book beginnings on Friday: Black Mask Stories edited by Otto Penzler

Posted on September 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.


Classic pulp fiction from one of the original pulp mags! On audio! Well performed! Great fun. I give you the beginning of the first book on this compilation: “Come and Get It” by Erle Stanley Gardner, read by Oliver Wyman.

Ed Jenkins was warned by a crook he had once befriended to be on his guard against a girl with a mole, that she would lead him into deadly peril. This crook was shot the instant he left Ed’s apartment, seemingly by accident.

I love the gritty tone of these stories – especially as performed here. It’s great stuff. Also, Husband really enjoyed this story in particular, because our name is Jenkins too. 🙂

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: , | 3 Comments »

book beginnings on Friday: Into the Silence by Wade Davis

Posted on September 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.

Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest appears to be a largeish, well-researched, exhaustive coverage of its three overlapping subjects. I’m just a bit into it but am finding it to be gripping, and painful in its discussions of the tragedy that was WWI. You know, I feel like we say this about just about all the wars (and rightfully), but what an awful thing it was…

I am going to give you a double beginning today. The prologue:

On the morning of June 6, 1924, at a camp perched at 23,000 feet on an ice ledge high above the East Rongbuk Glacier and just below the lip of Everest’s North Col, expedition leader Lieutenant Colonel Edward Norton said farewell to two men about the make a final desperate attempt for the summit. At thirty-seven, George Leigh Mallory was Britain’s most illustrious climber.

And chapter one:

On the very day that George Mallory and Sandy Irvine disappeared on Everest, another party of British climbers slowly made their way to the summit of a quite different mountain and in very different circumstances. At 2,949 feet, Great Gable was not a serious or difficult climb, but it was said to be “the most completely beautiful of English mountains.”

So you can see the juxtaposition set up. I find this to be an effective way of linking his topics (see the subtitle) right from the start.

A word on nonfiction book beginnings: Unlike in fiction, where I feel the first lines should always grab or surprise the reader and interest her, I think nonfiction can take one of two routes. I do like to be grabbed in the first lines, of course, and extra points are given for this. But it’s extra credit, not required work. Sometimes nonfiction begins quietly, stating a date, a place, arranging a background, and this I find effective, too. Somehow, with nonfiction, I’m comfortable settling into things with this understated approach, which I think the above falls into.

What are your thoughts? And what are you reading this weekend?

These quotations come from an uncorrected advance proof and are subject to change.

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: , , | 8 Comments »

book beginnings on Friday: Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym

Posted on September 2, 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 Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym. She’s an author I am wholly unfamiliar with, but my curiosity was piqued by the favorable mentions of her over at Stuck in a Book and My Porch – and then as you may have noticed, Thomas from My Porch was very kind to send me a copy!!

I am enjoying this book so far, but will resist the temptation to tell you a lot about it here. This is a book beginnings post. Review to come. I daresay, a favorable review.

We begin:

The new curate seemed quite a nice young man, but what a pity it was that his combinations showed, tucked carelessly into his socks, when he sat down. Belinda had noticed it when they had met him for the first time at the vicarage last week and had felt quite embarrassed.

If you’re like me, the “combinations” may have given you trouble (as did the “marrows,” apparently a sort of produce – fruit or veg, that is – a few pages later). I think these are cultural-and-historical confusions, meaning I think they belong to England of the… 1950’s? (that’s when the book was published; I’m shady on the time-setting) and seeing as how I live in 2011 Houston, these terms were new to me. But! The interwebs tells me that combinations are a unionsuit (one-piece underwear – do they have flaps for toileting? or do you have to fully undress?) and marrows are squash. Ah, the wonders of the interwebs.

I like my book. 🙂 What are you reading?

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

book beginnings on Friday: The Coldest Fear by Rick Reed

Posted on August 26, 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.

The Coldest Fear is the latest crime thriller from the author of The Cruelest Cut.

 

 

It begins:

Snow hung heavy in the branches of Scotch pine and cedar trees, and where it hadn’t turned to slush, the land was covered in a foot of snow. The storm had surprised everyone, and as the tall, dark-haired young man stepped off the bus in the town’s center he could hear generators humming in every direction.

