First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #27 and Tuesday Teaser

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea. It's an opportunity to share the first paragraph(s) of a book I am currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

This week I'm featuring the opening paragraph from The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian, which I borrowed from the library.  This book was selected as a next read for one of my book clubs, and I started reading it this week.

Read on after the intro for my Tuesday Teaser.

 

 Publisher:  Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Publication Date:  July 17, 2012

Prologue

When my twin brother and I were small children, we would take turns sitting on our grandfather's lap.  There he would grab the rope-like roles of baby fat that would pool at our waists and bounce us on his knees, cooing.  'Big belly, big belly, big belly.'  This was meant as an affectionate, grandfatherly gesture, not his subtle way of suggesting that if we didn't lose weight, we would wind up as Jenny Craig testimonials.   Just for the record, there is also a chance that when my brother was being bounced on Grandpa's lap, he was wearing a white turtleneck shirt and red velvet knickers.  This is the outfit my mother often had him wear when we visited our grandparents, because this was the getup that in her opinion made him look most British--and he had to look British, since she was going to make him sing the 1965 Herman's Hermits pop hit 'I'm Henry the VIII, I Am.'  The song had been popular four years earlier when she'd given birth to us, and in some disturbingly Oedipal fashion she has come to view it as their song.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? The love story in this historical novel drew me in immediately. Spanning a century, two continents, and several generations--from the bloodshed and political strife of 1915 Aleppo, Syria to present day Bronxville, New York--Bohjalian's writing is rich in cultural detail and character development.  I am looking forward to a group discussion of this novel with the members of my book club.

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Teaser Tuesdays, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, is a weekly event where bloggers open to a random page and share a teaser from somewhere on that page--no spoilers allowed.
 

Here's my teaser from The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian:

"Two birds alight on the branches of a spindly poplar.  At first she presumes they are hawks.  On a second look, however, she realizes they are vultures." ~ p.29

Catherine

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First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #27 and Tuesday Teaser was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.