Illumination: A Guide to the Buddhist Method of No-Method by Rebecca Li: Sunday Salon

 

Title: Illumination: A Guide to the Buddhist Method of No-Method

Author: Rebecca Li    Publication: October 31, 2023 by Shambhala

Source: Wiley Saichek of Saichek Publicity 

My take on reading the Introduction and part of Chapter I, is that silent illumination means accepting and looking closely at your thoughts as they come while you sit in meditation. And not by trying to make your mind blank by focusing only on your breathing, etc. 

I have heard something similar to this meditation technique before. Allowing your thoughts to arise, examining them, seeing your reaction, and then letting them go. 

I will have to read more of the book to see how close that is to Rebecca Li's point. I am now curious!

From the Publisher's summary:

A modern guide from Chan Buddhist teacher Rebecca Li.

The practice of silent illumination is simple, allowing each moment to be experienced as it is in order to manifest our innate wisdom and natural capacity for compassion.

Rebecca Li shows us how we can recognize and unlearn our ... habits of mind that get in the way of being fully present and engaged with life. 

Illumination offers stories and real-life examples, references to classic Buddhist texts, and insights from Chan Master Sheng Yen to guide readers as they practice silent illumination.

Currently also reading:

For Book Club which I may or may not attend in December, I am reading, just in case I do go to book club, a novel on writing and plagiarism, 

Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot  (May 2021) is a psychologically suspenseful novel about a story too good not to steal, and the writer who steals it. (goodreads) Was it okay for Jake to take his deceased student's plot and make it into his own novel, even though the student never wrote the book before he overdosed and died?

Lots to think about and discuss, especially since this is the third recent book with the same theme of writer plagiarism. The most recent was Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, which addresses plagiarism, stealing in the publishing world, and cultural appropriation. I reviewed this book in January 2023.

Review of novel on writer plagiarism reposted:

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, May 2023; William Morrow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I realized by a third of the way into the book that the title, Yellowface, refers to the old practice of using ethnic white actors to portray East Asian characters in film and on stage.

The title was fitting for this novel, I thought, as the main character and book narrator, June Hayward, not only stole the unpublished manuscript of her Yale college friend - acclaimed Chinese American author, Athena Liu - but also tried to claim to be Chinese by changing her name from June Hayward to Juniper Song. Her book photograph also made her seem to be Asian.
Athena's book detailed the World War I Chinese Corps of workers who went to Europe to help the Allies by doing the drudge work of war. June had to justify knowledge of that subject matter and appear to be an expert also on the Chinese and Chinese history.

This was a complex novel as it was told from only June's point of view. I didn't know whether to hate or to pity her for her devious strategies to gain fame and fortune from the stolen manuscript and to maintain her false identity as a Chinese writer. 
I saw the book had two purposes, however, to show the history of Yellowfacing and racism, and also to reveal the pitfalls of the publishing industry for writers. June felt the publishing world's need for diversity, which led them to focus on promoting promising authors like Athena Liu, giving extra publicity and help to get a book on its way.

I thought this novel was a brilliant addition to literary fiction and Asian American literature.

What's on your reading schedule this week and/or the rest of thejmonth?i

nly202

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon, Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday.

Book Beginning: If You Are Lonely....A Short Story by Yiyun Li

 

If You Are Lonely and You Know It by Yiyun Li
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Genre: short story

Gordon, a single divorced man, has as his only companions a foster pit bull disliked by the neighborhood, and an elderly widow who rents him the bungalow on her property. These contacts seem to be enough for him at the moment, as he goes out of his way to avoid conflicts with the neighbors re his dog, and continues taking care of his crochety landlord by doing her chores and creating a garden on the property. 

An interesting slice of one man's life.

 

Book beginning:

"She should've given you a different name," Gordon said. "No offence, but Ajax is a terrible name. A terrible role model for anyone. What about Odysseus, with some brains at least?"

The dog's eyes, limpid and devoid of self-doubt, did not show any recognition of the misfortune of his name.... 

Would you read on?

 Visit Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader for this meme. 

The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian: Book Beginning

 

The Lioness

by 

Chris Bohjalian

Published May 10th 2022 by Doubleday Books

About the book: A luxurious African safari turns deadly for a Hollywood starlet and her entourage in this historical thriller set in Tanganyika, now Tanzania.

Book beginning/First paragraph:

Katie Barslow

She was watching the giraffes at the watering hole after breakfast, no longer as awed by their presence as she had been even four days ago, when she'd had first seen a great herd of them eating leaves from a copse of tall umbrella acacia, their heads occasionally bobbing up to stare back, unfazed and not especially alarmed by the humans. 

