The Dentist

 Sullivan, Tim. The Dentist. New York : Atlantic Crime 2020. Print.

First Sentences:

The young woman standing in front of him was smiling. Cross was sure of this, as her mouth was turned up at both corners, which was a definite sign. He wasn't sure what it meant though, because he didn't know her. 

Description:

It's always a great pleasure to me to discover a new author, particularly one who has written numerous books in a genre I enjoy. In this case, my latest discovery is Tim Sullivan and his initial police procedural mystery, The Dentist. 

 

Detective Sargent George Cross, the main character in this novel, is a brilliant, yet irritating detective for the Major Crime Unit of the Avon and Somerset (England) police force. Cross, while having probably the best criminal conviction rate in the country, is extremely awkward to be around due to his Asperger's Syndrome which puts him on the Autism Spectrum.

 

This condition makes him extremely detail-oriented and relentless in his pursuit of the truth, both pluses for any criminal investigator. But he is also socially inept, unaware of the affect of his words and actions on others, definitely a minus for his department, suspects, and his long-suffering partner, Josie Ottey, and new officer Alice Mackenzie. He abruptly leaves meetings without a word to pursue some new idea, leaving others to wonder what he's up to. It never occurs to him to include them on what is going on in his head unless they specifically ask him.Truly a trying man to be around professionally and socially.

[Ottey] had become his apologist and translator with the rest of the world. She wasn't entirely happy about this....As frustrating as she found Cross and partnering him, it did have its upside. She wouldn't dream of telling anyone else, but she'd learnt a lot from this man. More than she'd care to admit. 

Cross doesn't drive.although he can. Instead,he sometimes opts to be driven (often reluctantly) by his colleagues so he can concentrate on his thoughts en route. He mostly prefers to use his bicycle for transportation when a driver is not available or he is in too much of a hurry to get somewhere.

[At the crime scene] He had arrived on a bicycle, fully kitted out in a dayglo green helmet with a flashing light and digital camera attached to the top, dayglo cycling windbreaker, dayglo bicycle clips round his ankles and a small backpack over his shoulder. He looked more like an eccentric, absent minded, fifty-year-old geography teacher who had lost his way en route to an orienteering field trip...  

In the opening pages of The Dentist, Cross and Ottey are faced with the dead body of an elderly homeless man. Uniformed officers on the scene had already dismissed this death as a "homeless on homeless" situation that likely involved an argument, an escalating fight, and then an intentional or accidental death. The police conclusion? Inconsequential people in a time-waster of a case. 

 

But to Cross the body represented an individual who needed to be understood in order for Cross to recreate at the situation that led to his death by an unknown person.

Cross studied the corpse's face. Who was this man? How did he end up here? Like this? What events in his life led him to this moment? What was his story?

So there you have it. An odd detective, his partner, a rookie staff person, and the rest of the police force working on a case. I can't give any more away. However, if you are looking for careening car chases, shoot-outs, and fist fights, this is not the book or characters for you. This is a police procedural, one where the action is looking for clues, intensively interviewing suspects, rejecting false leads, and sitting around in meetings and thinking. Maybe this sounds dull, but the conversations, interviews of suspects as well as the investigation procedures conductive by intense and sometimes confused (by Cross) colleagues are fascinating to see in "action."

 

Best of all, author Tim Sullivan has written eight (so far) DS George novels. Having read the first three (The Cyclist is the second in the series, then comes The Patient, both equally well-written and compelling), I have five more queued up on my "To Be Read" list. Nice to have a good novel to turn to when other items don't pan out. I'm going to read them in order as there is growth to the characters and their relationships to each other, even in the first two books. Can't wait to dive into the fourth book, The Politician, when I need a reliable story to fill my spare hours.

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Baldacci, Davie. Memory Man.

Amos Decker is a man has a memory that remembers every detail, conversation, picture, or situation ... forever. He can never forget the brutal murders of his wife and child, dropping out of the police department and becoming a derelict. But he is reluctantly pulled back into an investigation by a friend who had been on death row but was released after a last-minute confession by another person. Highly interesting and pulse-pounding. Decker is a fascinating character. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

A Marriage at Sea

Elmhirst, Sophie. A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck. New York : Riverhead 2025. Print.

First Sentences:

Maralyn looked out at emptiness. There was little to see except the water, shifting from black to blue as the sun rose. A clear sky, the ocean, and themselves: a small boat, sailing west. 

