My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan

Each week, Vicki at I’d Rather Be At The Beach hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where readers share the beginning paragraph(s) of a book they are reading or plan to read.  



My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan, April 24, 2018, William Morrow
Genre: contemporary fiction, romance

First chapter, first paragraph:

"Next!"
The customs agent beckons the person in front of me and I approach the big red line, absently toeing the curling tape, resting my hand on the gleaming pipe railing. No adjustable ropes at Heathrow, apparently; these lines must always be long if they require permanent demarcation.
My phone, which I've been tapping against my leg, rings. I glance at the screen. I don't know the number. 
"Hello?" I answer.
"Is this Eleanor Durran?"
"Yes?"
"This is Gavin Brookdale."
My first thought is that this is a prank call. Gavin Brookdale just stepped down as White House chief of staff....

My thoughts:
I enjoyed the first part of the novel about a new graduate student at Oxford, the atmosphere and culture of the school new to her and different from an American university's. Ella makes a group of new friends, fellow students, and begins to fit into the system. However, here comes attraction, love, and romantic entanglement. 

The second part of the novel, a romance in crisis, reminded me a bit of Me Before You by JoJo Moyes and Love Story by Erich Segal, with similar ethical dilemmas involving serious illness and questions of commitment. The ending of this story may be unique in its own way, however. 

I liked the banter between Ella and her friends about poetry and was disappointed when the book left Oxford behind and concentrated on a love story that was not half as unique. Overall, a very good read, however, that covers several themes. 

Do you like the writing in the first chaper? Would you continue reading?

Sunday Salon: Mystery in New Orleans and on the High Seas

I have a copy of a favorite cozy writer's new book, Glitter Bomb in the New Orleans Scrapbooking Mystery series.  It's been a while since I read the series, so this book looks very attractive.


Glitter Bomb by Laura Childs, October 2, 2018, thanks to Berkley Books
Genre: cozy mystery series
Setting: New Orleans
An exploding Mardi Gras float is used as a murder weapon.

Another arrival is from Seventh Street Books with a much more serious book cover.


The Devil's Wind by Steve Goble, A Spider John's Mystery, September 11, 2018. 
The mystery is historical, featuring a pirate as sleuth, solving a murder on the high seas.. 

What books will you be reading this week?
Memes:  
The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,
It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date.
Mailbox Monday. Also, Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews

Book Review: The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal

The Lost Ones

The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal, June 26, 2018; William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: thriller set in Vancouver

My review: Nora Watts is an interesting and unusual main character who gets our sympathy because of the violence in her background as a mixed race young woman who grew up in the foster care system. 

She is asked to find  Bonnie, the child she gave up for adoption fifteen years earlier, whom she thought she would never see again.  The adoptive parents have approached her, asking for her help to locate the missing teen. Nora is reluctant at first, but many characters help her, many others get in her way. The plot is complex, as are the characters, and I got to see a side of Vancouver and British Columbia I never knew. The writing is fluid and well executed. Five stars. The Lost Ones was just awarded Best New Novel at the Macavity Awards

Book beginning: The call comes in just after five in the morning.  I am immediately on guard because everyone knows nothing good ever happens this early. Not with a phone call, anyway. You never get word that a wealthy relative has passed and is leaving you his inheritance before 9 A.M. It's fortunate, then, that I'm awake and on my second cup of coffee so I'm at least moderately prepared.   Page 56: Everything is in order, which means that the girl is at least too smart to leave clues behind.  I received this book as an ARC from the publisher Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader  Also, the 12th Annual Canadian Book Challenge by The Indextrious Reader.

First Chapter: Beijing Bastard by Val Wang

Each week, Vicki at I’d Rather Be At The Beach hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where readers share the beginning paragraph(s) of a book they are reading or plan to read.  

Beijing Bastard: Into the Wilds of  a Changing China by Val Wang, October 2014, Avery
Genre: memoir, humor 

Raised in America, Val travels to Beijing in 1998 expecting to find freedom but instead has a different experience living in the old city with her traditional relatives.

