tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45082678656323652312026-06-01T06:31:46.874-07:00Book notes from a compulsive "list" reader.Gilion at Rose City Readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18080293172467000794noreply@blogger.comBlogger3955125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4508267865632365231.post-9600394391386173642026-05-28T17:00:00.000-07:002026-05-28T17:00:00.116-07:00

 BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSThe Ghost Road by Pat BarkerThank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. MY BOOK BEGINNINGIn deck-chairs all along the front, the bald pink knees of

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BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSThe Season of Second Chances by Diane MeierThank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.MY BOOK BEGINNINGIt takes a keen eye to tell a false start from a dead end.-- from The Season of

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 BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSThe Royal Secret by Lucinda RileyThank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. MY BOOK BEGINNING“James, darling, what are you doing?”-- from The Royal Secret

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Three Books I Always Recommend, and WhyBOOK THOUGHTSWhen you are a reader, people always ask for book recommendations. Which book(s) do you recommend wholeheartedly? Three of my go to books I always recommend are Play It as It Lays, What’s Bred in the Bone, and Cold Comfort Farm. Here’s why I picked these three: Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion is a 1970 novel about a former actress facing the

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BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSFinlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle CosimanoThank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.MY BOOK BEGINNINGChristopher was dead.-- from Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle

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 BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSTiny Vices by Linda DahlThank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. MY BOOK BEGINNINGFinished with the War[,] A Soldier's DeclarationI am making this

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 Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They LoveBOOK REVIEWI wanted to like this book more than I did. Anne Fadiman's collection of essays about books and reading, Ex Libris, was wonderful. Her book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, is some of the finest nonfiction writing I've ever encountered. I

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 BOOK LISTPenguin Green TribandsThe 400 vintage Penguin crime books in their ionic green triband covers make up my favorite book collection. Back in the darkest days of the pandemic lockdown, when bored out of my socks, I did a little bookish retail therapy. Thanks to eBay and Royal Mail, I found myself the new owner of a job lot of over 400 vintage Penguin mystery books. After

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BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSThe Other Family by Joanna TrollopeThank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.MY BOOK BEGINNINGLooking back, it astonished her that none of them had broken down in the hospital.

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BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSThe Secret Hours by Mich HerronThank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.MY BOOK BEGINNINGThe worse smell in the world is dead badger.-- from The Secret Hours by Mich

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 BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSThe Art of Making Memories by Meik WikingThank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. MY BOOK BEGINNINGTo paraphrase one of the greatest philosophers

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BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSCare of the Soul by Thomas MooreThank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.MY BOOK BEGINNINGThe great malady of the twentieth century, implicated in all of our troubles and

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 BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSLessons by Ian McEwanThank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. MY BOOK BEGINNINGThis was insomniac memory, not a dream. It was the piano lesson again –

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 BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSChocolat by Joanne HarrisThank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. MY BOOK BEGINNINGWe came on the wind of the carnival. A warm wind for February, laden

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BOOK THOUGHTSThe Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. LewisI just came back through the wardrobe from revisiting Narnia. I’m rereading C. S. Lewis’s classic Chronicles of Narnia series to figure out which of my grandkids are the right age to discover them for the first time. The youngest is four, which is definitely too soon, at least for him to read them himself. But the oldest is 11, which might be

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BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. LewisThank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.MY BOOK BEGINNINGOnce there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan,

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 BOOK THOUGHTSFebruary 2026 Monthly Wrap UpOh, the short month of February, when there are not enough days to read all the books! I managed to finish 13 in my birthday month, but there were several left behind. I am normally a planner when It comes to my reading. I love to pick books ahead of time, either for the year, like with my TBR 26 in '26 books, or by the month when I pick a stack for

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BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSThe Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha ChristieThank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.MY BOOK BEGINNINGThat amiable youth, Jimmy Thesiger, came racing down the big staircase at

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 BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSThe Appeal by Janice HallettThank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. MY BOOK BEGINNINGDear both, As discussed, it is best you know nothing before you

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BOOK THOUGHTSJanuary 2026 Monthly Wrap UpNow that I'm "all-but" retired, I've been reading more. I've also been clearing out and reorganizing all my cupboards and closets. I hope the reading continues and the compulsion to clean up fades. Here’s my January wrap-up list. Have you read any of these? A Weed Among the Flowers by Graham Greene, in a miniature special edition. I wrote about

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BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSSt. Francis of Assisi by G.K. ChestertonThank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.MY BOOK BEGINNINGA sketch of St. Francis of Assisi in modern English may be written in one of three

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BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSYou Can't Catch Us by Shannon McKenna SchmidtThank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.MY BOOK BEGINNINGAn unexpected sight stopped travelers in their tracks at Union

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 BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYSFrom First Breath to Last by Dede MontgomeryThank you for joining me this week for Book Beginnings on Fridays where participants share the opening sentence (or two) from the book they are reading. You can also share from a book you want to feature, even if you are not reading it at the moment. MY BOOK BEGINNINGIt made no sense to me when I first learned Mom

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SO MUCH SERENDIPITYIN TWO RECENTLY READ NOVELSHave you had the experience of something coming up in a book -- an event, place, idea, historical character, or even an unusual word -- and then shortly after, the same thing comes up in a different book completely by coincidence? I call this Storyline Serendipity.Last month, I read two books that have so many similarities, it's uncanny. First I

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BOOK BEGINNINGS Thanks for joining me for Book Beginnings on Fridays. I forgot to put my post up Thursday evening, so please forgive this slapdash version. I had to do it on my phone. 🙈 Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.If this widget does not appear, click here to display it.

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