A Man Called Ove - #TeaserTuesday and First Paragraph / First Chapter / Tuesday Intros

Ove is one of the most fascinating characters I've read about in a long time. He's not likable, and I'm pretty sure I'd avoid him if he were my neighbor. But ... sometimes there's more to a person than what we see on the surface.
This is a 5-star book that I highly recommend.

First Paragraph:
Ove is fifty-nine.
     He drives a Saab. He's the kind of man who points at people he doesn't like the look of, as if they were burglars and his forefinger a policeman's flashlight. He stands at the counter of a shop where owners of Japanese cars come to purchase white cables. Ove eyes the sales assistant for a long time before shaking a medium-sized white box at him.
     "So this is one of those O-Pads, is it?" he demands.

Teaser from 36% on my Kindle:
She talked as if she were continuously on the verge of breaking into giggles. And when she giggled she sounded the way Ove imagined champagne bubbles would have sounded if they were capable of laughter.

Genre: Literary / Humorous
Book Length: 352 Pages
Amazon Link: A Man Called Ove

Synopsis:
Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

A feel-good story in the spirit of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Fredrik Backman’s novel about the angry old man next door is a thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others. “If there was an award for ‘Most Charming Book of the Year,’ this first novel by a Swedish blogger-turned-overnight-sensation would win hands down” (Booklist, starred review).

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

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Girl in Hyacinth Blue - Teaser Tuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph

Have you ever read a book that goes backward in time instead of forward? That's the structure of Girl in Hyacinth Blue. In this story, the ownership of a painting is traced back through history, with each chapter revealing the effect the painting has on its owner, until the final chapter reveals the artist.

First Paragraph:
Love Enough
     Cornelius Engelbrecht invented himself. Let me emphasize, straight away, that he isn't what I would call a friend, but I know him enough to say that he did purposely design himself: single, modest dresser in receding colors, mathematics teacher, sponsor of the chess club, mild mannered acquaintance to all rather than a friend to any, a person anxious to become invisible. However, that exterior blandness masked a burning center, and for some reason that became clear to me only later, Cornelius Engelbrecht revealed to me the secret obsession that lay beneath his orderly, controlled design. 

Teaser (from Page 83, trade paperback edition):
And her headdress! She thought it clever to suggest her family's contributions to Dutch naval history by building a ship, a man-of-war I think it was, atop horizontal rows of cadogan curls - no one wore cadogan curls anymore - as if the vessel were bravely battling those ferocious blond waves. On its stern she flew a tiny flag. 
(In case you're curious, I did a Google search for "cadogan curls" and found this: "...the ladies adopted the "cadogan," an English style, similar to the wigs worn by the men. The hair was still powdered, but it was bunched out at the side and braided or curled, and looped up at the back.")  

Genre: Literature / Historical
Book Length: 196 Pages
Amazon Link: Girl in Hyacinth Blue
Author Website: Susan Vreeland

Synopsis:
This luminous story begins in the present day, when a professor invites a colleague to his home to see a painting that he has kept secret for decades. The professor swears it is a Vermeer—but why has he hidden this important work for so long? The reasons unfold in a series of events that trace the ownership of the painting back to World War II and Amsterdam, and still further back to the moment of the work's inspiration. As the painting moves through each owner's hands, what was long hidden quietly surfaces, illuminating poignant moments in multiple lives. Susan Vreeland's characters remind us, through their love of this mysterious painting, how beauty transforms and why we reach for it, what lasts and what in our lives is singular and unforgettable.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B of A Daily Rhythm. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at ADailyRhythm.com

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

Facebook: sandy.nachlinger

The Locket - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

The Locket is one of those books that made me stay up later than I wanted one night because I absolutely HAD to find out how the story ended. My heart ached for Michael Keddington, and I wasn't sure if the innocent man would go to jail or be exonerated. Since this is not a romance, a happy ending was not guaranteed. Now I've discovered that this is the first book in a trilogy. Guess there will be more late nights in my future.
FYI: This author also wrote The Christmas Box.

Book Beginning (Prologue):
     There are those who maintain that it is a shameful thing for a man to speak of sentiment, and the recounting of a love story must certainly qualify as such. But if there is virtue in stoicism, I do not see it, and if I haven't the strength to protest, neither have I the will to conform, so I simply share my story as it is. Perhaps time has thinned my walls of propriety as it has my hair.

