Category Archives: #FirstParas

Great Opening Paragraph 142… ‘The Crow Road’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach.”
Iain BanksFrom ‘The Crow Road’ by Iain Banks

Here’s my review of THE QUARRY by Iain Banks.

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘Middlesex’ by Jeffery Eugenides 
‘Super-Cannes’ by JG Ballard 
American Psycho’ by Brett Easton Ellis 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#FirstPara THE CROW ROAD by Iain Banks #books #amreading https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7gH via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 141… ‘David Copperfield’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.”
Charles DickensFrom ‘David Copperfield’ by Charles Dickens

Here’s the #FirstPara of another novel by Charles Dickens:-
A TALE OF TWO CITIES 

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘Affinity’ by Sarah Waters 
‘Death in Summer’ by William Trevor 
‘1984’ by George Orwell 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#FirstPara DAVID COPPERFIELD by Charles Dickens #books #amreading https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7gC via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 140… ‘Miss Benson’s Beetle’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“When Margery was ten, she fell in love with a beetle.”
Rachel JoyceFrom ‘Miss Benson’s Beetle’ by Rachel Joyce

Click the title to read my review of MISS BENSON’S BEETLE.

Here’s the #FirstPara of THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY, also by Rachel Joyce.

And read my reviews of these other books by Rachel Joyce:-
MAUREEN FRY AND THE ANGEL OF THE NORTH
PERFECT
THE LOVE SONG OF MISS QUEENIE HENNESSY

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘The Slaves of Solitude’ by Patrick Hamilton 
‘Queen Camilla’ by Sue Townsend 
‘The Secret Agent’ by Joseph Conrad 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#FirstPara MISS BENSON’S BEETLE by Rachel Joyce #books #amreading https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7gx via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 139… ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense.”
JK RowlingFrom ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ by JK Rowling

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt 
‘Lucky You’ by Carl Hiassen 
‘The Hobbit’ by JRR Tolkein

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#FirstPara HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE by JK Rowling #books #amreading https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7gsvia @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 138… ‘Anna Karenina’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Leo TolstoyFrom ‘Anna Karenina’ by Leo Tolstoy

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison
‘The Cement Garden’ by Ian McEwan
‘The Heart is a Lonely Hunter’ by Carson McCullers 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#FirstPara ‘Anna Karenina’ by Leo Tolstoy #books #amreading https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7gl via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 137… ‘The Last Lifeboat’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“Mid-Atlantic. 17 September 1940.
Alice can’t breathe. The wind snatches her breath away, leaving her gasping for air as she half jumps, half stumbles into the lifeboat and falls, face down, against the boards. She tries to pull herself up, but the lifeboat pitches violently as another monstrous wave smashes into them and throws Alice into a woman beside her. The woman loses her grip on the rain-slicked mast and tumbles, with extraordinary grace, into the dark ocean, her white nightdress unfurling around he as she spins and twirls like a ballerina in a pirouette. Too shocked to respond, Alice can’t look away.”
Hazel GaynorFrom ‘The Last Lifeboat’ by Hazel Gaynor

Click the title to read my review of THE LAST LIFEBOAT…

… and these other novels by Hazel Gaynor:-
THE BIRD IN THE BAMBOO CAGE
THE COTTINGLEY SECRET

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison
‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ by Mark Haddon
‘Tipping the Velvet’ by Sarah Waters

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE LAST LIFEBOAT by @HazelGaynor https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7UL via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 73… ‘The Chateau’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“The big ocean liner, snow white, with two red and black slanting funnels, lay at anchor, attracting seagulls. The sea was calm, the lens of the sky was set at infinity. The coastline – low green hills and the dim outlines of stone houses lying in pockets of mist – was in three pale French colours, a brocade borrowed from some museum. The pink was daybreak. So beautiful, and no one to see it.”
William MaxwellFrom ‘The Chateau’ by William Maxwell

And read my reviews of these other novels by William Maxwell:-
BRIGHT CENTER OF HEAVEN
THE FOLDED LEAF
THEY CAME LIKE SWALLOWS
TIME WILL DARKEN IT… and read the first paragraph HERE.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant’ by Anne Tyler 
‘I’ll Take You There’ by Joyce Carol Oates 
‘Notes on a Scandal’ by Zoe Heller 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE CHATEAU by William Maxwell https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7TF via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 70… ‘Dying in the Wool’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“My name is Kate Shackleton. I’m thirty-one years old, and hanging onto freedom by the skin of my teeth. Because I’m a widow my mother wants me back by her side. But I’ve tasted independence. I’m not about to drown in polite society all over again.”
frances brodyFrom ‘Dying in the Wool’ by Frances Brody

Here’s my review of DYING IN THE WOOL, the first in Frances Brody’s series about amateur sleuth Kate Shackleton set in 1920s Yorkshire:-

And read my reviews of these other Kate Shackleton books:-
A DEATH IN THE DALES #7KATESHACKLETON
A SNAPSHOT OF MURDER #10KATESHACKLETON
DEATH AND THE BREWERY QUEEN #12KATESHACKLETON
A MANSION FOR MURDER #13KATESHACKLETON

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Pelican Brief’ by John Grisham 
‘Divisadero’ by Michael Ondaatje 
‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara DYING IN THE WOOL by @FrancesBrody https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7S8 via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 69… ‘The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“When I was born my insides lay outside my body for twenty-one days. Which is unexpected, but not nearly as unusual as you might think. For every 3,999 babies that come out with everything tucked in neatly and sealed away exactly where it should be, there’s one like me. Nobody really knows why. Luck of the draw, my father used to say.”
Julietta HendersonFrom ‘The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman’ by Julietta Henderson

Click the title to read my review of THE FUNNY THING ABOUT NORMAN FOREMAN.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘To Have and Have Not’ by Ernest Hemingway
‘Peter Pan’ by JM Barrie
‘Fortune Favours the Dead’ by Stephen Spottiswood 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE FUNNY THING ABOUT NORMAN FOREMAN by Julietta Henderson @JuliettaJulia1 https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7RL via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 136… ‘High-Rise’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months. Now that everything had returned to normal, he was surprised that there had been no obvious beginning, no point beyond which their lives had moved into a clearly more sinister dimension. With its forty floors and thousand apartments, its supermarket and swimming-pools, bank and junior school – all in effect abandoned in the sky – the high-rise offered more than enough opportunities for violence and confrontation.” JG BallardFrom ‘High-Rise’ by JG Ballard

And try the first paragraph of SUPER-CANNES, another novel by JG Ballard.

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘Affinity’ by Sarah Waters 
‘Divisadero’ by Michael Ondaatje 
‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ by Haruki Murakami 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara HIGH-RISE by JG Ballard https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-79L via @SandraDanby