The Boys in the Boat - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

Anyone who enjoys stories of triumph over adversity will be enthralled by The Boys in the Boat. The author shows the incredibly hard work that goes into being part of a crew team and taught me more than I expected about events during the 1930s, leading up to World War II. I don't read much nonfiction, but this book kept me turning pages as if I were reading a thriller. I'd already seen the PBS special about this amazing team of rowers, but as is usually the case, the book went into much greater detail than the documentary and focused on the life of rower Joe Rantz. As a resident of the Seattle area, I was fascinated by the setting too.

I highly recommend reading this uplifting book.

Genre: Nonfiction
Book Length: 370 Pages (Trade Paperback from the library)
Amazon Link: The Boys in The Boat
Author Website: Daniel James Brown

Each chapter begins with a photo from the 1930s, as well as a quote from George Yeoman Pocock, the man who built the boats for the Washington team and most other teams, as well. 

First Paragraphs from Chapter One (instead of from the Prologue):
    Monday, October 9, 1933, began as a gray day in Seattle. A gray day in a gray time.
     Along the waterfront, seaplanes from the Gorst Air Transport company rose slowly from the surface of Puget Sound and droned westward, flying low under the cloud cover, beginning their short hops over to the naval shipyard at Bremerton. Ferries crawled away from Colman Dock on water as flat and dull as old pewter. Downtown, the Smith Tower pointed, like an upraised finger, toward somber skies. On the streets below the tower, men in fraying suit coats, worn-out shoes, and battered felt fedoras wheeled wooden carts toward the street corners where they would spend the day selling applies and oranges and packages of gum for a few pennies apiece. Around the corner, on the steep incline of Yesler Way, Seattle's old, original Skid Road, more men stood in long lines, heads bent, regarding the wet sidewalks and talking softly among themselves as they waited for the soup kitchens to open. Trucks from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer rattled along cobblestone streets, dropping off bundles of newspapers. Newsboys in woolen caps lugged the bundles to busy intersections, to trolley stops, and to hotel entrances, where they held the paper aloft, hawking them for two cents a copy, shouting out the day's headline: "15,000,000 to Get U.S. Relief."

Teaser (from Page 84):
    It rained, and they rowed. They rowed through cutting wind, bitter sleet, and occasional snow, well into the dark of night every evening. They rowed with cold rainwater running down their backs, pooling in the bottom of the boat, and sloshing back and forth under their sliding seats.

Synopsis (from Amazon):
    For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.
    It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.

Link up HERE

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

Three Weeks With My Brother - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros

    Nicholas Sparks fans will adore this memoir, and even though he isn't my most favorite author, I enjoyed it a lot. I like the way Sparks wove his life story into the round-the-world trip he took with his brother Micah, relating memories from his past in a natural way as the brothers reminisced. Their humble childhood surprised me.
    Thank you to my new walking-group friend, Donna, for loaning the book to me.

Genre: Memoir
Book Length (Trade paperback): 356 Pages
Amazon Link: Three Weeks With My Brother
Author's Website: Nicholas Sparks

The book begins with a prologue, explaining how Nicholas Sparks and his brother decided to go on the "Heaven and Earth" round-the-world trip to exotic places. I'm sharing the First Paragraph from Chapter 1:
     Many stories begin with a simple lesson learned, and our family's story is no exception. For brevity's sake, I'll summarize.
     In the beginning, we children were conceived. And the lesson learned - at least according to my Catholic mmother - goes like this:
     "Always remember," she told me, "that no matter what the church tells you, the rhythm method doesn't work."

Teaser Tuesday (from Page 148 in the paperback edition):
Because we couldn't afford the sort of treats that other kids seemed to get - cookies, Twinkies, Ho-Hos, etc. - we developed a binge mentality when the opportunity presented itself. If we were visiting someone's house, for instance, we'd devour whatever we could, eating until we felt like we would burst.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
The day the brochure came was a typical one. With a wife and five small children, a hectic schedule, and a new book due to his publishers, Nicholas Sparks was busy with his usual routine. The colorful mailer, however, described something very different: a tour to some of the most exotic places on Earth. Slowly, an idea took hold in Nicholas's mind and heart. In January 2003, Nicholas Sparks and his brother, Micah, set off on a three-week trip around the globe. It was to mark a milestone in their lives, for at thirty-seven and thirty-eight respectively, they were now the only surviving members of their family. And as they voyaged to the lost city of Machu Picchu high in the Andes. . . to mysterious Easter Island. . . to Ayers Rock in the Australian outback. . . and across the vast Indian subcontinent, the ultimate story of their lives would unfold. Against the backdrop of the wonders of the world and often overtaken by their feelings, daredevil Micah and the more serious, introspective Nicholas recalled their rambunctious childhood adventures and the tragedies that tested their faith. And in the process, they discovered startling truths about loss, love and hope. Narrated with irrepressible humor and rare candor, and including personal photographs, Three Weeks with my Brother reminds us to embrace life with all its uncertainties. . . and most of all, to cherish the joyful times, both small and momentous, and the wonderful people who make them possible.

