Tag Archives: first page

Great Opening Paragraph 37… ‘I’ll Take You There’ #amreading #FirstPara

1 Reply

“In those days in the early Sixties we were not women yet but girls. This was, without irony, perceived as our advantage.”
Joyce Carol OatesFrom ‘I’ll Take You There’ by Joyce Carol Oates

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘A Farewell to Arms’ by Ernest Hemingway 
‘Tipping the Velvet’ by Sarah Waters 
‘The Collector’ by John Fowles 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara I’LL TAKE YOU THERE by Joyce Carol Oates https://wp.me/p5gEM4-mM via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 36… ‘The Bell Jar’ #amreading #FirstPara

5 Replies

“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York. I’m stupid about executions. The idea of being electrocuted makes me sick, and that’s all there was to read about in the papers – goggle-eyed headlines staring up at me on every street corner and at the fusty, peanut-selling mouth of every subway. It had nothing to do with me, but I couldn’t help wondering what it would be like, being burned alive all along your nerves.”
Sylvia PlathFrom ‘The Bell Jar’ by Sylvia Plath

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Freedom’ by Jonathan Franzen
‘The Secret Agent’ by Joseph Conrad
‘After You’d Gone’ by Maggie O’Farrell

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE BELL JAR by Sylvia Plath https://wp.me/p5gEM4-n1 via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 35… ‘Room’ #amreading #FirstPara

6 Replies

“Today I’m five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark I’m changed to five, abracadabra. Before that I was three, then two, then one, then zero. ‘Was I minus numbers?’”
Emma Donoghue From ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue 

Read my reviews of these other novels by Emma Donoghue:-
AKIN
FROG MUSIC
THE PULL OF THE STARS
THE WONDER

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Heart is a Lonely Hunter’ by Carson McCullers
‘Family Album’ by Penelope Lively
‘These Foolish Things’ by Deborah Moggach

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara ROOM by Emma Donoghue https://wp.me/p5gEM4-kw via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 33… ‘The Sense of an Ending’ #amreading #FirstPara

1 Reply

“I remember, in no particular order:
– a shiny inner wrist;
– steam rising from a wet sink as a hot frying pan is laughingly tossed into it;
– gouts of sperm circling a plughole before being sluiced own the full length of a tall house;
– a river rushing nonsensically upstream, its wave and wash lit by half a dozen chasing torchbeams;
– another river, broad and grey, the direction of its flow disguised by a stiff wind exciting the surface;
– bathwater long gone cold behind a locked door.
This last isn’t something I actually saw, but what you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed.”
Julian BarnesFrom ‘The Sense of an Ending’ by Julian Barnes

Read my reviews of these other novels by Julian Barnes:-
THE NOISE OF TIME
THE ONLY STORY

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Super-Cannes’ by JG Ballard
‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’ by Helen Fielding
‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE SENSE OF AN ENDING by Julian Barnes https://wp.me/p5gEM4-nE via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 32… ‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’ #amreading #FirstPara

1 Reply

“The morning was clear. There was no wind on the lake. There was also a great stillness. When the bells rang out for Mass, the strokes trembling on the water, they had the entire world to themselves.”
John McGahernFrom ‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’ by John McGahern

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Crying of Lot 49’ by Thomas Pynchon
‘The Fortunes of War’ by Olivia Manning
‘The Impressionist’ by Hari Kunzru

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN by John McGahern https://wp.me/p5gEM4-mo  via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 31… ‘Bel Canto’ #amreading #FirstPara

