First Chapter ~ First Paragraph

It's Tuesday . . . time for . . . 

                                                      

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, now hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.   

Today I'm featuring my current read, Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller.  

 

One

They must think I don't have long left because today they allow the vicar in.  Perhaps they are right, although this day feels no different from yesterday, and I imagine tomorrow will go on much the same.  The vicar--no, not vicar, he has a different title, I forget--is older than me by a good few years, his hair is grey, and his skin is flaky and red, sore-looking.  I didn't ask for him; what faith I once had was tested and found lacking at Lyntons, and before that, my church attendance was a habit, a routine for Mother and me to arrange our week around.  I know all about routine and habit in this place.  It is what we live, and what we die, by.  

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

I am intrigued by the opening paragraph because it conjures up questions and mystery for me.  Who is the narrator, the person who is reflecting back on the past?  Who is the vicar?  What is Lyntons?  It is enough to keep me reading on.

This First Chapter ~ First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution. Sharing this original post on Twitter and/or other blogs with appropriate recognition is appreciated.

Thursday Thoughts ~ Books from the Backlog

Happy Thursday . . .  aka, Happy Almost Friday!!

It's time for Books from the Backlog, hosted by Carole's Random Life in Books.  It's a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread.  If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks . . . or on your eReader.

 

This week's neglected book is . . .

 

Release Date:  September 29, 2015

Publisher:  Riverhead Books

From Goodreads:  In a parched southern California of the near future, Luz, once the poster child for the country’s conservation movement, and Ray, an army deserter turned surfer, are squatting in a starlet’s abandoned mansion. Most “Mojavs,” prevented by armed vigilantes from freely crossing borders to lusher regions, have allowed themselves to be evacuated to encampments in the east. Holdouts like Ray and Luz subsist on rationed cola and water, and whatever they can loot, scavenge, and improvise.

For the moment, the couple’s fragile love, which somehow blooms in this arid place, seems enough. But when they cross paths with a mysterious child, the thirst for a better future begins.

Immensely moving, profoundly disquieting, and mind-blowingly original, Watkins’s novel explores the myths we believe about others and tell about ourselves, the double-edged power of our most cherished relationships, and the shape of hope in a precarious future that may be our own.

 

 

Why I selected it:  I like the plot summary and its focus on idealist characters and an uncertain future.  I'm always fascinated by how life takes unexpected turns, despite the best laid plans.  

 

 

 

This Thursday Thoughts ~ Books from the Backlog post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing of this original work on Google+ and/or other blogs (with appropriate recognition) are appreciated. 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph

It's Tuesday . . . time for . . . 

                                                      

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, now hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.  

Today I'm featuring an upcoming read, The Only Story by Julian Barnes.  The excerpt shared is from a hardcover version borrowed from the library.

  

ONE

Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less?  That is, I think, finally, the only real question.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

The author starts this novel by asking quite a profound question, and sets the tone for the story of a profound relationship between a younger man and an older woman: what draws them together, what they offer one another, and what ultimately draws them apart.  

Julian Barnes is an astute observer of the human heart, and The Only Story is his latest insightful novel.

********************

This First Chapter ~ First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing of this original post on Google+ are appreciated.

First Paragraph ~ First Chapter

It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .

                                                      

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

Today I'm featuring The Door by Magda Szabo, which I borrowed from the library. 

 

Goodreads Page

THE DOOR

I seldom dream.  When I do, I wake with a start, bathed in sweat.  Then I lie back, waiting for my frantic heart to slow, and reflect on the overwhelming power of night's spell.  As a child and young woman, I had no dreams, either good or bad, but in old age I am confronted repeatedly with horrors from my past, all the more dismaying because compressed and compacted, and more terrible than anything I have lived through.  In fact nothing has ever happened to me of the kind that now drags me screaming from my sleep.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?   

This book has been well-received by authors and critics alike, and I am very curious to read about the author's story of the relationship between two very different women.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are appreciated.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #116

It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .

                                                      

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

Today I'm featuring the opening from my next read, a book selected by one of my book clubs, which I borrowed from the library . . .

  

Goodreads Page 

Part One

Chapter I

The old man's eyes struck me first.  They rested deep in their sockets, and he seemed unable to take them off me.  Granted, everyone in the teahouse was staring at me more or less unabashedly, but he was the most brazen.  As if I were some exotic creature he'd never seen before.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

I'm intrigued by the opening paragraph and its lyrical prose.  Early feedback from club members is that this is an immediately engaging story. 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #116 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged. 

 

Waiting on Wednesday: New Kate Morton Novel

  

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about forthcoming books with other readers.  Today I'm featuring The Lake House by best-selling author Kate Morton. 

  

Publisher:  Atria Books

Publication Date:  October 20, 2015

From barnesandnoble.com:  From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Secret Keeper and The Distant Hours, an intricately plotted, spellbinding new novel of heartstopping suspense and uncovered secrets.

Living on her family’s idyllic lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented sixteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure…

One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest child, eleven-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. What follows is a tragedy that tears the family apart in ways they never imagined.

Decades later, Alice is living in London, having enjoyed a long successful career as an author. Theo’s case has never been solved, though Alice still harbors a suspicion as to the culprit. Miles away, Sadie Sparrow, a young detective in the London police force, is staying at her grandfather’s house in Cornwall. While out walking one day, she stumbles upon the old estate—now crumbling and covered with vines, clearly abandoned long ago. Her curiosity is sparked, setting off a series of events that will bring her and Alice together and reveal shocking truths about a past long gone...yet more present than ever.

A lush, atmospheric tale of intertwined destinies, this latest novel from a masterful storyteller is an enthralling, thoroughly satisfying read.

Which book are you waiting for?

...Will you add this one to your list of must-reads?

Waiting on Wednesday: New Kate Morton Novel was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.  (Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are encouraged.)

Waiting on Wednesday: New Anne Enright Novel

 

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about forthcoming books with other readers.  Today I'm featuring The Green Road by critically acclaimed author Anne Enright.

 

Publisher:  W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Publication Date: May 11, 2015

From barnesandnoble.com:  A major new novel from the winner of the Man Booker Prize.  From internationally acclaimed author Anne Enright comes a shattering novel set in a small town on Ireland's Atlantic coast.  The Green Road is a tale of family and fracture, compassion, and selfishness—a book about the gaps in the human heart and how we strive to fill them.  Spanning thirty years, The Green Road tells the story of Rosaleen, matriarch of the Madigans, a family on the cusp of either coming together or falling irreparably apart.  As they grow up, Rosaleen's four children leave the west of Ireland for lives they could have never imagined in Dublin, New York, and Mali, West Africa.  In her early old age their difficult, wonderful mother announces that she’s decided to sell the house and divide the proceeds.  Her adult children come back for a last Christmas, with the feeling that their childhoods are being erased, their personal history bought and sold.

A profoundly moving work about a family's desperate attempt to recover the relationships they've lost and forge the ones they never had, The Green Road is Enright's most mature, accomplished, and unforgettable novel to date. 

Which book are you waiting for?

...Will you add this one to your list of must-reads?

Waiting on Wednesday: New Anne Enright Novel was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are encouraged.

Waiting on Wednesday: New Ann Packer Novel

 

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about forthcoming books with other readers.  Today I'm featuring The Children's Crusade by critically acclaimed author Ann Packer.

  

Publisher: Scribner

Publication Date: April 7, 2015

From barnesandnoble.com:  From the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of The Dive From Clausen’s Pier, a sweeping, masterful new novel that explores the secrets and desires, the remnant wounds and saving graces of one California family, over the course of five decades. 

Bill Blair finds the land by accident, three wooded acres in a rustic community south of San Francisco. The year is 1954, long before anyone will call this area Silicon Valley. Struck by a vision of the family he has yet to create, Bill buys the property on a whim. In Penny Greenway he finds a suitable wife, a woman whose yearning attitude toward life seems compelling and answerable, and they marry and have four children. Yet Penny is a mercurial housewife, at a time when women chafed at the conventions imposed on them. She finds salvation in art, but the cost is high.

