BOOKISH FRIDAY: “THE GIRLS OF AUGUST”

 

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!

What better way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is an e-book I recently downloaded because it seemed like a great nod to summer, and even though summer is almost over, I can still feel it in the air.  The Girls of August, by Anne Rivers Siddons, is a story about four women and the rituals that kept them together…for a while.

 

 

 

 

Beginning:  Of all the fifteen summerhouses, the first one was the best.  That’s what we all agreed on, for a while, anyway…until we grew wiser, more measured in our joy, more careful with the doling out of praise.  Funny, we rarely agreed unanimously on anything, but for years there had been no doubt about the Colleton house.  At first glance it had seemed designed—brick, board, and shingle—for the girls of August.

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56:  (Madison) Barbara hung on to the counter and said, “Woooo.  I think I’ve had too much bubbly.”

“Listen!” I said, happiness coursing through me like a sparrow on the wing.  “I think Teddy told me he loved me!”

Rachel took a drag and blew the smoke in a roiling stream, angling it so that it missed her eyes.  “Really?”

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Blurb:  Every August, four women would gather together to spend a week at the beach, renting a new house each year. The ritual began when they were in their twenties and their husbands were in medical school, and became a mainstay of every summer thereafter. Their only criteria was oceanfront and isolation, their only desire to strengthen their far-flung friendships. They called themselves the Girls of August. But when one of the Girls dies tragically, the group slowly drifts apart and their vacations together are brought to a halt. Years later, a new marriage reunites them and they decide to come together once again on a remote barrier island off the South Carolina coast. There, far from civilization, the women make startling discoveries that will change them in ways they never expected.

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What do you think?  Have you read this one?  Do the excerpts captivate you?  Come on by and share your thoughts.

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