Favorite First Lines & Covers

I was looking back over my reading spreadsheet for this year and I started to fall behind on keeping track of what I read this year. So, I'm not exactly sure of final totals, but it is somewhere in the vicinity of 95ish books total, a little low which I expected because of all the change this year. I am committing to keeping better track in 2013 and hopefully reading a bit more. But, from what I did accurately track I can tell you that I read at least 77 different authors; at least 54 of the authors were new to me; and at least 13 were debut novels. My audiobook total was the area that took the hardest hit. I listened to about 23 audiobooks. Past years it's been closer to 50 percent of my total. I'm also going to work on getting that back up in 2013 by dedicating at least an hour for walking each day, and I'll listen to audio then.

How about you all? Any areas of your reading that you'd like to work on in 2013? Anything from 2012 that you're especially proud of? A new author you tried? A different genre? Or even sub-genre of crime fiction? Did you discover you loved (or hated) something that surprised you? Share with us in the comments!

This is my week of favorites lists for this year. I'm going to include a new one today and that's my favorite covers and first lines. I have to admit that I am not a connoisseur of covers. I don't buy books because of the covers or reject books because of the covers (at least to date--if a cover really offended me I'd probably not buy it). So take my five choices with a grain of salt. Now on the other hand, first lines are something that I definitely pay attention to; that's why I include them on my reviews. And of course these choices are only from the books I read this year--it also doesn't include any 2013 publications I've read this month.

My Top Five Favorite Covers:

5. Boca Daze. I have often commented about walking down the mystery aisle in a bookstore or library. There's a sea of black, with red and white speckled in. The books that stand out to me are the ones that are NOT black. And the cover of Boca Daze just screams fun without looking preposterous. Since I had an early copy of this one, my cover was just boring black and white. The final cover is a masterpiece.

4. The Prophet. I really have to tip my hat to the Little, Brown folks because this was a bit of a gamble. I know there was some concern about people not wanting to buy the book with the dead bird on the cover. That didn't stop Koryta from hitting the NYT bestseller list with it, though. This is a cover that was tuned into the content of the book and was unique to the book. Nice call on this cover!

3. Whiplash River. I love the pure simplicity of this cover and how well it articulates the constant movement of the book. And again, I think the cover is in tune with the unique elements of the book.

2. Taken. The atmosphere of this cover is what first grabs my attention. I have a large version of this cover hanging on my library wall. It embraces the impending doom that boils in the novel while still showing a ray of hope. And the reflection is equally befitting the content of the novel. This one was well planned out.

1. The Survivor. At first glance this cover may not look like much, but the power behind the itty bitty man on his precipice is breathtaking. If you miss that little man (as I did at first because I was so excited to read a new Gregg Hurwitz book), it changes the cover completely. When I closed this book and really looked at the cover I was blown away. Again, the simplicity of the image was what did it. The enormity of the message in the simple graphic arrangement is stunning. I love this cover. Hands down, my favorite this year.

My Top Five Favorite First Lines:

5. Julia Heaberlin's  PLAYING DEAD:

"Despite its name, Ponder, Texas, pop. 1,101, isn't a very good place to think."

 This opening line is a good chuckle, but it all sets the scene and the atmosphere immediately. I was very excited to read this debut novel after that opening line.

4. Chris Grabenstein's FUN HOUSE:

"He wasn't happy about it, but last night my partner John Ceepak became a TV star."

Chris Grabenstein is a master of first lines. This first line may hold more attraction to readers of the series who already know John Ceepak, but even if you don't have that background, you know quite a tale is close on the heels of this opening sentence.

3. Ace Atkins's THE LOST ONES:

"A couple of roustabouts had been asking about guns at the Tibbehah County Fair, but by the time the word had gotten back to Donnie Varner, they'd long since packed up their Ferris wheel, corn dog stands and shit, and boogied on down the highway."
I love how Atkins's language brings out the setting of the novel. It also seems to add a scent to the air and a color to the page. Even though I know this is going to be a crime novel, I end up with a warm feeling from the way he puts his words together on the page.

2. Gar Anthony Haywood's ASSUME NOTHING:

"His last night in Florida, Joe Reddick remembered the blood in the goldfish bowl."

And the whole book follows suit with that. It's such a startling image to really grab the reader as soon as he/she opens the book!

1. Robert Pobi's BLOODMAN:

"Two hundred feet below the rolling metal surface of the Atlantic, a handful of ghosts skittered along the ocean floor in a jerky seesaw roll, furling and unfurling in a diluvial ballet."

The imagery of this statement is a mix of fun and fear. Bloodman was one of those rare books that taps the paranormal (just slightly) and I still love it and buy into it. It would have been hard to dislike the book after this opening sentence. This is another debut novel, by the way.

I went back and forth with about three other first lines that were great from my reading this year, but I wanted to keep each of these lists today to five, so I determined these five first lines to be my favorite.

Tomorrow I should have my favorite audios of 2012 and Monday will be my overall favorite reads of the year. I hope you'll check back and share your favorites as well! Happy Reading!

Lessons I've Learned...

...from books I've read so far in 2012. A little fun to kick off your week.

1. Don't look in the trunk! The next time I'm offered 50 grand to not look in the trunk, I'll not look in the trunk, no matter how much noise I hear. (Gutshot Straight by Lou Berney)

2. When planning your child's wedding, move mountains to get the first choice location. It may seem like an impossible task, but that second choice locale can really cause problems. (As the Crow Flies, Craig Johnson)

3. If someone writes to you saying you're their child, immediately burn the letter and move far away. Curiosity did, after all, kill the cat. (Playing Dead, Julia Heaberlin)


4. If a guy can't afford his own car and has to use yours, do NOT let him move in with you. In fact, don't date him at all. (Heartbroken, Lisa Unger)

5. When it comes to family, help hide the body. It is, after all, family.  (A Bad Day for Mercy, Sophie Littlefield)

6. Never spend the night in a backwoods small town. And most especially never do it if you are traveling with a teen who's been in trouble with the law before. (The Conviction, Robert Dugoni)

7. Reality TV is nothing but trouble. It can even affect people not directly involved in the show. It's bad, bad, bad! (Vanishing Point, Val McDermid)

8. Imaginary friends are real. A different kind of real, but real all the same. (Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, Matthew Dicks)

9. A bag of donuts can buy you anything. No one can resist donuts, especially a P.I. who can't help but do the right thing. (Lullaby, Ace Atkins)

10. Fate despises suicide. You don't need to bother even trying. Fate will interfere and make you realize the life before trying suicide wasn't all THAT bad. (The Survivor, Gregg Hurwitz)

PLAYING DEAD - Julia Heaberlin

First line: "Despite its name, Ponder, Texas, pop. 1,101, isn't a very good place to think."

When Tommie McCloud, prodigal daughter, returns home to Texas for the funeral of her father, she finds more than sympathy waiting for her. She finds a letter from a stranger in Chicago, Illinois. The stranger believes Tommie may be her daughter, kidnapped over thirty years ago.

The woman Tommie always believed to be her mother has been trapped inside her own head for years now, suffering from early-onset dementia. If Tommie is going to unearth the truth about her family tree, she is going to have to investigate for herself.  At some point in life  we probably all have fantasies that we're actually living a lie. We aren't really who we think we are. But for Tommie discovering the Chicago stranger is the wife of a convicted killer is only the beginning of her trip through a labyrinth of nightmares and lies.  Will discovering the truth ultimately destroy her or set her free?

PLAYING DEAD has just earned a ticket to the top of my favorite debuts of 2012 list. While the plot concept is not a new one (how many really are?) the puzzling structure, compelling characters, rich atmosphere and dazzling imagery all add up to a stimulating page-turner of a thriller.