Description:

Survival stories are some of my favorite non-fiction books to read. Combine that setting with a relationship adventure between two free-spirited souls and you have my full attention. So you can see why I now recommend to you Sophie Elmhirst's true adventure account of Maurice and Maralyn [sic] Bailey's shipwreck tale in A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck.

 

Both Maralyn and Maurice were unique personalities. Maurice was a loner, a man who dreamed of a life where he could be his own boss with no meetings or schedules ... free from responsibility to anyone except himself. He was a stutterer, had a hunchback, and once suffered from childhood tuberculosis which caused him to miss quite a bit of school. He made up for these shortcomings through self study and proved himself to the world by becoming a rock climber, a handyman, a pilot, a sailor, and more. 

 

Maralyn was a strikingly pretty woman who lived a sheltered life with her parents. They were people who liked doing things the old ways and kept Maralyn protected from experiencing anything new or challenging. Despite these constraints, Maralyn had become a confident, intelligent woman who simply preferred to be alone, taking walks in the woods, wearing her sister's cast off clothes, and being completely uninterested in anything that others did or said in social situations.

 

Maurice and Maralyn met when Maurice subbed for a friend in a two-person car rally. Maralyn was the driver and Maurice the navigator. She gave Maurice confidence by being interested in his life and decisions, while he opened the world from his real life skills and experiences. They began dating and soon married.

 

But soon, restlessness set in for both of them. They decided to work and save for five years to afford a boat, quit their jobs, then live on the boat, sailing off into the sunset with no plans or destinations, and no bosses. They accomplished those goals, created the boat, and set off.

 

Things went smoothly for the first year at sea until a whale's tale punctured a hole in their boat. They had only a few minutes to gather several items and jump into their inflatable lifeboat.

 

No spoilers in this previous information as all these events happen in the first few pages. But here's where I stop retelling their background and force you to read Marriage at Sea for yourself about how they survived 117 days adrift. What they ate, how they recorded their days, how they reacted to each other, the sharks, the boobies (sea birds), and their failed plan to have giant turtles pull their raft are the stuff of this captivating memoir. They and their story survive, of course, and this book details their daily hopeless grind of survival and relationship.

Doubt grows in emptiness.

I won't detail their days at sea, but if you are like me and enjoy survival stories, this one is for you. One cannot help but marvel as they face and overcome multiple obstacles and maybe, like me, wonder if I would have been as resourceful and hopeful for as long as they did. (Spoiler: probably not very long for me!).

 

It's a gripping tale of adventure, survival, and hope between two very different people who happened to be committed to each other through thick and thin. Fully engrossing and able to keep readers in suspense from the first to the last get to know and understand these unique people in crisis and in their relationship. Hope you like it.  

"We had found self-knowledge, self-reliance and proved our emotional self-sufficiency" recalled Maurice. As if it were an achievement, to need no one else. 

____________________

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi

One young boy from India survives a shipwreck, floating for weeks alone ... except for a giant tiger in the lifeboat with him. 

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

A City on Mars

Weinersmith, Kelly and Weinersmith, Zach. A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?. New York : Penguin 2023. Print.

First Sentences:

Wherever you are on this planet, you've recently given some thought to leaving it. Space is looking more promising every day. There's no political corruption on Mars, no war on the Moon, no juvenile jokes on Uranus. Surely space settlement presents the best chance since about 50,000 BC to try out something completely new and leave all the bad stuff behind.

Description:

I'm always interested in all things space-related. A new topic in this area has cropped up recently:  the possibility of flying humans to Mars and creating a permanent settlement there. 

Many exciting possibilities are envisioned in this scenario, including establishing a new environment for humans should the Earth prove unlivable; a chance to put new technology to work; possible mineral riches to be mined; and even the design of a new community free of political and social strife.

 

Husband and wife authors Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith examine every issue imaginable regarding the travel to Mars and a potential settlement there in their new book, A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?  

 

Here they probe into the dreams, reality, and potential obstacles to Mars travel and communities on both Mars and our Moon, including:

• Lack of data for extended time in space; 
• Health issues;
• Space sex, reproduction, and radiation;
• Solar panels, underground lava tubes, and launch sites on the Moon; 
• Martian landscape (-60C with no breathable air, dust storms, and toxic soil);
• Rotating space wheel environments;
• Outer space habitats;
• International space politics and treaties;
• The human factors involved in living in a transportation rocket for six months and then settling in a close-knit colony;
• Advantages and disadvantages of waiting some extended time before trying to colonize Mars;
• Alternative potential space habitation locations (planets, asteroids, other sun systems).  