Page 56: 

"No," she told him, feeling more like his mother than his wife. "You're right to be scared. We should be. But..."

 

Click on the title, The Lioness, to see my Goodreads review.  

 Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Find any sentence that grabs you on page 56 of your book. Post it, and add your URL to Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader.

Book Review: The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang

 

The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang

Published February 1st 2022 by W. W. Norton Company

Genre: Cultural heritage fiction, mystery, literary fiction 
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's amazing that a chance encounter with a stranger, Zhang Fujian, carrying a small fortune in his bag would lead to the downfall of the Chao family patriarch, owner of the Chao restaurant, and lead to suspicion falling on the three sons. James, the youngest son, helping an old Chinese man at the train station began the turmoil of events. Little did anyone know that the man's blue bag, forgotten in the back of a car, would be removed and transported to different places and cause a major problem for the Chao family.

How the three brothers - master chef Dagou, industrious and ambitious Ming, and college student James - stick together, facing the insults and disdain of their overbearing father during the illness and the death of their mother, and how they rally in each other's defense is admirable. Family secrets also prove fatal in this story.

I enjoyed the characterization of each son, so different from one another, and the denouement of the plot in this domestic drama. There is a murder mystery to be solved, also, but I liked that the brothers join together in the face of being children of immigrants in a small American town, and in the face of possible, pending tragedy.

Critics have called The Family Chao a reimagining of  The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky.

View all my reviews

Book beginning: 

For thirty-five years everybody supported Leo Chao's restaurant. Introducing choosy newcomers by showing off some real Chinese food in Haven, Wisconsin. 

At 56% of ebook: 

Then after Winnie died, someone - one of his brothers, or even one of this parents' friends -would have carried the blue blag out of the hospital and loaded it into a car. And then what? 

 

Memes: The Friday 56. Find any sentence that grabs you on page 56 of your book. Post it, and add your URL to Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader.

Book Review: Fault Lines by Emily Itami

 

Fault Lines by Emily Itami, September 7, 2021, Custom House

Genre: contemporary women's fiction, multicultural

Setting: Tokyo

Source: library book

 

Review: 

Fault Lines is about a mother and wife feeling trapped in household duties with young children, having no career of her own and an indifferent often absent husband who seems to take little interest in her home life. Mizuki has no other outlet outside of  being a perfect Japanese mother and wife, and misses the days when she was single and worked as a singer.

Enter Kiyoshi, whom Mizuki begins a friendship with that becomes more serious as they spend many days and evenings together exploring the vibrant city that is Tokyo.  Her outings happen during the school hours and on the  evenings when her children are asleep with a babysitter and her husband is working late at the office.

The cultural aspects of being a traditional woman, mother, and wife in Japan stood out for me. The rigorous expectations of society for women are difficult for Mizuki as she has lived in the U.S. and experienced more freedom and life choices. That she finds comfort in a friendship outside of her marriage is not a surprise. The outcome of this friendship could go both ways, as Mizuki is influenced by her culture and her love for her children. She describes the fault lines in herself as similar to the ones that lie beneath the city of Tokyo, always threatening to plunge the city into a catastrophe. 

I enjoyed touring Tokyo by day and night through the book, visiting the various sights, restaurants, and museums and the crowded and busy main streets. The story was excellently told to reveal a place and culture that many Westerners don't know or may not understand very well. 

Book beginning:

The whole Kyoshi situation started a long time before he was ever in the picture. The way a calligraphy painting begins before the first black stroke makes it onto the page. 

Page 56: 

The bar was in Shinjuku, and though places were closing, the streets were still full of people.

The Friday 56. Find any sentence that grabs you on page 56 of your book. Post it, and add your URL to Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader.

The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu: Book Review/Book Beginning

 

The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu, November 9, 2021, Avon, library book 

Genres:  romantic comedy, YA, contemporary fiction, immigrant fiction, multicultural interest 

Book beginning: 

All of my customers have told me at one point or another that Sunshine Donuts is their happy place. Who can blame them? There are colorful sprinkled donuts.... To live and breathe it every day, that's a different story. 

Page 56: 

His lightly tanned skin was so perfectly even and smooth, with tiny freckles under his left eye. 

Book review: 

As the title suggests, Jasmine finds herself trapped in her parents' donut shop after recently graduating from college. Her feelings of obligation to her immigrant Chinese-Cambodian parents keep her at home, knowing they need help, even though they encourage her to find a job. 

In love, dating, marriage, family obligations, career, Jas weighs what she wants for herself and what her parents expect from her. When her current crush, Alex, and his mother come to dinner at her parents' house, the evening ends in a minor disaster,  Alex is no longer welcome, and Jas is in conflict.