The Friday 56 (from Page 156 in my hardback copy):
     As I watched her go it was like one of those dreams where you open your mouth to scream but you can't. Then a voice inside of me said to let her go - that if I really loved her, I would let her find something better, something whole and new that she could build a whole life around.

Genre: Literary Fiction / Family / Spirituality
Book Length: 361 Pages
Amazon Link: The Locket
Author Website: Richard Paul Evans

Synopsis:
     After the death of his mother, Michael Keddington finds employment at the Arcadia nursing home where he befriends Esther, a reclusive but beautiful elderly woman who lives in mourning for her youth and lost love. 
    Michael faces his own challenges when he loses his greatest love, Faye. When Michael is falsely accused of abusing one of the Arcadia's residents, he learns important lessons about faith and forgiveness from Esther -- and her gift to him of a locket, once symbolic of one person's missed opportunities, becomes another's second chance. 

                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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The Mirror - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

Have you ever read a book where you weren't sure if you liked the main character? That's what I felt about the protagonist (Agnes La Grange) in The Mirror by Lynn Freed. Agnes was hired as a housekeeper, but after the father of the family where she worked installed a full-length mirror in her bedroom and she became aware of her beauty, she took full advantage of her assets. I admired Agnes's honesty with herself, her determination, and her ambition, but she was selfish and just not likable. Of course, that also made her story very interesting! I will say that the book kept me entertained and fascinated. Part of that was due to the setting: South Africa in the 1920s-1940s. I also enjoyed the way the story was presented - as a memoir, complete with photographs. It seemed real although it was fiction.  

Here's the Book Beginning:
1920
     I came into that house of sickness just after the Great War, as a girl of seventeen. They were there waiting for me, father and daughter, like a pair of birds, with their long noses and their great black eyes. The girl was a slip of a thing, no more than twelve, but she spoke up for the father in a loud, deep voice. Can you do this, Agnes? Have you ever done that? And the old man sat in his armchair with his watch chain and his penny spectacles, his pipe in his mouth and the little black moustache. Sometimes he said something to the girl in their own language, and then she would start up again. Agnes, do you know how to-

The Friday 56 (from Page 56 in my paperback):
     In the books I read, there was nothing but joy in the hearts of the mothers, except when they weren't real mothers at all, but only stepmothers. And then it was all rage and fury, and the girls cowering under the rod or eating poisoned apples. But here was I, the real mother, and I thought, She'll not always be a child, and I'll not always be young and beautiful. And who will I have then but her?

Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Length: 219 Pages (plus a reader's guide)
Amazon Link: The Mirror
Author's Website: Lynn Freed

Synopsis (from Amazon):
This is the story of Agnes La Grange, a beautiful young woman who emigrates as a housekeeper to South Africa in 1920. With a determination to make a future of her own and a love of men that does not leave her in desperate need of them, Agnes constructs a life beyond the conventions of colonial society. Written in her own fresh and unguarded voice, The Mirror is a fictional memoir, telling the story of the essential female, what she must do to survive, and how little the cost has changed over time.

FYI: A friend recently cleared out some books from her collection and gave a lot of them to me. This book was among them. It was copyrighted in 1997, and there were no grammatical or other errors in the book to distract me.

                 

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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Of Human Bondage - Teaser Tuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph

Every once in a while I tackle one of those books that we're "supposed" to read, which is why I bought a copy of Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham for my Kindle. So far, I'm enjoying it, but it's much longer than books I usually read. It also took a while to get used to the author's writing style and point of view shifts. But the story is definitely interesting and relevant, even though it was written a hundred years ago. (And NO, it isn't that kind of bondage!)

Here's the first paragraph:
The day broke gray and dull. The clouds hung heavily, and there was a rawness in the air that suggested snow. A woman servant came into a room in which a child was sleeping and drew the curtains. She glanced mechanically at the house opposite, a stucco house with a portico, and went to the child's bed.

I like the description in this Teaser from 20% on my Kindle: She was so thin that she seemed almost transparent, the arms she put round his neck were frail bones that reminded you of chicken bones, and her faded face was oh! so wrinkled. The gray curls which she still wore in the fashion of her youth gave her a queer, pathetic look; and her little withered body was like an autumn leaf, you felt it might be blown away by the first sharp wind.

