Thanks to the blog Reading Is My Superpower for hosting this meme and allowing me to borrow their image.
My Friday Firstliner for October 28th is as follows:
“In the quiet of early morning, honesty finds me. It calls to me through a crack in my soul and invites me to come out, come out wherever you are.”
These are the first two sentences of…
This is an inspiring, healing book. Subtitled “Living Loved When You Feel Less- Than, Left Out, and Lonely”speaks to women everywhere. The first chapter, “I’d Rather Ignore Honesty” explains it all. I have read the first third of the book.
This week’s Friday Firstliner comes from William Kent Krueger’s This Tender Land:
“Prologue”
“In the beginning, after he labored over the heavens and the earth, the light and the dark, the land and the sea and all living things that dwell therein, after he created man and woman and before he rested, I believe God gave us one final gift. Lest we forget the divine source of all that beauty, he gave us stories.”
Krueger is indeed a master story teller, and I am looking forward to the story he will tell in his latest novel.
I had to wait for this book to come available at my local library, but knowing it is by the author of Saving Grace, I am sure the wait will be worth it.
Carrie, aka Meez Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower maintains this fun meme and says, “It’s time to grab the book nearest you and leave” your Friday Firstliner in the comments..
My firstliner for Friday, June 3rd is from a small book, How to Be Calm by Anna Barnes. It is the first couple of sentences in the Introduction:
“In a busy and hectic world, we could all benefit from slowing down and creating some peace, space and calm for ourselves. Truly reaching a state of calm might seem unattainable, but with practice it is possible and the impact it can have on your life is immeasurable.”
This tiny book is crammed full of memes, “posters,” advice and calming techniques, It is going to be a great read.
TODAY’S Friday Firstliner is from a book I have just finished, The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles.
Based on true events, featuring real people, this novel caught my attention when I saw it reviewed on two blogging friends’ reviews. I purchased it from Amazon. One of those bloggers said the parts set during WW II were excellent, but the parts set in 1983 detracted from the novel. I concur, for the story of Odile and the Paris Library made an wonderful stand-alone novel. Here is it’s first line:
“Odile/ Paris, February 1939/ Numbers floated round my head like stars. 823. The numbers were the key to a new life. 822. Constellations of hope. 841. In my bedroom late at night, in the morning on the way to get croissants, series after series–810, 840, 890–formed in front of my eyes. They represented freedom, the future. Along with the numbers, I’d studied the history of libraries…”
On this first page, the reader meets the heroine, Odile, preparing for her job interview with the Directress of the Paris Library. She has no idea what she will be asked, but knows she really wants the job.
I enjoyed this book a great deal, especially marveling at the wonderful job the employees of the Paris Library did to keep the library open and functioning, even in occupied Paris.
First Line Friday asks that we copy the first line of a current read. Today’s is from a book I’ve heard a great deal about.I have loved everything Anthony Doerr has written in the past and am also enjoying this 2021 publication.
” THE ARGOS
Mission Year 65
Day 307 inside vault one”
“Konstance
A fourteen year old girl sits cross-legged on the floor of a circular vault. A mass of curls haloes her head; her socks are full of holes. This is Konstance.”
The opening depicts “…Konstance, traveling toward a new world, decades from now.”
According to the back cover, we will also meet, “Anna and Omeir, on opposite sides of the city walls during the 1453 siege of Constantinople,” and “teenage idealist Seymour and octogenarian Zeno in an attack on a public library in present-day Idaho.”
Leave it to Doerr to magically interconnect these people “through an ancient story which comes to provide solace to these unforgettable characters.”
I have just begun and plan to MAKE time to read on it during my BLOGMAS READATHON this week.
First Line Friday encourages bloggers to copy the first line of their current read in hopes of adding to their blogging friends’ TBRs.
Today’s Friday First Liner comes from Pony by R. J. Palicio.
Those who liked Wonder by the same author will love this book.
“It was my bout with lightning that inspired Pa to become immersed in the photographic sciences, which is how this all began.”
I have just begun the book, but it is already marvelous.
KEEP ON READING; IT”S FOR GROWNUPS TOO.
Friday Firstliners should be from a current read. Here’s mine from a book I’ve just begun:
I LOVE Books about Bookstores, Books about Libraries, and Books about Books!
“You can tell a lot about a person from the library books they borrow.” These are the opening thoughts from June, the librarian at the Chalcot Library in a very small town. Soon she gets word that the city council has met and is considering closing the library. What happens next is out of June’s comfort zone and totally unexpected.
Friday First Liners are found in the first line of a book you are currently reading or are about to start on a Friday. According to the meme’s originator, The Purple Booker, readers are to copy the first line or two of a book and supply the title and the author for those of us to add to our never-ending list of TBRs.
I was looking at my copy of Darien Gee’s Friendship Bread, which was the first selection for our Third Tuesday book club, ten years ago next week, and I am going to copy the beginning of a good book and a great book club.
Chapter One
“I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT.
Julia Evarts looks up from the paper in her hand and studies the gallon-size Zip-lock bag. Inside is a substance that reminds her of drying wall compound, except it’s much pastier and filled with air bubbles. It would have gone straight into the trash had Gracie not been standing beside her, eyes wide with curiosity.”
Not only was this a wonderful book to start a book club with, but the author, Gee, was available for a Skype session as we ate our friendship bread (made from a recipe given in the book) and asked her about writing books . The meeting ended with each of us taking home a “starter” in a plastic tub. And, no, I no longer have a starter in my fridge, but I am seriously thinking of starting up again. LOL
powerfulwomenreaders 