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 a recent read, The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover edition borrowed from the library.

Beginning:  Mrs. Audrey Landon

Willow Lodge, Fenley Village, England

June 1942

A glorious spring morning poured its golden splendor through the tall kitchen window as a whirlwind of boys raced in, shooting at each other in a ramshackle reconstruction of Dunkirk.

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Page 56:  She shook herself, murmuring, "No, I have to come up with something so good that it can't possibly lose."

It had to stand out. 

It had to be brave.

It had to be sophisticated, with bold flavors, unlike anything the other contestants would produce.

"Coquilles St. Jacques," she murmured under her breath, as if it were an incantation or a magical spell.

********************  

My thoughts:  Times are extremely difficult in World War II-era England. With men serving on the battlefield, women on the home front are determined to care for their families under challenging conditions. When the BBC announces a contest to select a female co-host for its popular radio program The Kitchen Front, four women compete for the coveted role by preparing three meal courses, creating appetizing recipes despite food shortages and rationing.

These four women--Audrey, Gwendoline, Nell, and Zelda--begin the competition as rivals, but gradually become friends. Each cook has her share of personal heartaches and uncertainties, yet over time they support each other in unexpected ways. Ultimately, they become a band of sisters who celebrate each small triumph as they face the prospect of an unknown future with hope and optimism.

The Kitchen Front is a well-researched work of historical fiction with characters that touch the heart. It is tale of human resilience despite hardship and loss.

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From GoodReads:  In a new World War II-set story from the bestselling author of The Chilbury Ladies' Choir, four women compete for a spot hosting a wartime cookery program called The Kitchen Front - based on the actual BBC program of the same name - as well as a chance to better their lives.

Two years into WW2, Britain is feeling her losses; the Nazis have won battles, the Blitz has destroyed cities, and U-boats have cut off the supply of food. In an effort to help housewives with food rationing, a BBC radio program called The Kitchen Front is putting on a cooking contest--and the grand prize is a job as the program's first-ever female co-host. For four very different women, winning the contest presents a crucial chance to change their lives.

For a young widow, it's a chance to pay off her husband's debts and keep a roof over her children's heads. For a kitchen maid, it's a chance to leave servitude and find freedom. For the lady of the manor, it's a chance to escape her wealthy husband's increasingly hostile behavior. And for a trained chef, it's a chance to challenge the men at the top of her profession.

These four women are giving the competition their all--even if that sometimes means bending the rules. But with so much at stake, will the contest that aims to bring the community together serve only to break it apart? 

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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.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph

  It's Tuesday . . . time for . . . 

. . . First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros . . . now hosted by Yvonne at Socrates' Book Reviews, where bloggers share excerpts from a book they have read, are currently reading, or are planning to read.

Happy Book Birthday to my upcoming read, The Paris Secret by Natasha Lester, which is being released today!  This historical novel spanning the World War II era and present-day Europe, is tied together by a secret collection of Dior gowns.

  

Beginning:  Prologue 

PARIS, 12 FEBRUARY 1947

 

In a grand townhouse at 30 Avenue Montaigne, Margaux Jourdan is helped into an ivory silk shantung jacket with a padded and flared peplum, and a pleated black wool skirt.  The skirt falls, shockingly, all the way to mid-calf--such an excess of fabric for a post-ration world.  A strand of pearls is placed around her neck, and she is finished off with a wide-brimmed hat and black gloves.  Even after the desecration of war, a woman's hands are still too startling to be left unclothed.

 

 

Visit The Paris Secret Goodreads Page.

 

Natasha Lester is also the author of The Paris Seamstress and The Paris Orphan.

 

This First Chapter~First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled by Catherine for the Book Club Librarian blog.  It cannot be republished without attribution. 

Thursday Thoughts ~ Books from the Backlog

Happy Thursday . . .  aka Happy Almost Friday!!

It's time for Books from the Backlog, hosted by Carole's Random Life in Books.  It's a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread.  If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks . . . or on your eReader.

 

This week's neglected book is . . . 

 

Release Date:  April 5, 2016

Publisher:  Ballantine Books

From Goodreads:  Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this debut novel reveals a story of love, redemption, and secrets that were hidden for decades.

New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline’s world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September 1939—and then sets its sights on France.

An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of watchful eyes and suspecting neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences.

For the ambitious young German doctor, Herta Oberheuser, an ad for a government medical position seems her ticket out of a desolate life. Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in a male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power.

