Category Archives: #FirstParas

Great Opening Paragraph 85… ‘The Pelican Brief’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“He seemed incapable of creating such chaos, but much of what he saw below could be blamed on him. And that was fine. He was ninety-one, paralyzed, strapped in a wheelchair and hooked to oxygen. His second stroke seven years ago had almost finished him off, but Abraham Rosenberg was still alive and even with tubes in his nose his legal stick was bigger than the other eight. He was the only legend remaining on the Court, and the fact that he was still breathing irritated most of the mob below.”
John Grisham From ‘The Pelican Brief’ by John Grisham 

Read these #FirstParas also by John Grisham:-
THE LAST JUROR
THE RAINMAKER

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Diary of an Ordinary Woman’ by Margaret Forster
‘To Have and Have Not’ by Ernest Hemingway
‘Bel Canto’ by Ann Patchett

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE PELICAN BRIEF by @JohnGrisham http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1V5 via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 84… ‘Lucky You’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“On the afternoon of November 25, a woman named JoLayne Lucks drove to the Grab N’Go minimart in Grange, Florida, and purchased spearmint Certs, unwaxed dental floss and one ticket for the state Lotto.
JoLayne Lucks played the same numbers she’d played every Saturday for five years: 17-19-22-14-27-30.”
Carl Hiaasen From ‘Lucky You’ by Carl Hiaasen

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘These Foolish Things’ by Deborah Moggach
‘Super-Cannes’ by JG Ballard
‘Herzog’ by Saul Bellow

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara LUCKY YOU by Carl Hiaasen https://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Uw via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 83… ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream, and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail that was furled around the mast. The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.”
Ernest Hemingway From ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ by Ernest Hemingway

And here are the #FirstParas from other novels by Hemingway:
A FAREWELL TO ARMS
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘I’ll Take You There’ by Joyce Carol Oates
‘The Impressionist’ by Hari Kunzru
‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’ by John McGahern

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA by Ernest Hemingway http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Us via @SandraDanby 

Great Opening Paragraph 82… ‘Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“While Pearl Tull was dying, a funny thought occurred to her. It twitched her lips and rustled her breath, and she felt her son lean forward from where he kept watch by her bed. “Get…” she told him. “You should have got…”
Anne TylerFrom ‘Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant’ by Anne Tyler

Here’s the #FirstPara of BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWN UPS, also by Anne Tyler.

Read my reviews of these other novels by Anne Tyler:-
A SPOOL OF BLUE THREAD 
CLOCK DANCE
FRENCH BRAID
LADDER OF YEARS
REDHEAD BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD
VINEGAR GIRL

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Philosopher’s Pupil’ by Iris Murdoch 
‘Mara and Dann’ by Doris Lessing 
‘Affinity’ by Sarah Waters

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara DINNER AT THE HOMESICK RESTAURANT by Anne Tyler http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Tb via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 81… ‘Fair Exchange’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“In her youth Louise Daudry, née Geuze, had committed a wicked and unusual crime. At that time, autumn 1792, she wanted money very badly, so she put aside her knowledge that what she was doing was wrong and would hurt others. She told herself that virtue was a luxury the poor could not afford. She let herself be persuaded that no one would ever find out.” Michèle RobertsFrom ‘Fair Exchange’ by Michèle Roberts

Read my reviews of two novels by Michèle Roberts:-
FAIR EXCHANGE
THE WALWORTH BEAUTY

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ by Haruki Murakami
‘Possession’ by AS Byatt
‘A Bouquet of Barbed Wire’ by Andrea Newman

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara FAIR EXCHANGE by Michèle Roberts http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Ob via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 80… ‘Original Sin’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“For a temporary shorthand-typist to be present at the discovery of a corpse on the first day of a new assignment, if not unique, is sufficiently rare to prevent its being regarded as an occupational hazard.”
PD JamesFrom ‘Original Sin’ by PD James

