presents in the mail!

Posted on August 19, 2011 by pagesofjulia

What great fun! I got presents in the mail this week! There is some irony here: I came across a post many months ago in which Thomas of My Porch observed, as a thing that puzzles him:

Mailbox Mondays. Who is sending all of these books? Is there an international directory of mailing addresses that I don’t have access to? I don’t necessarily want to get books, but I sometimes want to send books. But I feel like sending books unsolicited would seem a little creepy. How does one ask for an address without seeming to be a stalker?

This resonated with me because I, too, had always wondered where all these books come from. Since then, I’ve begun reviewing books for Shelf Awareness, which means they send me books in the mail frequently. But! Here’s the irony. My first personally-sent, gifted books from a fellow blogger have come from Thomas himself! You may recall that my wonderful two little dogs won Thomas’s Best Picture of a Pet Reading Brookner contest (yay). Well, I got books!

Thank you so much, Thomas, for not only sending me these two books that I am very interested in getting into, but also hand-selecting them for me! I asked nicely to have my reading horizons broadened, with a hint regarding Barbara Pym, and Thomas has chosen for me: Pym’s Some Tame Gazelle (what an interesting title, what on earth??) and The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield. I believe the latter is the one he mentioned as “a Persephone title, but unfortunately not in the Persephone edition” – although it is a Cassandra edition, which makes it a women’s-name-edition, for whatever that’s worth. Of the former, Thomas wrote me that “not many (if any) write about it, but I really liked it.” Thomas, I will be pleased to be one of not many to write about it. 🙂 I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it terribly soon because I’m rather reading-busy right now, but I do have a vacation coming up! (We’re headed to the Florida Keys because I hurt my knee so we can’t do the intended mountain biking trip in Colorado. Thus, more reading time.) So, reviews of both of these books are to come on this blog, if not absolutelyrightnow. And I feel like such a lucky girl to have these books personally selected for me. Again, Thomas, many thanks.

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book beginnings on Friday: Dancing with the Queen, Marching with King by Sam Aldrich

Posted on August 19, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Katy at A Few More Pages for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.
Here’s an interesting memoir that has just crossed my desk.

The two most exciting public events of my life occurred before I turned forty.

In the spring of 1953, when I was only twenty-five, I was invited to attend the opening of the new American Embassy residence in London.

This is your standard, matter-of-fact (auto)biography/memoir beginning. Not much flare, and that does seem to be Aldrich’s style. But! I think he has an interesting enough story to make up for it. We shall see.

This quotation comes from an uncorrected advance proof and is subject to change.

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Killing Floor by Lee Child (audio)

Posted on August 18, 2011 by pagesofjulia

My love affair with Jack Reacher is going strong; or perhaps it should be just starting here? This is the very first Reacher novel published. (While Child did later publish prequels, he recommends they be read in publication order rather than chronological order. Read all about it.) So, in this book, the Reacher I’ve come to know is just six months out of the army. He’s a former MP – military policeman – just roaming, trying to figure out what he’s doing with himself. He was raised in the army, living just a few months at a time at barracks around the world. When it was time, he went to West Point, and found spending four years in one place bizarre. Then he graduated, entered the army himself, and has lived the rest of his life a few months at a time at barracks around the world, too. So roaming comes naturally. (This is the first time I can remember finding Reacher to be a music fan. The song “Rambling on My Mind” recurs.)

Reacher roams into small-town Margraves, Georgia, and is arrested immediately on a murder charge. He’s calm; he knows he’ll be cleared, since he didn’t do it. But when he finds out who the murder victim was… he’s involved, and has to stick around. The victims start stacking up, and he meets a pretty girl who’s also a local cop, and Reacher is pulled into a big mess. The team of killers is stalking him, and he’s not afraid to do battle, especially considering who they started with.

I’ve written about Reacher quite a bit. He continues to be big and burly and frankly, sexy, and tough and uber-capable and clever. The plot line is actually pretty predictable: Reacher will kill people. He’ll get away with it. He’ll probably get laid, although the sex is not graphic. (The violence is.) He’ll amaze you and make you gasp. Like a sighing reader of romance novels (who reads not to find out if they’ll hook up, but just to be there when they do), I’m not here to find out how he’ll win – I know he will. The suspense is in who the bad guy is and how it all comes out. I feel a little bit wrenched every time he walks away from the town, the situation, the girl, and the new quasi-friends he’s made. But he’ll keep on walking away.

But this is the FIRST time he’s done it! I was thrilled to meet him near the beginning of his lack of career, his aimless wandering, and see his plans formed. This is the first time I’ve seen him consider hanging around – because it’s his first retired adventure. Later in the series he’ll learn not to consider it. We also get to meet his brother (well, sort of) which gives me a differently-angled view into his background. I look forward to reading the prequels, too, for the same reason.

Come meet Reacher at the beginning, y’all. This is a classic of Reacherdom and I love it.

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Pops’s visit to Powell’s Books in Portland

Posted on August 17, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Just wanted to share a few photos from my father’s trip to the famous Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon.

A quotation he thought we’d like, on one of their blackboards (I especially appreciate that the book’s location is noted!)

