The first book, which I read and listened to, would have been a perfect Harry Potter spinoff, or universe story, much in the way that Star Wars has its core nine episodes and countless authors adding to the tales in every direction. I think I would have felt the same way, even if Jim Dale, the Harry Potter narrator for all seven books, hadn't narrated this one.
Fiction
Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Book Beginnings: The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. The towering tents are striped in white and black, no golds and crimsons to be seen. No color at all, save for the neighboring trees and the grass of the surrounding fields. Black-and-white stripes on grey sky; countless tents of varying shapes and sizes, with an elaborate wrought-iron fence encasing them in a colorless world. Even what little ground is visible from outside is black or white, painted or powdered, or treated with some other circus trick. But it is not open for business. Not just yet.
Friday 56: The earliest Midnight Dinners were small, intimate gatherings of friends and colleagues. Over time they have become more frequent and more extravagant, eventually turning into something of an underground sensation. An invitation to a Midnight Dinner is coveted in certain circles. They are selective, these dinners. Though occasionally there may be as many as thirty people, there are often as few as five. Twelve to fifteen guests is somewhat standard. The cuisine is exquisite regardless of the number of guests. Chandresh never provides menus for these events. Some similar dinners, if there were dinners that could be considered similar, might have calligraphed menus on sturdy paper describing each course in great detail, or perhaps just listing an intriguing title or name. But the Midnight Dinners have an air of nocturnal mystery already, and Chandresh finds that providing no menu, no map of the culinary route, adds to the experience.
Here's a video trailer of the book, which is now more than 10 years old. A movie is supposedly in the works.
Nonfiction
Book Beginnings: Everything went according to plan that Sunday in December 2015. My client Russell Wilson completed twenty-one of thirty passes for 249 yards and three touchdowns and led the Seattle Seahawks to a 30–13 win against the Cleveland Browns. That win clinched the Seahawks’ fourth consecutive playoff berth. The playoffs had seemed far away when the team started abysmally at 2–4, but now they were headed into the postseason on a high note.
Friday 56: ...[T]he best realize that sometimes their first plan gets blown to smithereens and they have to respond by making a new plan. Russell and the Seahawks had a great plan for that Super Bowl. Had they won it, Russell could have used the same plan he’d used the previous off-season. Who could have argued with the result? But Belichick, Brady, and the Patriots had a better plan for that Super Bowl. Now Russell needed a better off-season plan than the one he had the year before to overcome the mental fallout from the game. From The Play. From the avalanche that followed.
At 6 a.m. ten days after the Super Bowl, a text message from Russell popped up on my phone:
It’s time to hit the reset button.
Let’s make this the best off-season yet.
My response?
On it. Agreed.
It’s completely in our control. 24 hours.
The BEST is Ahead RW.
Links You May Need
- Book Beginnings and Friday 56
- Visit more of my All About Books posts
- Image Credit: https://www.christinekornacki.com/news/the-night-circus
