Friday Meets - 22 July 2016

I didn't attend my scheduled Friday Meets last week Friday as:

• I wasn't on page 56 or even close to 56% on any book
• The only New Beginnings that were discussed, were our new beginning. (More about that at a later stage)
• The only hopping was done on the lawn  Let me rephrase: I only hopped on the lawn with children NO hopping was done

I do apologize profoundly and I come prepared today!

Meet me on Friday @ Friday 56 for a bit of Book Blogger Hop to kick-start the weekend with Book Beginnings.

Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice. For this date, you will need the following:

•  Grab a book (Yes, any book. But it might get you to your other Friday activities a bit quicker if you just grab the book you are currently reading)
• Turn to page 56 or 56% on your e-reader
• Find a sentence or two (your other Friday activities might determine this)
• Post it!
• Remember to post your link on Freda's Voice and to visit the other guys in the linky.
• And don't forget to list the title of the book and the author as well.

Louisa Clark is back! 

 

You're not sure who that is? The crazy girl with the massive smile and quirky dress sense who went to a concert with a man in a red dress? (She was wearing the red dress) Yes! That one. The girl who helped the utterly gorgeous Will Traynor in the highly acclaimed novel by Jojo Moyes, Me Before You. 

Louisa is back in the sequel, After You. But without the quirky dress sense and the massive smile. 18 months after the end of Me Before You, Louisa (she doesn't go by "Lou" that much anymore) still has a lot of questions. The only thing she knows for certain, is that something has to change. When a "it-will-only-happen-to-Lou" accident occurred, she is forced to return home to her family. She can't help but feel that she's right back where she started. She ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving on support group who leads her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding - a paramedic whose business is life and death and the one man who might be able to understand her. 

 56%:

" I walked back across the road straight past him, fumbling in my bag for my keys. Why did fingers always turn into cocktail sausages at moments of stress? 'Louisa'. The keys refused to appear. I riffled through my bag a second time, dropping a comb, bits of tissue, loose change, and cursing"

I'm almost done helping Louisa picking up her life again. Do I like it as much as Me Before You? No. BUT it's a completely different story that is also written in that I-so-know-people style that makes Jojo Moyes one of my favorite authors. She's got this very specific way to express certain things that makes you understand exactly what she means:

"Grief is like something you learn to accommodate. Like adapting around a hole. It's like you become a doughnut instead of a bun"

  I so love the character of Louisa and I will always root for her to find happiness and to wear her bumble bee stockings as much as possible. 

Wait! Before you run off for your Friday drinks -   

Remember to join Rose City Reader for Book Beginnings. Share the first sentence or so of the book you are reading (or just take the one you grabbed for Friday 56) and share it. You are welcome to also post your initial thoughts on the sentence and your first impressions of the book. Remember to also post your link to Rose City Reader and to visit the other City Readers! If you use another book as the one used for Friday 56, remember to include the title and author.

I'm sure that between me and Louisa, we will have her life all puzzled out by tonight. And then I can start with the first ARC I've ever received! The excitement for this book has been building up for weeks and apparently we will be having rainy weather from tomorrow, so all the elements are in my favor to just cuddle-up and read.

Froelich's Ladder by Jamie Duclos-Yourdon

It was November 1851 when Harald and Froelich arrived in Oregon Country. Disembarking at Fort Astoria, they journeyed inland by foot, hiking over the Cascades in a gale that swept off the ocean like an enormous push broom.

Goodreads Blurb: Uncle Froelich nurses a decades-old family grudge from his perch atop a giant ladder. When he's discovered missing, his nephew embarks on a rain-soaked trek across the nineteenth century Pacific Northwest to find him. Accompanied by a girl with a most unfortunate name. In their encounters wiht Confederate assassins, European expatriates and a general store magnate, this fairy tale twist on the American dream explores the conflicts between loyalty and ambition and ambition and our need for human connection - even at the highest rungs. 

Yet again I will be joining the Book Blogger Hop hosted by Ramblings of a coffee addicted writer. Every week they will pop a question that you need to answer. Post your answer to your blog, enter your post to the linky provided, make yourself a cup of coffee and go visit the other blogs in the list. 

Today's questions: Do you always put a book cover on your posts when you are mentioning books or only text?

My answer: I belief that we live in a day and age where visual stimulation is key. Popular research has indicated that we need to see something 7 times before it gets stored into memory. That means that a book cover has to make the rounds on the blogosphere at least 7 times before anyone is going to notice it. Thankfully, book bloggers deal more with words and titles scream at us - pictures are not our happy ending. But it is our means to an end. 

Be honest here: when cruising through the blogosphere, you tend to stop at a blog that is featuring a book that you have on one of your shelves (have-read, to-be-read, want-to-read, need-to-steal-it-in-order-to-read-it, etc). And it's normally the cover that draws your attention first. It was also a cover that landed me my first ARC! 

Final answer: 

Thalk to me!

What are you reading over the weekend?

Do you always put a book cover on your posts dealing with books or do you rely on only words?

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!