Here’s my review of ORIGINAL SIN #9ADAMDALGLIESH

… and my reviews of the other Adam Dalgliesh mysteries by PD James:-
COVER HER FACE #1ADAM DALGLIESH
A MIND TO MURDER #2ADAMDALGLIESH
UNNATURAL CAUSES #3ADAMDALGLIESH
SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE #4ADAMDALGLIESH
THE BLACK TOWER #5ADAMDALGLIESH
DEATH OF AN EXPERT WITNESS #6ADAMDALGLIESH
A TASTE FOR DEATH #7ADAMDALGLIESH
DEVICES AND DESIRES #8ADAMDALGLIESH
A CERTAIN JUSTICE #10ADAMDALGLIESH
DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS #11ADAMDALGLIESH
THE MURDER ROOM #12ADAMDALGLIESH … read the first paragraph HERE
THE LIGHTHOUSE #13ADAMDALGLIESH
THE PRIVATE PATIENT #14ADAMDALGLIESH

Here are my reviews of the two Cordelia Gray mysteries:-
AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN #CGRAY1
THE SKULL BENEATH THE SKIN #CGRAY2

And two other books by PD James:-
INNOCENT BLOOD
TIME TO BE IN EARNEST

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Rainmaker’ by John Grisham 
‘To Have and Have Not’ by Ernest Hemingway 
‘A Bouquet of Barbed Wire’ by Andrea Newman 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara ORIGINAL SIN by PD James http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1C3 via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 79… ‘Illywhacker’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“My name is Herbert Badgery. I am a hundred and thirty-nine years old and something of a celebrity. They come and look at me and wonder how I do it. There are weeks when I wonder the same, whole stretches of terrible time. It is hard to believe you can feel so bad and still not die.”
Peter Carey From ‘Illywhacker’ by Peter Carey 

Read the #FirstPara of JACK MAGGS, also by Peter Carey.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘After You’d Gone’ by Maggie O’Farrell
‘Fortunes of War’ by Olivia Manning
‘The Bell Jar’ by Sylvia Plath

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara ILLYWHACKER by Peter Carey http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1KP via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 78… ‘Divisadero’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“By our grandfather’s cabin, on the high ridge, opposite a slope of buckeye trees, Claire sits on her horse, wrapped in a thick blanket. She has camped all night and lit a fire in the hearth of that small structure our ancestor built more than a generation ago, and which he lived in like a hermit or some creature, when he first came to this country. He was a self-sufficient bachelor who eventually owned all the land he looked down onto. He married lackadaisically when he was forty, had one son, and left him this farm along the Petaluma road.”
Michael Ondaatje From ‘Divisadero’ by Michael Ondaatje 

Read the #FirstPara of THE ENGLISH PATIENT, also by Michael Ondaatje.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Tipping the Velvet’ by Sarah Waters
‘Back When We Were Grownups’ by Anne Tyler
‘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 DIVISADERO by Michael Ondaatje http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1KL via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 77… ‘Vanishing Acts’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“I was six years old the first time I disappeared.
My father was working on a magic act for the annual Christmas show at the senior centre, and his assistant, the receptionist who had a real gold tooth and false eyelashes as thick as spiders, got the flu. I was fully prepared to beg my father to be part of the act, but he asked, as if I were the one who would be doing him a favour.”
Jodi PicoultFrom ‘Vanishing Acts’ by Jodi Picoult

Click the title to read my review of VANISHING ACTS, and try the #FirstPara of another novel by Jodi Picoult, NINETEEN MINUTES.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Long Drop’ by Denise Mina 
‘The Guest Cat’ by Takashi Hiraide 
‘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 VANISHING ACTS by @jodipicoult http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1GQ via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 76… ‘Jack Maggs’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“It was a Saturday night when the man with the red waistcoat arrived in London. It was, to be precise, six of the clock on the fifteenth of April in the year of 1837 that those hooded eyes looked out the window of the Dover coach and beheld, in the bright aura of gas light, a golden bull and an overgrown mouth opening to devour him – the sign of his inn, the Golden Ox.”
Peter Carey From ‘Jack Maggs’ by Peter Carey 

Read the #FirstPara of ILLYWHACKER, also by Peter Carey.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Sea Glass’ by Anita Shreve 
‘Such a Long Journey’ by Rohinton Mistry 
‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara JACK MAGGS by Peter Carey http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1GN via @SandraDanby