Happy Friday! This week has been very full here, and I can only imagine it has been even more so for everyone who started back to school. For today’s First Line Friday, I’m featuring a book I recently finished and highly recommend: The Means that Make Us Strangers by Christine Kindberg.
“A tangle of arms reaching toward the fig tree. Among the thicket of deep- black arms stretching toward the fruit, two arms stood out, pale as a full moon.”
Title: The Means that Make Us Strangers
Author: Christine Kindberg
Genre: YA, recent historical fiction (1960s)
Goodreads synopsis: Home is where your people are. But who are your people?
Adelaide has lived her whole life in rural Ethiopia as the white American daughter of an anthropologist. Then her family moves to South Carolina, in 1964. Adelaide vows to find her way back to Ethiopia, marry Maicaah, and become part of the village for real. But until she turns eighteen, Adelaide must adjust to this strange, white place that everyone tells her is home. Then Adelaide becomes friends with the five African-American students who sued for admission into the white high school. Even as she navigates her family’s expectations and her mother’s depression, Adelaide starts to enjoy her new friendships, the chance to learn new things, and the time she spends with a blond football player. Life in Greenville becomes interesting, and home becomes a much more complex equation.
Adelaide must finally choose where she belongs: the Ethiopian village where she grew up, to which she promised to return? Or this place where she’s become part of something bigger than herself?
It is obvious from the very beginning that this book deals with difficult topics. It does it so well, though! I am thoroughly impressed by this book, and I think any YA reader would be as well. My full review of The Means that Make Us Strangers will post next week.
First Line Friday is a weekly linkup hosted at Hoarding Books. To participate, share the first line of a book of your choice, add the link to the linkup on the host’s page, and check out what others are reading and sharing!
Until the next chapter,
Jana
What a beautiful image!
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That is a vivid first line! Happy Friday!
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Very descriptive first line! I’d love for you to stop by my First Lines and consider joining the Fall Into Reading Challenge!
https://collettaskitchensink.blogspot.com/2019/08/first-lines-friday-and-56-82319.html
Colletta
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I’ll check it out! Thanks for stopping by, Colletta!
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Happy Friday!
Today on my blog I am sharing the first line from Finding Lady Enderly by Joanna Davidson Politano: https://christianfictiongirl.blog/2019/08/22/first-line-friday-98/. I am just getting into the book, so I will share from chapter 2.
“I clutched the edge of my seat and rested my forehead on the shuddering train window.”
Hope you have a great weekend. Happy reading! 🙂💚📚
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Wow, i love YA but have never heard of this book before.
Sounds very interesting though and i look forward to the review. thanks for sharing.
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My first line is from Finding Lady Enderly:
I do not wish for all my dreams to come true. After all, nightmares are one type of dream. -Diary of a Substitute Countess
Spitalfields, London’s East End, 1871
For one blessed moment, I was beautiful.
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On my blog, I’m featuring The Trail Boss’s Bride by Erica Vetsch. Since it’s my current read, I’ll share the first line from Chapter 9. “Kitty had never seen so much rain.” I hope you will have a wonderful weekend.
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Happy Friday!
Today on my blog I shared the first line from King’s Shadow by Angela Hunt but it’s also my current read so I’ll share the first line from chapter 23 here: “Anyone who studied Herod in the days following Aristobulus’s death would not doubt his deep and sincere grief.” Happy reading!
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Happy Friday! Today I’m sharing the first lines from You Belong With Me by Tari Faris: “Was she really the only one left who cared about this town?”
https://moments-of-beauty.blogspot.com/2019/08/first-line-fridays-you-belong-with-me.html
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Happy Friday!
On my blog, I shared the first couple of lines of a book I recently finished – The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. Here, though, I’ll be sharing the first lines of one of the books I’m currently reading – Wild Savage Stars by Kristina Perez.
“The waves mocked her.
Discordant laughter swelled in Branwen’s mind and twisted her heart. She couldn’t remain on the ship one moment longer. Her skin itched.”
Wild Savage Stars is the sequel to Kristina Perez’s Sweet Black Waves, which is a Tristan & Eseult retelling. I’m enjoying it so far and I hope you liked the first few lines I shared.
Hope you have a great weekend!
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