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

Facebook: sandy.nachlinger

The Lie That Tells A Truth - The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings on Friday

   When my husband and I lived in Miami, I attended the Miami International Book Fair every year, and more than once I heard John Dufresne speak. What a great teacher he is! I wish I could have taken his classes at Florida International University. But at least I have a copy (autographed) of his book on writing. 
   Not only do I enjoy Dufresne's laid-back writing style, I appreciate the exercises he includes. At the end of the book is a chapter dealing with grammar, usage, punctuation, and mechanics - the craft of writing. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to write.

Genre: Nonfiction / Writing

Book Length: 298 Pages

Amazon Link: The Lie That Tells A Truth

Author Website: John Dufresne, Author

Book Beginning:

[There's an introduction, but I'm beginning with the first chapter]
Getting in Shape
     You wouldn't be here if you didn't want to write, so let's write. We'll chat later. Get out your pen and paper or fire up the computer. Pour yourself a coffee. Unplug the phone. Once you start, you can't stop. Give yourself a half hour. Relax. Don't think too much. You're starting a journey, and you don't know where you're going. But you do know you're going someplace you haven't been before. Take ten minutes for each exercise. Here we go.

The Friday 56 (from Page 56 in my hardback book):
Remember that our figures of speech, our metaphors, our way of looking at the world all come to some degree from our jobs. What a farmer thinks of the landscape may be different from what a miner thinks, a developer, a factory worker.

Synopsis (from Amazon):
     Finally, a truly creative―and hilarious―guide to creative writing, full of encouragement and sound advice. Provocative and reassuring, nurturing and wise, The Lie That Tells a Truth is essential to writers in general, fiction writers in particular, beginning writers, serious writers, and anyone facing a blank page.
     John Dufresne, teacher and the acclaimed author of Love Warps the Mind a Little and Deep in the Shade of Paradise, demystifies the writing process. Drawing upon the wisdom of literature's great craftsmen, Dufresne's lucid essays and diverse exercises initiate the reader into the tools, processes, and techniques of writing: inventing compelling characters, developing a voice, creating a sense of place, editing your own words. Where do great ideas come from? How do we recognize them? How can language capture them? In his signature comic voice, Dufresne answers these questions and more in chapters such as "Writing Around the Block," "Plottery," and "The Art of Abbreviation." Dufresne demystifies the writing process, showing that while the idea of writing may be overwhelming, the act of writing is simplicity itself.

Want more? Here's a TED talk by John Dufresne.

                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
Click HERE to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (sponsored by Rose City Reads) 
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Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

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A Walk in the Woods - First Paragraph / First Chapter and Teaser Tuesday

     When I heard that A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail was being made into a motion picture, I knew I had to read the book before seeing the movie. I'm loving this story! Bill Bryson and his friend Stephen Katz tackle the trail, meet interesting characters, encounter wildlife, and experience the beauty of Appalachia. The tale is full of humor, insight, history, and even scientific information (in small doses). 
     While reading, I imagined Robert Redford in the role of Bill Bryson and Nick Nolte as his friend Stephen Katz (even though the characters in the book were only in their forties and Redford and Nolte are much older). I can't wait to see the movie! 
FYI: The book is narrated in first person by Bill Bryson.

First Paragraph:
     Not long after I moved with my family to a small town in New Hampshire I happened upon a path that vanished into a wood on the edge of town.
     A sign announced that this was no ordinary footpath but the celebrated Appalachian Trail. Running more than 2,100 miles along America's eastern seaboard, through the serene and beckoning Appalachian Mountains, the AT is the granddaddy of long hikes. From Georgia to Maine, it wanders across fourteen states, through plump, comely hills whose very names--Blue Ridge, Smokies, Cumberlands, Green Mountains, White Mountains--seem an invitation to amble. Who could say the words "Great Smoky Mountains" or "Shenandoah Valley" and not feel an urge, as the naturalist John Muir once put it, to "throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence"?

In my Teaser (from 48% on my Kindle), Katz and Bryson have been awakened by a noise. Bryson looks out his tent flap, clicks on his flashlight, and sees two eyes glowing about twenty feet away. Here's a snippet of their conversation.
"Stephen," I whispered at his tent, "did you pack a knife?"
"No."
"Have you got anything sharp at all?"
He thought a moment. "Nail clippers."

Genre: Travel/Memoir/Humor
Length: 305 Pages
Amazon Link: A Walk in the Woods
Author's Website: Bill Bryson

Synopsis:
     Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his native country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes—and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings.
     For a start there's the gloriously out-of-shape Stephen Katz, a buddy from Iowa along for the walk. Despite Katz's overwhelming desire to find cozy restaurants, he and Bryson eventually settle into their stride, and while on the trail they meet a bizarre assortment of hilarious characters. But A Walk in the Woods is more than just a laugh-out-loud hike. Bryson's acute eye is a wise witness to this beautiful but fragile trail, and as he tells its fascinating history, he makes a moving plea for the conservation of America's last great wilderness. An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration, A Walk in the Woods has become a modern classic of travel literature.

