Y, A Novel by Marjorie Celona

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB; choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify author and title for readers.  First Chapter,  First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

Title: Y: A Novel by Marjorie Celona
Published January 8, 2013; Free Press hardcover
Genre: contemporary fiction

Opening sentences: 

My life begins at the Y. I am born and left in front of the glass doors, and even though the sign is flipped "Closed," a man is waiting in the parking lot and he sees it all: my mother, a woman in navy coveralls, emerges from behind Christ Church Cathedral with a bundle wrapped in gray, her body bent in  the cold wet wind of the summer morning. Her mouth is open as if she is screaming, but there is no sound here, just the calls of birds. 

Publisher's description:
“Y. That perfect letter. The wishbone, fork in the road, empty wineglass. The question we ask over and over. Why? . . . My life begins at the Y.” So opens Marjorie Celona’s debut about a wise-beyond-her-years foster child abandoned as a newborn on the doorstep of the local YMCA. Swaddled in a dirty gray sweatshirt with nothing but a Swiss Army knife tucked between her feet, little Shannon is discovered by a man who catches only a glimpse of her troubled mother as she disappears from view. That morning, all three lives are forever changed.

Bounced between foster homes, Shannon endures abuse and neglect until she finally finds stability with Miranda, a single mother with a free-spirited daughter of her own. Yet Shannon defines life on her own terms, refusing to settle down, and never stops longing to uncover her roots—especially the stubborn question of why her mother would abandon her on the day she was born.

Would you keep reading, based on the opening sentences of the book? 

New Release/Book Teaser: The Blood Gospel by James Rollins

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB; choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify author and title for readers. First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

Title: The Blood Gospel (The Order of the Sanguines)
Published January 8, 2012; William Morrow
Genre: historical mystery

Opening sentences: 

Caesarea, Israel.  Dr. Erin Granger stroked her softest brush across the ancient skull. As the dust cleared, she studied it with the yes of a scientist, noting the tiny seams of bone, the open fontanel. Her gaze evaluated the amount of callusing, judging the skull to be that of a newborn, and from the angle of the pelvic bone, a boy. (ch. 1. From an advanced reader's edition. Final copy may differ.)

Book description: An earthquake in Masada, Israel, kills hundreds and reveals a tomb buried in the heart of the mountain. A trio of investigators explore the macabre discovery, a subterranean temple holding the crucified body of a mummified girl.

But a brutal attack at the site sets the three on the run, thrusting them into a race to recover what was once preserved in the tomb’s sarcophagus: a book rumored to have been written by Christ’s own hand, a tome that is said to hold the secrets to His divinity.... The answers to all go back to a secret sect within the Vatican, one whispered as rumor but whose very existence was painted for all to see by Rembrandt himself, a shadowy order known as the Sanguines. (publisher)

Another novel in the historial fiction genre of The DaVinci Code. Any takers? Would you continue reading?

The Essential Rumi - ( In Time For New Year's Eve)

The Essential Rumi translated by Coleman Barks
Paperback published May 28, 2004 by HarperOne

I bought this book of poetry by the thirteenth century Sufi mystic and Persian poet, Rumi, allegedly the most widely read poet in the U.S. A brief story in each chapter is followed by poetry. The first chapter, The Tavern, talks about the drinking of wine.

Chapter 1: The Tavern: Whoever Brought Me Here Will Have to Take Me Home
ON THE TAVERN
In the tavern are many wines - the wine of delight in color and form and taste, the wine of the intellect's agility, the fine port of stories, and the cabernet of soul singing....

All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
 (Rumi)

I wonder if the word "ruminate" comes from the ruminations of Rumi? In any case, I am thoroughly enjoying this book, which I pick up and put down whenever I'm in the mood, with or without wine :)

Have a Happy New Year everyone!

Book Teaser: The Longest Way Home by Andrew McCarthy

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB; choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify author and title for readers.  First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

Title: The Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest for the Courage to Settle Down by Andrew McCarthy
Published September 12, 2012; Free Press
Genre: memoir

Opening sentences: We had traveled just nineteen miles west - my childhood was left behind. Gone were the backyard Wiffle ball games with my brothers that had defined my summer afternoons, as was the small maple tree in the front yard that I nearly succeeded in chopping down with a rubber ax when I was eight; over were the nights lying in bed talking to my older brother Peter across the room in the dark before sleep came. We had lived atop a small hill, safely in the center of a suburban block, in a three-bedroom colonial with green shutters; now we would live in a long and low house in a swale on a large corner lot a half hour and a world away.