Each of its six chapters examines a situation for colonizing Mars from a scientific and practical viewpoint. These topics include:

• How space affects human bodies?
• How to stop the effects of radiation?
• Can humans live in an environment with only 2/5 of Earth's gravity?
• What habitats and vehicles work in space?
• How to insure people won't die in space and Mars;
• Is a Mars settlement internationally legal?
• How do we update laws to better accommodate human settlement?
• How can we address the sociology, growth, and reproduction issues?
• Can we actually achieve a successful Mars settlement despite all these obstacles?

The authors outline the popular opinions currently held by many humans:

Space is supposed to: lessen the chance of war, improve politics, end scarcity, save us from climate change, reinvigorate a homogenized and rapidly wussifying Earth, and...make us all as wise as philosophers....The problem is that...these ideas are almost certainly wrong.

They interview scientists, astronauts, biologists, sociologists, and many other experts to try to understand the possibilities and difficulties faced  before each challenge can be addressed. The text is both extensively researched and dryly witty, making this book both highly informative and interesting as well a subtly humorous and casual in its imagery.

[On the Moon] you'd need to cook all the water out of six tons of lunar soil to get the three kilograms of water you need daily to survive, not including cleaning, showering, and the occasional water balloon fight. 

It is a deep probing into the potential and obstacles for space travel and settlements that I found fascinating. If you are into anything about space or simply want to discover what waits us beyond the confines of Earth's protective atmosphere and the possibility of settling on another world, then this is the book for you. Highly readable, informative, and quirky in its (ahem) down-to-Earth humor. Highly recommended. 

Space combines just about every bad environment on Earth, plus a few curve balls like ultra-extreme temperatures, poison-soaked soil, and endless horizons of charged jagged glass. Space settlement is not impossible, but it will be damn hard....

Even is our species never settles Mars, deciding how we might do it is a project that requires objectively awesome and bizarre research and development in almost every field of human endeavor, from artificial wombs to international law.  

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Roach, Mary. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

From issues of going to the bathroom, sex, zero gravity, isolation, radiation, transportation, buildings, and crash landings in space, the author interviews experts in the field and even tests equipment and situations about all aspects of space travel and life apart from Earth. Fascinating, easy to read, humorous, and highly informative. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

The Mailman

 Welsh-Huggins, Andrew. The Mailman. New York : Mysterious Press, 2025. Print.

 

First Sentences:

Rachel Stanfield paused, not sure she heard her husband correctly, but wanting as always to give him the benefit of the doubt. Grateful for the distraction of a sound outside, she peered through the kitchen window but saw nothing.  


Description:

But the sound Rachel Stanfield thought she heard in these opening sentences was not an animal nor any other natural cause. It was four thuggish men who break into her house, tie up her and her husband, and demand information from her, Unfortunately, she has no idea what the answers they want are. When one of the men pulls out some special tools to "help her remember," things look completely bleak.

 

Then her doorbell rings. 

 

Thus starts the new thriller by Andrew Welsh-Huggins, The Mailman. It is a whirlwind ride of twists and turns, threatening situations with narrow escapes, mysterious data which good guys and bad guys alike are seeking for differing reasons. And then there is an questionable sum of $20 million that seems to play a part in the adventure.

 

Welsh-Huggins introduces into this environment Mercury ("call me Merc") Carter, an independent delivery man with a packet he wants to deliver to the story's narrator, Rachel. He says he has never missed a delivery before to a client and, despite all obstacles, doggedly does not want Rachel's package to be his first failure. 

So after ringing Rachel's doorbell, he finds himself entering into the aforementioned delicate hostage situation. But Merc conducts himself unexpectedly well despite the dangers to everyone in the room, and the adventure begins.

 

I cannot reveal any more of the plot, but will say that it involves kidnapping, lottery payoffs, some very nasty people, mysteries galore, secret numbers, and some nifty MacGyver-like extractions of various people from some very tight situations. 

There is an overwhelming sense of urgency throughout the book, a foreboding threat of violence and crimes, and touched with a bit of ironic humor as well. But after all, it is a thriller, so if you are not into that kind of scenario, give this novel a pass.

