First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #14 and Tuesday Teaser

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea. It's an opportunity to share the first paragraphs of a book I am currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

This week I'm featuring the opening paragraphs of The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult, a book I recently borrowed from the library which I'll start reading soon.

Read on after the intro for my Tuesday Teaser.

 

 From Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Publication date: 2/26/2013

"My father trusted me with the details of his death.  'Ania,' he would say, 'no whiskey at my funeral.  I want the finest blackberry wine.  No weeping, mind you.  Just dancing.  And when they lower me into the ground, I want a fanfare of trumpets, and white butterflies.'  A character, that was my father.  He was the village baker, and every day, in addition to the loaves he would make for the town, he would create a single roll for me that was as unique as it was delicious: a twist like a princess's crown, dough mixed with sweet cinnamon and the richest chocolate.  The secret ingredient, he said, was his love for me, and this made it taste better than anything else I had ever eaten.

We lived on the outskirts of a village so small that everyone knew everyone else by name.  Our home was made of river stone, with a thatched roof; the hearth where my father baked heated the entire cottage.  I would sit at the kitchen table, shelling peas that I grew in the small garden out back, as my father opened the door of the brick oven and slid the peel inside to take out crusty, round loaves of bread.  The red embers glowed, outlining the strong muscles of his back as he sweated through his tunic. 'I don't want a summer funeral, Ania,' he would say.  'Make sure instead I die on a cool day, when there's a nice breeze.  Before the birds fly south, so that they can sing for me.'"

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

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Teaser Tuesdays, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, is a weekly event where bloggers open to a random page and share a teaser from somewhere on that page--no spoilers allowed.

Here's my teaser from The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult: 

"Baruch Beiler turned, as if noticing for the first time that I was even present.  His eyes raked over me, from my dark hair in its single braid to the leather boots on my feet, whose holes had been repaired with thick patches of flannel.  His gaze made me shiver, not in the same way that I felt when Damian, the captain of the guard, watched me walk away in the village square--as if I were cream and he was the cat.  No, this was more mercenary."

~ p.3

Enjoy life with books . . .

Catherine

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First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #14 and Tuesday Teaser was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.