 But Jas is determined to live her own life and to also help her parents update their store's donut offerings to keep up with the competition, hire additional help, and leave her free to find her own path.

A contemporary novel of young adults - Jas and her brother Pat-  finding their own way while appreciating and loving their families, I gave this five stars for being spot on re this topic. 

The Friday 56. Find any sentence that grabs you on page 56 of your book. Post it, and add your URL to Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader.

Book Beginning: Lemon by Kwon Yeo-sun

 

Lemon by Kwon Yeo-sun is described as loosely following the structure of a detective novel. The mysterious death of a high school beauty is revisited seventeen years later; the story is told mainly by the victim's sister and also by others at different time periods. The book "explores grief and trauma, raising important questions about guilt, retribution, and the meaning of death and life."

Book beginning: 

 I imagine what happened inside one police interrogation room so many years ago. By imagine, I don't mean invent. But it's not like I was actually there, so I don't know what to actually call it. I picture the scene from that day, based on what he told me and some other clues, my own experience and conclusions.

Page 56:

Mother, with her voice shaking, ordered me not to go anywhere, to lock the door and stay put. 

 

 Lemon by Kwon Yeo-sun, October 12, 2021, Other Press

Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Find any sentence that grabs you on page 56 of your book. Post it, and add your URL to Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader.

The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina: Book Beginning

 

The phone booth at the edge of the world by Laura Imai Messina
Published March 9, 2021, Harry N. Abrams

Book description: "grief, mourning, and the joy of survival, inspired by a real phone booth in Japan with its disconnected “wind” phone, a place of pilgrimage and solace since the 2011 tsunami."

Yui makes a pilgrimage to the phone booth in the garden of Bel Gardia, at the foot of the Mountain of the Whale. Here people find solace in talking on the disconnected phone to the ones they lost in the tsunami of March 11, 2011, their voices carried away by the wind. 

Book beginning:

Prologue

In the vast, steep garden of Bel Gardia, great gusts of wind lashed the plants.

The woman instinctively raised an elbow to her face, rounding her back. Then, almost immediately, she straightened up again. 

She had arrived before dawn, and watched as the sun came up but the sun remained hidden....

Page 56:

"She's stopped talking, yes, but I'm optimistic, and so is the pediatrician."

 

Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Find any sentence that grabs you on page 56 of your book. Post it, and add your URL to Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader.

Book Beginning: The Taste of Ginger by Mansi Shah

 The Taste of Ginger by Mansi Shah, January 1, 2022, Lake Union Publishing

Genre: multi-cultural, contemporary fiction, family drama, romance

Description: a family tragedy beckons Preeti Desai, a first-generation immigrant in the U.S., back to the city of her birth in India. There, she has to navigate her way through a cultural and generational minefield as she tries to maintain her personal independence and a carefully nurtured Western outlook. 

Book beginning:

A gaggle of women, all speaking over each other in loud, animated voices, filled my parents' small living room. It was like watching a National Geographic special about social dominance, where pitch and decibel level determined the leader. They wandered around the room, grazing on homemade samosas and pakoras, careful not to get oily crumbs on the delicate fabric of their brightly colored saris. 

 Page 56: 

Until yesterday, we hadn't spoken in months. Not since she found out that my boyfriend - now ex-boyfriend - and I had been living together in Los Angeles. 

Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Find any sentence that grabs you on page 56 of your book. Post it, and add your URL to Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader.

Book Beginning: The Perfect Family by Teresa Driscoll

Her Perfect Family by Teresa Driscoll, November 1, 2021, Thomas & Mercer

Genre: psychological thriller

Book beginning:

PROLOGUE

Pink

The daughter looks at her outfit. And suddenly, at the eleventh hour, she realizes the colour is all wrong. 

 

Page 56:

"Don't you test his clothing or something? For residue. I've seen that on the television -'

Book description: The perfect family? Or the perfect lie?

Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Find any sentence that grabs you on page 56 of your book. Post it, and add your URL to Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader.

The Girl From Venice by Martin Cruz Smith

 From my bookshelves:

The Girl from Venice by Martin Cruz Smith, October 2016, Simon Schuster

Genre: WWII historical fiction, romance

The setting is Venice during the time of Mussolini in WWII, the German occupation of Italy during and just after the war, with the various partisans and their politics. Holding all this together is a love story between a simple fisherman and a girl he found floating in the lagoon, feigning death for her safety.

I learned a lot more about Italy during the war and the role of Il Duce, who changed sides during the war and who was shot by partisans at the end.

