The Next Best Book Club discussion

Suzie, what book you reading hun? Incase u fancy writing the Opening Paragraph of urs lol.

Lol! Sorry Fiona, forgot the point of the thread for a moment there!

Ok, I'm reading Intensive Care: The Story of a Nurse by Echo Heron

"The large institutional clock read 2:50pm, and somewhere in the middle of the eight flights of stairs, I wondered what I would have to do for the next nine hours of my life."

I'm almost halfway through now, and enjoying it so far.

I'm also reading The Woman in White, but that is upstairs and I can't be bothered to go and get it :)

Woman in White is great! I want to read more Wilkie Collins to see if all of them are that great! Fantastic classic mystery.

Kathy I've never read The Girls, but have to at least consider it from that 1st para. Loved that!

That sounds like a great book Suzie xx

Still waiting for my copy off Beth (who had a spare copy).

Leila wrote: "Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote:

I am always drawn back to the places where I have lived, the houses and their neighborhoods. For instance, there is a brownstone in the East Seventies wher..."

Leila, your opening line made me really interested in the book!!!!

Me too! I love how this thread is adding to the QUALITY TBR list!

Kathy
I read the Girls. I liked everything except the ending.

(I must have been tired when I first posted this comment. I put girls instead of ending. Ha!)

"I'm tired of remembering," Hannah said to her mother as she climbed into the car. She was flushed with April sun and her mouth felt sticky from jelly beans and Easter candy.
"You know it's Passover," her mother said, sighing, in a voice deliberately low. She kept smiling so thta no one at Rosemary's house would know they were arguing.
The Devil's Arithmetic

Soldiers of Salamis: A Novel by Javier Cercas

It was the summer of 1994, more than six years ago now, when I first heard about Rafael Sanchez Mazas facing the firing squad. Three things had just happened: first my father had died; then my wife had left me; finally, I'd given up my literary career. I'm lying. The truth is, of those three things, the first two are factual, even exact; but not the third. In reality, my career as a writer had never actually got started, so it would have been difficult to give it up.

Kellie wrote: "Kathy
I read the Girls. I liked everything except the ending.

(I must have been tired when I first posted this comment. I put girls instead of ending. Ha!)"

LOL! I had read your original posting and must admit I was thinking, if you didn't like the girls, what else was there. But, then I thought, I think she posted it to be funny. Now with you edited post, I know what you really meant, although I think the first one was catchier (ha, ha). Even though I loved this book, one of my best friends didn't like it at all. I was really disappointed that she didn't like it, since I absolutely loved it, but everyone has different tastes and brings different experiences to the table when they read a book. I decided to keep her as a best friend anyway.

This story begins in the city of bones. In the alleyways of the dead. In the silent boulevards, promenades and impasses of the Cimetiere de Monmartre in Paris, a place inhabited by tombs and stone angels and the loitering ghosts of those forgotten before they are even cold in their graves.


Sepulchre

My name is Towner Whitney. No, that's not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time.

The Lace Reader

Ooo Alisha that sounds intriguing! The Lace Reader is on my tbr pile ... might have to move it up the list!

Aye Alisha that sounds intriging to me as well. Going to add that to my TBR.

Wife of GR author: Michael J. Sullivan | The Crown Conspiracy (10/08) | Avempartha (04/09)

Jeane wrote: "This story begins in the city of bones. In the alleyways of the dead. In the silent boulevards, promenades and impasses of the Cimetiere de Monmartre in Paris, a place inhabited by tombs and stone ..."

Oooooooh! Definitely on my TBR list.

The book I'm currently reading is Founding Father by Richard Brookhiser. It is for a challenge that I'm taking part in to read one book about each of the presidents. So the opening paragraph isn't nearly as interesting as the ones in this thread. But here goes:

"The state begins in violence. However lofty the ideals of a new country or a new regime, if it encounters opposition, as most new regimes and countries do, it must fight. If it loses, its ideals join the long catalogue of unfulfilled aspirations."

