Every one's Choice discussion

Here we can post the opening paragraphs of the books we are reading, incase anyone wants to read your book and you can recommend the book.

NO-ONE YOU KNOW - MICHELLE RICHMOND

When I found him at last. I had long ago given up the search. It was late at night, and I was dining alone in a small cafe in Diriomo, Nicaragua. It was a place I had come to cherish during my annual visits to the village, the kind of establishment where one could order a plate of beans and a cup of coffee any time of the day or night.

I'll join in on this on Thursday cause I'm on my iPhone and that's a lot of writing lol

OK here goes:
Shataram

"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realised, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn't sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it's all you've got, that freedom is a universe of possiblity. And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving, become the story of your life"

oooh! shataram, that's great! where's the rest? :)

Ha ha!! Maybe I'll pick another paragraph?

Women & Ghosts - Alison Lurie

Sure, I'm aware that people still therorise about why I never married Gregor Spiegelman. I can understand that. Greg was a madly eligible man: good-looking, successful, charming, sexy. He reminded me of those European film stars of the thirties you see ib TV reruns; he had that same suave low-key style. And then not only was he chairman of the department, he was important in his field. Everyone agreed that there were only two people in the world who knew as much as he did about the Balkan economic history - some said only one.

The Girl Who Played with Fire - Steig Larsson

PROLOGUE

"She lay on her back fastened by leather straps to a narrow bed with a steel frame. The harness was tight across her rib cage. Her hands were manacled to the sides of the bed."

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach

INTRODUCTION

"The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back. The brain shuts down. The flesh begins to soften. Nothing much new happens, and nothing is expected of you."

The Lie - Chad Kultgen

CHAPTER ONE

"I Fu@king Loved her like no guy has ever loved a girl. I know every guy has thought about some girl, and that's exactly why I'm saying it. I'm also saying it because it was true."

Damn!!

The Northern Light - Jennifer Donnelly

"When summer comes to the North Woods, time slows down. And some days it stops all together. The sky, gray and lowering for much of the year, becomes an ocean of blue, so vast and brillant you can't help but stop what you're doing -pinning wet sheets to the line maybe, or shucking a bushel of corn on the back steps- to stare up at it. Locusts whir in the birches, coaxing you out of the sun and under the boughs, and the heat stills the air, heavy and sweet with the scent of balsam."

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. In newspaper photos of missing girls from the seventies, most looked like me: white girls with mousy brown hair. This was before kids of all races and genders started appearing on milk cartons or in the daily mail. It was still back when people belived things like that didn't happen."

Push by Sapphire

"I was left back when I was twelve because I had a baby by my fahver. That was in 1983. I was out of school for a year. This gonna be my second baby. My daughter got Down sinder. She's retarted. I had got left back in the second grade too, when I was seven, 'cause I couldn't read (and I still peed on myself). I should be in the eleventh grade, getting ready to go into the twelf grade so I gone 'n graduate. But I'm not. I'm in the ninfe grade."

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

"I still remember the day my father took me to The Cemetary of Forgotten Books for the first time. It was the early summer of 1945, and we walked through the streets of a Barcelona trapped beneath ashen skies as dawn poured over Rambla de Santa Monica in a wreath of liquid copper."

The Average American Male - Chad Kultge

CHAPTER ONE
Christmas with Mom and Dad

Same old bullshit.

CHAPTER TWO
The Flight Back to L.A.

It's two days after Christmas. I'm in Denver International Airport watching this old fat bitch eat a cup of yogurt. My blood is boiling

wow. let's hope this isn't the average american male!

The whole book is disturbing and that is simply the beginning. It gets worse!

haha this sounds good actually can i borrow this one too when you are done

I took that on eout of the library as well but I thin kyou will like it Jen

ok i will try and find it on my kindle

Eating Animals - Jonathan Safran Foer

THE FRUITS OF FAMILY TREES

When I was young, I would often spend the weekend at my grandmothers's house. On the way in, Friday night, she would lift me from the ground in one of her fire-smothering hugs. And on the way out, Sunday afternoon, I was again taken into the air. It wasnn't until years later that I realized she was weighing me..