Thirty years later, the three oldest Blair children, adults now and still living near the family home, are disrupted by the return of the youngest, whose sudden presence and all-too-familiar troubles force a reckoning with who they are, separately and together, and set off a struggle over the family’s future. One by one, the siblings take turns telling the story—Robert, a doctor like their father; Rebecca, a psychiatrist; Ryan, a schoolteacher; and James, the malcontent, the problem child, the only one who hasn’t settled down—their narratives interwoven with portraits of the family at crucial points in their history.

Which book are you waiting for?

...Will you add this one to your list of must-reads?

Waiting on Wednesday: New Ann Packer Novel was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #97

  It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .

                                                      

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

Today I'm featuring the opening from a book I'm reading for one of my book clubs . . .

 

We Are Water

Prologue

Rope-Skipping Girl

Gualtiero Agnello

August 2009

"I understand that there was some controversy about the coroner's ruling concerning Josephus Jones's death.  What do you think, Mr. Agnello?  Did he die accidentally or was he murdered?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part I

Art and Service

Chapter One

Annie Oh

Viveca's wedding dress has a name: Gaia.  It's lovely.  Layers of sea green silk chiffon, cap sleeves, an empire waist, an asymetrical A-line skirt with the suggestion of a train.  I forget the designer's name; Ianni something.  He's someone Viveca knows from the Hellenic Fashion Designers Association.  It arrived at the apartment from Athens yesterday, and Minnie has pressed it and hung it on the door of Viveca's closet.

 

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?  

 

What are you reading now or planning to read soon?

 

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #97 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #89

It's Tuesday . . . and I'm participating in . . .

                                                      

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

Today I'm featuring the opening from an upcoming read for one of my book clubs . . .

  

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters 

***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected proof***

Copyright © 2014 Sarah Waters

Part One

One

The Barbers had said they would arrive by three. It was like waiting to begin a journey, Frances thought. She and her mother had spent the morning watching the clock, unable to relax. At half-past two she had gone wistfully over the rooms for what she’d supposed was the final time; after that there had been a nerving-up, giving way to a steady deflation, and now, at almost five, here she was again, listening to the echo of her own footsteps, feeling no sort of fondness for the sparsely furnished spaces, impatient simply for the couple to arrive, move in, get it over with.

She stood at a window in the largest of the rooms—the room which, until recently, had been her mother’s bedroom, but was now to be the Barbers’ sitting-room—and stared out at the street. The afternoon was bright but powdery. Flurries of wind sent up puffs of dust from the pavement and the road. The grand houses opposite had a Sunday blankness to them—but then, they had that every day of the week. Around the corner there was a large hotel, and motor-cars and taxi-cabs occasionally came this way to and from it; sometimes people strolled up here as if to take the air. But Champion Hill, on the whole, kept itself to itself. The gardens were large, the trees leafy. You would never know, she thought, that grubby Camberwell was just down there. You’d never guess that a mile or two further north lay London, life, glamour, all that.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?  

 

What are you reading now or planning to read soon?

 

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #89 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #88

It's Tuesday . . . and I'm participating in . . .

                                                         

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

Today I'm featuring the opening from an upcoming read that I checked out of the library last week . . .

   

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.  At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs.  The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point.  Every year during the month of March a family of ragged gypsies would set up their tents near the village, and with a great uproar of pipes and kettledrums they would display new inventions.  First they brought the magnet.  A heavy gypsy with an untamed beard and sparrow hands, who introduced himself as Melquiades, put on a bold public demonstration of what he himself called the eighth wonder of the learned alchemists of Macedonia.  He went from house to house dragging two metal ingots and everybody was amazed to see pots, pans, tongs, and braziers tumble down from their places and beams creak from the desperation of nails and screws trying to emerge, and even objects that had been lost for a long time appeared from where they had been searched for most and went dragging along in turbulent confusion behind Melquiades' magical irons.  "Things have a life of their own," the gypsy proclaimed with a harsh accent.  "It's simply a matter of waking up their souls."  Jose Arcadio Buendia, whose unbridled imagination always went beyond the genius of nature and even beyond miracles and magic, thought that it would be possible to make use of that useless invention to extract gold from the bowels of the earth.  Melquiades, who was an honest man, warned him: "It won't work for that."  But Jose Arcadio Buendia at that time did not believe in the honesty of gypsies, so he traded his mule and a pair of goats for the two magnetized ingots.  Ursula Inguaran, his wife, who relied on those animals to increase their poor domestic holdings, was unable to dissuade him.  "Very soon we'll have gold enough and more to pave the floors of the house," her husband replied.  For several months he worked hard to demonstrate the truth of his idea.  He explored every inch of the region, even the riverbed, dragging the two iron ingots along and reciting Melquiades' incantation aloud.  The only thing he succeeded in doing was to unearth a suit of fifteenth-century armor which had all of its pieces soldered together with rust and inside of which there was the hollow resonance of an enormous stone-filled gourd.  When Jose Arcadio Buendia and the four men of his expedition managed to take the armor apart, they found inside a calcified skeleton with a copper locket containing a woman's hair around its neck.  

