Today I'm featuring my current read, Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena. The excerpts shared are from an eBook version borrowed from the library.
Beginning: Prologue
There are many expensive houses here in Brecken Hill, an enclave on the edge of Aylesford, in the Hudson Valley. Situated on the east side of the Hudson River, about a hundred miles north of New York City, it's like the Hamptons, but slightly less pretentious. There's old money here, and new.
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Page 56: He's furious at his sisters; he's convinced himself that they have betrayed him, simply by thinking the worst of him. She hadn't liked it either, and she can understand his feelings of hurt and betrayal.
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My thoughts: Money, power, family secrets and dysfunction, murder: this novel has it all. With its page-turning plot, Not a Happy Family is a compelling read.
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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.
© 2021 Book Club Librarian All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Book Club Librarian without attribution, know that this post has been stolen and was used without permission. 
How to Book a Murder (A Starlit Bookshop Mystery)
To help save her family’s floundering Colorado bookstore, Starlit Bookshop, newly minted Ph.D. Emma Starrs agrees to plan a mystery-themed dinner party for her wealthy, well-connected high school classmate, Tabitha Baxter. It’s a delightful evening of cocktails and conjecture until Tabitha’s husband, Tip—hosting the affair in the guise of Edgar Allan Poe’s detective C. Auguste Dupin—winds up murdered.
In a heartbeat, Emma and her aunt Nora, a famous mystery writer, become suspects. Emma is sure the party’s over for Starlit events, until celebrated author Calliope Nightfall, whose gothic sensibilities are intrigued by the circumstances, implores the bookseller to create a Poe-themed launch event for her latest tome. Throwing a bash to die for while searching for additional clues is already enough to drive Emma stark raven mad, but another shocking crime soon reveals that Silvercrest has not yet reached the final chapter of the puzzling case.
Someone in this charming artistic community has murder on the mind, and if Emma cannot outwit the killer, she and her beloved aunt will land behind bars, to walk free nevermore.
Website: cynthiakuhn.net
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December 6 – The Book Diva’s Reads – SPOTLIGHT
December 6 – The Book’s the Thing – REVIEW
December 7 – Mochas, Mysteries and Meows – CHARACTER GUEST POST
December 7 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – REVIEW
December 8 – Literary Gold – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
December 9 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
December 10 – The Avid Reader – REVIEW
December 10 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW
December 11 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
December 11 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW
December 12 – Laura’s Interests – SPOTLIGHT
December 13 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
December 13 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – REVIEW
December 14 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
December 14 – Book Club Librarian – REVIEW
December 15 – Reading, Writing & Stitch-Metic – SPOTLIGHT
December 15 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
December 16 – Mysteries with Character – GUEST POST
December 16 – Moonlight Rendezvous – REVIEW
December 17 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
December 17 – Diane Reviews Books – GUEST POST
December 18 – Author Elena Taylor’s Blog – REVIEW
December 19 – BookishKelly2020 – SPOTLIGHT
Today I'm featuring a recent blog tour read, How to Book a Murder by Cynthia Kuhn. The excerpt shared is from an advance eBook provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
First Chapter: "To be surrounded by books is an exceptional joy," Lucy said.
What do you think? Would you continue reading?
I couldn't agree more with the opening paragraph of this first book in the new Starlit Bookshop mystery series, set in a small-town bookstore. This series is definitely off to a good start!
It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .
Today I'm featuring a recent read, A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline. The excerpt shared is from a eBook version of the novel borrowed from the library.
First Chapter: 1939
I'm working of a quilt patch in the kitchen on a brilliant July afternoon, small squares of fabric and a pincushion and scissors on the table beside me, when I hear the hum of a car engine. Looking out the window toward the cove, I see a station wagon turn into the field about a hundred yards away. The engine cuts off and the passenger door swings open and Betsy James gets out, laughing and exclaiming. I haven't seen her since last summer. She's wearing a white halter top and denim shorts, a red bandanna tied around her neck. As I watch her coming toward the house, I am struck by how different she looks. Her sweet round face has thinned and lengthened; her chestnut hair is long and thick around her shoulders, her eyes dark and shining. A red slash of lipstick. I think of her at nine years old, when she first came to visit, her small, nimble fingers braiding my hair as she sat behind me on the stoop. And here she is, seventeen and suddenly a woman.
What do you think? Would you continue reading?
It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .
Today I'm featuring Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout. The excerpt shared is from a hardcover version borrowed from the library.
First Chapter: I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William.
William has lately been through some very sad events--many of us have--but I would like to mention them, it feels almost a compulsion; he is seventy-one years old now.
What do you think? Would you continue reading?
I am very intrigued by the opening sentences, and get the feeling that there is quite a story to unfold.
Today I'm featuring The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version borrowed from the library.
Beginning: Emmett
June 12, 1954--The drive from Salina to Morgen was three hours, and for much of it, Emmett hadn't said a word.