Amazon link: Of Human Bondage
Length: 642 Pages
Genre: Literary Fiction / Classic

Synopsis from Goodreads: Originally published in 1915, Of Human Bondage is a potent expression of the power of sexual obsession and of modern man's yearning for freedom. This classic bildungsroman tells the story of Philip Carey, a sensitive boy born with a clubfoot who is orphaned and raised by a religious aunt and uncle. Philip yearns for adventure, and at eighteen leaves home, eventually pursuing a career as an artist in Paris. When he returns to London to study medicine, he meets the androgynous but alluring Mildred and begins a doomed love affair that will change the course of his life.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B of A Daily Rhythm. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at ADailyRhythm.com

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

The Snow Child - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

     The Snow Child is one of the most fascinating books I've read in a long time. The author enthralled me with her descriptions of the hardships of homesteading in Alaska in the 1920s and had me wondering if one of the characters was actually real or if she existed only in the imagination of the husband and wife who lived in the wilderness. I really could not put this book down! 
     The Snow Child was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for fiction in 2013, was given the 2013 Indies Choice Award for debut fiction, and received numerous other awards. In my opinion, all of them were richly deserved. Readers who enjoy adventure, history, and magical realism or who just like a good story will definitely enjoy this book.

Book Beginning:
Wolverine River, Alaska, 1920
Mabel had known there would be silence. That was the point, after all. No infants cooing or wailing. No neighbor children playfully hollering down the lane. No pad of small feet on wooden stairs worn smooth by generations, or clackety-clack of toys along the kitchen floor. All those sounds of her failure and regret would be left behind, and in their place there would be silence.

Friday 56 from 56% on my Kindle (Mabel is lost at night in a snowy forest.)
As it made its way beneath her clothes, along the skin of her ribs, down the curve of her spine, she knew it for what it was--a death chill, a chill that if allowed to take hold would freeze the life from her. As if to confirm her suspicions, her teeth began to chatter.

Genre: Literary Fiction / Metaphysical
Length: 404 Pages
Amazon Link: The Snow Child
Author Website Link: Eowyn Ivey

Rather than post the book's synopsis, here's the trailer:

                         

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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House Rules - The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings on Friday

The main character in HOUSE RULES in an 18-year-old boy with Asperger's Syndrome, and if you read this book, you'll learn just about everything you ever wanted to know about this disorder (it's a form of autism). In the process you'll also get caught up in a well-written story. Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors and although I'll admit that House Rules isn't my favorite book of hers, I definitely enjoyed reading it and recommend it highly.

The author cites case studies of serial killers at intervals throughout the book (between some of the chapters) and the book starts with "Case 1: Sleep Tight." Here are the opening paragraphs from the story itself. 

Book Beginning:
Chapter 1 - Emma     
     Everywhere I look, there are signs of a struggle. The mail has been scattered all over the kitchen floor; the stools are overturned. The phone has been knocked off its pedestal, its battery pack hanging loose from an umbilicus of wires. There's one single faint footprint at the threshold of the living room, pointing toward the dead body of my son, Jacob.
     He is sprawled like a starfish in front of the fireplace. Blood covers his temple and his hands. For a moment, I can't move, can't breathe.
     Suddenly, he sits up. "Mom," Jacob says, "you're not even trying."

The Friday 56 (from Page 156 of my hardcover edition):
     When I was little, I remember wandering the cereal aisle (which surely is as American a phenomenon as fireworks on the Fourth of July) and picking my breakfast food based on what the reward was: a Frisbee with the Trix rabbit's face emblazoned on the front. Holographic stickers with the Lucky Charms leprechaun. A mystery decoder wheel. I could suffer through raisin bran for a month if it meant I got a magic ring at the end.

Genre: Literary Fiction / Women's Fiction
Length: 532 Pages (hardcover)
Amazon Link: House Rules
Other Books by this Author: Jodi Picoult's Website

Blurb:
     House Rules is about Jacob Hunt, a teenage boy with Asperger's Syndrome. He's  hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject--in his case, forensic analysis.
     He's always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do...and he's usually right. But then one day his tutor is found dead, and the police come to question him. All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger's - not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, inappropriate affect - can look a heck of a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel -- and suddenly, Jacob finds himself accused of murder. HOUSE RULES looks at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way - but lousy for those who don't.

