FRIDAY FIRSTLINERS

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.

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From somewhere in your current read, copy a line or a few that would tease someone into reading the same book.

A big thank you to the Purple Booker for creating this fun meme. Here is my Tuesday Teaser for March 1, 2022:

This is how chapter 34 begins, “Bitsi didn’t bother with bonjour. She barged into my bedroom, she Announced, ‘Boris was playing cards!’

‘Cards?’

‘And then he was shot!”

‘Shot?’ My hand flew to my heart. ‘Is he alive?’ “

These are characters in The Paris Library, a novel about the German occupation of Paris during WWII. The two women talking are Odile, one of the protagonists, and Bits, her sister-in-law. Both work at the Paris Library, which has managed to stay open during the occupation, much to the frustration of some German “higher-ups.” How these valiant women kept the library functioning and tended to its patrons, some outcast jews and others informants to the Germans is a novel of immense excitement and action.

A novel I hope to finish by tomorrow

This has been a busy Tuesday which included a lesson with my little five-year-old student, a long trip to Houston to the pain management doctor, a stuffed barbecue baked potato from “Flying’ D’s” for a late lunch, and planning my lesson for my Advanced Writing class tomorrow. One of the students, Zachary, arranged to make spinach dip and encouraged classmates to bring chips, so I guess while we review comma usage, we’ll munch away. I am looking forward to getting Zachary’s recipe. I am grateful for students like him.

Sketch by blogging friends Tetiana Aleksina of Ukraine and Tony Single of Australia posted on their blog. They are directly involved and “speak” from the heart. Pray for the Ukraine people.

Tuesday Teaser

This meme, hosted by the Purple Booker, asks readers to grab the book they’re currently reading, copy a few sentences in an attempt to get readers to show interest in your “read.” Why not play as well, put your sentences in the comments section, being careful not to give away anything vital–no spoilers. Please remember to include title and author.

Here is mine for this week: From Taylor Caldwell’s Tender Victory

“They had finished dinner and the children were in bed, and there was the good hearty sound of Mrs. Burnsdale, washing dishes in the kitchen.  Dr. McManus and Johnny sat in the study-parlor; the muggy air barely stirred in the close confines of the room. The doctor laid down a heavy brown paper parcel of x-rays.  He lit one cigarette after another, his big face moving, his eyebrows jerking, his mouth pursing.  Johnny waited, his hands clenched on his knees, praying for some hope in the older man’s verdict. But the doctor continued to sit there, dropping ashes on his thighs, muttering in his squeaky voice, scratching his ear.  Four hospital calls had come for him, but he had snarled into the telephone, and had suggested aspirin or a “jolt of morphine, and tell him to shut up,” and he still sat there, the mound of ashes increasing on his soiled light suit.  There were great sweat marks under his monster arms, and his shirt collar had become gray.”

What a way to build suspense; they don’t write detailed description like they used to.  This reader, for one is waiting with held breath to see if an operation can help Johnny’s young foster soon. Caldwell’s old-fashioned novel does everything right and keeps the reader turning pages and staying up late to read another chapter.

Now add your teaser. Scroll down to “About the author” and type your teaser underneath into the box provided.

THE FIRE BY NIGHT: A REVIEW OF A WWII NOVEL

Teresa Messineo’s debut novel, The Fire By Night, is a “once in a lifetime story of war, love, loss, and the enduring grace of the human spirit” (Lauren Willig, NY Times bestselling author). It chronicles the war experiences of Jo McMahon working in field hospitals at and sometimes behind the front in occupied France and Kay Elliott, an army nurse as well, held captive in a squalid POW camp in Manila.  The author spent seven years researching her setting and topic, often interviewing military survivors of WWII, who were eager to have their stories told–accurately.

The book is both historically and medically accurate, and appeals to the emotions of the reader without becoming maudlin or “sappy.” The author deals with the women’s “place” and lack of status in the war, as well as the raw emotion brought out by their experiences, some of them told in rather graphic and gory detail.

Both women find out that life goes on after war, loss, emotional trauma, and discrimination and misunderstanding by those who “mean well.” It is a fast read that kept this reader turning pages and up late to “see how it all comes out.”