book beginnings on Friday: Before the Rain by Luisita Lopez Torregrosa

Posted on July 20, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Rose City Reader for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

Before the Rain: A Memoir of Love and Revolution has one of the more impressive opening lines I’ve come across lately. I’m very glad to be able to share it with you!

In the years since that first letter came, postmarked NEW DELHI and written on pale lavender Claridge’s Hotel stationary, I have begun this story a hundred times, and each time I was afraid.

I find that lovely in that it says a great deal, piques the curiosity, and introduces the narrator, all at once; it also has a certain lyricism to it. I don’t know about you, but I now want very much to know what was in the letter and why it is a frightening story to tell. She next increases the suspense by taking two steps back in time and detailing scenes and characters unrelated to the lavender letter. I’m enjoying this one so far.

What are you reading this weekend?

This quotation comes from an uncorrected advance proof and is subject to change.

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: , , | 11 Comments »

book beginnings on Friday: The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory

Posted on July 13, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Rose City Reader for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

This is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me, but in the lighter area of historical fiction: Philippa Gregory! We begin…

The light of the open sky is brilliant after the darkness of the inner rooms. I blink and hear the roar of many voices. But this is not my army calling for me, this whisper growing to a rumble is not their roar of attack, the drumming of their swords on shields.

I am intrigued so far.

And what are you reading this weekend?

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: , | 4 Comments »

book beginnings on Friday: Hayduke Lives! by Edward Abbey

Posted on July 6, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Rose City Reader for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

Hayduke Lives! is more than just a bumper sticker: it’s the sequel to The Monkey Wrench Gang, published at the very end of Abbey’s life. It begins:

Old man turtle ambles along the deerpath, seeking breakfast. A strand of wild ricegrass dangles from his pincer-like beak. His small wise droll redrimmed eyes look from side to side, bright and wary and shrewd. He walks on long leathery legs, fully extended from the walnut-colored hump of shell, the ventral skid-plate clear of the sand. His shell is big as a cowboy’s skillet, a gardener’s spade, a Tommy’s helmet. He is 145 years old – middleaged. He has fathered many children and will beget more. Maybe.

…so we don’t meet Hayduke and the gang immediately. But I love this opening paragraph for its eccentric descriptive style, and clear love of the land, which is what really defines Abbey.

What are you reading this weekend?

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: , , | 12 Comments »

book beginnings on Friday: Bossypants by Tina Fey

Posted on June 29, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Rose City Reader for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

I am coloring outside of the standard and accepted “book beginnings” lines here, because just beyond the first two sentences Tina Fey gives us our first giggle, and I thought that was worthwhile.

Welcome, friend! Congratulations on your purchase of this American made, genuine audio book. Each component of this audio book was selected to provide you with maximum audio performance, whatever your listening needs may be. If you’re a woman and you bought this audio book for practical tips on how to make it in a male-dominated workplace, here they are. No pigtails. No tube tops. Cry sparingly. Some people say, never let them see you cry. I say, if you’re so mad you could just cry, then cry. It terrifies everyone. When choosing sexual partners, remember, talent is not sexually transmittable. Also, don’t eat diet foods in meetings.

And that, friends, is a great sample of what this book is: punchy, pithy, and containing some good advice, actually, amid the giggles. I heard it far and wide – good book, excellently narrated by the lovely talented Ms. Fey – and I think I’m going to add my voice to the chorus. Check it out, kids! Happy Friday!

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: , , | 7 Comments »

book beginnings on Friday: Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

Posted on June 22, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Rose City Reader for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.


I am listening to Nancy Horan’s Loving Frank on audio, and loving it. It is the fictionalized story of the real-life woman named Mamah Borthwick, who had an affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Most of the book is in third person, but it begins with a rare piece of first-person narrative told in Mamah’s voice:

It was Edwin who wanted to build a new house. I didn’t mind the old Queen Anne on Oak Park Avenue.

…and that says quite a bit, I think. Oak Park Avenue, for me, evokes Hemingway, whose hometown was Oak Park, Illinois; he grew up a few years behind the beginning of FLW’s career and aware of his work around town, so with my past reading of multiple Hemingway biographies, I feel comfortable with the setting already. And saying that it was Edwin who wanted the new house – when we know that the speaker ended up having an illicit affair with the architect – is rather telling, don’t you think? I call those a weighty first two lines.

Hope your reading weekend is looking fine!

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: , | Leave a comment »

book beginnings on Friday: Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams

Posted on June 15, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Rose City Reader for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

in lieu of a cover shot, since mine is a plain hardback missing its dust jacket, I give you one of the fine illustrations from within.

I’m doing it backwards again, since I’ve not read Watership Down, sigh. I look forward to getting my hands on a copy! The first story in this follow-up volume of Tales, entitled “The Sense of Smell,” begins:

“Tell us a story, Dandelion!”

It was a fine May evening of the spring following the defeat of General Woundwort and the Efrafans on Watership Down.

And so we start with several clues as to the history of those gathered around to hear a story; and who amongst us readers doesn’t enjoy storytime? I think it’s an auspicious beginning.

What are you reading this weekend?

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: , | 10 Comments »

book beginnings on Friday: The Boy Kings of Texas by Domingo Martinez

Posted on June 8, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Rose City Reader for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.


The Boy Kings of Texas is a memoir by a man who grew up in the barrios of the Texas-Mexico border. It begins:

They were children themselves, my mother and father, when they started having children in 1967 on the border of South Texas. Dad had just graduated from high school and in a panic asked my mother to marry him because he wanted to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Mom had eagerly agreed, in order to escape something even worse.

And so we get right into it. While not necessarily a comfortable book, it feels authentic to me, and I’m enjoying it.

This quotation comes from an uncorrected advance proof and is subject to change.

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: , , | 9 Comments »

book beginnings on Friday: The Prestige by Christopher Priest

Posted on June 1, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Rose City Reader for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

I am listening to The Prestige based on the recommendations of (I think) multiple fellow book bloggers. I am fairly sure that one of them was The Boston Bibliophile, but I am only fairly sure of that, and the other recommender(s) escape me. At any rate… I know the book involves magicians, stage magic, and I know little else, so here we are:

It began on a train, heading north through England, although I was soon to discover that the story had really begun more than a hundred years earlier. I had no sense of any of this at the time: I was on company time, following up a report of an incident at a religious sect.

I like that, “it began on a train…” reminds me actually of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, and there are worse things than evoking the Queen of Crime! Although she’s a hard act to follow… I’ll keep you posted.

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: , , | 6 Comments »

book beginnings on Friday: The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic by Kinky Friedman

Posted on May 25, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Rose City Reader for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

Here’s an odd little nonfiction mashup, if I can say that, by an odd Texas personality. It is subtitled, “a ‘walk’ in Austin,” and it begins:

Time, they say, changes the river. Time changes the city, too. Over the years, many people have helped Austin to shine in the spotlight, bask in the limelight, and skinny-dip in the moonlight.

Welcome to Austin, Texas, which has birthed the Republic of Texas, Janis Joplin (okay, she was born in Orange, but Austin helped bring her up), Willie Nelson, and (shudder) George W. Bush. Kinky Friedman is an appropriately eccentric guide. What are you reading this weekend?

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: , , , , | 6 Comments »

book beginnings on Friday: Touch by Alexi Zentner

Posted on May 18, 2012 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Rose City Reader for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

I’ve just begun Touch, and I’m not entirely sure what I’ve gotten myself into – I was recommended this book, by whom I do not know, and am not sure yet even what genre to put it in. But I can say for now that it is, well, touching. It begins:

The men floated the logs early, in September, a chain of headless trees jamming the river as far as I and the other children could see. My father, the foreman, stood at the top of the chute hollering at the men and shaking his mangled hand, urging them on.

I love the setting, the woodsy northern (Canadian?) feel.

And what are you reading this weekend? Do share.

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: , , | 5 Comments »

« Previous Page — Next Page »