Once Upon A Time...
/The Teaser Trailer Of The Book World
I have a confession to make…I always read the first sentence, sometimes two, of a book before I buy it. I allow myself this little cheat if you want to think of it that way as it is so much better than what I used to do, which was read the last! I went through a short period of not being able to bear the unhappy ending, but I got over it. A powerful, succinct and smartly constructed opening line is irreplaceable as a path to lead a reader to the second, the third, to paragraph, to page, to chapter and beyond. It needs to be an invitation, a hand extended to join the dance, a plunge into the deep end of the pool, a ticket to ride, a peak behind the curtain, the suave pick-up line from the hot guy, a door opener, a table setter. The readers emotion should be piqued, whatever that might be. Curiosity, sympathy, revulsion, fear, amusement, urgency, titillation, anxiety, joy, shock, disgust…but at the least, intrigue.
Writers have a weighty task, the good ones even more so. In this age of nonstop social media and various techy contraptions that people can’t seem to keep their eyes or fingers off of, they have to capture our attention and hold it for 320 pages on average. With words. On paper.
So, I lay down my booklover gauntlet and dare you not to want to curl up with one of these options loving compiled. If none of these tickles your fancy I will keep adding, so stay tuned!
12 Literary Teases
1. Coronado (Until Gwen) - Dennis Lehane
“Your father picks you up from prison in a stolen dodge Neon, with an eight ball of cocaine in the glove compartment and a hooker named Mandy in the backseat.”
2. Back When We Were Grownups - Anne Tyler
“Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.”
3. Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
" If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be, in war we find out who we are.”
4. A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
“I woke to the drone of an airplane engine and the feeling of something dripping down my chin.”
5. The Only Child - Andrew Pyper
“She was awakened by the monster knocking at the door.”
6. It - Stephen King
“The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years – if it even did end – began as far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.”
7. The Martian - Andy Weir
“I’m pretty much fucked.”
8. Unraveling Oliver - Liz Nugent
“I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.”
9. Vampires Of Hollywood - Adrienne Barbeau
“It took an x-ray and an autopsy to confirm that Jason Eddings had been killed with the Oscar he’d won for Best Actor just six hours earlier.”
10. Citizen Vince - Jess Walters
“One day you know more dead people than live ones.”
11. Yesterday - Felicia Yap
“Let me tell you a couple of horrible secrets.”
12. Turtles All The Way Down - John Green
“At the time I first realized I might be fictional, my weekdays were spent at a publicly funded institution.”
