Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is
for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book
you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the
sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the
opener inspires. Please remember to include the title
of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on
the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.
This week mine is Plainsong by Kent Haruf. I'm thoroughly enjoying it and taking my time reading it. It won't be too long before I read the others in the series either.
Here was this man Tom Guthrie in Holt standing at the back window in the kitchen of his house smoking cigarettes and looking out over the back lot where the sun was just coming up. When the sun reached the top of the windmill, for a while he watched what it was doing, that increased reddening of sunrise along the steel blades and the tail vane above the wooden platform.
Book Description:
Set in Colorado in the
1980s, Plainsong tells the story of various Holt residents. There's
teenager Victoria Roubideaux, pregnant and homeless, taken in by two
ageing, shy and somewhat taciturn cattle-farming brothers -- and the
changes wrought in all their lives as a result. Then there's high-school
teacher and single-father, Tom Gutherie, who has two sons, Ike and
Bobby, and a second chance at romance in the shape of colleague Maggie
Jones. Filled with unforgettable characters, Plainsong is both
convincing and compelling; a glorious, eloquent waltz of a novel. 'Like
all the best novels, Plainsong takes you into a world that is at once
real and vividly imagined. Here is a poetry of landscape, a tender and
passionate evocation of ordinary people in majestic country .
Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is
for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book
you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the
sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the
opener inspires. Please remember to include the title
of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on
the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.
My book beginning is from How I Lost You by Jenny Blackhurst.
It's still there.
No matter how many times I leave the room and try to go about my normal life, every time I go into the kitchen there it is.
Book Description:
I have no
memory of what happened but I was told I killed my son. And you believe
what your loved ones, your doctor and the police tell you, don't you? My
name is Emma Cartwright. Three years ago I was Susan Webster, and I
murdered my twelve-week-old son Dylan. I was sent to Oakdale Psychiatric
Institute for my crime, and four weeks ago I was released early on
parole with a new identity, address and a chance to rebuild my tattered
life. This morning, I received an envelope addressed to Susan Webster.
Inside it was a photograph of a toddler called Dylan. Now I am
questioning everything I believe because if I have no memory of the
event, how can I truly believe he's dead? If there was the smallest
chance your son was alive, what would you do to get him back?
Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is
for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book
you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the
sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the
opener inspires. Please remember to include the title
of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on
the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.
My book beginning is The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton, it was published by Little Brown on 2nd July.
It's FREEZING cold; like the air is made of broken glass. Our English cold is all roly-poly snowmen and 'woo-hoo! it's a snow day!' a hey-there friendly kind of cold. But this cold is mean.
Book Description
On 24th November Yasmin and her deaf daughter Ruby arrived in Alaska.
Within hours they were driving alone across a frozen wilderness
The book starts with every parents worst nightmare; Carrie's young son Charlie disappears from a beach. The story then moves on three years and there's still no clue as to what happened to him. Carrie is now separated from husband Damien and runs a shop with her friend Jen.
Max was playing with Charlie on the beach the day he vanished. His Mum Molly brings him up alone since splitting up with her abusive husband Rupert.
I enjoyed the beginning and felt it described very well what it must be like to realise your child is missing. However I was disappointed, I expected this to be more of a thriller about the search for Charlie. In reality the story seemed to have more about Carrie's shop and the beginning of her relationship with neighbour Oliver. Others may like this to stop it being too dark and upsetting, but for me it didn't work. It seemed like the author couldn't decide what type of book to write. There was the Molly, Max and Rupert storyline but this became too far fetched.
Despite all of this I never felt like giving up and wanted to find out what would happen. The end when it came though was predictable.
Nora is surprised to be invited to Clare's hen weekend but agrees with
her friend Nina that they'll go. Nora walked out of school and away from
her boyfriend James ten years ago, that was also the last time she saw
Clare. They had been best friends throughout their school years so what
happened? As the story progresses in the isolated house in the woods we
find out why.
Other characters attending the weekend away are Tom who
works in the theatre, Melanie who is away from her baby for the first
time and Clare's obsessive best friend Flo.
I thought this was a
good, fast paced psychological thriller and for most of it I wasn't
sure what was going to happen next. I found the ending was predictable
though, I'd worked it out earlier and it wasn't the big shock I'd been
hoping for. Worth a read if you like psychological thrillers and I'll
look out for future novels by this author.
Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is
for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book
you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the
sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the
opener inspires. Please remember to include the title
of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on
the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.
