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 a current read, Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal.  The excerpts shared are from a trade paperback version I received at last week's Random House December Open House.

 

Prologue

Half an hour before  Diana Snyder died, she tidied up her desk in the typists' office of the Cabinet War Rooms.

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One

"I would say to the House, as I've said to those who have joined this Government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.  We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind.  We  have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering," intoned Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill to the House of Commons and the British nation in his first speech as the new Prime Minister.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

This novel is the first book in the Maggie Hope Mystery Series, a series I have been meaning to start since it first appeared in the book world in 2012.  It's a natural fit for me because I love the historical mystery genre, particularly series which are set in war-time London.

It would probably have taken several more months (or longer) for me to gravitate to the series had it not been for an historical fiction author panel at the recent Random House Open House I attended.  Not only was it a treat to listen to Ms. MacNeal in conversation with authors Amy Bloom and Elizabeth Letts (and moderated by Reading with Robin's Robin Kall), I also came away with a copy of Mr. Churchill's Secretary in my gift bag.  While it might take a while to catch up (The Prisoner in the Castle, the eighth book in the series, was published this year), I anticipate it will be a wonderful reading journey.

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, Google+ and/or other blogs with appropriate recognition is appreciated.

 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings

It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts 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 an upcoming read,  Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce.  The excerpts shared are from the hardcover version I borrowed from the library.

Beginning:  London  
December 1940
Chapter 1
AN ADVERTISEMENT
IN THE NEWSPAPER

When I first saw the advertisement in the newspaper I thought I might actually burst.  I'd had rather a cheerful day so far despite the Luftwaffe annoying everyone by making us all late for work, and then I'd managed to get hold of an onion, which was very good news for a stew.  But when I saw the announcement, I could not have been more cock-a-hoop.

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Page 56: "Then I hurtled out of the office with my hat and coat in my hand before she could see I had gone crimson with guilt."

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My thoughts:  My favorite historical fiction is set in the UK during World War II.  The opening paragraph rings true for me, because it sounds very similar to stories I've heard from family members who lived just outside of London during the war.  These people are no longer alive, so I'm feeling very nostalgic after reading a passage that makes me think of them.

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From Goodreads:  A charming, irresistible debut novel set in London during World War II about an adventurous young woman who becomes a secret advice columnist—a warm, funny, and enormously moving story for fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Lilac Girls.

London 1940, bombs are falling. Emmy Lake is Doing Her Bit for the war effort, volunteering as a telephone operator with the Auxiliary Fire Services. When Emmy sees an advertisement for a job at the London Evening Chronicle, her dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent seem suddenly achievable. But the job turns out to be typist to the fierce and renowned advice columnist, Henrietta Bird. Emmy is disappointed, but gamely bucks up and buckles down.

Mrs Bird is very clear: Any letters containing Unpleasantness—must go straight in the bin. But when Emmy reads poignant letters from women who are lonely, may have Gone Too Far with the wrong men and found themselves in trouble, or who can’t bear to let their children be evacuated, she is unable to resist responding. As the German planes make their nightly raids, and London picks up the smoldering pieces each morning, Emmy secretly begins to write letters back to the women of all ages who have spilled out their troubles.

Prepare to fall head over heels with Emmy and her best friend, Bunty, who are spirited and gutsy, even in the face of events that bring a terrible blow. As the bombs continue to fall, the irrepressible Emmy keeps writing, and readers are transformed by AJ Pearce’s hilarious, heartwarming, and enormously moving tale of friendship, the kindness of strangers, and ordinary people in extraordinary times.

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This Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings on Fridays 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, Google+ and/or other blogs with appropriate recognition is appreciated.

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #99

It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts 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 Night Watch by Sarah Waters, borrowed from the library.

 

 

 

Beginning:  1947

So this, said Kay to herself, is the sort of person you've become: a person whose clocks and wrist-watches have stopped, and who tells the time, instead, by the particular kind of cripple arriving at her landlord's door.

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Page 56:  "She walked stiffly, rather bowed, perhaps only self-conscious, but Helen saw her, for a second, as a stranger might: saw how handsome she was, but also how grown-up, how almost matronly; for you could catch in her something of the angular, wide-hipped, narrow-breasted figure she'd have in earnest in ten years' time."

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My thoughts: I am fond of stories set in London during the World War II era.  Waters's novel centers on four characters whose lives intersect over a six year period from 1941 to 1947.

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From Goodreads:  Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked-out streets, illicit partying, and sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch tells the story of four Londoners - three women and a young man with a past - whose lives, and those of their friends and lovers, connect in tragedy, stunning surprise and exquisite turns, only to change irreversibly in the shadow of a grand historical event.

 

 

Which book are you reading now or about to start?

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #99 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are encouraged and appreciated.

 

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #128

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 an upcoming read, Into the Storm by Lisa Bingham, borrowed from a friend.

 

Goodreads Page 

Dearest J.,

Sadly, I have only one happy memory of my father.

I think I was about five--maybe six?  Yes.  I was six.  I remember distinctly because my younger sister hadn't been born yet and I was leery of a "little stranger" being sent from heaven to live with us.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?

 I like the way the novel begins with a letter.  It has me curious about both the writer and the addressee.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #128 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged. 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #19

 
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:  That neglected triangle where the Camden, Holloway and Caledonian Roads intersect, long oppressed by soot and the continuous rumble of the railway, its bounds set by the gloomy bulk of the women's prison and the desolation of the empty Livestock Market, had been done for long before the Hitler War blasted every last vestige of respectability to smithereens.  

 

My thoughts:  This book's cover is unusual because it provides the story's location, time frame, and a mysterious teaser.  The very long first sentence paints a stark picture of the town, and makes me curious about its post-war inhabitants.  

 

Siân Busby died on September 4, 2012, a year before the publication of this, her last, novel.  The author dedicated the book: "For my darling boys, with all my love."  It includes an introduction written by her husband, Robert Peston, a touching commentary on Busby's life and work.  

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Page 56:  Why were there always so many obstacles in her life?  Why did nothing ever go right for her?  She knew that she ought to be grateful for them all having come through the war when so many others hadn't; she ought to be grateful, but she really wasn't.  This was the deep, dark secret of her soul.

 

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From barnesandnoble.com: On a damp July morning in 1946, two schoolboys find a woman’s body in a bomb site in north London. The woman is identified as Lillian Frobisher, a wife and mother who lived in a war-damaged terrace a few streets away.

The police assume that Lil must have been the victim of a vicious sexual assault; but the autopsy finds no evidence of rape, and Divisional Detective Inspector Jim Cooper turns his attention to her private life.

How did Lil come to be in the bomb site – a well-known lovers’ haunt? If she had consensual sex, why was she strangled? Why was her husband seemingly unaware that she had failed to come home on the night she was killed?

In this gripping murder story, Siân Busby gradually peels away the veneer of stoicism and respectability to reveal the dark truths at the heart of postwar austerity Britain.

Enjoy life with books . . .

 

Catherine
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Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #19 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.