Book Beginnings on Fridays and Book Blogger Hop – October 14, 2022

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted each week by Rose City Reader. It’s a chance to share the first sentence or so of the book you are reading this week. You can check out others’ book beginnings here. I’m also going to link up with Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower for First Line Friday.

This week’s book beginning:

Synopsis:

James Wade, whose first two novels were praised as rhapsodic and haunting, delivers his most powerful work to date–a chilling parable about the impossible demands of hate and love, trauma and goodness, vividly set in the landscapes of Texas and Louisiana.

Beasts of the Earth tells the story of Harlen LeBlanc, a dependable if quiet employee of the Carter Hills High School’s grounds department, whose carefully maintained routine is overthrown by an act of violence. As the town searches for answers, LeBlanc strikes out on his own to exonerate a friend, while drawing the eyes of the law to himself and fending off unwelcome voices that call for a sterner form of justice.

Twenty years earlier, young Michael Fischer dreads the return of his father from prison. He spends his days stealing from trap lines in the Louisiana bayou to feed his fanatically religious mother and his cherished younger sister, Doreen. When his father eventually returns, an evil arrives in Michael’s life that sends him running from everything he has ever known. He is rescued by a dying poet and his lover, who extract from him a promise: to be a good man, whatever that may require.

Beasts of the Earth deftly intertwines these stories, exploring themes of time, fate, and free will, to produce a revelatory conclusion that is both beautiful and heartbreaking.

Ready to keep reading? I can tell you that James Wade can turn a phrase masterfully. See my review of River, Sing Out to get an idea of what I think of his writing. My review of Beasts of the Earth will be up on the blog next week, if y’all want to stop by and see what I think of it once I’m done reading.

Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Coffee Addicted Writer. It starts each Friday and runs through the following Thursday. Each week, there’s a new prompt featuring a book-related question. It’s designed to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, make new blogging friends, and gain followers. See what others have to say on this topic and link up your own post here.

October 14th – 20th – Do you suggest new authors to your readers?
(submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

I suppose I do! I mean, I run my mouth about whatever I’m reading. I reckon that now and again, someone reads my posts and comes across an author they’ve never heard of.

If you’re a book blogger, do you share new authors with your readers? If you do, do you do it intentionally and mindfully, or are you more like me and talk about whatever, and let whoever will find a new treasure find it?