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?  

 

What are you reading now or planning to read soon?

 

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #88 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #78 and Teaser Tuesdays

          
It's Tuesday . . . time to share book excerpts with: 

• First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

• Teaser Tuesdays hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, where bloggers post two (2) random “teaser” sentences--no spoilers allowed--to try to entice others to seek out these books.

Today I'm featuring the opening paragraph and a teaser from my next read, The Bostonians by Henry James. I'm reading this classic literary work for a very special group that I joined last year.  The Alumni Association of Hunter College Book Club has been meeting for 14 years, and last year my schedule finally coincided with theirs.  I earned my undergraduate degree from Hunter College/CUNY, have served on the Alumni Association Board in the recent past, and enjoy being involved in the many activities the Alumni Association sponsors.  The group meets at the college, so I'm lucky to revisit my alma mater on a regular basis.

  

Book First

I

"Olive will come down in about ten minutes; she told me to tell you that.  About ten; that is exactly like Olive.  Neither five nor fifteen, and yet not ten exactly, but either nine or eleven.  She didn't tell me to say she was glad to see you, because she doesn't know whether she is or not, and she wouldn't for the world expose herself to telling a fib.  She is very honest, is Olive Chancellor; she is full of rectitude.  Nobody tells fibs in Boston; I don't know what to make of them all.  Well, I am very glad to see you, at any rate."

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

Teaser:  "She had brought him into her life, and she should have to pay for it.  But she wished to know the worst at once." ~ p. 25

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

What are you reading now or planning to read soon?

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #78 and Teaser Tuesdays was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Waiting on Wednesday: Us

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about forthcoming books with other readers.  Today I'm featuring a novel from David Nicholls, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.  The book will be released this October.

   

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers 

Publication date: October 28, 2014

 

From barnesandnoble.com:  David Nicholls brings the wit and intelligence that graced his enormously popular New York Times bestseller, One Day, to a compellingly human, deftly funny new novel about what holds marriages and families together—and what happens, and what we learn about ourselves, when everything threatens to fall apart.

Douglas Petersen may be mild-mannered, but behind his reserve lies a sense of humor that, against all odds, seduces beautiful Connie into a second date . . . and eventually into marriage. Now, almost three decades after their relationship first blossomed in London, they live more or less happily in the suburbs with their moody seventeen year-old son, Albie. Then Connie tells him she thinks she wants a divorce.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Hoping to encourage her son’s artistic interests, Connie has planned a month-long tour of European capitals, a chance to experience the world’s greatest works of art as a family, and she can’t bring herself to cancel. And maybe going ahead with the original plan is for the best anyway? Douglas is privately convinced that this landmark trip will rekindle the romance in the marriage, and might even help him to bond with Albie.

Narrated from Douglas’s endearingly honest, slyly witty, and at times achingly optimistic point of view, Us is the story of a man trying to rescue his relationship with the woman he loves, and learning how to get closer to a son who’s always felt like a stranger. Us is a moving meditation on the demands of marriage and parenthood, the regrets of abandoning youth for middle age, and the intricate relationship between the heart and the head. And in David Nicholls’s gifted hands, Douglas’s odyssey brings Europe—from the streets of Amsterdam to the famed museums of Paris, from the cafés of Venice to the beaches of Barcelona—to vivid life just as he experiences a powerful awakening of his own. Will this summer be his last as a husband, or the moment when he turns his marriage, and maybe even his whole life, around?

