book beginnings on Friday: Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin

Posted on February 10, 2012 by 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 and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

Charles Dodgson, who you know better as Lewis Carroll, based his Alice in Wonderland character on a real-life little girl he knew, named Alice Liddell. Alice I Have Been is the fictionalized life story of Alice Liddell. (That is, as I understand it, squarely fiction, although I can’t speak to where the line is drawn – especially not having read much of the book yet!) I have heard about this book for some time and am glad to finally be picking it up. It begins:

But oh my dear, I am tired of being Alice in Wonderland. Does it sound ungrateful? It is. Only I do get tired.

Makes sense to me; fame is tiresome, I’m told.

I am enjoying the tone of this book so far very much; the child-narrator we begin the book with feels very believable to me. My only concern at this point is the extent to which Dodgson feels like an icky child-groper! Tell me I’m wrong?

What are you reading this weekend?

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book beginnings on Friday: River in Ruin by Ray A. March

Posted on February 3, 2012 by 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 and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

This is the story of the Carmel River, a tiny river but apparently one that serves as a sadly typical example of what we’re doing to our rivers on a large scale. It begins:

On a summer evening between semesters at college, my friends and I gathered at Undertow Beach near the lagoon where the Carmel River enters Carmel Bay. The evening was nippy, a high fog hovered overhead, so in a tight protected valley of sand carved out long ago by an old cable-driven dredge we built a little campfire of driftwood and drank rank red wine.

Nature writers, take note: this is a great beginning. While the rest of the book promises to be well-researched nonfiction, it begins with a narrative that grounds the story and gives it significance. The author grew up in the area and remembers earlier incarnations of the river, thus showing his reader why she should care. Good stuff. Look for my review to come…

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

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book beginnings on Friday: My Life as Laura by Kelly Kathleen Ferguson

Posted on January 27, 2012 by 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 and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

Today I’m giving you the beginning of My Life as Laura, a memoir of Kelly Kathleen Ferguson’s journey in the footsteps of Laura Ingalls Wilder as given in her Little House books. She begins:

I admit that the origin of the dress mandate was fuzzy at best. All I can say is the instant I decided to retrace the pioneer journey of Laura Ingalls Wilder, I knew I would wear a Laura dress.

And thus we meet the dress and begin the journey. I’ll keep you posted!

What are you reading this weekend?

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book beginnings on Friday: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Posted on January 20, 2012 by 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 and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

I have begun listening to Anna Karenina on audio! Am I crazy? It’s almost 40 hours long! But I enjoy it so far.

I wanted to share the beginning with you. It’s a famous line, and one I recognized, but I didn’t know where from.

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Lovely, no?

It is likely to be a while before you see a review of this one. 🙂 With my usual listening time, I figure I can finish this within a month. Stay tuned! Anybody out there have anything wonderful (or not) to say about Tolstoy? This is my first experience with him.

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book beginnings on Friday: The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse

Posted on January 13, 2012 by 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 and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.


I am always delighted to jump into another Jeeves episode by Wodehouse; they are just too darned funny! And I’ve been hooked on Jonathon Cecil’s narration of them from the start. I definitely recommend his versions on audio. Here’s our beginning of The Code of the Woosters:

I reached a hand from under the blankets, and rang the bell for Jeeves.
‘Good evening, Jeeves.’
‘Good morning, sir.’
This surprised me.

Review to come soon. Please keep your eyes open for Wodehouse; I don’t think you’ll regret it!

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book beginnings on Friday: Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland

Posted on January 6, 2012 by 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 and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

I enjoyed Vreeland’s Clara and Mr. Tiffany so much that I was happy to find this audiobook at my local public library. So far it’s beautiful. We’re just meeting the eponymous Girl, in a painting that may or may not be an undiscovered Vermeer – evoking another lovely Girl, Girl With a Pearl Earring. But first, let’s meet Cornelius. Here’s your beginning.

Cornelius Engelbrecht invented himself. Let me emphasize, straight away, that he isn’t what I would call a friend, but I know him enough to say that he did purposely design himself: single, modest dresser in receding colors, mathematics teacher, sponsor of the chess club, mild-mannered acquaintance to all rather than a friend to any, a person anxious to become invisible.

Haven’t we learned a lot in just a few lines, and aren’t they well done? I’m liking this so far. How does your weekend reading look?

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book beginnings on Friday: The First Lady of Fleet Street by Eilat Negev and Yehuda Koren

Posted on December 30, 2011 by 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 and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

Today I’m reading The First Lady of Fleet Street: The Life of Rachel Beer: Crusading Heiress and Newspaper Pioneer. I’m intrigued for several reasons: I tend to appreciate biographies of semi-obscure figures (if they’re well done, which I can’t yet judge of this one); this will be my second newspaperwoman biography of the year (here‘s the first); and I like Rachel’s last name. 🙂 The book begins with a prologue:

Late May 1903. Earl’s Court, a two-storey stone mansion in Tunbridge Wells.

A slight woman sits erect in her chair, nearly swallowed by her weighty crepe mourning dress. Heavily framed mirrors, priceless paintings, dim-gilt Chinese cabinets, and fresh lilies and orchids adorn every inch of the spacious drawing room.

Well done, I say, and I am optimistic.

What are you reading this weekend?

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

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book beginnings on Friday: Available Dark by Elizabeth Hand

Posted on December 23, 2011 by 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 and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

I’ve been sent a copy of Available Dark for review, and have only the back-of-the-book blurb to go on here. It reads, “Photographer Cass Neary is already wanted by the police for questioning when she receives a suspicious job offer that sends her from Helsinki to Iceland… with murder following her every step.” There, now you know as much as I do! We begin:

There had been more trouble, as usual. In November I’d headed north to an island off the coast of Maine, hoping to score an interview that might jump-start the cold wreckage of my career as a photographer, dead for more than thirty years.

Now I’m confused by the Maine setting, as the above blurb led me to think this was another Scandinavian-set thriller (quite the rage, is that setting right now, no?). Maybe Maine is but a brief stop. I’ll let you know eventually!

What are you reading this week?

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

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book beginnings on Friday: Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman

Posted on December 16, 2011 by 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 and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

I am loving Sharon Kay Penman these days.

This is the first in the Welsh trilogy. My experience with this author actually started with The Reckoning, the third in the same, so I’m out of order, but no matter. Here are two beginnings for you today; between them, they set the book up very nicely.

From the prologue:

Theirs was a land of awesome grandeur, a land of mountains and moorlands and cherished myths. They called it Cymru and believed themselves to be the descendants of Brutus and the citizens of ancient Troy.

And from Book 1, Chapter 1: Shropshire, England, July 1183:

He was ten years old and an alien in an unfriendly land, made an unwilling exile by his mother’s marriage to a Marcher border lord. His new stepfather seemed a kindly man, but he was not of Llewelyn’s blood, not one of the Cymry, and each dawning day in Shropshire only intensified Llewelyn’s heartsick longing for his homeland.

And so it begins. Stay tuned for my review, tomorrow.

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book beginnings on Friday: Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

Posted on December 9, 2011 by 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 and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.

I hope you’ll forgive me for using this audiobook for this week’s Teaser Tuesday as well as today’s Book Beginning; it was just too good not to use. I love this beginning.

Hot, thought the Parisians. The warm air of spring. It was night, they were at war and there was an air raid.

Lovely. And sad.

What are you reading this weekend?

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