Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #54

It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts from one of my current reads with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring:

 

 

This is my current read, which is this month's selection for one of my book clubs.

 

Beginning:  Prologue

 

Alma Whittaker, born with the century, slid into our world on the fifth of January, 1800.

 

Swiftly--nearly immediately--opinions began to form around her.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Part One

 

The Tree of Fevers

 

Chapter 1 

 

For the first five years of her life, Alma Whittaker was indeed a mere passenger in the world--as we all are passengers in such early youth--and so her story was not yet noble, nor was it particularly interesting, beyond the fact that this homely toddler passed her days without illness or incident, surrounded by a degree of wealth nearly unknown in the America of that time, even within elegant Philadelphia.

 

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Page 56:  "On her father's lap, Alma learned that Henry had sailed the world with a great man named Captain Cook.  These were the best stories of all."

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Which book are you reading now or about to start?
 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #54 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.