Book beginning:

Without a moon, small islands disappeared and Venice sank into the dark. Stars, however, were so brilliant that Cenzo felt drawn to them, even as mud oozed between his toes. The faint report of church bells carried over the lagoon, from farms drifted the smell of manure, and once or twice he caught the tremolo of a German gunboat plowing the water.  

Page 56:

"The SS is raiding hospitals. It makes no sense,"  Cenzo said. 

Would you read on? 

Memes: Book Beginning at Rose City Reader

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add to the Linky at Freda's Voice

The Cat and the City by Nick Bradley: Book Beginning

 

The Cat and the City by Nick Bradley, August 1, 2021, Atlantic Books

Genre: stories set in Tokyo.  Source: library book

Book beginning:

Tattoo

Kentaro held the cup of hot coffee to his lips and blew at the rising steam. The back office of his tattoo parlor was dimly lit, and the light from his laptop screen gave his dirty white stubble a blueish hue. Reflected in his glasses, a long list of links on an open webpage scrolled up slowly. His hand gripped a Blutooth mouse, the buttons covered with greasy finger marks...

Page 56:

Street Fighter II (Turbo)

The screen froze, went white, then displayed two words.

GAME OVER

"What the hell!" I beat the side of the machine with my fist. "Come on."

Comments from readers...interlocking stories of cats, Tokyo, loneliness and redemption. (David Mitchell, via Twitter) 

The Cat and The City is a love letter to Japan and its literature.... He is also very clearly a man with a great tenderness for cats. (Rowan Hisayo Buchanan)

Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice.
Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Book Beginning: Hanging Falls, a mystery by Margaret Mizushima

 

Hanging Falls by Margaret Mizushima, August 10, 2021, Crooked Lane Books

Genre: mystery in a series, police procedural

Murder stalks the rugged Colorado high country--and sends officer Mattie Cobb on a quest to uncover the darkest secrets from her past (publisher)

Book beginning:

Friday morning, mid-July

A stitch in her side plagued Deputy Mattie Cobb as she jogged uphill, telling her that her level of anxiety and this form of exercise didn't mix. Running in the Colorado high country around Timber Creek had soothed her for years, but not today. Her mind kept jumping back to the one thing that made her so...well, she'd have to say frightened, excited, and nervous all at once. 

Page 56:

"In Colorado you can possess a small amount of marijuana for use in your own home, but it's against the law to smoke it in a national forest." Mattie recited the code, watching his face fall. 

Would you read on?

Memes: The Friday 56. Find any sentence that grabs you on page 56 of your book. Post it, and add your URL to Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Book Beginning: First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami

 

First Person Singular Stories by Haruki Murakami, April 6, 2021, Knopf

The picture of the snow monkey on the cover reminds me of winter coming, as autumn is just about here, and the temperatures will soon be dropping. It also reminds me the library will be after me to return this book, which has been on my shelves for too long. So let me begin reading with the First Paragraph. 

First paragraph, first story (Cream):

So I'm telling a younger friend of mine about a strange incident that took place when I was eighteen. I don't recall exactly why I brought it up. It just happened to come up as we were talking. I mean, it was something that happened long ago. Ancient history. On top of which, I was never able to reach any conclusion about it. 

 

Page 56: (Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova)

The editor did kick up a bit of a fuss about my having tricked him. I didn't actually fool him, but merely omitted a detailed explanation. 

Has anybody read these stories yet? 

 Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Find any sentence that grabs you on page 56 of your book. Post it, and add your URL to Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Book Beginning: Paris, A Life Less Ordinary, A Memoir by Krystal Kenney

 Another book of Paris: 

Paris: A Life Less Ordinary, a Memoir by Krystal Kenney, December 1, 2020, Kindle Unlimited 

Publisher description: Krystal Kenney sets out to conquer her dream of living abroad and starting her photography business in the city of light. She falls in love with Paris, but quickly learns that Paris does not love her back..., forcing her to fall apart before she can... build herself into a modern independent woman

Book beginning: It's pouring rain, dark and cold, and I'm sitting on the front stoop of a church in Paris. Tears stream down my face, falling harder than the rain. I'm crying so hard, it scares me. It's the type of crying where you have a hard time catching your breath, that's been waiting to unload from months of stress and self-induced trauma.

Page 56: I'm always nervous about wearing any revealing clothing in Paris because I know it's dangerous here. 

Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice.
Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Book Beginning: The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim

 

The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim, September 1, 2020, Park Row
Source: library 

Genre: Asian-American fiction, immigration

Publisher description: (An) unconventional mother-daughter saga, The Last Story of Mina Lee illustrates the devastating realities of being an immigrant in America.

