Friday Reads: Daphne du Maurier and Mary Stewart

Happy [Memorial Day/Bank Holiday] Weekend!!

Hope you all have some lovely plans. I’ll be heading to my family’s place at the river, and I’ll be bringing books by two of my favorite authors with me. I always over-estimate the amount of time I’ll have free for reading, but hopefully I can squeeze in some time with The King’s General and My Brother Michael. 

Keep scrolling for this week’s Book Beginnings and The Friday 56…

 

Book Beginnings is a bookish meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you’re reading, along with your initial thoughts/impressions.

 

Book Beginnings:

Nothing ever happens to me. 

I wrote the words slowly, looked at them for a moment with a little sigh, then put my ballpoint pen down on the café table and rummaged in my handbag for a cigarette.

As I breathed the smoke in I looked about me. It occurred to me, thinking of that last depressed sentence in my letter to Elizabeth, that enough was happening at the moment to satisfy all but the adventure-hungry. That is the impression that Athens gives you. Everyone is moving, talking, gesticulating- but particularly talking.

–My Brother Michael, Mary Stewart

I have a feeling our as-yet-unnamed heroine won’t have to worry about nothing happening to her for very long. Mary Stewart is the queen of romantic suspense after all. I’m excited to escape to Greece for a bit, and look forward to seeing where this story goes.

 

 

The Friday 56 is a bookish meme hosted by Freda’s Voice that asks you to: Grab a book, any book, and turn to page 56 and find a sentence that grabs you.

 

The Friday 56:

How much I thought of him, and yearned for him, during those intervening years does not matter to this story. I was weakest during the long watches of the night, when my body pained me. During the day I drilled my feelings to obedience, and what with my progress in my studies – I was by way of becoming a fair Greek scholar – and my interest in the lives of my brothers and sisters, the days and the seasons passed with some fair measure of content.

–The King’s General, Daphne du Maurier

I think The King’s General is going to be a bittersweet love story with a blend of tragedy, adventure, and suspense. I’m a little over 50 pages into it, and I’m really enjoying Honor’s narration. She is a formidable and interesting character, and I look forward to seeing how her story unfolds from here. The English Civl War setting should also be interesting, but I’m hoping the book won’t focus too heavily on the military elements.

 

 

Have you read either of these? What are you planning to read this weekend? 

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