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 My Head is Full of Books, 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 The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version borrowed from the library.
Book Beginning: Chapter One
April 27, 2017
It's six a.m. and I'm the first one up.
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Page 56: I can feel the thumping of my heart. "I mean, it's probably . . . I had insomnia in the middle of last night. Woke up a little after two and couldn't get back to sleep for, I don't know, an hour and a half maybe?"
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My thoughts: A young family is torn apart by an unthinkable tragedy that sends the father to jail. Wally Lamb's newest novel explores the affects of personal setbacks, human shortcomings, addiction, grief, injustice, brutality, and resilience in a heart wrenching story. I can't remember the last time a book evoked such strong feelings in me. I cried as I read the final chapters and the characters and story have stayed with me beyond closing the book.
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From Goodreads: Corby Ledbetter is struggling. New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown his marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin. And that's before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart.
Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness and elemental kinship with a prison librarian who sees his light and some of his fellow offenders, including a tender-hearted cellmate and a troubled teen desperate for a role model. Buoyed by them and by his mother's enduring faith in him, Corby begins to transcend the boundaries of his confinement, sustained by his hope that mercy and reconciliation might still be possible. Can his crimes ever be forgiven by those he loves?
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This Friday Focus: Weekend Reads post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com. It cannot be republished without attribution.
