Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #97

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 To Scotland with Love by Patience Griffin, borrowed from the library.

 

  

Beginning:  Chapter One

Cait Macleod frowned as the taillights of her taxi sped off into the night.  She was standing in a deserted parking lot on the northeast coast of Scotland in the middle of December.  All alone.  Not new for her, but it sucked all the same.

 

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Page 56:  "As if Cait had dunked her head into hot bubbling stew, heat flooded into her face.  Did they find out about People magazine and what's written in my notebook?"

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My thoughts:  While attending this year's Romance Writers of America Librarians Day in July, I was drawn to a particular author during the Literacy Autographing session.  What made this author stand out among the many, many writers was her outfit.  Ms. Griffin was decked out in tartan and a jaunty tam, and I couldn't resist going over to speak with her.  That's when I learned about the Kilts and Quilts series, set in Scotland.  I purchased the second novel in the series, Meet Me in Scotland, which she autographed for me.  

 

Since I have a thing about starting a series from the beginning, I borrowed book #1 from the library, and am enjoying the setting and characters.  It brings back memories of summer childhood visits to my Scottish grandmother who lived nearly her entire life in Glasgow.

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From Goodreads:  Welcome to the charming Scottish seaside town of Gandiegow—where two people have returned home for different reasons, but to find the same thing.…

Caitriona Macleod gave up her career as an investigative reporter for the role of perfect wife. But after her husband is found dead in his mistress’s bed, a devastated Cait leaves Chicago for the birthplace she hasn’t seen since she was a child. She’s hoping to heal and to reconnect with her gran. The last thing she expects to find in Gandiegow is the Sexiest Man Alive! She just may have stumbled on the ticket to reigniting her career—if her heart doesn’t get in the way.

Graham Buchanan is a movie star with many secrets. A Gandiegow native, he frequently hides out in his hometown between films. He also has a son he’ll do anything to protect. But Cait Macleod is too damn appealing—even if she is a journalist.

Quilting with her gran and the other women of the village brings Cait a peace she hasn’t known in years. But if she turns in the story about Graham, Gandiegow will never forgive her for betraying one of its own. Should she suffer the consequences to resurrect her career? Or listen to her battered and bruised heart and give love another chance?

 

 

 Which book are you reading now or about to start?

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #97 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 #127

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 an upcoming read, Stoner by John Williams, borrowed from the library.

   

Goodreads Page 

1

William Stoner entered the University of Missouri as a freshman in the year 1910, at the age of nineteen.  Eight years later, during the height of World War I, he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree and accepted an instructorship at the same University, where he taught until his death in 1956.  He did not rise above the rank of assistant professor, and few students remembered him with any sharpness after they had taken his courses.  When he died his colleagues made a memorial contribution of a medieval manuscript to the University library.  This manuscript may still be found in the Rare Books Collection, bearing the inscription: "Presented to the Library of the University of Missouri, in memory of William Stoner, Department of English.  By his colleagues."

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

This book is considered something of a classic, and publisher New York Review of Books is releasing a new hardcover version on November 3, 2015 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of its publication. The anniversary edition will contain previously unpublished correspondence between John Williams and his agent about the book's writing and publication, including the title the author originally had in mind for the novel.

 

Stoner came across my radar screen several months ago, and I am curious about the story that has received such high praise from critics and readers alike.

 

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #127 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged.

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #96

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 Ladies' Room by Carolyn Brown, a purchased Kindle edition.

 

  

Beginning:  Chapter One

If I wriggled again, Great-aunt Gert was going to sit straight up in that pale pink coffin and give me an evil glare the way she used to do when I was a child and couldn't sit still in church  Not even in death would Gertrude Martin abide wiggling at a funeral, especially when it was hers. 

 

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56% of eBook:  "I sensed she was leaving something out.  'But when did she get married?'"

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My thoughts:  After reading several thrillers, I've switched gears with a lighter read.  The Ladies' Room is a snappy, humorous read filled with gossipy small town characters, bless their hearts.

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From Goodreads:  Secrets told in the church ladies' room are supposed to stay in the ladies' room. But that doesn't mean that what Trudy overhears there during her great-aunt Gertrude's funeral won't change the rest of her life.

Trudy has a daughter in the middle of a major rebellion; a two-timing husband who has been cheating for their entire married life; and a mother with Alzheimer's residing in the local nursing home. She doesn't really need a crumbling old house about to fall into nothing but a pile of memories and broken knickknacks. 

Billy Lee Tucker, resident oddball in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, lived next door to Gert, and in her will she leaves him the funds to help Trudy remodel the old house. That's fine with Billy Lee, because he's been in love with Trudy since before they started school. And just spending time with her is something he'd never ever allowed himself to dream about.

