Tuesday, December 29, 2020

First Book of the New Year and First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Sleepless Nights; Elizabeth Hardwick

 

Have you selected your first book of 2021?  Still a few more days to join in. Thank you to Sheila@Book Journey for hosting this once again.  Here's my pick:

Sleepless Nights; Elizabeth Hardwick
New York Review Book Classics - 1979 & 2001

Today's first chapter, first paragraph Tuesday intros is from a book I choose as my first book of 2021 and plan to start reading on Friday,  New Year's Day.  This book was purchased by me at least five years ago, so I wanted to start off the New Year by reading something from my shelves - something that has sat there unread for way too long.

Welcome to First Chapter/Intros, now hosted by Yvonne @ Socrates Book ReviewsEach week readers post the first paragraph (or 2) of a book they are reading or that they plan to read soon. 

PART ONE

"It is JUNE.  This is what I have decided to do with my life just now.  I will do this work of transformed and even distorted memory and lead this life, the one that I am leading today.  Every morning the blue clock and the crocheted bedspread with its pink and blue and gray squares and diamonds.  How nice it is--this production of a broken old woman in a squalid nursing home.  The niceness and the squalor and sorrow in an apathetic battle--that is what I see.  More beautiful is the table with the telephone, the books and magazines, the Times at the door, the birdsong of rough, grinding trucks in the street."

What do you think? Keep reading or pass? (The description of the crocheted bedspread, made me flash back to an afghan throw my mother had crocheted for the back of our sofa when I still lived at home.)

12 comments:

  1. Wow! What a great pick. The excerpt draws me in as the narrator describes her surroundings in such a way that I am beginning to worry a little about her. I definitely want to read more.

    Thanks for sharing, and enjoy. Happy New Year!

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  2. Sounds like a great choice. I'm joining in on the First Book, too. I'm looking forward to it. Happy New Year!

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  3. I have decided to do First Book this year for the first time. I look forward to seeing what everyone chooses.

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  4. This sounds like it will be a great read, Diane. I hope you enjoy it! I haven't yet decided on my first book of the New Year. So many choices!

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  5. I look forward to your review, Diane. I hope you love it and it sets the tone for your 2021 reading!

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  6. It sounds promising. I'd keep reading.

    I'm currently in the middle of a book, so I probably won't start anything new until the first week of January. I've decided to read the most recent Louise Penny mystery since I'm almost certain it will be a winner. It's always nice to start the year off with a good book, right?

    Happy reading, Diane!

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  7. I like the excerpt - sounds intriguing.

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  8. Wow. I know it is only two days to 2021 but I just can't go there until it happens. but you have made me curious about Elizabeth Hardwick.

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  9. What an opening. Definitely want to hear what you think of this book. And, yes, I've already started to plan which book will be my first read of the year. Always seems so exciting!

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  10. Sounds good and like a good book to start off the year with! I also am hoping to read more books from my shelves! I have so many books that I so wanted to read that got pushed aside for the new and shiny. I'm hoping to fix that this year - or at least make it a bit better.

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  11. That is an interesting excerpt. Hope you enjoy it! I love the variety at First Book.

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