Book Beginnings on Friday

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme created by Becky at Page Turners, and is now hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

My beginning this week comes from Purge, by Sofi Oksanen:

Aliide Truu stared at the fly, and the fly stared back.

  To me, this sentence does not have a lot of bearing on the storyline of the novel, but it does foreshadow the large presence of flies and other insects in the narrative (really -- was Estonia that overrun by bugs?). 

  I'm about halfway through the novel and it's a good story, but for anyone interested in reading it I don't recommend it while eating .... the bugs seem to be most prevalent in the kitchen.

Book Beginnings on Friday

 

  Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme created by Becky at Page Turners, and is now hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.


  This week's beginning comes from The Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobson, winner of this year's Man Booker Prize:

He should have seen it coming.

  This sentence makes me want to read further -- what happened?  I'm not that far into the novel yet, so I still have no idea what it is that he should have seen coming.

Book Beginnings on Friday

 
  Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme created by Becky at Page Turners, and is now hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.


  My beginning is from Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones:

I was with her at the first hotel on the Arabian Sea.

  A simple sentence, yet one that creates some questions for the reader:  the identity of "her", why we need to know where the narrator encountered her.  Since it's also told in the first person, it's an indication that the story might be all about perception. 

Book Beginnings on Friday

  Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

  This week's beginning comes from A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse:

One could hardly say that Paul Neon's disappearance caused a stir in the canton of Biot, where he had apparently settled for good, nor in Les Crets, the scrawny village where he inhabited the very last house.

  This sentence provides a mysterious beginning to the book:  why wouldn't his disappearance cause a stir?  Who is Paul Neon?  It also sets the scene - for the moment in the French countryside.  It doesn't give any indication, though, why the novel might have been given its title -- another mystery (for now).

Book Beginnings on Friday

 Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

 My beginning this week comes from Mini-Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella:

OK.  Don't Panic.  I'm in charge.

 Anyone familiar with the adventures of Rebecca Brandon (nee Bloomwood) knows that if she is in charge then one should definitely panic!  I was disappointed in the last two books in the Shopaholic series, but this one is enjoyable so far.

Book Beginnings on Friday

  Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

  My beginning this week comes from Room by Emma Donoghue:

Today I'm five.

  Such a short sentence, but those three words tell the reader that the narrator of the story is a child.  As I'm almost finished with this truly amazing novel, I can also say that this simplicity is present throughout the book yet it seems that each word is chosen to pack an emotional punch.

Book Beginnings on Friday

 

  Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

  My beginning this week comes from Gratitude by Joseph Kertes:

Lili crouched behind a wardrobe, dressed in a wedding gown.

  This simple sentence creates a number of questions:  Why is she crouched behind the wardrobe?  Why is she dressed in a wedding gown?  As the novel is set in WWII-era Hungary one can make assumptions of what has happened or is about to happen. 

Book Beginnings on Friday

 

  Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

  My beginning this week is from The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise by Julia Stuart:

Standing on the battlements in his pajamas, Balthazar Jones looked out across the Thames where Henry III's polar bear had once fished for salmon while tied to a rope. 

  To me, this gives a sense of the quirkiness of the novel.  I'm about halfway through and enjoying it -- it's definitely quirky, with characters who have very distinct personalities and a historic setting that gives us a peek behind the scenes. 

Book Beginnings on Friday

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

This week's beginning is from Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang (won on Becky's blog -- thanks again!):

By dawn at least half the members of the Kelly gang were badly wounded and it was then the creature appeared from behind police lines.

It seems like this is the end rather than the beginning of the story, but there is an element of suspense (what is the creature?).  I know very little about Ned Kelly, other than he was an infamous Australian outlaw, so I'm looking forward to reading further.

Book Beginnings on Friday

  Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

  My sentence this week comes from The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender:

It happened for the first time on a Tuesday afternoon, a warm spring day in the flatlands near Hollywood, a light breeze moving east from the ocean and stirring the black-eyed pansy petals newly planted in our flower boxes.

    This sentence does make you want to read further -- what first happened that Tuesday afternoon? -- and it also gives a very pleasant description of the (initial) setting.  I haven't gotten further than this yet but I'm looking forward to reading more.

Book Beginnings on Friday

  Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

  My sentence this week comes from my summer reading project, Ulysses by James Joyce:

Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. 

 
  So from sentence one, I was already confused, because I had always assumed that Ulysses was all about Leopold Bloom -- who is this Buck Mulligan guy?  The confusion has not let up, but Joyce does have an amazing way with words; and though Bloom is walking around the streets of Dublin, it is everything that goes on around him that is the focus of the book.  

Book Beginnings on Friday

  Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

  From Promises to Keep by Jane Green:

Steffi elbows her hair out of her eyes before grabbing a frying pan, splashing olive oil liberally into it and scraping the finely chopped onion into the oil.

  I literally just started this book, so I don't know where this sentence may lead, but it did make me hungry!

Book Beginnings on Friday

 

  Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

From Almost Dead by Assaf Gavron:

I climbed aboard the Little No. 5 as I did every morning on my way to work.

A simple sentence, yet in my opinion appropriate given the tone of the rest of the book.