Category Archives: #FirstParas

Great Opening Paragraph 146… ‘Touch Not the Cat’ by Mary Stewart #amreading #FirstPara

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“My lover came to me on the last night in April, with a message and a warning that sent me home to him” Mary StewartFrom ‘Touch Not the Cat’ by Mary Stewart

Read my review of TOUCH NOT THE CAT.

And here are my reviews of other novels by Mary Stewart:-
MY BROTHER MICHAEL
THE GABRIEL HOUNDS
THE IVY TREE
THIS ROUGH MAGIC
THORNYHOLD

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘1984’ by George Orwell
‘Family Album’ by Penelope Lively
‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’ by Haruki Murakami

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara TOUCH NOT THE CAT by Mary Stewart https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-9YX via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 145… ‘According to Queeney’ by Beryl Bainbridge #amreading #FirstPara

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“On the morning of December 15th, 1784, a day of bleak skies heralding snow, a box-cart rattled into Bolt Court and drew up outside Number 8. Three men entered the house and presently emerged carrying a roll of threadbare carpet as though it were a battering ram.”
Beryl BainbridgeFrom ‘According to Queeney’ by Beryl Bainbridge’

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The L-Shaped Room’ by Lyne Reid-Banks
‘Midnight’s Children’ by Salman Rushdie 
‘Dying in the Wool’ by Frances Brody 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara ACCORDING TO QUEENEY by Beryl Bainbridge https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8Lw via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 144… ‘The Gift of Rain’ by Tan Twan Eng #amreading #FirstPara

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“I was born with the gift of rain, an ancient soothsayer in an even more ancient temple told me.”
Tan Twan EngFrom ‘The Gift of Rain’ by Tan Twan Eng

Here’s my review of THE GIFT OF RAIN …and two other books by the same author:-
THE GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS …read the first paragraph HERE
THE HOUSE OF DOORS

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Anna Karenina’ by Leo Tolstoy 
‘The Paying Guests’ by Sarah Waters
‘Queen Camilla’ by Sue Townsend

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE GIFT OF RAIN by Tan Twan Eng https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8Lr via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 143… ‘Emotionally Weird’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“Inspector Jack Gannet drove into Saltsea-on-Sea along the coast road. Today’s sun (not that he believed it to be a new one every day) was already climbing merrily in the sky. It was a beautiful morning. Shame it was about to be spoilt by the Lucky Lady and her cargo – one very unlucky lady. One very dead lady. Jack Gannet sighed, this job didn’t get any easier. Jack Gannet had been in the force longer than he cared to remember. He was a straight-forward, old-fashioned kind of detective. He had no strange tics or eccentricities –  he didn’t do crosswords, he wasn’t Belgian, he certainly wasn’t a woman. He was a man suited to his profession. What he wasn’t, was happy. He didn’t want to be dealing with a dead body on a glorious morning like this. Especially not on an empty stomach.”
Kate AtkinsonFrom ‘Emotionally Weird’ by Kate Atkinson

Read my reviews of these other novels by Kate Atkinson:-
A GOD IN RUINS
LIFE AFTER LIFE
OUR NOBLE SELVES
SHRINES OF GAIETY
TRANSCRIPTION
BIG SKY #5JACKSONBRODIE
DEATH AT THE SIGN OF THE ROOK #6JACKSONBRODIE

… and these short stories:-
NORMAL RULES DON’T APPLY

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Personal’ by Lee Child
‘Such a Long Journey’ by Rohinton Mistry
‘Perfume’ by Patrick Süskind

And if you’d like to share a link:
#Books #FirstPara EMOTIONALLY WEIRD by Kate Atkinson https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7V7 via @SandraDanby

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

Read my review of MISS BENSON’S BEETLE.

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

… and here are my reviews of other books by Rachel Joyce:-
MAUREEN FRY AND THE ANGEL OF THE NORTH
PERFECT
THE LOVE SONG OF MISS QUEENIE HENNESSY

Try a #FirstPara & 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 share a link to THIS post, try:
#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 Hazel Gaynor @HazelGaynor https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7UL via @SandraDanby