pagesofjulia

Thanks to Katy at A Few More Pages for hosting this meme. To participate: Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments. Include the title and the author so we know what you’re reading. Then, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line, and let us know if you liked or did not like the sentence. (You might also consider visiting the original post where you can link to your own book beginning.)

I am so very excited about the book I’ve just started! Dethroning the King is my favorite kind of nonfiction: narrative nonfiction, written by an author (in this case, a journalist) who gets personally involved in her story and becomes a real voice in it. I’m only 30-ish pages in, but I’m really enjoying the style in which Macintosh tells the story, as well as the story itself.

You get three beginnings today, oh joy! First, from the Author’s Note:

The summer of 2008 is one many people wish they could forget. In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of Bear Stearns in March, the global financial markets briefly looked as though they might stabilize.

And from the Prologue:

Some men golf when they’re looking to unwind. Others take their sports cars out for a drive or toss a few steaks on the grill. August A. Busch III liked to shoot things – ducks in the fall and quail in the winter.

And from Chapter 1:

Wednesday, June 11, 2008, was forecast to be hot and sticky in St. Louis, with afternoon temperatures rising well above 80 degrees. None of the Anheuser-Busch executives who pulled into the parking lot of the soccer park in Fenton that morning expected to see much sunlight for the next 48 hours, however.

Now, if you think three book beginnings is overkill, please bear with me. I think all three beginnings illustrate my point: that Macintosh writes in an accessible, narrative style. Don’t all three sort of grab you and make you wonder what comes next? As opposed to a nonfiction book that starts off, “X was born on Monday, November 3, 1942. His parents were X and X.”

I’m very excited about reading this book because I am especially interested in the beer industry, used to work in it, and have a friend who worked for A-B for years and has (at least a little bit) an insider’s view. I think this story is fascinating. While I don’t actually like the product A-B makes, I have respect for the business and, more so, find the lifespan of it relevant and interesting. Macintosh makes a fair case that the fate of A-B is a metaphor for our country’s economic and political well-being in a changing world, and that both entities fell victim to hubris in a class Greek tragic sense.

What are you reading today? I have my eye on Heather Gudenkauf’s These Things Hidden next, but I also have to admit that the moment Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife shows up, I’m all over it! Happy Friday!

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: beer, nonfiction |