Rant - Chuck Palahniuk


Wallace Boyer (O Car Salesman): Like most people, I didn't meet and talk to Rant Casey until after he was dead. That's how it works for most celebrities: After they croak, their circle of close friends just explodes. A dead celebrity can't walk down the street without meeting a million best buddies he never met in real life.

White Oleander

The Santa Anas blew in hot from the desert, shriveling the last of the spring grass into whiskers of pale straw. Only the oleanders thrived, their delicate poisonous blooms, their dagger green leaves. We could not sleep in the hot dry nights, my mother and I. I woke up at midnight to find her bed empty. I climbed to the roof and easily spotted her blond hair like a white flame in the light of the three quarter moon.

I am officially reviving this thread!

From Plum Island by Nelson DeMille:

Through my binoculars, I could see this nice forty-something-foot cabin cruiser anchored a few hundred yards offshore. there were two thirtyish couples aboard, having a merry old time, sunbathing, banging down brews and whatever. The women had on teensey-weensey little bottoms and no tops, and one of the guys was standing on the bow, and he slipped off his trunks and stood there a minute hanging hog, then jumped in the bay and swam around the boat. What a great country. I put down my binoculars and popped a Budweiser.


My favorite quote though, comes later on page one:

It occurred to me that the problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you are finished.

Nose Down, Eyes Up: A Novel

{1} Not That Stupid

If you ask me, most people are a pain in the ass. Sometimes it's all you can do to keep from telling themselves to go fuck themselves.

You'd get a different opinion if you asked my dog Jimmy. He thinks most people are fantastic, because he knows how to manipulate them. I've never been good at any of that.

Marked

{1}

Just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse I saw the dead guy standing next to my locker. Kayla was talking nonstop in her usual K-babble, and she didn't even notice him. At first. Actually, now that I think about it, noone else noticed him until he spoke, which is, tragically, more evidence of my freakish inability to fit in.

Tracy - love that quote!

Most of my recent book openings are not that fantastic.

From Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

I'd been waiting for the vampire for years when he walked into the bar.

From One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

There are some men who enter a women's life and screw it up forever. Joseph Morelli did this to me -- not forever, but periodically

My favorite quote from this one so far, though, is:

The clock on the dash told me I was seven minutes late, and the urge to scream told me I was home.

POISON STUDY - MARIA V. SNYDER

Locked in the darkness that surrounded me like a coffin, I had nothing to distract me from my memories. Vived recollections waited to ambush mewhenever my mind wandered.

From Rush Home Road: A Novel by Lori Lansens:

It stinks of piss in the room. Sharla Cody breathes it in, thinking it's a sweet stink. Reminds her of the little white flowers Mum Addy planted instead of grass on the square out front of her trailer. They keep coming up, those little flowers, year after year. Sharla likes the notion of seeing them each spring, like an expected unreliable guest.

From To Hold the Crown: The Story of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York by Jean Plaidy:

There was great consternation in the Palace of Winchester on that misty September day, in the year 1486 for the Queen -- who was not due to give birth to her child for another month -- had started her pains.

The Art of Devotion by Samantha Bruce-Benjamin: a book that reminded me a lot (in a good way) of White Oleander - both are beautifully written and feature brilliant central characters. Also, both focus exclusively on women characters.

Sophie

An island in the Mediterranean Sea, 1940

For each of us, there is a moment: what we see at the last, before God closes our eyes forever; an entire existence distilled to one perfect memory. We anticipate its promise all our lives.

Ohhhhh that's a good one!

THX for sharing Isabelle!

Donna, trust me: it only gets better. The writing is absolutely beautiful and the story you will not be able to put down: four different women narrating the events of their summers on an island in the Mediterranean Sea in the 1920s and 30s. I actually saw it advertised in Costco today: it's part of their summer reading campaign. I asked where to find it on the table but they won't be stocking it until August. Still, I was really happy to see that so many people will have the chance to read it. I couldn't put it down.

WOW sounds like my kinda read. I put it on my TBR THX!!!

From Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn:

Dear Cousin Tassie,

Thank you for the lovely postcards. I trust that you and Aunt Mittie had a pleasant trip, and that all your stateside friends and paternal relations are healthy and happy.

Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson

WELCOME TO MERRYWEATHER HIGH

It is my first morning of high school. I have seven new notebooks, a skirt I hate, and a stomachache.

From The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho:

The Alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.