FRIDAY POTPOURRI: BOOK BEGINNINGS & THE FRIDAY 56 — MARCH 23

On By Laurel-Rain SnowIn book beginnings, Friday Potpourri, The Friday 56

Welcome to a potpourri of fun today as we share Book Beginnings, hosted by A Few More Pages; 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 I’ve stolen a book from next week’s stack.  Good-Bye and Amen, by Beth Gutcheon, is the the sequel to Leeway Cottage.

In a summer cottage on the coast of Maine, an unlikely love was nurtured, a marriage endured, and a family survived. Now it is time for the children of that marriage to make peace with the wounds and the treasures left to them. And to sort out which is which.

The complicated marriage of the gifted Danish pianist Laurus Moss to the provincial American child of privilege Sydney Brant was a mystery to many who knew them, including their three children. Now Eleanor, Monica, and Jimmy Moss have to decide how to divide or share what Laurus and Sydney have left them without losing one another.

***

Beginning:  The trouble started when Jimmy took the piano.

Not their famous father’s concert Steinway; that was too valuable to keep and was, anyway, nine feet long.  Jimmy took the piano from the living room, the baby grand that had belonged to their Danish aunt Nina, the Resistance hero.  Everyone knew Monica wanted that piano more than anything, and certainly more than Jimmy did.

Uh-oh, I can feel the rivalries intensify.  Dividing up the spoils after the parents are gone…lethal!

***

56: (Actually, it’s from p. 54, as the book skips from 54 to 57)

I dream about that house.  On my deathbed I’ll be able to walk into any room in it and tell you exactly what it looks like; what’s on the walls, what’s in the drawers. (Monica’s voice).

***

I do love a good family story.  Now…what are the rest of you tempting us with today?  Come on down….

32 thoughts on “FRIDAY POTPOURRI: BOOK BEGINNINGS & THE FRIDAY 56 — MARCH 23”

  4. Yep, I can feel disagreements coming on too. Did I read correctly? Two pianos??? I love the title of the book. Titles lately are more important to me than the cover of the book.

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  5. I still remember every room in the house I grew up in. It was a row house in Philadelphia. It had an up and downstairs. I would love to go back one day. Love this Friday 56.

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  6. Hi Laurel-Rain,

    They say that weddings and funerals bring out the best and worst in people and it certainly sounds as though your family are a bitter and divided bunch, when it comes to the family treasures.

    It sounds as though the house itself is another bone of contention, although I am not sure whether to deduce that the house is being sold and the spoils divided when Monica actually wanted to live there, or whether one of the other siblings has been left the rights to the house and Monica is bitter about that.

    Sounds like a great read and certainly one for my wish list, thanks for sharing and have a great weekend.

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  15. Hi! Thanks for stopping by my blog!

    “…walk into any room in it and tell you exactly what it looks like; what’s on the walls, what’s in the drawers.”

    Your ‘Friday 56’ reminds me of my grandmother’s old house. I could do exactly what these lines say. Only difference is that the house no longer exists save in my memories.

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    1. I have gone back to look at the “outsides” of houses I’ve owned, and the changes feel so disorienting…

      One time when selling a house, someone came by and wanted to see it, because she’d grown up there. It was an emotional journey for her.

      Thanks for stopping by, wuthering willow.

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