First Line Friday {9.27.2019}

Happy Friday! I’m linking up for First Line Friday today, featuring a book I came across at the library this 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!

Today I am featuring The Firefly Dance, a collection of novellas led by one of my favorite authors, Sarah Addison Allen. The first novella, where the first line comes from, is called “The Stocking Store”. Here it is:

“I was seventeen the last time I went with my mother to the Stocking Store.”

About the Book

Title: The Firefly Dance

Author(s): Sarah Addison Allen, Kathryn Magendie, Augusta Trobaugh, and Phyllis Schieber

Genre: Contemporary short story/novella collection

Original Publication Date: August 15, 2011

Goodreads Synopsis: Bright lights flicker in the dark evenings of summer. Pinpoints of hope float against the black descent of night. The sweetest of small and innocent creatures finds its way through the shadows. Fireflies seem to dance on sheer air, illuminating the space between heartbeats.

Children give off a similar brave glow, despite the challenges of their young lives. The lessons of childhood are often painful, the shedding of fragile wings in the gloam of an uncertain future. These rich novellas are small jewels reflecting the essence of what it means to grow up dancing among the shadows of life, carrying a brave, small beacon because you know that even the brightest days always, always, end in darkness.

Sarah Addison Allen has been one of my favorite authors since my high school French teacher recommended I read The Girl Who Chased the Moon. Until a few days ago, I thought I had read everything she has published. Then I stumbled across The Firefly Dance, with her name right on the cover! I had to check it out right away. I haven’t started reading it yet, but I am looking forward to it very much. I don’t know anyone else who writes contemporary fiction as enchantingly as Allen. Maybe, if all of the novellas are written at the same level, I’ll find a few similar authors. I had not even heard of the other three authors in this collection before. I can’t wait to get into this book!

What do you have lined up to read this weekend? I work Saturday, so I’m not sure if I will make much progress on reading anything. Don’t forget to check out Hoarding Books to join the conversation with other bloggers sharing the first lines of the books currently in their lives!

 

Until the next chapter,

Jana