WWW Wednesday

It's time for WWW Wednesdays hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words 

   

This mid-weekly meme consists of answering The Three Ws:

What are you currently reading?

 What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

I'm reading . . .

I'm only a few chapters in, but it has me hooked.  The story opens with a mystery writer being contacted by a man who has the same name and profession as the protagonist of the series she's been writing.  I'm curious to see how the plot will unfold.  And it's the start of a new series . . .more from Goodreads.

I finished reading . . .

This murder mystery set in a village on an English marsh has no shortage of suspects, and the many twists and turns kept me guessing until the very end.  More from Goodreads.

I'm reading next . . .

Next up in the reading queue is this psychological thriller.  More from Goodreads.

I'm waiting for . . .

Publisher:  Gallery Books

Publication Date:  October 4, 2016

From barnesandnoble.com:  In the bestselling tradition of A Man Called Ove and the beloved film Love Actually, a quirky, socially awkward man goes on a quest to find his wife a last-minute Christmas gift and encounters several distractions—including bumping into his ex-girlfriend who was the one who got away.

Henry Quantum has several thoughts going through his head at any given time, so it’s no surprise when he forgets something very important—specifically, a Christmas gift for his wife, which he realizes on the morning of December 23. Henry sets off that day in search of the perfect present for her: a bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume. But much like Henry’s ever-wandering mind, his quest takes him in different and unexpected directions, including running into the former love of his life, Daisy. His wife, meanwhile, unhappy in her marriage, is hiding a secret of her own. And Daisy, who has made the unsettling choice of leaving her husband to strike out on her own, finds herself questioning whether she and Henry belong together after all.

A sweet, funny, and touching debut from author Pepper Harding shows how the seemingly insignificant events of one single day can change our lives forever—perhaps, if we’re lucky, for the better.

What are your Wednesday updates?

WWW Wednesdays was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are appreciated.  

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph

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 Written Off by E.J. Copperman, which I borrowed from the library.  It's the first book in the new Mysterious Detective Mystery Series.

Goodreads Page

Chapter 1

It was the way the grass had been mowed that made the difference for Duffy Madison.

He stopped dead in his tracks and showed, "Here!  Dig here!  Now!"

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

I always like getting in on a new mystery series right after it begins.  The idea of a serial killer kidnapping and murdering mystery authors is just too intriguing to resist.  

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

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & 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 If I Forget You by Thomas Christopher Greene.  The excerpts shared are from the hardcover I borrowed from the library.

  

Beginning:  Henry, 2012

On the kind of beautiful spring day where no one expects anything of significance to happen, Henry Gold, a poet who teaches at NYU, finishes class and decides to do something he has not done in years: walk a good length of the city to his apartment.

***************

Page 56:  "Henry knows who Margot Fuller is.  He knows her before he ever sees her."

***************

My thoughts:  The cover of the book is what made me select it.  The buildings depicted, owned by New York University, are located on Washington Square North directly across the street from Washington Square Park and its iconic arch. These townhouses are occupied by several of the university's professional schools, and my office was in one of these buildings when I worked for NYU.  I guess I was feeling a bit nostalgic when I saw this book on a shelf in the library.

***************

From Goodreads:  Two former lovers reconnect in this beautiful and haunting tale of great lost love from the critically acclaimed author of The Headmaster's Wife.

Twenty-one years after they were driven apart by circumstances beyond their control, two former lovers have a chance encounter on a Manhattan street. What follows is a tense, suspenseful exploration of the many facets of enduring love. Told from altering points of view through time, If I Forget You tells the story of Henry Gold, a poet whose rise from poverty embodies the American dream, and Margot Fuller, the daughter of a prominent, wealthy family, and their unlikely, star-crossed love affair, complete with the secrets they carry when they find each other for the second time.

Written in lyrical prose, If I Forget You is at once a great love story, a novel of marriage, manners, and family, a meditation on the nature of art, a moving elegy to what it means to love and to lose, and how the choices we make can change our lives forever.

Which book are you reading now or about to start? 

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

WWW Wednesday

It's time for WWW Wednesdays hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words 

   

This mid-weekly meme consists of answering The Three Ws:

What are you currently reading?

 What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

I'm reading . . .

I first saw this book featured by Cleo on her blog, Cleopatra Loves Books.  She's an avid reader and reviewer, and I find the best mystery, crime, and suspense novels in Cleo's posts.  Thus it's no surprise that I'm totally enthralled by The Crooked House. which is a very atmospheric mystery set primarily in an English village on the marshes.  

I finished reading . . .

  

The Vanishing Year features a troubled protagonist, now known as New York society wife Zoe Whittaker.  She is on the run from the dangers of her past and fears that her rich, distant husband will learn her darkest secrets.

Henry Whittaker has given Zoe a life she never dreamed possible, but is he the charming knight in armor she initially imagined him to be?  Changes in his behavior toward Zoe and his secretive nature unsettle her at an extremely vulnerable time.  Why is Henry so reluctant to share information about his own past, and what is he hiding?  This fast-paced suspenseful thriller is a satisfying read that twists and turns its way to an unexpected conclusion.  

and . . .

                  

Set in Edwardian London, Death on the Sapphire is the first book in the Lady Frances Ffolkes mystery series.  Unwilling to settle for the traditional female roles of the time, Lady Frances is a suffragist and advocate for the poor who is determined to make her own way in society.  Her intelligence and curiosity lead her to investigate the death of a family friend believed to have committed suicide and the disappearance of his tell-all manuscript.  Her keen powers of observation and deduction put her in harm's way as she unravels the truth of this and other deaths of military men who served during the Boer War.  Aided by her loyal lady's maid, Franny encounters danger--and romance--along the way.  This historical series is off to a fascinating start, and I am eager for the next installment.