 

But for those of us who enjoy tense encounters, good vs. evil face-offs, impending dire consequences, and impossible last-second escapes, this is definitely the book for you. A great read that will keep you flipping pages long into the night as it did me. It's now in my top 5 thrillers of all time, and that's saying a lot! 

 

Best of all, this is the first book in a new Mercury Carter series, with the next edition to come out later in 2026. Cannot wait to dive into that one as well. 

 

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Andrew Welsh-Huggins. Fourth Down and Out.

Former Ohio State University quarterback, now turned private investigator, needs to recover a friend's laptop and erase a file. Easy enough, but the trail leads him throughout Columbus, Ohio and eventually Ohio State itself where the people there still won't forget the huge mistake he made decades ago in an important football game.

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

Mona's Eyes

Schlesser, Thomas. Mona's Eyes. New York : Europa. 2024. Print.

 

First Sentences:

Everything went dark. As funeral garb. Then, here and there, some flashes, like those bright spots that appear when you vainly stare at the sun from behind eyelids that are as tightly clenched as fists fighting pain or emotion.

Description:

If you are someone not particularly interested in artists, art history, or analysis of art pieces, I'm going to save you time and suggest you read no further in this recommendation for Mona's Eyes by Thomas Schlesser.  While wrapped in a very interesting premise to its plot, Mona's Eyes fills most of its pages with wonderful descriptions of artworks, artists, and period history found in the Paris museums of the Louvre, Orsay, and Beaubourg (the Centre Pompidou).

 

One day, Mona. a ten-year-old Parisian girl, suddenly, inexplicable, goes blind. Her parents rush her to their family doctor who can find nothing wrong with her eyes. Fortunately, after one hour, her sight returns, but her family is left withl questions about why and how this happened, and if or when the blindness might recur. Despite multiple weekly medical tests, no answers emerge.

 

It is reasoned that there could be a psychological aftereffect on the girl from this brief condition, so Mona's parents decide she should see a psychologist. Hearing this, Mona's grandfather volunteers to take care of this need. The parents are relieved of the burden, thinking that he will find a qualified doctor for Mona.

 

But Henry, her grandfather, has other ideas apart from Mona's parents' expectations.

 

Every Wednesday, instead of sessions with a psychologist, Henry takes Mona to a museum to contemplate and discuss one art piece. Henry fears Mona, who has led a quiet, sheltered life, will not have any memories of beauty, color, people, artists, and the world should she ever go blind again. He wants to provide her with memories and images should the darkness descend on her unexpectedly.

 

The book consists of 52 short chapters, one for each Wednesday in a year, where Henry and Mona analyze an art piece. Mona is asked to stand alone in front of the piece and study it, then step back and discuss what impressions she has with her grandfather while he provides her with his in-depth information about the artists, the historical period of the piece, and an analysis of the work itself. 

 

Personally, I only knew a tiny bit about of few of these artists, such as da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Monet, Cezanne, Klimt, Van Gogh, and O'Keefe. Others were known but only vaguely to me, such as Goya, Gainsborough, Whistler, Kandinsky, Magritte, and Basquait. Most artists were unfamiliar (at least, to me), like Poussin, Friedrich, Cameron, Hoch, and Soulages. 

 

Although each piece is described, I looked up each unfamiliar image of the work ton the internet o better understand exactly what they were seeing. (Note: new copies of this book contain an insert folder with all the art pieces shown. My book was a library copy without the insert so I had to do an internet image search myself. Sigh)

 

There are several other background stories in Mona's Eyes revolving around her family, school, doctors, and friends. But predominately the novel focuses on the appreciation of one specific art piece in each chapter. Henry is a scholarly art historian who brings life to the subtleties of each artwork and its creator, and under his guidance Mona is soon able to provide her own insights.

 

I learned so much about art and the people who created pieces during their eras. Plus, I learned the value of carefully observing a museum piece, not just reading the labels attached nearby and moving on. Each art work contains a story, a symbol, a reflection of the artist's message, and even commentary of the issues of that age.

 

Thoroughly engrossing, hugely informative, and a wonderful introduction to famous art and their creators. 

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Cane, William and Gabrille, Anna. Every Picture Hides a Story.

Details the background and subliminal content to a huge number of famous paintings as well as the history of the artists. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

Over to You

Dahl, Roald. Over to You. London : Reynal & Hitchcock. 1946. Print.