A beautiful home rises up from the old house on Broadway, and right along with it rises up a relationship. But is Trudy too scarred from what she heard in the ladies' room to see a lovely future with Billy Lee?

 

 

Which book are you reading now or about to start?

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #96 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 #126

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, After You by Jojo Moyes, borrowed from the library.

 

Goodreads Page  

1

The big man at the end of the bar is sweating.  He holds his head low over his double scotch and every few minutes he glances up and out behind him toward the door, and a fine sheen of perspiration glistens under the strip lights.  He lets out a long, shaky breath disguised as a sigh and turns back to his drink.

 

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

This is the sequel to Me Before You, which I enjoyed, and continues the story of Louisa Clark, who is mourning the loss of her beloved Will.  It's nice to have the chance to revisit a familiar character and find out what the future holds in store for her.  

 

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #126 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged.

Waiting on Wednesday: His Right Hand

   

 

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 His Right Hand by Mette Ivie Harrison, author of The Bishop's Wife.  This is the second book in the Linda Wallheim mystery series.

  

Publisher:  Soho Press, Incorporated

Publication Date:  December 1, 2015

From barnesandnoble.com:  In Draper, Utah, a tight-knit Mormon community is thrown into upheaval when their ward’s second counselor—one of the bishop’s right-hand men—is found dead in an elaborately staged murder on church property. Carl Ashby was known as a devout Mormon, a pillar of the community, and a loving husband and father. Who would want him dead?

Linda Wallheim, the wife of the ward’s bishop, can’t rest as long as the ward is suffering. She is particularly worried about Carl’s grieving family. But the entire case is turned upside down by the autopsy report, which reveals Carl Ashby was a biological female. In the Mormon church, where gender is considered part of a person’s soul, some people regard transgenderism as one of the worst possible transgressions of faith. Church officials seem to be more upset by Carl’s gender than by his murder, and more concerned with hushing up the story than solving the crime.

Linda realizes that if the police are to catch the killer, they are going to need an ally on the inside—and she is the only one who can help. Carl was living a life of secrecy for twenty years. What else was he hiding—and can Linda ferret out the key to his death before the rumors tear her community apart?

Which book are you waiting for?

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

Waiting on Wednesday: His Right Hand was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.  (Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are encouraged.)

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #125

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 Book Shop by Penelope Fitzgerald, borrowed from the library.

 

Goodreads Page  

1

In 1959 Florence Green occasionally passed a night when she was not absolutely sure whether she had slept or not.  This was because of her worries as to whether to purchase a small property,  the Old House, with its own warehouse on the foreshore, and to open the only bookshop in Hardborough.  The uncertainty probably kept her awake.  She had once seen a heron flying across the estuary and trying, while it was on the wing, to swallow an eel which it had caught.  The eel, in turn, was struggling to escape from the gullet of the heron and appeared a quarter, a half, or occasionally three-quarters of the way out.  The indecision expressed by both creatures was pitiable.  They had taken on too much.  Florence felt that if she hadn't slept at all - and people often say this when they mean nothing of the kind - she must have been kept awake by thinking of the heron.  

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

Initially, I was attracted to this book by its title and cover.  I can certainly relate to Florence's state of mind, having had my own bouts of indecision about the future.  After reading the first paragraph, I want to know more about Florence Green and her book shop plans.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #125 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged.

Weekly Book Recap #108: Blogoversary Edition

It's hard to believe I've been blogging for three years . . .

. . . and although I currently don't post as often as I used to, I feel strongly connected to the many bloggers I've come to know along the way.  I've learned so much from you and about you, and consider you good friends who brighten my day whenever I check in.  You've shared fabulous book and series suggestions for my ever-growing TBR list; thoughtful, witty, and heart-felt comments; and innovative ideas.  Thanks to all of you for your warmth and generosity.

Now, for a look at the books I'm reading and have added to the queue this week . . .

  

The Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Currently reading . . .

 Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight

Borrowed from the library . . .

        

          

After You by Jojo Moyes, Come Hell or Highball by Maia Chance, The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood, The Jezebel Remedy by Martin Fillmore Clark, Not on Fire, But Burning by Greg Hrbek, White Dresses by Mary Pflum Peterson

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 . . .

Weekly Book Recap #108 Blogoversary Edition was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. (Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged and appreciated.)

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #95

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 Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight, borrowed from the library.

 

  

Beginning:  Prologue

It isn't until afterward that I think about the bag or the bloody towels stuffed inside.  They're too big to bury, but I can't just leave them behind.  Maybe I should have been better prepared.  Thought more about the details.  But it's hard to be ready for something you never imagined you'd do.