Leave a reply

“When the lights went off the accompanist kissed her. Maybe he had been turning towards her just before it was completely dark, maybe he was lifting his hands. There must have been some movement, a gesture, because every person in the living room would later remember a kiss. They did not see a kiss, that would have been impossible. The darkness that came on them was startling and complete. Not only was everyone there certain of a kiss, they claimed they could identify the type of kiss: it was strong and passionate, and it took her by surprise. They were all looking right at her when the lights went out. They were still applauding, each on his or her feet, still in the fullest throes of hands slapping together, elbows up. Not one person had come anywhere close to tiring. The Italians and the French were yelling, ‘Brava! Brava!’ and the Japanese turned away from them. Would he have kissed her like that had the room been lit? Was his mind so full of her that in the very instant of darkness he reached for her, did he think so quickly? Or was it that they wanted her too, all of the men and women in the room, and so they imagined it collectively. They were so taken by the beauty of her voice that they wanted to cover her mouth with their mouth, drink in. Maybe music could be transferred, devoured, owned. What would it mean to kiss the lips that had held such a sound?”
Ann PatchettFrom ‘Bel Canto’ by Ann Patchett

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The L-Shaped Room’ by Lynne Reid Banks 
‘The Last Tycoon’ by F Scott Fitzgerald 
‘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 BEL CANTO by Ann Patchett https://wp.me/p5gEM4-mY via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 30… ‘The L-Shaped Room’ #amreading #FirstPara

2 Replies

“There wasn’t much to be said for the place, really, but it had a roof over it and a door which locked from the inside, which was all I cared about just then. I didn’t even bother to take in the details – they were pretty sordid, but I didn’t notice them so they didn’t depress me; perhaps because I was already at rock-bottom. I just threw my one suitcase on to the bed, took my few belongings out of it and shut them all into one drawer of the three-legged chest of drawers. Then there didn’t seem to be anything else I ought to do so I sat in the arm-chair and stared out of the window.”
Lynn Reid Banks From ‘The L-Shaped Room’ by Lynn Reid Banks 

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Perfume’ by Patrick Suskind
‘Time Will Darken It’ by William Maxwell
‘Mara and Dann’ by Doris Lessing

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE L-SHAPED ROOM by Lynne Reid Banks https://wp.me/p5gEM4-mV via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 29… ‘The Murder Room’ #amreading #FirstPara

20 Replies

“On Friday 25 October, exactly one week before the first body was discovered at the Dupayne Museum, Adam Dalgliesh visited the museum for the first time. The visit was fortuitous, the decision impulsive and he was later to look back on that afternoon as one of life’s bizarre coincidences which, although occurring more frequently than reason would expect, never fail to surprise.”
PD JamesFrom ‘The Murder Room’ by PD James 

Here’s my review of THE MURDER ROOM #12ADAMDALGLIESH

… 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
ORIGINAL SIN #9ADAMDALGLIESH … read the first paragraph HERE
A CERTAIN JUSTICE #10ADAMDALGLIESH
DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS #11ADAMDALGLIESH
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 another PD James novel:-
INNOCENT BLOOD

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Lucky You’ by Carl Hiassen
‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain
‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE MURDER ROOM by PD James https://wp.me/p5gEM4-ny via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 28 ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’ #amreading #FirstPara

4 Replies

“When the phone rang I was in the kitchen, boiling a potful of spaghetti and whistling along to an FM broadcast of the overture of Rossini’s ‘The Thieving Magpie,’ which has to be the perfect music for cooking pasta.”
Haruki Murakami From ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’ by Haruki Murakami

Read these #FirstParas from other books by Haruki Murakami:-
DANCE DANCE DANCE
HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND AND THE END OF THE WORLD
NORWEGIAN WOOD

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘A Change of Climate’ by Hilary Mantel
‘The Pelican Brief’ by John Grisham
‘Sophie’s World’ by Jostein Gaarder

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE by Haruki Murakami #books https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-4aD via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 27… ‘The Inheritance of Loss’ #amreading #FirstPara

Leave a reply

“All day, the colours had been those of dusk, mist moving like a water creature across the great flanks of mountains possessed of ocean shadows and depths. Briefly visible above the vapour, Kanchenjunga was a far peak whittled out of ice, gathering the last of the light, a plume of snow blown high by the storms at its summit.”
Kiran DesaiFrom ‘The Inheritance of Loss’ by Kiran Desai

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Possession’ by AS Byatt
‘Middlesex’ by Jeffrey Eugenides
‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS by Kiran Desai https://wp.me/p5gEM4-nB via @SandraDanby