Sometimes a great opening paragraph is all it takes to sweep you into a book, whether it was something you were planning to read or not, and that’s what happened to me this morning.
I was rushing around as usual and grabbed the first book off of a stack before I headed out the door. Later when I had the chance to see what book I grabbed I did a bit of a cringe and thought oh no a Southern novel.
For a while there it seemed like every novel was a Southern novel. There was the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Ellen Foster, Bastard Out of Carolina, etc. And, I read all of those but I must have overdosed because really, novels set in the south just haven’t been my cup of tea (or should that be glass of mint julep), anymore. I still have some but I’m just finding other books to read first.
So it was with a bit of trepidation that I sat down to read Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani. Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, this novel promises lots of charming eccentrics and a closetful of family secrets. I was all set to not like it, but then there was the first paragraph.
“This will be a good weekend for reading.”
Hmm, I’ve said that plenty of times myself. Then as I read further in to the chapter I find out that the most exciting thing that happens for our protagonist is the arrival of the bookmobile.
Okay, I’m hooked.
