Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #56

It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts from a current or upcoming read 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 my current read:

 

   

Beginning:  Prologue -- 2010

 

She stands at the hairpin turn on Night Road.

 

The forest is dark here, even in midday.  Ancient, towering evergreens grow in dense thickets on either side, their mossy, spearlike trunks rising high enough into the summer sky to block out the sun.  Shadows lie knee-deep along the worn ribbon of asphalt; the air is still and quiet, like an indrawn breath.  Expectant.

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

 

One -- 2000

 

Lexi Baill studied a Washington State map until the tiny red geographical markings shimmied in front of her tired eyes.  There was a vaguely magical air about the place names; they hinted at a landscape she could hardly imagine, of snow-draped mountains that came right down to the water's edge, of trees as tall and straight as church steeples, of an endless, smogless blue sky.  She pictured eagles perched on telephone poles and stars that seemed close enough to grasp.  Bears probably crept through the quiet subdivisions at night, looking for places that not long ago had been theirs.

 

Her new home. 

 

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Page 56:  "When they came out, Jude was stunned by how beautiful they both looked. 'Those are perfect,' she said."

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My thoughts -- Kristin Hannah has been on my must-read authors list for a while now, and I'm glad to have an opportunity to delve into one of her novels.  This may be my first Kristin Hannah book, but based on what I've read so far and the recommendations of other readers and bloggers, it probably won't be my last.

Which book are you reading now or about to start?
 

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