The novel is told in first person from the perspective of Tommie, a character composite of contradictions. Tommie was a champion rodeo roper and a classical music student when both paths were cut off by a overzealous steer.

"I would describe myself as temporarily off-course ever since eight hundred pounds of steer stomped on my wrist fourteen years ago in a rodeo arena in Lubbock, Texas, knocking me from the pedestal of my saddle into mortality."

Tommie is simultaneously courageous and independent while also vulnerable and reliant. In other words, she's real. Julia Heaberlin surrounds Tommie with a supporting cast as dynamic as her protagonist: the eccentric younger sister who, despite a substantial wealth, lives in a double-wide trailer, decorated in spray-paint swirls; a hard-ass, security contractor ex-boyfriend who exudes Texas machismo, which is ironically dependent on a heart relatively the size of, well, Texas; a seemingly crazy mobster's wife; a reporter who doesn't really act like a reporter and a journalist who fits the stereotype almost to a T.

For me the most stunning element of PLAYING DEAD is Heaberlin's atmosphere. She doesn't use setting as a character per se, but rather the setting is very much a part of each of her characters. Heaberlin has a special talent for helping her readers feel it as much as her characters do:

"I've been told that growing up in Ponder must have been an idyllic childhood, picket fence and all. I tell those people I'm more familiar with barbed wire and have the scars on my belly to prove it."

About that same place she says,

"But home is also endless rolling land, shimmering heat, sweet memories that thrum in the air with the cicadas. Home pulls at me like a magnet. Even when my body is hundreds of miles away, my soul stays behind, clinging to the live oak by the cement pond where I learned to dog paddle."

When Tommie leaves the land she knows best, Heaberlin helps her readers experience the urban setting as Tommie does:

"I stepped out of the hotel onto the pedestrian traffic on Michigan Avenue, which was vibrating with aggression to the ranch girl like me. A bike messenger cursed and swerved when I stepped into his path; a grinning homeless person punched me, hard, on the arm; a swinging briefcase rapped one of my knuckles, all before I reached a café a couple of blocks from the hotel. The businessman with the briefcase kept on walking and barking into his headset. In Texas, I would have would up with an apology and maybe even a date."

Just as the setting threads its fingers into the creation of Heaberlin's characters, so does her sarcastic, sometimes caustic humor. She's able to find the humor in some of the darkest elements of the plot, some of the most serious characters of the story, even some of the most beautiful elements of the setting:

"We passed lush, rolling lawns, every blade of grass the same color and height, as if a band of Oompa Loompas used a paintbrush and manicure scissors each morning to maintain perfection."

"'No. Supposably, it's a fact.' The word supposably always set my teeth on edge. It was a Texas colloquialism used by a quarter of the state. It's probably in the dictionary now a few skips ahead of Sarah Palin's refudiate."

"'When you have five hours,' she said, 'I'll tell you how I have about three-fourths of an ounce of Tom Cruise's blood running in my veins.' She grinned. 'Enough to brag about at parties but not enough to drop Jesus for Scientology.'"

Heaberlin obviously loves language and knows how to use it - to entertain, to awe, to frighten, to connect. PLAYING DEAD is a debut you aren't going to want to miss. I see a very bright future for Julia Heaberlin.

PLAYING DEAD is available in trade paperback from Ballantine Books (ISBN: 9780345527011) and also on audio from AudioGo, narrated by Madeleine Lambert.

My review of PLAYING DEAD is part of the TLC blog tour and they were nice enough to provide a copy for me to give away to a lucky reader. So, if you'd like a chance to win this one, tell me in the comments one thing you'd miss most about where you live if you had to leave. 

The contest is open to anyone with a mailing address (no P.O. boxes) in the US or Canada. I'll take entries through Friday. Good luck.

And congratulations to Jen (who has a great name) and blogs at Crazy for Books. She won GONE GIRL from last week's contest.

Happy Reading!