Top 5 Tuesday: Opening Lines

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Bionic Book Worm. Here is a list of her Top 5 Topics for May.

Today’s meme is for the Top 5 Opening Lines…and while I didn’t intend to list opening lines from some of my all-time favorite books, but I did! Truly, I love all of these books!

“The circus arrives without warning.” — The Night Circus by: Erin Morgenstern

This first sentence perfectly sets the scene for the rest of the book: the anticipation of waking up to the big top’s arrival in town, the mystery that always seems to surround a circus and its entertainers, and the magic that inevitably follows each slight of hand.

What works in The Night Circus isn’t necessarily the story itself – it’s the world that Morgenstern creates. Her writing is atmospherical, immediately transporting the reader to a magical world. In so many ways, I felt like this place was real, and I continually felt disheartened that it’s not. What I wouldn’t give to spend just one day in this place! Simply for the writing and world-building alone, this is one of my favorite novels of all time.

“When I was a kid, my aspirations were simple.” — Becoming by: Michelle Obama

One of the best memoirs I’ve ever read, I love the contrast of this first sentence with who Michelle Obama has become. There is nothing simple about her – she is an icon and a remarkable role model for women everywhere.

“Long before we discovered that he had fathered two children by two different women, one in Dimoleague and one in Clonakilty, Father James Monroe stood on the alter of the Church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, in the parish of Goleen, West Cork, and denounced my mother as a whore.” — The Heart’s Invisible Furies by: John Boyne

I think this opening line sets the story up as somewhat comedic, and THIF’s is anything but funny. Remincient of A Little Life, THIF’s tells the life story of Cyril Avery. Growing up in Ireland, where being a homosexual is a sin, his life is hard as he navigates his way to adulthood. This is a loooooong book but so worth it by the last page!

“If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.” — The Nightingale by: Kristin Hannah

What more can I say? Just like this opening line, this book gives the reader hope and breaks your heart. True to Kristin Hannah’s style, it pulls at all of your heart strings and I lvoe to reread this one every year!

“My mother always started the story by saying, “Well, she was born in the backseat of a stranger’s car,” as though that explained why Wavy wasn’t normal.” — All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by: Bryn Greenwood

One of the most controversial books I’ve ever read, it is also one of the most memorable books I’ve ever read. Wavy is a character I can’t shake out of my mind no matter how much time passes since I read it. I absolutely love a book that challenges my way of thinking and this book definitely does that!

What are some of your favorite opening lines? I’d love to hear so drop a comment below!