Friday, May 14, 2010

Book Beginnings on Friday (9)

Book Beginnings on Friday is a new meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you'd like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

Note: I am currently reading more than one book. I have been slowly making my way through a nonfiction book and alternating it with fiction. I do not enjoy nonfiction usually and even nonfiction books that I find interesting take me much longer to read because I have to be in the mood for it.



Not Quite Paradise: An American Sojourn in Sri Lanka
By Adele Barker

An Italian named Marignolli was the first European tourist to be robbed in Ceylon.

I don't really care for the first sentence even though it is attention grabbing. I suppose it does reflect the title. Marignolli arrived in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) in the 1300s and he was robbed by a Saracen, not an island local. He really liked the island however and compared it to Paradise.
 
In Not Quite Paradise, American Adele Barker writes about her experiences living and teaching in war torn Sri Lanka for a year and her return trip there after the devastating tsunami. I have very personal reasons for wanting to read this book as I am a Sri Lankan American. I haven't been there since my parents took me to meet my grandparents as a one year old and I know very little about the history of the country and not enough about the recently ended conflict. So far I find the book to be very interesting and even somewhat entertaining at times, particularly Adele's attempts to make peace with the various creatures sharing her home (ants, geckos, etc.). I also have enjoyed learning more about Sri Lankan culture and customs. I am only on page 24 but I hope to learn a lot from this book.

4 comments:

  1. Interesting opening line :o) Happy weekend and reading!

    Here is my Friday sneak peak :)

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  2. That opening line is interesting but I feel meh over it.

    Good for you for reading more about your culture! We visit Panama (where half my family is from) every few years, but we never visit much family or the historical/cultural sights. We only stay at resorts and now that I'm older I want to see more of my family and learn even more about Panama, I should look into reading about it.

    I hope you get to visit Sri Lanka soon! (Do you still have family there?) It's a country I know absolutely nothing about (well now I know that it used to be called Ceylon :) so I'm looking forward to your review.

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  3. I actually really like that opening sentence, it's right down my alley.

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