Almost a classic “it was a dark and stormy night” start, but more original; it makes me already want to know more about this young man of the hair so dark. All right, I’m in, Reed.

What are you reading this weekend?

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

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: | 8 Comments »

book beginnings on Friday: Dancing with the Queen, Marching with King by Sam Aldrich

Posted on August 19, 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.
Here’s an interesting memoir that has just crossed my desk.

The two most exciting public events of my life occurred before I turned forty.

In the spring of 1953, when I was only twenty-five, I was invited to attend the opening of the new American Embassy residence in London.

This is your standard, matter-of-fact (auto)biography/memoir beginning. Not much flare, and that does seem to be Aldrich’s style. But! I think he has an interesting enough story to make up for it. We shall see.

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

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

book beginnings on Friday: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (audio)

Posted on August 12, 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.

Ooh, I’m very excited about this one. For some reason, I’ve been hearing a lot lately about this (not new) book and am anxious to get started. We begin:

The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call “out there.” Some seventy miles east of the Colorado border, the countryside, with its hard blue skies and desert-clear air, has an atmosphere that is rather more Far West than Middle West.

Okay, well, it’s not a GASPworthy start, but I still feel the pull. For one thing, the idea of “hard” blue skies and “desert-clear” air, and a Far West atmosphere, feels both familiar and alluring to me. I’m all in.

What are you reading?

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

book beginnings on Friday: On Bicycles: 50 Ways the New Bike Culture Can Change Your Life by Amy Walker (ed.)

Posted on August 5, 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.

On Bicycles is sort of a book of advice, not necessarily to be read cover to cover. But I’m finding myself doing just that, which should be taken as a compliment, especially as, in all humility, I don’t need this kind of advice, being rather an experienced cyclist.

Amy Walker edits, and writes a number of chapters, but by no means the majority of the book. Her chapter one, entitled “Bicycling is Contagious,” begins:

Warning! Cycling can be addictive. Before you grab onto those handlebars, before you throw a leg over the saddle and start pumping away at those pedals, be aware: once you start, you may never want to stop.

Well, she’s off to a good start for me! I couldn’t agree more.

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

What are YOU reading?

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

book beginnings on Friday: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Posted on July 29, 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 know, I know. But I’ve never read it! I’m in good company, too, because I’m reading this one with The Heroine’s Bookshelf‘s readalong. It’s not too late to join in! (Okay, you might be a bit behind, because the discussion of the first 7 chapters is Monday. It is possible.) I’m very excited.

Beginning:

Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were. In her face were too sharply blended the delicate features of her mother, a Coast aristocrat of French descent, and the heavy ones of her florid Irish father.

There you have it; we’ve met our lady. Have you read this book? Care to join us?

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

book beginnings on Friday: Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns

Posted on July 22, 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’s book beginning comes from an odd and engrossing little British novel by Barbara Comyns, recommended to me by Simon at Stuck in a Book, called Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead. It’s very enjoyable and unique.

And so we begin.

The ducks swam through the drawing-room windows. The weight of the water had forced the windows open; so the ducks swam in. Round the room they sailed quacking their approval; then they sailed out again to explore the wonderful new world that had come in the night. Old Ives stood on the verandah steps beating his red bucket with a stick while he called to them, but today they ignored him and floated away white and shining towards the tennis court.

This matter-of-fact tone regarding some decidedly strange events is one of the hallmarks of the book. Review is to come, but for now let me say, I like.

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: | 3 Comments »

book beginnings on Friday: Killing Floor by Lee Child (audio)

Posted on July 15, 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 take a deep sigh and snuggle in when I begin a new Lee Child/Jack Reacher novel, because I know I’m in for a treat.

This one begins:

I was arrested in Eno’s diner. At twelve o’clock. I was eating eggs and drinkings coffee. A late breakfast, not lunch. I was wet and tired after a long walk in heavy rain. All the way from the highway to the edge of town.

Yep, that’s Reacher, all right – walking from a highway to the edge of a town, and eating eggs and drinking coffee in a diner. Getting arrested is not too far off the norm, either; although a former military cop, he does tend to have trouble with authority. Lives by his own rules, let’s say.

This one looks great, like all the rest! What are you reading?

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: | 8 Comments »

« Previous Page — Next Page »