The lives of these three women are set on a collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi concentration camp for women. Their stories cross continents—from New York to Paris, Germany, and Poland—as Caroline and Kasia strive to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten.

Why I selected it: Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, and I find books set during World War II particularly enjoyable. The added incentive for reading this book sooner rather than later is that the author has another novel coming out in the spring of 2019.  Lost Roses is set a generation earlier and is also inspired by true events featuring Caroline's mother, Eliza.

This Thursday Thoughts ~ Books from the Backlog post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution. Sharing this original post on Twitter, Google+ and/or other blogs with appropriate recognition is appreciated. 

 

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 an upcoming read,  Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce.  The excerpts shared are from the hardcover version I borrowed from the library.

Beginning:  London  
December 1940
Chapter 1
AN ADVERTISEMENT
IN THE NEWSPAPER

When I first saw the advertisement in the newspaper I thought I might actually burst.  I'd had rather a cheerful day so far despite the Luftwaffe annoying everyone by making us all late for work, and then I'd managed to get hold of an onion, which was very good news for a stew.  But when I saw the announcement, I could not have been more cock-a-hoop.

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

Page 56: "Then I hurtled out of the office with my hat and coat in my hand before she could see I had gone crimson with guilt."

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My thoughts:  My favorite historical fiction is set in the UK during World War II.  The opening paragraph rings true for me, because it sounds very similar to stories I've heard from family members who lived just outside of London during the war.  These people are no longer alive, so I'm feeling very nostalgic after reading a passage that makes me think of them.

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From Goodreads:  A charming, irresistible debut novel set in London during World War II about an adventurous young woman who becomes a secret advice columnist—a warm, funny, and enormously moving story for fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Lilac Girls.

London 1940, bombs are falling. Emmy Lake is Doing Her Bit for the war effort, volunteering as a telephone operator with the Auxiliary Fire Services. When Emmy sees an advertisement for a job at the London Evening Chronicle, her dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent seem suddenly achievable. But the job turns out to be typist to the fierce and renowned advice columnist, Henrietta Bird. Emmy is disappointed, but gamely bucks up and buckles down.

Mrs Bird is very clear: Any letters containing Unpleasantness—must go straight in the bin. But when Emmy reads poignant letters from women who are lonely, may have Gone Too Far with the wrong men and found themselves in trouble, or who can’t bear to let their children be evacuated, she is unable to resist responding. As the German planes make their nightly raids, and London picks up the smoldering pieces each morning, Emmy secretly begins to write letters back to the women of all ages who have spilled out their troubles.

Prepare to fall head over heels with Emmy and her best friend, Bunty, who are spirited and gutsy, even in the face of events that bring a terrible blow. As the bombs continue to fall, the irrepressible Emmy keeps writing, and readers are transformed by AJ Pearce’s hilarious, heartwarming, and enormously moving tale of friendship, the kindness of strangers, and ordinary people in extraordinary times.

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This Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings on Fridays post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution. Sharing this original post on Twitter, Google+ and/or other blogs with appropriate recognition is appreciated.

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 Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave, which I got at BEA a few weeks ago.

   

PART ONE
 

PRESERVATION
 

War was declared at eleven-fifteen and Mary North signed up at noon.  She did it at lunch, before telegrams came, in case her mother said no.  She left finishing school unfinished.  Skiing down from Mont-Choisi, she ditched her equipment at the foot of the slope and telegraphed the War Office from Lausanne.  Nineteen hours later she reached St. Pancras, in clouds of steam, still wearing her alpine sweater.  The train's whistle screamed.  London, then.  It was a city in love with beginnings.
 

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Page 56:  "No one joked now, or swore, or passed whisky.  Now each man alone in his sodden clothes weighed the warmth of the things he had gained against the cost of them, and since the price had been paid by all of the acting together, it was best if they all sat alone."
 

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My thoughts:  This is one of the books I was hoping to come away with from BEA this year. In addition to getting a signed copy, I had a chance to hear the author speak about his grandparents, who were the inspiration for the novel.  They lived through World War II, and, in recent years Cleave's grandfather broke his silence about his war memories, sharing them with the author.  Cleave noted in his BEA remarks how everyone was affected by the war.  His sentiments rang true for me, as my mother and grandparents spent the war years living just outside of London, and their lives were forever changed by the experience.