Book description: Award-winning travel writer and actor Andrew McCarthy delivers a revealing and insightful memoir about how travel helped him become the man he wanted to be, helping him overcome life-long fears and confront his resistance to commitment.

Do the teasers/opening sentences make you want to read the book?

The Prodigal Son by Colleen McCullough

Title: The Prodigal Son: A Carmine Delmonico Novel by Colleen McCullough
Published November 6, 2012; Simon and Schuster
Genre: thriller, crime fiction

Opening sentences:
"Daddy, what's the procedure when I'm missing a toxin?" 
Patrick O"Donnell's startled blue eyes flew to his daughter's face, expecting to see it laughing at having successfully pulled Daddy's leg. But it was frowning, troubled. He gave her a mug of coffee. "It depends, honey," he said calmly. "What toxin?" 

DESCRIPTION: 1969. A lethal toxin, extracted from the blowfish, is stolen from a laboratory at Chubb University. Biochemist Millie Hunter reports the theft at once to her father, Medical Examiner Patrick O’Donnell. Patrick’s cousin Captain Carmine Delmonico is on the case when the bodies start to mount up.

A sudden death at a dinner party and another at a gala black-tie event seem to be linked only by the poison and the presence of Dr. Jim Hunter, a scientist on the brink of greatness and husband to Millie. A black man married to a white woman, Jim has faced scandal and prejudice for most of his life, so what would cause him to risk it all now? Is he being framed for murder—and if so, by whom? Carmine and his detectives follow the trail through the university town’s crowd of eccentrics. (publisher)

Opening Sentences: A Fatal Stain by Elise Hyatt

Opening sentences can give readers a taste of a writer's style and content. Here are the beginning sentences from the cozy mystery, A Fatal Stain :

The first time I tried to run away from home, I was three. I'd packed all my comic books and a bag of cookies in a book bag emblazoned with Remembered Murder, the name of my parents' bookstore in Goldport Colorado, and I had made it all the way down to the bus station, where I realized I didn't have the money for a ticket. I'd sat quietly in a corner bench and eaten my cookies and read my comics until my grandmother noticed I was missing and came to find me.

Title: A Fatal Stain : A Daring Finds Mystery by Elise Hyatt
Published October 2, 2012; Berkley paperback

Book description: Candyce "Dyce" Dare, owner of the furniture refinishing business Daring Finds, finds a disturbing stain on a table that she suspects is blood. Dyce discovers that the table’s previous owner has gone missing—and once more is drawn into a solve-it-yourself mystery project.

Street Freak: A Memoir of Money and Madness at Lehman Brothers

Title: Street Freak: Money and Madness at Lehman Brothers
Author: Jared Dillian
Paperback, September 11, 2012
Genre: memoir

Opening sentences:"The market has its own intelligence. It has a sort of malignant omniscience that dictates that the market will do whatever fucks over the most people at any given moment in time. It knows your positions, and it knows your fears. You are a sinner in the hands of an angry God, and your positions are going to pay."

I am looking up words and acronyms while reading this memoir by Jared Dillian on his life as a trader for Lehman Brothers on Wall Street during the financial crisis starting 2001 through 2007. I have to find the true meaning of "hedge fund," "EFT trader," "volatility," "leverage," "asset classes," "binomial tree," "SPY," "predatory trading techniques," "program trader," and so on.

In the first chapter, Dillian lost $80,000 in a few minutes, but I haven't yet figured out how, though he described it in some detail. I think it will get easier as I read on. Sentences like "I might have been able to save $80,000, but I wasn't going to be able to save Lehman" keep me reading. So does the jacket book description:

"More than $1 trillion in wealth passed through his hands, yet the extreme highs and lows of the trading floor masked and exacerbated the symptoms of Dillian's undiagnosed bipolar and obsessive-compulsive disorders, leading to a downward spiral that nearly ended his life."