LOVE these bike racks with related book titles. (click to enlarge and read ’em all)

“our room at the trendy Ace Hotel – old encyclopedia pages wallpapered to plaster walls!” (is this especially for Powell’s customers?)


And, well, this one is not so directly connected, but: you may recall that Pops and I both read and both raved about Fire Season, by Philip Connors. (My review… and his) So he snapped this fire lookout station for me “at the top of a volcanic butte south of Bend, with a view of the Cascade snow-caps as far north as Mt. Hood, and east into the Oregon desert.” Very nice, Pops.

On a related note: Pops has also been getting into Edward Abbey this summer. I’m not sure if I had a role in that or not; I did strongly (forcibly?) recommend Fire Season to him and cite Edward Abbey as a related recommendation. He may have gotten there on his own, but at any rate the two authors (Connors & Abbey) have a clear link. He actually approached Powell’s with an Edward Abbey need, and reported that, while he’s aware that Abbey is a somewhat obscure choice, they had a full shelf of it and were very happy to talk and help. He points out that this is unsurprising, for Portland and for Powell’s – should be a specialty of theirs – but no less gratifying. He bought three books, including one of Abbey’s novels. I’m not sure I even knew he wrote fiction!


So, I have only read his Desert Solitaire, which I believe is his best-known. It is the nonfiction account of his solitary experience as a park ranger at Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. I read it many years ago, and I retain more of an impression than a distinct memory; what I do recall is that I found it very moving. I recently picked up another of his, The Journey Home, although I haven’t cracked it open yet.

And now Pops has three new books, including a novel. He mentioned that the novel is about a fire lookout, so I think that makes it Black Sun. I’m hoping that he’ll report back to us here on his continued reading, and maybe even loan me a book or two! Hm, Pops?

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Teaser Tuesdays: County: Life, Death and Politics at Chicago’s Public Hospital by David A. Ansell

Posted on August 16, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just open your current read to a random page and share a few sentences. Be careful not to include spoilers!

From page 127,

The high-pitched beeping of my pager pierced the still of the early morning air. My heart-rate increased in a Pavlovian response that harkened back to my days as a resident when the beeping often presaged a patient in trouble.

I am not quite through and thus not writing my review yet, but I can say for now: OMG. This book is powerful and outstanding, and rivaling Fire Season for my Best of 2011 honors. This is not just the story of our nation’s health care system and all its woes, nor a story of racism, poverty, politics and injustice – although it is these things, it is first Dr. Ansell’s personal story, and I find it powerful. Stay tuned.

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Gone with the Wind part 2 (ch. 8-16)

Posted on August 15, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Follow the Great Gone with the Wind Readalong at The Heroine’s Bookshelf. Today we discuss part 2.

I continue to be very impressed. Mitchell is positively painterly in her descriptions of people and places. I love the people, and the clothing, the best. I’m not usually all that interested in clothes but the finery of Atlanta’s Civil War era society scene is awfully colorful, elaborate, and foreign to me. This second part of the book has closed in a little bit, I feel, to relatively few characters: Scarlett, Melanie, Miss Pittypat, and Rhett Butler being the features. Scarlett continues to be a character who is not likeable, exactly (I wouldn’t want to be her friend; not that she’d want to be mine!), but is fascinating and I have to say sympathetic – in the sense that I sympathize with her frustrations, even her desire for simplicity, joy, pleasure, attention. She’s human; I understand her. Melanie is less human because she’s so innocent and trusting; it almost stretches one’s credulity, although I guess Southern ladies were trained to be just that, so maybe it’s historically accurate. Miss Pittypat is definitely a caricature, but a well-formed one.

Captain Rhett Butler I find intriguing. I never did understand Scarlett’s passion for Ashley; he seems to be a pretty face and a romantic ideal, and little else. Pardon me for parroting Gerald, but they’re certainly not suited for one another. Rhett, though, should be just up Scarlett’s alley. He’s got spunk and attitude, not to mention he’s also handsome (several mentions of how BIG he is, too) and has plenty of money. Maybe they’re too much alike, with too much irreverence. Certainly he’s not ready to pay her the kind of attention, flattery, compliments, and silliness that she wants. But I find the prospect of Rhett for Scarlett to be much more exciting than the prospect of Ashley.

We’ve moved a little bit away from the slave characters, too, although we did get a brief sketch of “Uncle” Peter and his control over the household. My memory of Mammy dims, but I’m still bothered by a feeling that she (and many of the slaves depicted as loyal and content in their lot) are painted with a political perspective we no longer find appropriate.

Gone with the Wind continues to be a feat: of beautiful, evocative, fine writing and literary descriptions; of character sketches; of historical fiction with all the details; and of suspenseful drama that keeps me turning the pages. I have lots of other reading to do, so I’m putting this one down til the next readalong date (we discuss part 3 on Sept. 5), but with great difficulty! I am grateful that this readalong finally got me reading this classic. Its fine reputation is deserving.

As usual, don’t forget to stop by The Heroine’s Bookshelf for discussion of part 2, and please do join us if you can!

