Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley: Friday Book Friends: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Today's Featured Book 

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley

Genre: Fiction

Published: June 7, 2022

Page Count: 277 pages

Summary: 

Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison.

But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent—which has more than doubled—and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed. One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.

My Initial Thoughts:

Author Leila Mottley is coming to Houston for a reading on Monday night, and I plan to be there. I'm afraid this book is going to be a grueling read for me, but I think it's something I should be reading, something outside my comfort zone.

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

"The swimming pool is filled with dog sh-- and Dee's laughter mocks us at dawn. I've been telling her all week that she's looking like the crackhead she is, laughing at the same joke like it's going to change. Dee didn't seem to mind that her boyfriend left her, didn't even seem to care when he showed up poolside after making his rounds to every dumpster in the neighborhood last Tuesday, finding feces wrapped up in plastic bags..."

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Freda's Voice and visit others in the linky. 

"Dee wailed and squeezed and trembled until my mama's hums drowned it all out and then the tribe of us saw the hair, saw the tiny round that crawled from her body, turning her inside out. The squeals began and the humming turned to chants and we all watched that child swim out his mama, head poking out more blood than hair, and my mama took him in her arms and laid him on Dee's breast and this was the sweetest, most whole thing to ever take place in our building, and the rain poured and poured and poured until Dee began to beg again and her birthmarked baby squirmed and Ronda gave up, passed Dee the pipe, and she faded into sky like she didn't hear her own baby crying."

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

 

April 14th - 20th - What is your go-to website to check out book reviews? (submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver's Reviews)

The main way I discover the good books? I read the reviews of other bloggers. 

The Sunday Salon: A 3-Novel Week

 

 

I tend to read (primarily) classic novels, nonfiction, and picture books, so a week in which I read three contemporary books of fiction is unusual for me. And all three were beautifully written and thoughtful. 

Don't worry. I'm back to nonfiction and classic novels this week!

What I Read Last Week 

(Click the link to see my thoughts about each.)

Foster by Claire Keegan (Novel)

The Last Karankawas by Kimberly Garza (Novel)

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (Novel)

What I'm Reading Now:

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck (Novel; Classics Club Spin)

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I. by David Grann (Nonfiction)

Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano: Friday Book Friends: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Fridays, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

π: Texas Master Naturalists Celebrate Pi (Pie?) Night

The Sunday Salon: On the Road Again!

I read a great article this week in Publishers Weekly this week that says the Little Free Library organization plans to work with all communities in the US that lack easy access to books to install and maintain book-sharing boxes. Well done, Little Free Library! 

I am happy that four LFLs, including #30157 (photos above) and #31446, installed in two of the low-income areas of my town back in 2015 and 2016, are still being maintained and used.

Good Thing #1

My new writing class friends and I 

tried out another iconic Galveston eating spot this week,

The Mosquito Cafe.

Good Thing #2

Riding on the train recently 

reminded me of the old train trip 

my extended family took to Galveston

thirty years ago.

 

Good Thing #3

I ran across this photo from a few years ago

of my granddaughter, Annie,

dyeing eggs.

She loves hiding eggs and finding them.

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano: Friday Book Friends: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Fridays, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Today's Featured Book 

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Genre: Fiction

Published: March 14, 2023

Page Count: 390 pages

Summary: 

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos.

But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

"For the first six days of William Waters's life, he was not an only child."

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Freda's Voice and visit others in the linky. 

"Sylvie knew she could exist outside the boundaries of her past and future selves, for a little while anyway. Even though it hurt. She understood now, though, why her father had tempered the brutal beauty of this kind of life---this kind of honesty---with alcohol, and why she had always been more comfortable in the library with books than in the world with people."

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

April 7th - 13th - Do you spend your lunchtime reading? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

I did before I retired. Now I spend all day if I want!

The Sunday Salon: On the Road Again!

 

We just got home from East Texas on Sunday and then off we went on Tuesday to the Round Top Antiques Fair. We can't seem to stay home. The wildflowers!

We listened to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd on our travels. It is my first Agatha Christie, and I chose it because others recommended it as one of her best. I now see what all the Agatha Christie fuss is about. I wonder if anyone has other Agatha Christie recommendations.

If you have any interest in the Titanic or disasters, you really must read The Night Lives On. It was first published in 1955, and the author notes that everything in the book---descriptions, conversations, events---is based on eyewitness accounts of what happens.

And, The Good Life...It could be a life-changer. The Good Life is based on over a longitudinal study of over eighty years to find out what factors lead to happiness. The answer is surprising. I shared lots of quotes from the book in my review, so you might check that out (below) to see if this might be a book for you. 

What I Read Last Week:

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (Mystery)

A Night to Remember by Walter Lord (Nonfiction)

The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Largest Scientific Study on Happiness by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz (Nonfiction; Happiness)

What I Am Reading Now:

Foster by Claire Keegan (Novel)

The Last Karankawas by Kimberly Garza (Novel)

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck (Novel; Classics Club Spin)

Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Riding the Rails in East Texas

U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón Visits Houston

 Foster by Claire Keegan

Author Julie Falatko

I like Falatko's occasional videos so much...

Good Thing #1

Wildflowers!

Good Thing #2

More wildflowers!

Good Thing #3

And we came home with a fourth chair 

from the antique fair

 for our new table.

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below.