Book beginning:

MARGOT

Fall 2014

Margot's final conversation with her mother had seemed so uneventful, so ordinary - another choppy bilingual plod. Half-understandable. 

Business was slow again today. Even all the Korean businesses downtown are closing

What did you eat for dinner? 

Page 56: 

"A boyfriend?" Margot's mother had never mentioned or expressed romantic interest in anyone, even the occasional shopkeeper at the swap meet who courted her. 

Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice.
Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Book Beginning: My Year Abroad by Chang-rae Lee

 

Title: My Year Abroad by Chang-rae Lee, Feb. 2, 2021, Riverhead Books

Genre: literary fiction

Publisher description: a young American life transformed by an unusual Asian adventure 

Book beginning:

I won't say where I am in this greatish country of ours, as that could be dicey for Val and her XL little boy, Victor Jr., but it's a place like most others, nothing too awful or uncomfortable, with no enduring vistas or distinctive traditions to admire, no funny accents or habits of the locals to wonder at or find repellent. 

Would you read on? 

For more of this meme, visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

 

Her Enemy by Leena Lehtolainen: Book Beginning

 

Her Enemy by Leena Lehtolainen, a Maria Kallio Mystery #2, May 2013, AmazonCrossing

Genre: crime fiction set in Finland

Source: Kindle Unlimited

Detective Maria Kallio becomes a legal counselor but finds herself solving a crime as if she were still with the police force. A relative of her new boyfriend is found murdered and Kallio is motivated to investigate high society in the town of Espoo, Finland.

Book beginning:

The cherry trees were the first thing I saw when I woke up. The spring had been warm and now the trees were blossoming with fluffy, fragrant bunches of flowers. Antti always wanted to sleep with the curtains open so we could see the curled branches against the night sky. It made it hard for me to sleep, but I had gradually gotten used to it.  

Page 56:  

"Everyone is certainly dressed to the nines," I stuttered to her, and then smiled at a transsexual dressed in the guise of a 1960s housewife who danced past. People had strange fantasies - there really were people who wanted that old fashioned life. 

Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice.
Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

A Hundred Suns by Karin Tanabe: Book Beginning

 

A Hundred Suns by Karin Tanabe, April 7, 2020, St. Martin's Press

Genre: historical fiction

Setting: 1930s Indochine (Vietnam)

An American woman accompanies her French husband, a Michelin heir, to his vast rubber plantations in Indochina. Vietnam is a French colony during this period, and the novel focuses on the lavish lifestyles of the French in Indochina of the 1930s. 

Book beginning:

Jessie   November 20, 1933

The house of a hundred suns. That's what my tai xe called it. The first time he ferried me to the train station, in a black Delahaye as polished as a gem stone, he slowly circled the building, avoiding the rawboned rickshaw drivers. I craned my neck, watching as the car's exhaust left a trail behind us like a mollusk's track, and tried my best to concentrate on his words, not the quick tempo of my heart. 

 

Page 56:

"Did you arrive today? You must have. And then you are dragged out to the jungle on your first night in Hanoi."

"I don't mind," I lied.

 

 Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice.
Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

To Tell You the Truth by Gilly Macmillan: Book Beginning and Review

 

To Tell You the Truth by Gilly Macmillan, September 22, 2020, William Morrow

Genre: mystery, psychological thriller

Setting: Bristol, England

I liked the unusual plot, the persuasive characterization, and the realistic conclusion to the mystery. Lucy Harper is a successful mystery writer whose husband Dan, a failed writer, takes the time to manage her accounts, her home, and her success. But Lucy is haunted by the disappearance years ago of her three-year-old brother, when she was only nine. She blames herself even now, and confides the story only to Dan. 

She is also haunted by the "real" and continued presence of Eliza, the police detective heroine of her mystery books, a character that was her childhood imaginary friend who she makes into the very popular heroine of her novels. 

Dan becomes a mystery himself when he makes decisions for them without consulting Lucy. A new house near the area where she grew up, an area which Dan knows carries upsetting memories for Lucy. In unraveling Dan's actions, his motives, and his own disappearance, Lucy finds out more about what is going that impacts her life. 

I thought this deserved a five star rating, as I literally "couldn't put it down." 

Book beginning:

I typed "The End," clicked the save button, and clicked it again just to make sure. I felt a huge relief that I had finished my novel, and on top of that a heady mixture of  elation and exhaustion. But there were also terrible nerves, much worse than usual, because typing those words meant the consequences of a secret decision that I'd made months ago would have to be faced now. 

 Page 56:  

They've rejected the book, I told Dan, and the concerned expression fell from his face and shattered on the floor like a piece of dropped porcelain. 

Would you read on?

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice.
Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.