Book Beginnings On Fridays (Station Eleven)

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to 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. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

This week my book beginning is Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I'm only on page 56 but can already tell that this will probably be in my top ten books of the year.

 

The King stood in a pool of blue light, unmoored. This was act 4 of King Lear, a winter night at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto. Earlier in the evening, three little girls had played a clapping game onstage as the audience entered, childhood versions of Lear's daughters, and now they'd returned as hallucinations in the mad scene.

 

  

Book Description

 

DAY ONE

The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the earth like a neutron bomb.

News reports put the mortality rate at over 99%.

WEEK TWO

Civilization has crumbled.

YEAR TWENTY

A band of actors and musicians called the Travelling Symphony move through their territories performing concerts and Shakespeare to the settlements that have grown up there. Twenty years after the pandemic, life feels relatively safe.

But now a new danger looms, and he threatens the hopeful world every survivor has tried to rebuild.

STATION ELEVEN

Moving backwards and forwards in time, from the glittering years just before the collapse to the strange and altered world that exists twenty years after, Station Eleven charts the unexpected twists of fate that connect six people: famous actor Arthur Leander; Jeevan - warned about the flu just in time; Arthur's first wife Miranda; Arthur's oldest friend Clark; Kirsten, a young actress with the Travelling Symphony; and the mysterious and self-proclaimed 'prophet'.

Thrilling, unique and deeply moving, this is a beautiful novel that asks questions about art and fame and about the relationships that sustain us through anything - even the end of the world 

Book Beginnings On Fridays (The Clock Winder)

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to 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. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

The Clock Winder by Anne Tyler:

 

The house had outlived its usefulness. It sat hooded and silent, a brown shingleboard monstrosity close to the road but backed by woods, far enough from downtown Baltimore to escape the ashy smell of factories. The upper most windows were shuttered; the wrap-around veranda, with its shiny grey floorboards and sky-blue ceiling, remained empty even when neighbours' porches filled up with children and dogs and drop-in visitors. Yet clearly someone still lived there. 

 

  

 

Book Description:

 

Having sacked her handyman, newly-widowed Mrs Emerson finds a replacement in Elizabeth, a lanky, awkward girl. The Emersons - there are seven grown-up children - have a reputation for craziness and Elizabeth finds herself drawn into their disorderly lives against her will. But in the end it is hard to tell whether she is a victim of the needy Emersons, or the de facto ruler of the family.  

Dying For Christmas by Tammy Cohen

 

 

I am missing. Held captive by a blue-eyed stranger. To mark the twelve days of Christmas, he gives me a gift every day, each more horrible than the last. The twelfth day is getting closer. After that, there'll be no more Christmas cheer for me. No mince pies, no carols. No way out .

But I have a secret. No-one has guessed it. Will you?

 

My Thoughts

Jessica Gold stops to have a coffee while shopping on Christmas Eve when a good looking man asks to sit down at her table. They get talking and she agrees to leave with him, a decision she soons comes to regret. The novel is very dark and I was gripped straight away, desperately wondering if or how she would escape the clutches of Dominic, her captor. In part two the story takes an unexpected turn, it was certainly something I never saw coming. At this point that the story became less believable for me but was no less enjoyable because of it. I spent most of the book trying to figure out what was going on and it kept me guessing until the very end, exactly what you want from a psychological thriller as well as the twists that Dying For Christmas provides.

Rating: 4 out of 5

 

Thanks to Transworld and Netgalley for a copy of this in return for an honest review.

 

Published 20th November 2014 by Transworld Publishers  

Monday Posts

Mailbox Monday & It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

 

 

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It was created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books but now has a permanent home here

 

This week I got the kindle ebook of The Fallow Season of Hugo Hunter by Craig Lancaster, you can read about it in my book beginning post here I also received a copy of Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates that I won from the publisher in a Twitter competition.

 

One game. Six students. Five survivors. It was only ever meant to be a game played by six best friends in their first year at Oxford University; a game of consequences, silly forfeits, and childish dares. But then the game changed: the stakes grew higher and the dares more personal and more humiliating, finally evolving into a vicious struggle with unpredictable and tragic results. Now, 14 years later, the remaining players must meet again for the final round. Who knows better than your best friends what would break you?

 

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme run by Book Journey and you can mention books you've just finished, are currently reading and any you plan to read this week. You can leave a link to your blog and read other bloggers posts.

 

I've been busy recently so haven't had as much time for reading as I normally do. I did finish A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale though which was excellent. My current read is The Fallow Season of Hugo Hunter by Craig Lancaster. I only downloaded it at the end of last week but have loved three of his previous novels so started it straight away.

 

Book Beginnings On Fridays (The Fallow Season Of Hugo Hunter)

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to 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. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

My book beginning is The Fallow Season Of Hugo Hunter by Craig Lancaster and I'll start reading it later today. I'm looking forward to it as I have loved three previous books by the author.

 

The last time I saw Hugo Hunter in the boxing ring was on a miserable Tuesday that pissed down freezing rain in Billings, Montana. I stood in the shadows of the Babcock Theatre, past its prime just like Hugo, the stale stench of a century's cigarettes climbing down from the rafters.

 

  

Book Description 

From the bestselling author of 600 Hours of Edward comes the story of a boxer and a sportswriter whose fates are inextricably linked.
Hugo Hunter, a would-be champion who never quite made it, is on his last legs. Thirty-seven years old, soft around the middle, and broke, he’s plummeted from his glory days of title fights to small-time bouts against brawlers and punks. Watching ringside for nearly twenty years has been Mark Westerly, a sportswriter who has struggled to keep a professional distance from the man whose life and career have become enmeshed with his own tumultuous trajectory. Hugo and Mark share a history that runs deep and has at times gotten ugly. As Hugo lands on the ropes again, Mark steps in to try to save him—and unburdens himself of long-held secrets regarding Hugo’s past. But can these two men, who’ve lived so long under the weight of their own tragedies, finally help each other find redemption?