Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & 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 The Girl From The Savoy by Hazel Gaynor.  The excerpts shared are from the trade paperback I borrowed from the library.

  

Beginning:  Act 1--Hope--London 1923 

Dolly

"That's the fascinating thing about life, Miss Lane.

All its wonderful unpredictability."

"It is as simple as this: a person can be unpunctual or untidy, but if they intend to get on in life they certainly cannot be both."  I'll never forget these words, nor the housekeeper who barked them at me as I skulked back to the house--late and disheveled--from my afternoon off.

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Page 56:  "The hotel room is dark and unfamiliar when I wake.  I lie still, listening to the rise and fall of the girls' breaths, the pop of a mattress spring as they move, the rustle of bedsheets as they fidget in their sleep.  It is all so strange and new."

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

My thoughts:   My favorite stories are those set in London in the first half of the 20th century.  This historical fiction blends aspects of class and societal mores, the glamor of London, and the consequences of war on the lives of Brits in 1920s London.

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From Goodreads:  Presenting a dazzling new historical novel … The Girl From The Savoy is as sparkling as champagne and as thrilling as the era itself.

Sometimes life gives you cotton stockings. Sometimes it gives you a Chanel gown …

Dolly Lane is a dreamer; a downtrodden maid who longs to dance on the London stage, but her life has been fractured by the Great War. Memories of the soldier she loved, of secret shame and profound loss, by turns pull her back and spur her on to make a better life.

When she finds employment as a chambermaid at London’s grandest hotel, The Savoy, Dolly takes a step closer to the glittering lives of the Bright Young Things who thrive on champagne, jazz and rebellion. Right now, she must exist on the fringes of power, wealth and glamor—she must remain invisible and unimportant.

But her fortunes take an unexpected turn when she responds to a struggling songwriter’s advertisement for a ‘muse’ and finds herself thrust into London’s exhilarating theatre scene and into the lives of celebrated actress, Loretta May, and her brother, Perry. Loretta and Perry may have the life Dolly aspires to, but they too are searching for something.

Now, at the precipice of the life she has and the one she longs for, the girl from The Savoy must make difficult choices: between two men; between two classes, between everything she knows and everything she dreams of. A brighter future is tantalizingly close—but can a girl like Dolly ever truly leave her past behind?

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

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #89

It's Tuesday . . . and I'm participating in . . .

                                                      

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

Today I'm featuring the opening from an upcoming read for one of my book clubs . . .

  

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters 

***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected proof***

Copyright © 2014 Sarah Waters

Part One

One

The Barbers had said they would arrive by three. It was like waiting to begin a journey, Frances thought. She and her mother had spent the morning watching the clock, unable to relax. At half-past two she had gone wistfully over the rooms for what she’d supposed was the final time; after that there had been a nerving-up, giving way to a steady deflation, and now, at almost five, here she was again, listening to the echo of her own footsteps, feeling no sort of fondness for the sparsely furnished spaces, impatient simply for the couple to arrive, move in, get it over with.

She stood at a window in the largest of the rooms—the room which, until recently, had been her mother’s bedroom, but was now to be the Barbers’ sitting-room—and stared out at the street. The afternoon was bright but powdery. Flurries of wind sent up puffs of dust from the pavement and the road. The grand houses opposite had a Sunday blankness to them—but then, they had that every day of the week. Around the corner there was a large hotel, and motor-cars and taxi-cabs occasionally came this way to and from it; sometimes people strolled up here as if to take the air. But Champion Hill, on the whole, kept itself to itself. The gardens were large, the trees leafy. You would never know, she thought, that grubby Camberwell was just down there. You’d never guess that a mile or two further north lay London, life, glamour, all that.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?  

 

What are you reading now or planning to read soon?

 

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #89 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Weekly Book Recap #82

I returned early Thursday morning from a week's visit to Paris and London.  It was nice to return to these cities and tour both new places and familiar haunts.  I also managed to fit in a bookstore visit at each location.

In Paris, I fulfilled my dream of walking the aisles at Shakespeare and Company, the historic English language bookstore on the Left Bank near Notre Dame frequented by many famous writers over the years.  It has a nice mix of new and old books and literary memorabilia. I came away with the tote bag and bookmark pictured below.

In London, I popped into Waterstone's on Oxford Street, across from Selfridge's department store, where I happened upon a display of classic crime novels reissued by The British Library.  I couldn't resist snapping up copies of two novels by Mavis Doriel Hay, which are pictured below.  The books were originally published in the mid-1930s.

                                
                   Death on the Cherwell               Murder Underground  

There wasn't any time for reading or blogging while I was away, so now I am playing catch up--reconnecting with the blogosphere and reestablishing a (hopefully) manageable reading schedule. 

Read on for the rest of my week in books, which is also being shared on these blogs:
 

 Sunday Post hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer  

Showcase Sunday hosted by Vicky at  Books, Biscuits, and Tea
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? hosted by Sheila at Book Journey 

Finished reading . . .
  Catch Your Death by Louise Voss and Mark Edwards

Borrowed from the library . . .
                                      
California by Edan Lepucki        Cancel the Wedding by Carolyn Dingman

From Viking Penguin . . .
     Unbecoming by Rebecca Scherm

Ebook downloads . . .
   Chasing Darkness by Danielle Girard
     Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
    Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Reading next . . .
   California by Edan Lepucki

What did you read this week?  

. . . What did you add to your shelves or wish list?  

. . . . . . What are you reading next?

Enjoy life with books . . .

Catherine

Weekly Book Recap #82 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.