Which book are you waiting for?   

. . .  Will you add this one to your list of must-reads?

 

Waiting on Wednesday: Us was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.

 

 

 

Waiting on Wednesday: Munich Airport

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about forthcoming books with other readers.  Today I'm featuring a novel from Greg Baxter, which was brought to my attention by a librarian friend whom I meet with regularly to discuss new books on the horizon.  The book will be released in January 2015.

   

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Publication date: January 27, 2015

 

 

From barnesandnoble.com:  From the critically acclaimed author of The Apartment, a powerful, poetic, and haunting exploration of loss, love, and isolation—and the families we improvise when our real ones fall apart.

An American living in London receives a phone call from a German policewoman telling him that his sister, Miriam, has been found dead of starvation in her Berlin apartment. Three weeks later the man, his father, and an American Consular official named Trish find themselves in the bizarre surroundings of a fogbound Munich Airport, where Miriam's coffin is set to be loaded onto a commercial jet and returned to America.

Greg Baxter's astonishing novel tells the story of these three people over the course of several weeks, as they wait for Miriam's body to be released, sift through her possessions, and try to piece together the events that led to her awful death. An unflinching look at family, loneliness, desperation, and regret, Munich Airport marks the establishment of an important literary voice in Greg Baxter.

Which book are you waiting for?

Waiting on Wednesday: Munich Airport was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.

 

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #65 and Teaser Tuesdays

 
It's Tuesday . . . time to share book excerpts with: 

• First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

• Teaser Tuesdays hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading where bloggers post two (2) random “teaser” sentences--no spoilers allowed--from their current reads to try to entice others to seek out these books.

Today I'm featuring the opening paragraphs and a teaser from Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill, a library book that I finished reading yesterday.  

 

1

Antelopes have 10x vision, you said.  It was the beginning or close to it.  That means that on a clear night they can see the rings of Saturn.

It was still months before we'd tell each other all our stories.  And even then some seemed too small to bother with.  So why do they come back to me now?  Now, when I'm so weary of all of it.

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

Teaser:   "How is that even possible?" the philosopher says.  "He's one of the kindest people I've ever met." ~ p. 100

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 
The story revolves around a married couple, chronicling the ups and downs of their relationship.  After adjusting to characters without names and a mostly stream-of-consciousness narrative style, the 177 pages flew by, hitting their mark.  I am still thinking about these characters and how they navigated the challenges of life and love.

What are you reading now or planning to read soon?

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #65 and Teaser Tuesdays was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #64 and Teaser Tuesdays

 
It's Tuesday . . . time to share book excerpts with: 

• First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

• Teaser Tuesdays hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading where bloggers post two (2) random “teaser” sentences--no spoilers allowed--from their current reads to try to entice others to seek out these books.

Today I'm featuring the opening paragraph from Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, a library book that I'm reading for an upcoming book club meeting.  It's been a while since I participated in Teaser Tuesdays, and now seems like a good time to return to this meme.   

 

England, late 1990s

Part One

Chapter One

My name is Kathy H.  I'm thirty-one years old, and I've been a carer now for over eleven years.  That sounds long enough, I know, but actually they want me to go on for another eight months, until the end of this year.  That'll make it almost exactly twelve years.  Now I know my being a carer so long isn't necessarily because they think I'm fantastic at what I do.  There are some really good carers who've been told to stop after just two or three years.  And I can think of one carer at least who went on for all of fourteen years, despite being a complete waste of space.  So I'm not trying to boast.  But then I do know for a fact they've been pleased with my work, and by and large, I have too.  My donors have always tended to do much better than expected.  Their recovery times have been impressive, and hardly any of them have been classified as "agitated," even before fourth donation.  Okay, maybe I am boasting now.  But it means a lot to me, being able to do my work well, especially that bit about my donors staying "calm."  I've developed a kind of instinct around donors.  I know when to hang around and comfort them, when to leave them to themselves; when to listen to everything they have to say, and when just to shrug and tell them to snap out of it.

