Book beginnings on Friday and the Friday 56

Two interesting weekly memes Book beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader and the Friday 56 by Freda’s Voice.

For the Book Beginnings you choose a book with an interesting beginning and share the first few sentences. For the Friday 56 you turn to page 56 or 56% on your e-reader and share a sentence or two that you enjoy.

This week I would like to share the beginning of Maggie O’Farrell’s The hand that first held mine.

”Listen. The trees in this story are stirring, trembling, readjusting themselves. A breeze is coming in gusts off the sea, and it is almost as if the trees know, in their restlessness, in their headrossing impatience, that something is about to happen.”

On page 56 I find the following sentences:

”Lexie’s mother gave her two pieces of advice when she left for London: 1. Get a secretarial job in a big, successful firm because that will ’put you in the path of the right sort of man’. 2. Never be in the same room as a man and a bed.
Her father said: don’t waste your time with any more studying because it always makes women disagreeable.
Her younger siblings said: remember to visit the Queen.
Her aunt, who had spent some time in London in the 1920s told her never to use the Underground (it was dirty and full of unsavoury types), never to go into coffee bars (they were full of germs), always to wear a girdle and carry an umbrella, and never to go to Soho.
Needless to say, she disregarded them all.”

Sorry, that was a little bit long, but I really think it is great so I quote the whole paragraph, which if I am to be honest, started on page 55! Well, well…!