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 The Other Family by Wendy Corsi Staub. The excerpts shared are from a large print edition borrowed from the library.

Beginning:  Nora

The Howell family moves into 104 Glover Street in Brooklyn on the Friday before Labor Day.

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Page 56:  Heather turns to Nora and Keith. "Really, I'm so sorry about Lennon. He went through a bad breakup over the summer. He's always been a little dark, but now he's..."

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My thoughts:  A new neighborhood, a home with a sinister history, and an odd neighbor--these characteristics are sure to deliver a compelling domestic suspense story.

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From GoodReads:  New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub makes her trade paperback debut with a fast-paced thriller in the vein of Lisa Jewell's The Family Upstairs and Megan Collins' The Winter Sister. Here, a family making a fresh start moves into a house which was the site of an unsolved triple homicide--and are watched by an unknown person...

The watcher sees who you are...and knows what you did.

It's the perfect home for the perfect family: pretty Nora Howell, her handsome husband, their two teenage daughters, and lovable dog. As California transplants making a fresh start in Brooklyn, they expected to live in a shoebox, but the brownstone has a huge kitchen, lots of light, and a backyard. The catch: its previous residents were victims of a grisly triple homicide that remains unsolved.

Soon, peculiar things begin happening. The pug is nosing around like a bloodhound. Nora unearths a long-hidden rusty box in the flowerbed. Oldest daughter Stacey, obsessed with the family murdered in their house, pokes into the bloody past and becomes convinced that a stranger is watching the house. Watching them.

She's right. But one of the Howells will recognize his face. Because one of them has a secret that will blindside the others with a truth that lies shockingly close to home--and to this one's terrifying history.

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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.

 

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 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.

 

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 an upcoming read, A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version borrowed from the library.

 

 

Beginning:  Blood-sodden, the girl staggers into the black. Her clothes are disheveled, hanging off her young body, revealing expanses of pale flesh. Shoe lost, foot bleeding. She is in agony, but the pain has become inconsequential, eclipsed by other sufferings.

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Page 56:  "Maybe I could come with you?" Theo suggested. "You, me, and Ben – we could make a weekend of it?"

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My thoughts:  I was so captivated by The Girl on the Train that I am really looking forward to starting the author's newest novel.

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From GoodReads:  The scorching new thriller from the number-one 'New York Times' best-selling author of 'The Girl on the Train'.

When a young man is found gruesomely murdered in a London houseboat, it triggers questions about three women who knew him. Laura is the troubled one-night-stand last seen in the victim’s home. Carla is his grief-stricken aunt, already mourning the recent death of yet another family member. And Miriam is the nosy neighbor clearly keeping secrets from the police. Three women with separate connections to the victim. Three women who are – for different reasons – simmering with resentment. Who are, whether they know it or not, burning to right the wrongs done to them. When it comes to revenge, even good people might be capable of terrible deeds. How far might any one of them go to find peace? How long can secrets smolder before they explode into flame?

Look what you started.

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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.

 

Today I'm featuring a current read, Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner. The excerpt shared is from an advance reader eBook copy I received from the publisher via NetGalley.

First Chapter:  Helen

At the top of the beer-stained carpet, a taped sign on the door reads National Childbirth Trust. The doorknob feels like it might fall off if I turn it too hard. Inside there is a semicircle of chairs. A flip chart. Trestle tables with juice and biscuits. The sash windows are jammed shut.

 

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

The narrator is expecting a baby. As the story progresses, Helen is befriended by Rachel, another pregnant woman attending the prenatal classes. Rachel is a mysterious character, and when she disappears after a party at Helen's house, Helen and everyone in her circle are questioned by the police. Helen herself can't remember anything that happened after she argued with Rachel that night, and the answers the others give are evasive. Brimming with tension and secrets, Greenwich Park is a page-turner.

 

This First Chapter~First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled by Catherine for the Book Club Librarian blog. 

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.

 

Today I'm featuring an upcoming read, Death at a Country Mansion by Louise R. Innis. The excerpt shared is from a paperback version borrowed from the library.

First Chapter:  The ice in her glass tinkled provocatively as the scotch hit it. Another marriage in tatters. Her fourth, in fact. Serena shook her head and took a big gulp, feeling the whiskey encase her in a golden glow as it went down. Bastard. How could Collin do this to her? With an air hostess, of all people. What the hell was he thinking?

 

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

Death at a Country Mansion is the first book in the Daisy Thorne Mystery Series, and its opening sounds like the start of a juicy story and series.

 

This First Chapter~First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled by Catherine for the Book Club Librarian blog. 

 

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 an upcoming read, The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version borrowed from the library.

Beginning:  While in prison, I received a dictionary. It was sent to me with a note. This is the book I would take to a deserted island. Other books were to arrive from my teacher. But as she had known, this one proved of endless use.

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Page 56:  "Do you believe in ghosts?" I asked.

"You know I don't. Or you know what I think, anyway."

"I was hoping you'd changed your mind."

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My thoughts:  It's a curious beginning that has me wondering who the narrator is; why this person is in prison; who the teacher is; and about the title, which could relate to jail time as well as the mentioned dictionary. I'm eager to begin reading to satisfy my curiosity.

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From GoodReads:  In this stunning and timely novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich creates a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage, and of a woman's relentless errors.

Louise Erdrich's latest novel, The Sentence, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading with murderous attention, must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning.

The Sentence begins on All Souls' Day 2019 and ends on All Souls' Day 2020. Its mystery and proliferating ghost stories during this one year propel a narrative as rich, emotional, and profound as anything Louise Erdrich has written.

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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.

 

Today I'm featuring a recent read, Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins. The excerpt shared is from a Net Galley eBook copy.

First Chapter:  Sometimes I wonder if people on vacation think they're actually on another planet. 

Or maybe just another dimension?

 

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

I did . . .  and here's what I thought . . . of this novel about a vacation that goes horribly wrong . . .

When Lux and Nico are hired to ferry two young women aboard their boat, the Susannah, the four twenty-somethings set sail from Maui in search of adventure. Their destination is Meroe Island, a deserted atoll in the Pacific. Aware of the dark history of the island, the group is surprised to find a couple docked there who are also pursuing a sense of wanderlust. The six become fast friends--lounging and swimming all day and partying all night in the idyllic setting. To all appearances, they are a carefree group of vacationers.

But they discover that the island paradise is not as perfect as it seems--and living off the grid becomes quite perilous as the secrets and lies these individuals are keeping begin to unravel. As their past transgressions come to light, a series of betrayals emerges. Not knowing who--if anyone--is trustworthy, each must rely on their survival skills in hopes of returning to civilization alive.

Reckless Girls is an intricately woven tale of suspense with a cast of well-drawn characters. The plot's touches of Robinson Crusoe, Lord of the Flies, and Darwinism makes it a compelling page turner written by an author who has proven herself to be a master storyteller.

 

This First Chapter~First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled by Catherine for the Book Club Librarian blog.