Friday Focus: Bookish Memes to Start the Weekend

 

 

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.
• First Line Friday hosted by Reading Is My SuperPower
  

 

Today I'm featuring my current read, The Stolen Book of Evelyn Aubrey by Serena Burdick. The excerpts shared are from a hardcover edition borrowed from the library.

 

 

Book Beginning/First Line:  Prologue

This will go on forever, life and death, stretching out over the expansive body of water, chill and slick and seductive against my skin.

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Page 56:  Normally she dated damaged men--capricious and erratic, men who wore their internal scars like fashion, a sexy handicap.

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My thoughts:  Questions abound in this dual timeline novel about two women trying to make their way in the world each inhabits. Evelyn mysteriously disappears and is presumed dead—was it her husband's doing? Abigail doesn't know who her father is—do she and Evelyn share ancestry? This engrossing read has me turning pages quickly, wanting to unravel the family secrets.

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From GoodReads: What if you could write a new ending for yourself?

England, 1898. When Evelyn first married the famous novelist William Aubrey, she was dazzled by his brilliance. But their newlywed bliss is brief when William is gripped by writer’s block, and he becomes jealous of Evelyn’s writing talent. When he commits the ultimate betrayal—stealing a draft of her novel and passing it off as his own—Evelyn decides to write her way out of their unhappy marriage.

California, 2006. Abigail always wondered about her father, his identity forever lost when her mother unexpectedly died. Or so Abigail thought, until she stumbled upon his photo and a message that her great-great-grandmother was the author Evelyn Aubrey, leading Abigail on a journey to England in search for answers. There, she learns of Evelyn’s shocking disappearance and how London society believed she was murdered. But from what she uncovers about Evelyn, Abigail believes her brilliant great-great-grandmother had another plot up her sleeve.

Rich in atmosphere and emotion, The Stolen Book of Evelyn Aubrey tells the story of literary secrets, a family curse and the lengths women will go to take charge of their future.  

 

 

 

 

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This Friday Focus: Bookish Memes to Start the Weekend post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com. It cannot be republished without attribution.