First Chapter: White Lies by Susan Barrett

White Lies by Susan Barrett, August 31, 2016.
White Lies explores the joys and hazards of adoption, told from the perspectives of three women over half a century.

First chapter:

Beth: The Beginning 

Through the white light of pain Beth sees Joe. He stands at the foot of her bed, a forlorn, useless figure. Why did they let him in? Do they think he's the father? Six purple flowers flop their heads from a bunch clutched in his hand. Flowers are the last things she needs. Their name hovers in the gust of her pain. They'll need water, but what can she do about that? She cannot think of anything beyond the present colossal pain of agony. It overwhelms her. She is a single, screaming universe, pelvic bones pushed to their limits. Bodies are not designed for this. Her unwanted baby's head is stuck, it will kill her. Nothing gives. There is no release. 

"Daisies," Joe says, kneeling beside her. "From your mom's balcony."

Author SUSAN BARRETT has had seven novels published in UK and USA. Other work includes travel writing, television drama, and wildlife and children’s books illustrated by her husband Peter. They have two adopted children, now middle-aged. She has mentored new writers, held creative writing workshops, established a website for the writers and readers of quality fiction, and continues to write while practising as a counsellor.

Based on the beginning paragraph of the novel, would you read on?

MEME: Every Tuesday Bibliophile by the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros sharing the first paragraph or two, from a book you are reading or will be reading soon.

First Chapter: An Honest House by Cynthia Reyes

An Honest House: A Memoir Continued by Cynthia Reyes, May 10, 2016 publication.

This is the continuation of A Good Home: A Memoir published in 2013. See the guest review by Philip Young.  

Book description 

"Picking up from the early days of her recovery from a car accident, as told in her first book, "A Good Home," Reyes shares intensely lyrical stories of life with her husband in her historic farmhouse north of Toronto. 

You will be challenged as the author immerses you in the reality of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and the courage it takes to live with chronic pain. And you will say a wrenching farewell to the farmhouse as she opens a new chapter in a life ...." (publisher)

First chapter:

"Ambercroft Farm", the sign out front said. Hamlin was on a first-name basis with the grand old farmhouse, right from the start, calling it Ambercroft. For years, I didn't call it anything at all.The tall, two-storey Victorian house on the northern edge of Toronto seemed sealed off from the rest of the neighborhood. Within a solid wooden fence and gates, massive maples waved big leafy arms. Pines and dense blue-green spruces soared. A cedar hedge ran the length of the property on one side. This was a private place, sure of its personality and power. 

MEME: Every Tuesday Bibliophile by the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros sharing the first paragraph or two, from a book you are reading or will be reading soon.

Author: Cynthia Reyes

Goodreads Author

Born

Jamaica

Website

http://csreyes.wordpress.com

Twitter

cynthiasreyes

Member Since

September 2013

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/CynthiaSReyes

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Sunday Salon: Goodreads Reading Goal Reached!

Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date Also visit Mailbox Monday.

I have reached my goal of 50 books in the Goodreads Reading Challenge! I am now expanding my goal to 80, and hope to reach even 100! I have at least ten library ebooks on loan through Overdrive, and hope I can get to them before the loans expire! There are two historical mystery novels by Barbara Cleverly, the newest book by Lisa See, another book by Kate Atkinson,  and a few literary fiction and other mysteries. 

An ARC arrived:

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling, September 5, 2017, Sterling Children's Books
Book description:
“Whoa! What happened to your arms?”

Aven Green gets that question a lot. She loves to tell people that she lost her arms in an alligator wrestling match, or a wildfire in Tanzania, but the truth is she was born without them.

It’s hard to solve a mystery, help a friend, and face your worst fears. But Aven’s about to discover she can do it all . . . even without arms. (goodreads)

I finished only one book last week, though I have started on others.

When Will There Be Good News, a mystery by Kate Atkinson, September 2008.

My introduction to author Kate Atkinson and to her Jackson Brodie, a very likeable policeman turned private eye. Set in Scotland, this book is intriguing - the setting as much as  the plot and characters, in particular the remarkable main character Joanna, and young Reggie, a budding sleuth herself. Definitely a five-star read.

Re my gardening news, he rain has stopped, it's sunny out, and I'm waiting for frosty nights to be over before I plant the annuals and herbs - oregano, basil, thyme -  I bought last week. 

