I See You've Called in Dead

Kenney, John. I See You've Called in Dead. New York : Zibby 2025. Print.

First Sentences:

The good news, of course, is that someone died today. That came out wrong. My name is Bud Stanley. I am an obituary writer. 

 

Description:

For starters, my wife loved this book and laughed out loud frequently while reading it, a very good sign that this would be a story worth it for me to dive into. The clever title to John Kenney's novel, I See You've Called in Dead, was also enticing. Most importantly, from the first few sentences, it seemed to have an interesting, quirky narrator with an unusual job (obituary writer), who was facing a turning point in his life. I was hooked.

Bud Stanley, the obituary writer, has been having a bad time getting serious about his writing assignments and living his life in general. His boss and friend at United World Press, an international news supplier to the world's newspapers and information outlets, likes Bud but is discouraged by Bud's recent work. His examples of Bud's slipshod obituary details sums up Bud's distraction and indifference to his work. 

Wrong age of deceased...Nine times last year...Wrong spouse and children's names. Fourteen times....Wrong affiliations. Twenty-one times. Wrong birthplace. Twelve times. Here's my favorite: Wrong cause of death. Four times. You claimed an eighty-one-year-old grandmother of five who died peacefully in her sleep had, instead, died by suicide by leaping off a bridge.

Bud's background: a sad miscarriage for his wife, a failed marriage, and a disastrous blind date (where the woman, after one look at Stanley, brought her ex-boyfriend into the bar and told Stanley she and her ex were getting back together). These numbing experiences are recalled by Stanley as the stream-of-consciousness narrator with black humor, sarcasm, and overwhelming sadness. These events lead him to a drunken night and his subsequent writing of a fake obituary for himself on the highly password-protected news service's wire service.

Unfortunately, a awkward drunken motion at the keyboard caused him to accidentally post his obituary to the world. This leads everyone he knows (and doesn't know) to believe Bud is dead. In this ill-conceived obit, the world learned that during his lifetime Bud accomplished a great many unusual feats:

Bud Stanley, forty-four, former Mr. Universe, failed porn star, and mediocre obituary writer, is dead.

But ironically, because Stanley is now considered dead in the international news data bank, he technically cannot be fired from United World Press. One cannot fire dead people, it seems. 

So the company's HR Department puts him on leave while they try to figure out what to do with him and how they can legally terminate his employment with them. Until then, Stanley is free to walk around the streets and try to figure out who he is, his purpose, and what he will do with his life.  

What he learns about himself and society drive the rest of the plot forward through many twists and turns, misdirections, revelations, friendships, and life's quirks.

Like most black humor books, this is not necessarily a comedic book. It is, however, certainly one that might make you feel a wee bit guilty for laughing at the characters, their rambling dialogues, and the many awkward situations and odd characters they face.

So, for a complete change of pace read, full of unexpected turns and curious plot lines, I highly recommend I See You've Called in Dead. I guarantee it will captivate you and in the process brighten your day. 

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

 West, Nathanael. Miss Lonelyhearts.

A newspaper columnist who writes an newspaper advice column similar to "Dear Abby," comes to realize that the people who ask for help have genuinely heartbreaking situations they (and now he) cannot address easily or dispassionately. Highly recommended.

Happy reading.

 

Fred

Click here to browse over 480 more book recommendations by subject or title (and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

Asimov's Guide to Science

Asimov, Isaac. Asimov's Guide to Science. New York : Basic Books 1960. Print.

First Sentences:

Almost in the beginning was curiosity....There comes a point where the capacity to receive, store, and interpret message from the outside world may outrun sheer necessity. An organism may for the moment be sated with food, and there may, at the moment, be no danger in sight. What does it do then?....[The] higher organisms, at least, still show a strong instinct to explore the environment. Idle curiosity we may call it. ....The more advanced the brain, the greater the drive to explore....[Curiosity] for its simplest definition is "the desire to know."


Description:

This is a first for The First Sentence Reader. I am recommending a book that: 1) I have not finished reading yet and therefore will only review the first 100-page section; and 2) It is a book I don't expect anyone else to read (although I would hope someone out there would be interested enough in some content to at least flip through it and maybe even get caught up enought o read a section or two - or the entire book as I will certainly do.)

Behold, I enthusiastically recommend Isaac Asimov and his thrilling, all-encompassing, wonderful, 945-page Asimov's Guide to Science. 

