Page of the Day: Days 24 through 30

Welcome back to Page of the Day! For 100 Days, we are sharing 100 pages of 100 books – page by page, in order on our Instagram page. With each different day, a different book is featured. From advanced reader copies of upcoming releases to new paperback editions, you’ll be able to catch a glimpse – and read a short passage – from books perfect for summer reading. Here are those short passages from Days 24 through 30:

Day 24: Love and Death in the Sunshine State by Cutter Wood

“Like California, it exists for most people as an idea, something to be talked about while you’re counting your tips at the end of the night or punching your time card after a graveyard shift. As in de Soto’s time, when Florida stretched north unmapped and borderless, the shape of the Sunshine State is defined less by the 31st parallel than by the imagination. Only long after you’ve arrived, as de Soto discovered, does it become anything like a reality.”

Day 25: Tasting the Past by Kevin Begos

“If you’ve ever struggled to budget enough wine for a large event, take heart. As least you didn’t have to supply an army. An Egyptian king sent a firm reminder to Mari that wine was obligatory, not optional: ‘Be prepared for the arrival of the archers of the king, with much food at hand, wine, and everything needed. P.S. Be assured that the king is as well as the sun god in the sky; his soldiers and his [chariots] are in very, very good condition.’ ”

Day 26: Shadow of the Lions by Christopher Swann

“Third Form Night was a time-honored ritual at Blackbourne. Immediately after study hall, the varsity football players would corral the third formers in the auditorium in the Montback Fine Arts Center and lead us through a program of school spirit. Unofficially, it was a hazing, but no one knew what that meant. Did we have to do push-ups? Run laps? Eat onions? Fourth formers rolled their eyes and laughed when we asked…”

Day 27: Nine Irish Lives by Mark Bailey with illustrations by Edward Hemingway

“And yet, given his influence, both in Ireland and in the United States, in our long march toward liberty and justice, it is clear that Thomas Addis Emmet is not dead in any final sense of the word.”

Day 28: The Price of the Haircut by Brock Clarke

“. . . but now that I’d made my choice to be like my mother and not my father, I at least had the title, which was: “I’ve Made My Choice (I Am My Mother’s Son)”. And as my first official act as my mother’s son, I picked up a knife and said to my mother, ‘OK, birthday girl. Who’s ready for some cake?’ ”

Day 29: The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness by Paula Poundstone

“I try hard to share my happiness now. I often describe my workouts to my children over dinner. Our kitchen table is too small for all four of us, so I almost never sit at the table to eat if we’re all together. If I sit, I sit on a red plastic step stool, facing the table, with my back on a cabinet and my plate on my knees. I usually don’t sit, though, since our table is too small to hold serving dishes. I generally wait on the table, refilling the milks, noodles, and occasionally confiscating the shredded Parmesan cheese after Thomas E has, once again, accidentally poured out too much.”

Day 30: On Fire by Larry Brown

“I had a fight with a mouse a while back. I was sitting in the living room late one night, listening to the stereo, and I saw a mouse run from the living room closet to the bathroom. I knew I had him hemmed up. There’s only one way out of the bathroom. I got the broom and went in there and shut the door, and sure enough, there he was, trying to decide which way to run. He ran up under the vanity and I stabbed at him a couple of times with the broom, and then he quickly hid under a pile of towels in the corner.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *