First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros; Teaser Tuesdays (May 26)

This is my choice for this week:

First published 1928

We are at rest five miles behind the front.  Yesterday we were relieved, and now our bellies are full of beef and haricot beans.  We are satisfied and at peace.  Each man has another mess-tin full for the evening; and, what is more, there is a double ration of sausage and bread.  That put a man in fine trim.  We have not had such luck as this for a long time.  The cook with his carroty head is begging us to eat; he beckons with his ladle to every one that passes, and spoons him out a great dollop.  He does not see how he can empty his stew-pot in time for coffee.  Tjaden and Müller have produced two washbasins and had them filled up to the brim as a reserve.  In Tjaden this is voracity, Müller it is foresight.  Where Tjaden puts it all is a mystery, for he is and always will be as thin as a rake. - pg. 1& 2

Would you continue reading?

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros; Teaser Tuesdays

Here is my choice for this week:

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

Originally published April, 2013

On a warm night in early July of that long-evaporated year, the Interestings gathered for the very first time.  They were only fifteen, sixteen, and they began to call themselves the name with tentative irony.  Julie Jacobson, an outsider and possibly even a freak had been invited in for obscure reasons, and now she sat in a corner on the unswept floor and attempted to position herself so she would appear unobtrusive yet not pathetic, which was a difficult balance.

What do you think?  Would you continue?

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros; Teaser Tuesdays

                                

Here is my choice for this week:

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

Originally published 2009

It was just the two of us, my mother and me, after my father left.  He said I should count the new baby he had with his new wife, Marjorie, as part of my family too, plus Richard, Marjorie's son, who was six months younger than me though he was good at all the sports I messed up in.  But our family was my mother, Adele, and me, period.  I would have counted the hamster, Joe, before including that baby, Chloe.

What did you think?  Do you think you would keep reading?

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros (Jan. 14)

Here is my choice for this week:

 

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin

Originally published October 1983

There was a white horse, on a quiet winter morning when snow covered the streets gently and was not deep, and the sky was swept with vibrant stars, except in the east, where dawn was beginning in a light blue flood.  The air was motionless, but would soon start to move as the sun came up and winds from Canada came charging down the Hudson.

What do you think? Would you keep reading? If you wish to join, go to http://bibliophilebythesea.blogspot.com.

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros (Nov. 6)

This week's choice

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Originally published: October 2005

On May 18,1860, the day when the Republican Party would nominate its candidate for president, Abraham Lincoln was up early.  As he climbed the stairs to his plainly furnished law office on the south side of the public square in Springfield, Illinois, breakfast was being served at the 130-room Chenery House on Fourth Street.  Fresh butter, flour, lard, and eggs were being put out for sale at the City Grocery Store on North Sixth Street.  And in the morning newspaper, the proprietors at Smith, Wickersham & Company had announced the arrival of a large spring stock of silks, calicos, ginghams, and linens, along with a new supply of the latest styles of hosiery and gloves.

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros (Oct. 30)

This week's choice:

Home by Toni Morrison

Originally published May 2012

They rose up like men.  We saw them. Like men they stood.

We shouldn't have been anywhere near that place.  

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros (July 3)

This week's choice:

I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits

Originally published May 2012

Light, fast, Zalman's heels rapped the ground as he ran, naked, down the center aisle of the House of Prayer.  His hand reached toward the Torah scroll raised above the altar, but the embroidered mantle slid up and out of sight.  The scroll spread open, revealing a passage he ahd not memorized.  There, supine on the back Ashurite script, her long braids undone, was Rachel Landau, the bride of his study partner.  Her dark eyes smiled at Zalman.  He ran faster toward her, his hips rose and fell, circling the heat in his ammah---

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros (May 15)

This week's choice:

The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings

Originally published January, 2007

The sun is shining, mynah birds are chattering, palm trees are swaying, so what.  I'm in the hospital and I'm healthy.  My heart is beating as it should.  My brain is firing off messages that are loud and clear.  My wife is on the upright hospital bed, positioned the way people sleep on airplanes, her body stiff, head cocked to the side.  Her hands are on her lap.

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros (May 1)

This week's choice

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Originally published September, 2008

 It happened every year, was almost a ritual.  And this was his eighty-second birthday.  When, as usual, the flower was delivered, he took off the wrapping paper and then picked up the telephone to call Detective Superintendent Morell who, when he retired, had moved to Lake Siljan in Dlarna.  They were not only the same age, they had been born on the same day-which was something of an irony under the circumstances.  The old policeman was sitting with his coffee, waiting, expecting the call.

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros (Mar. 27)

This week's choice:

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Originally published August, 2011

For eight year I dreamed of fire.  Trees ignited as I passed them; oceans burned.  The sugary smoke settled in my hair as I slept, the scent like a cloud left on my pillow as I rose.  Even so, the moment my mattress started to burn, I bolted awake.  The sharp, chemical smell was nothing like the hazy syrup of my dreams; the two were as different as Carolina and Indian jasmine, separation and attachment. They could not be confused.

Would you continue reading?

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros (Feb. 28)

This weeks choice:

Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay

Originally published June 12, 2007

The girl was the first to hear the loud pounding on the door.  Her room was closest to the entrance of the apartment.  At first, dazed with sleep, she thought it was her father, coming up from his hiding place in the cellar.  He'd forgotten his keys, and was impatient because nobody had heard his first, timid knock.  But then came the voices, strong and brutal in the silence of the night.  Nothing to do with her father. "Police! Open up! Now!"

Would you continue reading?

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros (Jan.17)

This weeks choice:

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Mae Mobley was born on a early Sunday morning in August 1960.  A church baby we like to call it.  Taking care a white babies, that's what I do, along with all the cooking and the cleaning.  I done raised seventeen kids in my lifetime.  I know how to get them babies to sleep, stop crying, and go in the toilet bowl before they mamas even get out a bed in the morning.

Would you continue reading?

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros (Dec. 27)

This weeks choice:

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Originally Published June 2003

The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive.  Cars that were usually gleaming stood dusty in their drives and lawns that were once emerald green lay parched and yellowing - for the use of hosepipes had been banned due to drought.  Deprived of their usual car-washing and lawn-mowing pursuits, the inhabitants of Privet Drive had retreated into the shade of their cool houses, windows thrown wide in the hope of tempting in a non-existent breeze.   The only person left outdoors was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four.

Would you continue reading?

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros

This weeks choice

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Originally published July, 2000

 

The villagers of Little Hangleton still called it the 'the Riddle House', even though it had been many years since the Riddle family had lived there.  It stood on a hill overlooking the village, some of its windows boarded, tiles missing from its roof, and ivy spreading unchecked over its face.  Once a fine-looking manor, and easily the largest and grandest building for miles around, the Riddle House was now damp, derelict and unoccupied.

Would you continue reading?

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros

This weeks choice

The Wild Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

Originally published July 25, 2011

Did all English girls make love like a man?  Or was it only this one?

       Max von Brandt, a German Mountaineer, wonder this as he stroked the hair out of the face of the young woman lying next to him in the dark.  He'd been with many women.  Soft, pliant women, who clung to him after ward, extorting promises and endearments.  This woman wasn't soft, and neither was her lovemaking.  It was hard and quick and without preliminaries.  And when it was over, as it was now, she would turn away, curl into herself, and sleep.

Would you continue reading?

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros

This week's choice:

What Alice Knew by Paula Marantz Cohen

Originally published August 5, 2010

Henry James was drunk.
     The room in where he was dining looked familiar, but he could not place it.  There was an oak sideboard, elaborately carved, and a cupboard containing a collection of fine porcelains.  The plate was bone china, the silver heavy and apparently old.  There was a landscape (was it Corot?) near the door, a set of prints (Rowlandson?) on the side wall, and a portrait by someone of talent over the mantel.  It was a good house, though how good was a matter of whether the portrait was by van Dyck of an esteemed ancestor or by Sargent of a more contemporary personage  (he was too bleary-eyed to look), and whether the silver had been passed down or purchased secondhand.

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros

This week's choice:

Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

Orignially published December 26, 2006

Herein lies the faithful and true account of my last sixty days, by Kartik, brother of Amar, loyal son of the Rakshana, and of the strange visitation I received that has left me wary on this cold English night.  To begin at the beginning, I must go back to the middle days of October, after the misfortune that occurred.

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros

This weeks choice:

True Grit by Charles Portis

Originally Published June 28, 1968

 

People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day.  I was just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robbed him of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band.

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros

This weeks choice:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

OriginallyPublished February 2, 2010

 

There's a photo on my wall of a woman I've never met, its left corner torn and patched together with tape.  She looks straight into the camera and smiles, hands on hips, dress suit neatly press, lips painted deep red.. It's the late 1940s and she hasn't yet reached the age of thirty.  Her light brown skin is smooth, her eyes still young and playful, oblivious to the tumor growing inside her - a tumor that would leave her five children motherless and change the future of medicine.  Beneath the photo, a caption says her name "Henrietta Lacks, Helen Lane or Helen Larson."

First Chapter - First Paragaph(s) - Tuesday Intros

This week's choice:

The Book of Neogroes by Lawrence Hill

Originally published January 2007

  

I seem to have trouble dying.  By all rights, I should not have lived this long.  But I still can smell trouble riding on any wind, just as surely as I could tell you whether it is a stew of chicken necks or pigs' feet bubbling in the iron pot on the fire.  And my ears still work just as good as a hound dog's.  People assume that just because you don't stand as straight as a sapling, you're deaf.  Or that your mind is like pumpkin mush.  The other day, when I was being led into a meeting with a bishop, one of the society ladies told another, "We must get this woman into Parliament soon.  Who know how much longer she'll be with us?" Half bent though I was, I dug my fingers into her ribs.  She let out a shriek and spun around to face me.  "Careful," I told her, " I may outlast you!"