BOOKISH FRIDAYS: “EIGHT HUNDRED GRAPES”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I enjoy sharing excerpts from books…and connecting with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s 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 am reading Eight Hundred Grapes, by Laura Dave, a book that takes me to the heart of California wine country.  My excerpts are from an ARC.

 

 

 

Beginning:  Sebastopol, California.  Six months ago.

My father has this great story about the day he met my mother, a story he never gets sick of telling.  It was a snowy December morning and he was hurrying into his co-worker’s yellow Volkswagen bug parked in front of Lincoln Center, holding two cups of coffee and a massive slew of newspapers.  (His first wine, Block 14—the only wine in his very first vintage—had gotten a small mention in the Wall Street Journal).  And between the excitement of the article and the steaming coffee, Daniel Bradley Ford didn’t notice that there were two yellow bugs parked in front of Lincoln Center.  That his East Coast distributor was not the one huddling for warmth in the yellow bug’s driver’s seat.  But, instead, his future wife, Jenny.

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56:  We headed up into the hills to a private estate owned by Murray Grant Wines.  The lush vineyards surrounded a Spanish mansion that could have held five of my parents’ houses.  All the lights were on, a party in action.

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Blurb (from Goodreads):  Growing up on her family’s Sonoma vineyard, Georgia Ford learned some important secrets. The secret number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine: eight hundred. The secret ingredient in her mother’s lasagna: chocolate. The secret behind ending a fight: hold hands.

But just a week before her wedding, thirty-year-old Georgia discovers her beloved fiancé has been keeping a secret so explosive, it will change their lives forever.

Georgia does what she’s always done: she returns to the family vineyard, expecting the comfort of her long-married parents, and her brothers, and everything familiar. But it turns out her fiancé is not the only one who’s been keeping secrets…

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I am loving how the story is unfolding.  A nice light read, after my dark thrillers of this week, I can’t wait to get back to it.  What do you think?

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