Book Beginning: The Peppermint Tea Chronicles by Alexander McCall Smith

 

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader. We share the first sentence (or so) of the book we are reading, along with our initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

Domenica Macdonald, anthropologist, resident of Scotland Street, and wife of Angus Lordie, portrait painter and long-standing member of the Scottish Arts Club, sat in the kitchen of her flat in Scotland Street.

 

Huzzah, a comfort read for troubled times. This is book 13 in the 44 Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith, published late last year. I do so love these books, as well as most of his other works. They won't win him the Nobel Prize or even the Booker Prize, but they are extremely enjoyable and full of stories about regular, normal, everyday humans, replete with all their foibles.

Sometimes the books can seem a bit disjointed, as each short chapter tends to repeat or summarize some of the scenes of last one. This is the result of their original format: they have been serialized daily in "The Scotsman" newspaper since 2004.

I can't wait to see what Bertie, Cyril, Mathew and Elspeth, Pat, Big Lou, and the other characters are up to now!

Book Beginning: Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

 

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader. We share the first sentence (or so) of the book we are reading, along with our initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
 

When I was ten years old, I wrote a letter to my future self and buried it in my backyard. Seventeen years later, I remembered that I was supposed to remember to dig it up two years earlier. 

I looked forward to getting a nostalgic glimpse into my childhood - perhaps I would marvel at my own innocence or see the first glimmer of my current aspirations. As it turns out, it just made me feel real weird about myself.

 

This is a graphic/comic memoir that came out of Allie Brosh's blog of the same name. The subtitle is "unfortunate situations, flawed coping mechanisms, mayhem, and other things that happened". I've read a lot of it already and it is strangely compelling and repelling at the same time. 

Book Beginning: Nine Lives: The Folklore of Cats by Katharine Briggs

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader. We share the first sentence (or so) of the book we are reading, along with our initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
 

The great day for the cat must be placed some two thousand years ago in Ancient Egypt, when cats enjoyed a position of special privilege, and had long held it.

 

I have loved cats for most of my life, and lived with them for many years. I don't have a feline companion at the moment, but this summer I started volunteering at Ohio Alley Cat Rescue, which is just down the street from me. We usually have 40-50 kittens and cats in residence on any day, so I can get my kitty cuddles frequently! Thus I was intrigued by the title of this book and bought it sight unseen from Powells.com, my favorite bookstore.

Book Beginning: The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton

 

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader. We share the first sentence (or so) of the book we are reading, along with our initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

It was hard to say when exactly winter arrived. The decline was gradual, like that of a person into old age, inconspicuous from day to day until the season became an established, relentless reality.

I've seen this book mentioned many times by travellers and travel writers. Since I'm trying to get motivated about travel planning - when travel is an unknown quantity at present - I thought I would listen to some travel philosophy.

 

 

Book Beginning: Ten Years a Nomad by Matthew Kepnes

 

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader. We share the first sentence (or so) of the book we are reading, along with our initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

    I AM A NOMAD

        For a decade I have lived a long, peripatetic life on the road.

        Three thousand nights.

        In more than ninety countries. In a thousand different cities. In hundreds of hostels. With countless people. For half a million miles on airplanes, and half a million more (I've added it up) on trains and buses and tuk-tuks and cars and bicycles.

        That was my home.

There is also an opening quote in the Introduction which I like a lot:

I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.
        -Susan Sontag

 

I first found Matt and his fellow digital nomads back when I was contemplating making a change in my own life. I've been reading his blog/website, Nomadic Matt, for several years and I read his first book, "How to Travel the World on $50 a Day". Non-stop travelling sounded so exciting.

My life did change abruptly when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016 and I never did become a nomad. After my treatments I retired from my online crafts shop, SkyBluePink, and was beginning to travel frequently when the novel coronavirus struck. Now I'm dreaming of travelling again someday and looking for inspiration to keep my spirits up. So I think I will enjoy Matt's newest memoir of being on the road for 10 years.