Every Tuesday Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros to share the first paragraph sometimes two, of a book that she’s reading or planning to read soon.
This week I’m featuring The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, a book I’ll be reading this month for my book group.
It begins:
There was a time in Africa the people could fly. Mauma told me this one night when I was ten years old. She said, Handful, your granny-mauma saw it for herself. She say they flew over trees and clouds. She say they flew like blackbirds. when we came here, we left the magic behind.
From the back cover:
Handful’s always been in trouble. A slave in the Grimké household like her beloved mother Charlotte, Handful knows the rules, in all their brutality, but no one can stop her pushing them to the limit. When, ten years old, she’s presented to the owner’s most difficult daughter, Sarah, as a birthday present, the sparks begin to fly …
I think I’m going to enjoy this book very much. It’s set in Charleston in the early nineteenth century and is based on the lives of sisters, Sarah and Angelina Grimké, the first female abolition agents and among the earliest American feminist thinkers.
What do you think? Would you carry on reading?
I’ve actually got this book as well so I’ll be interested to hear what you think when you’ve read it.
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I really liked this book — hope you do too.
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Yes, this book seems to work very well for book groups. Hope yours has a good discussion. That cover is interesting – not one I’ve seen before.
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I read this book with one of my book clubs and we really enjoyed it. Hope you do too.
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Oh yes, my book group read this — very good; enjoy
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Wow. This sounds like a very powerful book. Slavery is a topic that has kept popping up in front of me for about a year now and this might be another one I just have to read. Thanks for sharing it. Here’s my link for today: http://wp.me/p4DMf0-1v4
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I’ve heard really good things about this book. I like the opening and the setting, so I’d keep reading!
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This book has been on my to-read list for a long time. I like that opening paragraph, so I really should get going on it. Hope you and your group enjoys it.
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I’ve heard a lot of this book and hope to read it soon. I’ve enjoyed other books by this author.
My Tuesday post features A Thread of Truth.
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I really should read this book it’s been recommended to me lots of times and I have a copy on the TBR – I hope you enjoy it Margaret
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I loved this book, from the first sentence to the last. Hope you enjoy it as well. I thought the characters so well-drawn and their stories were so compelling to me.
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