The paperback of Street Freak was published by Touchstone. A review copy was sent to me by the publisher.

The Nightingale Girls by Donna Douglas

Title: The Nightingale Girls by Donna Douglas
Release date: September 10, 2012; Arrow Books paperback
Genre: women's fiction; historical fiction
Source: publisher
Opening sentences:

"Tell me, Miss Doyle. What makes you think you could ever be a nurse here?"
After growing up in the slums of Bethnal Green, not much frightened Dora Doyle. But her stomach was fluttering with nerves as she faced the Matron of the Nightingale Teaching Hospital in her office on that warm September afternoon. She sat tall and upright behind a heavy mahogany desk, an imposing figure in black, her face framed by an elaborate white headdress, grey eyes fixed expectantly on Dora. 

About the book: The lives and loves of three student nurses who join St. Agatha's Hospital in 1936, the novel brings a pre-war London hospital vividly to life.

Dora is a tough East Ender, desperate to escape her overcrowded home and her abusive stepfather. Helen, the quiet one, is a shadow of her overbearing mother, who dominates every aspect of her life.  The third is rebellious Millie -- aka Lady Camilla. An aristocrat escaping from her upper class life, she clashes over and over again with Matron and gets into scrapes, especially where men are concerned.

The Nightingale Girls. What have they let themselves in for? (based on the book description)

Going to the Bad by Nora McFarland

Title: Going to the Bad: a Lilly Hawkins Mystery by Nora McFarland
Published August 7, 2012; Touchstone
Source: publisher

Opening sentences:

" Christmas Eve., 8:31 a.m. I glanced out at the KJAY newsroom. My elevated position on the assignment desk gave me an excellent view as my coworkers prepared for our noon show. As is typical in most newsrooms this time of year, the food and frills of the holiday season existed side by side with the uglier realities of our business. Bloody crime-scene video played next to a platter of holiday cookies. A script detailing a tragic car wreck sat on the printer next to a pot of candy canes."

About the book: Lilly Hawkins, a TV news photographer at her hometown television station, is thrown off balance by the brutal attack on her uncle Bud in her own home, and dives headlong into the investigation, risking her own life in doing so. (based on the publisher's description).

Book Feature: DISCRETION by Allison Leotta

Opening sentences: "Even now, Caroline got nervous before every big job -- and this was bigger than most. She knew how to smile past smirking hotel concierges and apartment-building doormen who deliberately looked the other way. The key was looking confident. But committing a crime in the U.S. Capitol was a different experience altogether."

Title: Discretion: A Novel by Allison Leotta
Published July 3, 2012; Touchstone
Genre: thriller
Source: publisher

About the book: When a young woman plummets to her death from the balcony of the U.S. Capitol, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Curtis is summoned to the scene. The victim is one of the city’s highest-paid escorts. And the balcony belongs to Washington, D.C.’s sole representative to Congress, the most powerful figure in city politics.

The Congressman proclaims his innocence.The investigation leads Anna to Discretion, a high-end escort service. The further Anna ventures into D.C.’s red-light underworld, the larger the target on her own back. (from publisher's description).

About the author: Allison Leotta was a federal prosecutor specializing in sex crimes and domestic violence in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Michigan State University. "Law of Attraction" is her first novel. The sequel is "Discretion," released in July. Her website, Allison Leota.

The Midwife of Hope River by Patricia Harman

Title: The Midwife of Hope River: A Novel of an American Midwife
Publication date: August 28, 2012; paperback
Genre: historical fiction

 Opening sentences: Stillbirth. "How long do you think my baby's been dead?" Katherine turns toward me, and I can tell she's still crying.
"Five days, maybe less," I answer my patient. "I heard the heartbeat when I checked you last Friday, and you said the baby moved during church. Shut your eyes now. Try. You need to rest."
I place my new leather-bound journal on the maple table, lean my head back, and gaze cross the dark room. (this quote is from an ARC; the final edition may differ).

In 1930s Appalachia, midwife Patience Murphy strugges against disease, poverty, and prejudice - and her own haunting past - to bring new light, and life, into an otherwise cruel world. (from publisher's description).

