SERENDIPITOUS FRIDAYS: BOOK BEGINNINGS & THE FRIDAY 56 — AUGUST 10

Welcome to some serendipitous fun today as we share Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and as we showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

Today’s excerpts come from Small Damages, by Beth Kephart.

Blurb:  It’s senior year, and while Kenzie should be looking forward to prom and starting college in the fall, she discovers she’s pregnant. Her determination to keep her baby is something her boyfriend and mother do not understand. So she is sent to Spain, where she will live out her pregnancy, and her baby will be adopted by a Spanish couple. No one will ever know.

Alone and resentful in a foreign country, Kenzie is at first sullen and difficult. But as she gets to know Estela, the stubborn old cook, and Esteban, the mysterious young man who cares for the horses, she begins to open her eyes, and her heart, to the beauty that is all around her, and inside her. Kenzie realizes she has some serious choices to make–choices about life, love, and home.

***

Beginning:  The streets of Seville are the size of sidewalks, and there are alleys leaking off from the streets.  In the back of the cab, where I sit by myself, I watch the past rushing by.

***

P. 56:  In the kitchen, Estela’s gone all battle fierce with her knife, banging oranges apart, swiping halves into a bowl.  There is steam on the window and in the room.  There is steam on Estela’s face and on her cheeks.

***

I like the sound of this one so far.  What are the rest of you sharing today?  Come on by and tell me about it.