As a very poor student of any science class but still an interested outsider, I finally wanted to try to understand the world around me. Asimov to the rescue! In his Guide to Science, Asimov covers in separate sections and chapters:

• What is science?
• The Physical Science (The Universe, Earth, Atmosphere, Elements, Energy, etc.)
• The Biological Sciences (Molecules, Proteins, Cells, Microorganisms, The Body, The Mind, etc.)  

Already I can sense your feeling of being overwhelmed by this vast amount of information. Maybe you've never really been interested in science in general. But Isaac Asimov is the most gentle, understanding, clear-thinking, and readable non-fiction author you will ever find. Pick a random subject in any field of science that interests you and he will give you the background, historic figures of relevant scientists in this field and their discoveries, the current advancements, and the plans for the future. 

 

And it is all delivered in easy-to-read sentences chock full of fascinating details that pull you along from paragraph to paragraph until you find you have read 20 pages (or even more) on this scientific topic - and miraculously you've understood it. And you'll also find that you cannot wait to bend the ears of friends and family with fascinating scientific tidbits from Asimov about the world around us.

So as I said, I have only started this tome, finishing the first 100+ pages on "What Is Science" and "The Universe." Both were absolutely riveting. What did I learn?

• What separates humans from most other animals and drives science is curiosity, the "need to know" and to find answers;
• How to measure great distances, such as miles from the Earth to the Moon, to the Sun, to other planets, and far-flung stars as well as determine planetary and other astronomical orbits;
• With the naked eye, we can see about 6,000 stars on a clear night;
• Galileo's telescope showed for the first time that the Milky Way was composed of millions of stars and was flat-shaped;
• A light year is 5.88 trillion miles, i.e., 186,282 miles per second (the speed of light) x 31,536,00 (the number of seconds in a year);
• The unsolved question whether the universe is "evolutionary" (continually expanding and contracting), or whether it is "steady-state" (density of galaxies remains the same);
• A nova is not the death of a star but simply its sudden expansion (sometimes "a millionfold in less that a day") before settling back into its usual brightness;
• Clear explanations and examples of white dwarfs, red giants, super novas, comets, quasars, interstellar gas, dust clouds, telescopes, spectrum photography, radio waves, and so much more)

 

Hope I haven't bored you already. If so, I am very chagrined to have done so. For me, it's so exciting to finally be able to understand scientific terms and the descriptions of the universe I see or read about daily, and in words and examples I can comprehend. I found every page, almost every paragraph, fascinating, informative, and very entertaining. And although I have a lot of the book to go, I cannot wait to dip into its treasures with Asimov as my patient, understanding, and wise guide.

[P.S. I just noticed Asimov wrote an updated and expanded version of his Guide to Science (see below). This new text was written 22 years after the original Guide, so covers new discoveries in fields of computers, AI, robotics, astronomy, biology, etc. Looks like I have my lifetime To Be Read list filled up for the near future. FR]

[N]o one can really feel at home in the modern world and judge the nature of its problems -- and possible solutions to those problems -- unless he has some intelligent notion of what science is up to. But beyond this, initiation into the magnificent world of science brings great esthetic satisfaction, inspiration to youth, fulfillment of the desire to know, and a deeper appreciation of the wonderful potentialities and achievements of the human mind.

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

 Asimov, Isaac. Asimov's New Guide to Science.

Updated version (written 25 years later in 1984) of the original Guide to Science, and covers new discoveries in physics, robotics, biology, astronomy, computers, artificial intelligence, and other fields.

 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.] 

So Far Gone

Walter, Jess So Far Gone. New York : HarperCollins 2025. Print.

 

First Sentences:

A prim girl stood still as a fencepost of Rhys Kinnick's front porch. Next to her, a cowlicked boy shifted his weight from snow boot to snow book. Both kids wore backpacks. On the stairs below them, a woman held an umbrella against the pattering rain...."We aren't selling anything," said the boy. He appeared to be about six. "We're your grandchildren."


Description:

Rhys Kinnick chose to become a recluse. One day, simply fed up with his work as a newspaper columnist on environmental issues, the world in general, and his own life in particular, he walked off his job. He left his home and drove to an almost-abandoned deep woods cabin built by his grandfather, unoccupied and rarely visited now. There he lived off the grid for seven years -- no phone, no internet, no television, no outside communication -- peacefully, collecting books to be read for pleasure or research for a possible future book he was writing. He slowly erased himself from everything.

