Welcome to First Line Fridays! First Line Fridays a fun meme hosted by Hoarding Books! The aim of the game? Grab the book closest to you and share the first line!
Author: Abraham Verghese
Genre: Novel
First lines:
“After eight months spent in the obscurity of our mother’s womb, my brother, Shiva, and I came into the world in the late afternoon of the twentieth of September in the year of grace 1954. We took our first breaths at an elevation of eight thousand feet in the thin air of Addis Adaba, capital city Ethiopia.”
–Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone (The Coming)
My Thoughts:
One of my favorite ministries at my church is a book club that we call “Books and Beans.” We meet about once a month at a local coffee shop where we spend an hour or two discussing books over a hot cup of tea or other tasty treat.
During the winter of last year, our book club read When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalinithi. Verghese wrote the introduction to When Breath Becomes Air, which I found to be an incredibly moving. little book. I found Verghese’s preface intriguing and am interested to read more of his work.
Our current read for December is Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. This novel follows the saga of twin brothers who were orphaned by the death of their mother and forsaken by their father. This book came very highly recommended by one our book club members and I’m excited to read more of it.
Dear Reader, now it’s your turn! What are you reading? Grab the book closest to you and share the first few lines with me in the comments below!
After that, head over to
Click the blue frog button to visit more sites in the “First Line Fridays” Linkup! FLF is hosted by Hoarding Books
Rev. Rebecca Writes 
A book club sounds like fun!
I posted about The Plum Blooms in Winter (Linda Thompson) on my blog.
So, I’ll share a line from a non-fiction book I am reading.
`The Sparkle Effect` (Kristen Dalton Wolfe)
Chapter 3 (page 15)
“For the longest time, I didn’t have a sense of style. I looked to other people and trends to decide what I should wear.”
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Happy Friday!
On my blog this week I’m sharing the first line from The Mayflower Bride by Kimberley Woodhouse but I’m currently reading the Amish Midwife’s secret by Rachel J Good so I’ll share the line from my current chapter (10) here: “By the time Leah arrived at the Groffs’, Sharon had already completed the checkup.” Hope you have a wonderful weekend with plenty of quality reading time!
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Both of those sound like fun reads! I hope you have a great weekend as well 🙂
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Happy Friday and Happy Weekend! My first line (and 3rd line because I love this line) is from “Reaching Her Heart” by Kimberly Rae Jordan:
“Tristan Callaghan moved to the side of the long hallway to let a young couple pass, giving them a smile and a nod before continuing on… What on earth had possessed him to agree to teach Sunday School to seven and eight-year-old boys?”
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Now I’m intrigued! I’ve taught many Sunday School classes in my time! Thanks for sharing 🙂
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Welcome to “First Line Friday”! I’m currently reading “From the Start” by Melissa Tagg and the first line is ” How in the world had rain earned such a romantic rep?”
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That is a great first line! Rain looks romantic but it actually makes me really cold!
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That sounds like an intriguing read. It’s not what I usually read, but I guess that’s part of the purpose of a book club – to take us outside our usual reading ruts.
I’m sharing the first line from Ashmore by Angela Curtis on my blog today. It’s her debut novel, and it’s based on the real-life journey her ancestors took when emigrating from England to New Zealand. It makes me thankful for our modern world where we have cleaner and faster methods of transport!
“One half-witted decision changed Lillie Curtis’ life forever. Unfortunately, that decision had not been her own.”
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That sounds like such an interesting read! I don’t know anything about New Zealand. Did the family leave because they were in search of religious freedom?
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Also, what’s your blog? I would love to check it out!
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Oh wow I’m intrigued to read this from the first line! Brilliant
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I’m really enjoying it so far 🙂
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