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Page 56: Oh, Omaha, I remember thee well.
It was August of 1944, just six months after my eighth birthday. That summer, my father was part of a traveling revue claiming to raise money for the war effort.
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My thoughts: I am excited that one of my favorite authors has published a new novel. I absolutely loved both of his previous books, Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow. He is a wonderful storyteller and writes brilliant dialogue.
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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.
© 2021 Book Club Librarian All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Book Club Librarian without attribution, know that this post has been stolen and was used without permission.
It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .
Today I'm featuring an upcoming read, Secrets and Lies by Selena Montgomery. The excerpt shared is from a paperback version borrowed from the library.
First Chapter: Nighttime suited Sebastian Caine. In the shadows, he could prowl the quiet streets, invisible to the unsuspecting eye. Dakkar or Paris, New York or New Delhi, the nighttime yielded its secrets to him with a delicate sigh.
What do you think? Would you continue reading?
This is not my usual genre, but after reading Stacey Abrams's novel, While Justice Slept, I am curious about the books she wrote a while back under the pen name Selena Montgomery.
Today I'm featuring my current read, What Comes After by JoAnne Tompkins. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version borrowed from the library.
Beginning: First, the raw facts.
A week into his senior year, my son failed to come home after football practice. When he hadn't appeared by morning, I called Daniel's mother, Katherine. She walked off her nursing shift, drove six hours from Spokane and boarded a ferry to Port Furlong. By the time she was pulling up my drive, Gary Barton, the sheriff, was pulling out. I had contacted him when calls to friends and relations turned up nothing. Gary, a gruff, efficient man, had, in the span of a few hours, recruited and organized two dozen people to start a search.
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Page 56: Saplings--ten, twelve feet tall--leaned over the trail, blocked the last of the evening light. Daniel kept stooping to avoid branches, each time grabbing and holding them back for Evangeline. The foliage grew so dense it was hard to see.
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My thoughts: The plot pulled me in immediately, and I am completely immersed in the characters and the unfolding story.
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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.
© 2021 Book Club Librarian All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Book Club Librarian without attribution, know that this post has been stolen and was used without permission.
It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .
Today I'm featuring an upcoming read, The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance Sayers. The excerpt shared is from a hardcover version of the book borrowed from the library.
What do you think? Would you continue reading?
A dual timeline--1925 Paris and 2004 Virginia . . . a secret circus during the Belle Epoque period and the disappearance of a woman's fiance in present times. . . what is the connection? After seeing a recent interview with the author, I was compelled to request a copy of this book from the library.
Today I'm featuring an upcoming read, Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover version borrowed from the library.
Beginning: Prologue
The bike lay on the side of the road beneath a gray oak, the handlebars at an odd, jutted angle, as if it had been thrown with angry force.
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Page 56: "Who is she?" She could hear the pompous school principal in her voice, because for God's sake, the drama. Why was a houseguest such a big deal?
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My thoughts: Although the opening line isn't very revealing, I am very much looking forward to reading Liane Moriarty's latest novel. The synopsis—a mystery coupled with family drama—is appealing and calling out to me.
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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.
© 2021 Book Club Librarian All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Book Club Librarian without attribution, know that this post has been stolen and was used without permission.
It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .
Today I'm featuring an upcoming read, The Downstairs Neighbor by Helen Cooper. The excerpt shared is from a trade paperback borrowed from the library.
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First Chapter: Emma
If it hadn't been for a disruptive hamster and three nights of insomnia, Emma might not have found herself crouched in her understairs cupboard that night. She might not have heard the fear-pinched voice from overhead.
What do you think? Would you continue reading?
That's an ominous beginning that makes me want to continue reading.
Today I'm featuring an upcoming read, The Stranger Behind You by Carol Goodman. The excerpts shared are from a trade paperback borrowed from the library.
Beginning: Prologue
I have noticed in my professional capacity that when someone makes a point of saying that they're not lying, that usually means they are.
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Page 56: I pack up the notebooks and folders I've amassed over three years, stuffing them indiscriminately into boxes because I can't read my own handwritten labels. They fill two boxes, which I take, along with a few boxes of books and two suitcases, in an Uber up the West Side Highway on a rainy day in the first week of August.
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My thoughts: I am drawn to the description and plot synopsis of this novel, particularly the possible links between past and present. It's also an opportunity to try a new-to-me author.
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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.
© 2021 Book Club Librarian All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Book Club Librarian without attribution, know that this post has been stolen and was used without permission.
It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .
Today I'm featuring an upcoming read, Chapter and Curse by Elizabeth Penney, the first book in The Cambridge Bookshop series. The excerpt shared is from an eBook borrowed from the library.
What do you think? Would you continue reading?
The opening paragraphs hint at a much-needed opportunity. I can't resist the start of a new series that features a librarian as a protagonist. And as a librarian, I can certainly (and unfortunately) relate to budget cuts.
