Book Beginnings on Fridays

I'm trying to work out what I'd like to read next.

I'm 3/4's of the way through the Gone With the Wind readalong, but I'm being good at stopping at the end of each reading section, so that any comments I make do not contain spoilers.

So I'm looking for something lighter, slimmer and quicker to read in between.

Perhaps you can help me decide which book I should take to bed tonight!

Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido -

Since I have no other, I use as preface Jacob's preface which I read, sneakily, fifteen years ago, when it lay on the Goldmans' breakfast table, amid the cornflakes;

'I cannot in good conscience give the statutory thanks to my wife,' it says, 'for helpful comments on the manuscript, patient reading of drafts or corrections to proofs, because Jane did none of these things. She seldom reads and when she does it is never a thing of mine. Going by the lavish thanks to wives which I find in the prefaces to other men's books, I deem myself uniquely injudicious in having married a woman who refuses to double as a high-grade editorial assistant. Since custom requires me to thank her for something, I thank her instead for the agreeable fact of her continuing presence which in twenty years I have never presumed to expect.'

Promising? A bit of humour, a bit of snap and bite. It could be the perfect antidote to a Civil War chunkster.

My other choice is The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide -

At first it looked like low-lying ribbons of clouds just floating there, but then the clouds would be blown a little bit to the right and next to the left.

The small window in the corner of our kitchen bordered on a tall wooden fence, so close a person could barely pass by. From inside the house, its frosted glass looked like a dim movie screen.

This one sounds a little more introspective and thoughtful. It also has one of the best covers I've seen this year. Modern Japanese literature is about as far as possible from Civil War US as I can get!

Which way should I go?

Linking up with Book Beginnings on Fridays over at Rose City Reader.

Freaky Friday

I haven't participated in the Friday features for quite some time. We've had such a lovely, busy, social summer that has left me little time for regular blogging habits.

But a quiet weekend looms ahead and it's time to catch my blogging breath!

I've had Paris on my mind again lately, so this week I'm going to highlight John Baxter's The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris.


Book Beginning:
Flipping through the front pages is a tantalising experience.

A map of Paris with a key of things to see and visit.
A quote by Walt Whitman to whet our appetites "We must not tarry here, We must march my darlings." Three delicious pages of contents...and then,

chapter 1 "To Walk the Walk".

"Every day, heading down rue de l'Odéon toward 

Café Danton on the corner of boulevard Saint-Germain 

or towards the market on rue Buci, I pass them. 

The walkers."

 Page 56:

"Walking in Paris requires the same rhythm. 

People who lead tours or write guides crave an itinerary, 

the route A to B. 

The flâneur has no such aim."

I doubt very much that this book will make me cry. 

I suspect it will make me pine and yearn and hope. 

It will  probably make my itchy feet squirm with impatience.

But cry? No.

Parajunkee and Alison Can Read have asked the question this Friday "What was the last book to make you cry?"

I don't cry easily, but I do get teary and sentimental and gushy. Occasionally a book will cause a few tears to run down my cheeks. Only a couple have made me sob.

The two sobbers come from my childhood. 

They have caused me to sob as an adult as well. 

They are Anne of Green Gables (when Matthew dies) and Seven Little Australians (the final chapter watching them all get on without Judy!!!!!) - it gets me every time.

Little Women/Good Wives almost makes it into this category with a heaving chest and a big long drawn out sigh of sadness, but, alas, no sobs!

The last time tears ran down my cheeks whilst reading was Room by Emma Donoghue.

I also remember some tears at the end of The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, The Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson, Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta, The Colour Purple by Alice Walker and The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak.

For those of you who don't know The Power of One, let me enlighten you with a Friday Flashback.

It was published by South African born, but moved-to-Australia author, Bryce Courtenay in 1989.

I didn't read it until the movie starring Morgan Freeman came out in 1992.

It's set in South Africa during apartheid in the 1940's and 50's - a time we now know well thanks to the memoirs of Nelson Mandela.

I don't remember a lot of the details of the book any more, but the injustices of the apartheid system were burnt onto my soul at the time.