First Sentences:

Oh, God, how I am frightened. Now that I am alone I don't have to hide it; I don't have to hide anything any longer. I can let my face go because no one can see me; because there's twenty-one thousand feet between me and them and because now that it's happening again I couldn't pretend any more even if I wanted to. 

Description:

Having recently read Roald Dahl's memoir, Going Solo about his World War II experiences flying for the RAF, I fell in love with his spare, honest writings about his thrilling adventures, and definitely wanted to read much more from him. Luckily among his numerous books for children, I found his Over to You, made up of ten more stories about the men who piloted Hurricane fighter planes in WWII in the desert.

 

These narrations were probably based on the people, locations, and situations from Dahl's own experiences. They certainly seemed, to me, to be realistic. But even if these tales were entirely fictionalized, each one rang true because they focused on the men themselves, not just the situations they faced, real and imagined. We lucky readers can see up close what these pilots were thinking. What were their plans? How did they to occupy their down time? What were their relationships with the local people near their air bases and with the enemy fighters?

 

Here's some examples of the captivating stories contained in Over to You: 

• A pilot, after four years of flying missions, is overcome with dread about having to fly again, a terror that seizes his every moment before and during his time in the air until he comes into combat at which time all his fear dissipates;

• Pilots save and adopt of very young girl whose family had been killed in enemy strafing of her tiny village;

• Pilots on an off-day decide to free several ordinary women who have been forced into prostitution;

• Crew and friends await the return from a mission of their fellow pilot. But when he eventually lands safely two days later, they find he has no memory of the time that has passed since he flew off;

•  A mother senses when her son is on a mission and feels she is in the cockpit with him.

• A pilot returns from a mission, quietly has a drink by himself in the airport bar, and only after much convincing by fellow pilots does he admit he had seen five enemy planes on his mission and shot them all down.

All these tales are narrated in Dahl's crisp prose. Each sentence conveys a picture of the feelings of the men, their situations, and their surroundings. Even their planes come to life under Dahl's words:

Our two Hurricanes were standing a few yards away, each with that patient, smug look which fighter planes have when the engine is not turning, and beyond them the thin black strip of the sloped down towards the beaches and towards the sea. 

 Dahl portrays the non-combatant civilians with the same intimacy:

It's always the same. As the bombers move south across the country at night, the people who hear them become strangely silent. For those women whose men are with the planes, the moment is not an easy on to bear.

There you have it. It's a quietly passionate book full of fully-rounded, interesting people with questions, observations, bravery, and fears about the War, their surroundings, other people, and their own position in all of it. Each story, to me, was a gem written in precise prose, detailed enough that I felt I knew and even understood every individual character. What more could any reader ask for in a book? Highly recommended.  

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

Roald Dahl. Going Solo.

Memoir of Roald Dahl's flying experiences with the RAF during World War II. Superb writing and adventures in every chapter. (Previously reviewed here.)

Happy reading.

 

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup

Carr, J.L. How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup. New York : Penguin 1975. Print.

First Sentences:

After the big Share-Out there was a thousand pounds left for an Official History. A top Sports Personality put the idea into our Chairman's head. His letter read, 'This most illustrious feat in modern Sporting Annals should -- and must -- be enshrined for posterity, and it will be my proud honour, sir, to perform this service for you and your gallant band, when suitable terms are agreed ..."

Description:

The first sentence above refers to the events occurring in the final pages of this dry, witty novel, How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup by J.L. Carr. It is the "history" of a small village in England, Steeple Sinderby, which in one year fielded a football (soccer) club from local players and went all the way to Wembley Stadium to win the prestigious FA Cup. (No spoiler here as this result is part of the novel's title.) The book's first sentence refers to how the winners' purse was to be divided, including leftover funds set aside to document this rise to fame. 

 

Enter the narrator and author of the book, Joe Gidner, a local greeting card writer. Gidner, accepts the position of the team's documentarian, carefully laying out the one-year run of the small-town Wanders' football team. He details the team's history that year based on newspaper articles, minutes from the team's governing committee, along with his own observations of the team, the townspeople of Steeple Sinderby, and the man who created the winning system, Dr. Kossuth.