Skipping Christmas ~ John Grisham

The gate was packed with weary travelers, most of them standing and huddled along the walls because the meager allotment of plastic chairs had long since been taken. Every plane that came and went held at least eighty passengers, yet the gate had seats for only a few dozen.

Just After Sunset - Stephen King

(This book is his new collection of short stories, so my 1st paragraph is from the introduction.)

One day in 1972, I came home from work and found my wife sitting at the kitchen table with a pair of gardening shears in front of her. She was smiling, which suggested I wasn't in too much trouble; on the other hand, she said she wanted my wallet. That didn't sound good.

Robin, have you finished Flight yet? I ask because I flew through that book in less than a day. It's a great story.

OK, my opening paragraph.

Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose:

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was beginning with God and the duty of every faithful monk would be to repeat every day with chanting humility the one never-changing event whose incontrovertible truth can be asserted. But we see now through a glass darkly, and the truth, before it is revealed to all, face to face, we see in fragments (alas, how illegible) in the error of the world, so we must spell out its faithful signals even when they seem obscure to us and as if amalgamated with a will wholly bent on evil.

I know it's an odd opening paragraph to read coming from someone who is a member of the atheists/skeptics group on GoodReads, but the story is told from the point of view of a monk, after all. ;)

Cormac McCarthy's The Road:

When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world. His hand rose and fell softly with each precious breath. He pushed away the plastic tarpaulin and raised himself in the stinking robes and blankets and looked toward the east for any light but there was none. In the dream from which he'd wakened he had wandered in a cave where the child led him by the hand. Their light playing over the wet flowstone walls. Like pilgrims in a fable swallowed up and lost among the inward parts of some granitic beast. Deep stone flues where the water dripped and sang. Tolling in the silence the minutes of the earth and the hours and the days of it and the years without cease. Until they stood in a great stone room where lay a black and ancient lake. And on the far shore a creature that raised its dripping mouth from the rimstone pool and stared into the light with eyes dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders. It swung its head low over the water as if to take the scent of what it could not see. Crouching there pale and naked and translucent, its alabaster bones cast up in shadow on the rocks behind it. Its bowels, its beating heart. The brain that pulsed in a dull glass bell. It swung its head from side to side and then gave out a low moan and turned and lurched away and loped soundlessly into the dark.

Dorie wrote: "Love this idea, Fiona! The first paragraph of this book is what prompted me to get it. Sorry for the length, though.

The Alienist by Caleb Carr

Theodore is in the ground. The words as I wr..."

OMG Dorie I hope you love this book Half as much as I did. His second with the same charcters, is not as well written but is still good.

selena, your opening line does attracts me!!!

Scott, I am enjoying it a lot. It's frustrating I've been so busy the last week my reading time has been severely limited. And when I finally find a good book, too! But I will definitely be getting the sequel.

Jill, I really enjoyed The Road. I hope you do too.

A Drink Before the War - My Earliest Memories Involve Fire. I watched Watts, Detroit, and Atlanta burn on the evening news, I saw oceans of mangroves and palm fronds smolder in napalm as Cronkite spoke of unilateral disarmament and a war that had lost its reason. My father, a fireman, often woke me at night so I could watch the latest news footage of fires he'd fought.

Tell No One: There should have been a dark whisper in the wind. Or maybe a deep chill in the bone. Something. An ethereal song only Elizabeth or I could hear. A tightness in the air. Some textbook premonition. There are misfortunes we almost expect in life--what happened to my parents, for example--and then there are other dark moments, moments of sudden violence, that alter everything. There was my life before the tragedy. There is my life now. The two have painfully little in common.

The Pact: A Love Story - There was nothing left to say. He covered her body with his, and as she put her arms around him she could picture him in all his incarnations: age five, and still blond; age eleven, sprouting; age thirteen, with the hands of a man. The moon rolled, sloe-eyed in the night; and she breathed in the scent of his skin. "I love you," she said. He kissed her so gently she wondered if she had imagined it. She pulled back slightly, to look into his eyes. And then there was a shot.

Linda, I hope u love The Pact. I know I did.

