Memoirs

First Lines Fridays: April 10, 2020

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First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

Fame was bequeathed to me by the lips of an angel.
After all my years of rancid endeavour, I was granted fame by Kate Moss’s kiss.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

First Lines Fridays: April 3, 2020

LeeLeave a comment

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

On the morning of April Fools’ Day, 2005, I woke up in a sexual addiction treatment center in a suburb of Philadelphia.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

First Lines Fridays: May 10, 2019

LeeLeave a comment

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

When I was a child, my parents and teachers told me about a man who was very strong. They told me he could destroy the whole world. They told me he could lift mountains. They told me he could part the sea. It was important to keep the man happy. When we obeyed what the man had commanded, the man liked us. He liked us so much that he killed anyone who didn’t like us. But when we didn’t obey what he had commanded, he didn’t like us. He hated us. Some days he hated us so much, he killed us; other days, he let other people kill us. We call these days “holidays.”

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

First Lines Fridays: April 19, 2019

LeeLeave a comment

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

Dear Reader,

I am not a movie star. Chances are when you walked by my book and saw my face, you didn’t know what my name was, but you knew that I looked familiar.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

Abandoned: I Don’t Know What You Know Me From by Judy Greer

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I Don’t Know What You Know Me From: Confessions of a Co-Star by Judy Greer

I just couldn’t make myself keep reading. This book is like having a stranger’s grandmother tell you stories about them, only they only want to tell the mundane stories like “one time they stole a cookie and I told them to put it back”. I really wanted to enjoy it, and the prologue seems really promising, but it’s just boring.

I won’t rate this one because I only made it about 40 pages before I gave up; I’ll just say: There are way better celebrity memoirs out there. I wouldn’t bother with this one if I were you.

View all my ratings on Goodreads

First Lines Fridays: May 11, 2018

LeeLeave a comment

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

At my age, a surprise can be hazardous to your health.

Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!

Make ‘Em Laugh:  Short-Term Memories of Longtime Friends by Debbie Reynolds

The beloved Hollywood star and New York Times bestselling author of Unsinkable continues her intimate chat with fans in this entertaining collection of anecdotes, stories, jokes, and random musings from a woman who has seen it all—and done most of it.

From her acclaimed performances to her headline-making divorce from Eddie Fisher, raising a famous daughter to hitting the road with a successful one-woman show, Debbie Reynolds was in the spotlight for decades. Over her more than six-decade-long career she met presidents, performed for the Queen of England, and partied with kings.

In this fabulous personal tour, she recalls wonderful moments with the greats of the entertainment world—Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Bette Davis, Phyllis Diller, and many, many more—sharing stories that shed new light on her life and career and the glittering world of Hollywood then and now. Debbie has plenty to tell—and in Make ’Em Laugh, she dishes it in the warm, down-to-earth voice her fans adore.

Debbie shares memories of late night pals and some of the greatest comedians of all time, stories from the big screen and small, and tales of marriage, motherhood, and children. Combining her wicked sense of humor and appealing charm, she reveals the personal side of show business and fame in funny, poignant, and delightful reminiscences. Nothing is off limits: Debbie talks about her sex life, her family drama—and even shares a few secret recipes.

First Lines Fridays: May 4, 2018

Lee6 Comments

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

What was it I wanted to tell you? Was it the new T-shirt-ready saying I came up with:  “There’s no room for demons when you’re self-possessed”?

Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!

Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher

Infused with Carrie Fisher’s trademark incisive wit and on the heels of Wishful Drinking’s instant New York Times bestselling success, Shockaholic takes readers on another rollicking ride into her crazy life.

There is no shortage of people flocking to hear what Princess Leia has to say. Her previous hardcover, Wishful Drinking, was an instant New York Times bestseller and Carrie was featured everywhere on broadcast media and received rave reviews from coast to coast, including People (4 stars; one of their top 10 books of the year), Entertainment Weekly, New York Times, and scores of others.

Told with the same intimate style, brutal honesty, and uproarious wisdom that placed Wishful Drinking on the New York Times bestseller list for months, Shockaholic is the juicy account of Carrie Fisher’s life, focusing more on the Star Wars years and dishing about the various Hollywood relationships she’s formed since she was chosen to play Princess Leia at only nineteen years old. Fisher delves into the gritty details that made the movie—and herself—such a phenomenal success, admitting, “It isn’t all sweetness and light sabers.”

QuoteLeeLeave a comment
It’s like how every guy I know has told me a story about going to Hooters and how the waitress seemed “grateful” to finally have a customer who was “cool and fun.” Definitely not bullshit!

– Anna Kendrick, Scrappy Little Nobody, page 233

Version:
Hardcover, 275 pages
Published November 15th 2016 by Touchstone Books