Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

"Belle Svetlana surveyed her nude image in a full-length mirror, readying herself for a thirty-thousand-dollar-an-hour sexual encounter with the fifteen-year-old son of an Arab oil tycoon."

p1, Poor Little Bitch Girl, by Jackie Collins

Wow, I had forgotten just how direct Jackie Collins is in her writing!

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

"Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive."

For the diehard fans you won't need another sentence I'm sure!

But for those a little like me who have yet to really get caught up in the magic... here's an extra sentence:

"Mr Vernon Dursley had been woken in the early hours of the morning by a loud, hooting noise from his nephew Harry's room."

Yep, you guessed it, Harry Potter #2 - this weekend I'm getting stuck into Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - my first time ever! And after reading these first two sentences... I can't wait!

Roll on the weekend

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

"There was something humiliating about waiting in a cart on a busy London street with all your possessions stacked around you, on show to the curious public."

p1, Burning Bright, by Tracy Chevalier

This is currently sitting on my TBR pile, but after reading this opening sentence it's fast going to the top of the list. I really enjoyed Girl With a Pearl Earring  so am hoping this one is just as good. It's the story of poet, artist and printer, William Blake, at the time of the French revolution, and that of Maggie Butterfield, described as a streetwise daughter of a local rogue. A great combination!

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

I may be the last person to be reading Room, by Emma Donoghue, but just in case there are others out there who haven't yet picked up this much talked about book, here is the beginning!

"Today I'm five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark I'm changed to five, abracadabra."

Room, by Emma Donoghue

I have heard so much about this book so very excited to have it in my hot little hands at the moment. The opening few lines certainly are different, but it's taking me awhile to adjust to this rather unusual "child's-speak".

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

"I'm happy being single, really I am. There's no space in my life for a man. No room in my cupboards for his socks and jerseys, nowhere for his jars of hair wax or shaving sticks."

p1, The Villa Girls, by Nicky Pellegrino

I haven't yet started this book, but it's on the list of contenders for my next read, and after reading this beginning I am intrigued! I've read a few other books by Nicky Pellegrino and enjoyed each one, so I have a feeling I can't go wrong!

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

"Henry and I dug the hole seven feet deep. Any shallower and the corpse was liable to come rising up during the next big flood: Howdy boys! Remember me?"

Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan

Well, this isn't quite the beginning I was expecting. Mudbound, or so I thought, is the story of 30+ year-old Lauren, a girl from the city, who in the 1950s moves out to the Delta with her husband to the farm. It is Lauren's story, but each of the chapters is from a different character's point of view - Lauren, her husband, her maid, her brother-in-law... and it works. The beginning is from her brother-in-law. 

I'm loving this book and can't put it down, although we're off on the road today and I can't travel in the car and read. If a genie offered me three wishes that would definitely be one of them! To be able to read in the car without getting that queasy feeling!

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

I don't have too many books on the go at the moment, so all my memes seem to be coming from Letters from Home, by Kristina McMorris and as I'm only halfway through this one, I'm nowhere near the beginning of a new book.

However, my parents have just arrived for a holiday, bringing with them a few books, and this one is currently lying on the table. Dad finished it last night and had tears in his eyes, so I can't wait to read it. 

"In a parking area, hidden between a building and the branches of some tall trees, a group of men, women and children were squeezing and pushing in front of an old bus. Loud cries, sobs and shouts, mixed with the metallic sound of guns and mortar fire in the distance reminded me of scene that I had watched in old war movies. It was a May morning in 1992."

Chapter One: The Farewell (Atka), p1, Goodbye Sarajevo, by Atka Reid & Hana Schofield

This is the story of two sisters, separated during the Bosnian war and sounds incredible!

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

From my new favourite book (which has quickly become my bible!).

The Decadent Housewife: How to live lavishly on his budget

Chapter 1: Rise & Shine [7.30am - 11.30am]

"Although all Decadent Housewives obviously hate mornings, we know they are crucial to the development and maintenance of the Decadent Housewife lifestyle. Though there is truly nothing worse than being woken by the brazen ring of an alarm, and you are no doubt irritated by your mate's cruel indifference to your sleep preferences, take comfort in the fact that at least you don't have to go to work!"

This book is hilarious, entertaining and just so so soooooooooooooo much fun!

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

"The rain beat down hard on the tin roof of the caravan, nearly drowning out the hesitant tap-tapping of the type-writer keys. There was a faint smell in the air, not entirely unpleasant, a paint thinner mingled with the warm, rich scent of the forest in summer."

Emily Carr: The Incredible Life and Adventures of a West Coast Artist, Cat Klerks

I've been picking up and putting this book down for a month or so now and it's about high time I persevered. It's an introduction to Emily Carr, painter, author, artist of Victoria, BC. There are statues of her around town, you can visit her family home, and the Royal BC museum has exhibitions of her artwork - but I still don't know a thing about her, other than she had a pet monkey!

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

I don't read many short stories, but over my bowl of cereal lately I've been reading a short story each morning.  Short story writing is such a clever skill to have and I've been drawn in by so many of the beginnings to each of them. So, I thought I'd share a couple this Friday.

These come from the short stories of An Elegy for Easterly, by Petina Gappah.

"Mr Vaswani of Vaswani Brothers General Dealers was the first Indian that I saw closely enough to count the teeth in his mouth and the buttons on his shirt."

From Aunt Juliana's Indian

"'You should not play outside in the rain when you are wearing red,' SisiBlandina said to Munay and me. 'Lightning likes things that are red and it will hunt you out and strike you down and burn you from inside out. And you must not sit out on the road otherwise you will grow festering boils on your bottom'"

From The Maid from Lalapanzi

And what's more the stories are just as intriguing as their beginnings!

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

"After my brother went missing, my parents let me use their car whenever I wanted, even though I only had a learner's permit. They didn't enforce my curfew. I didn't have to ask to be excused from the dinner table."

The Local News, by Miriam Gershow

I can't say I'm totally sold on this beginning. The next par goes on to talk about the dinner table being covered in posters of her missing brother, but it seems to lack punch as an opening. I'll continue on though - and see how I feel about page 50! 

It was the cover that caught my eye with this book, and I was just as intrigued by the story - siblings, one extrovert, one introvert, and then the table is turned once one of them goes missing, plus I want to know where he's gone! 

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

"When the prices of everything went up ninety-seven times in one year, M'dhara Vitalis Mukaro came out of retirement to make the coffins in which we buried our dead."

The Mupandawana Dancing Champion, by Petina Gappah 

In An Elegy for Easterly, by Petina Gappah

This was the opening line of my short story at breakfast time this morning. I loved it! And the short story was great. I'm really enjoying this collection, all are set in Zimbabwe and provide quite a fun, but sobering, look at a country in ruins.

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

"It was so dark that Cecila could hardly see her. Rather, she intuited her silhouette behind the small table next to the wall, beside the photos of the sacred dead: Beny More, the genius of the bolero; Rita Montaner, adored diva of Cuban composers; the night-black chansonnier Bola de Nieve, with his smile, white and sweet as sugar... The dimness of the place, nearly empty at that time of night, was already becoming contaminated by the smoke of Marloboros, Dunhills, and the occasional Cohiba cigar."

The Island of Eternal Love, by Daina Chaviano

I was actually more taken by the cover of this book, but having opened the first few pages (after I bought it of course!) to share with you this beginning, I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

"The last thing papa said to me, the last word from his lips, was 'Kamchatka'. He kissed me, his stubble scratching my cheek, then climbed into the Citroen."

Kamchatka, by Marcelo Figueras

Well, this beginning is obviously good, because I'm hooked! It's the story of a 10-year-old boy, set in 1970s Buenos Aires. I've never read anything set in South America before so I'm really looking forward to it!

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

"I would like to write down what happened in my grandmother's house the summer I was eight or nine, but I am not sure if it really did happen. I need to bear witness to an uncertain event."

The Gathering, by Anne Enright

I've been looking a little helplessly at my bookshelf and pile of books on my night table, trying to work out which book to read next. So this meme came along at just the right time. I flicked through a few beginnings to see which caught my eye... and here it is. I want to know if "it" really did happen. I want to know what this "uncertain event" was. So, I've found book #32: The Gathering, by Anne Enright. I can't wait to get stuck in!

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

"I listen to mama sing as we beat Papa's shirts in the river. Her voice runs like silk in the sun over the water and slides with shadows into the reeds. It's Lise's day off and the well in Cothen is dry, so Mama and I must do the washing here. I give Papa's sleeve a twist and look at Mama bent over, braids coiled up on her head and shining like a crown."

Hannah Waters and the daughter of Johann Sebastian Bach, by Barbara Nickel

I couldn't stop at just the first - or second line, so I had to share them all with you. The beginning of this book is as beautiful as the cover itself. I've yet to start reading this one, but after scanning the beginning for today's meme, I don't think I can put it down! Apparently it's "an unforgettable tale of two lonely girls, born centuries apart, who change each other's lives" - I'm certainly intrigued.

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 
I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

"Three o'clock, the dead hour. The fain irritation of sand grit between bare foot and floorboards. Wet towels hanging from bedposts and porch railings. A door, caught in a gust, slams, and someone near it emits the expected cry of surprise."

Body Surfing, by Anita Shreve

This beginning certainly intrigued me, but I've already put the book down! I've never read an Anita Shreve before, but have always thought I should - it's just that this book seems to be in short paragraphs, which are made up of short sentences and I just can't get it to flow.
Are all her books written this way?

Book beginnings on a Friday

Book Beginnings...on a Friday

 

A little bit of fun on a Friday, this weekly meme is hosted by A Few More Pages. 

I'll share the first line (or two) of the book I'm currently reading (including the title and author) and let you know what my first impressions are - good or bad!

A flint and stone church stood on a grassy rise in Somerset County, England. Its red door was broken.

Sweet England, by Steve Weiner

I was captivated by this book in the library the other week. An unusual cover, but a lovely title and an intriguing introduction. The first half page goes on to describe what is behind the broken red door. I could tell you, but that would be giving it away!