Jill...
I wish I did - finish flight that is ... I agree it seemed like a nice fast read - I read it on a train going to see Twilight with some frineds and LOST IT in the movie theater! It got me mad because I wanted to read it on the train back home - and I thought it was interesting. The worst part --- it was a library book ;-(. I have one on order but it has not arrived yet.

Robin.

Eleanor of Aquitaine: a Life, by Alison Weir:

Prologue: 18 May 1152

In the Romanesque cathedral of Poitiers a man and a woman stood before the high altar, exchanging wedding vows. It was a simple ceremony. The young man, aged nineteen, was stocky, with red hair, and restless with pent-up energy, knowing he was doing a daring thing. The woman, eleven years his senior, and with long auburn locks, was exceptionally beautiful, very sophisticated, and a willing accomplice in this furtive ceremony.

Sounds interesting susanna.

Fiona..i bought Everything is Illuminated recently..should I wait on reading that for a while since I just read EL&IC?

I think I might wait a little bit then..I think I need a break from that style..especially since i'm reading The History of Love right now and that is his wife..and it reminds me alot of his style..

and i'd agree..Oskar was definitely the main attraction in EL&IC! i freakin love him!

have you ever seen the movie of Everything is Illuminated? I absolutely loved it!

and now i'm definitely going to have to up Prodigal Summer up on my list because i've heard soo many good things about it lately.

It is very interesting so far, Jeane - Eleanor is about to go on crusade with her first husband, Louis VII of France. "I see no good that can come of this."

Eric, I'm loving The Road so far. It's terribly depressing but also some of the most beautiful prose I've read in a long time. McCarthy definitely has a way with language. It's poetic, really.

Robin, OUCH! I'm sorry to hear that you lost the book (doubly so that it was a library book). I thought Flight was a great story. Of course, Sherman Alexie is one of my all time favorite writers, so I might be a bit biased. ;)

"Don't Call me a fairy. We don't like to be called fairies anymore. Once upon a time, fairy was a perfectly acceptable catchall for a variety of creatures, but now it has taken on too many associations. Etymologically speaking, a fairy is something quite particular, related in kind to the naiads, or water nymphs, and while of the genus, we are sui generis. The word fairy is drawn from fay (Old French fee), which itself comes from the Latin Fata, the goddess of fate. The fay lived in groups called the faerie, between the heavenly and earthly realms.

The Stolen Child: A Novel

Hmmm, the opening paragraph, now that I think about it, doesn't seem too interesting. The book is great, though. Really entertaining.

hehe, she loved it, she loved it (she=Fiona) :-)))

susanna, it does really sound great!!!!

This is an awesome thread!

Linda~I hope you like Tell No One...that's one of my favs!

The Unseen by T.L. Hines

"Perched on top of the elevator, Lucas peered at the woman below and created an elaborate history in his mind."

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

Moon, Glorious moon. Full, fat, reddish moon, the night as light as day, the moonlight flooding down across the land, and bringing joy, joy, joy. Bringing too the full-throated call of the tropical night, the soft and wild voice of the wind roaring through the hairs on your arm, the hollow wail of starlight, the teeth-grinding bellow of the moonlight off the water.

Silent Night ~ Mary Higgins Clark

It was Christmas Eve in New York City. The cab slowly made its way down Fifth Avenue. It was nearly five o'clock. The traffic was heavy and the sidewalks were jammed with last-minute Christmas shoppers, homebound office workers, and tourists anxious to glimpse the elaborately trimmed store windows and the fabled Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

The Babysitter's Club: Dawn's Big Date ~ Ann. M. Martin

"Oh no!" cried Mary Anne Spier. "Please tell me you're not going to make that." She was staring down at the health food cookbook I held in my lap. Her eyes were wide with horror. "Dawn, I really don't think anyone will want to eat tofu apple nut loaf at this party," she added.

Ice Limit

The valley that had no name ran between barren hills, a long mottled floor of gray and green covered with soldier moss, lichens, and carpha grasses. It was mid-January--the height of summer--and the crevasses between the patches of broken rock were mortared with tiny pinguicula flowers. To the east, the wall of a snowfield gleamed a bottomless blue. Blackflies and mosquitoes droned in the air, and the summer fogs that shrouded Isla Desolación had temporarily broken apart, allowing a watery sunlight to speckle the valley floor.