I felt like the world was drifting in one direction and I was going the other way. 

But the appearance of his grandchildren, Asher and Leah, on his porch, and a note from his daughter held by the kids' neighbor who brought them, changed his life. 

Dear Anna. If you're reading this, I had to leave in a hurry. I know this is a lot to ask but can you take the kids to my father, Rhys Kinnick. He is a recluse who cut off contact with our family and now lives in squalor in a cabin north of Spokane....

Rhys' daughter, Bethany, had to flee from her husband Shane who recently had become an extreme religious fanatic and planned to forcibly move their family into The Rampart, an armed religious community of similar ultra far-right souls. He had frequently argued with Bethany that she was an unfit mother for not bowing to his demands and his position as husband and father, finally threatening to take sole custody of their young children and make this move with or without her consent.

Rhys awkwardly takes in the young children. But the next day at Asher's chess tournament, they are confronted by two armed thugs from The Rampart. Acting on the orders of the children's father, the roughnecks beat up Rhys, violently grab the children, and take off with them. 

It is now up to Rhys, along with the help of a retired detective, a Native American neighbor, and his ex-girlfriend to try to locate and take back his grandchildren from the religious fortress. But even if he does find and reclaim his grandchildren, what then?

This may sound like a fairly common, straightforward tale, but in the hands of a skilled author like Jess Walter, all the elements found in a quality book -- great plot, writing, characters, and setting -- play important, unpredictable roles in the unspooling of this tale. Relationships are created, challenged, destroyed, and renewed throughout the book, with characters both rising to the challenges facing them and alternatively failing to reach their own desired goals. 

The story and people grow closer to readers until you simply have to keep reading to peek at what will occur next, find out how a person could possibly escape a situation, or watch from between fingers over your eyes whether impending violence will take place and what the outcome will be.

It's a compelling read full of conflicting emotions, bravery, hiding, and throughout it all, an underlying love for family and friends. Well-written, wonderfully paced, and chock full of interesting people and situations, So Far Gone is a highly worthwhile read for just the pleasure of good writing and all the other elements that make a great read.

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

 Haruf, Kent. Plainsong

Two elderly bachelor farmer brothers take in a pregnant teenage girl, protect her from an abusive boyfriend and help her adjust to a life on an isolated farm in a small town. Wonderfully touching and honest. (Previously reviewed here.)

Happy reading.

 

Fred

Click here to browse over 480 more book recommendations by subject or title (and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

Land of the Blind

Nadel, Barbara. Land of the Blind. London : Headline 2015. Print.

First Sentences:

He could only stand. A slight bend of the knees was all he could do and if he leaned forward his head touched the wall. Just out of reach, on the dirt floor, was a candle...His chest felt as if it was enclosed in the coils of a snake. The air, stale , and thick with dust, irritated his lungs, forcing him to breathe consciously against the pollutants as well as the embrace of the imaginary serpent.


Description:

It is funny how I came across Barbara Nadel's Land of the Blind. I had recently been reading several books by a new favorite author, Jess Walter, (So Far Gone, Over Tumbled Graves, and Citizen Vince) and wanted to read another of his works, Land of the Blind. But when I did a local library search for that title, I hadn't noticed I had accidentally reserved Barbara Nadel's novel by the same name.

 

Ah, well. After reading those first sentences, I was hooked, even though I knew nothing about the setting, characters, or plot. That writing and first impression were enough for me to plunge in.

 

Nadel's Land of the Blind is set in modern day Istanbul and revolves around Police Inspector Cetin Ikmen and fellow officers in their search for the murderer of an archeologist. She was a Byzantine art specialist and her body was found in Istanbul's ancient Hippodrome building. What was strange was that she also had also recently given birth, but no baby or blood was found at the site. 

 

Ikmen finds her personal diary that alludes to her recent discovery of a skeleton along with an ancient sword. She conjectured that this might actually be the remains of the last emperor of Byzantine, hundreds of years old. And her notes implied that she knew of a living relative of his family, despite the fact that this royal lineage had been completely wiped out centuries ago.