I'm reading next . . .

 

I'm actually 124 pages into this much anticipated novel (more from Goodreads), but admit to being distracted by sampling The Crooked House, which quickly became my current read due to its un-put-down-ability.   So, I will be picking up The Little Paris Bookshop next so that I have it finished in time for a book club meeting at the end of the week.

I'm waiting for . . .

Publisher:  Crooked Lane Books

Publication Date:  October 11, 2016

After recently reading and enjoying Death on the Sapphire, I was delighted to learn that it won't be too long of a wait before the second book in the series is published.

From barnesandnoble.com:  Lady Frances Ffolkes is incensed when she finds out that her dear friends Gwendolyn and Thomasina have been subject to vicious threats. Promising to uncover their attacker, she travels with them to Kestrel's Eyrie, the fabled estate belonging to Gwen's family. But soon Frances faces an even greater problem, when Gwen’s father, a powerful diplomat, is stabbed to death with his prized ruby dagger.

Frances, with her loyal maid June Mallow at her side, jumps right into interrogating the estate's numbered guests: a charming Turkish diplomat with a habit of sneaking off into the night, a brash American heiress with lofty dreams of becoming mistress of the Eyrie, two gossiping widows with their own scandalous secrets, and Gwen's own aunt tasked with keeping the affairs of the estate in order among the chaos of the investigation. But as the case unfolds, Frances's righteous conviction might just be the very thing that leads danger--and even more death--to her own doorstep.

Old sins do indeed cast long shadows in Death Among Rubies a delightful closed-room mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie and the second in R.J. Koreto's effortlessly charming historical series.

What are your Wednesday updates?

WWW Wednesdays was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are appreciated.  

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph

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 The Crooked House by Christobel Kent, which I borrowed from the library.  It's my current read--a very atmospheric mystery set primarily in an English village on the marshes.  

Goodreads Page 

Thirteen Years Ago

When it starts again, she is face down on her bed with her hands over her ears and she feels it more than hears it.  A vibration through the mattress, through the flowered duvet, through the damp pillow she's buried her face in.  It comes up from below, through the house's lower three storeys.  BOOM.  She feels it in her throat.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter One

Alone in the bed Alison sat bolt upright.  She had trained herself not to gasp when that happened, long before she woke next to anyone, long before there was anyone to ask her what had scared her.  But she couldn't stop the jerk upwards, as if she had to break through the surface, as if water was closing over her.  Paul  had never asked, though: it was one of the reasons she was still here, eight months on.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

When Alison returns incognito to her childhood community after thirteen years to attend a wedding with her boyfriend Paul, memories of the traumatic reasons she left, including the horrific murders of her family, come flooding back.  She has never shared this part of her history with Paul.  The village and villagers seem virtually unchanged to Alison, but her older self is more astute at piecing together clues and motives as to what really happened all those years ago.  Will she gain some sense of closure by confronting the ghosts of her past?

The author's layering of past events, current mysterious characters connected to the wedding, and new information about the villagers has my full attention.  Every time I think I've figured out who was responsible for the killings, Kent throws another curve or two into the plot.  The level of secret keeping amongst the characters is palpable, and I am bracing myself for the revelation of the truth. 

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

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & 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 Girl From The Savoy by Hazel Gaynor.  The excerpts shared are from the trade paperback I borrowed from the library.

  

Beginning:  Act 1--Hope--London 1923 

Dolly

"That's the fascinating thing about life, Miss Lane.

All its wonderful unpredictability."

"It is as simple as this: a person can be unpunctual or untidy, but if they intend to get on in life they certainly cannot be both."  I'll never forget these words, nor the housekeeper who barked them at me as I skulked back to the house--late and disheveled--from my afternoon off.

***************

Page 56:  "The hotel room is dark and unfamiliar when I wake.  I lie still, listening to the rise and fall of the girls' breaths, the pop of a mattress spring as they move, the rustle of bedsheets as they fidget in their sleep.  It is all so strange and new."

***************

My thoughts:   My favorite stories are those set in London in the first half of the 20th century.  This historical fiction blends aspects of class and societal mores, the glamor of London, and the consequences of war on the lives of Brits in 1920s London.

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From Goodreads:  Presenting a dazzling new historical novel … The Girl From The Savoy is as sparkling as champagne and as thrilling as the era itself.

Sometimes life gives you cotton stockings. Sometimes it gives you a Chanel gown …

Dolly Lane is a dreamer; a downtrodden maid who longs to dance on the London stage, but her life has been fractured by the Great War. Memories of the soldier she loved, of secret shame and profound loss, by turns pull her back and spur her on to make a better life.

When she finds employment as a chambermaid at London’s grandest hotel, The Savoy, Dolly takes a step closer to the glittering lives of the Bright Young Things who thrive on champagne, jazz and rebellion. Right now, she must exist on the fringes of power, wealth and glamor—she must remain invisible and unimportant.

But her fortunes take an unexpected turn when she responds to a struggling songwriter’s advertisement for a ‘muse’ and finds herself thrust into London’s exhilarating theatre scene and into the lives of celebrated actress, Loretta May, and her brother, Perry. Loretta and Perry may have the life Dolly aspires to, but they too are searching for something.

Now, at the precipice of the life she has and the one she longs for, the girl from The Savoy must make difficult choices: between two men; between two classes, between everything she knows and everything she dreams of. A brighter future is tantalizingly close—but can a girl like Dolly ever truly leave her past behind?

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