Friday Focus: Bookish Memes to Start the Weekend

 

 

It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts 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.
• First Line Friday hosted by Reading Is My SuperPower
  

 

Today I'm featuring a current read, Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version borrowed from the library.

 

 

 

Book Beginning/First Line:  William, February 1960--December 1978

For the first six days of William Waters's life, he was not an only child.

********************  

Page 56:  Julia found herself strangely unprepared for their honeymoon, which took place at a resort on the shore of Lake Michigan. She'd spent so much time and energy planning the wedding that she hadn't given much thought to her and William's trip.

********************  

My thoughts:  I am thoroughly enjoying this immersive novel with its fascinating characters, complex family relationships, and rich story lines.

********************  

From GoodReads:  An emotionally layered and engrossing story of a family that asks: Can love make a broken person whole?

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So it’s a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters: Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a future different from the expected path of wife and mother; Cecelia, the family’s artist; and Emeline, who patiently takes care of all of them. Happily, the Padavanos fold Julia’s new boyfriend into their loving, chaotic household.

But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable loyalty to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?

Vibrating with tenderness, Hello Beautiful is a gorgeous, profoundly moving portrait of what’s possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.

 

 

 

 

*******************

This Friday Focus: Bookish Memes to Start the Weekend post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com. It cannot be republished without attribution.

 

 

Friday Focus: Bookish Memes to Start the Weekend

 

 

 

It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts 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.
• First Line Friday hosted by Reading Is My SuperPower
  

 

Today I'm featuring a recent read, Zero Days by Ruth Ware. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version borrowed from the library.

 

 

Book Beginning/First Line:  Saturday, February 4 -- Minus Eight Days

The wall around the perimeter was child's play.

********************  

Page 56:  I felt my rage deflate inside me like a pricked balloon, leaving only an intense weariness, close to despair. I felt my shoulders droop.

********************  

My thoughts: I've read most of Ruth Ware's novels and she continues to surprise me with her originality. Her ability to create each new story with settings and characters that are so vastly different from her previous novels is amazing and what keeps me coming back for more.

Zero Days takes readers into the world of computer hacking and security monitoring, where the stakes can be incredibly breathtaking. Secrets and information are highly prized and dangerous in the wrong hands, as Jack learns when her husband is murdered. Who killed Gabe and why? 

When Jack becomes the main murder suspect, she must rely on her wits and steely grit as she descends into a high stakes game of cat and mouse with the police and the real murderer. With the odds stacked against her, will Jack bring Gabe's murderer to justice, or die trying? 

This fast-paced, thrilling novel has unexpected twists and turns, demonstrating that Ruth Ware is one of the best writers of contemporary suspense.

********************  

From GoodReads: Ruth Ware returns with this adrenaline-fueled thriller about a woman in a race against time to clear her name and find her husband’s murderer.

Hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best penetration specialists in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their suspect—her.

 

 

 

 

*******************

This Friday Focus: Bookish Memes to Start the Weekend post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com. It cannot be republished without attribution.

 

Friday Focus: Bookish Memes to Start the Weekend

 

 

It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts 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.
• First Line Friday hosted by Reading Is My SuperPower
  

 

Today I'm featuring a current read, The Engineer's Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version I borrowed from the library.

 

Book Beginning/First Line:  Washington, DC February 1864

The light, sweet honey scent of burning candles did not quite mask the odor of blood and sweat in the makeshift ballroom.

********************  

Page 56:  When I had regained my strength, I accompanied Wash on research trips, sometimes leaving Johnny with the Roebling clan. Words like "caisson" and "quoin" became as familiar to me as "cat" and "dog."

********************  

My thoughts:  Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, and I am enjoying this story about a strong female protagonist and her role in the construction of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge that connects the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan. I've driven over it many times (as recently as last month)--and you can also walk across it. The views are quite spectacular.

********************  

From GoodReads:  She built a monument for all time. Then she was lost in its shadow. Discover the fascinating woman who helped design and construct the Brooklyn Bridge.

Emily Roebling refuses to live conventionally—she knows who she is and what she wants, and she's determined to make change. But then her husband asks the unthinkable: give up her dreams to make his possible.

Emily's fight for women's suffrage is put on hold, and her life transformed when her husband Washington Roebling, the Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, is injured on the job. Untrained for the task, but under his guidance, she assumes his role, despite stern resistance and overwhelming obstacles. But as the project takes shape under Emily's direction, she wonders whose legacy she is building—hers, or her husband's. As the monument rises, Emily's marriage, principles, and identity threaten to collapse. When the bridge finally stands finished, will she recognize the woman who built it?

Based on the true story of an American icon, The Engineer's Wife delivers an emotional portrait of a woman transformed by a project of unfathomable scale, which takes her into the bowels of the East River, suffragette riots, the halls of Manhattan's elite, and the heady, freewheeling temptations of P.T. Barnum. The biography of a husband and wife determined to build something that lasts—even at the risk of losing each other.

 

 

 

 

*******************

This Friday Focus: Bookish Memes to Start the Weekend post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com. It cannot be republished without attribution.