It was my first real look at what was going in South Africa & coincided with the release of Mandela from prison. 

It horrified me that I knew so little about the world and that this kind of oppression could still exist in my own lifetime.

I surprised myself by how strongly I responded to this book. I was like the child character, Peekay, slowly having my eyes opened to the horror of apartheid. 

Of course I cried!

Red hot tears of frustration and rage. 

Bitter tears at my inability to know what to do to change things.

I'm not sure how my older, more jaded self would view this book now. 

I think somes books are meant to be read at a certain time in one's life and never again. And I suspect this may be one of those.

Happy Friday everyone

Bookish Friday

This week for Book Beginnings on Fridays and The Friday 56 I've selected Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys.

I really enjoyed Sepetys' last book for the teen/YA market called Between Shades of Gray (not to be confused with that other book with a very similar title).


Book Beginning: "My mother's a prostitute. Not the filthy, streetwalking kind. She's actually quite pretty, fairly well spoken, and has lovely clothes. But she sleeps with men for money or gifts, and according to the dictionary, that makes her a prostitute."

Page 56:  "The door to the shop flew open. "Get your hands off her!" Cokie ordered. He was carrying a tyre iron."



Feature and Follow Friday is hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee. Today's challenge is to create spine poetry.

              Strangers,
      We need new names.
          Out of the easy,
            Every breath,
          When we wake -
          Winter damage!
            You are here.

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Raven Flight by Juliet Marillier and Friday Memes

This week for Book Beginnings on Fridays and The Friday 56 I've selected Raven Flight by Juliet Marillier.

This is the second book in her YA Shadowfell series. I was pleasantly surprised by my love for the first book (although very disappointed in the cover choice). Raven Flight has been given a much better cover - far more suitable for its intended audience, so we're off to a good start!

Book Beginnings:
As the lone traveller approached, the five Enforcers spread out in a line across the path.

Page 56:
The five tiny folk came forward, bearing their wreath. It was about the size of a woman's wristlet. They stopped in front of Regan and held it up. 

Book Beginnings Friday and The Friday 56

This week for Book Beginnings on Fridays and The Friday 56 I've selected The Childhood of Jesus by J. M. Coetzee

Beginning:
The man at the gate points them towards a low, sprawling building in the middle distance. 'If you hurry,' he says, 'you can check in before they close their doors for the day.'

Page 56:
'He didn't steal the money. He didn't steal the bicycle. Stealing means taking what doesn't belong to you while no one is looking. We were all looking while he took the money. We could have stopped him, but we didn't. We chose not to fight with him. We chose to let him go. Surely you approve. You are the one who says we shouldn't fight.'

This book is getting some fabulous reviews and I can't wait to get into it.
Coetzee received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003 and has won the Booker Prize twice.

Book Beginnings Friday and The Friday 56

This week for Book Beginnings on Fridays and The Friday 56 I've selected Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston




Beginning:
Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.




Page 56:
'Speakin' of winds, he's de wind and we'se de grass. We bend which ever way he blows,' Sam Watson agreed, 'but at dat us needs him. De town wouldn't be nothin' if it wasn't for him. He can't help bein' sorta bossy. Some folks needs thrones, and ruling chairs and crowns tuh make they influence felt. He don't. He's got uh throne in de seat of his pants.'

I'm loving this book to pieces. I can't believe I had never heard of it until I joined in the sync reading on the Classics Club this month.

Book Beginnings Friday and The Friday 56

Book Beginning:

"A life, like a film, has a beginning, a middle and an end. There may be a cast of thousands, millions even, and the action may skip over several continents and be darkened by war or famine or the ceaseless struggle for power."

Page 56:

"Children stopped and stared. Parents leaped from their towels to join the search. Before the panic had sunk its teeth in, Mal heard a muffled squeal and found him."

This week for Book Beginnings on Fridays and The Friday 56 I've selected Scot Gardner's 2010 teen novel 'Happy As Larry'.

I read 'The Dead I Know' last year and was very impressed by the writing. Since then I've been meaning to read another book by Scot Gardner... this one looks promising.

Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

Book Beginning:

"Me name be Hannah O'Brien and I be seventy-six years old. Me first thing is an apology - me language is bad cos I lost it and had to learn again. But here's me story and I be glad to tell it before I hop the twig."

Page 56:

"It was a greyish colour, with sharp bits of bone and shells sticking out of it. The tigers sniffed it. The smell made their tails go stiff with joy. They were nibbling at it. I knew I had to wait me turn but I culdn't wait. I grabbed it for meself."

This week for Book Beginnings on Fridays and The Friday 56 I've selected Louis Nowra's first book for the YA audience called 'Into That Forest'.

Book Beginnings on Fridays and The Friday 56

Rose City Reader hosts this meme every week for those of us too tired by Friday night to write a lengthy review!
Simply share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.


Freda's Voice hosts The Friday 56 meme.

Friday 56 goes with Book Beginnings like cheese and crackers, ice-cream and milo or tequila and lime!

Simply go to page 56 of the book you are reading and give us a taster.

This week's book is 'The Peculiar' by Stefan Bachmann.

Book Beginning:

Feathers fell from the sky.
Like black snow, they drifted onto an old city called Bath. They whirled down the roofs, gathered in the corners of the alleys, and turned everything dark and silent, like a winter's day.

Page 56:

It wouldn't do any good to cry. Bartholomew ran his hand over his nose. A crying thief would still be hanged. He looked down at the markings all around him and tried to think.

There has been a lot of hype about the age of this author (18), his unique voice, the beautiful poetic language, the curious creatures and the clever combining of steampunk and fantasy.

The cover is very striking, with eye-catching quotes/recommendations from Rick Riordan and Christopher Paolini.

I'm intrigued to find out for myself what all the fuss is about.

Book Beginnings on Fridays and the Friday 56

Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays every week for those of us too tired by Friday night to write a lengthy review!

Simply share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.


Freda's Voice hosts The Friday 56 meme.

Friday 56 goes with Book Beginnings like cheese and crackers, ice-cream and milo or tequila and lime!

Simply go to page 56 of the book you are reading and give us a taster.

This week's book is designed to tick many of my boxes. Historical fiction (tick), strong female protagonist (tick), disaster (tick), family drama (tick).

Fingers crossed xxxxxxxxxxx

All Fall down by Sally Nicholls

The beginning:

'I buried with my own hands five of my children in a single grave...No bells. No tears. This is the end of the world. Angola di Turu 1348.'

The year I turned thirteen, it rained every day from Midsummer to Christmastide.

Page 56:

"I don't know how I'd live!" says Robin. "Maybe I wouldn't. But it would be better than staying here, wouldn't it?"
I'm silent. Alice wanted to leave, I know. But every part of me screams that if we leave our land, if we leave our fields, it wouldn't matter if we survived the pestilence. We'd have stopped being ourselves already.

Book Beginnings on Friday & The Friday 56

Rose City Reader hosts this meme every week for those of us too tired by Friday night to write a lengthy review!

Simply share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.


Freda's Voice hosts The Friday 56 meme.

Friday 56 goes with Book Beginnings like cheese and crackers, ice-cream and milo or tequila and lime!

Simply go to page 56 of the book you are reading and give us a taster.

This week I'm reading 'Montebello: A Memoir' by Australian author Robert Drewe.

The beginning:
"It was that fabled occasion, a dark and stormy night, the sea just a blacker inked line in the distance, and I was lying in bed in the deep gloom of 3 am, singing Blueberry Hill in my Fats Domino voice."

Page 56:
"Not so long ago, from 1954 to 1962, whale watchers were those who came to see the humpback whales being winched ashore and sliced up. Whaling was Byron Bay's first tourism experience."

I loved 'Shark Net', Drewe's previous memoir based on his childhood in Western Australia.

His descriptions of time, place and culture were so spot on that I felt like I had lived his childhood. And of course, in one way I did. Although a decade younger than Drewe, the things he remembered, the way life was in Australia back then was the same for many of us.

I have high hopes for Montebello, the sequel to Shark Net. It would seem that some of this story will be set in NSW - judging by the two quotes above. And it looks like I can expect and enjoy more of his observations on the geography, the history and the culture of growing up in Australia.

