a lot of SAT-type vocabulary words. It felt to me like tame Y.A. lit. Recommend if you need a calm story that praises education.
Book 3
The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife
Anna Johnston
336 pages • first pub 2024
fiction contemporary
An amusing and at the same time wistful look at old age and life regrets. If you don’t like reading about bodily fluids, skip this book. But really, that’s what managing old age is often about, so you might as well dive in! This may be the only book I’ve ever read that opens in a urinary fashion.
I really liked the characters and plot, although the Common Household Husband said for him the plot was too predictable. In high school when we were reading The Scarlet Letter, everyone else knew who the perp was, but I did not figure it out until the author revealed it. I rarely can guess the plot in advance.
There was one trick in the narration which I did not appreciate. It is revealed about 20 chapters in. The author did it, I think to reinforce the parallels between some of the characters. Really, we would have realized those parallels on our own. But like I said, probably all other readers figured this out long before I did.
I read it for Book Club. Half disliked it, because they just really didn’t want to read about all those fluids. The other half liked it.
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| Toilet functions are #1 (and sometimes #2) in this book. |
Book 4
Everything is Tuberculosis
By John Green
198 pages • first pub 2025
nonfiction health history science
Recommended by numerous people, including E.S. in my book club, blogger Bibliomama, and one of my son’s friends.
A fast read, examining one widespread and deadly illness as an example for how humans could (but so far won’t) begin healing globally. Ends with hope. I recommend it.
Book 5
The Murder at World's End
A Stockingham & Pike Mystery #1
By Ross Montgomery
368 pages •2025
fiction crime historical mystery
A good diversion. I liked the characters, for the most part, but the nasty family members became tedious about half-way through. This is the author’s first book for adults. He has written mostly middle-grade fantasy.
This is the second book in my reading this month which featured Halley’s Comet as integral to the plot.
Recommended by booktuber Steph of the channel Hathaway Ever After, as seen on this Topher’s Library video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK4hNTUZxVA&t=2s
Book 6
Love in the Time of Bertie
(44 Scotland Street series #15)
Alexander McCall Smith
256 pages • first pub 2021
fiction contemporary
I love reading about these characters in Edinburgh, Scotland. Includes a highly improbable deus ex machina moment to get a character out of a fix, even more unlikely than the moment in Les Miserables when Jean Valjean is leaping across the roofs of Paris and falls into the … but never mind that. McCall Smith mocks himself for this plot development.
This reading had me looking up several things referenced in the book:
The music An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise, by Peter Maxwell Davies. (worth a listen!) Make sure you are watching at timestamp 5:50.
The opera titled The Electrification of the Soviet Union. Yes, this opera does exist. But I did not attempt to listen – not a fan of opera.
The per capita chance of being hit by lightning, by country. It’s higher in places with high agricultural labor.
The location of Inverurie in relation to Aberdeen, Scotland. The map shows some intriguingly-named local attractions, such as these, with some Google reviews:
East Aquhorthies Stone Circle (“awsome place and not far from carpark just up a wee hill”
Dalmadilly Ponds (“Nice wee place”; “a beautifully restored nature haven”; “Went to dalmadilly with my mate philly, was a bit chilly, philly got lost and felt quite silly, beautiful views of nearby hillys and overall was good cause we seen a pond lily”)
The Maiden Stone (“great wee stopover on route north”; “if you like stone bothering this is a place to visit”)
Bass of Inverurie (“3 terrific Pictish stones under cover, interesting graveyard”)
So in addition to being a calm, thoughtful read, it was educational.
1/4
I finished the “Summer” section of
The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year
Margaret Renkl
270 pages • first pub 2023
Summer is not my most favorite season, but I think it is probably Margaret Renkl’s favorite.
So many good quotes and challenging thoughts. Such as:
… let us consider the whine of the mosquito…who among us could love you? ….We could love you if we reminded ourselves that no creature is made up only of poison, that no life is only a source of irritation or pain.
That’s a challenge, Margaret, to love mosquitoes. You are better woman than I.
Or this:
We have come to August, a time when summer has gone on for so long that winter is scarcely a memory. … This is the time of summer when summer tells us it will never end.
But here is an ancient black gum rising so high I’m obliged to throw my head all the way back to see even its lowest branches, and next to its trunk is a single red leaf, fallen onto the forest floor. … I can hardly believe what it is telling me, dripping in the cloud-drenched woods, but I recognize it now: a prophesy.
I do love it when the first leaves begin falling in late August, to forecast the arrival of autumn.
DNF
The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)
Rabih Alameddine
326 pages • first pub 2025
fiction contemporary lgbtqia+
I might come back to it someday. But right now, despite my own fondness of cussing, I could not take the repeated foul-mouthed phrase.
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Halley’s Comet is next predicted to be visible from Earth in 2061. Shall we have a party?
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| Redbud tree, midsummer, 2016 |