First chapter:

On the very first page of a book about Christopher Columbus that my dad is reading to me, there is a word I don't know. I am squeezed next to him in the creaky maroon recliner where he does all his reading. Every new word opens up new worlds to me. This one has a long, slow sound to it and looks so different than it sounds. 

"What is a journey?" I ask. He looks surprised and pauses before answering. 

"A journey is a long trip," he says. 

"A long trip!" What a disappointment. But as we read further into the book, I see what he means.

Do this make you curious? I am, considering she takes her journey to old Beijing when she grows up. 

Sunday Post: Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

I finished a few books and started several new ones at the same time. That has slowed me down somewhat. These hot days are perfect for reading, beside a pool or not. It has even started my hubby reading again after a long hiatus.

My newest read, from Harper:

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver, publication October 16, 2018, Harper
Genre: literary fiction
I have just started this book and it has me in tears already. She is such a good writer. I am eager to see where this story of an heirloom house occupied by two families in different time periods will lead. It begins in the present day with a run down house the contractor recommends demolishing.The novel goes back to the house in an earlier time, the 1870s, when life and politics was just as unpredictable and changing as today.

I am also reading some library books:

The Aviator

Evgenij Vodolazkin,

Eugene Vodolazkin, 

Lisa Hayden (Translator),  May 8, 2018, OneWorld Publications

A man wakes up in a rehabilitation home or hospital, unable to remember his past except in small flashbacks. He determines that he was born in 1900 but when he finds a bottle with his medication saying the pills' expiration date is 1999, he has to reassess what he believes about himself. The book slowly shows the aviator remembering bits of his past, or is it his past? Even though these events may have happened before he was even born? I am hooked on this story and where it might possibly go.

And a memoir:

The Plant Messiah by Carlos Magdalena, June 1, 2017, Viking, is another library borrow. Magdalena works at Kew Gardens in London and details his life trying to save endangered tropical plants around the globe.

Finished reading:

Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben, March 2016, Dutton
Genre: thriller, crime fiction
I started this library book after my hubby started reading again and I borrowed it for him.  Fool Me Once is a captivating thriller, very suspenseful at the end, with twists that you can't see coming. Some of the themes include PTSD from combat during overseas duty, corruption among the wealthy at home, motherhood, and reliable friendship between two people who served together in the military. I gave this 4.5 stars.

What books will you be reading this week?
Memes:  
The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,
It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date.
Mailbox Monday. Also, Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews

Book Beginning: The Myth of Perpetual Summer by Susan Crandall

The Myth of Perpetual Summer by Susan Crandall, June 19, 2018, Gallery Books
"a moving coming-of-age tale set in the tumultuous sixties"

Book beginning:

Prologue 

I kneel in front of the small black-and-white television, my face close to the screen, breathless at the newscaster's words,. A mug shot appears. Blood rushes hot, and my head goes fuzzy. Now grown and far too thin, that face still holds a distant echo of the boy I once so loved. My brother Walden ..... lost to me for years, now labeled a killer.

Page 56:

"There's no medicine for what ails him. Granny steps beside me and thumps her bags on the table. "You just take off, leaving him with four children... it's too much... too much heartbreak."

Do these excerpts grab you as a reader or not?
Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader

First Chapter: The White Mirror by Elsa Hart

Each week, Vicki at I’d Rather Be At The Beach hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where readers share the beginning paragraph(s) of a book they are reading or plan to read.  

The White Mirror

The White Mirror by Elsa Hart, September 2016, Minotaur Books
Genre: historical mystery
Setting: 18thC China

First chapter, first paragraph:

In high places, a single storm takes many forms. A wise traveler knows to be wary of what the clouds and the mountains are saying to one another. So when Li Du observed a raindrop strike his mule's bridle and bounce into the air instead of slipping quietly down the leather, he stooped and looked up with some trepidation. Through dripping branches, the sky was like rough silk stretched tight across a frame. 

Book description: 

Li Du, an imperial librarian in 18th century China, is now an independent traveler. He is journeying with a trade caravan bound for Lhasa when he discovers the body of a monk, a painter in the valley, and sets out to discover the secrets behind the murder. 

Do you like the writing? Would you continue reading?