 

Meanwhile, there is a rich land developer who wants to purchase a historic house in order to tear down and build a luxury hotel. The house is the home to generations of the Negroponte family. The matron, a 90-year-old brain-damaged victim of the anti-Greek riots of 1955, still resides there under the care of her servant and her long-lost son (whom some question is actually her true son).

 

And I've saved the best part about this book for last. This is one of those special books that doesn't reveal the truth to an underlying mystery until the very last sentence. Any book that does this has a special place in my heart.

 

So read it, get absorbed into the modern and ancient life of the Turkish and Greek people living and working in modern day Istanbul, and try to discover the truth behind the mysteries that drive this story. A wonderful read on so many aspects. 

Best of all, there are in all 27(!) Inspector Cetin Ikmen novels by Barbara Nadel and a BBC TV series, The Turkish Detective, as well, so you have plenty more cases in Istanbul to solve with these wonderful characters. 

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

Mukherjee, Abir. A Rising Man.

A British Scotland Yard policeman, newly-arrived in Calcutta, India in 1919, is faced with a complicated murder as well as his own shortcomings in this hot, humid, unsettling environment. (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.]

 

Strange Pictures

Uketsu. Strange Pictures. New York : HarperCollins 2022. Print.

 

First Sentences:

All right, everyone, now I'm going to show you a picture.


Description:

What a compelling opening sentence. Who could not read at least a few more lines to have a peek into that picture and why this person wants to talk about it? The simple, perfect hook for readers. 

 

I absolutely cherish any book that when, after reading the very last line, all I can think about is going back to the beginning and re-reading the whole story again. 

This time, I think, I will catch the subtle hints about the characters, what's about to come, and the significance of overlooked actions and words as the story slowly unravels anew before me. 

It's like watching a great movie that you re-watch again and again for the plot, the characters, the foreshadowing, and the still-surprising actions (like in Jaws when you can never really expect nor avoid jumping when the dead man's skull drops down in the hole in the sunken boat hull).

 

In Strange Pictures by Uketsu (Note: please click here to read about this mysterious Japanese YouTuber/Author sensation whose identity is unknown as he always wears a masks and black body suit when pictured), we are presented with four seemingly unrelated stories as well as nine drawings. All seem distinctly separate from each other, including the art work. 

 

But after coming across an obscure blog called Oh, No, Not Raku, two college students in Japan are captivated by the drawings in this blog and the diary entries from its author. Raku's daily postings center around his family but contain drawings by his wife. These are quick sketches which seem somehow related, but pose many puzzling questions to the college students, especially after Raku posts that his artistic wife died during childbirth of their daughter

When faced with true sorrow, people lose even the strength to shed tears.

Next we jump to a story centering on an unusual picture drawn by a pre-schooler for his mother. It depicts the boy and mother standing in front of a six-story building. The strange part of the picture is that the apartment room where they live is smudged out. Why would that be? If someone could explain this "intentional" blurring in the drawing, they might therefore understand the boy and his mama, and possibly the history of each.

 

The two other stories also involve drawings, but their plots focus on character studies, broken relationships, crimes and mysteries where the drawings might contain a valuable key. 

 

But best of all, somehow all these stories, people, and situations have a connection to each other. Slowly, ever so slowly, readers begin to unravel confusing clues, clarify relationships, and uncover overlapping timelines in this seemingly simple, yet wildly entertaining book.

 

It's one of the most unusual, gripping, and puzzling books I have ever read. Cannot wait to start it all over again in the very near future, maybe next week. Uketsu has another book out now as well, Strange Houses, so I'm definitely checking that one out as well. Highly recommended.

 

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

Hallett, Janice. The Twyford Code.

Probably the most complex, yet completely engrossing mystery I've ever read involving the search for a children's book which might contain in its text the secret to a lost stash of money. Highest recommendation. (Previously reviewed here.)

Happy reading.

Fred

Click here to browse over 470 more book recommendations by subject or title (and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

Open Tennis

Evans, Richard. Open Tennis: The First Twenty Years, the Players, the Politics, the Pressures, the Passions, and the Great Matches. New York: Bloomsbury 1988. Print.

First Sentences:

 

His [Pancho Gonzales'] favourite exercise now is to stand on the back porch of his Las Vegas home and drive golf balls out into the Nevada desert. Then he strides out amongst the scrub and cacti and picks them up.