 

Kossuth, the headmaster of the local school, had no previous interest or experience with football, However, he had developed a system for his school's students performance in educational tests which had dazzled the government examiners. He therefore was asked by the football Committee to develop a similarly unique system for their football team in achieve similar success. After attending only two games, Kossuth came up with seven Postulations to promote winning including:

• The only truly striking difference between the technical skills in amateur and professional players is the latter's control of a ball's movement when struck by his head.  Whenever possible, keep the ball close to the ground and select terrain disadvantageous to flighted passage of balls; 

• Every player except the centre-forward must defend his own goal, and every player except the goalkeeper must assault his opponents' goal;

• A Home team's only advantage is feeling at home. An away side should think itself at home, and then make the home side feel less at home.

These Postulations led the Wanders' Committee to create a home field in a marshy, uneven, rocky area where the team, through practices on it, could feel more comfortable than opponents. They implemented a game strategy where every single player attacked or defended on every play, creating mismatches based on overwhelming their opponents with numbers whether on offense or defense.

 

The rag-tag team which implemented these Postulations was made up of the local vicar, a milkman, a "wild man", and a faded football star who had given up the game for good as "pointless." Townspeople also contributed to the Postulations by cheering so loudly when the Wanders played in their opponents' territory that they drowned out any opponents' fan support. 

 

Implementing these ideas helped the Wanderers win their qualifying preliminary minor league games and move into the next level of competition where they faced more experienced players.

So the First Round Proper now was upon us and into the hat tumbled the survivors of the rough and tumble preliminary rounds of Free for All, battered and weary from too much football and staring wildly around like half drowned men cast up from the sea, amazed to find themselves still breathing though not likely to live.  

It's a serious-sounding book chock full of odd characters, unusual situations, and unexpected outcomes. The players' adventures implementing the Postulations and coming together as a team despite many unexpected setbacks are a wild ride from start to finish. The humor is very subtle, expressed in the narrator's quite serious language (all the more to hide the truly laugh-out-loud occurrences), presenting a highly-believable history of quirky characters and situations.

 

Recommended for lovers of wit, football/soccer competition and strategy, clever small stories and relationships, off-beat characters, and David vs. Goliath match-ups. I loved it.

I often wish that I could have known the end at the beginning, so that each detail could have been savoured as it happened. But then, life isn't a gramophone record one can play again and again till one feels one understands it. It is Now or Never for most of us, and we haven't the time. But we shall tomorrow ... 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Jerome, Jerome K. Three Men in a Boat.

Three men (and a dog) set off for a river excursion in a rented boat, although none has any previous boating experience. Probably the closest book I could think of with the very dry, serious British sense of humor. Delightfully witty, unexpected, and funny.

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

A Month in the Country

 Carr, J. L.. A Month in the Country. New York : New York Review Books. 1980. Print.

First Sentences:

When the train stopped I stumbled out, nudging and kicking the kitbag before me. Back down the platform someone was calling despairingly, "Oxgodby...Oxgodby." No one offered a hand, so I climbed back into the compartment, stumbling over ankles and feet to get as the fish-bass {on the rack] and my folding camp-bed {under the seat). If this was a fair sample of northerners, then this was enemy country so I wasn't too careful where I put my books. 

Description:

In the early Post-World War I year of 1920, Thomas Birkin arrives in a remote village in Yorkshire, England to restore a newly-discovered Medieval mural in a local chapel. He is a man broken by what he has experienced in the War, with a facial tick and halting sentences. Meticulously restoring decaying art pieces, particularly in churches, had become his meager livelihood.

The marvelous thing was coming into this haven of calm water and, for a season, not having to worry my head with anything but uncovering their wall painting for them. And, afterwards, perhaps I could make a new start, forget what the War and the rows with Vinny had done to me and begin where I'd left off....and, afterwards, maybe I won't be a casualty anymore. 

He is not particularly welcomed by the vicar who feels the painting to be restored had been hidden over the years for a reason. He felt is was probably an apocryphal scene not to his liking, with devils, spirits, blood, and other off-putting, ungodly imagery. 

And that is how I first saw him [the priest], his precise businesslike letters made flesh, standing in the doorway below me, seeing by wet footprints that I had come. Like a tracker-dog he looked along their trail to the foot of the ladder and then up it. 

But Birkin is not to be put off, having been commissioned by the church committee over the vicar's protests to do the restoration. Birkin takes up a simple residence in the chapel's bell tower in the loft, careful to be away when the Sunday bells are rung. The wall concealing the mural is only steps from his room, and he allows no one to climb the ladder to view either his work or his lodgings.

