Category Archives: #FirstParas

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

Great Opening Paragraph 135… ‘I Capture the Castle’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. That is, my feet are in it; the rest of me is on the draining-board, which I have padded with our dog’s blanket and the tea-cosy. I can’t say that I am really comfortable, and there is a depressing smell of carbolic soap, but this is the only part of the kitchen where there is any daylight left. And I have found that sitting in a place where you have never sat before can be inspiring – I wrote my very best poem while sitting on the hen-house. Though even that isn’t a very good poem. I have decided my poetry is so bad that I mustn’t write any more of it.” Dodie SmithFrom ‘I Capture the Castle’ by Dodie Smith

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘A Month in the Country’ by JL Carr 
‘The Guest Cat’ by Takashi Hiraide 
‘Jamrach’s Menagerie’ by Carol Birch 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara I CAPTURE THE CASTLE by Dodie Smith https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-79F via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 134… ‘The Great Gatsby’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’ ” F Scott FitzgeraldFrom ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F Scott Fitzgerald

Here’s the #FirstPara of THE LAST TYCOON, also by F Scott Fitzgerald.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘A Farewell to Arms’ by Ernest Hemingway 
‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
‘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 GREAT GATSBY by F Scott Fitzgerald https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-79z via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 133… ‘Fortune Favours the Dead’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“The first time I met Lillian Pentecost, I nearly caved her skull in with a piece of lead pipe.”
Stephen SpotswoodFrom ‘Fortune Favours the Dead’ by Stephen Spotswood #1Pentecost&Parker

Click the title to read my review of FORTUNE FAVOURS THE DEAD.

And here’s my review of the next book in the series:-
MURDER UNDER HER SKIN #2PENTECOST&PARKER

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt 
‘Jack Maggs’ by Peter Carey 
‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ by Thomas Hardy 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara FORTUNE FAVOURS THE DEAD by Stephen Spotswood @playwrightSteve https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-79u via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 132 ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love. Dr Juvenal Urbino noticed it as soon as he entered the still darkened house where he had hurried on an urgent call to attend a case that for him had lost all urgency many years before. The Antillean refugee Jeremiah de Saint-Amour, disabled war veteran, photographer of children, and his most sympathetic opponent in chess, had escaped the torments of memory with the aromatic fumes of gold cyanide.”
Gabriel Garcia Marquez From ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Pursuit of Love’ by Nancy Mitford
‘A Good Man in Africa‘ by William Boyd
‘Gilead’ by Marilynne Robinson 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA by Gabriel Garcia Marquez https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4eK via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 131 ‘The Go-Between’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”
LP HartleyFrom ‘The Go-Between’ by LP Hartley

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Peter Pan’ by JM Barrie
‘A Month in the Country’ by JL Carr
‘To Have and Have Not’ by Ernest Hemingway

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE GO-BETWEEN by LP Hartley https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4eG via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 130 ‘Gilead’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“I told you last night that I might be gone sometime, and you said, Where, and I said, To be with the Good Lord, and you said, Why, and I said, Because I’m old, and you said, I don’t think you’re old. And you put your hand in my hand and you said, You aren’t very old, as if that settled it. I told you you might have a very different life from mine, and from the life you’ve had with me, and that would be a wonderful thing, there are many ways to life a good life. And you said, Mama already told me that. And then you said, Don’t laugh! Because you thought I was laughing at you. You reached up and put your fingers on my lips and gave me that look I never in my life saw on any other face besides your mother’s. It’s a kind of furious pride, very passionate and stern. I’m always a little surprised to find my eyebrows singed after I’ve suffered one of those looks. I will miss them.”
Marilynne RobinsonFrom ‘Gilead’ by Marilynne Robinson

Read my reviews of these novels by Marilynne Robinson:-
GILEAD
HOME
HOUSEKEEPING
JACK

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Agnes Grey’ by Anne Bronte
‘The Big Sleep’ by Raymond Chandler
‘The Collector’ by John Fowles

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara GILEAD  by Marilynne Robinson https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4eD via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 129 ‘The Paying Guests’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“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 so sort of fondness for the sparsely furnished spaces, impatient simply for the couple to arrive, move in, get it over with.”
Sarah WatersFrom ‘The Paying Guests’ by Sarah Waters

Read my review of THE PAYING GUESTS by Sarah Waters.

Here are two more #FirstParas by Sarah Waters:-
AFFINITY
TIPPING THE VELVET

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte
’Personal’ by Lee Child
‘Perfume’ by Patrick Suskind

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE PAYING GUESTS  by Sarah Waters https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4eA via @SandraDanby