Description:

Having just watched Richard Evans be inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island in 2024, I was intrigued to look into his most famous of his twenty-three books, Open Tennis: The First Twenty Years, the Players, the Politics, the Pressures, the Passions, and the Great Matches. Evans, a longtime writer of tennis articles who covered over 200 grand slam events, dozens of Davis Cup Challenges, and countless tournaments, is a brilliant observer and interviewer of tennis players, agents, administrators, investors, sponsors, and anyone else who existed in the developing world of open tennis during the 1960-1980s and decades later.

 

Evans started off as a newly-hired sports reporter in 1960 for London's The Evening Standard. As the youngest newcomer, he was assigned to cover Althea Gibson, the first black woman to win Wimbledon. 

Watching her play and even attending the champions' dinner as her escort hooked Evans on the sport. He began his long journalistic career covering tennis, eventually becoming the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Press Officer and later European Director, and therefore privy to an insider's look into the game which he narrates to us lucky readers in Open Tennis.

I was their age, so I had this huge advantage of being able to travel with a group of players.…There were no coaches, no managers, no agents, no wives or girlfriends, except for the odd occasion, traveling the world,” Evans said. “You can imagine the Aussies knew how to travel the world. They knew how to enjoy themselves on court, very competitive, and off court less competitive.

Prior to the Open Era, tennis tournaments, especially the Grand Slams, were reserved for players who were "unpaid" amateurs only. To survive, amateur players took appearance money under the table from sponsors and tournament directors. 

Some superstar players like Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Pancho Gonzales, Lew Hoad, and Bobbie Riggs joined Jack Kramer's new pro tour to make any sort of money. Other pro tours, especially the WCT created by Lamar Hunt, soon emerged, and drew paying fans, luring Arthur Ashe, Charles Pasarell, and Stan Smith away from the amateur events. 

But the majority of players opted to remain amateurs to protect their eligibility to enter the more prestigious Grand Slam tournaments and other tour events, even if those tournaments did not include all the world's best players. 

 

But in 1968, Wimbledon announced it would include all the top players, pro and amateur, in its draw. Evans was there to cover the angst this opening of tennis caused among the tournament directors, international tennis administrative associations, and purist fans who felt their heroes should only play for the love of the game (despite their public "secret" that these heroes were accepting appearance money). 

But when ATP pro and amateur players alike began boycotting tournaments that did not allow professionals to play, tournament directors and governing bodies reluctantly gave in and the Open Era, where amateurs and professionals alike could compete on the same court, was born.

 

Evans describes highlights of this era in wonderful, gripping detail. The rise of the professional women's tour with Gladys Heldman and Billie-Jean King, the great matches of Gonzales-Pasarell, Laver-Rosewall, Borg-McEnroe, Ashe-Connors, and Evert-Navratilova. There are chapters on the behind-the-scenes negotiations between tennis governing bodies and players (with Evans as reporter), the unusual World Team Tennis tour, and Davis Cup matches. There is even a chapter on "Sex and the Single Player" detailing the demands on players and their behavior on the tour at a time where few had coaches, much less the entourages of today with girlfriends, managers, trainers, publicity agents, and friends to support them.

 

I will not attempt to explain the various organizations (ATP, WCT, WTT, ILTF, USLTA) covered in Open Tennis, or major movers and shakers of this era (Kramer, Dell, Heyman, Drysdale, Tinling, Heldman, Hunt). But Evans, in his genius manner of making readers feel present at important meetings, introduces these key players and governing bodies, relating the influence each has on tennis, both positive and negative. 

He explains the current ATP point system where each player receives a per-determined number of points for his/her record at a tournament, with point tallies used to determine rankings, future seedings, and entry into the end of the year championship tournament. For the first time, I understand the bones of the tennis organization, the major people, and the events leading to the creation of the today's Open Era game.

While everyone in not the tennis enthusiast that I am, this book is an important history of a worldwide game as it moved into the modern era, told by one man who was there to see it happen and be in close contact with the figures who encouraged or blocked this progress. 

Open Tennis will help readers understand what previous as well as current players have to deal with every day to even play in tournaments, compete at the highest level, and possibly win or gain enough points to improve their ranking, future seeding, and therefore potential prize money.

 

It is a strong book, written with attention to detail, impartiality, and a genuine love of the game and its players. Read it, skim it, or just dip into portions that interest you. But if you enjoy watching/playing/understanding tennis, this is the definitely book for you.