 

But he is befriended by several people: two children, Kathy and Edgar, who bring a record player and music into the chapel, chatting constantly with him; Alice Keach, a young woman married to the dreaded vicar, a woman he becomes attracted to; and Moon, a fellow damaged War survivor camped out on the nearby grounds, commissioned to find an ancient burial tomb containing a former property owner. 

 

All these characters strike up their own version of friendship and attachment with Birkin as he toils away on the mural, restoring faces, colors, and images to their original freshness, all the while gleaning hints about the artist himself.

 

And when he finished, he had only a single thought, and it was about the original mural painter.

I knew that, whatever else had befallen me during those few weeks in the country, I had lived with a very great artist, my secret sharer of the long hours I'd labored in the half-light above the arch....And, standing before the great spread of color, I felt the old tingling excitement and  a sureness that the time would come when some stranger would stand there too and understand. 

The characters, the setting, the conversations, and most of all the gentle, smooth writing make A Month in the Country a highly pleasurable book to curl up with in a comfy chair in front of a fireplace, a warm blanket around you, and a hot beverage close at hand. A lovely book in every way.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Delderfield, R. To Serve Them All My Days.

The narrator, returning from World War I battlefield with sever trauma, joins a boys' school as a teacher, although he has never taught before. The headmaster recognizes the man's worth and mentors him throughout his new career. Probably the book I most often recommend to other readers. Absolutely wonderful characters on every page, especially the narrator. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 480 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

Catapult

Paul, Jim. Catapult: Harry and I Build a Siege Weapon. New York : Villard 1991. Print.

First Sentences:

It had occurred to me that holding an old rock might be like looking at the stars.

Description:

I first read Jim Paul's Catapult: Harry and I Build a Siege Weapon when it was published in 1991 (can that really be 35 years ago?) and was very much taken by it. When an article appeared recently in the New York Times Book Review section that revisited this book, I decided to dip into this serious/farcical memoir again.

 

The book details the trials and tribulations of two men trying to build a catapult to launch stones from abandoned military fortification bunker on the cliff side of the Headlands into the San Francisco Bay. Why? Just because it struck them as something to do. One man was an incompetent dreamer, one an irascible skilled builder. Surely, this pair will have an easy time of such a simple project.

 

Got your attention yet? 

 

Author Jim Paul, after finding a billion-year-old pink quartzite rock the size of a grapefruit, got it into his head that this rock needed to be hurled in a magnificent manner...such as with a catapult. This idea intrigued him in theory, helping him to convince his reluctant friend Harry to assist (i.e., design and construct) such a machine. 

 

Armed with a small grant from a local art center, they men researched what a catapult even is or was in olden days. The grant gave them a deadline of three months to build and then employ a catapult to hurl rocks off the San Francisco cliff into the sea. 

 

Two catches: since Federal law forbid bringing weapons onto their lands, Paul had to agree to only launch "fake rocks," a tidbit he kept from Harry who would wash his hands of the project if the catapult was not authentic enough to hurl actual stones. The second grant restriction was there had to be a follow-up public lecture to outline and summarize the project and launch, a notion that terrified Harry who was afraid of both public speaking, but conversely demanded to be included in the presentation out of fear of possibly being given lesser credit. Again, what could go wrong in this scenario?

 

The book details their search for what design their catapult should take, settling on the crossbow style that shot projectiles with immense force, resembling a horizontal crossbow. Now to build one. During the construction phase, they find themselves dealing with various backstreet and polished parts dealers who trafficked in springs, steel, wire, wood beams, welding, etc. 

 

Author Paul also delves into carefully researched history of such related topics as the origins of catapults, Archimedes, Alexander the Great, and the influences these had on the world: making castle walls obsolete and empires possible; the development of steel; and the construction, purpose, and effectiveness of the San Francisco Headlands military barricades where they would test their catapult.

 

The pressure builds as the deadline approaches. Their hunt for obscure but necessary jury-rigged parts and design changes as well as their personal relationships with each other and their families rising to the forefront of their project. Will they meet the deadline? Will the launch be successful? How about that lecture? And what happens when the project actually is completed?

 

A really enjoyable about the process to make a wacky dream become a reality. Every step was new to them, from design to parts, to labor, to testing (if they were ever even to construct a model).

