Tag Archives: #amreading

Great Opening Paragraph 123… ‘The Ashes of London’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“The noise was the worst. Not the crackling of the flames, not the explosions and the clatter of falling buildings, not the shouting and the endless beating of drums and the groans and cries of the crowd: it was the howling of the fire. It roared its rage. It was the voice of the Great Beast itself.”
Andrew TaylorFrom ‘The Ashes of London’ by Andrew Taylor #1FIREOFLONDON

Read my reviews of the books in this series:
THE ASHES OF LONDON #1FIREOFLONDON
THE FIRE COURT #2FIREOFLONDON
THE KING’S EVIL #3FIREOFLONDON
THE LAST PROTECTOR #4FIREOFLONDON
THE ROYAL SECRET #5FIREOFLONDON
THE SHADOWS OF LONDON #6FIREOFLONDON

And a World War Two novel by the same author:-
THE SECOND MIDNIGHT

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Personal’ by Lee Child
‘Back When We Were Grown Ups’ by Anne Tyler 
‘The Sense of an Ending’ by Julian Barnes 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE ASHES OF LONDON by @AndrewJRTaylor https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3Jn via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 122… ‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies’ #amreading #FirstPara

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‘Long before we discovered that he had fathered two children by two different women, one in Drimoleague and one in Clonakilty, Father James Monroe stood on the altar of the Church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, in the parish of Goleen, West Cork, and denounced my mother as a whore.’ John BoyneFrom ‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies’ by John Boyne

Here’s my review of THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES…
… and read my reviews of these other novels by John Boyne:-
A HISTORY OF LONELINESS
A LADDER TO THE SKY
A TRAVELLER AT THE GATES OF WISDOM
ALL THE BROKEN PLACES
STAY WHERE YOU ARE & THEN LEAVE
WATER #1ELEMENTS
EARTH #2ELEMENTS

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Garden of Evening Mists’ by Tan Twan Eng 
‘The Children Act’ by Ian McEwan
‘Couples’ by John Updike

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES by @JohnBoyneBooks https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3Jk via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 98… ‘Armadillo’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“In these times of ours – and we don’t need to be precise about the exact date – but, anyway, very early in the year, a young man not much over thirty, tall – six feet plus an inch or two – with ink-dark hair and a serious-looking, fine-featured but pallid face, went to keep a business appointment and discovered a hanged man.” William Boyd From ‘Armadillo’ by William Boyd 

Try this #FirstPara from A GOOD MAN IN AFRICA also by William Boyd.

Read my reviews of these other books by William Boyd:-
ANY HUMAN HEART
LOVE IS BLIND
NAT TATE: AN AMERICAN ARTIST 1928-1960
ORDINARY THUNDERSTORMS
SWEET CARESS
THE BLUE AFTERNOON
THE DREAMS OF BETHANY MELLMOTH
TRIO
WAITING FOR SUNRISE

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘A Change of Climate’ by Hilary Mantel
‘Jack Maggs’ by Peter Carey
‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara ARMADILLO by William Boyd http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2qA via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 63… ‘Pride and Prejudice’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” jane austenFrom ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen

Learn about the first edition of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, first published in 1813.

Read more about Austen in Claire Tomalin’s biography, JANE AUSTEN: A LIFE.

If you’re a Jane Austen fan, try these two ‘extension’ novels by Molly Greeley:-
THE CLERGYMAN’S WIFE
THE HEIRESS

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry’ by Rachel Joyce
‘The Heart is a Lonely Hunter’ by Carson McCullers
‘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:
#FirstPara PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by #JaneAusten http://wp.me/p5gEM4-8t via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 52… ‘Astonishing Splashes of Colour’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“At 3.15 every weekday afternoon, I become anonymous in a crowd of parents and child-minders congregating outside the school gates. To me, waiting for children to come out of school is a quintessential act of motherhood. I see the mums – and the occasional dads – as yellow people. Yellow as the sun, a daffodil, the submarine. But why do we teach children to paint the sun yellow? It’s a deception. The sun is white-hot, brilliant, impossible to see with the naked eye, so why do we confuse brightness with yellow?” Clare MorrallFrom ‘Astonishing Splashes of Colour’ by Clare Morrall

Read my reviews of these other novels by Clare Morrall:-
AFTER THE BOMBING
NATURAL FLIGHTS OF THE HUMAN MIND
THE LANGUAGE OF OTHERS
THE LAST OF THE GREENWOODS
THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED
THE ROUNDABOUT MAN

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Tipping the Velvet’ by Sarah Waters
‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt
‘Queen Camilla’ by Sue Townsend

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara ASTONISHING SPLASHES OF COLOUR by Clare Morrall http://wp.me/p5gEM4-mc via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 9… ‘Slaughterhouse 5’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true. One guy I knew really was shot in Dresden for taking a teapot that wasn’t his. Another guy I knew really did threaten to have his personal enemies killed by hired gunmen after the war. And so on. I’ve changed all the names.”
Kurt Vonnegut JrFrom ‘Slaughterhouse 5’ by Kurt Vonnegut Jr

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Spies’ by Michael Frayn
‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ by Haruki Murakami
‘Bel Canto’ by Ann Patchett

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5 by Kurt Vonnegut Jr http://wp.me/p5gEM4-eX via @SandraDanby