 

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

  

McPhee, John. Levels of the Game.   

Simply the best description of two men, Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner, as they play a grueling match in the 1968 US Open. Breathtaking shot-by-shot examination of the thoughts, emotions, and strokes, along with the resulting triumphs and failures of each play throughout the match. In one word: Riveting.

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 465 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

The Library

Kells, Stuart. The Library: A Catalog of Wonders. Berkeley, CA : Counterpoint 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

If a library can be something as simple as an organized collection of texts, then libraries massively pre-date books in the history of culture. Every country has a tradition of legends, parables, riddles, myths and chants that existed long before they were written down. Warehoused as memories, these texts passed from generation to generation through dance, gestures, and word of mouth.


Description:

Many of you know me as someone who loves books about books, whether book reviews, authors, libraries, collectors, dictionaries, reading, even book theft. Yes, I'm all in on anything about pages and their words. 

So when I picked up Stuart Kells The Library: A Catalog of Wonders, well, sparks flew and time stood still as I dove hopelessly into its detailed history of the printed word, the famous collections, and the men and women who assembled and guarded over them until the collections were broken up, destroyed, or simply forgotten.

Author Kells, as "a young academic working glumly at a social research instutite," found at a lunchtime book sale an ancient copy of Pieces of Ancient Poetry from Unpublished Manuscripts and Scarce Books, published during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I of England. The book's publisher, John Fry, preserved rare books and documents from centuries past, igniting in Kells an interest in learning more about Fry publications. 

Kells soon became a bookman himself, visiting hundreds of libraries, whether public, academic, or medieval. His explorations included modest private collections like one priceless set of books "stored in a woodshed," and one belonging to a hoarder "who cut an indoor pathway to his bathtub, where his most prized possessions were kept." Kells learned:

Every library has an atmosphere, even a spirit. Every visit to a library is an encounter with the ethereal phenomena of coherence, beauty, and taste.

In The Library, Kells shares his found treasures as well as his musings about book collections. He covers the first libraries, oral histories and song lines, all of which collected and shared the earliest cultural knowledge; the mighty Alexandria library; and Benedictine monasteries whose monks devoted their lives to gathering, copying and illustrating religious works (producing large, heavy tomes like The Devil's Bible which weighed in at 74.8 kilograms). 

Kells reveals esoteric facts like the transition from clay tablets to papyrus, to parchment, to paper, and the changes required of libraries to store these various formats. Shelves had to become shorter in length and stronger to prevent sagging, and also become more uniform in height.

There are chapters on the lost libraries which suffered their complete demises via fires, floods, looting, and general neglect. It is heart-breaking to read about the early libraries which carefully collected and preserved fragile scrolls, manuscripts, and books, only to see them destroyed and the information lost forever.

Along the way we learn from the inexhautable Kells that:

• Papyrus is a terrible material for preserving texts. Without a large and unwavering commitment to conservation and copying, a library of papyrus scrolls will readily and unceremoniously disintegrate; 

• Cuneiform was written and read left to right; Arabic right to left; Chinese top to bottom; and Ancient Greek, for a time, back and forth ("boustrophedon" or "ox-turning"), like plowing a field;

• America's major libraries were doubling en size every trwenty years from the 1870s to the 1940s, and every fifteen years after that.

• Gutenberg, although almost finished the first printing of his magnificant Bible, was sued by his financial backer for proceeding too slowly. Gutenberg lost the case, had his shop and presses confiscated, and was ruined;

• The British Museum's domed reading room has secret doors. To maintain the impression  of an unbroken series of books around the walls, the dome's pillars and access doors are painted with false book-backs;

• Schusseried Abby solved the problem of untidy and uneven volumes (and the problem of damage from light) by storing its books in cabinets whose doors are painted with idealized volumes.

• Passionate about making and sailing paper boats, the poet Shelley could not resist turning [book] fly leaves -- along with letters, newspapers, and banknotes -- into little ships.

• [In 1968 at Northwestern University] a domino effect toppled twenty-seven ranges, spilling 264,000 volumes, splintering solid oad chairs, flattening steel footstools, shearing books in hald, destroying or damaging more than 8,000 volumes;

• A professor...from Ohio State University, stole pages from a fourteenth-century manuscript in the Vatican Library. The manuscript had once belonge to Petrarch.

