Book Beginnings and Friday 56 – For One More Day

It has been almost a month since I did these two Friday memes, so I wanted to get back to them again this week. I recently read Mitch Albom’s latest book, The First Phone Call from Heaven, and realised that I still haven’t read one of his books that I bought quite while ago, For One More Day. I’m using it for the meme combo this week in the hope that I’ll get to read it soon.

The following description comes from GoodReads:

For One More Day is the story of a mother and a son, and a relationship that covers a lifetime and beyond. It explores the question: What would you do if you could spend one more day with a lost loved one? As a child, Charley “Chick” Benetto was told by his father, “You can be a mama’s boy or a daddy’s boy, but you can’t be both.” So he chooses his father, only to see the man disappear when Charley is on the verge of adolescence. Decades later, Charley is a broken man. His life has been crumbled by alcohol and regret. He loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits bottom after discovering his only daughter has shut him out of her wedding. And he decides to take his own life. He makes a midnight ride to his small hometown, with plans to do himself in. But upon failing even to do that, he staggers back to his old house, only to make an astonishing discovery. His mother–who died eight years earlier–is still living there, and welcomes him home as if nothing ever happened. What follows is the one “ordinary” day so many of us yearn for, a chance to make good with a lost parent, to explain the family secrets, and to seek forgiveness. Somewhere between this life and the next, Charley learns the astonishing things he never knew about his mother and her sacrifices. And he tries, with her tender guidance, to put the crumbled pieces of his life back together. Through Albom’s inspiring characters and masterful storytelling, readers will newly appreciate those whom they love–and may have thought they’d lost–in their own lives. For One More Day is a book for anyone in a family, and will be cherished by Albom’s millions of fans worldwide.

Now for this week’s excerpts:

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader, who invites anyone to join in, saying: ‘Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.  Please remember to include the title of the book and the author. Leave a link to your post.  If you don’t have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.’

The beginning of For One More Day:

Let me guess. You want to know why I tried to kill myself.

Short, but not so sweet! I am intrigued, though and look forward to reading this one soon.

The Friday 56 is a book meme hosted by Freda’s Voice and the rules are as follows:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56.
*Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post below in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url.

It’s that simple.

From page 56 of For One More Day:

She scooped the eggs from the pan and chop-chop-chopped them on my plate. I watched her veined hands work the spatula.

“Eat,” she said.

These are the only words on page 56 and I have no idea what is going on here. Hopefully I’ll find out soon.