First Chapter ~ First Paragraph

It's Tuesday . . . time for . . . 

. . . First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros . . . now hosted by Yvonne at Socrates' Book Reviews, where bloggers share excerpts from a book they have read, are currently reading, or are planning to read.

 

Today I'm featuring a current read, Eleanor in the Village by Jan Jarboe Russell. The except shared is from a hardcover version borrowed from the library.

First Chapter:  New York New York

"I think at a child's birth, if a mother could ask

a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift,

that gift should be curiosity."

--Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor was born into an old and large clan of Dutch merchants who had arrived in the seventeenth century and settled in the colony of New Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan. The first of the Roosevelts in New York were Claes Martenzen van Roosevelt and his wife, Jannetje, who arrived by ship from Holland sometime before 1648. Eight generations of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt's ancestors built fortunes as importers of West Indian sugar, as bankers, and as speculators in Manhattan real estate. All of the Roosevelts who came along after the seventeenth century were born on Manhattan Island, but in time the clan split into the two groups: the Oyster Bay Roosevelts on Long Island, who were associated with Eleanor's father, Elliott, and with her uncle Theodore, and who belonged to the Republican Party; and the Hyde Park Roosevelts, who, by contrast, were linked to James Roosevelt Sr. and Sara Delano Roosevelt, parents of Franklin and supporters of the Democratic Party.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

The opening paragraph is very informative, providing some background on a woman I have long admired. I am enjoying learning more about her and her long association with New York City.

 

This First Chapter~First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled by Catherine for the Book Club Librarian blog. © 2021, Book Club Librarian All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Book Club Librarian without attribution, know that this post is being used without permission.

 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #26

 
It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts from one of my current reads with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

This week's selection:

   

Beginning:  Prologue

The New Year of 2004 had come in.  It was getting late and I was thinking of leaving -- the party was flat and I was tired -- but someone tapped my shoulder.  The stranger was about forty-five and a little tipsy.  She told me she was married to the brother of a mutual friend, but she wasn't planning to remain so much longer.  I smiled politely.  She put her hand on my arm and said she had something that might interest me.

"You're a journalist, aren't you?"

"I used to be."

"You can find things out, can't you?"

"It depends what they are."

"You have to meet my friend.  She has a puzzle she needs you to solve."

 

--------------------

Page 56:  "Marjorie Hess was worried about flying and she was worried about arriving.  She was missing Doc and the boys, and she was anxious about the task that lay in wait at her destination."

--------------------

From barnesandnoble.com:  Now a major motion picture starring Judi Dench: the heartbreaking true story of an Irishwoman and the secret she kept for 50 years.

When she became pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to a convent to be looked after as a “fallen woman.” Then the nuns took her baby from her and sold him, like thousands of others, to America for adoption. Fifty years later, Philomena decided to find him.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Philomena’s son was trying to find her. Renamed Michael Hess, he had become a leading lawyer in the first Bush administration, and he struggled to hide secrets that would jeopardize his career in the Republican Party and endanger his quest to find his mother.

A gripping exposé told with novelistic intrigue, Philomena pulls back the curtain on the role of the Catholic Church in forced adoptions and on the love between a mother and son who endured a lifelong separation.

Enjoy life with books . . .

 

Catherine

 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #26 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.