What's on your reading plate this week? 

Book Review: The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman, May 2, 2017, Berkley

Lil, widowed for three years with two young children, is a school text illustrator in Southern California. Her boss signs her up for a vegetable growing class at the Los Angeles Botanical Garden, to prep for the next project - illustrating a series of vegetable guides the company is planning.

Lil attends the six-week class, held on Saturdays and led by gardening professor Ed Bloem. She not only benefits from gardening and meeting new people, but sees the benefits to her sister and Lil's two young children who also participate in the class. 

Lil's sister-in-law Maggie arrives broken hearted by a cheating hubby and somehow the setting and the new arrangement in Lil's life help everyone around her. In the end, Lil finds a new occupation and new love, and a new acceptance of her widowhood.

I liked the story, as I love gardening, and found the vegetable growing tips in the book interesting and useful. Though parts of the plot are predictable, the reading is easy and pleasant, not only for readers who garden but anyone who like a good romance.

My rating: 4 stars

Sunday Salon: Overdrive and Libby

Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date Also visit Mailbox Monday.

Books I finished recently, psychological thrillers mostly:
The Lost Girls by Heather Young, five stars
Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica, four stars
Broken Grace by E.C. Diskin, five stars
My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella, contemporary fiction, four stars

Ebooks I plan to read, thanks to my library:
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, literary fiction
A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, literary fiction

Still reading:
Mangrove Lightning by Randy Wayne Wright, mystery
I Shot the Buddha by Colin Cotterill, mystery 

To be read for an upcoming book tour:

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman, May 2, 2017, Berkley

Using the app Overdrive, I am finding so many library books so easily that I am reading more ebooks than ever before, borrowed from my local library. I understand Libby is even better. 

What books are on your desk this week?

Book Beginning: The Widow of Wall Street by Randy Susan Meyers.

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.

Title: The Widow of Wall Street
Author: Randy Susan Meyers
Published: April 11, 2017, Atria Books
Genre: contemporary fiction
"... a woman struggles to redefine her life and marriage as everything she thought she knew crumbles around her."

Book beginning:

Phoebe
November 2009

Phoebe never hated her husband more than when she visited him in prison. The preceding nightmare of ordeals - eleven hours hauling a suitcase by bus, train, and cab, her muscles screaming from the weight - were the coming attractions of the misery she faced he next day. 

Page 57

"So did he tell you?"
"Did he tell me what?" Phoebe dipped into the pot and sampled a bit of sauce. Almost perfect. Velvet smooth.
"How he lost everyone's money?"

Book description: ... the seemingly blind love of a wife for her husband as he conquers Wall Street, and her extraordinary, perhaps foolish, loyalty during his precipitous fall.

I am eager to see how the wife is portrayed and if her seeming innocence of her husband's double life on Wall Street is believable or not. What did you think, if you have already read the book?  

Book Feature: The Last Chance Olive Ranch by Susan Wittig Albert

Title: The Last Chance Olive Ranch: China Bayles Mystery
Author: Susan Wittig Albert 
Published: April 4, 2017, Berkley
Setting: Pecan Springs, Texas. China fears for McQuaid’s life as an escaped convict targets him...

First chapter: 

I hate it when the telephone rings at night. Granted, it wasn't night, technically speaking. It was 5 a.m., according to the clock on my side of the bed. But the only light in the room was a dim nightlight and my husband and I had both been sound asleep. To me, that qualifies as night.

From Ch. six:

...Hank grunted, "I'll do it," he said. But China better not blame me if you wind up dead." 

Book description:
Max Mantel, the killer McQuaid put away years ago, has busted out of the Huntsville prison and appears to be headed for Pecan Springs. McQuaid knows there’s only one way to stop the vengeful convict—set a trap with himself as bait.

China wants to stay by her husband’s side. But McQuaid  insists that she get out of town and go to the Last Chance Olive Ranch, where she’s agreed to teach a workshop on herbs.

While China throws herself into helping Maddie, the owner of the ranch, McQuaid’s plan backfires when Mantel executes a countermove he never saw coming. 

Have you read any of the other China Bayles mysteries?

MEME: Every Tuesday Bibliophile by the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph, Tuesday Intros sharing the first paragraph or two, from a book you are reading or will be reading soon.