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 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.

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 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: 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.

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.

Book Beginning: How Much of these Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang

 

How Much of these Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang, April 7, 2020, Riverhead Books

Genre: re-imagined history, adventure, fantasy

Setting: ending of the American Gold Rush

Two young siblings, orphaned and alone after the death of their Chinese parents in the California of the Gold Rush, set out to give their father a burial that they feel is appropriate. They embark on various adventures, discover a strange landscape, and glimpse "a different kind of future." 

Book beginning: 

Ba dies in the night, prompting them to seek two silver dollars. 

Sam's tapping an angry beat come morning, but Lucy, before they go, feels the need to speak. Silence weighs harder on her, pushes till she gives way. 

"Sorry," she says to Ba in his bed. The sheet that tucks him in is the only clean stretch in this dim and dusty shack, every surface black with coal. Ba didn't heed the mess while living and in death his mean squint goes right past it. Past Lucy. Straight to Sam. Sam, the favorite, round bundle of impatience circling the doorway in too-big boots.... 

Page 56: 

"Then of course you know what's in these mountains," the man says, a smile playing on his face. 

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 Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

 I went to one of our newest libraries with the most viewing shelves, and borrowed enough books to last two or three months, if I decide to read them all. Here's the one I started:

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

Published October 2018, Berkley Books

Travels with a cat, through Japan, in changing seasons and with changing scenery. Nana the cat is found as a stray and taken in by Satoru. Both take a long trip together in a silver van, supposedly to visit Satoru's friends. 

The novel reminds me of other travels with animals books, Travels with a Donkey by Robert Louis Stevenson and Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, both of which I loved and have reread at least once. They are, however, nonfiction.

Book beginning:

I am a cat. As yet, I have no name. There's a famous cat in our country who once made this very statement. 

I have no clue how great that cat was, but at least when it comes to having a name I got there first. Whether I like my name is another matter, since it glaringly doesn't fit my gender, me being male and all. I was given it about five years ago - around the time I came of age. 

Page 56:

"I'm so sorry," Kosuke said, still crying, his head on his chest. "My dad said I can't have him." 

 

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.

Friday Memes: The Moroccan Girl by Charles Cummings

 

The Moroccan Girl, February 12th, 2019, St. Martin's Press

A spy novelist is ordered to find a mysterious fugitive on the streets of Morocco.

Book beginning:

"Will you prefer to talk or to write everything down?"

"Talk," she said.

Somerville crossed the room and activated the voice recorder. The American had brought it from the Embassy. There was a small microphone attached to a stand, a glass of tap water and a plate of biscuits on the table.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Ready."

Page 56:

 The sealed package was somewhere beneath Carradine's feet in the chill of the baggage hold; he knew that it would contain the answers to his many questions and felt his professional obligation to Mantis dissipating with every passing mile. 

Book description: 

When he is approached by MI6 and asked to carry out a simple task on behalf of his country while attending a literary festival in Morocco, Carradine jumps at the chance.

He soon finds himself on the trail of Lara Bartok, a leading figure in Resurrection, a violent revolutionary movement targeting prominent right-wing political figures around the world. Caught between competing intelligence services who want Bartok dead, Carradine faces a choice: to abandon Bartok to her fate or to risk everything trying to save her.

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.

Bread and Salt: Stories by Valerie Miner - Book Beginning

 

Bread and Salt: Stories by Valerie Miner, September 5, 2020, Whitepoint Press

The characters in these stories live and travel in Tunisia, India, Indonesia, Italy, Turkey, France, and the United States and consider their individual agency in both local and global contexts. (publisher)

Book beginning:

Il Piccolo Tesoro 

I'm stepping into an expresso bar, fragrant with strong coffee and sweet cornetti, when my attention is drawn uphill by a weathered pink and green sign offering a vacancy at Il Piccolo Tesoro. The small treasure. I'm not greedy. The adjective appeals as much as the noun promises. 

I chose this Ligurian village in the sensible way, by spreading a map of Italy across my kitchen table in Toronto, closing my eyes and pushing a pushpin into destiny.

Page 56:

But when he got transferred up the coast, she couldn't bear commuting 100 miles down to the city, cutting him out of her days like that. ("Quiet as the Moon")

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

Ghost of the Bamboo Road by Susan Spann: Book Beginning and Review

Ghost of the Bamboo Road by Susan Spann

November 12, 2019, copy from Seventh Street Books
Setting: a mountain village in 16th Century Japan 

Book beginning:

"This doesn't look like a travel road." Father Mateo squinted at the narrow, uneven trail running up the rocky slope ahead. Patches of icy snow still clung to the base of the towering cedars along the left side of the path. On the right, a stand of broad-leaved bamboo grass grew high enough to block the view.... 

Page 56:  

"Is something wrong?" Father Mateo whispered.
"The tracks seem to end."
"They can't just end." the Jesuit looked down the mountain. 

Hiro, a Japanese ninja, and the Jesuit priest, Father Mateo, whom he has been sworn to protect while he is in Japan, are traveling to a remote mountain village in the dead of winter. Their mission is to warn a female ninja that she might be compromised;  her identity as a spy could be discovered and her life in danger. 

However, what the two find is a village under siege from what they believe to be a vengeful ghost that could be taking the life of the villagers. Hiro and Father Mateo decide to solve this puzzle while searching for the female ninja they came to warn. 