Linda if you don't love Tell No one, I would be extrememly shocked I love all of Coben's work, except I have not read any of the Myron Bolitar series.

When he was nearly thirteen, by brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. When it healed, and Jem's fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury. His left arm was somewhat shorter than his right; when he stood or walked, the back of his hand was at right angles to his body, his thumb parallel to his thigh. He couldn't have cared less, so long as he could pass and punt.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Okay, so to everyone who loves Tell No One - Harlan Coben - so far so good. Okay, so don't shoot me, but I saw the movie before I knew there was "the book". But so far, it's just enhancing my experience. This is my third Coben book and you just gotta give it to the guy - he is great.

Oh, and since this is the first paragraph thread ...

The haunt of Grand Central Station was a small girl with matted hair and dirty clothes. She appeared only in the commuter hours, morning and evening, when the child believed that she could go invisibly among the throng of travelers in crisscrossing foot traffic, as if that incredible face could go anywhere without attracting stares. Concessionaires reached for their phones to call the number on a policeman's card and say, "She's back."

Find Me

Hey Eric....Got Flight almost done now - wow this book really takes some turns! I do like the way the author writes.

About the Road - While I'm glad you are liking it I must say it is one of my least favorite books - I found the style "annoying" not poetic. I realize he is doing it for a reason - but the lack of puncutation and the strange wording totally did not work for me....

For instance..."Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before."

I posted that on a writer's forum once and they all ripped it apart as one of the worst sentences they have ever seen -- then I told them who wrote it and they were all like -- Oh no that is great!! Your opinion on writing shouldn't change once you know it is from a Pulitzer winner!

Robin.

I'm technically reading three books right now, or at least started, but since I cannot read so many at the same time, I am focusing on this one. Though soon, I will probably have to switch because I have another book to start and finish as soon as possible. I am however enjoying the following book:

Outwardly, I suppose, our street looked pretty much the same as any other in the working-class section of a Lancashire mill town did in those days. They were all dreadfully alike, with their endless sad rows of houses facing another across the cobblestones, the brick darkened by age and soot, the short, stubby chimmeys jutting out of the slate roof into murky skies, along with the tall, slender stacks of the mills that were sometimes half-buried in the smoke and clouds.

-- The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers by Harry Bernstein

Jill,it was wonderful to read the opening paragragh from MacCarthy's The Road. One of the best reads for me this year! I'll definitely be reading more from him.

Ouch Fiona.....that does actually sound interesting...not the title though....

Robin, I don't think The Road is written in a style that everyone will enjoy. I see some of it as written almost in a stream of consciousness sort of way. In that way it reminds me very much of poetry. I can certainly respect that it's not everybody's taste, though. I do have to say, however, that I don't agree with taking a single sentence, out of context, and then presenting it as a sort of gotcha test to people. If we were to do that, many of our great literary works could very well be tossed in the dust bin, just due to the fact that one sentence, when taken out of the larger context of at least the paragraph, might seem amateurish.

I'm glad that you're enjoying Flight, though. I hope you get to read more of Alexie. A good place to go, if you're interested, is his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. It's a collection of short stories, and it was my introduction to his work. Truly some powerful writing.

Sherry, I'd definitely give The Road one of my top spots this year. I've just been incredibly impressed throughout. :)

Fiona, I loved Stiff. Mary Roach really has a way of making potentially grotesque subject matter really funny while at the same time being respectful. And I totally want to be a head in a roasting pan now. ;)

I haven't read Stiff, but I certainly enjoyed her Spook.

I don't agree with taking a single sentence, out of context, and then presenting it as a sort of gotcha test to people.

That's the worst sentence I've ever read. :)

The thing is, many great books are written in a particular voice that's peculiar to the book. That's the quality that makes them great. That's the difference between writers who are merely competent and writers who are truly great.

There's a fine line between crappiness and genius, and the merely competent are afraid to approach it.