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2023 Build Your Library Reading Challenge







Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Top Ten Tuesday: Famous (But Not Always Fabulous) First Lines
1:01 PM
Happy Tuesday, everyone! How are things going? Did you do anything fun for Memorial Day? We had a small family BBQ/swim party to celebrate the holiday and my daughter's graduation from high school last week. Warning, proud mom bragging ahead: The little smartie ended up 10th in her class of 730 seniors. We're super proud of her hard work. She'll be attending a state university on a four-year, full-ride, Arizona-based scholarship. Anyway, having a crowd of people at my house sitting elbow-to-elbow (social distancing is tough while playing game after rousing game of Dilbert Corporate Shuffle) was a little weird, but it was also good to be around family again.
Speaking of family, I always take a moment on Memorial Day to remember the men (we haven't had any female soldiers, although our military wives definitely deserve a shout-out) from my family who have served and sacrificed for this country. My ancestors have served in nearly every war involving the U.S., with deaths in all, but this is the guy I've heard the most about throughout my life:
My 22-year-old Uncle Joe (the man on the left) was killed in action in Vietnam on March 5, 1967, when he saved several members of his platoon and took the most direct hit from the land mine that threatened them all. His bravery and sacrifice deserve to be remembered and honored. R.I.P. to my family's favorite hero.
On a lighter note, it's time for Top Ten Tuesday, my favorite bookish meme. It's always a good time, so I definitely encourage you to participate. Click on over to That Artsy Reader Girl for all the details. Today's topic is a fun one: Top Ten Opening Lines. You can talk about book openers that you love or hate; those that made you laugh, cry, think; or whatever. I love a great opening line as much as the next reader, but my memory is terrible so the only one that comes quickly to mind is "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." So, I decided to use Google to check out the first lines of ten of my all-time favorite novels. Funny enough, most of them aren't that intriguing, profound, or memorable at all! Some of them you will no doubt recognize; others not so much. Hint: half of them are from traditional American or Canadian classics, while the other half are more modern.
Top Ten Opening Lines From Some of My All-Time Favorite Novels:
1. "When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow."
2. "The librarian and her mule spotted it at the same time."
3. "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. "'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,'" grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
5. "Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops, and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof."
6. "Marley was dead, to begin with."
7. "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
8. "Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence."
9. "Mae Mobley was born on a early Sunday morning in August, 1960."
10. "I want something of hers."
Answers:
1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
5. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
6. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
7. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
8. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
9. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Happy TTT!
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Murder Off the Books by Tamara Berry

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Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country in the World by Sarah Smarsh



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