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

Teaser:  I tried to bring it up once myself, in the dorm after lights-out.  In the Seniors, we were down to six per dorm, so it was just our little group, and we often had our most intimate conversations lying in the dark before we fell asleep.  ~ p. 15

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

The opening paragraph is very wordy, and it has me trying to decide whether the narrator likes to speak about herself, or is just anxious to relate her story and be heard.  The only way to find out is to read on.  

What are you reading now or planning to read soon?

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #64 and Teaser Tuesdays was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Quick

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about forthcoming books with other readers.

 This week's anticipated book:

 

 Publisher: Random House Publishing Group 

Publication date: June 17, 2014

From barnesandnoble.com:  For fans of Anne Rice, The Historian, and The Night Circus, an astonishing debut, a novel of epic scope and suspense that conjures up all the magic and menace of Victorian London.
 
1892: James Norbury, a shy would-be poet newly down from Oxford, finds lodging with a charming young aristocrat. Through this new friendship, he is introduced to the drawing-rooms of high society and finds love in an unexpected quarter. Then, suddenly, he vanishes without a trace. Alarmed, his sister, Charlotte, sets out from their crumbling country estate determined to find him. In the sinister, labyrinthine London that greets her, she uncovers a hidden, supernatural city populated by unforgettable characters: a female rope walker turned vigilante, a street urchin with a deadly secret, and the chilling “Doctor Knife.” But the answer to her brother’s disappearance ultimately lies within the doors of the exclusive, secretive Aegolius Club, whose predatory members include the most ambitious, and most bloodthirsty, men in England.

In her first novel, Lauren Owen has created a fantastical world that is both beguiling and terrifying. The Quick will establish her as one of fiction’s most dazzling talents.

Named One of the Top 10 Literary Fiction Books of the Season by Publishers Weekly.

Which book are you waiting for?

Enjoy life with books . . .

Catherine

   

Waiting on Wednesday: The Quick was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be published without attribution.

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #44

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.

Today I'm featuring:

  

The Land of Steady Habits by Ted Thompson

Beginning:  Part One 

Chapter 1

One of the great advantages of Anders's divorce -- besides, of course, the end of the squabbling and the sudden guiltless thrill of freedom -- was that he no longer had to attend the Ashbys' holiday party.  Their party, like all of the parties he'd attended in his marriage, was his wife's domain, and he was relieved to no longer have to show up only to be a disappointment to her friends.

*********************

Page 56: "All his life he'd been resisting what was expected of him, a habit of reaction followed by a battery of justification."

*********************

From barnesandnoble.com:  Anders Hill, entering his early sixties and seemingly ensconced in the "land of steady habits"--a nickname for the affluent, morally strict hamlets of Connecticut that dot his commuter rail line--abandons his career and family for a new condo and a new life. Stripped of the comforts of his previous identity, Anders turns up at a holiday party full of his ex-wife's friends and is suprised to find that the very world he rejected may be one he needs. 

Thus Anders embarks on a clumsy, hilarious, and heartbreaking journey to reconcile his past with his present. Like the early work of John Updike, Ted Thompson's first novel finely observes a man in deep conflict with his community. With compassion for its characters and fresh insight into the American tradition of the "suburban narrative," THE LAND OF STEADY HABITS introduces an auspicious talent.

Which book are you reading now?

 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #44 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.    

 

Waiting on Wednesday: For Jane Austen Fans and Others

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature of the Breaking the Spine blog.  It's a great way to share information about forthcoming books with other readers.

This week's anticipated book:

 

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Publication Date: October 8, 2013

From barnesandnoble.com:  Pride and Prejudice was only half the story •  If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them.
 
In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants’ hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended.

Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austen’s classic—into the often overlooked domain of the stern housekeeper and the starry-eyed kitchen maid, into the gritty daily particulars faced by the lower classes in Regency England during the Napoleonic Wars—and, in doing so, creates a vivid, fascinating, fully realized world that is wholly her own. 

My Thoughts: This sounds like the perfect read for those of us who are fans of Jane Austen novels, as well as anyone who enjoys the drama of Upstairs Downstairs, and/or Downton Abbey.  I am looking forward to curling up with this book in the cool autumn weather.

Enjoy life with books . . .

 

Catherine
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Waiting on Wednesday: For Jane Austen Fans and Others was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.