The Sweetness of Forgetting by Kristin Harmel

Opening sentences in a book can help the reader get a feeling for the story and setting, and the author's writing style.

The Sweetness of Forgetting

Title: The Sweetness of Forgetting: A Novel by Kristin Harmel
Paperback; Gallery Books; August 7, 2012
Genre: fiction, women's fiction
Source: publisher

Opening sentences: The street outside the bakery window is silent and still, and in the half hour just before sunrise, as dawn's narrow fingers are just reaching over the horizon, I can almost believe I'm the only person on earth. It's September, a week and a half after Labor Day, which in the little towns up and down Cape Cod means that the tourists have gone home, the Bostonians have boarded up their summer houses for the season, and the streets have taken on the deserted air of a restless dream.

The leaves outside have begun to change, and in a few weeks, I know they'll mirror the muted hues of sunset, although most people don't think to look here for fall foliage.

About the book: Hope McKenna-Smith's ailing grandmother Mamie, a baker, sends her to France to uncover a seventy-year-old mystery and to find out about the family history. Hope’s emotional journey takes her through the bakeries of Paris and three religious traditions, all guided by Mamie’s fairy tales and memories of Mamie's pastries at home. (from the book description)

What do you think?

Opening Sentences: The Language of Sisters by Amy Hatvany

Opening sentences of a novel can give the reader an idea of the writer's style and the feel of a story. Here are the beginning sentences of The Language of Sisters: A Novel. paperback published July 31, 2012, Washington Square Press.

The Language of Sisters

Prologue: "I was at work when it happened. I had just finished folding pungent wild blueberries into the creamy muffin batter, thinking how the brilliant purple streaks that trailed each berry stood out like a bruise against white skin. I was about to fill the greased-and-readied pan when something stopped me. Something tangible, like the thump of a fist against my chest - I felt it. I felt my sister's voice for the first time in years, the way I used to feel it when we were children, coursing through me like my own blood, hearing her thoughts the way no one else could. Can you hear a whisper in your heart?"

Book description:Ten years ago, Nicole Hunter left home, unable to cope with  life with her disabled sister, Jenny. Then suddenly, she is back in her hometown, caring for her pregnant sister and trying to heal her relationship with her mother. Nicole  rediscovers the beauty of sisterhood--and receives a special gift that will change her life forever.

Received as a complimentary copy for review.

Porch Lights, A Novel by Dorothea Benton Frank

Title: Porch Lights: A Novel by Dorothea Benton Frank
Hardcover; William Morrow, released June 12, 2012
Source: publisher

Opening sentences of a book can help the reader get a flavor of the book and decide if it's one that they want to continue reading. Here are the beginning sentences of Porch Lights.

I will tell you the one thing that I have learned about life in my thirty-something years that is an absolute truth: nothing and no one in this entire world matters more to a sane woman than her children. I have one child, my son, Charlie. Charlie is barely ten years old, and he is the reason I get up in the morning. I thank God for him every night before I go to sleep. When I was stationed in Afghanistan, I slept with a T-shirt of his wrapped around my arm. I did. Not my husband's. My son's.  It was the lingering sweet smell of my little boy's skin that got me through the awful nights while rockets were exploding less than a mile away from my post. 

Publisher's book description: When Jimmy McMullen, a fireman with the NYFD, is killed in the line of duty, his wife, Jackie, and ten-year-old son, Charlie, are devastated. Charlie idolized his dad, and now the outgoing, curious boy has become quiet and reserved. Trusting in the healing power of family, Jackie decides to return to her childhood home on Sullivans Island.

Awaiting them is Annie Britt, the family matriarch.  Annie promises to make their visit perfect—even though relations between mother and daughter have never been smooth.  But her estranged husband, Buster, and her best friend Deb are sure to keep Annie in line. She's also got Steven Plofker, the widowed physician next door, to keep her distracted as well.

What do you think?

The Rock Star in Seat 3A by Jill Kargman: Opening Sentences

Opening sentences in a book often give the flavor of the writing and help readers decide about the book. Here are the beginning sentences for The Rock Star in Seat 3A by Jill Kargman
(Published May 22, 2012).