                           

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings and The Friday 56. 

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The Gods of Second Chances - Teaser Tuesday and First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros

     I enjoy books where the setting is a character, and in THE GODS OF SECOND CHANCES, Alaska plays a huge role. Ray Bancroft lives on remote Yatki Island and earns his living shrimping and crabbing. He's not only battling the harsh conditions of his livelihood, but he is also raising his granddaughter, worrying about his drug-addicted daughter (recently released from jail and heading home), and mourning the death of his wife. I found myself asking what catastrophe would happen next to this caring man! 
     The characters are often gritty with very real true-to-life problems and worries. I wanted them to succeed. The book enthralled me from the first page, and I truly could not put it down. This 5-star story will stay with me for a long time.

Opening Paragraph:
Mud and rain invaded my dreams after Donna's death. In southeast Alaska, where I've lived for half my life, we have precipitation 310 days out of the year. All those nights with the skittle-skattle of wet pelts against the windows, you'd think that rain would have formed the base molecules of my sleep a long time ago. And the mud. It's everywhere up here, omnipresent and brutal.

Teaser (from 39% on my Kindle): 
But who's going to walk through the door--a mature, grown-up daughter, who I haven't yet met, or the junkie I know? I push the letter to the back of the drawer and close it.

Genre: Literary/Adventure / Family Relationships
Length: 298 Pages
Amazon Link: The Gods of Second Chances
Author Website: Dan Berne

  

Share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you are reading. Here's the link: Bibliophile By The Sea

Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! Here's the link: Should Be Reading

Where or When - Teaser Tuesday

 

I'm about halfway through this book, and I'm enjoying Anita Shreve's writing. She spends a lot of time examining the thoughts and actions of her characters, which means the plot is definitely slow-moving. But it also means that I get to know and care about the characters and want (no, NEED) to find out how the story ends. I will admit, however, that I've read many books by this author, and although I'm enjoying this story, it is not one of my favorites. (Copyright date is 1993.) 

Here's my two-sentence snippet from 
Page 69 (paperback copy).

Teaser:
He wondered, while he ate his sandwich at the bar of the inn, if he would know Siân Richards if she walked in now, if when their eyes met she would know him. He'd been replaying various scenarios for days, imagining their first encounter after thirty-one years.

Genre: Literary Fiction
Length: 240 Pages
Amazon Link: Where or When
Other Books by This Author: Anita Shreve's Amazon Author Page

Synopsis from Goodreads:
What would you do if out of the blue, you received a letter from your first love? Siân Richards sees no reason why she can't write back to Charles Callahan. After all, it's been thirty years and they are both married with families. But when they decide to meet again, an innocent correspondence becomes a dangerous intimacy. Swept up in the past and consumed by an obsessive love, Charles and Siân risk everything to be together. A heart-wrenching, suspenseful story with an unforgettable conclusion, Where or When is also a 'thoughtful, beautifully written contemporary romance' (The Washington Post).

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away -- you don't want to ruin the book for others)
• Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers
• Leave a comment on MizB's Teaser Tuesday post (HERE) and include your link so everyone can find your post.

The Mermaids Singing - The Friday56 and Book Beginnings on Friday

The Mermaids Singing by Lisa Carey is a beautifully written, lyrical book about three generations of women in Ireland (and the U.S.) However, although the book was only 288 pages long, it seemed longer--probably because it was dense with long sections of narrative. The author did an excellent job of description and she took me inside each woman's head. I enjoyed the story, and I'm glad I read the book.

Beginning:
It is only at night now that she has the strength to wander. Rising quietly, so as not to disturb her love, Grace pulls a sweater over her pajamas, slips her feet into running sneakers. Stephen had bought her the sneakers to wear in the hospital after she refused to put on the regulation blue foam slippers.

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
His black hair curled and glittered around his ears and neck; his face beamed white, as if the moon were just beneath his skin; his dark eyes were a warm liquid texture that seemed to shift within itself, capturing and retreating from the light. He smiled at her and her insides cracked, the clotted fear squeezed aside, making room.

Genre: Literary Fiction / Saga
Length: 288 Pages
Amazon Link: The Mermaids Singing

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