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, My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith.  The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version I borrowed from the library.

 

  

Beginning: I

People Do Strange Things

It was the first time that Paul had made duck a l'orange for friends since Becky left him for her personal trainer.  Her departure--after four years of living together--had been a surprise, but not as great a shock as the discovery of her new lover's identity.  Looking back on it, Paul realised that all the signs had been there, and might so easily have been spotted.

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Page 56: "Listen, dottore, in Italy we are always open to new experiences.  We are not like our dear friends the Germans--they are always so careful and so measured; we are not.  We like to live.  We like to throw caution to the winds."

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My thoughts:  The excerpts lead me to believe that the protagonist is about to embark on some totally new scenarios told from McCall Smith's humorous perspective.

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From Goodreads:  When writer Paul Stewart heads to the idyllic Italian town of Montalcino to finish his already late book, it seems like the perfect escape from stressful city life.  Upon landing, however, things quickly take a turn for the worse when he discovers his hired car is nowhere to be found. With no record of any reservation and no other cars available it looks like Paul is stuck at the airport. That is, until an enterprising stranger offers him an unexpected alternative. While there may be no cars available there is something else on offer: a bulldozer. 

With little choice in the matter, Paul accepts and so begins a series of laugh out loud adventures through the Italian countryside, following in the wake of Paul and his Italian Bulldozer. A story of unexpected circumstance and lesson in making the best of what you have, My Italian Bulldozer is a warm holiday read guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

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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. Sharing this original post on Twitter with appropriate recognition is appreciated.