Atmospheric in its detailed description of place and setting, this seventh novel in the Hiro Hattori Shinobi Mystery is a delightful read that puts you squarely into a time and place that feels both exotic and exciting to this Western reader. 

Though I've been to Japan, I've seen only its cities, and the book makes me curious about the mountains, hills, and forests that are such a perfect setting for a ghost story and mystery. 

I have become fond of both Hiro and Father Mateo from the previous books, and am looking forward to the author's next in the series! 

Memes: 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 at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader

Review: Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

Talking to Strangers

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know by Malcolm Gladwell, September 10, 2019, Allen Lane. Personal copy. 

INTRODUCTION"Step out of the car!"

In July 2015 a young African American woman named Sandra Bland drove from her hometown of Chicago to a little town an hour west of Houston, Texas. She was interviewing for a job at Prairie View A&M University, the school she had graduated from a few years before. She was tall and striking with a personality to match....

The chapter goes on to describe the verbal exchange between Sandra and a Texas police officer who had pulled her over for failing to signal a lane change. The end result is that upstanding, educated, and blameless Sandra was arrested, handcuffed and thrown into jail. Three days later, she took her own life in prison.

And so begins this book, Talking to Strangers, by Malcolm Gladwell, on strangers meeting and the misunderstandings and false assumptions that can sometimes result in  tragic outcomes. 

Misreading strangers can lead to a guilty Bernie Madoff being trusted by duped investors, to an innocent Amanda Knox being incarcerated for years and tried for a crime for which she was later exonerated. Spies high up in government have been misread by the CIA and trusted with secrets the spies regularly leaked to a foreign power. And it goes on...

A fascinating book that I read cover to cover in just a few days, intrigued by the facts the author presented to make his case. People are not as transparent as they may seem to us. They may be something completely different.

Most people will give suspicious people the benefit of the doubt, which is good for society to run smoothly, in general, but which can be disastrous when their judgment is wrong. This is part of Gladwell's conclusions on this topic, and just a part of what the book has to say about how we interact with and interpret the actions and behavior of a variety of strangers. 

Page 57:

The next three chapters of Talking to Strangers are devoted to the ideas of a psychologist named Tim Levine, who has thought as much about the problem of why we are deceived by strangers as anyone in social science.... 

The book is persuasive, well researched, and thought-provoking. It will make you think twice or three times about the validity of your initial reaction to a stranger, positive or negative, whoever they may be.

Memes: 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

The Bodies in the Library by Marty Wingate: Book Beginning

The Bodies in the Library by Marty Wingate, October 2019, Berkley/Penguin Random House

Book beginning:

"I'll be leaving now, Ms. Burke."

I leapt up from the desk at this announcement -  knocking the phone on the floor in the process - and hurried out of my office.

"Yes, Mrs. Woolgar," I said, tugging on my jacket. "Have a lovely evening."

Page 56:

"Yes, that's right. I saw her late one afternoon -- running."

Memes: 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

Review: The Dragonfly Sea by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor

The Dragonfly Sea

The Dragonfly Sea by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, March 12, 2019, Knopf Publishing Group

Book beginning:

To cross the vast ocean to their south, water-chasing dragonflies with forbears in Northern India had hitched a ride on a sedate "inbetween seasons" morning wind, one of the season's introits, the matlai. One day in 1992, four generations later, under dark-purplish-blue clouds, these fleeting beings settled on the mangrove-fringed southwest cove of a little girl's island.... 

And so we are introduced to that little girl, Ayaana, whose life on the Kenyan island of Pate is described in the first sections of the novel. It's a life full of her love for the sea, her rescued little white kitten, and the man she adopts as her father who teaches her at home because of bullying and bias in her island school,

The next sections of the book sees an older Ayaana in China, which has claimed her as a Descendant, one with Chinese ancestry, and sent her to study in a college, a way to help cement her and Kenya's ties to China.

Aayana struggles with all the changes in her life, the new faces, languages, places, while searching to find out who she really is, who she truly loves, and where she truly belongs.

Written in a poetic style, with multiple plays on language and imagery and symbols, The Dragonfly Sea is a literary novel about a girl's universal search for meaning and belonging in a complex and diverse world. I gave it an enthusiastic five stars.

Location: 56 %

Ayaana walked as one condemned. She ached for a return to life aboard the ship.
Ni shi shei? the sea still called out to her. Who are you? She ignored it. 

Memes: 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 Widow by Karin Slaughter

The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter, August 20, 2019, William Morrow

The Last Widow

Description: A mysterious kidnapping

On a hot summer night, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control is grabbed by unknown assailants in a shopping center parking lot. Vanished into thin air, the authorities are desperate to save the doctor. 

A devastating explosion

A diabolical enemy

Book beginning:PROLOGUE 

Michelle Spivey jogged through the back of the store, frantically scanning each aisle for her daughter, panicked thoughts circling her brain: How did I lose sight of her I am a horrible mother my baby was didnapped by a pedophiole or a human trafficker should I flag store security or call the police or --
Ashley.
Michelle stopped so abruptly that her shoe snicked against the floor....

Page 56: 

Maggie said, "I'll briefly run down the SWAT Bible on transport from the APD perspective. We're all following the Active Shooter Doctrine. No negotiation. Just pop and drop....

Memes: 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