Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #57

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 next read, which one of my book clubs will discuss at our meeting next Friday night:

 

  

Beginning:  Moments of great import are often tinged with darkness because perversely we yearn to be let down.  And so it was that I found myself in late September 2002 at my first solo show in Paris feeling neither proud nor encouraged by the crowds of people who had come out to support my paintings, but saddened.  Disappointed.

 

******************** 
Page 56:  "I found Julien in the gallery's storage closet, standing on his head.  The watercooler next to him belched out a bubbly glug."

*********************   

 

My thoughts -- It was only a matter of time before I would get to this book.  It first piqued my interest at a publisher preview earlier this year.  It remained on my radar screen, and I featured it in an April Waiting on Wednesday post.  The book was on my list for September, but time got away from me.  So, when I suggested it to one of my book clubs at our August meeting, they were agreeable.  In addition to its appeal as an end-of-summer read, all but one of us were planning a mid-September trip to London and Paris together.  The trip has come and gone, and I'm looking forward to an interesting (and likely nostalgic) discussion, as the story is set in those cities.

Which book are you reading now or about to start?
 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #57 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.