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

From Goodreads:  From the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Little Bee, a spellbinding novel about three unforgettable individuals thrown together by war, love, and their search for belonging in the ever-changing landscape of WWII London.

It’s 1939 and Mary, a young socialite, is determined to shock her blueblood political family by volunteering for the war effort. She is assigned as a teacher to children who were evacuated from London and have been rejected by the countryside because they are infirm, mentally disabled, or—like Mary’s favorite student, Zachary—have colored skin.

Tom, an education administrator, is distraught when his best friend, Alastair, enlists. Alastair, an art restorer, has always seemed far removed from the violent life to which he has now condemned himself. But Tom finds distraction in Mary, first as her employer and then as their relationship quickly develops in the emotionally charged times. When Mary meets Alastair, the three are drawn into a tragic love triangle and—while war escalates and bombs begin falling around them—further into a new world unlike any they’ve ever known.

A sweeping epic with the kind of unforgettable characters, cultural insights, and indelible scenes that made Little Bee so incredible, Chris Cleave’s latest novel explores the disenfranchised, the bereaved, the elite, the embattled. Everyone Brave Is Forgiven is a heartbreakingly beautiful story of love, loss, and incredible courage.

Which book are you reading now or about to start?

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.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Railwayman's Wife

    

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about forthcoming books with other readers.  Today I'm featuring The Railwayman's Wife by Ashley Hay, which will be released in early April.  There is a lot of buzz for this novel, and luckily the wait isn't too long.

 

Publisher:  Atria Books

Publication Date:  April 5, 2016

From barnesandnoble.com:  Amidst the strange, silent aftermath of World War II, a widow, a poet, and a doctor search for lasting peace and fresh beginnings in this internationally acclaimed, award-winning novel.

When Anikka Lachlan’s husband, Mac, is killed in a railway accident, she is offered—and accepts—a job at the Railway Institute’s library and searches there for some solace in her unexpectedly new life. But in Thirroul, in 1948, she’s not the only person trying to chase dreams through books. There’s Roy McKinnon, who found poetry in the mess of war, but who has now lost his words and his hope. There’s Frank Draper, trapped by the guilt of those his medical treatment and care failed on their first day of freedom. All three struggle to find their own peace, and their own new story.

But along with the firming of this triangle of friendship and a sense of lives inching towards renewal come other extremities—and misunderstandings. In the end, love and freedom can have unexpected ways of expressing themselves.

The Railwayman’s Wife explores the power of beginnings and endings, and how hard it can sometimes be to tell them apart. Most of all, it celebrates love in all its forms, and the beauty of discovering that loving someone can be as extraordinary as being loved yourself.

Which book are you waiting for?

...Will you add this one to your list of must-reads?

Waiting on Wednesday: The Railwayman's Wife was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.  (Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are appreciated.)

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #99

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 Night Watch by Sarah Waters, borrowed from the library.

 

 

 

Beginning:  1947

So this, said Kay to herself, is the sort of person you've become: a person whose clocks and wrist-watches have stopped, and who tells the time, instead, by the particular kind of cripple arriving at her landlord's door.

*********************
Page 56:  "She walked stiffly, rather bowed, perhaps only self-conscious, but Helen saw her, for a second, as a stranger might: saw how handsome she was, but also how grown-up, how almost matronly; for you could catch in her something of the angular, wide-hipped, narrow-breasted figure she'd have in earnest in ten years' time."

*********************   

 

My thoughts: I am fond of stories set in London during the World War II era.  Waters's novel centers on four characters whose lives intersect over a six year period from 1941 to 1947.

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From Goodreads:  Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked-out streets, illicit partying, and sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch tells the story of four Londoners - three women and a young man with a past - whose lives, and those of their friends and lovers, connect in tragedy, stunning surprise and exquisite turns, only to change irreversibly in the shadow of a grand historical event.

 

 

Which book are you reading now or about to start?

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #99 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are encouraged and appreciated.

 

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #134

It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .

                                                      

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 my current read, The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys, which I purchased (used) quite a while ago.

 

Goodreads Page 

England

1941

 I

What can I say about love?  You might see me sitting in this taxi, bound for Paddington Station -- a thirty-five-year old woman with plain features -- and you would think that I could not know anything of love.  But I am leaving London because of love.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

I find the opening poses some intriguing questions, and I want to know who the narrator is and why she feels compelled to leave.  The story is set in one of my favorite places and time periods, which has me eager to turn the pages.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #134 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged.