I love looking for great first lines. I am amazed at what other writers are able to do with words. Maybe one day, I’ll be able to write a great first line that will be someone else’s favorite. Here are a few of my favorite first lines:
“The best time to talk to ghosts is just before the sun comes up. That’s when they can hear us true, Momma said. That’s when ghosts can answer us.” –from Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
“There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.” from The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a samll unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.” –from Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
“It hit me when I was power walking on the treadmill at home, watching a Friends rerun for about the nientieth time.” from Does My Head Look Big in This by Randa Abdel-Fattah
“My name is Matt Pin
and her name, I remember,
is Phang My.
His name
I will never say,
though forever I carry his blood
in my blood,
forever his bones
stretch in my bones.
To me,
he is nothing.
If he stumbled on me now,
I wonder,
would he see himself in my eyes?
And I?
Would I recognize the dragon
who went beyond the mountain
and never came back?” from All the Broken Pieces by Ann E. Burg
This is for all you readers who are looking for the next great supernatural romance to read. I’ve been eyeing Shiver by Maggie Steifvater in the book orders for some time now. I think I saw Teisha reading it, and I’ve been hearing many good things about it from aFB group that I’m a part of (we’re challenging ourselves to read 100 books in 2010). I’m going to have to get it. If I don’t win a copy in this contest, I’ll have to go out and buy me one.
I’m sharing the information with you, too. Would you like to learn more about an author and her books from her blog? Check it out. Let me know what you think of Shiver, too.
In Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.
At turns harrowing and euphoric, Lingeris a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love — the light and the dark, the warm and the cold — in a way you will never forget.
Comes out in stores everywhere July 20th. Pre-order here.
Once again poetry transforms something ugly and painful (war’s devastation on children) into something beautiful (hope). Matt Pin is haunted by his past from war torn Veitnam and his present filled with prejudice and doubt. Can baseball, a dying coach, and a paralyzed vet bring him hope for the future? His story is told in lyrical poetry.
The people of Hyde Creek are hiding a dangerous secret. Can wildlife biologist Steve Bensen and Deputy Tracy Ellis discover what it is before it kills them? Steve Bensen came to Hyde Creek to investigate the death of his brother Cliff. Bensen, along with Tracy Ellis, do not believe that a bear killed Cliff, but the authorities want to write it off and forget it ever happened. As they look for anwers to more and more baffling questions, they stir up the anger of the townspeople and whatever creature is stalking it. Everyone who talks with Steve about his brother’s death soon ends up dead as well. Is it possible that the town “crazy,” Levi Cobb could be telling the truth about the town’s past, present, and future? Once he runs out of all other alternatives, Steve becomes more willing to listen to Levi and accept his truth.
Frank Peretti weaves a suspenseful tale that combines science and the supernatural, faith and evil. The Oath has all the elements of a horror classic–frightful monsters, dark secrets, and chilling suspense. Peretti presents evil in vivid visual detail through an otherworldly monster that grows as it feeds on human sin and through an oozing sore that bleeds black over a person’s heart. In the final battle with the monster, Steve discovers the only power that can defeat it, but will it be in time to save himself?
Peretti’s message of faith comes through clearly without being overly heavy-handed. Bensen is not a perfect character; neither are any of the others. In the end, each one has a choice to make about who to follow in spite of their past mistakes. I recommend this book for any reader who likes to be scared in the dark. It is a long book, but no more difficult than books by other horror writers such as Stephen King or Dean Koonz.
Not only do I have as a goal each school year to connect the right readers with Douglas Adams, but now I can’t wait to introduce them to Jasper Fforde. Fforde writes laugh out loud humor in the tradition of Adams and Monty Python. In this combination detective story and nursery rhyme, anything can happen. The only thing to expect is the unexpected as Jack Sprat and Mary (along with alien Ashley) hunt down the sadistic Gingerbreadman while they are suspended for the force and taking on a private request to find intrepid reporter Goldilocks. Who is the fourth bear, and what do chamion cucumbers have to do with unexplained explosions across the literary countryside?
I first read How I Found the Strong by Margaret McMullan a few years ago when it was a Young Hoosier nominee. This book sounds even better. MucMullan moves from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement. I can’t wait till it comes out.
One of my favorite things about the Christmas holidays (besides visiting with family and eating way too much chocolate) is the time to relax and read good books. Of course, my favorite gifts to receive (and give) are books. Here’s what I read over the holidays. What good books did you enjoy?
The Christmas Busby Melody Carson: There are so many Christmas stories out there that I will never be able to read them all, but my mom handed me this one to read. Since none of Edith’s children are coming home to Christmas Valley this Christmas, Edith decides to open her bed and breakfast to guests. Invitation sent out, Edith waits for the guests to arrive–and arrive they do, much to the surprise and sometimes dismay of the rest of the townspeople. Collin and his very pregnant wife roll up in their broken-down, psychedelic bus with no money. A widower comes to be alone. A bickering married couple hope to find peace. A lonely mother comes with her young daughter to get a way from it all. Myrtle, a crotchet old woman, is determined to interfere with them all and take over the town’s Christmas celebration. Will this odd assortment of characters discover the true meaning of Christmas?
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde: Thanks to Mr. Rigsby, I discovered a new favorite author. Jane Eyre has always been one of my favorite classics. Now Fforde has created an England where time travel is possible and frequent, and where people take their literature seriously. Thursday Next is an officer for the Literary Special Ops–and she quickly becomes involved in unravelling a crime where someone is kidnapping characters from first editions of books and murdering them. Can Thursday save Jane Eyre before it is too late?
Panther in the Sky by James Alexander Thom: Thom’s historical fiction is demanding and detailed but well worth the effort. In this book, Thom tells the story of the great Shawnee warrior Tecumseh. Rather than answering historical debates, Thom seeks to give an inside view of Tecumseh and the Shawnee people of his time. I found it to be insightful and inspiriring. Even though I know how history turns out, I found myself cheering on Tecumseh, hoping against hope that he would be able to save his people.
I first discovered Mary Oliver’s poetry while flipping through a copy of Oprah’s magazine. I read “The Journey” and immediately scrounged through my purse for something to copy it down on. I carried my handwritten copy (scribbled on the back of an envelop) with me for weeks. I read it whenever I needed courage. At that time in my life I was trying to make some decisions about how I wanted to live my life. Reading “The Journey” helped me find the courage to trust my own instincts instead of being swayed by what “everyone” thought I should do.
I later bought a copy of Why I Wake Early and took it with me on vacation to Alaska. I read it waiting for our (very delayed) flight. I usually read poetry in small doses, but I couldn’t put this one down. I also couldn’t help but share it. I kept interrupting the games my husband and daughter were playing with “Listen to this one.”
I had heard of Mary Oliver as a nature poet, and this volume didn’t disappoint. Her descriptions of ponds and beaches, deer and geese, crickets and bears took me out of the airport and into the wild. I was surprised at the depth of theology I found in her poems. My experience of nature has led me closer to God, and I enjoyed reading Oliver’s poems that reflected my experience of the divine in the created world.
From the poems I’ve read aloud in class, which images stick in your mind?
What feelings do you get from hearing/reading these poems?