I passed many an hour pouring over interesting chapters on "Vandals," "Book Machines," "Fantasy Libraries," "The Folger Shakespeare Library," "The Best and Worst Librarians in History," "Libraries for the Future," and "Death" (about people who died in their libraries). 

So you see there is plenty to nerd out about in Kells' wonderful book. If you are into books, collections, and the people who create (and destroy) them, then The Library is the ultimate book for you.

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

 Conaway, James. America's Library: The Story of the Library of Congress 1800-2000.

History of one of the greatest libraries of the current age, The United State Library of Congress. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

Click here to browse over 470 more book recommendations by subject or title (and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

Cowboys Are My Weakness

Houston, Pam. Cowboys Are My Weakness. Berkeley, CA : Washington Square Press 1992. Print.

First Sentences:

When he says "Skins of blankets?" it will take you a moment to realize that he's asking which you want to sleep under. And in your hesitation he'll decide that he wants to see your skin wrapped in the big black moose hide. He carried it, he'll say, soaking wet and heavier than a dead man, across the tundra for two -- was it hours or days or weeks?


Description:

I admit I first picked up Pam Houston's Cowboys Are My Weakness, simply based on the title. But after only the first few sentences and paragraphs, I was deeply hooked by the relationship descriptions conveyed in her deft, personal writing style.

These are stories of love, each narrated by a woman who isn't afraid to take chances with questionable men and enter into challenging situations. Her writing is so packed with penetrating evaluations of her environment and the people she encounters, honest hesitations over choices to be made, questionable decisions settled on, and then unblinking acceptance of consequences that I felt author Houston was telling deeply-felt episodes from her own life to me, her confidential friend. 

Houston's stories include:

• Hunting with a boyfriend for six weeks as he leads paying customers to locate, shoot, and bring back trophy big horn sheep ... and she hates hunting, never having ever even shot a gun much less killed any animal. Not to mention the miles slogging on her belly to sneak up on unsuspecting sheep; 

• Deciding to winter camp in -30 degree weather to ward off the blues, despite never having camped in sub-zero weather, having poor equipment, and only two freezing dogs as companions;

• Rafting down an impossible river that the local park ranger said was too high to run, leaving at night and unable to see the killer rapids throughout their adventure, aware that only the day before on the same river a similar boat had capsized, killing one experienced rafter;

• Watching her best friend deal with repeated cancer diagnosis; hosting a mother who doesn't like her boyfriend's tattoos or lifestyle; tending a horse with a lame tendon (after hitting a gopher hole while she was riding and being thrown over his head and concussed); and working her way through cowboy after cowboy, each with great affection for her, wonderful physical attractiveness and attentiveness, but each carrying a warning sign of some aspect (previous girlfriend he can't leave, possible pregnancy decisions, and just plain old reluctance to stick around and change his lifestyle) that always threaten her deep feelings for each man.

It's her writing that is supurb: thoughtful, concise, emotional, and always honest to her inner most feelings. Whether describing her connections to her dogs, horses, men, or women friends, her stream-of-consciousness narration is always clear and open, revealing her deepest and sometimes not so deep feelings on every page.

There are multiple relationship decisions facing her protagonist in every story, such as:

• She said the wild ones were the only ones worth having and that I had to let me do whatever it took to keep him wild. She said I wouldn't love him if he ever gave in, and the harder I looked at my life, the more I saw a series of men--wild in their own way--who ...I tamed and made them dull as fence posts and left each one for someone wilder than the last;

• I thought about all the years I'd spent saying love and freedom were mutually exclusive and living my life as though they were exactly the same thing;

• There was something about the prairie--it wasn't where I had come from, but when I moved there it just took me in and I knew I couldn't even stop living under that big sky. When I was a little girl....I used to be scared of the flatness because I didn't know what was holding all the air in.

• After the first week in Alaska I began to realize that the object of sheep hunting was to intentionally deprive yourself of all the comforts of normal life.

• [On waking up after surviving a -30 night of winter camping] The morning sunshine was like a present from the gods. What really happened, of course, is that I remembered about joy.

I absolutely loved every story, character, setting, and writing style in each of these short stories. It's one of the few books that I could pick up immediately and re-read, certainly one title that will go into my Forever Library collection. 