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

Wild - Book Beginnings on Friday and Friday56

  

I just featured WILD - From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail on my Teaser Tuesday post (here), but I thought the book deserved more than two sentences so I'm posting about it again today. This story really impressed me. It's the nonfiction tale of a woman who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert of California to the Oregon-Washington border. What a feat!

Here's the book's beginning (prologue):
The trees were tall, but I was taller, standing above them on a steep mountain slope in northern California. Moments before, I'd removed my hiking boots and the left one had fallen into those trees, first catapulting into the air when my enormous backpack toppled onto it, then skittering across the gravelly trail and flying over the edge. It bounced off of a rocky outcropping several feet beneath me before disappearing into the forest canopy below, impossible to retrieve.

And here are a few sentences from 56% on my Kindle:
I ate the Slim Jim first, washing it down with the last of my Budweiser, and then the butterscotch candies, all six of them, one after the other, and then--still hungry, always hungry--turned my attention to the can of baked beans. I pried it open in tiny increments with the impossible can-opening device on my Swiss army knife, and then, too lazy to rummage through my pack for my spoon, I scooped them out with the knife itself and ate them--hobo-style--from the blade.

Genre: Nonfiction / Women's Adventure
Length: 338 Pages
Amazon Link: Wild

If you're curious about the Pacific Crest Trail or would like more info, here's a link to a beautiful video: Tell It On The Mountain

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Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings and Friday 56. 

   Click here to connect to other Book Beginnings posts  

   (sponsored by Rose City Reader)

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   (sponsored by Freda's Voice) 
                           

Wild - Teaser Tuesday

Maybe it's because I walked almost halfway across Spain on El Camino de Santiago. Or maybe it's simply because I appreciate the beauty of the outdoors. But for whatever reason, I'm enthralled by Cheryl Strayed's nonfiction story of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. In Wild - From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, not only does the author tell of her trek from the Mojave Desert of California to the Oregon-Washington border, but she also reveals the story of her life.

Strayed's account of the adventure isn't a tale of Wonder Woman defeating Mother Nature. In fact, she was ill-prepared for the challenges she faced and many of her problems could have been avoided by doing more research. But that doesn't lessen the significance of her accomplishment. Her journey makes for a heck of a good story (and I don't usually read nonfiction).

Teaser (from 26% on my Kindle):
Without some kind of ice ax training, there wasn't any question that I was far more likely to impale myself with it than I was to use it to prevent myself from sliding off the side of a mountain. On my trailside breaks that day, in the hundred-plus-degree heat, I flipped through the pages of my guidebook to see if it said anything about how to use an ice ax. It did not.

Genre: Nonfiction / Women's Adventure
Length: 338 Pages
Amazon Link: Wild

If you're curious about the Pacific Crest Trail or would like more info, here's a link to a beautiful video. 

Tell It On The Mountain

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.

Reflections of Mamie - Teaser Tuesday

Today's Teaser Tuesday post features a memoir: Reflections of Mamie.  Written in a casual conversational style, as if talking with a friend, Rosemary "Mamie" Adkins relates her story of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her mother. Though much of the book is hard to read, it offers hope for those who have experienced this same mistreatment.

My Teaser:
It became blatantly clear to me that escaping was the only answer; otherwise, I would never live to see my next birthday. Now, more than ever, I knew that it was time to make some viable, elaborate plans.
(Page 114)

Genre: Memoir / Nonfiction
Number of Pages: 298
Amazon Link: REFLECTIONS OF MAMIE
Mamie's Website: Link Here

NOTE:
REFLECTIONS OF MAMIE was named Book of the Month for January by Goodread's "Modern Good Reads" group. Congratulations, Mamie!

Synopsis from Amazon:
The story begins in the early 1950's suburbs of Houston, Texas. Mamie is a young child of four who was unwanted, afraid, abused and with nowhere to turn, learned that she had to stand alone. Her only friends were her older brother, an abused child himself, and her nanny, who begged their mother to stop beating them. The father, though he loved his children, remained passive to the end. A victim himself, the only protection he offered was a warning to stay out of their mother's reach. 

This story shares Mamie's heroic battle to keep her dreams alive and hold on to her spirit. How she finds her way out of fifty-four years of abuse is yours to discover in her fascinating memoirs. 

Mamie reminds you throughout every step of her journey that she is a survivor. Indeed, it was her consummate ability to hope, plan and dream that kept her going from four to fifty-four when the abuse finally ended. The saying that, ‘you can beat the tar out of the girl but you will never break her spirit without her permission’ explains her secret to survival. But did her story end there? What other surprises does Mamie have in store for you? Does her journey end with another dream?

Mamie has a special love of animals so she has elected to support two charities with donations from the sales of her book: Dreamcatchers for Abused Children (Link Here) and Kitsap Rescue Humane Society (Link Here).

Mamie and her book carry the same message-NEVER GIVE UP!

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.