Happy face!

Book Beginnings on Friday & The Friday 56

Rose City Reader hosts this meme every week for those of us too tired by Friday night to write a lengthy review!

In honour of one of my dear colleagues who has left us for new and exciting opportunities, this weekend I will read 'Young Hearts Crying' by Richard Yates.

I miss her dearly already.

She has been telling me for nearly 3 years how much she loves Richard Yates and how much she thinks I will love him too.


So here goes..."By the time he was twenty-three, Michael Davenport had learned to trust his own skepticism."



Freda's Voice hosts The Friday 56 meme.

Friday 56 goes with Book Beginnings like cheese and crackers, ice-cream and milo or tequila and lime!

Simply go to page 56 of the book you are reading and give us a taster.


"Larchmont would never be Cambridge, but the smell of this girl's hair and the taste of her mouth, the sounds of her voice and her impassioned breathing, hadn't changed at all from the times under the Army blankets on Ware Street, years ago."

Book Beginnings on Friday #2

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader.

This is a wonderful Friday meme for me. I'm often dead tired by Friday evening, but looking forward to a weekend of reading.

Too tired to write a proper review of a book, but feeling the urge to write something.

So this is the beginning of 'Broken' by Elizabeth Pulford.

"My head is full of bubbles. Strange floating words, bits of conversations, bits of people. Some I know. Some I don't. Hundreds of coloured dots. I can't see straight. Can't think straight. I seem to be nowhere. I seem to be everywhere. If only the wretched thumping in my head would stop."

My first thought is, "oh no - another memory loss story!"

Although, strictly speaking, this is not the beginning of the book. 
On the adjoining page is a scrap of newsprint from 'The Daily Times'. The headline screams 'Courageous Action Saves the Life of Toddler But With Devastating Results'. The story mentions Jem Wilson who is killed when his motorbike swerves to avoid hitting a toddler that ran out onto the road. His sister Zara was taken to hospital with extensive injuries. The toddlers family claim Jem is a hero. Investigations continue....

A quick google found this little snippet at Walker Books which also gives you an idea of the artwork throughout the book.

Whether I finish this book or not will ultimately depend on the weather this weekend. It could go either way!

Book Beginnings on Fridays

Although it is strictly speaking, no longer Friday where I live, I figure it is Friday still somewhere in the world!

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader.

This week I am reading 'Bring Up the Bodies' by Hilary Mantel.

The opening lines (after several pages of cast of characters and family trees) are...

"His children are falling from the sky. He watches from horseback, acres of England stretching behind him; they drop, gilt-winged, each with a blood-filled gaze. Grace Cromwell hovers in thin air. She is silent when she takes her prey, silent as she glides to his fist. But the sounds she makes then, the rustle of feathers and the creak, the sigh and riffle of pinion, the small cluck-cluck from her throat, these are sounds of recognition, intimate, daughterly, almost disapproving. Her breast is gore-streaked and flesh clings to her claws.

Later, Henry will say, 'Your girls flew well today.' The hawk Anne Cromwell bounces on the glove of Rafe Sadler, who rides by the king in easy conversation. They are tired; the sun is declining, and they ride back to Wolf Hall with the reins slack on the necks of their mounts."

Strictly speaking this is a little more than the opening lines!

Bring Up the Bodies is the sequel to Wolf Hall. Wolf Hall finishes as the King and Cromwell ride off to stay with the Seymour family at Wolf Hall for the first time.

I had heard that Bring Up the Bodies was going to be more about Anne Boleyn and Mary, so the opening lines confused me.

Was it a dream sequence? Was Cromwell remembering the deaths of his daughters and his wife from his own death-bed?

Birds? Of course, the cover has a bird of prey on it!

He named his birds of prey after his wife and daughters? Really??

Whats going on?

Ohhhh, they're out hunting....with the King...OMG!! They're still at Wolf Hall!!

This book picks up exactly where Wolf Hall finished - how delightful. I haven't missed a moment - not one single moment '- how wonderful - ahhhhhhhhhhhh  (sigh of relief and pleasure and anticipation.)