Thursday, March 20, 2014

Book Beginning: The Rich are Different by Susan Howatch


THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING



I was in London when I first heard of Dinah Slade. She was broke and looking for a millionaire, while I was rich and looking for a mistress. From the start we were deeply compatible.

-- The Rich are Different by Susan Howatch. This is one of those sprawling, intergenerational sagas that were so popular in the 1970s. I ate them up in Junior High, including this one, although I don't remember anything about the plot now.

Howatch knows how to weave a yarn. This one starts in the 1920s, when the heroine -- a 21-year-old, precocious, bluestocking with a Cambridge degree and a moldering Norfolk mansion -- charms a New York banker into her bed and out of a loan sufficient to pay the debt on her mansion and launch her cosmetics company. I love these big, shaggy stories.


It's My 6th Blogiversary!


If this wasn't a crazy busy week for me, I would ponder what's it's been like to have a book blog for six whole years and share some thoughts. I'll have to save them for my 7th blogiversary!