Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings

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.

Today I'm featuring Friends Like These by Kimberly McCreight. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version of the book that I borrowed from the library.

Beginning:  You were the one who started it. So, in a way, you're responsible for how it ended, "That's ridiculous," you'd say. And maybe it is unfair to blame you, under the circumstances. But at this point, all I can do is tell the truth. Anyway, no one could have predicted the exact way things would unfold. Certainly not me. All the heartbreak, all those lives with so much potential, gone in a flash.

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Page 56:  "Early to jump to that conclusion, wouldn't you say?" Seldon says, working his jaw.

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My thoughts:  Novels by Kimberly McCreight are automatic reads for me. In my opinion, she's one of the best contemporary authors in the thriller genre, and I'm really looking forward to starting her latest book.

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From GoodReads:  Everyone has those friends. Doesn’t matter how long it’s been, or how badly they’ve occasionally behaved, or how late it is when that call finally comes—you show up. No questions asked.

Honestly, that’s how the five of us ended up here in the Catskills. We did have the best of intentions. Especially after what happened to Alice all those years ago, we can’t bear to think of losing anyone else. In fact, we’ll do anything to make sure that doesn’t happen. We’ll go so much farther than we ever thought we would.

In the end, maybe that’s what caught up with us. That, and the fact that we’re such a complicated group—so much history and so many big personalities. Secrets, too, that can slip out at the most inopportune moments. Of course, we love each other despite all of those things. We love each other no matter what.

There’s something so beautiful about that kind of unconditional love. It can turn ugly, though. Or maybe that’s just us. After all, we’ve already been through so much together. And we have so very much to hide. 

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This Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution. 

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Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #95

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.

Today I'm featuring Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight, borrowed from the library.

 

  

Beginning:  Prologue

It isn't until afterward that I think about the bag or the bloody towels stuffed inside.  They're too big to bury, but I can't just leave them behind.  Maybe I should have been better prepared.  Thought more about the details.  But it's hard to be ready for something you never imagined you'd do.

 

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Page 56:  "'Or, you know, maybe they printed that because that's all they know.  Not everything is some conspiracy." 

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My thoughts:  After reading McCreight's first novel, Reconstructing Amelia, I was pleased to discover her new novel.  McCreight is a good storyteller, and a welcome addition to the psychological suspense genre.

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From Goodreads:  From the author of the New York Times bestseller and 2014 Edgar and Anthony nominee Reconstructing Amelia comes another harrowing, gripping novel that marries psychological suspense with an emotionally powerful story about a community struggling with the consequences of a devastating discovery.

At the end of a long winter, in bucolic Ridgedale, New Jersey, the body of an infant is discovered in the woods near the town’s prestigious university campus. No one knows who the baby is, or how her body ended up out there. But there is no shortage of opinions.

When freelance journalist, and recent Ridgedale transplant, Molly Anderson is unexpectedly called upon to cover the story for the Ridegdale Reader, it’s a risk, given the severe depression that followed the loss of her own baby. But the bigger threat comes when Molly unearths some of Ridgedale’s darkest secrets, including a string of unreported sexual assaults that goes back twenty years.

Meanwhile, Sandy, a high school dropout, searches for her volatile and now missing mother, and PTA president Barbara struggles to help her young son, who’s suddenly having disturbing outbursts.

Told from the perspectives of Molly, Barbara, and Sandy, Kimberly McCreight’s taut and profoundly moving novel unwinds the tangled truth about the baby’s death revealing that these three women have far more in common than they realized. And that their lives are more intertwined with what happened to the baby than they ever could have imagined.

 

 

 Which book are you reading now or about to start?

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #95 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are encouraged and appreciated

Friday Focus: Reconstructing Amelia

 

 Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight is the story of single mother and work-obsessed attorney Kate Baron and her academically high-achieving teenage daughter Amelia. Kate, who often feels guilty because her demanding career keeps her from spending time with her daughter, works as hard as she does to provide the creature comforts of life in a Park Slope, Brooklyn brownstone and Amelia’s education at an exclusive private school.  As a result, Amelia spends a good deal of time unsupervised.  And although mother and daughter have a seemingly close relationship, when the unthinkable happens, Kate will discover that she doesn’t really know Amelia as well as she thought.

Overcome with grief from Amelia’s tragic death at school, which officials very quickly rule an impulsive suicide, Kate is driven to know more about her daughter’s daily life and final days.  In her heart, she cannot believe that Amelia would end her own life.  When Kate receives anonymous text messages suggesting that Amelia didn’t kill herself, she is more determined than ever to uncover the truth about the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s demise.  

Kate’s probing reveals secrets about Amelia’s activities and relationships that she finds shocking and totally out of character for the daughter she thought she knew.   Through Facebook status updates, texts, and alternating chapters written in Kate’s and Amelia’s voices, the author creates a contemporary and chilling look at teen vulnerability, the negative side of cliques and social media, the price of popularity, and the consequences of loyalty.  The hidden agendas, miscues, clouded judgment, and ulterior motives of parents and school officials add complex layers to the plot, with plenty of twists and turns.

Reconstructing Amelia is a compelling page turner that draws readers into a world of wealth and privilege, where parents use their power and influence for personal gain and high school students succumb to peer pressure.

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

Friday Focus: Reconstructing Amelia was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #13 and Tuesday Teaser

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea. It's an opportunity to share the first paragraphs of a book I am currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

This week I'm featuring the opening paragraphs of Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight, a book I recently borrowed from the library which I have selected as my next read.

Read on after the intro for my Tuesday Teaser.

 

  From HarperCollins Publishers

Publication date: 4/2/2013

"gRaCeFULLY

SEPTEMBER 5TH

______________________________________________________

Because there are 176 definitions for the word loser on urbandictionary.com.

Don't Be a Statistic

_________________________________________________

Hey bitches!

Ah, the beginning of another school year.  And I'm back with all the shit that's not fit to print . . .

 

So while you've all been whiling away the summer in Southampton, or on Nantucket or in the South of France, perfecting your tennis game or your pas de deux, or training for your first marathon, or basking in your latest chess championship, I've spent the summer keeping track of the back and forth of our dear faculty members.  Mr. Zaritski went out to UC Berkeley to teach at a science camp for crazy-smart kids.  Word has it the parents had him fired week two because he SMELLED.  Mrs. Pearl took a Latin lover and learned to pole dance in Miami.  Kidding.  She didn't actually have a lover, of course.  Who would ever want to sleep with her?

Ah, and sweet delicious Mr. Woodhouse.  Who wouldn't have wanted to see him in a Speedo somewhere?  Alas, his whereabouts lo these sultry months is unknown, though I have it on good authority that he spent at least one long weekend snuggled up with our beloved English prof Liv.  To which I say, bravo."

 

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?  The opening page (partially quoted above) is a blog post, which is quickly followed by several text and Facebook messages.  Regular chapters come next, introducing readers to attorney and single mom Kate and her teenage daughter Amelia, the main characters in this debut legal thriller. There is a lot of buzz about this book, and it looks like a page-turner.

  

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Teaser Tuesdays, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, is a weekly event where bloggers open to a random page and share a teaser from somewhere on that page--no spoilers allowed.

 

Here's my teaser from Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight:

""Listen, Amelia, I know we don't know each other very well, and there's a reason for that.  I looked through your file before you got down here, and it's basically flawless--outstanding grades, two varsity letters, head of the French club, four honors classes.  You've never even been marked late.  And now this? Why?'"

~ p. 100

Enjoy life with books . . .

Catherine

Follow me on Twitter: @bookclubreader

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #13 and Tuesday Teaser was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.