I sincerely hope you pick it up and enjoy the trials and joys of relationships, whether with men, women, or animals, as I have and will continue to do in the future.

A relationship, you've decided, is not something you need like a drug, but a journey, a circumstance, a choice you might make on a particular day.

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

 

Ehrlich, Gretel. The Solace of Open Spaces.

Wonderfully powerful, personal, and highly descriptive essays of rural life on a sheep ranch and other very small town locales in Wyoming.

 Happy reading.

Fred

Click here to browse over 470 more book recommendations by subject or title (and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

The Penguin Lessons

Michell, Tom. The Penguin Lessons: What I Learned from a Remarkable Bird. New York: Ballentine 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

 

Had I been told as a child in 1950's England that my life would one day run parallel with that of a penguin -- that for a time, at least, it would be him and me against the world -- I would have taken it in stride. After all, my mother had kept three alligators at the house in Esher until they grew too big and too dangerous for that genteel town and keepers from Chessington Zoo came to remove them. 

Description:

Probably never does a movie even come close to the quality and depth of the book on which it is based. Films in my mind that are closest to achieving a similar level of quality as their book, in my mind, might be To Kill a Mockingbird with Gregory Peck and The Martian with Matt Damon. While these films can't plum the full depth and characterization possible in the books, they do convey the storyline, the tension, the emotion, and the overall impact. More importantly, they encourage movie-watchers like me to seek out the original source material book to answer questions, fill in gaps, and follow tangents only hinted at in the film.

After recently watching the film The Penguin Lesson with Steve Coogan, it tickled my interest enough that I really wanted to read author Tom Michell's own words about his escapades with a South American penguin. Lo and behold, in our local library I found a copy of The Penguin Lessons: What I Learned from a Remarkable Bird. I plunged right in and was quickly absorbed into his homey narration.

In 1975, author Michell was an assistant master and resident at an exclusive boy's school in Argentina. While on a vacation in Uruguay and walking along a beach, he noticed hundreds of dark lumps on the shore. These turned out to be dead penguins, recently migrating northward now covered with oil from unloading tankers and washed ashore. Shocked at the sight, he looked closer and found one that was still alive. As he approached it, the penguin, oil-slicked and weak, boldly stood up to defend itself.

Michell decided to try to save it by washing off the oil, capturing the 10lb bird in a string grocery bag and cleaning it in the home where he was house-sitting. Definitely not an easy task, nor a very clean one.

But after the penguin (later named "Juan Salvado") calmed down and allowed Michell to fully remove the oil, the author tried to return it to the ocean. To his surprise, the penguin immediately waddled away from the shore, determined to follow Mitchell wherever he went. 

After several more unsuccessful attempts to set it free, and due to a growing respect and love for this bird, Michell decides keep the bird until he can take it to a zoo. But he first must sneak the penguin back to the Argentine boy's school with him. This ridiculous journey involves adventures with buses and trains, customs inspections, feeding, and of course some very smelly pooping (by the penguin).

This is the action of the first few pages, so I am not giving much away. From here on in, Michell recounts decision after decision he faced about the penguin's food, water, exercise, secrecy, and of course what to do when Michell is away from his apartment teaching and Juan Salvado is left alone. 

We also get glimpses of the people and life in a small town and school in Juan Peron's politically unstable Argentina. Inflation was 100% per month, so Michell was told to spend his entire  paycheck the same day he received it, buying things he didn't even need so he could re-sell them from the school. Otherwise, his money would decrease by 50% the next day.

We meet the people who enter the penguin's life: the school's head of housekeeping who befriends Juan Salvado as one of the students needing her care; the local fisherman who sold Michell the small sprat fish for Juan Salvador; and the school boys who after learning there is a penguin living with a teacher on their grounds, they adopt as a mascot, friend, and confidant. The chapter where a shy, outcast school boy swims with Juan Salvado is absolutely first rate.

The book is delightful, heart-warming, and overall fun to read. Juan Salvado is a star in his new land-locked life, carefully integrated into the lives of every person he encounters. I loved it and hope you find it equally satisfying ...much more so than even that very good movie version of his adventures.

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

  

Montgomery, Sy. The Soul of an Octopus..   

Fascinating up close encounter, study, and even friendship between the author and an aquarium octopus. (Previously reviewed here.)

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 470 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).