Thursday, May 20, 2010

Book Beginnings on Friday (a Little Early)

Okay, so it's not really Friday (yet), at least here in California.  But since the link is live for this week's Book Beginnings on Friday, I thought I'd go ahead and post mine.

I have been on fire this month, finishing one book and starting another during the last week.  So here are the first sentences.

Up first is Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station by Dorothy Gilman.

Mrs. Pollifax sat in Carstairs' office with a cup of coffee in one hand and a sandwich in the other, her hat an inverted bowl of blue felt with such a cockeyed twist to its brim that Bishop guessed it had been frequently sat on and squashed.
I love this series (as you might have guessed since I use Carstairs as an internet name), and this was actually a reread for me.  That first sentence just perfectly captures Mrs. Pollifax, garden club member, widow, grandmother, and part time CIA agent.  What was interesting to me is that our viewpoint character for the entire first chapter was Bishop, but he was the third character mentioned in that sentence.

I'm now working my way through Magic and Other Misdemeanors, the fifth Sisters Grimm book by Michael Buckley.  (And if you haven't started this fun kid's series, do so immediately.)  The first sentence is:

"I'm sure this could be seen as child abuse," Sabrina groaned as she pulled a pillow over her head.

This one doesn't have quite the flow of the one I posted first, but it did make me smile.  After all, what kids (or adult) likes getting woken up in the morning?

4 comments:

Christina T said...

Great sentences! I especially liked the one from the Sisters Grimm book. I haven't read them yet but I've heard they are good.

I haven't read any Mrs. Pollifax books but I did watch the films when I was a teen and I do remember enjoying them. My library has some really old dusty large print books from the series so I've never picked them up.

I hope you enjoy Magic and Other Misdemeanors.

Rebecca Chapman said...

I agree that the first one is definitely a lot better. I don't really like books that start with speech in their opening sentence. There should be some build up before people start talking, I think anyway. They both sound like goods though :-)

Its funny that's its not Friday for you yet when it's Friday arvo here for me. Can't wait for the weekend

Aleksandra said...

Love both opening sentences! I'll add both series on my tbr list! They sound like my type of books! Happy reading!

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

I really liked the first one best, although the other piqued my interest as well.

I love descriptive sentences that help us visualize a setting...

Here's mine:

http://laurelrainsnowswonderland.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/book-beginnings-on-friday-5/