Lucky for me, offices don't come cooler. Badass Games had hatched in a humongous industrial former storage building  near the water in Dumbo, Brooklyn, when its only product was the blockbuster Pimps N' Ho's, Volume 1. A video game junkie since childhood, I was teased mercilessly by my sister Kira for years until she realized I possessed a skill set that made the boys want to hang with us. We always had the latest state-of-the-art consoles, and our house was the go-to hangout place after school for all our friends, who enjoyed procrastinating, scarfing down my famous nachos - a daily trashtastic concoction of chips, cheese, and mushrooms -and the sweet-defeat of being trampled by me in game after game of Nintendo.  HAZEL, YOU ARE THE WINNER! 

Here's what Goodreads has to say about the book: "A lively novel about a down-to-earth New York City girl who suddenly finds herself in a rock 'n' roll Cinderella fantasy. This is a fairy-tale romance with a twist. "

The opening reminds me of my kids growing up with video games and with certain expectations from life!
I received this as a free review book.

Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta by Carol Nelson Douglas

Opening sentences in a book can give readers a sense of the style of writing and can influence their decision on whether or not to read a book. Here are the beginning sentences for Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta, a mystery featuring the cat Midnight Louie, by Carole Nelson Douglas.

Temple's fingers were doing the flamenco across her laptop keyboard, writing an e-mail press release, with Midnight Louie, her twenty-pound black cat, playing his usual role of paperweight beside her, when her phone rang.

She jumped.

Midnight Louie growled in alarm and rose up on his forelegs.

Temple wasn't the skittish type. You had to have nerves of steel to deal with the emergencies and sudden zigs and zags that a freelance public-relations person had to control, particularly in Vegas, and particularly in these Internet character-assassination days. (ch. 1)

Title: Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta: A Midnight Louie Mystery

I'm getting used to the idea of a cat being a sleuth, so I will be reading this book and hoping it will get me interested in the previous Midnight Louie mysteries. After all, this is the 23rd in the series!! I also think I may have won this book as it has been hiding on my shelves, waiting like a cat to pounce, to get my attention.

The Playgroup by Janey Fraser: Opening Sentences

Opening sentences of a book can give a taste of the writer's style, a sense of the story. Here are the beginning sentences for The Playgroup, a novel about a daycare, the Puddleducks Playgroup, by British author, Janey Fraser.

'Mrs. Merryfield. Mrs. Merryfield. Went to More-ishus. And it rained.'
Hi, Gemma! Nice tan! Listen, I'm pretty sure Molly is dry now but just in case she's not, there's a spare pair of pants in her sandwich box. That's the one with a picture of a giraffe on it - sorry I didn't have time to label it.'
'Morning, Miss Merryfield. Had a good break? Darren, have you said good morning to your playgroup leader?'
'Gemma, I'm so sorry. But we just had Beth checked again and it turns out she's allergic to wheat as well as salt, sugar, any kind of additives and - get this- any food that's yellow.Weird, isn't it? So can you make sure she doesn't have any biscuits at breaktime?'

Title: The Playgroup by Janey Fraser
Published February 2, 2012

It's the start of a new term at Puddleducks Playgroup. For Gemma Merryfield it'll be her first year in charge. Watching the new arrivals, she can already tell who the troublemakers will be, and not all of them are children!

What Gemma doesn't realise, thought, is that former banker Joe Balls, now head of Reception at the neighbouring school, will be watching her very move. As far as he's concerned, Puddleducks puts too much emphasis on fun and games, and not enough on numbers.

But when one of the children falls dangerously ill and another disappears, Gemma and Joe have to set aside their differences and work together. (publisher's description).

A good book for those with kids in daycare?

This book is a complimentary review copy.

A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore

Opening sentences of a book can give a taste of the writer's style, a sense of the story. Here are the beginning sentences for A Place of Secrets.

The night before it begins, Jude has the dream again.She is stumbling through a dark forest, lost and crying for her mother. She always wakes before the end so she never knows whether she finds her, but it is very vivid. She feels the loamy earth, hears twigs crack under her feet and smells the rich, woody fragrances that are always strongest at night, when the trees are breathing. It's chilly. Brambles catch at her hair. And the panic, the despair, they're real enough as she claws her way to consciousness; she scrabbles for the light switch and lies waiting for her sobbing breaths and racing heart to slow.

