03 - A book with a great first line

[Kim]

A Good Hard Look - The peacocks tilted their heads back and bellowed and hollered their desires into the night.

[Anshita]

After watching the latest season of Shrill, I was apt on reading the book, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West. The first line of the book is also interesting:
"Why is, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" the go-to small talk we make with children? "Hello child, as I have run out of compliments to pay you on your doodling, can you tell me what sort of niche you plan to carve out for yourself in the howling existential morass of uncertainty known as the future?"

[Karen]

Hannibal by Thomas Harris

“Did you ever think, Clarice, why the Philistines don't understand you? It's because you are the answer to Samson's riddle. You are the honey in the lion.”

[Yazmin]

Tart will be my choice but another good option is Plain Truth

[Evil Secret]

I read The Queen of Cursed Things
In the light of a weary half-moon, a new mother paces.

[Louise]

Just come across one in a book I'm reading for a different prompt: "My mother is an ape. My father is God." From Lord Tyger

[Lauren]

Verity by Colleen Hoover: “I hear the crack of his skull before the spattering of blood reaches me.” This has been the most unexpected first line I’ve read in a while so I’m going with it!

[JVO]

I chose Emily M. Danforth’s THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST. First line:
“The afternoon my parents died, I was out shoplifting with Irene Klauson.”

[Benita]

You had a nice first line - YOU walk into the bookstore and you keep your hand on the door to make sure it doesn’t slam.

That's when he starts stalking the heroine. It was interesting!

[Sylvia]

I’m going with Night Embrace by Sherrilyn Kenyon. It’s in my TBR pile. “ You know, Talon, killing a soul- sucking Daimon without a good fight is like sex without foreplay.

[SadieReadsAgain]

I read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. This book is perfection. From just a few pages in I was hooked, and the story whipped me along its gloomy passageways as if caught in a current. I don't even know where to start - what did I love about this so much? Perhaps it was the gothic tone, the imposing presence of Manderley or the atmosphere of menace within its walls. Perhaps it was the ever-present ghost of Rebecca, whose hand touched everything our young, naive narrator touches as she attempts to fill her shoes in the role of Mrs de Winter. Perhaps it was the mystery of Rebecca's death and the shady, shifting house staff with their secrets and loyalties. Or perhaps it was because this book is a total masterpiece, elegantly written and never showing its hand until the crucial moment. Sometimes I struggle to review books I've absolutely adored because anything I want to say sounds naff or hyperbolic, and this book is no exception. So perhaps less is more, and I'll leave it at that?

[Leona]

Selwa wrote: "I see a number of people complaining about the profanity in The Martian. Just a heads up, there is a cleaner version available, if that is something that makes you uncomfortable.

h..."

I read this for a book club read. I read the first line and closed the book. I did read the book but did not like it at all. The movie was better. The book was very creative but such language was not for me.

[Lilith]

I read A Christmas Carol for this prompt and loved it.

I just reread Jitterbug Perfume. One of all-time favorites.

"The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion....An old Ukrainian proverb warns: " A tale that begins with a beet will end with the devil. That is a risk we have to take.

[Lexi]

I reccomend The City We Became. I just read it and loved it and it has a great first line.

[Kat]

Red Rising

"I'd have lived in peace, but my enemies brought me war"

[Joanna G]

I have my book for this prompt, but I just picked up Madder Carmine, and the opening immediately made me think of this prompt.

"It is an invincible fact: when a man finds himself outdoors without a pair of britches to his name, his whole world can be reduced to that lack. He has one thought only, like a giant magnet in his mind, forever tugging the iron of his will back to it. That thought is britches. And how can I get me some."

Hopefully the rest of the book holds up to this standard.

[L.]

A Keeper - Just finished this and I think I'll use it for this prompt.

[Robin H-R]

"Would I be wrong if I just reached into my desk drawer, extracted my razor, and cut this witch's throat?...The woman never did know when to shut up."

Dorothy Jones A Jazz Age Trip Through Oz

Other prompts: Book by a WOC; Book with only words on the cover; Book set in the 1920's; Book with more than 20 letters in title;
Maybe more. I just started it.

[Ashleigh]

I've decided to start re reading the Harry Potter series, and I think Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone can fit here. It's quite a quotable classic these days

[Yoo]

I wasn't sure what I was going to use for this prompt and thought I would use Tale of Two Cities if it came to it. I've been meaning to read Behind the Scenes at the Museumfor a while and thought I would find a suitable prompt.

I knew when I laughed at the first line this is the prompt it fits : )

"I exist! I am conceived to the chimes of midnight on the clock on the mantelpiece in the room across the hall."

[Renee]

Read

[Sarah]

I just started A Kiss Before Dying for a different prompt but it has a great first line. "His plans had been running so beautifully, so goddamned beautifully, and now she was going to smash them all."

[Dayle]

Linda wrote: "This was a book I loved: Rabbit Cake

Its first sentence: “On my tenth birthday, six months before she sleepwalked into the river, Mom burned the rabbit cake.”

Seriously... how ca..."

Sold me on it! I will be reading it for "first line" challenge.

[Dayle]

Linda wrote: "This was a book I loved: Rabbit Cake

Its first sentence: “On my tenth birthday, six months before she sleepwalked into the river, Mom burned the rabbit cake.”

Seriously... how ca..."

Sold me on it! I will be reading it for "first line" challenge.

[Dayle]

Linda wrote: "This was a book I loved: Rabbit Cake

Its first sentence: “On my tenth birthday, six months before she sleepwalked into the river, Mom burned the rabbit cake.”

Seriously... how ca..."

Sold me on it! I will be reading it for "first line" challenge.

[Dayle]

Linda wrote: "This was a book I loved: Rabbit Cake

Its first sentence: “On my tenth birthday, six months before she sleepwalked into the river, Mom burned the rabbit cake.”

Seriously... how ca..."

Sold me on it! I will be reading it for "first line" challenge.

[Erin]

"The exorcist was dead" from My Best Friend's Exorcism

[poshpenny]

The Antidote For Everything

“Most women did not begin their days by stabbing a man in the scrotum, but Georgia Brown was not most women.”

[Heather]

I am reading Beloved Dog by Maria Kalman for this prompt. "When I go out for a walk there is so much I see that makes me happy to be alive."

[Sue]

I have just read Something to Hide by Deborah Moggach. First line is:
"Ernestine was a tall, muscular woman who carried a beauty parlour on her head."

[Cendaquenta]

I'm using Days Without End for this prompt. First line: "The method of laying out a corpse in Missouri sure took the proverbial cake."
It's far from the best line of the book - which is a masterpiece - but it definitely caught my attention!

[Cornerofmadness]

I felt Who Slays the Wicked by C.S. Harris had a great first line about blood on snow.

[Sarah]

Catch-22 - "It was love at first sight."

[Jenn]

I loved reading "My Best Friend's Exorcism" for this prompt.

First line: "The Exorcist is dead."

Check out my full review: https://www.jennandtoniclife.com/post...

[poshpenny]

Charlotte's Web
“Where’s Papa going with that axe?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

The Graveyard Book
There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.

[Tamara]

I read "If On A winter's Night a Traveler" by Italo Calvino.

[Virginia]

I chose The Time in Between for this prompt.
"A typewriter shattered my destiny."

[Laurie]

Know My Name by Chanel Miller *5 stars* “I am shy. In elementary school for a play about a safari, everyone else was an animal. I was grass.”

[Patricia]

I have Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion.