Thursday, August 29, 2019

First Line Friday #71


First Line Friday is brought to you by Hoarding Books. Playing along is easy. All you have to do is open the book nearest you and share the first line. Then check out the link to see the other first lines offered up this week.

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"Curtis Welch was the only doctor for hundreds of miles along this forgotten edge of the Bering Sea, and for the past eighteen years he had watched winter descend suddenly, as it tended to do up in the far north."

I have been wanting to read this one for ages and finally got it from the library. In the 6th-grade reader I used with my students, one story we read told a condensed version of the race to stop a diphtheria outbreak from decimating Nome, Alaska. This heroic and grueling journey has been commemorated yearly since 1967 when, every March, the Iditarod is run from Anchorage to Nome. Even more so, it is a celebration of musher Leonhard Seppala, who took part in delivering the serum, and won several All-Alaskan Sweepstakes that were run in the early 1900s.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

26 comments:

  1. Sounds like an interesting read. I am sharing the first line from Teach Me to Love by Kari Trumbo over on my blog, but I just finished Unwrapping Hope by Sandra Ardoin. Here is the first line:

    Pheobe Crain tightened her hold on her daughter's hand in case she got the notion to bolt down the street toward the Riverport train station.

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    1. Thank you for stopping by and sharing your link, Kathleen. Happy Reading!

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  2. Happy Friday!

    I shared the first few lines of my current read Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron on my blog. But, here, I’ll share the first lines of a book I recently finished – City of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty.

    “He was an easy mark.

    Nahri smiled behind her veil, watching the two men bicker as they approached her tall. The younger one glanced anxiously down the alley while the older man – her client – sweated in the cool dawn air. Save for the men, the alley was empty; fajr had already been called and anyone devout enough for public prayer – not that there were many in her neighborhood – was already ensconced in the small mosque at the end of the street.”

    Hope you enjoyed that. Have a great weekend!

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    1. Thanks for sharing your lines Rachel. I too sometimes find it impossible to share just one line. Happy Reading!

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  3. I love how you learn about stuff from your teaching and then go find adult books to learn more. Yesterday I finished sci fi writer Ben Bova's first novel published in 1964: The Watchmen. First sentence: "The Terran Empire stretched over half the Milky Way galaxy, from the lonely fringes of the immense spiral of stars to its richly packed center." Gave me the chills for some reason.

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    1. It is one of my favorite things about teaching - all the stuff I then get to learn! We also had a really great 6th social studies curriculum and I became super interested in so many of those 'other' ancient kingdoms we hardly hear about because everyone (including myself) is still obsessed with Ancient Egypt.

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  4. sounds great. i love books that take place in extreme environments, happy reading
    sherry @ fundinmental

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    1. You'd like it then I think. I can't imagine surviving that cold. Or putting my own life at risk. But these men did it, and it is such a tragically beautiful story.

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  5. Happy Friday! Today I'm sharing the first lines from A Glitter of Gold by Liz Johnson: "Anne Norris knew two things for certain. Some things could be forgiven. And some things most certainly could not."

    https://moments-of-beauty.blogspot.com/2019/08/first-line-fridays-glitter-of-gold-by.html

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  6. Happy Friday!

    Today on my blog I'm sharing the first line from The Art of Rivers by Janet Ferguson: https://christianfictiongirl.blog/2019/08/29/first-line-friday-99/. Currently I'm finishing up Finding Miss Enderly by Joanna Davidson Politano. I'll share a line from that book here. 🙂

    "As we hurried through the hallway, his grip on my arm tightened until I half expected to hear my bones snap."

    Hope you have a great weekend filled with awesome reading time. 🙂❤📚

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  7. I've always found the race intriguing and read a non fiction story about a woman who did the race. It was awesome. I'd love to read this!

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    1. I definitely recommend it if you are interested in its origins then for sure. I did not know about previous races that were held in the early 1900s, the All-Alaska Sweepstakes. Finding out this story has piqued my interest and I want to learn more about those who race today. Happy Reading!

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  8. Wow, such a bleak area that would be. Sounds interesting!

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    1. I think you'd like it. I can't imagine surviving in that environment. But those men were so heroic, not a single one questioned the order they were given. They knew it was dangerous, but they risked their lives to save Nome.

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  9. I’m sharing the first line from Reunited in the Rockies by Mindy Obenhaus this week on my blog, but I’m currently reading The Amish Christmas Matchmaker by Vannetta Chapman and the first line is “Annie Kauffmann thought she’d just experienced the perfect day – business had gone well, the fall weather was exquisite and each member of her family was happy and healthy.”

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  10. "In January 1940 a striking young man charged into the rooms of a very shy freshman at New College, Oxford. 'You're Butler, aren't you? I'm Benn. We are paired for Economics.'"

    The Best of Benn Edited by Ruth Winstone

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  11. We both shared books in Alaska this week!
    Sorry I didn't get around yesterday! The book I shared on my blog this week was In the Shadow of Denali by Tracie Peterson and Kimberley Woodhouse but I am now currently reading Out of the Ashes which is the next book in the series. I just recently started but I'll share the first line from chapter 2 here: "Gazing down at the coffin that housed his father's physical body, Jean-Michel counted the scoops of dark soil as they hit the lid and began to cover its surface." Hope you have a great weekend with plenty of quality reading time! :)

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    1. How funny, we have good timing. Thanks for coming by Becca, happy reading!

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  12. Happy Labor Day Weekend! My first line is from A Love So Real (New Hope Falls Book 1) by Kimberly Rae Jordan:

    "Elijah McNamara gave the lightbulb one final gentle turn then glanced down at the man holding the ladder for him."

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    1. It was a good, relaxing weekend indeed. Thanks for sharing your line, happy reading!

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