Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite First Sentences

Happy Wednesday all,

For this weeks top 4 Wednesday it is Favorite First Sentences.

What is great about first sentences is that it sets the mood for the book and makes you want to keep reading.

Top 5 Wednesday is a group in Goodreads and was formerly created by Lainey at gingerreadslainey and is now done by Sam from Thoughts on Tomes. It is open to everyone.

“When I think of my wife, I always think of her head.” from Gone Girl

When I first read Gone Girl, this line stood out for me because it had a mystery behind it. It introduced both Nick and his Wife Amy. It was also the first line of the movie as well and that really set the tone of how the movie is.

“Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”  from Harry Potter and the Sorecers Stone

What I liked about that first sentence, is that it introduced the Dursleys as a normal family who don’t know that their lives are about to change.

“He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air” from the Maze Runner

I know a lot of people didn’t really like the series, but I really did. What I liked about that sentence was that it set up the plot of the book and also the mystery about the book. How the character feels a sense of unknown when waking up in a new place.

“This is what I remember. My lips were cut. I bit down on them as he grabbed me from behind and covered my mouth” From Lucky by ALice Sebold

While a very triggering line. It was a very powerful sentence and changed Alice Sebolds life, as she was about to get assaulted.

“MOON. GLORIOUS MOON. FULL, FAT, REDDISH moon, the night as light as day, the moonlight flooding down across the land and bringing joy, joy, joy. Bringing too the full-throated call of the tropical night, the soft and wild voice of the wind roaring through the hairs on your arm, the hollow wail of starlight, the teeth-grinding bellow of the moonlight off the water” from Darkly Dreamy Dexter

This was an excellent first sentence. It sets upon the eerie tone of Dexter, and it goes inside his head and what a serial killer is thinking. It made me a fan of both the book and the show.

There’s my list. What are your favorite first sentences. Let me know in the comments below.

Top 5 Wednesday: Books with “hard” topics

Happy Wednesday, and it is time for another Top 5 Wednesday. This week is books with “hard” topics, which could include: sexual assault, drugs, mental health, illness etc.

Top 5 Wedneday is a group in Goodreads and was formely created by Lainey at gingerreadslainey and is now done by Sam from Thoughts on Tomes. It is open to everyone.

Also trigger warning/content warning because the books I will talk about deal with depression, suicide, sexual assault, eating disorders,  and school shootings.

Shooter by: Walter Dean Myers (depression and school shootings)

This book is very well done. While the story structure is very different, I like how it discusses a school shooting after the fact. It is told as an interview format from both Cameron and Carla, who were friends of Leonard; the shooter and it also tells the story from Leonard’s perceptive through his journal entries. Read it if you get the chance.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (sexual assault, depression and PTSD)

I was first introduced to this book back in high school during me Speech and Debate days. I was in Prose/Poetry and this piece was most of girls did or wanted to do. I finally read the full book in college and loved it from beginning to end. I like that it doesn’t just deal with sexual assault, but also the PTSD that went with it and also depression. I also like that it took her awhile to confess what happened to her, because knowing a few survivors it is very hard to just admit what happened and how it wasn’t their fault.

Hunger Point by Jillian Medoff (eating disorders and mental health) 

Okay so I saw the Lifetime movie before I read the book. The book is still truly amazing. It also very heartbreaking . The concept of eating disorders is a very hard topic to write and I think she nails in perfectly. It also discusses the issues of the contemporary american family and whose issues can be triggers.

Lucky by Alice Sebold (sexual assault)

Most of you would know Alice Sebold from The Lovely Bones, but this is a memoir about a sexual assualt that happened to her. I like that the book goes from the sexual assault, her admitting it, the court case and the aftermath. My review is here. It’s very intense so give it a read.

Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (depression and mental health)

I know I discussed this book before, but I can’t help it is really good. It deals with Charlie starting high school while dealing with his friends suicide. He goes through the normal high school motions but it deals with Charlie’s mental health issues and what happened between him and his aunt Helen.

Hope you enjoyed my list and share yours down below.

 

 

Lucky by: Alice Sebold (TW: rape/sexual assault)

Trigger warning: descriptions of rape and sexual assault

Summary (via Goodreads): In a memoir hailed for its searing candor and wit, Alice Sebold reveals how her life was utterly transformed when, as an eighteen-year-old college freshman, she was brutally raped and beaten in a park near campus. What propels this chronicle of her recovery is Sebold’s indomitable spirit – as she struggles for understanding (“After telling the hard facts to anyone, from lover to friend, I have changed in their eyes”); as her dazed family and friends sometimes bungle their efforts to provide comfort and support; and as, ultimately, she triumphs, managing through grit and coincidence to help secure her attacker’s arrest and conviction. In a narrative by turns disturbing, thrilling, and inspiring, Alice Sebold illuminates the experience of trauma victims even as she imparts wisdom profoundly hard-won: “You save yourself or you remain unsaved.”

My Thoughts: I was always familiar with the work of Alice Sebold, mainly through The Lovely Bones, but it also surprised me that this story was of her own sexual assault, and the first chapter was really descriptive of her rape and I praise her for being able to tell her story to the masses.

I also liked that she described what happened to her after she was raped; how it affected her psychological and also the quest to bring her rapist to justice. I also liked that it detailed the entire court proceedings and even after the court case, Alice Sebold still discussed what she went through after her assault; with her drug addiction and her quest to fully recover from her ordeal.

I also observed the title which is called “Lucky” and this is my own interpretation of the title in which she is “lucky” to have survived a rape and “lucky” that her rapist got convicted because statistics show that only 3% of rapists even serve jail time. Like I said it is my own interpretation of the title and Sebold may have a different interpretation.

As someone who has known people who were sexually assaulted it did bring up some triggers, but I really loved this book. I don’t usually read non-fiction books, but due to the subject matter I decided to read it and I don’t regret. If the subject matter is triggering I understand, but if you want to read a story about rape, survival and recovery I highly recommend it.

Grade: 5/5