- 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 Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover edition borrowed from the library.
Beginning: A woman sat in a hotel bar, watching the door. Her appearance was neat and tidy: white blouse, fair hair tucked behind her ears. She glanced at the screen of her phone, on which was displayed a messaging interface, and then looked back at the door again.
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Page 56: He looked at her. Seriously? he said. Why?
Nothing specific. It's just how I feel. I find my life difficult.
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My thoughts: I'm curious to learn more about the lives and relationships of these characters. What does the future hold?
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From GoodReads: Alice, a novelist, meets
Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to
Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a
break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known
since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young—but
life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each
other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry
about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live
in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness,
bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a
beautiful world?
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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.