Title: A Place of Secrets: A Novel by Rachel Hore
Paperback: 400 pages; Holt Paperbacks; January 31, 2012
Publisher's description:

An historical mystery in the tradition of Kate Morton. 

Auction house appraiser Jude leaves London for her dream job at Starbrough Hall, an estate in the countryside, examining and pricing the manuscripts and instruments of an eighteenth-century astronomer. She is welcomed by Chantal Wickham and Jude feels close to the old woman at once: they have both lost their husbands. Hard times have forced the Wickham family to sell the astronomer's work, their land and with it, the timeworn tower that lies nearby. The tower was built as an observatory for astronomer Anthony Wickham and his daughter Esther, and it served as the setting for their most incredible discoveries.

Though Jude is far away from her life in London, her arrival at Starbrough Hall brings a host of childhood memories. She meets Euan, a famed writer and naturalist who lives in the gamekeeper's cottage at the foot of the tower, where Jude's grandfather once lived. And a nightmare begins to haunt her six-year-old niece, the same nightmare Jude herself had years ago. Is it possible that the dreams are passed down from one generation to the next? What secrets does the tower hold? And will Jude unearth them before it's too late?

Rachel Hore is the author of novels including The Glass Painter's Daughter and The Memory Garden. She worked in London publishing before moving to Norwich, where she teaches publishing at the University of East Anglia. She is married to the writer D. J. Taylor.

The Icon Thief by Alec Nevala-Lee

Opening sentences in a novel can set the tone and give the flavor of a book. Here is how the thriller, The Icon Thief: A Novel, opens.

Andrey was nearly at the border when he ran into the thieves. By then, he had been on the road for three days. As a rule, he was a careful driver, but at some point in the past hour, his mind had wandered, and as he was coming over a low rise, he almost collided with two cars that were parked in the road ahead.
He braked sharply. The cars were set bumper to bumper, blocking the way. One was empty; the other had been steamed up by the heat of the men inside, who were no more than shadows on the glass. A yellow field stretched to either side of the asphalt, flecked with mounds of debris.

Andrey waited for what he knew was coming....As he watched, the door of one car opened, disclosing a figure in a fur cap and greatcoat. It was a boy of twelve or so. His rifle, with its wooden buttstock, seemed at least twice as old as he was. (Prologue)

Title: The Icon Thief: A Novel by Alec Nevala-Lee
Published by Signet, March 6, 2012
Genre: thriller

Book description:

"Maddy Blume, an ambitious young art buyer for a Manhattan hedge fund, is desperate to track down a priceless painting by Marcel Duchamp, the most influential artist of the twentieth century. The discovery of a woman's decapitated body thrusts criminal investigator Alan Powell into a search for the same painting, with its enigmatic image of a headless nude. And a Russian thief and assassin known as the Scythian must steal the painting to save his reputation--and his life."

So, what do you think?

Source: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Daughters by Elizabeth Buchan

Opening sentences in a novel can set the tone and help readers decide about a book. Here are the opening sentences for Daughters by British author Elizabeth Buchan.

Curious how much pleasure she took from saying, 'My daughter...actually my stepdaughter...is getting married.' It ran against the grain of her own experience but her pleasure was not to be underestimated...that visceral need to see a child settled.

She had got used to answering questions such as 'What sort of wedding?' and 'Do you like him?' (To the latter she would reply, 'Yes, I do.')
Did she like Andrew? The little she knew of him, yes. She could list the plusses :affable, well-mannered, liked a joke, normal. He was also - she was assured on all sides - brilliant at his banking job, and unusual because he was a man who took the long view.(ch. 1)

Title: Daughters by Elizabeth Buchan
Publisher: Penguin, paperback

Book description: It is a truth universally acknowledged that all mothers want to see their daughters happily settled. But when Lara begins to fear that her daughter Eve is marrying a man who will only make her unhappy, and her other daughter Maudie reveals something that shocks the entire family, Lara faces the ultimate dilemma. Daughters explores the impact of secrets and betrayal within a dysfunctional but loving family.

So, what do you think, based on the opening sentences?