Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.
This week my opener comes from You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz, another read from my 20 Books of Summer
Blurb
Grace Sachs, a happily married therapist with a young son, thinks she knows everything about women, men and marriage. She is about to publish a book called You Should Have Known, based on her pet theory: women don’t value their intuition about what men are really like, leading to serious trouble later on.
But how well does Grace know her own husband? She is about to find out, and in the place of what she thought she knew, there will be a violent death, a missing husband, and a chain of terrible revelations. Left behind in the wake of a very public disaster, and horrified by the ways in which she has failed to heed her own advice, Grace must dismantle one life and create another for herself and her child. Goodreads
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
First Chapter ~ First Paragraph ~ Intro
CHAPTER ONE
YOU JUST KNOW
Usually people cried when they came here for the first time, and this girl looked as if she would be no exception. She walked in with a briefcase and a swagger and shook Grace’s hand like the cool professional she clearly was, or at least wished to be. Then she sat on the couch and crossed one long twill-encased leg over the other. And then, sort of abruptly, she seemed to register where she was, with a wallop.
So what do you think? This has mixed reviews and I’m desperately hoping I’m going to enjoy it.
Please leave your thoughts and links in the envelope below!
Cleopatra Loves Books 
Hi Cleo,
I would definitely keep on reading after those first few lines, especially when read in conjunction with the book’s blurb.
I do see what you mean about the mixed reception the book has received though, although it seems to be a possible case of wrong genre classification, rather than poor writing or storyline, so hopefully you should still enjoy it 🙂
I am also reading a book (‘The Victim’ by Eric Matheny), where a wife is about to find out something about her husband which she may not like and certainly hasn’t seen coming!
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Yvonne
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Hi Yvonne, I think you could be right and I do love books that explores how little we can know someone close to us – The Victim sounds like it is a good read – I’m off to check it out 🙂
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The first paragraph on its own wouldn’t do much for me but with the combination of the blurb It would have interest. But realistically I have many other books that would appeal more …
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Fair comment…
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This one has an interesting premise, Cleo, that’s for sure! There’s something about that plot point that you can never really, really know someone – even someone you’ve been married to for a long time. I’ll be interested in what you thought about it when you’ve finished it.
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I do like these kind of books because whenever you read ‘real-life’ versions of this there is an assumption that the innocent party is a bit stupid – I think it is just that some people are better at hiding their real selves.
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Based on the blurb it sounds like this could be a really good read but I suspect it will all come down to the characters and whether you care what happens to them.
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I think you’re right – looking at the Goodreads reviews this seem to be the main problem for some readers but we shall see!
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I have this on my kindle… a daily deal well over a year ago. Read the first few pages – not really enough to get into it and not enough to dislike it either – before getting sidetracked by something else. The author’s earlier novel, Sabbathday River, was quite good, so I would be happy to give You Should Have Known another chance. Will keep an eye out for your thoughts.
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I didn’t even know that there was a previous novel – keep your eyes peeled my thoughts will be here soon 😉
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Do we ever really know anyone?
sherry @ fundinmental My TT
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Not if the other person doesn’t want you to? Thanks for visiting and leaving your link 🙂
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You’ve reminded me that this is one I wanted to read and I have a copy around here somewhere. I hope it meets your expectations.
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I have my fingers crossed 😉
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I have this one, too, and started reading it a while ago….and I’m not sure why I stopped. I think I was distracted by other books…and I wasn’t hooked by the section I read. I do want to return to it, though; the premise sounds so good, and stories about therapists and their professional and personal lives usually grab me.
Thanks for sharing…and for reminding me to give this one another go. Thanks for visiting my blog.
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Hmm.. two people on this comment thread that started but put to one side – I now need to know whether it will capture my attention or not!
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Just reading the paragraph alone makes me want to keep reading. Very intriguing paragraph.
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I do like the premise and the opening so I’m hoping it lives up to its promise.
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I hope you enjoy this one as the premise does sound interesting. How well do we really know the people in our lives? And how much can we truly trust our intuition?
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You raise an interesting point – I think the difficulty I have is not so much that people hide things but that we do trust our intuition so it’s scary when we are wrong.
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Sadly this one fell short of the Raven`s forty page rule….
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Oh dear – I’ll be starting it soon so I’ll see what I think.
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This one has a fascinating premise – I’ll be interested to see what you make of it. Thank you for sharing.
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I quite like the first para, but the blurb leaves me a bit confused as to what genre it is – sounds half a thriller and half a kind of relationship/personal growth thing. Not sure… I’ll wait to hear what you think of it…
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this sounds very good to me, off to check it out in a bit more detail.
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It does have a nice beginning and I would be curious to know more, including why she’s there. The theme of how well we know those close to us is always fun to explore, and hopefully this is a good one!
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Interesting opening! I don’t think I’ve read any reviews for this one, but I’ve seen it at my library. I was always curious so I hope you enjoy it.
-Lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com
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I thought this sounded great till I saw you said it had mixed reviews. Now I’m feeling anxious and I’m not even the one reading it. I would likely give it a go but will wait for your review. The concept sounds right up my street so I wonder where it falls down?
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