 

I loved their passion, their frustrations with the progress and each other, their discoveries in hidden supply stores, the people they met, and their purposeful, dogged strides toward their goal. A wonderful, inspiring, funny, historically edifying tale well worth your time to read.

  

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Hutchison, Patrick. Cabin: Off the Grid with a Clueless Craftsman.

One man tries to salvage his dilapidated family cabin, despite knowing virtually nothing of carpentry (Previously reviewed here.)

  

Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis

Woolaver, Lance. The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis. Nova Scotia : Nimbus 1994. Print.

First Sentences:

Nova Scotia is a rural province, as far removed from the great cities as any back-to-the-lander might wish. Yet when a Nova Scotian wants to call up the name of a faraway place, he is likely to turn towards Yarmouth, a county of fishing and farming communities, home to such names as Hebron, Hectanooga, Chegoggin and the birthplace of Maud Lewis.

Description:

For those of you who enjoyed the 2016 film, Maudie, starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke about the crippled folk painter, Maud Lewis, you will love The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis by Lance Woolaver. For those of you unfamiliar with this remarkable woman and her simple life in a remote region of Nova Scotia, well, all I can say is look into this short biography and gaze on her beautiful paintings and the note cards she sold for a few dollars from in front of her house on an isolated road. 

 

 

 

Whether familiar with Maud Lewis or not, Maud Lewis is a treasure of clear writing, researched details, photographs, and, of course, colorful paintings. Maud was born with severe birth defects around the turn of the century, afflictions that rounded her back and caused her constant pain through arthritis, especially in her hands. She endured constant teasing from schoolmates and only achieved a fourth-grade education due to constant absences for health reasons.

 

Trying to achieve an independent life after the death of her parents, she answered a scrap want ad posted by Everett Lewis on the local general store bulletin board asking for a live-in housekeeper and cook. Lewis was currently living a simple life by selling fish, firewood, and handyman work at the poor house/orphanage that adjoined his one-room house, the same poor house where he was raised. A notable miser, he hoarded his money and refused to get electricity, gas, or running water in his house until his death.

 

He hired Maud as housekeeper, but soon they both realized that, due to her physical limitations, she could not handle cooking, cleaning, and other chores. So Maud began to paint, a skill she had dabbled with her entire life. She covered every surface of their tiny house with tiny birds, flowers, and butterflies, from cupboards to windows, from their salvaged stove to tables, walls, and doors. What was once a ramshackle shed soon became a charming, colorful home. 

 

 

 

Everett scrounged for Maud brushes and leftover paint abandoned in trash piles and empty homes. Besides her house, Maud's painting surfaces were cardboard boxes and slats of wood, wall paper, particle board, and Masonite panels. Whatever paint cans he found were the colors Maud used in her paintings. 

 

When a few passersby on the road noticed her decorated house, Everett (Maud was too shy) showed them her other paintings and sold them for small amounts of money. She painted and then posted a sign outside their front door and began a roadside business. Everett did the selling and took all the earnings, putting it in jars and then burying them in their yard. He even took over the household chores of cooking, cleaning, and washing to free Maud to paint more. Maud enjoyed her new life with freedom to paint, a roof over her head, basic food to eat, and "a much-needed sense of worth."

 

 

 

And the paintings? Since she rarely left her chair by the window, they were created from her memories and imagination. Farm scenes, town buildings, cats, butterflies, birds, and cows were her favorite subjects. There were few people portrayed, but those men pictured driving a cart or hauling lumber were always wearing a red cap and checked shirt just like Everett. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved reading about her quiet life where she accepted bitter winters, poverty, a miserly husband, and a few scavenged art materials. She constantly demonstrated that she was a survivor who pursued her art with whatever was at hand, depicting the scenes she remembered from childhood or could envision in her imagination.

 

This is a book full of charm, beauty, and Maud's perseverance over major obstacles. Author Woolaver and photographer Bob Brooks combined thorough research along with historic photographs of Maud, Everett, their family, and the world they lived in to produce this colorful, revealing book. Highly recommended for art lovers and anyone just interested in the life of a woman who pursued the drive of her desires: to paint for its own beauty.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Kane, William and Gabrielle, Anna. Every Picture Hides a Story.

Very readable and informative background stories and explanations of the most famous works by artists including Michaelango, Da Vinci, Ver Meer, Degas, Manet, and many more. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]