Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #49

It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts from one of my current reads 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 Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide

 

Beginning:  At first it looked like low-lying ribbons of clouds just floating there, but then the clouds would be blown a little bit to the right and next to the left.  

 

The small window in the corner of our kitchen bordered on a tall wooden fence, so close a person could barely pass by.  From inside the house, its frosted glass looked like a dim movie screen.

 

********************* 
Page 57 (Page 56 is blank): "After watching her tiny figure leap past the mirror stand and slip through the gap in the hanging strips of cloth onto the pile of cushions on the upper shelf of the closet, I would leave her undisturbed for a while."

*********************   

 

Which book are you reading now or about to start?
 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #49 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.    

 

Waiting on Wednesday: Five Days Left

 

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's featured book is a debut novel that will be available as summer's end approaches.

 

 

   

 Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam 

Publication date: September 9, 2014

 

From barnesandnoble.com:  Destined to be a book club favorite, a heart-wrenching debut about two people who must decide how much they’re willing to sacrifice for love.

Mara Nichols is a successful lawyer, devoted wife, and adoptive mother who has received a life-shattering diagnosis. Scott Coffman, a middle school teacher, has been fostering an eight-year-old boy while the boy’s mother serves a jail sentence. Scott and Mara both have five days left until they must say good-bye to the ones they love the most.

Through their stories, Julie Lawson Timmer explores the individual limits of human endurance and the power of relationships, and shows that sometimes loving someone means holding on, and sometimes it means letting go.  

Which book are you waiting for?

 

  

Enjoy life with books . . .

 

Catherine

 

Waiting on Wednesday:  Five Days Left was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.

 

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #67 and Teaser Tuesdays

 
It's Tuesday . . . time to share book excerpts with: 

• 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.

• Teaser Tuesdays hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, where bloggers post two (2) random “teaser” sentences--no spoilers allowed--from their current reads to try to entice others to seek out these books.

Today I'm featuring the opening paragraphs and a teaser from Missing You  by Harlan Coben.

 

Chapter 1

Kat Donovan spun off her father's old stool, readying to leave O'Malley's Pub, when Stacy said, "You're not going to like what I did."

The tone made Kat stop mid-stride.  "What?"

---------------------------------------------------------------

Teaser: "'Ever see the movie Chinatown?' he asked.

'Sure.'"  ~ p. 124

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?  

The opening lines make me curious and have me wanting to know more.  I'll definitely be reading on.  I'm new to Harlen Coben's books, having listened to the audio version of Gone For Good, which I enjoyed earlier this year. 

What are you reading now or planning to read soon?

 

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #67 and Teaser Tuesdays was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Weekly Book Recap #73

It's hard to believe that the month of June is ending tomorrow.  I'm sorry to see it go because the weather has been so nice and I've gotten so much reading done.  I can only hope that July and August won't be too unbearably hot and that I can keep my reading momentum going.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July, and read on for my weekly book update, which I'm sharing on the following 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 . . .

 

The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger; Fallen Beauty by Erika Robuck

 

Finished listening to . . .

     Death on Demand by Carolyn G. Hart 

 

Currently reading . . .

Summer House With Swimming Pool by Herman Koch, The Forgotten Girl by David Bell, and Chestnut Street by Maeve Binchy

 

Currently listening to . . .

 A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy 

Borrowed from the library . . .

  Missing You by Harlan Coben

From a book club swap . . .
 

A Turn in the Road by Debbie Macomber, Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich, and The Innocent by Harlan Coben

From Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer  . . .

   No Job for a Lady by Carol McCleary . . . thanks Kim!

ARC from Hachette Books . . .

  The Vampires of Manhattan by Melissa De La Cruz

ARC from Dutton/Penguin Debut Author Reading . . .

    The Barter by Siobhan Adcock 

 

Reading next . . .

   Ten Beach Road by Wendy Wax 

 

 

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 #73 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.

 

 

 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #48

It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts from one of my current reads 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:

I am at the half-way mark of this book, and am thoroughly engaged in the story.  I'm turning pages because I know something momentous is about to happen, but at this point I don't know what.  Author Herman Koch has a fertile imagination, and like in his previous novel, The Dinner, he presents a compelling story with moral, ethical, and familial factors.  It's an engrossing read.

 

Beginning:  I am a doctor.  My office hours are from eight-thirty in the morning to one in the afternoon.  I take my time.  Twenty minutes for each patient.  Those twenty minutes are my unique selling point.
 

********************* 
Page 56: "After five minutes with you I felt like I'd known you all my life.'"
*********************   

 

Which book are you reading now or about to start?
 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #48 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.    

Waiting on Wednesday: New From Jojo Moyes

 

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.  The wait is almost over for my current selection, from one of my favorite authors.

 

 

 This week's anticipated book:

 

 Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books 

Publication date: July 1, 2014

 

From barnesandnoble.com:  Bestselling British author Moyes (Me Before You) blends a sobering commentary on the widening gap between haves and have-nots into this quirky tale of lopsided families finding the courage to love. Jess, barely able to make ends meet as a house cleaner after her husband, Marty, walks out, enlists the help of rich client Ed to drive her math-genius daughter Tanzie to a competition. If Tanzie wins, the prize will be enough to pay for her to attend a top-notch school. Along with Jess’s Goth stepson, Nicky, who is Marty’s son, and the slobbering family dog, Norman, the misfits cram into Ed’s car for an alternately hilarious and heartbreaking adventure. With side trips to visit Ed’s dying father and Jess’s now-estranged husband, the travelers learn to reconcile with pasts they can’t change and futures they’re afraid to imagine. “Good things happen to good people,” Jess insists. “You just have to keep faith.” There’s never anything predictable about stubbornly optimistic and protective Jess and her oddball kids, or the distracted Ed and his disjointed work-family relationships. It’s exactly that quality that makes this offbeat journey so satisfying, and Moyes’s irrepressible flaws-and-all characters so memorable.

Which book are you waiting for?

 

 

Enjoy life with books . . .

Catherine

Waiting on Wednesday:  New From Jojo Moyes was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #66 and Teaser Tuesdays

 
It's Tuesday . . . time to share book excerpts with: 

• 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.

• Teaser Tuesdays hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, where bloggers post two (2) random “teaser” sentences--no spoilers allowed--from their current reads to try to entice others to seek out these books.

Today I'm featuring the opening paragraphs and a teaser from The Wrong Girl by Hank Phillippi Ryan.

  

1

"Listen, Jane.  I don't think she's my real mother."

Jane Ryland took the phone from her ear, peering at it as if it could somehow help Tuck's incomprehensible tale make sense.  Real mother?  She didn't know Tuck was adopted, let alone looking for her birth mother.  Why would Tuck call her?  And spill this soul-baring saga of abandonment, adoption agencies, then meeting some woman in Connecticut?  Jane and Tuck were barely friends, let along confidantes, especially after Tuck had--

-------------------------------------------

Teaser:  "One other option was to do nothing.  Give her enough rope to hang herself." ~ p. 40


What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 
The Wrong Girl is the second book to feature reporter Jane Ryland and Detective Jake Brogan.  (The Other Woman is the first book.)  Hank Phillippi Ryan's books are fast-paced and suspenseful, and it is no surprise that she has won an Anthony, a Macavity, and two Agatha Awards for her fiction.  She is also the investigative reporter for Boston's NBC affiliate, and has won twenty-eight Emmys and ten Edward R. Murrow Awards for her groundbreaking journalism.

What are you reading now or planning to read soon?

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #66 and Teaser Tuesdays was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.