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two-wheeled thoughts: Ariel

Posted on August 14, 2011 by pagesofjulia

two-wheeled thoughts

when springtime’s buds are flowering through the land;
while summer’s bloom is strewn on every hand;
and through autumn blows
or the chilly wintry snows,
she drives her airy wheel so free and grand.
–Ariel, The Bicycling World, February 16, 1894, as quoted in Around the World on Two Wheels

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where I give myself away as something other than a reader

Posted on August 13, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Don’t panic. I’m a reader, too.

I found a blog post recently that has inspired me to share.

Some of you may have noticed that I have a great passion for bicycles. I have other passions, too, including high-quality, independent, craft beer, and little dogs. (Check out my personal website here.) I have a friend (Hi, Will!) who once said the man who convinced me to settle down was going to have three things in common with me: beer, bikes, and dogs. He didn’t say books.

Husband in support role. literally


I’ve always been a reader. For as long as I can remember, I read more books than the average bear; read at the table; read in bed at night; read all summer; read between classes waiting for the bell to ring. Read in the car on road trips. I like to discuss books. This is why I very nearly headed off for a post-grad degree in English before switching tracks to study library science; this is why I took some post-baccalaureate English just for fun. This is why I joined a book club; this is also why I quit the book club very shortly after joining, because it wasn’t enough like grad school for my tastes. (My bad.) This is why I have this blog. But perhaps my choice of a reading blog, rather than a book club, is revealing. I feel that reading is a very personal activity or passion. I can talk about the books I read with other people – I like to – but the reading of it is an individual pursuit.

Husband was never going to make it without a love for beer, bikes, and dogs, all of which of course he has in spades. The cycling, especially: during race season (at least 7 months a year) we travel 2-3 weekends out of the month, and I get up before 6am, 7 days a week, for 4 months straight every spring. We drive thousands of miles; we take cycling vacations; we spend our weeknights and weekends on the bike year-round. It is a physical fact that if we did not share this hobby, we would not be together. He shares it. It’s all good.

Husband & I in Terlingua


But reading? He doesn’t share this interest. He barely reads at all. Maybe magazine articles. (We scour Bike magazine’s annual Trails Issue for vacation ideas. Like, that’s how we decided to go to Vermont.) That’s okay; he doesn’t bother me when I read. He watches more television than I do – and is responsible for my recently acquired ability to tune out the television (um, mostly) while I read. But generally he’s a doer, not a sitter. And how great is that? This is a man who, given the day off or to “work from home,” will bake a batch of bread, build a deck in the backyard, change his oil, and sew on a button before he makes dinner. I am not complaining.

We don’t share reading as a passion, but he’s tolerant when I want to tell him about a book I’m reading. And he has actually come around to books, when they’re audio: when he flies on an airplane, he gets me to bring him a few audiobooks for the flight. He’s discovered he likes Michael Connelly and Lee Child (see, we’re like bookends). And we made this discovery in the best possible way: on a long road trip, together, to some of the best mountain bike trails in the driveable world. We listened to audiobooks, together, and shared the suspense, the surprises, and the enjoyment. Together. I guess this is the most important part, to me: that when it does come time for “reading” (eh, listening) to be a shared activity, we share the same tastes. That’s kind of the common factor here: having tastes in common. We like to eat the same foods, drink the same drinks, listen to the same music, go to the same places on vacation, ride the same trails. That’s how we get to spend time together, see?

So while I need for the Husband to share several of the passions that are most important to me, I don’t need him to share the books. Only one of us can read the same book at the same time, anyway! (I mean, physically, the same copy of…) But the little dogs are not negotiable.

Husband's caption for this is, "I'll be right here..."


I love you, darlin.

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book beginnings on Friday: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (audio)

Posted on August 12, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Katy at A Few More Pages for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

Ooh, I’m very excited about this one. For some reason, I’ve been hearing a lot lately about this (not new) book and am anxious to get started. We begin:

The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call “out there.” Some seventy miles east of the Colorado border, the countryside, with its hard blue skies and desert-clear air, has an atmosphere that is rather more Far West than Middle West.

Okay, well, it’s not a GASPworthy start, but I still feel the pull. For one thing, the idea of “hard” blue skies and “desert-clear” air, and a Far West atmosphere, feels both familiar and alluring to me. I’m all in.

What are you reading?

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miscellany: literary links

Posted on August 11, 2011 by pagesofjulia

A few fun items for you today!

  • The Best 100 Opening Lines From Books
  • followed intuitively by The Best 100 Closing Lines From Books
    (I am proud of Papa Hemingway for making several appearances!)
    Do you think they chose well? I took issue with only one of the closing lines – the one about diarrhea didn’t strike me as especially profound or clever. It sounded like a middle or filler line to me.
  • and, 10 Real-Life Places That Inspired Literary Classics. This really got me excited, mostly about the farmhouse that supposedly inspired Wuthering Heights. I would love to see that! We have just nixed the idea of the UK as a travel option (vacation fast approaching here) in favor of another literary destination, the Florida Keys, for the Hemingway House (along with lots of other features, including Husband-friendly ones).

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