 

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Page 56:  "'Or, you know, maybe they printed that because that's all they know.  Not everything is some conspiracy." 

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My thoughts:  After reading McCreight's first novel, Reconstructing Amelia, I was pleased to discover her new novel.  McCreight is a good storyteller, and a welcome addition to the psychological suspense genre.

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From Goodreads:  From the author of the New York Times bestseller and 2014 Edgar and Anthony nominee Reconstructing Amelia comes another harrowing, gripping novel that marries psychological suspense with an emotionally powerful story about a community struggling with the consequences of a devastating discovery.

At the end of a long winter, in bucolic Ridgedale, New Jersey, the body of an infant is discovered in the woods near the town’s prestigious university campus. No one knows who the baby is, or how her body ended up out there. But there is no shortage of opinions.

When freelance journalist, and recent Ridgedale transplant, Molly Anderson is unexpectedly called upon to cover the story for the Ridegdale Reader, it’s a risk, given the severe depression that followed the loss of her own baby. But the bigger threat comes when Molly unearths some of Ridgedale’s darkest secrets, including a string of unreported sexual assaults that goes back twenty years.

Meanwhile, Sandy, a high school dropout, searches for her volatile and now missing mother, and PTA president Barbara struggles to help her young son, who’s suddenly having disturbing outbursts.

Told from the perspectives of Molly, Barbara, and Sandy, Kimberly McCreight’s taut and profoundly moving novel unwinds the tangled truth about the baby’s death revealing that these three women have far more in common than they realized. And that their lives are more intertwined with what happened to the baby than they ever could have imagined.

 

 

 Which book are you reading now or about to start?

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #95 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 #124

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 an upcoming read, Somebody I Used to Know by David Bell, borrowed from the library.

  

Goodreads Page 

CHAPTER ONE

When I saw the girl in the grocery store, my heart stopped.

I had turned the corner into the dairy aisle, carrying a basket with just a few items in it.  Cereal.  Crackers.  Spaghetti.  Beer.  I lived alone, worked a lot, and rarely cooked.  I was checking a price when I almost ran into the girl.  I stopped immediately and studied her in profile, her hand raised to her mouth while she examined products through the glass door of the dairy cooler.

I felt like I was seeing a ghost.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

I saw this book on several blogs over the summer, and since I enjoy psychological thrillers, I am looking forward to reading this new-to-me author.

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #124 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged.

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #94

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 Academy Street by Mary Costello, borrowed from the library.

Beginning:  It is evening and the window is open a little.  There are voices in the hall, footsteps running up and down the stairs, then along the back corridor towards the kitchen.  Now and then Tess hears the crunch of gravel outside, the sound of a bell as a bicycle is laid against the wall.  Earlier a car drove up the avenue, into the yard, and horses and traps too, the horses whinnying as they were pulled up.  She is sitting on the dining-room floor in her good dress and shoes.  The sun is streaming in through the tall windows, the light falling on the floor, the sofa, the marble hearth.  She holds her face up to feel its warmth.

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Page 56:  "'Their familiar accents pleased her.  A shy boy from Kerry got up and gave her his chair, moved away with his plate of eggs.  She looked around at their open happy faces and sat among them." 

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My thoughts:  This short novel (145 pages) caught my eye while I was browsing the library shelves.  After reading the book jacket and first few pages detailing a momentous family gathering during her childhood, I wanted to know more about the protagonist and her life in Ireland and America.

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From Goodreads:  A vibrant, intimate, hypnotic portrait of one woman's life, from an important new writer.

Tess Lohan is the kind of woman that we meet and fail to notice every day. A single mother. A nurse. A quiet woman, who nonetheless feels things acutely — a woman with tumultuous emotions and few people to share them with.  

Academy Street is Mary Costello's luminous portrait of a whole life. It follows Tess from her girlhood in western Ireland through her relocation to America and her life there, concluding with a moving re-encounter with her Irish family after forty years of exile. The novel has a hypnotic pull and a steadily mounting emotional force. It speaks of disappointments but also of great joy. It shows how the signal events of the last half century affect the course of a life lived in New York City.

Anne Enright has said that Costello's first collection of stories, The China Factory, "has the feel of work that refused to be abandoned; of stories that were written for the sake of getting something important right ... Her writing has the kind of urgency that the great problems demand" (The Guardian).  

Academy Street is driven by this same urgency. In sentence after sentence it captures the rhythm and intensity of inner life.

  

Which book are you reading now or about to start?

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #94 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are encouraged and appreciated.